[amsat-bb] AMSAT Internet administrivia
Our server and network vendor will be doing planned maintenance on ... July 27th, 2014, beginning at 2:00AM (EDT) ... [This] work will likely lead to momentary interruptions in service. The maintenance window, predicted to span from 2-4 hours, will ultimately improve network stability and restore the ability to maintain backups. Echolink service is now restored after an outage caused by a misconfigured firewall. 73 de KM1P Joe ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
[amsat-bb] Microsoft et al throw AMSAT baby out with the bathwater.
On 6/18/2014 9:07 PM, Jim Sanford wrote: Comcast is blocking a bunch of stuff as well. The spammers are winning. We are doing OK with garden variety spammers ... so far this week the AMSAT mail server has blocked 97,257 spam e-mails. It is the phishers variant of spammers in this particular case those guys trying to trick you into thinking that your bank is sending you an e-mail, and getting you to click on a web link that goes to a fake site that looks like your bank, and then harvesting your username password, account number etc. Many large e-mail providers including Microsoft, Yahoo! amd AOL have responded by refusing to accept mail that has a From: address that does not match the domain of the server that is actually sending the e-mail.This is a business decision ... they want to prevent their customers from getting malicious e-mails, and don't want to see their company's name in the news. AMSAT's mailing list and aliases look like phishing attempts since they say they are from one domain, but are actually sent from another. There is no easy solution - every alternative has some sort of downside, but we are working on alternatives for affected AMSAT members. If you are curious for more details, put Yahoo! Breaks! Every! Mailing! List! In! The! World! into your favorite search engine. -Joe KM1P ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
[amsat-bb] AMSAT Web and Mail outage explained.
Web and mail were out of service for about and hour between 2014 JUN 18 20:10 UTC and 21:10 UTC due to network problems at our vendor's data center. As of this writing, I have not received the all clear message, so there could be continuing difficulties. -Joe KM1P * From the data center at 2014 JUN 19 02:10 UTC: Additional complications have prevented us from completing the network maintenance in US Central Zone B that was originally planned to be completed in the early morning of June 18th. We are moving forward with a solution that will enable us to restore services to affected customers while vendor issues are resolved. Users losing service earlier today will see this improve although, until additional resources are restored, US Central Zone B will continue to run at a diminished capacity. This means customers with services in that Zone may continue to experience intermittent latency and connection issues. Fixing this is of critical importance to us and we are working diligently to ensure the service of each and every one of these customers is personally addressed. This will be updated with additional information as we continue to approach a comprehensive solution. Customers affected by these networking issues in Lansing Zone B will also continue to receive emails with additional details as they develop. Thank you for your patience. ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
[amsat-bb] AMSAT-bb list administrivia
Some subscribers of amsat-bb have had difficulty receiving mail from amsat-bb recently. Please excuse the Mailman software for its rather terse messages advising of automated unsubscriptions. Many problems have been cleared, however some may remain, especially for customers of Microsoft with addresses such as u...@hotmail.com or u...@outlook.com. If you are having, or know of anyone having difficulties that might not be receiving messages from AMSAT, please contact me off-list so we can work toward a resolution. jfitzgerald at alum.wpi.edu -Joe Fitzgerald KM1P ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
Re: [amsat-bb] New US Satellite Export Reforms Gets Positive Response from Industry
Here are links to the ITAR rule changes as published in the Federal Register: I am surprised that only 38 organizations took the time and effort to comment, but I am glad AMSAT is one of them. While we didn't get all we asked for, I am glad we are participating in the process. We have until November 10, 2014 to comment on this document. -Joe KM1P ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
[amsat-bb] Mail now on commercial server
We are now in the early operational phase of amsat.org mail on a commercial server. There was an early glitch which prevented calls...@amsat.org mail aliases from flowing properly, but this is believed to be fixed now. Mailing lists have been a bit more problematic, but I am continuing to work out glitches in this area also. Additionally, we have moved all web and ftp traffic please report any difficulties to jfitzgerald at alum.wpi.edu -Joe KM1P ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
[amsat-bb] Re: DMARC bounces
Thanks for the note, Andre. Unfortunately, the various options we have at our disposal to deal with the new policies at Gmail, AOL and Yahoo are somewhat problematic. See http://wiki.list.org/display/DEV/DMARC -Joe KM1P ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
[amsat-bb] Re: Keps
Thank you for reporting this, Jerry. As Alan said, we made a test to determine that the redirection change I implemented a couple of days ago would not affect SatPC32 users, but it was apparently not a thorough test. I reverted the change, so you and other SatPC32 users will not be inconvenienced further. If anyone notices new problems crop up please cc: webmas...@amsat.org for fastest resolution. I just happened to scan amsat-bb during my lunch break today and saw this.I am implementing some back room infrastructure upgrades, so there may be other hiccups observed over the next few weeks. -Joe -Joe KM1P Jerry, We were making changes in the server. After the change, we verified that things were working with SatPC32. However, something isn't working now. We will take a look at what has gone wrong. Apologies for the inconvenience. For now, please use the following URL: http://ww2.amsat.org/amsat/ftp/keps/current/nasa.all 73s, Alan WA4SCA -Original Message- From: amsat-bb-boun...@amsat.org [mailto:amsat-bb-boun...@amsat.org] On Behalf Of jerry keeton Sent: Thursday, May 08, 2014 10:24 AM To: amsat-bb@amsat.org Subject: [amsat-bb] Keps I use the amsat.org page to update Keps on satpc32 , but has not connected for several days . Problem with site or Me ? Other update sites work , but not accurate . Jerry WB5LHD ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
[amsat-bb] Re: Falcon 9 Flight 9 Landing Burn + Leg Deployment
On 4/29/2014 9:09 PM, Bryce Salmi wrote: http://www.spacex.com/news/2014/04/29/first-stage-landing-video First stage landing video is public! When my daughter becomes an astronaut, I will be happy to watch her ascend to orbit on a SpaceX rocket. When she gets married, however, I will likely not hire you guys to shoot the video of the wedding :-) -Joe KM1P ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
[amsat-bb] Re: FUNcube telemetry performance?
Yes, Domenico, but AO-40 gets better in my memory with each passing year. Perhaps that is why it _seems_ like some of the frames I hear from Funcube should decode when they don't. -Joe Hi John, W0JAB On AO40 you should remember mostly the fading due of spin modulation.. WOW..WOW.WOW.. because of rotation of the satellite over the Z axis ! ! 73 de i8CVS Domenico - Original Message - From: John Becker w0...@big-river.net To: amsat-bb@amsat.org Sent: Sunday, April 20, 2014 12:42 AM Subject: [amsat-bb] Re: FUNcube telemetry performance? I guess I was lucky I dont recall any fading with AO 40. On 4/19/2014 4:33 AM, Phil Karn wrote: I haven't done anything with AO-73, but I understand it's transmitting the FEC format I originally designed for AO-40. How well is it working? What fraction of the frames are successfully decoded? How bad is the fading? I designed my format specifically for the spin fading on AO-40, and if the fading due to the tumbling of a cubesat is too slow my format won't be able to fix it. Phil ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
[amsat-bb] Re: FUNcube telemetry performance?
Phil, That is an interesting question. I have fooled with a simple 1/4 wave vertical, and observe very bad fading with a period of 10's of seconds (5 to 10 times longer than individual frames). It seems to my ear that signals need to be pretty strong in order to decode on AMSAT-UK's dashboard software. -Joe KM1P On 4/19/2014 5:33 AM, Phil Karn wrote: I haven't done anything with AO-73, but I understand it's transmitting the FEC format I originally designed for AO-40. How well is it working? What fraction of the frames are successfully decoded? How bad is the fading? I designed my format specifically for the spin fading on AO-40, and if the fading due to the tumbling of a cubesat is too slow my format won't be able to fix it. Phil ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
[amsat-bb] Re: AO-73 Doppler
I notice that the frequency calculated by MacDoppler is slightly off from the frequency that I hear the telemetry at. AO-73's transmit frequency drifts around as the spacecraft warms and cools. I remember being surprised to see the telemetry trace increase in frequency on my waterfall display when my receiver was at a fixed frequency. I initially thought something was wrong with the local oscillator in the radio, but my signal generator showed a nice straight vertical line. There is likely nothing wrong with your setup. -Joe KM1P ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
[amsat-bb] Re: Ferrite RFI filters and Traps?
I cut the RFI Ferrite blobs off of all trash Keyboards and stuff. These are great Ferrite devices. But what are they best for? Bob, Check out this article from Chuck Councilman W1HIS: http://www.yccc.org/Articles/W1HIS/CommonModeChokesW1HIS2006Apr06.pdf He wrote it from the perspective of an HF operator, but there is a lot of useful information in it. Chuck is fairly generous with his time, contact me off list if you want his e-mail address. In my personal experience, equipment vendors are mostly required to test at 30MHz, so it would not surprise me if the pieces you pull off discarded equipment are well suited to VHF/UHF. Since the article was written, ferrite has become easier to obtain in small quantities. Mouser has worked for me - it might be easiest to buy exactly what you need rather than experiment with with whatever the junk box provides. But sorting through junk boxes is fun too! -Joe KM1P ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
[amsat-bb] Re: Malaysian airliner puzzle
On 3/26/2014 3:28 PM, Howie DeFelice wrote: This was a very clever use of available data for an unintended purpose. I am a little surprised that they retained enough data to do the doppler analysis. For example, once I successfully download a telemetry frame from AO-73, the demodulated and decoded data is sent off to the Funcube warehouse. I sure don't save all the audio to disk! -Joe KM1P ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
[amsat-bb] Re: Malaysian airliner puzzle
As to the question about retaining the data, you can think of it as meta data similar to what the cellphone carriers collect about cellphone calls. They don't record and save you conversations but they do record information about origination, destination,time, duration and type of call. They sure do that, as it has value for network utilization, billing etc. I bet (a small bet anyway) my cell phone carrier doesn't save receive frequency data accurate enough to determine what direction I am driving though. Maybe they do though. We are considering similar functionality for the Fox telemetry software, but of course we have a vested interest in knowing where our spacecraft is. -Joe KM1P ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
[amsat-bb] Re: Geostationary sat.
At 05:25 PM 3/24/2014 -0400, Anthony Japha tjja...@earthlink.net wrote: Great news! Thank you Peter et. al. How abt a discussion here about how we North Americans might make use of this opportunity? 73, Tony, N2UN LM 183 Well, there is a nice article in the Jan/Feb AMSAT Journal about building a remote controlled station ... I am already daydreaming about a link from a future cubesat via this bird. -Joe KM1P ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
[amsat-bb] Re: A reminder - Say Hi to Juno
On 10/8/2013 5:38 PM, M5AKA wrote: Beam headings are at http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/hijuno/pdf/Juno_EFB_Waves_Ham_Radio_Headings_00.pdf For the truly geeky, edit the text below for your location, and send to JPL. Ephemeris should be in your inbox in a minute or two. -Joe KM1P !$$SOF (ssd) ! JPL/Horizons Execution Control Example ! For Radio Amateurs in the Say HI to Juuo experiment ! Edit SITE_COORD below for your location. Values are ! east longitude (negative for west longitude), latitude ! (negative south of the equator), and height above sea ! level in km. Given the range of Juno and the wide beam- ! widths of our antennas, a height of 0 should suffice. ! The values below are for Boston, Massachusetts USA. ! E-mail to horiz...@ssd.jpl.nasa.gov with subject JOB !+++ ! NOTE: First line in this file must start !$$SOF ! Last line in this file must start !$$EOF ! Assigned values should be in quotes !+++ SITE_COORD = '-71.1,42.3,0' COMMAND = '-61' CENTER = 'coord' START_TIME = '2013-OCT-09 00:00' STOP_TIME = '2013-OCT-10 00:00' STEP_SIZE = '5 min' QUANTITIES = '4,20' RANGE_UNITS = 'KM' !$$EOF~~ ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
[amsat-bb] Re: Helix matching
On 9/27/2013 8:57 AM, Robert Bruninga wrote: Why don’t we see simple ¼ wave 75 ohm lines used as a first step in matching a 140 Ohm Helix to 50 ohms? In my limited experience, it's easier to diddle around with a strip of brass or copper at the feed end of the Helix.. For example: http://www.amsat.org/amsat/articles/g3ruh/117.html I remember building a 1/4 wave coaxial matching section out of a piece of copper pipe with brass rod down the center.I think it was from a design in the ARRL antenna book as published in the late '70's. It was a pain to build since I had to sand down the brass rod to get it to the right diameter, and I was never really sure how well it worked, since I did not have any antenna instrumentation at the time. -Joe KM1P ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
[amsat-bb] Re: SATPC32 - amsat keps
On 9/27/2013 6:58 AM, Mike Seguin wrote: Is this a permanent change? Maybe this was in response to the rebuild post hack? ww2 addresses are all temporary. For the last couple of weeks, keps have been served from the future home server of www.amsat.org. I have turned off the redirect to avoid problems with clients that choke on it. Thanks to everyone for your patience through the transition to the new server. There may be a few more issues over the next month or two, if anyone sees anything working particularly badly, please don't hesitate to mail webmas...@amsat.org ... that way I and/or other folks that can attend to the problems can get right to fixing them. -Joe KM1P ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
[amsat-bb] Re: Odd Question (answer-fixed)
On 9/24/2013 10:45 AM, Robert Bruninga wrote: Actually the impact concern is the AREA Which leads to a surprising problem. Suppose a cubesat at the end of it's mission deploys some sort of sail intended to increase atmospheric drag and shorten time to re-entry. Good idea right? Maybe not, since you are potentially increasing the number of square-meter-years in orbit. From an overall risk perspective, it might be better to leave the smaller object in orbit longer. -Joe KM1P ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
[amsat-bb] Re: A0 40 replacement
On 9/4/2013 6:53 PM, tosca...@umn.edu wrote: As long as AMSAT-NA needs to concentrate on 1U/3U/6U Cubesats for the immediatee future, I would really like to see the pursuit of linear transponders on them instead of single-channel FM repeaters. The way I see it, launch opportunities are so rare that we ought to fly the most capable equipment we can on those rare occasions when we can get a launch. We sure have linear transponders in the Fox pipeline. Fox-1 has a lot of engineering work for basics like spacecraft structure, IHU, power and so on, so simpler is better is the guiding phrase for RF. Later spacecraft in the Fox series will not need to repeat the basic spacecraft work, so we can focus engineering efforts on fancier RF payloads. -Joe ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
[amsat-bb] Re: US Space Fence Shut Down
Gambling with a Space Fence: http://www.thespacereview.com/article/2357/1 -Joe KM1P ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
[amsat-bb] Makeover for www.amsat.org
Thanks to the effort of a bunch of people , especially Brent Salmi, Steve Kenwolf and Brent Salmi, we have pushed a new, more colorful theme to the AMSAT web site, as well as some updated content. We are by no means done, and welcome the assistance of others to generate content and features for the site.We are using the WordPress content management system. so changing content is much simpler than earlier schemes used on www.amsat.org. It's got a nice web based interface that should be familiar to anyone with basic word processing skills. If you see something you think you can improve on, drop me a note! -Joe KM1P ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
[amsat-bb] Satellite pass predictions back up on www.amsat.org
Thanks to some advice from Emileigh N1DID, detective work by Bryce KB1LQC and Brent KB1LQD and a quick update to the site by Rick W2GPS, pass predictions are working again. Please visit: http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/tools/predict/index.php -Joe KM1P ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
[amsat-bb] Re: satellite los footprints
On 3/25/2013 6:42 PM, Ken Ernandes wrote: 2. If you decide to give the users the ability to input their location, them the option to provide either a single minimum elevation angle or a local map -- i.e., 360 individual minimum elevations as a function of Azimuth. It's much easier to project this and the user is generally interested in an unobstructed LOS with respect to his/her location. It's not the best resolution but in the image below, you can see how there are cut outs in the circles surrounding NASA's ground stations - the software has clearly implemented the idea Ken outlined above. For example, there is apparently some obstruction to the south east of the Hawaiian tracking station. If the sub-satelite point is inside the white line it's AOS. The surface of the earth visible to the shuttle, on the other hand, is simply a red circle, just faintly visible in this image. http://vault.newsfromspace.com/missions/sts114/STS114_land-5.jpg -Joe KM1P ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
[amsat-bb] Re: satellite los footprints
On 3/26/2013 2:34 PM, Joseph Armbruster wrote: Joe, What tracking program is that? I am not sure what they call it, but I believe it is a custom NASA program. It was used in the Shuttle mission control center, and they often put it up on NASA TV when S band telemetry was available, but Ku band TV was not. -Joe ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
[amsat-bb] Re: Radio-Archeology (xponder?)
Bob, WB4aPR wrote: I wonder if the billion to one chance that the transponder came on too? If it did, the Brazilian CB'ers will know! -Joe KM1P ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
[amsat-bb] SpaceTrack.org upgrade 20 February 2013 at 12:00 PST
If you are getting your keps from SpaceTrack, you may see some changes soon. The following is the latest from Vandenburg: ** We are pleased to announce that we will upgrade the current www.Space-Track.org on Wednesday, 20 February 2013 at 12:00 PST to add the look and functionality that matches what is now on https://beta.space-track.org. The bulk file downloads from our current Space-Track site will continue to be available to scripters for a limited time after the upgrade using established URLs. This upgrade will vastly improve how the Space-Track User community interacts with orbital element sets, the satellite catalog and conjunction data. With a robust Representational State Transfer (REST-ful) Application Programming Interface (API), scripters will be able to get the latest data available, customized for their purposes. Here are just a few of the new features that will become part of the upgraded www.Space-Track.org: - A streamlined and intuitive user interface that is easier to navigate and allows simple searches - A robust help and documentation section - Favorites lists to identify logical groupings of catalog objects that Users can monitor via the web interface or with the site's API If you have production scripts that currently use beta.space-track.org, we recommend that you change your scripts to point at www.Space-Track.org on or after 20 February 2013. If you have scripts that screen-scrape or download text/zip files from the current yellow-colored legacy www.Space-Track.org, they will continue to perform correctly for a few months, but we recommend that you quickly transition your scripts to take advantage of the new API. Documentation is available under Help to assist you, as well as the API query builder tool on the upgraded site. We have also started sharing information about Space-Track's new features on tumblr, facebook and twitter, so please engage us on your favorite social media platform. Our sites are http://space-track.tumblr.com, http://www.facebook.com/SpaceTrack andhttp://www.twitter.com/SpaceTrackOrg We understand that any significant upgrade has the potential to cause frustration for our user community and we apologize if this creates any adjustment problems for you. For help or clarification, please email us at ad...@space-track.org. Thank you, The www.Space-Track.org Team ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
[amsat-bb] Re: AMSAT-US Web Site
On 2/1/2013 7:17 PM, Clint Bradford wrote: I am working on a publishing deadline. Confirming that AMSAT.org will continue to be the domain name for AMSAT-NA's official site - is that correct? Clint, Use of amsat.org will continue indefinitely. It is difficult to imagine a scenario where we would want to change it. -Joe KM1P ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
[amsat-bb] Re: Easing of satellite export controls law signed Thursday
On 1/4/2013 5:20 PM, Trevor . wrote: The provision permits the Obama administration to remove satellites and related equipment from the U.S. State Department's munitions list, which restricts the weapons material from export to other countries. Trevor, Here is my view from the perspective of the guy responsible for maintaining access control on the project's web server. These things are never simple ... the provision _allows_ the administration to remove satellites from the list, but it will take some time to develop specific rules and procedures to _implement_ any changes. For now, satellites are still on the list, so there is no practical difference for AMSAT-NA and it's interaction with people who are not US Persons. The tedious process of verifying eligibility and then providing access to controlled mailing list archives, Subversion and Git repositories etc must remain in place. We look forward to the relaxation of the rules so we can work with you. In the mean time, if you know of any US Citizens or Permanent Residents who would like to help build a satellite, let us know. We have lots of fun tasks available! -Joe KM1P ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
[amsat-bb] Re: MAREA a School Activity You Can Do
Mark, Curiously ESA and NASA are doing similar work, although not with students: http://www2.electronicproducts.com/Control_a_LEGO_robot_from_space-article-FANE_lego_robot_space_Nov2012-html.aspx Joe KM1P ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
[amsat-bb] Re: MRO picture of Curiosity during descent
On 8/6/2012 2:45 PM, Alan P. Biddle wrote: An amazing picture of Curiosity and it's parachute during the descent phase: The MRO HiRISE team is 2 for 2 ... they pulled off the same feat for Phoenix back in 2008 http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/phoenix-descent.php -Joe KM1P ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
[amsat-bb] Quite a way to rehabilitate yourself ...
Will these guys help us launch AMSAT Fox? http://www.spacenews.com/civil/120726-san-quentin-prisoners-building-satellite-hardware-for-nasa.html -Joe ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
[amsat-bb] Good press
http://phys.org/news/2012-06-satellite-battery-nittany-lion-paw.html -Joe KM1P ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
[amsat-bb] Re: Motor for Yaesu G5500 Azimuth Rotator?
On 2/24/2012 8:14 PM, Phil Karn wrote: Fortunately, the problem of tracking a LEO satellite with a deadband of 5-10 degrees is a very non-demanding problem. That's why most hams are still doing it with primitive, bang-bang control. I had occasion to install a Pro-sis-tel rotor for a nearby ham a while back. I beleve they presently ship with DC motors, but early models had a little (by industrial standards) three phase motor .. I think 1/8th horsepower. I did not have a chance to reverse engineer their controller, but it was not particularly sophisticated. They simply pulsed 60Hz AC from a 24V transformer when they wanted to accelerate or slow down. I am not exactly sure how they generated torque since there was no evidence that they did anything to shift the phase of the three windings. Of course my imagination started thinking about using industrial variable speed drives with it. The long cable from the shack to the tower is a concern ... most industrial drives specify a length limit to to the motor in an effort to minimize reactance.I suppose you could put the power electronics at the rotor, but lightning concerns give me pause. -Joe ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
[amsat-bb] Re: Motor for Yaesu G5500 Azimuth Rotator?
On 2/25/2012 4:25 PM, Phil Karn wrote: If it really was a 3-phase induction motor then there *had* to be some sort of phase shift at least to start it. Of course you are right. I found a schematic of their controller http://www.ecse.rpi.edu/courses/CStudio/ham_radio_docs/Prosistel61C.pdf The phase shift is done with C7 and C8, but I have to spend some time with the schematic to figure out exactly what they are doing. I expected to see a microcontroller/DSP individually controlling each of the 3 legs. -Joe KM1P ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
[amsat-bb] Re: Motor for Yaesu G5500 Azimuth Rotator?
On 2/23/2012 3:23 PM, Phil Karn wrote: These variable frequency/variable voltage AC motor drives have long been common in industry, and they've become the standard in hybrid and newer electric cars. Phil, Your fans will not be completely happy until your controller runs a state-space model of the motor/antenna system, with software that is careful to generate acceleration and jerk limited commands such that mechanical resonances are not excited. With tongue firmly in cheek -Joe KM1P ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
[amsat-bb] Re: spaceweather.com
On 1/23/2012 2:52 PM, Andrew Glasbrenner wrote: I forgot to tell you! Don't cross the streams Thank you for the warning Dr Spengler! -Joe KM1P ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
[amsat-bb] Re: Noise from notebook's PSU
On 12/25/2011 9:29 AM, Andy Brian wrote: I need notebook for my antenna control and I'm looking how to reduce or minimaze the noise from PSU, any good suggestion are welcome. thanks Ferrite is your friend. Mouser is a great source. See http://www.yccc.org/Articles/W1HIS/CommonModeChokesW1HIS2006Apr06.pdf -Joe KM1P ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
[amsat-bb] Re: APRS on Bernuda and Atlantic
On 12/17/2011 9:54 PM, Bob Bruninga wrote: The recent Balloon flight over the atlantic was a clear demonstration that there is no APRS IGate on Bermuda leaving about 800,000 square miles of the Atlantic without coverage. I've never been there and I assume the old NASA station no longer exists for decades. What kind of government or other official facility is there where we might be able to convince powers-that-be to insall an IGate? Not sure what drives the requirement for a government facility. Could we reach out to VP9MU or other VP9? -Joe ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
[amsat-bb] Re: ARISSat-1 status message
On 9/5/2011 6:47 PM, Richard Ferryman wrote: Can anyone tell me the conditions that trigger this EMERGENCY mode and what changes to operation take place in this mode. Hi Dick! Thanks for collecting and forwarding data from ARISSat-1. Emergency mode is entered when the power management software thinks the battery is dangerously low. It reduces the frequency of telemetry to one 30 second period every 5 and a half minutes or so, and turns off unnecessary loads otherwise. Evidence suggests our battery has failed open, so the software must have taken a sample when the solar panels were at a poor angle with respect to the sun. See http://arissat1.org/v3/images/PDF/janfeb11_monterio.pdf for full details. -Joe KM1P ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
[amsat-bb] Re: ARISSat-1 possible critical height
On 8/7/2011 9:44 AM, Giulio P. AOL wrote: what could be the critical height (closest to the earth) for the satellite, where the temperatures will degrade the operation? By the time we see significant heating, we only have 10's of hours left in orbit. Take a look at the temperatures of RAFT on: http://www.usna.edu/Users/aero/bruninga/craft/save-raft.html You can't really see a clear temperature rise until about 2 days before reentry. -Joe KM1P ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
[amsat-bb] Re: ARISSat-1 over West Malaysia
On 8/4/2011 11:04 PM, Sion Chow Q. C. (9W2QC) wrote: Dear All, It was great to receive ARISSsat-1 over West Malaysia during 5th August 2011, 0223 UTC pass. Maximum elevation was 89 degrees. Sion It is always great to see your early reception reports on amsat-bb! Keep up the good work. -Joe ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
[amsat-bb] Steve Bible blogs about ARISSat-1 on EE Times web site.
Our friends at Microchip are stirring up some interest in our project outside the ham radio world. http://www.eetimes.com/electronics-blogs/chips-in-space/4218140/The-Building-of-an-Amateur-Satellite-1 -Joe KM1P ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
[amsat-bb] Re: ARISSatTLM source code
On 6/23/2011 9:57 PM, Anthony Monteiro wrote: We hope to have the server with the ARISSatTLM Windows code up again soon. The server is back on line. You can find the code at https://svn.sarpeidon.net/suitsat2/repos/ground_station_software/ARISSatTLM/ -Joe KM1P ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
[amsat-bb] Joe Pollyanna Fitzgerald on ARISSat-1
The ARISSat-1 project can chalk up many successes, here is my list so far: AMSAT has: Built and launched a spacecraft which has sent signals back to earth Grown up significantly in our project management capabilities, now bearing fruit as AMSAT-Fox is developed Developed a telemetry scheme that gives us several dB advantage over anything else previously flown on an amateur or small university spacecraft Gown in our understanding of and implementation of ITAR compliance Learned a fair amount about extracting the most power out of solar panels and putting it to work or storage And on a personal level, I have: Learned a lot about project management - Learned a lot about BPSK demodulation and channel codecs Been privileged to work with a lot of smart people -Joe KM1P ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
[amsat-bb] Re: ARRISSat Reception 14.45 UTC
On 4/11/2011 1:44 PM, Phil Karn wrote: Since it's already connected to the station antenna, it sure would be nice if they could just plug it directly into the ISS power supply, switch it on full duty cycle, and just *leave* it for a couple of, oh, years. Phil, I am curious to see how your BPSK1000 fares on a rapidly tumbling platform. Let's hope ISS doesn't start tumbling more than once per orbit! If you do convince them to leave the ISS powered up on board ISS, we could evaluate rapit deep fades in the channel by putting middle school students in charge of holding an arrow antenna. -Joe KM1P ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
[amsat-bb] Re: AMSAT-Fox?
On 3/2/2011 12:13 AM, Clint Bradford wrote: OK - I'll ask. Why is this satellite not named, AMSAT-Foxtrot? The software guys, being mostly of the Unix persuasion lobbied for something very terse like AMASAT-fo or AMSAT-fx. There were a few Windows guys who wanted C:\ArerospaceVehicle.Satellite.AMSAT.Foxtrot(FollowOnToECHO-AO51) AMSAT-Fox came out as a compromise. -Joe KM1P ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
[amsat-bb] Russian Progress M-09M in orbit with ARISSat-1/RadioSkaf-V
ARISSat-1 is now in orbit, but still cocooned in the Progress cargo ship. See launch pictures at: http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=23441.0;all Woo-hoo! Joe KM1P ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
[amsat-bb] Nice Progress launch article mentioning ARISSat-1
With Progress launch picture. http://spaceflightnow.com/station/exp26/110127prog41p/ -Joe KM1P ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
[amsat-bb] Re: University of Texas Satellites may launch This Evening!
On 11/19/2010 8:39 PM, Samudra Haque wrote: Hey, I was able to show everybody a live launch, and I think it was a flawless launch? I keep hearing my favorite word ... nominal. -Joe KM1P ___ Sent via amsat...@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
[amsat-bb] Re: Expanding Radio AMSAT's to include telescope.
Is there any reason why a future Amatuer Radio Satellite could not include a small telescope and CCD imaging. In principal, no. In practice, how much are you willing to spend? Perhaps the biggest problem that needs to be solved is how to get the telescope pointed at the target you want. To my knowledge the best pointing accuracy we ever achieved in an amateur spacecraft was AO40 at about 1.5 degrees. And it was spinning, so we only took pictures of bright things like the Earth where we could get an image with a short shutter opening. To image stars, you'd probably want 3 axis stabilization which is a hard problem to solve on an amateur budget. It's not particularly easy on ARRISSAT-1 will have a camera aboard, but no pointing ability at all, so we'll be snapping pictures hoping the earth happens to be in the field of view in at least some of them. It'll have a nifty Russian instrument aboard to measure just how hard the vacuum is at the upper edge of Earth's atmosphere. So it's about more than exchanging grid squares (not that there's anything wrong with that). -Joe KM1P ___ Sent via amsat...@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
[amsat-bb] Re: Antenna setup
Yes, NEVER higher than 15 degrees. You don't need the gain much above the horizon where the satellite is up to 10 dB CLOSER. Bob, Looks like you Navy guys have been using this technique since the early 1960's. Check out the photo Radio Control Hut Team Overseas on http://www.globalsecurity.org/space/systems/grab.htm -Joe KM1P ___ Sent via amsat...@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
[amsat-bb] Re: Planet Pseudo-Keps
Auke de Jong, VE6PWN wrote: On second thought, the software that runs the fully-automated personal telescopes already does most of this, except for the relative velocity part. The US government will do that for us via the JPL HORIZONS tracking system http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/?horizons The data below show that as this being written I should point my antennas to the south, a little less than half way up from horizon to my zenith. Jupiter is moving away from me at about six and a half kilometers per second, and a dit leaving my keyer will take the better part of an hour to reach it's target. No charge to use this, US hams pay for this with our taxes. That being said you Canadians are welcome to send me cash gifts, and I will be glad to pay the appropriate US income tax on it! -Joe KM1P *** Revised: Dec 17, 2009 Jupiter 599 PHYSICAL DATA (updated 2009-Jan-28): Mass (10^24 kg) = 1898.13+-.19 Density (g/cm^3) = 1.326 Equat. radius (1 bar) = 71492+-4 km Polar radius (km) = 66854+-10 Volumetric mean radius= 69911+-6 km Flattening = 0.06487 Rotation period = 9h 55m 29.685s Rot. rate(10^-4 rad/s) = 1.75865 m = w^2a^3/GM = 0.089195 Hydrostatic flat., fh = 0.06509 Inferred rot. period = 9.894+-0.02 hr ks = 3*J2/m= 0.494 Mom. of inert. I/MRo^2= 0.254 I/MRo^2 (upper bound) = 0.267 Rocky core mass (Mc/M)= 0.0261 Y factor (He/H ratio) = 0.18+-0.04 GM (km^3/s^2) = 126,686,511 GM 1-sigma (km^3/s^2) = +-100 Equ. grav, ge (m/s^2) = 24.79 Pol. grav, gp (m/s^2) = 28.34 Geometric albedo = 0.52 Visual magnitude V(1,0)= -9.40 Vis. mag. (opposition)= -2.70 Obliquity to orbit = 3.12 deg Sidereal orbit period = 11.862615 yrSidereal orbit period = 4332.820 d Mean daily motion = 0.0831294 deg/d Mean orbit velocity= 13.0697 km/s Atmos. temp. (1 bar) = 165+-5 KHeat flow/mass (x10^7) = 15 erg/gm*s Planetary Solar Const = 50.5 W/m^2 Dipole tilt/offset = 9.6deg/0.1Rp Escape velocity (km/s)= 59.5 Mag.dip.mom(gauss-Rp^3)= 4.2 Aroche(ice)/Rp= 2.76 Hill's sphere rad. Rp = 740 *** *** Ephemeris / WWW_USER Sat Feb 27 10:15:04 2010 Pasadena, USA / Horizons *** Target body name: Jupiter (599) {source: JUP230} Center body name: Earth (399) {source: DE405} Center-site name: (user defined site below) *** Start time : A.D. 2010-Feb-10 17:00:00. UT Stop time : A.D. 2010-Feb-10 20:00:00. UT Step-size : 5 minutes *** Target pole/equ : IAU_JUPITER {East-longitude -} Target radii: 71492.0 x 71492.0 x 66854.0 km {Equator, meridian, pole} Center geodetic : 288.845300,42.2925472,49.999402 {E-lon(deg),Lat(deg),Alt(km)} Center cylindric: 288.845300,4762.18349,4303.3386 {E-lon(deg),Dxy(km),Dz(km)} Center pole/equ : High-precision EOP model{East-longitude +} Center radii: 6378.1 x 6378.1 x 6356.8 km {Equator, meridian, pole} Target primary : Sun {source: DE405+DE408} Interfering body: MOON (Req= 1737.400) km {source: DE405} Deflecting body : Sun, EARTH {source: DE405} Deflecting GMs : 1.3271E+11, 3.9860E+05 km^3/s^2 Atmos refraction: NO (AIRLESS) RA format : HMS Time format : CAL RTS-only print : NO EOP file: eop.100226.p100520 EOP coverage: DATA-BASED 1962-JAN-20 TO 2010-FEB-26. PREDICTS- 2010-MAY-19 Units conversion: 1 AU= 149597870.691 km, c= 299792.458 km/s, 1 day= 86400.0 s Table cut-offs 1: Elevation (-90.0deg=NO ),Airmass (38.000=NO), Daylight (NO ) Table cut-offs 2: Solar Elongation ( 0.0,180.0=NO ) * Date__(UT)__HR:MN Azi_(a-appr)_Elev dAZ*cosE d(ELV)/dt APmag S-brt delta deldot 1-way_LT * $$SOE 2010-Feb-10 17:00 *m 163.9922 35.9868 867.85184.19 -2.02 5.31 8.8974883901E+08 6.3227121 49.464711 2010-Feb-10 17:05 *m 165.4872 36.2310 871.25167.40 -2.02 5.31 8.8975073674E+08 6.3287606
[amsat-bb] Re: [Mw] Satellite to carry Amateur Radio 5840.00 MHz telemetry beacon
1. Keplerian elements are great for satellites, but once UNITEC1 enters deep space, what do we use to calculate and predict the path for our accurate tracking ? It likely that this spacecraft will be tracked as part of the JPL HORIZONS system as were other Japanese deep space objects like Nozomi and Hayabusa. If that is the case, accurate ephemeris are available to anyone via web, telnet or e-mail. See http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/horizons.cgi for details. -Joe KM1P ___ Sent via amsat...@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
[amsat-bb] Re: Amateur Satellites Close Conjuctions
Hello, Given the recent close conjunction between Compass-1 and Sich 1, I was curious how common such encounters were. Using SOCRATES on the celestrak site, http://celestrak.com/SOCRATES/, it looks like they are fairly common. Take those forecasts with a grain of salt since they are based on TLE's with limited accuracy. On the day Iridium 33 and Cosmos 2251 collided, SOCRATES forecast a couple other conjunctions closer. SOCRATES predicted a miss of 584 m. Fortunately for us, there is a lot of space in space. -Joe KM1P ___ Sent via amsat...@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
[amsat-bb] Re: ARRL Sat Article
Idle-Tyme wrote: It might be an Urban Legend But I always remember that those early birds antennas were simply made from tape measure like materials. That is pretty much state of the art, even now. Take a look at the photos of PCSAT at http://wa8lmf.net/bruninga/pcsat.html You can just make out the inch markings on the yellow tape measure in some of the pictures. -Joe KM1P ___ Sent via amsat...@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
[amsat-bb] Re: Tracking planets
Joel I. Kandel wrote: Is anyone using Nova for tracking celestials (e.g., Jupiter or Sun ) for radio astronomy purposes? I have an LVB Tracker but not sure Nova is compatible and SatPC32 doesn't track celestial bodies. Also not sure LabJackU3 is completely supported by Nova yet. Any solutions out there ? There is obviously no direct connection to your rotors, but if all you need is ephemerides you can't do better than http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/?horizons -Joe KM1P ___ Sent via amsat...@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
[amsat-bb] Re: Yagi balance point
As a practical matter, I'd use the fishing weights tucked in as close to the boom as possible to keep the additional wind load down. In fact if the boom is hollow, you could stick the weights inside and not increase the wind load at all. As long as the metallic counterbalance is not actually touching any elements you will be fine. -Joe KM1P ___ Sent via amsat...@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
[amsat-bb] Re: Filters and Preamps Question
what's the preferred order? As ever that depends. In the specific case I was involved in at Worcester Polytech, we found that we could get the best trade off by putting the preamp at the antenna then knocking down the out of band stuff with the filter between the preamp and the receiver. The losses in the filter hurt your system noise figure much more if you go ant - filter - preamp - receiver If the out of band stuff is desensing your preamp, well, that is another story. At +12 dBm for the ARR GaAs FET we were using there was no problem, even in an urban environment. -Joe KM1P ___ Sent via amsat...@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
[amsat-bb] Re: Amsat conference follow-up regarding Cubesats, Education and Experimental projects and ITU
Samudra, I enjoyed your presentation and comments during the symposium, I apologize that I did not have a chance to talk one on one. I'll take a stab at some of your questions But first a few questions: Does cubesat employ all open standards, free for use, free of any copyright -or- patents ? The answer to this is substantially yes, although especially with patents it is hard to ever know for sure. What are the lifetime design goals of a cubesat system, and if they deorbit in a finite time, can more than a few cubesats be deployed in various stages in the same orbital plane and orbital track ? Even if many cubesats were deployed at the same time they would tend to spread out more or less randomly throughout the orbit due to minor variations in separation velocity over the course of a few weeks. BTW, I am curious, is there a certain orbital plane allocation for cubesats/altitude ? Who regulates this ? Could a cubesat (small) be launched into (e.g.) a fractional degree orbit .. e.g., 45.5 degrees and separate from 45.7 degrees etc as they are very small, or are the cubesats limited to separation in orbit by whole integer degrees inclination ? The inclination of the orbit that a cubesat ends up in depends on what the orbit of the primary spacecraft. A so called plane change to a different inclination is a very expensive maneuver in terms of propellant ... for example when the Space Shuttle goes to ISS it must launch within 5 minutes of the optimum time or the earth will carry the launch platform out of the plane of the ISS' orbit and there won't have enough maneuvering propellant to reach it. There is no specific need to hit an integer value of degrees, and to my knowledge there is no national or international body to regulate such things. -Joe KM1P ___ Sent via amsat...@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
[amsat-bb] Re; Not everyone is working on ARISSat-1
Look to the Empire State near the Harvest Moon. A gift may arrive near the ides of May. Alex, What are you talking about? -Joe KM1P ___ Sent via amsat...@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
[amsat-bb] Re: Launch coverage!
David - KG4ZLB wrote: Does anyone know if NASA plans to broadcast footage from inside the Shuttle, maybe a split screen showing the traditional launch and the other side showing the crew during lift off? I have seen split screens on NASA TV, usually a day or two after launch. A quick you-tube search revealed this. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5WdQHQY0xJs -Joe ___ Sent via amsat...@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
[amsat-bb] Re: Other Computer Controlled Rotator Options
Check out Section C in http://tmo.jpl.nasa.gov/progress_report/42-176/176D.pdf -Joe KM1P ___ Sent via amsat...@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
[amsat-bb] Re: ANDE-2 Deployment
Looks as though the deployment from the shuttle didn't go ahead. They've been doing engine burns during the past minutes. Looks like the deployment happens tomorrow about 17:22 UTC(Specifically flight day 14 19:19:00 mission elapsed Time.) to allow for good radar observations. From today's Execute Package ANDE#8208;2 Deploy was moved so that the deploy may be observed by Millstone Hill, near MIT in Boston. I'll be at Fenway Park in Boston at that time, so I guess I will have to point my binoculars away from the baseball field and into the sky for a minute! see http://www.nasa.gov/pdf/373942main_fd14_exec_pkg.pdf -Joe KM1P ___ Sent via amsat...@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb