[amsat-bb] Re: so long, try EME
EME is a good replacement (JT65) There are no borders. There is no politics (no one owns the Moon). There are no Satellite managers to control which mode is enabled or disabled. No person can hog the whole repeater. The Moon is usable 2+ weeks contiguous per month. In most countries you can run your countries legal limit. It’s much further away and thus a greater challenge. You do not need to join a club. And the list goes on. From: John Becker w0...@big-river.net To: amsat-bb@amsat.org Sent: Tuesday, September 17, 2013 2:58 PM Subject: [amsat-bb] so long I have decided to leave the list till something changes with this FM only satellite attitude only changes. That was the reason for me as well as other joining AMSAT in the first place. Please inform me if anything such as a replacement for AO 40 happens. John ___ 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: ISS SSTV Active on 145.800Mhz, Stuck PTT
The stuck PTT while running SSTV on ISS has been a known issue since the vox box was first connected to the TM-D700 in the year 2005. The ISS crew soon discovered the stuck VOX transmitter issue. One ISS crewmember left the radio running all night sending SSTV images. The next morning the radio was excessively hot and would not respond to button commands until after the radio was “power cycled”. The Ariss vox box does not have any RF filtering inside the device. The devices was originally designed to run on its own 9-Volt battery. At the last minute, it was modified to extract power from the TM-D700. The Ariss vox box gets its power from the D700 via a special modification to the D700 transceiver. The unfiltered power is full of RF energy when the D700 starts transmitting. The RF energy causes the VOX PTT circuit to get stuck in a transmitting mode until the Watch dog timer in the D700 times-out and forces the radio back to receiving mode. Marexmg, the organization that supplied the Marex SpaceCam1 SSTV software for ISS has recommended to ARISS several times to replace the ARISS vox box with a stable USB vox box. ARISS has repeatedly ignored any attempt to correct the problem. Sincerely Miles WF1F Marex http://www.marexmg.org/fileshtml/futureprojects.html From: Fabiano Moser fabianomo...@gmail.com To: amsat-bb amsat-bb@amsat.org Sent: Thursday, September 5, 2013 6:57 AM Subject: [amsat-bb] Re: R: Re: ISS SSTV Active on 145.800Mhz Hi, SSTV active with problems, PTT was activated but no audio, then after 20seconds± the audio started and goes out before the end of image. PTT still ON without audio till LOS. On Thu, Sep 5, 2013 at 10:22 AM, Claudio Ariotti, IK1SLD clau...@ariotti.com wrote: Hi Jan, about your comment I read on your web, the Luca Parmitano don't use the Kenwood TM-D710, this radio is used by Russian crew. The MAI-75 Experiment is a Russian experiment and the crew activates it when Moscow has AOS, so we lost 50% of the pass. Luca only use the Ericsson radio in the Columbus module. 73 Claudio IK1SLD -Messaggio originale- Da: amsat-bb-boun...@amsat.org [mailto:amsat-bb-boun...@amsat.org] Per conto di PE0SAT | Amateur Radio Inviato: giovedì 5 settembre 2013 10:35 A: amsat-bb@amsat.org Oggetto: [amsat-bb] Re: ISS SSTV Active on 145.800Mhz Hi Cor, Via this link: http://www.pe0sat.vgnet.nl/2013/iss-sstv-reception/ you can download the SSTV images I received yesterday. 73 Jan PE0SAT On 04-09-2013 20:47, Cor . wrote: Hello All, Several ISS SSTV images are received from several ground stations. See ISS SSTV images and info: http://ariss-sstv.blogspot.nl/ http://www.dk3wn.info/satblog.shtml I asume the Russian ISS crew have sended 4 different SSTV images today. If someone have received other images please send them to me via e-mail (see my QRZ.com page). Tommorow Sept. 5 between 09:00 and 10:40 UTC last day of the event. 73's Cor PD0RKC ___ 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 -- With regards PE0SAT Internet web-page http://www.pe0sat.vgnet.nl/ ___ 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 ___ 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: Improving performance of packet communications through the ISS
Try adjusting for Doppler. When the signals are strong over S3, should not have much of an issue decoding intact packets. However, if the signals are dipping below S3 and you are experience Doppler greater than 2k, then you can improve your decoding performance by adjusting for Doppler. On 2 meters, ISS Doppler will be plus and minus up to 3.3 kHz. For 2-Meter FM Use three pre program channels with Odd-split frequencies stored in advance. Set Channel #1 Receiving frequency plus 2k. Set Channel #1 Transmitting frequency minus 2k. Set Channel #2 Receiving frequency plus 0k. (No Doppler correction) Set Channel #2 Transmitting frequency minus 0k. (No Doppler correction) Set Channel #3 Receiving frequency minus 2k. Set Channel #3 Transmitting frequency plus 2k. During an ISS 9 minute pass. Use Channel #1 for the first 3 minutes. Use Channel #2 for the Second group of 3 minutes. Use Channel 3 for the last three minutes of the pass. Icom 910H: This radio has a Blinking light that will tell you when your FM receiver is Off frequency. It does not tell you if you are high or low. If the light blinks while receiving Packet/Voice from ISS, then it’s time to change channels. With FM, you do not need to be exactly on frequency. Some radios such as the Yasue FT736R have a FM Tuning center meter. The FM center meter is great for tracking FM satellites. Too bad none of the satellite radio manufactures sell this important feature any more. --- On Mon, 6/10/13, rogerk...@aol.com rogerk...@aol.com wrote: From: rogerk...@aol.com rogerk...@aol.com Subject: [amsat-bb] Re: Improving performance of packet communications through the ISS To: l...@highnoonfilm.com, amsat-bb@amsat.org Date: Monday, June 10, 2013, 8:46 AM Les... I forget the command...maybe PASSALL? Typically the default settings only display complete verified packets...I think if you turn it on it will display partial and unverified packets which allows you to see everything received even if incomplete and can you can figure out the content. Roger WA1KAT -Original Message- From: Les Rayburn l...@highnoonfilm.com To: AMSAT Mailing List amsat-bb@amsat.org Sent: Mon, Jun 10, 2013 12:39 am Subject: [amsat-bb] Improving performance of packet communications through the ISS I've got my Icom IC-910H working with it's SignaLink interface, through Packet Engine Pro and UISS. I've been able to receive lots of stations through the ISS, and managed to have short QSOs with a couple. Fun! But I notice that this combination seems to do a poor job of decoding weak signals. I hear packets in the speaker that seem plenty strong enough to decode, but they don't show up on UISS. I'm wondering if I used a traditional TNC, such as a Kantronics unit, if I'd get better performance? Does anyone in the group have any experience along these lines? Or could someone provide other suggestions on how to improve my ability to communicate through the ISS? Thanks in advance. Having a ball on the birds. -- -- 73, Les Rayburn, N1LF 121 Mayfair Park Maylene, AL 35114 EM63nf 6M VUCC #1712 AMSAT #38965 Grid Bandits #222 Southeastern VHF Society Central States VHF Society Life Member Six Club #2484 Active on 6 Meters thru 1296, 10GHz Light ___ 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: Digipeating Through the ISS
Digi-peating can be fun. I use to frequently digi-peat or chat-room with many stations using the Mir Kantroinics or the ISS-Paccom system. I even made a digi-peat contact from Boston MA to Pine Grove California. The ISS radio window between Boston and California is only a few seconds long. I am not sure which radio is in use on ISS today, the old D700 had a delay issue caused by a user cross-band configuration error which made digi-peating difficult. Did they ever replace the D700 or disable the cross band receivers? --- On Fri, 5/31/13, Les Rayburn l...@highnoonfilm.com wrote: From: Les Rayburn l...@highnoonfilm.com Subject: [amsat-bb] Digipeating Through the ISS To: AMSAT Mailing List amsat-bb@amsat.org Date: Friday, May 31, 2013, 12:51 AM After several frustrating hours of trying to get the software set up properly, I finally managed to get Packet Engine Pro and UISS working in time for a good pass of the ISS over the Southeastern US. It was really something to see the software display stations and plot them on a map as the ISS passed overhead. Even more so to see my own callsign digipeated through the software. Next up is to attempt a full fledged QSO through the ISS in real-time. My special thanks to Joanne Maenpaa, K9JKM whose paper on working through the ISS using software was most helpful. I used my Icom IC-910H with a Signalink interface instead of a hardware TNC. Having a blast on the birds, and this just adds a whole other element of fun to the process. -- 73, Les Rayburn, N1LF 121 Mayfair Park Maylene, AL 35114 EM63nf 6M VUCC #1712 AMSAT #38965 Grid Bandits #222 Southeastern VHF Society Central States VHF Society Life Member Six Club #2484 Active on 6 Meters thru 1296, 10GHz Light ___ 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: searching advice on low hpass filter for 146 MHz
It does not hurt to aks. DCI has been very responsive to our Space Station projects. I can assume that there are many european stations that could use a 2-meter pass band filter designed for just 144.0 - 146.0. A notch can be added, but that of course will cost extra. On a side Note: Once a month or so, ISS crews will turn on the 143.xxx backup transmitter for a few orbits. The FM 10k Dev, transmitter will send a carrier for all of the ground stations to lock on to and test with. If you are trying to work the 2-meter station on ISS While the 143.xxx transmitter is active, the ham reciever will be deaf! You may still have some down link beacon packets from the Digipeater, but it will not be able to hear you. The DCI filter project for ISS was rejected as not required. PS Ham Voice contacts are also affected while 143.xxx is active. Miles WF1F --- On Mon, 5/9/11, i8cvs domenico.i8...@tin.it wrote: From: i8cvs domenico.i8...@tin.it Subject: Re: [amsat-bb] Re: searching advice on low hpass filter for 146 MHz To: MM ka1...@yahoo.com, HB9BNK''Werner Kullmann hb9...@uska.ch, Amsat - BBs amsat-bb@amsat.org, Dee morse...@optonline.net Date: Monday, May 9, 2011, 4:47 PM Hi, KA1RRW I was looking at the passband filter DCI 145-2H with center frequency of 145 MHz but it has a flat responce 4 MHz large from 143 to 147 MHz (see the skirts diagram) so that it canno't attenuate the very strong POCSAG signal that HB9BNK has at 147.300 MHz In addition I have not seen any notch added in all models for 2 meters band. Do you know if DCI can add a notch to a selected frequency upon customer request ? For example 145.900 MHz center pass-band frequency and a notch at 147.300 MHz ? It would be a very good soluction for Werner HB9BNK 73 de i8CVS Domenico - Original Message - From: MM ka1...@yahoo.com To: HB9BNK''Werner Kullmann hb9...@uska.ch; amsat-bb@amsat.org; Dee morse...@optonline.net Sent: Monday, May 09, 2011 8:12 PM Subject: [amsat-bb] Re: searching advice on low hpass filter for 146 MHz http://www.dci.ca/?Section=ProductsSubSection=Amateur You can buy a custom low pass filter for 2-meters from DCI. Marex had DCI custom build a 2-meter filter for simular usage on Mir. The filter passed 144.000 - 146.000, and had a notch added for 143.xxx. The filter worked great. It reduced most noise out side of the band and it blocked out a 50 watt transmitter located about 10 meters away. --- On Wed, 4/27/11, Dee morse...@optonline.net wrote: From: Dee morse...@optonline.net Subject: [amsat-bb] Re: searching advice on low hpass filter for 146 MHz To: 'Werner Kullmann, HB9BNK' hb9...@uska.ch, amsat-bb@amsat.org Date: Wednesday, April 27, 2011, 10:25 AM Werner, Since you are using a very good rig and adding a great preamp, to hear what you are after and expense involved might be as simple as adjusting the gain (SP2000 indicates it is adjustable and already has a helical front end) so as to stop this interference. Doing this simple thing might correct everything--Let us know if it works. I adjusted the gain of my preamp to stop similar type intermod. 73, Dee, NB2F -Original Message- From: amsat-bb-boun...@amsat.org [mailto:amsat-bb-boun...@amsat.org] On Behalf Of Werner Kullmann, HB9BNK Sent: Wednesday, April 27, 2011 9:42 AM To: amsat-bb@amsat.org Subject: [amsat-bb] searching advice on low hpass filter for 146 MHz To improve the reception of the sats on 145.9xx MHz with my little yagi, I recently acquired a SSB-preamplifier SP-2000. To my dismay, the reception on my IC910H was intermittend heavily distorted. After a while I found, that a nearby located commercial transmitter (POCSAG) emitting bursts on 147.300 is so strong, that the frontend of the IC910H (or its AGC) practically quites the receiver on 145.900. When the bursts stop, reception resumes. Difficult to qso. I have experimented with a large cavity filter and found, that the impact of the bursts can be reduced, so that normal satellite work is possible again. Now I am looking for advice on how to build a steep low pass filter, eliminating everything above 146 MHz, to be mounted before the preamp on the mast. The filter must however be capable to accept the rf power, if I work in V/U mode. Thank you for any ideas ! Werner, HB9BNK ___ 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-bb] Re: searching advice on low hpass filter for 146 MHz
http://www.dci.ca/?Section=ProductsSubSection=Amateur You can buy a custom low pass filter for 2-meters from DCI. Marex had DCI custom build a 2-meter filter for simular usage on Mir. The filter passed 144.000 - 146.000, and had a notch added for 143.xxx. The filter worked great. It reduced most noise out side of the band and it blocked out a 50 watt transmitter located about 10 meters away. --- On Wed, 4/27/11, Dee morse...@optonline.net wrote: From: Dee morse...@optonline.net Subject: [amsat-bb] Re: searching advice on low hpass filter for 146 MHz To: 'Werner Kullmann, HB9BNK' hb9...@uska.ch, amsat-bb@amsat.org Date: Wednesday, April 27, 2011, 10:25 AM Werner, Since you are using a very good rig and adding a great preamp, to hear what you are after and expense involved might be as simple as adjusting the gain (SP2000 indicates it is adjustable and already has a helical front end) so as to stop this interference. Doing this simple thing might correct everything--Let us know if it works. I adjusted the gain of my preamp to stop similar type intermod. 73, Dee, NB2F -Original Message- From: amsat-bb-boun...@amsat.org [mailto:amsat-bb-boun...@amsat.org] On Behalf Of Werner Kullmann, HB9BNK Sent: Wednesday, April 27, 2011 9:42 AM To: amsat-bb@amsat.org Subject: [amsat-bb] searching advice on low hpass filter for 146 MHz To improve the reception of the sats on 145.9xx MHz with my little yagi, I recently acquired a SSB-preamplifier SP-2000. To my dismay, the reception on my IC910H was intermittend heavily distorted. After a while I found, that a nearby located commercial transmitter (POCSAG) emitting bursts on 147.300 is so strong, that the frontend of the IC910H (or its AGC) practically quites the receiver on 145.900. When the bursts stop, reception resumes. Difficult to qso. I have experimented with a large cavity filter and found, that the impact of the bursts can be reduced, so that normal satellite work is possible again. Now I am looking for advice on how to build a steep low pass filter, eliminating everything above 146 MHz, to be mounted before the preamp on the mast. The filter must however be capable to accept the rf power, if I work in V/U mode. Thank you for any ideas ! Werner, HB9BNK ___ 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: SATPC32 ISS Showing weird operation
It is possible there was an orbit change thrust performed after the shuttle docked. When the Shuttle docks with ISS, the ISS autopilot is turned OFF. The Shuttles autopilot takes over for the duration of the flight. --- On Sun, 3/6/11, Marc Tessier - VE3TES ve3...@cogeco.ca wrote: From: Marc Tessier - VE3TES ve3...@cogeco.ca Subject: [amsat-bb] SATPC32 ISS Showing weird operation To: amsat-bb@amsat.org Date: Sunday, March 6, 2011, 12:21 PM Hello group, after finally getting my SSB part of the station fully operational, I then moved on to getting my packet operations up and running , and with great success, one wee problem, I have noticed this when tracking the ISS, I am able to still digipeat off the station even long after it is supposed to be beyond the horizon according to my Satpc32 ISS software. My keps are up to date via the Satpc32 software, is there a error due to the large amount of mass now docked on the ISS? or have the keps not be uploaded in a timely fashion to the server I get my keps from?... Run down of my operation conditions here are as follows... Radio - Kenwood TS2000 Software SATPC32 + Satpc32 ISS PC - Dell P4 2.4Ghz CPU with internet connection Is there another method of getting my keps to show more accurate tracking of this big bird?... Regards, Marc Tessier - VE3TES ve3...@cogeco.ca Grid FN25pa __ Information from ESET NOD32 Antivirus, version of virus signature database 5930 (20110306) __ The message was checked by ESET NOD32 Antivirus. http://www.eset.com ___ 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: ISS and Discovery - Final visible pass
Shuttle Discovery flying over Boston I posted my photos on flickr. Attached are a few pictures of the Space shuttle Discover STS-133. Taken at 7 PM March 7, 2011 from Groton Mass. The Shuttle and the Space station can both are see in this image. The leading streak is the Shuttle. The second streak is the international Space station. Sincerely Miles Mann WF1F More Shuttle images. http://www.flickr.com/photos/milesmann/sets/72157626219803828/ --- On Mon, 3/7/11, John Magliacane kd...@yahoo.com wrote: From: John Magliacane kd...@yahoo.com Subject: [amsat-bb] Re: ISS and Discovery - Final visible pass To: amsat-bb@amsat.org Date: Monday, March 7, 2011, 7:21 PM Hi all, Just had one of those rare opportunities with clear skies in the UK and a wonderful sighting to remember.. Just grabbed a couple of friends to witness a BEAUTIFUL double fly-by over New Jersey. :-) 73, de John, KD2BD -- Visit John on the Web at: http://kd2bd.ham.org/ ___ 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: ISS and Discovery - Final visible pass
Busy sky. in this image, i count 4 satellites and 1 plane. Center are the two ISS and Discover. Right top, unknown satellite. Right center, another satellite. Right bottom, a plane. 33 second time exposure. http://www.flickr.com/photos/milesmann/5507357729/in/set-72157626219803828/ --- On Mon, 3/7/11, MM ka1...@yahoo.com wrote: From: MM ka1...@yahoo.com Subject: [amsat-bb] Re: ISS and Discovery - Final visible pass To: amsat-bb@amsat.org, John Magliacane kd...@yahoo.com Date: Monday, March 7, 2011, 8:15 PM Shuttle Discovery flying over Boston I posted my photos on flickr. Attached are a few pictures of the Space shuttle Discover STS-133. Taken at 7 PM March 7, 2011 from Groton Mass. The Shuttle and the Space station can both are see in this image. The leading streak is the Shuttle. The second streak is the international Space station. Sincerely Miles Mann WF1F More Shuttle images. http://www.flickr.com/photos/milesmann/sets/72157626219803828/ --- On Mon, 3/7/11, John Magliacane kd...@yahoo.com wrote: From: John Magliacane kd...@yahoo.com Subject: [amsat-bb] Re: ISS and Discovery - Final visible pass To: amsat-bb@amsat.org Date: Monday, March 7, 2011, 7:21 PM Hi all, Just had one of those rare opportunities with clear skies in the UK and a wonderful sighting to remember.. Just grabbed a couple of friends to witness a BEAUTIFUL double fly-by over New Jersey. :-) 73, de John, KD2BD -- Visit John on the Web at: http://kd2bd.ham.org/ ___ 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: IC-9100
So what is the best new Satellite Radio on the market today? or What's the best out of production Satellite Radio? --- On Fri, 2/25/11, Dave Webb KB1PVH kb1...@gmail.com wrote: From: Dave Webb KB1PVH kb1...@gmail.com Subject: [amsat-bb] Re: IC-9100 To: Nigel Gunn G8IFF/W8IFF ni...@ngunn.net Cc: AMSAT -BB amsat-bb@amsat.org Date: Friday, February 25, 2011, 2:16 PM That's quite a bargain! Dave - KB1PVH Sent from my Verizon Wireless DROID X On Feb 25, 2011 2:11 PM, Nigel Gunn G8IFF/W8IFF ni...@ngunn.net wrote: Look further down the page, the remote control software is a penny less than ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND dollars. On 25-Feb-11 18:06, Alexandru Csete wrote: On Fri, Feb 25, 2011 at 6:22 PM, Dave Webb KB1PVHkb1...@gmail.com wrote: HRO has the Icom 9100 on it's site now for the low low price of $3799.95 http://www.hamradio.com/detail.cfm?pid=H0-010763 Wow, when I first saw that radio some time ago I thought it was supposed to be some kind of discount radio since they didn't even include a color display. So, now I am wondering, what is the advantage of one IC-9100 for $3800 over two IC-7000 for $2400? 73 Alex OZ9AEC ___ 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 -- Nigel A. Gunn, 1865 El Camino Drive, Xenia, OH 45385-1115, USA. tel +1 937 825 5032 Amateur Radio G8IFF W8IFF (was KC8NHF 9H3GN), e-mail ni...@ngunn.net www http://www.ngunn.net Member of ARRL, GQRP #11396, QRPARCI #11644, SOC #548, Flying Pigs QRP Club International #385, Dayton ARA #2128, AMSAT-NA LM-1691, AMSAT-UK 0182, MKARS, ALC, GCARES, XWARN, EAA382. ___ 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: Arissat-1 lifetime
wow, 5 years of time and money invensted into Arissat-1 for a 6 month run. Mean while, all other ISS projects put on hold. And it missed its lauch date of fall 2007. --- On Wed, 2/2/11, Gould Smith gould...@bellsouth.net wrote: From: Gould Smith gould...@bellsouth.net Subject: [amsat-bb] Re: Arissat-1 lifetime To: amsat-bb@amsat.org, Giulio P. AOL giulio...@aim.com Date: Wednesday, February 2, 2011, 10:00 PM Hello Giulio and BB, NASA calculates 3 - 6 months lifetime. It has to do with the original altitude of the ISS, the force and the angle. 73, Gould, WA4SXM - Original Message - From: Giulio P. AOL giulio...@aim.com To: amsat-bb@amsat.org Sent: Wednesday, February 02, 2011 5:49 PM Subject: [amsat-bb] Arissat-1 lifetime Hi, i have a question: what is the estimated lifetime of Arissat-1 before re-entering in atmosfere from his first orbit? Thanks 73 Giulio AB2VY ___ 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] Homework for ISS/SSTV fans.
ISS SSTV Home work: Hi all: Marex is always trying to improve our Manned space flight projects. I could use your help in analyzing the images coming from ISS. Here are a few homework assignments for you Assignment #1: WatchDog timer: Try to video tape a full SSTV sequence from beginning to end. We have heard rumors that the transmitter may be getting stuck “ON” after sending an image, and then later aborts in the Middle of the “Next” image when the built-in Watchdog timer activates. Can you be the first to catch a full video sequence of this happening? See if you can calculate the setting of the TM-D700 Watchdog timer. Assignment #2: Calculate Slide Show delay. Try to record 2 or more images in a row. Record the start of each image. If your images include the UTC time stamp you can also try to calculate if the clock on the laptop is set correctly (it may be on Russian time or UTC time). The time between images, minus the image transmission time, will be the slide show delay time. The original SpaceCam1 duty cycle goal was less than 40% transmitter time. A Slide Show delay of 3 minutes, with Robot-36 would put the transmitter in this range. The current images from ISS on July 15, are using Martin-1, which requires approximately 114 seconds per image. The stuck transmitter VOX bug, keeps the radio running for up to 3 minutes at a time. This means, that if we want to keep the transmitter duty cycle to 40% or less, we need to increase the Slide show mode to 8+ Minutes. When you have your results, send them and supporting images to: mare...@comcast.net Rename your images and use the following format New format: 0607311905wf1f.jpg I removed the first two numbers of the year and the “Z” for UTC time. All dates are assumed to be in UTC dates. The images coming down from ISS using Marex SpaceCam1 will also have a time stamp embedded into the image. You can also use these numbers to generate you file names. If you are a Short Wave listener and do not have a call sign, just place your Initials after the time (0607311905abc.jpg) If we break this down Year =06 Month = 07 Day = 31 Time = 1905 UTC Call sign = wf1f Description (optional) = Windows shot Image format = JPG Image Quality Please do not put any text over lays on the images, Example, do not put web page or advertisements in the image. Your own call sign and date are acceptable. Send all images directly to MAREX at mare...@comcast.net Thank you for your support WF1F, Miles ___ 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: ISS - Mission Control Comm Check
Note: When the VHF-1 transmitter is Running, the Amateur Radio receivers in the 2-meter band will go deaf (Receiving on 145, 490, 145.200, 145.990). This is because the Transmitting antenna for VHF-1 is less than 50 feet away from the Amateur Radio antennas. The VHF-1 transmitter is usually left running for a few hours at a time for ground stations to test against. If you wish to test this theory, just try to ping the Amateur radio packet station ISS during a VHF-1 transmitter test. When VHF-1 is transmitting, you will not see any packet activity, other than internally generated Beacons on 145.800 (down 145.800, uplink 145.990). When VHF-1 shuts down, normal packet access will resume. Marex discovered this problem with the Mir Amateur Radio station. We then custom designed a filter by DCI, to resolve the issues. No such filter exists on ISS. http://www.marexmg.org/documents/DCIFilterProject1.doc WF1F, www.marexmg.org --- On Wed, 7/14/10, Bob Christy b...@zarya.info wrote: From: Bob Christy b...@zarya.info Subject: [amsat-bb] ISS - Mission Control Comm Check To: amsat-bb@amsat.org Date: Wednesday, July 14, 2010, 4:47 AM Today's ISS crew schedule shows VHF comm checks from the Russian segment while over North America. Ground stations are at White Sands and Wallops. The pass is from 20:00 UTC (west coast) to 20:15 UTC (east coast). VHF-1 is 143.625 MHz FM, there may also be something on VHF-2 at 130.167 MHz. Bob Christy ___ 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 ___ 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: ISS
It’s the responsibility of ARISS to teach the ISS crews how to handle a pile up and to teach them the correct exchanges. ARISS has been successful in getting the ISS crews to pass their licenses. ARISS has not successful in teaching the ISS crews how to use the Amateur Radio equipment or the proper “Exchange” protocols. Unless you get a legitimate acknowledgment back, you have no proof he was talking to you or to one of the other stations within a 1000-mile radius. Wf1f --- On Mon, 7/12/10, Jeremy Cowgar jer...@cowgar.com wrote: From: Jeremy Cowgar jer...@cowgar.com Subject: [amsat-bb] Re: ISS To: amsat-bb@amsat.org Date: Monday, July 12, 2010, 10:01 PM I believe that's true however during my limited experience (listening to a few passes, then trying to work 2 and finally getting him on the third) I've *never* head him give a call. It's always Hear you loud and clear Cleveland or Got you Rick... Has this been other peoples experience? Jeremy KB8LFA http://www.kb8lfa.com On 7/12/2010 9:26 PM, David - KG4ZLB wrote: I may be wrong but technically you would need to have NA1SS repeat your call to be a true contact - he may have written your call down and forgot to acknowledge you by callsign in which case send a QSL and you might get lucky - if not then keep trying, Its great when it does happen and you know that an Astronaut flying at 17600mph in space is talking directly to you! Best of luck David KG4ZLB On 7/12/2010 20:18, Jeremy Cowgar wrote: With all the talk about ISS, I decided to try. I heard Col Wheelock on two passes but he never acknowledged my call. Then the pass today at 22:30 I was calling KB8LFA Jeremy in Akron, Ohio... He came back and said Got you loud and clear Akron, We are now passing ... It might not happen all the time and probably not at the exact time I transmit but how do I know there was not a stronger station saying Akron, Ohio as well? Is this what constitutes a contact w/NA1SS? Jeremy KB8LFA http://www.kb8lfa.com ___ 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 ___ 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] SSTV SpaceCam News
ISS Amateur Radio Status: July 13, 2010 SpaceCam planed for July 15-16 By Miles Mann WF1F, MAREX-MG News www.marexmg.org Manned Amateur Radio Experiment Hi everyone: Notes from the Ariss blog http://ariss-sstv.blogspot.com/ MAI-75 activation planned for July 15-16 (updated) An activity to support SSTV activation (MAI-75) has been schedule on July 15 and 16. Times fall between 12:00-15:00 UTC on the 15th and 10:00-12:00 UTC on the 16th . The system will be operating space cam in slide show mode and is expected to use the Martin 1 format. The times are just over 1 orbit each day (two passes over Moscow) so opportunities will be very limited. *** That’s good news, it has been a while since we have had the Marex SpaceCam1 project on the air. Note to ARISS and Sergej Samburov: Slide Show Mode recommended Settings: Kenwood TM-D700 Transmitter power set to Low/5 watts. Image Delay setting 3 or 4 minutes. Image Mode Recommendation, Robot-36 Keep the radio in a well-ventilated area. The reason Marex recommends Robot-36 over the Martin-1 or Scotty imaging modes is because of the transmission time required to complete an image. The lower quality image Robot-36 only requires approximately 40 seconds of transmission time to complete (Image time plus CW Id, etc). A Martin-1 image, which is higher quality, requires 114 seconds. Since all electronics run hotter in space, we need to make sure we do not overheat the TM-D700 again, as happened before in August 2006. Terrestrial testing has shown that SpaceCam running slide show mode at 5 watts, Robot-36, and a 3-4 minute image delay will give us the most images, with an acceptable amount of heat loading on the Kenwood TM-D700. If Martin-1 is required, then the delay between images will need to be increased to 8-10 minutes between images, to allow the TM-D700 time to cool down. Optional Turbo Fan project for cooling the TM-D700 http://www.marexmg.org/fileshtml/turbofanproject.html Tips for Working Slow Scan TV: Will I be able to receive images from SpaceCam1? Yes! SpaceCam1 will transmit and receive images on amateur radio frequencies, using standard SSTV formats. Although SpaceCam1 is capable of operating in several modes, the recommended format while in Slide Show mode is Robot 36. This format offers the best standard compromise between image quality and transmission time and heat stress. In addition to two-way interactive operation, SpaceCam1 provides the following fully automatic functions: Transmission from a live camera or disk at specified intervals “Slide Show operation from a set of images stored on the system SSTV Repeater What equipment will I need to receive the images? Radio receiver with an outdoor antenna. The radio receive will need to be able to receive FM signals on 145.800 MHz radio band. A PC with SSTV software or a dedicated SSTV scan converter. For information on how to receive SSTV images from the International Space station, check out the MAREX link: http://www.marexmg.org/fileshtml/howtouseiss.html Over the next few weeks we maybe receiving images from the International Space station via Slow Scan TV (SSTV). The MAREX team will be collecting these images from the amateur Radio and SWL community and we will post the best. We would like to collect all images received. However in order to properly catalog the images we request you use the following image naming format. After you receive you images; please rename the images using the following format, All Lower case letters Year 06, Month 07, Day 31, (UTC time), Call sign, Short text description, .JPG Example: New format: 0607311905wf1f.jpg I removed the first two numbers of the year and the “Z” for UTC time. All dates are assumed to be in UTC dates. The images coming down from ISS will also have a time stamp embedded into the image. You can also use these numbers to generate you file names. If you are a Short Wave listener and do not have a call sign, just place your Initials after the time (0607311905abc.jpg) If we break this down Year =06 Month = 07 Day = 31 Time = 1905 UTC Call sign = wf1f Description (optional) = Windows shot Image format = jpg Image Quality Please do not put any text over lays on the images, Example, do not put web page or advertisements in the image. Your own call sign and date are acceptable. Send all images directly to MAREX at mare...@comcast.net We would also like to know the following information in your email. Name or Call sign Country / State Receiver Software decoding tool Elevation or range of ISS when you decoded the image. Slide Show Mode: The MAREX SpaceCam1 software contains a feature called “Slide Show” mode. It allows the crew to preload a directory full of images that will be automatically transmitted to Earth. The crew will not need to keep pushing a button to send images. In theory the system can run for weeks at a time without crew involvement. The SpaceCam project will be
[amsat-bb] Re: Can I work w/just egg beaters?
Just about any 2-meter antenna will work, when the satellite is over head. I have even worked ISS with a Rubber duck and a VX5R. (2-meter voice **). The duration of your access window and quality of signal is determined by antenna GAIN. So to get your feet wet, use any antenna you can find, Zero dBd or better. Then if you find you like satellites and you want longer access windows and better signal quality, just add more antenna GAIN. Perfect conditions do not happen very often for low gain systems. good luck. wf1f Miles ** ISS rubber duck Conditions were perfect 80+ degree over head pass. Distance to ISS 300 miles (for a few seconds) Valery Korzun knew my call. Valery was on the air, 4 hours after his bed time, so there were few stations calling. TX: WF1F ISS: Stand by Miles, Ill be with you when I finish this call --- On Fri, 7/9/10, Jeremy Cowgar jer...@cowgar.com wrote: From: Jeremy Cowgar jer...@cowgar.com Subject: [amsat-bb] Can I work w/just egg beaters? To: amsat-bb@amsat.org Date: Friday, July 9, 2010, 7:38 PM Hello, I am curious if the M2 egg beaters w/mast mount preamps would allow me to use the current satellites, including AO-7? Jeremy KB8LFA ___ 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 ___ 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: Arecibo
FYI, If you leave near some Military locations in the USA You will have 50 watt PEP limitation. The satellite mode of 611 ERP only applies to 435-438mc and not the eme segment of 432 If you are out side of a military zone, then normal power rules apply. §97.313 Transmitter power standards. (f) No station may transmit with a transmitter power exceeding 50 W PEP on the UHF 70 cm band from an area specified in footnote US7 to §2.106 of the FCC Rules, unless expressly authorized by the FCC after mutual agreement, on a case-by-case basis, between the District Director of the applicable field facility and the military area frequency coordinator at the applicable military base. An Earth station or telecommand station, however, may transmit on the 435-438 MHz segment with a maximum of 611 W effective radiated power (1 kW equivalent isotropically radiated power) without the authorization otherwise required. The transmitting antenna elevation angle between the lower half-power (-3 dB relative to the peak or antenna bore sight) point and the horizon must always be greater than 10°. And from US7 (e) In the State of Massachusetts within a 160-kilometer (100 mile) radius around locations at Otis Air Force Base, Massachusetts (latitude 41°45' North, longitude 70°32' West); --- On Thu, 4/15/10, Edward Cole kl...@acsalaska.net wrote: From: Edward Cole kl...@acsalaska.net Subject: [amsat-bb] Re: Arecibo To: Bob- W7LRD w7...@comcast.net, amsat-bb@amsat.org Date: Thursday, April 15, 2010, 2:22 PM At 08:23 AM 4/15/2010, Bob- W7LRD wrote: Hello Should I be so lucky as to connect with Arecib o this weekend, what is the proper protocol for a QSO? 73 Bob W7LRD Seattle ___ 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 Bob, A good question since they will be using SSB, initially. I do not operate eme on 432+ but I believe that normal calling is done on 2-1/2 minute sequences. I suspect that will not be done with Arecibo (but they should say what their operating protocol will be). Normal eme protocol goes like this: CQ de KP4AO calls for 2.5 minutes KP4AO de KL7UW means KL7UW copied KP4AO call sign (not calling in the blind); calls for 2.5 minutes KL7UW de KP4AO signal report (May be RST or OOO); also means Arecibo copied both KP4AO and KL7UW's call sign; gives report for 2.5 minutes KP4AO de KL7UW roger your report (RO) and/or RST; for 2.5 minutes KL7UW de KP4AO RRR means I copied your report; for 2.5 minutes KP4AO de KL7UW 73 and SK; end of successful contact; for 2.5 minutes total time 15-minutes So with 2:45 hours of operation 11 QSO's could be made; so I do not expect the usual 2.5 minute time sequence. That is usual for CW and digital eme, but I do not know what is likely to ensue with the expected pile up on SSB. But for proper eme both calls must be given and confirmed (unlike HF were only one call is stated and the other station, assumed). 73, Ed - KL7UW, WD2XSH/45 == BP40IQ 500 KHz - 10-GHz www.kl7uw.com EME: 144-600w, 432-100w, 1296-60w, 3400-fall 2010 DUBUS Magazine USA Rep dubus...@hotmail.com == ___ 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 ___ 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] Arecibo on 432 MHz Moon Bounce
Hi all: Here is a EME event you cant miss. Dust off your CW key, its time for Satellite, QRP EME. The 1,000 foot dish has 60 dBi on 432 mc and 400 watts. That comes out to be approximately 243,902,443 Million Watts ERP. enjoy wf1f www.marexgm.org (thanks to KB1MGI for passing on this data) Arecibo on 432 MHz Moon Bounce The Arecibo Observatory Amateur Radio Club will be putting the 1000-foot radio telescope on the air for 432 MHz EME from April 16-18. It can be heard with a small hand-held yagi pointed at the moon The scheduled times of operation are: April 16: 1645 - 1930 UTC April 17: 1740 - 2020 UTC April 18: 1840 - 2125 UTC Callsign: KP4AO Tx Frequency: 432.045 MHz Rx Frequency: 432.050 to 432.060+ Tx power: 400 W Antenna gain: 60 dBi System noise temp: 120 K (cold sky) System noise temp: 330 K (when pointed at moon) KP4AO can be heard with a small hand-held yagi pointed at the moon and a good receiver. A 15 dBi antenna and 100 W will be enough to work us on CW. Operators at KP4AO will do their best to work as many stations as possible. Each session will start with a brief announcement and CQ in SSB. SSB QSOs may continue for 30 minutes to an hour, if the QSO rate remains high. The mode will be shifted to CW as soon as it is judged that higher QSO rates would result. We will listen for calls at frequencies 5-15 kHz higher than our own, and even higher if QRM warrants. Callers who s-p-r-e-a-d o-u-t are more likely to be copied. If you've already worked us in any mode, please do not call again -- give others a chance. If we call CQ QRP, we will listen for stations running 100 W or less to a single yagi. Please do not answer such a CQ if you are running more power or have a larger antenna. On April 18, if we reach a condition where most calling stations have been worked, and we judge that operating in the digital mode JT65B would produce a higher QSO rate, we will switch to JT65B. Note that any of these planned operating strategies may be changed as circumstances dictate. We are extremely fortunate to have been granted access to the world's largest radio telescope for this amateur radio good-will event. We look forward to working as many stations as possible in the alloted time! From QRZ.COM KB1MGI Moon-Net Email reflector http://list- serv.davidv. net/mailman/ ...erv.davidv. net Moon Bounce information http://www.vhfdx. info/eme. html UK Ham makes EME contact with just 25 watts http://www.southgat earc.org/ news/jan. ..me_contact. htm Earth-Moon-Earth with 20 Watts http://www.southgat earc.org/ news/jan. ..h_20_watts. htm WSJT Software for EME http://www.physics. princeton. edu/pulsar/ K1JT/ ___ 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: Arrow and EME?
Hi All: I am glad you enjoyed my April 01, 2010 memo on Arrow EME. It was written partially for Humor and for education. Ill follow up soon with more tips on what you can do with your existing 2 and 440 satellite systems. Earth Moon Earth is within our Reach with JT65B. 73 Miles WF1F www.marexmg.org ___ 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: Fwd: [PNWVHFS] KP4AO Arecebo EME QRV NOW
wow, just missed him. I was on 432.069 running JT65B off the moon at that time. --- On Mon, 3/22/10, Bob- W7LRD w7...@comcast.net wrote: From: Bob- W7LRD w7...@comcast.net Subject: [amsat-bb] Fwd: [PNWVHFS] KP4AO Arecebo EME QRV NOW To: amsat-bb@amsat.org Date: Monday, March 22, 2010, 7:44 PM This email came across my inbox. I am just passing it on. It may be of some interest to some satellite ops. 73 Bob W7LRD - Forwarded Message - From: T. M. k...@charter.net To: PNWVHFS pnwv...@googlegroups.com, WSVHF Reflector ws...@mailman.qth.net, v...@w6yx.stanford.edu Sent: Monday, March 22, 2010 4:01:22 PM GMT -08:00 US/Canada Pacific Subject: [PNWVHFS] KP4AO Arecebo EME QRV NOW QRV Now - 3-22-10 21:24Z KP4AO 432.045.60 CW - Arecebo Dish in Puerto Rico Easily heard with a single elevated 7wl K1FO Yagi, 75 feet of RG-8, and no preamp. 73s de Tim - K7XC - DM09nm... sk One who fears limits his activities. Failure is only the opportunity to more intelligently begin again. -Henry Ford -- ~The Voice of the Pacific NorthWest VHF Society~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups PNWVHFS group. To post to this group, send email to pnwv...@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to pnwvhfs-unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/PNWVHFS To unsubscribe from this group, send email to pnwvhfs+unsubscribegooglegroups.com or reply to this email with the words REMOVE ME as the subject. ___ 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 ___ 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] Wish List, The Ideal VHF/UHF Sat Rig
My Ideal Competition Grade VHF/UHF Radio Wish list. It seems we are long over do for a Competition grade high performance VHF/UHF transceiver, which can also be used for Satellite operations. There are several competition grade HF transceivers on the market, however there are no high end competition grade VHF/UHF/Satellite systems on the marker. Most of the rigs I have seen which support VHF/UHF are either HF rigs that have had VHF/UHF slapped on, or low end VHF/UHF rigs, with HF slapped on. If we want the Amateur Radio manufactures to build us a GREAT VHF/UHF/Satellite system, then we need to tell them what we need. Here are some suggestions. Constructive comments welcome. This radio does not exist. If the manufactures are interested in providing a new state of the art VHF/UHF radio to the Amateur Radio community, here is one opinion of what should be in next Competition Grade VHF/UHF Transceiver and what should not be in the radio. I am going to give this fictional radio a name HR-956-Pro. What do we need: • We need a competition grade VHF/UHF transceiver that will support Terrestrial-DX, Satellite and EME operations (Voice, CW and Digital-JT65). • The HR-956-Pro, needs to be able to interface with modern computers (HTML Browser, USB and or CAT-5). • The HR-956-Pro, needs to able to interface with modern Externally mounted Pre-amplifier (both power feeds and transmitter sequencing). • The HR-956-Pro, need to be able to interface with modern Solid State Amplifiers and Tube based amplifiers. The RF output per band needs to be standardized with the Amplifier manufactures to prevent transceiver and amplifier failures due to sequencing problems and RF mismatching. • TX/RX Sequencer built-in, to control external Preamps, Amplifies and other accessories (programmable). Receiver: Of course we need a Great receiver, not another mediocre receiver. Each receiver for each band needs to be a Great performer. No Birdies: On a HF rig, a few Birdies do not usually cause serious issues, since the HF users are often listening to signals Above the noise floor. On a Satellite Radio, we are often listening to signals 10-30 dB, Below the Noise floor. Internally generated birdies are a serious problem for weak signal VHF/UHF operations. Filters: Each mode will need its own selection of DSP filters. The filters would also affect one of the Line-level outputs to the external PC. There are times when want to send Filtered or unfiltered audio to your external PC for Digital signal processing. One of the line-level outputs should be taped before the HR-956-Pro Filters, the other line-level output should be taped after the HR-956-Pro filters. The TX and RX filters should be independently selectable. The Filters need to be tested to verify they will support Satellite Mode-J (TX on 2-meters while listening on 435-438) Example: FM-5k, Filters 15k, 10k and 8k filters. AM Filters 10k, 6k, 3k, etc. SSB Filters 4.0k, 3.0k, 2.5k, 2.0k, etc. Other Modes: CW, FM-2.5k, Data Audio Quality: Life is too short for QRP or Poor Audio. It's not the number of contacts that’s important, it’s the quality of the contact. On the audio side, the HR-956-Pro needs to be able to support a wider range of audio through most of the stages. Of course the radio needs to meet FCC and other requirements, however we can still design the radio to deliver a wider bandwidth of good sounding audio. Let's shoot for 100-4000 Hz, on both TX and RX audio circuits. This will also mean, that a better stock microphone design will be required. VHF / UHF Bands built-in, with competition grade TX/RX: 6-meters50-54 2-meters144-148 70-cm 420 - 450 23-cm 1280 - 1300 (All frequencies localized for each country) Transmitter outputs: A high power transceiver is less desirable than a low power transceiver. Let me explain: For serious Terrestrial DX and EME you need to run more than 100 watts. A VHF/UHF transceiver designed for high power ( 100 watt range) transmitting, would not be compatible with third-party amplifiers or pre-amplifiers. Most VHF/UHF amps are designed for 25 or 50 watts maximum input. The manufactures of Transceivers and Amplifies need to agree upon a set of standard power level so the third-party amplifier manufactures can design properly matched Amplifiers and pre-amplifiers. This will also help reduce the number of transceiver and amplifier failures caused by mismatched RF settings. Suggested standards for VHF/UHF bases stations: 6 Meters 50 watts 2 Meters 25 watts 70 cm 25 watts 900 mc 10 watts 1.2 gig 10 watts The duty cycle of the competition grade system, will also need to be greater than a 70% duty cycle. A typical EME link running JT65 requires a 50% for 10-30 minutes at a time. The transistors and cooling system needs to be designed accordingly to meet the competition
[amsat-bb] Re: Wish List, The Ideal VHF/UHF Sat Rig
Hi John, My concern with adding 10 meters to a competition class VHF/UHF high end satellite rig, is that the rig will turn into another mediocre HF rig with VHF/UHF added on. If we do start building Mode-A satellites in the future, then we can always use Two radios, a dedicated HF and a High performance Sat rig. The primary goal is to have the engineers put all the money into a kick but 6/2/440 transceiver. Thank you very much for your comments. WF1F --- On Mon, 3/1/10, John Geiger aa...@yahoo.com wrote: From: John Geiger aa...@yahoo.com Subject: [amsat-bb] Re: Wish List, The Ideal VHF/UHF Sat Rig To: Mark L. Hammond marklhamm...@gmail.com, Andrew Glasbrenner glasbren...@mindspring.com Cc: amsat-bb@amsat.org Date: Monday, March 1, 2010, 2:32 PM --- On Mon, 3/1/10, Andrew Glasbrenner glasbren...@mindspring.com wrote: No access to frequencies below 50 megacycles. Many serious 6m ops listen to utilities below 50Mhz to tell when the banding is close to opening. You also need 10m for Mode A. I'm still hoping that RS12/13 pops back to life like AO7 and will have its Mode T going again. That was alot of fun. 73s John AA5JG ___ 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 ___ 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: Have a TS-2000 and wonder if the Flex or a Icom-9100 , mm
My concerns about the Icom IC-9100 are as follows: When you add HF to a satellite radio you reduce the performance of the satellite bands. What we want for Satellite, EME and DX Terrestrial is a very high performance VHF/UHF receiver, with excellent sensitivity and selectivity. We do not need or want HF in a VHF/UHF DX radio. A good satellite radio should not contain HF. IC-9100 Receiver is only a Double Conversion, (better than the 910 which is a single conversion) IC-9100 TX power output is too high for 2-meter and 70cm for satellite work. 2-meters 100 watts, 70cm 75 watts. Let me explain: For serious Terrestrial DX and EME you need to run more than 100 watts. The output level of the 9100 is too high to match most solid-state and tube amplifiers. Most VHF/UHF amps are designed for 25 or 50 watts maximum input. Since the IC-9100 puts out 100 watts you will eventually forget to set you TX power level and you will destroy your external amplifier. The manufactures of Transceivers and Amplifies need to agree upon a set of standard power level so the amplifiers and transceiver can be properly matched without worrying about destroying the amplifiers. Suggested standards for VHF/UHF bases stations: 6 Meters 50 watts 2 Meters 25 watts 70 cm 25 watts 900 mc 10 watts 1.2 gig10 watts External Preamps: Again for serious DX and satellite work, most use very high quality external pre-amps. The Icom IC-910 required Icom externals pre-amps to compensate for the Single conversion receiver. The Icom preamps did work, however there specifications (Gain 15 dB 2-meters) were not as good as other external third party pre-amplifiers (20-25 db 2-Meters), and they were also limited to 100 watts of RF. It is not known if the Ic-9100 will also required similar Icom external Preamps. Dated Design: The design of the IC-910 was dated when it went into production. The IC-9100 has built-in DSP and a few more bands, however it is still out of date for what the EME/Satellite/DX community needs for this century. IC-9100 Potential Good features: Built in IF-DSP (32 big and 24bid ADC) What do we want for this century for Terrestrial DX, EME and Satellite: Dedicated TX and RX for VHF and UHF. Digital filters (similar to a Ic-756 pro III and newer radios) Band Scope. TX power to match external amplifiers. RX Quad conversion receiver. Full USB computer control (Not RS-232, Not TTL, Interface must include memory channels with the Repeater off-set bit, which is usually omitted by Icom) Satellite mode knob 100% Identical to the Satellite mode knob on the Yaesu 736R. My ideal rig would look like the Icom IC-756 Pro III. It would not contain any HF. The whole RX and TX system including digital filters would be designed just for the following bands: 6 Meters 50 watts 2 Meters 25 watts 70 cm 25 watts 900 mc 10 watts 1.2 gig 10 watts Additional RX/TX filters for satellite reception. It would also have the Satellite Mode switch of the Yaesu 736R, placed in a similar location on the Rig. Multiple Line level audio outputs for computer interfacing to support digital modes such as JT65 and other modes. Just my wish list. wf1f Miles www.marexmg.org --- On Sun, 2/21/10, Jack KZ4USA video...@verizon.net wrote: From: Jack KZ4USA video...@verizon.net Subject: [amsat-bb] Have a TS-2000 and wonder if the Flex or a Icom-9100 would be the next best step for satellite work. To: amsat-bb@amsat.org Date: Sunday, February 21, 2010, 11:36 PM Jack KZ4USA Bradenton, Florida ___ 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 ___ 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: shuttle launch coming up the coast?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/milesmann/sets/72157615795065606/detail/ It was too cold to get out of bed at 4:30 am est today to see the shuttle launch. So here are some pictures of a Night Shuttle Launch, taken from Boston area on March 15, 2009. This is what the engines would have looked like for those of you that stayed in bed like i did. wf1f --- On Sun, 2/7/10, Tyler Harpster tyler...@comcast.net wrote: From: Tyler Harpster tyler...@comcast.net Subject: [amsat-bb] shuttle launch coming up the coast? To: amsat-bb@amsat.org Date: Sunday, February 7, 2010, 8:30 PM The rescheduled shuttle launch is for early Monday morning. Is there any way of finding out what direction they are heading during launch? It would be pretty cool to see it from the eastern seaboard if it came up that way. Thanks KM3G, Tyler Shrewsbury, PA ___ 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 ___ 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: Photos From ISS via Twitter
Hi Luc: Your question was: Why they don't put the ISS cross band repeater on? Answer: I assume you are referring to the Kenwood TM-D700 radio, when it is in Cross-Band mode. The TM-D700 is a good radio, but it was never designed to support the duty cycle required by a full time Cross-Band repeater on Earth or in Zero Gravity. Even though the radio does have the Cross-band option and the ISS crew has on several occasions placed the radio in Cross band mode, they only do so for short periods of time, when the crew can monitor the radio. One of the primary reasons for only running the TM-D700 in Cross-Band for short times slots is because of the potential for overheating. All electronics on ISS run hotter, because there is NO convection cooling. Earth based Electronics must be modified to compensate for Zero gravity and the loss of convection cooling. The TM-D700 is not immune to overheating. In August 2006 ISS commander Pavel Vinogradov reported the D700 over heated and locked-up when it was left running SSTV all night long. It was during his mission we discovered the problem with the ARISS Vox box was getting stuck transmitting, possibly because of RF getting into the Vox box. During an ARISS telecomm , Sergej Samburov, RV3DR, relayed the gist of the conversation he had with Pavel Vinogradov to myself and the ARISS team in the teleconference. Pavel had to unplug the power cables to the radio and then reconnect the radio, in order to clear the non functioning buttons. We do not know what power setting was used on the D700 during that part of the mission (special modifications limit this radio to 5,10 or 25 watts). What we do know, is that it did over heat and the radio was never quite the same afterwards. A backup TM-D700 was sent to ISS for Richard Garotts Mission. The duty cycle for Cross-Band modes is much higher than those required for unattended packet modes.. While passing over the USA, it is possible for the Cross Band repeater to be active for 20 consecutive minutes with a duty cycle over 50%. In my professional opinion, placing the TM-D700 in unattended Cross Band repeater mode on ISS would not be safe. Marex did propose in 2006 and 2008 ARISS International meetings a Heat sink / Fan upgrade for the TM-D700. ARISS rejected the proposals, stating they did not see any need. http://www..marexmg.org/fileshtml/turbofanproject.html WF1F --- On Fri, 2/5/10, Luc Leblanc luclebla...@videotron.ca wrote: From: Luc Leblanc luclebla...@videotron.ca Subject: [amsat-bb] Re: Photos From ISS via Twitter To: amsat-bb@amsat.org Cc: sa...@amsat-bb.mail03.videotron.ca, eu-am...@yahoogroups.com Date: Friday, February 5, 2010, 1:10 PM On 5 Feb 2010 at 9:35, Clint Bradford wrote: Date sent: Fri, 05 Feb 2010 09:35:39 -0800 From: Clint Bradford clintbradf...@mac.com Subject: [amsat-bb] Photos From ISS via Twitter To: AMSAT BB amsat...@amsat..org Last month we received the first Twit from space. Now, Astronaut Soichi is sending some spectacular photos via his Twitter account ... http://tinyurl.com/space-twitter Clint Bradford What is the difference between these pictures and those sent by SSTV? Only serious business instead of amateur stuff... Again amateur radio apparatus is left on the extreme right lane and probably soon in the ditch if the ISS amateur radio apparatus is not put back in service soon! I asked this question about an hundred times: why they don't put the ISS cross band repeater on? It can run unattended and there is no risk the batteries get down as those in the camera. It will also send the QRP'er away off the other sat as the ISS repeater is very very easy to hear and work too. Great promoting asset collecting floating dust in space. - Luc Leblanc VE2DWE Skype VE2DWE www.qsl.net/ve2dwe DSTAR urcall VE2DWE WAC BASIC CW PHONE SATELLITE ___ 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 ___ 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: Photos From ISS via Twitter mm
We have lost our momentum: Now that the ISS crew and use Email and Twitter to send two way images to family and friends, we have less use for the idle Amateur Radio projects on board ISS. We have had Slow Scan TV on ISS since 2005! However due to poor management by ARISS and two (2) defective VOX boxes, the Slow Scan TV projects are Stalled and are rarely used. By now we should have received over 150,000* down linked SSTV images from ISS. Instead we have less than 3,000 images from the past 5 years. We are long overdue to reorganize the ARISS Hardware and Management structure. http://www.marexmg.org/fileshtml/ArissRebuild.html Let's Rebuild ARISS and then Rebuild the Educational Amateur Radio projects on ISS. Sincerely wf1f Miles Mann *SSTV image math (5 years X 100 images-per-day X 300 days) --- On Fri, 2/5/10, Clint Bradford clintbradf...@mac.com wrote: From: Clint Bradford clintbradf...@mac.com Subject: [amsat-bb] Photos From ISS via Twitter To: AMSAT BB amsat-bb@amsat.org Date: Friday, February 5, 2010, 12:35 PM Last month we received the first Twit from space. Now, Astronaut Soichi is sending some spectacular photos via his Twitter account ... http://tinyurl.com/space-twitter Clint Bradford ___ 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 ___ 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: doppler comp. for FT-736R
ft736r That depends on the bird. Let's start with a simple FM example. Assume you want to work ISS FM packet . Up on 145.990 FM, down on 145.800 FM. Use the satellite TX/RX mode knob. Set Stat VFO-A to RX on 145.800 FM set Sat VFO-B to TX on 145.990 FM Set your Meter to FM center tuning mode. Push the button, TX on B button. This will cause you to Hear on Vfo-A and TX on vfo-B. When ISS comes in range Packet or voice, Look at your FM center tuning meeting. When it sees a FM signal that is off frequency, the meter will deviate away from the center. Turn the Sat knob to RX, and now tune the big knob to center the down links signal. Tune your receiver frequency on vfo-A to center the needle. For ISS you can leave your TX on the published uplink for that mode, the Doppler is small and not much need to compensate for Doppler. The FM center tuning meter also works for all other FM birds. Transponder FM Birds: If you are working an FM transponder bird, the process is a little different. Tune the Down link the same way as ISS. Keep the needle centered. On the Uplink side, select the vfo you are using for uplink with the Sat knob TX. Pre set your uplink frequency and compensate to Doppler. If uplink is on 2 meters, set the frequency to be 2-3 K below the published Uplink frequency for starters. If uplink is on 440, set the frequency to be 5-8 k below the published uplink frequency. (check your tracking program for the correct Doppler for that pass) When the bird comes in Range, listen first. Fine tune your down link by setting Sat knob to RX and tune for center meter. Now turn the sat knob to TX and call. If you hear your downlink on the FM bird, slowly adjust your TX uplink for best audio. do not talk too loud, you may over drive the fm birds. Transponder SSB Birds: LEO SSB satellites are the hardest satellites to work because the Doppler is changing very fast at two different rates on two different bands at the same time. Do not try LEO SSB satellites until you have mastered FM satellites. Do your homework and find the published transponder range. Choose a matched uplink/down link set of frequencies. Enter these 2 bands into the TX/RX VFO's (without Doppler correction at first). Check your satellite program and find the Doppler for each band, for the beginning of your upcoming selected pass. let's assume Mode B, 440 up, 2-meters down. at the beginning of the pass the 2-meter Doppler will be plus 2-3k. at the beginning of the pass the 440 Doppler will be minus 6-10k (check your tracking program) Now that you have your two Doppler numbers add/subtract those from your tX/rx VFO's and you will be in the ball park for the beginning of the pass. The center tuning meter will not work in SSB. for Inverted Transponders' set the Sat knob to Reverse for Normal transponder, set the Sat knob to normal. Now when you turn the knob, the two frequencies will follow each other. now it gets harder. When the bird comes in Range, listen first. Find someone else that is calling CQ. Tune to get best audio (sat knob must be in Reverse for V0-52) once you have a good audio signal, then tune ONLY your TX, NOT the RX. Turn the sat knob to RX and then call and tune at the same time. While you are talking, you are listening to your voice and tuning your voice to match the Receiver frequency. do not tune the receiver while you are transmitting. Only tune your receiver while you are listening. With VO-52, it moves so fast, you will need to tune for every other word that you speak. When you are done talking. Set the Sat knob back to Reverse. When the other station starts talking, retune the locked VFO's to match his down link. On leo SSB satellites this process will repeat for every TX / RX session. good luck wf1f www.marexmg.org --- On Thu, 2/4/10, n4csi...@bellsouth.net n4csi...@bellsouth.net wrote: From: n4csi...@bellsouth.net n4csi...@bellsouth.net Subject: [amsat-bb] doppler comp. for FT-736R To: amsat-bb@amsat.org Date: Thursday, February 4, 2010, 12:36 AM Can anyone suggest the best way to acquire doppler compensation for a Yaseu FT-736R? Dave, AA4KN ___ 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 ___ 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: Recommended TNC
Normal TNC protocol is commonly called AX.25. The most common speed for satellite AX.25 is 1200 baud. Occasionally 9600 baud. A quick look at the Amsat page list 6 satellites currently running ax.25 Castor, Stars, KKS-1, Oscar-66, Oscar-65, and ISS. There may be more, that was just a quick look. I have had great luck with Kantronics, KPC-3 and KPC-9612. I even installed a KPC-9612 on board the Russian space station Mir. http://www.marexmg.org/marexmirweb/fileshtml/pmsupgrade.html The KPC-9612 was also used in PC-Sat1 http://www.aprs.org/pcsat.html ISS does have packet, unfortunately the software loaded in December 2003 enabled the criss-cross radio mode on the TM-D700. This mode caused a significant performance hit and has rendered Packet Mail virtually useless. And causes the Digi-repeater mode to have a 1-2 second delay and other issues. http://www.marexmg.org/fileshtml/ISSPacketD700.html WF1F www.marexmg.org --- On Tue, 2/2/10, Sean Cavanaugh se...@unixgeeks..ca wrote: From: Sean Cavanaugh se...@unixgeeks.ca Subject: [amsat-bb] Re: Recommended TNC To: amsat-bb@amsat.org Date: Tuesday, February 2, 2010, 1:37 PM On 02/02/2010 11:12 AM, Michael Wolthuis wrote: Can anyone point me to the recommended TNC for adding to an FT-847 for digital satellite work? Are there special modifications needed? What connector does it use on the FT-847? Thanks, Mike kb8zgl ___ 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] SSTV Examples and tips for ISS
Some of you have been asking: What does SSTV from the International Space Station sound like. Here are a few examples of actual recordings from SSTV on ISS. Here is a link for how to decode SSTV. http://www.marexmg.org/fileshtml/howtoitv.html SpaceCam1 Logo: Robot 36 Format (SpaceCam1) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tuyEwI9fJGkfeature=related In this example you will hear the following SpaceCam1 sequences. First, DTMF Tone (#). This tone is used to turn on the Vox-Box to make sure the radio has time to get up to full power, before sending the CW-ID. The CW-ID is next. This is the call sign of the ISS RS0ISS The Last portion is the 36 seconds of Image data. We chose Robot-36 to be the default because we are concerned about overheating the TM-D700 transceiver. Martin-1 format (SpaceCam1) 10/12/2008 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfnOmC0vJDYfeature=related Soyuz Docked, Robot-36 (Kenwood VCH1) 10/16/2008 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kF9GYoHbKEgfeature=related If you would like to see more SSTV, then we need your support to get the USB Vox Box project approved for Flight. With the USB Vox box, ISS will be able to send over 300 Robot-36 images to Earth per day. The crew can choose either images from their Disk drive or from their live USB camera. Lets Keeps space fun and affordable. 73 wf1f Miles marexmg.org http://www.marexmg.org/fileshtml/futureprojects.html ___ 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: ISS SSTV
All of the current amateur radio hardware is FM only. SSTV from ISS is FM-5k, 145.800 downlink. The Doppler on 2meters is small, so you do not really have to bother with Doppler. http://www.marexmg.org/fileshtml/issimages.html --- On Wed, 1/27/10, Randy rswa...@twcny.rr.com wrote: From: Randy rswa...@twcny.rr.com Subject: [amsat-bb] ISS SSTV To: amsat-bb@amsat.org Date: Wednesday, January 27, 2010, 7:55 AM Is the mode FM ?? Randy - N2CUA ___ 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 ___ 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] ISS Slow Scan hardware/software
Slow Scan TV Stuff: There are three different SSTV projects on ISS. #1 Kenwood VCH1 Communicator (flight approved) #2 PC based software called SpaceCam1 from Marexmg.org (flight approved) #3 PC based software called MMSSTV (not flight approved) Only the Kenwood VCH1 and Marex SpaceCam1 projects were approved for flight. The MMSSTV software was an untested back door project. The VCH1 Communicator is a microphone with a camera, that plugs into the Kenwood TM-D700 transceiver. The camera requires four (4) AA batteries. The camera did not pass an external power flight safety test and cannot be plugged into an external 6 volt power source. Without batteries the camera will not run. The VCH1 will consume a full set of 4-batteries in 4-8 hours. Batteries weigh 25 grams each or approximately 3.5 ounces for a full set. It costs approximately $10k per pound to send cargo to the ISS via the shuttle. One set of batteries for the VCH1 cost approximately $2,800. The VCH1 is only used, when there is a set of batteries that have reached the end of useful life from other more critical projects. The mostly dead batteries are then used on the VCH1 until they are complexly dead. The PC software SSTV projects run off of station power and do not need batteries. The SpaceCam1 SSTV projects supports most of the common SSTV protocols. It also has some great features requested by the Mir crew, such as a Slide show mode that will stream a disk directory of images continually or live USB camera images. The SpaceCam1 and all other laptop to Radio applications cannot be used unless they are constantly monitored. This is because the Vox box (“ISS-HAM SSTV/VOX”, part number SXISS00500) that connects between the laptop and the Kenwood TM-D700, locks the radio in Transmitting mode. The most logical reason for the lockup is RF feedback jamming the Op-amp that controls the transmit signal to the radio. During 2+ years of ground testing the Vox box was tested with an external 9-Volt battery to power the Vox box. A few months before flight to ISS, the Vox box was modified to get its power from a 13.5 volt source inside the TM-D700 transceiver. The existing 6-Pin Din on the D700 was removed and an 8-Pin Din connector installed. The 2 extra pins were used to tap off a 13.5 volt source from some unknown location inside the D700. According to the Vox box schematic, there does not appear to be any RF decoupling on the power or audio leads. The voltage sources also changed from 9 volts to 13.5 volts DC. The Vox box, also does not contain any type of mechanical bias to adjust the TX / RX control levels. Both boxes sent to ISS failed the same way, the first time you send and image from the laptop to the D700, the transmitter stick on for 3 minutes (the internal watch dog timer will stop the TX after 3 minutes). The process repeats until you disconnect the Vox box from the D700. If you would like to see a continuous steam of SSTV images from ISS, the I suggest you contact the educational departments of your ISS space agencies and request the USB Vox replacement project be sent to ISS. The exiting ARISS hardware team is content with the way the “ISS-HAM SSTV/VOX” is currently running. USB Vox replacement project http://www.marexmg.org/documents/PSUCUSBProjectPub1.doc Kenwood VCH1 http://www.kenwood.com/i/products/info/amateur/vch1.html 73 wf1f Miles ___ 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: ISS SSTV
The VCH1 runs on Batteries: The VCH1 Communicator is a microphone with a camera, that plugs into the Kenwood TM-D700 transceiver. The camera requires four (4) AA batteries. Without batteries the camera will not run. The VCH1 will consume a full set of 4-batteries in 4-8 hours.. --- On Wed, 1/27/10, Randy rswa...@twcny.rr.com wrote: From: Randy rswa...@twcny.rr.com Subject: [amsat-bb] Re: ISS SSTV To: amsat-bb@amsat.org Date: Wednesday, January 27, 2010, 3:24 PM OK .. I Stayed awake ( worked graveyard shift last nite ) listened and use HRD to track and Was using bad sat defs .. I changed the file used and updated that one And it matches my other tracking software. I showed ISS Due north of FN23 at 2011 UTC And will be Due south at 2148 UTC I heard nothing on the 2011 UTC Pass . Could they have stopped transmitting as it is getting darker outside here now? Randy - N2CUA -Original Message- From: Nigel Gunn G8IFF/W8IFF [mailto:ni...@ngunn.net] Sent: Wednesday, January 27, 2010 2:45 PM To: rswa...@twcny.rr.com Cc: amsat-bb@amsat.org Subject: Re: [amsat-bb] ISS SSTV What do you hear when you listen to it? SSTV is easily recognisable by ar. On 27-Jan-10 19:37, Randy wrote: Is it transmitting over the east coast of the US? -- Nigel A. Gunn, 1865 El Camino Drive, Xenia, OH 45385-1115, USA. tel +1 937 825 5032 Amateur Radio G8IFF W8IFF (was KC8NHF), e-mail ni...@ngunn.net www http://www.ngunn.net Member of ARRL, GQRP #11396, QRPARCI #11644, SOC #548, Flying Pigs QRP Club International #385, Dayton ARA #2128, AMSAT-NA LM-1691, AMSAT-UK 0182, MKARS, ALC, GCARES, XWARN. ___ 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 ___ 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: 18 el cp yagi
Hi Bob: Not sure by your description , what type of CP antenna you have. Here is a link for the common old KLM. http://download.qrz.ru/pub/hamradio/antenna/klm/KLM-2M-22C.pdf You have 3 options. 1. Surf the web for info, on how to rebuild the box and water proof it. 2. Surf for tips on how best to rewire the antenna for Fixed Right-Hand-CP. By removing the switch you maybe able to improve you gain and reduce switch induced losses. 3. Replace it with a M2, 2MCP22 I use to have the KLM 2m-22CP. I found the switch box unreliable and had high loss. The Driven elements were hollow aluminum tubes that would fill with water, Freeze and crack. After a few years I took it down and replaced it with the 2MCP22. I have had good luck with it and I do not miss the polarity switch. And I do not have problems with water getting into the switch or connector junction blocks. wf1f Miles From: Bob- W7LRD w7...@comcast.net Subject: [amsat-bb] 18 el cp yagi To: amsat-bb@amsat.org Date: Thursday, January 21, 2010, 1:49 AM Hello I am refurbishing a 18 element CP yagi. I am not sure of the manufacturer. I opened up the relay switching box and found a lot of moisture (Yes I live near Seattle) in the box. Lots of yuck and rust, on non stainless steel hardware.. The 12V connector is a simple phono plug, which should never be used outside. Before I reinvent the wheel has anyone been here before? Replace the phono plug, sealing everything. In the past I have used a material called 3M5200, a marine sealant, nasty but almost permanent. Suggestions please. 73 Bob W7LRD Seattle ___ 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 ___ 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] Don't Fly SuitSat2 to ISS, MM
Hi Tim: Thank you for your comments. I am always open to new ideas and I welcome your questions and observations. I plan on posting some suggestions on how to use the Existing Hardware on ISS to try to please as many hams and SWL as possible. We can’t make everyone happy. I feel there has been a loss of interest in ISS amateur Radio. Our ham projects over the past 10 years have not grabbed very much public or ham interest (with the exception of School Schedules). To restore interest in ISS we need to have more than 1 project running at a time. We also need projects that are exciting to a larger audience. If we continue to use our valuable launches to ISS for Short-term projects, then ISS will say a dull boring and wasted platform for amateur radio experimentation. The project that will generate the most positive press and public enthusiasm is SSTV. Of course I am going to push this project, not just because it’s a Marex project, but because of the great news stores we received during the Mir version of SSTV. SSTV will generate good Press and TV new clips. SSTV will generate interests from the SWL (and they out number ham by at least 10 to1) Mode Change to SSTV: I do not believe that switching from packet to SSTV would reduce the number of random public voice contacts. On the contrary, from my experience with previous Mir and ISS crews running SSTV, the number random public voice contacts increased. Commander Pavel Vinogradov in July August 2006 would be on Voice, asking “Did you seem my SSTV pictures”? During Richard Garriott’s Mission in October 2008, he used both Voce and SSTV. He was often interested in knowing how well people liked his images. He would have sent more images, however he had technical difficulties with the Vox box causing the TM-D700 too repeatedly get stuck transmitting. He also said there was a shortage of AA batteries for the Kenwood Communicator VCH1. In my experience with multiple SSTV crews, SSTV will increased your opportunity to talk to the crews on Voice. Ideally I would like to see SpaceCam1 SSTV activated for 3-4 consecutive months in a row. I do not want to see SSTV turned on for 1-2 days per month. We need a consecutive run to build up momentum. This would mean turning off Packet for a few months. The reason for this mode change experiment would be the following: Build up a world wide following of SSTV users (both Amateur Radio and SWL) Get more Schools involved to act as geography receiving stations. Point future and existing User’s to an ARISS/AMSAT web page to learn how to SSTV, etc. Tell the News and Magazine about the project. We had great press coverage with Mir SSTV. ISS Crew Time: MM The Station is currently manned with 3 people. That number will be increasing in 2009 to a crew of 5-6 (in theory). At the present time the ISS crew has no free time.. It will be hard to add more Public Voice Access to ISS with a 3 man crew.. We hope Public Voice activities will improve when the crew expands to 5-6 crewmembers. My plan is to run SSTV and voice on the same world wide channel pair. (Let’s not get into frequency politics at this time.) In August 1996 when we made ARISS, I asked Guest speaker Astronaut Linda Godwin, what she wanted for ham projects. She said “She wanted to see the faces of the people she was talking with “. Based on Linda’s suggestion, with help of Farrell Winder, W8ZCF and Dr. Don Miller, W9NTP, we delivered SSTV to Mir in 15 months. The Mir crew loved the system and were frequently seen floating in front of the Camera sending picture to Earth. Here is how I envision SSTV operations on ISS. The crew has SpaceCam1 running in automatic slide show mode. The volume on the TM-D700 is turned OFF. The crew has a break and goes over to the radio, turns up the volume and calls CQ and starts chatting. If the person he is talking to has SSTV, then they can exchange two way images. All images set to ISS can be automatically stored to disk. If the user has a SSTV program that supports “SID”, then his call sign becomes part of the file name automatically. SpaceCam1 SSTV is a win win project for everyone. Packet on ISS: I am a big fan of Packet. I have been a strong supporter for packet on ISS since we first began planning ISS in August 1996. The existing TM-700 is a very good voice radio. The TM-D700 is a weak packet engine. The packet engine in the TM-D700 is limited in its abilities. The TM-D700 can perform the basic packet duties, but it’s just not as good as a dedicated packet engine such as the KPC product lines. The TM-D700 does have a few operating system packet bugs that we can not fix (Forces every packet mail line to be acknowledged, etc). To make matters worse, the TM-D700 User editable settings were setup wrong in 2003, which rendered Packet Mail unusable and slowed down the unproto link (APRS). Bob Bruninga did rewrite User editable settings for the TM-D700
[amsat-bb] Project Suggestons for ISS
Hello Frank and all. From Miles Mann WF1F Project Ideas: I would like to tank Frank Bauer for reminding me to publish this part of the memo. I have several project ides for ISS Amateur Radio projects posted on my web page. The ARISS team has shown little or no interested in these suggestions. Please review the projects and if you think your club or university has the energy to produce one of these projects thane you have my permission to down load the project idea, delete my name and put your name on the project and then submit the project. Who should you submit them too? Good question. Start with the ARISS representative for your country. Or you can try to locate the Educational department for your Space Agency. All projects require time to build and get approvals. It’s not like it was in the Mir days. During the Mir Space Station projects, Dave Larsen and I designed and few 4 projects to the Mir space station. The longest it required from Theory to Switch-on from Mir for any project was 15 months. With ISS it does take longer. The average time is (ouch) 4-7 years. The ISS laptop project required 9 years. The SpaceCam1 project, from Beta software demo to switch on was 7 years. Some parts of ARISS work great. I want to separate the work done by the ARISS volunteers that have been working so hard to make the School schedule such a success. I know how hard it is to manage the school schedules. The MarexMG team scheduled more than 50 school schedules around the world for the Russian space Station Mir. I personally installed my Amateur Radio hardware at 10+ schools in the New England Area for School to Mir radio links. The ARISS volunteers have also done excellent work in preparing, Training, licensing the ISS crews and ISS Flight Participants. Every missing to ISS has 1 or more licensed Amateur Radio operators to meet International Rule, etc. The ARISS volunteers around the world that have been working on these areas have been doing an excellent Job. And I want to make your job easier by giving the ISS crew more reliable hardware in the last 5-6 years remaining of the International Space station. My complaint is with the way the whole Project Selection Use, Hardware Development, Testing and In-flight maintenance team has performed over the past 13 years. The ARISS Hardware team does not just need to be tweaked, it needs to be overhauled. My goal here is to encourage NASA, ESA and Russian Space Agency to completely review the current ARISS hardware Selection, Testing and in-flight maintenance program and recommend changes. We need to choose project that will reach large audiences and are easy to maintain. The projects need to be user friendly for the ISS crews (little or no training). Remote control the projects when feasible. Have a back log of projects ready to fly when payload space becomes available. We need to take advantage of the Existing, Installed antennas on ISS that are available for Amateur Radio access. Were you aware that we have approximately 14 Antennas mounted on the exterior hull of the International space Station? There are 7 existing coax hull feed-thoughts on ISS. Each of these cables is attached to 1 or more antennas that can be used for educational Amateur Radio projects. Only 1 of these cables is currently being used for an Amateur Radio project (Kenwood TM-D700). The other 6 cables are waiting for you to think of and deliver a new Amateur Radio project that would provide some educational benefit to the world. Put you thinking caps on, Schools and University are welcome to provide ideas. After 13 years of Development and 10 years of ISS flight, we do not have much to show for our effort (except for your success in scheduling almost 50 schools per year, good job). If you had asked me 13 years ago during the creation of ARISS (Houston August 1996) that today we would only have 1 Lame Packet Radio station on ISS, I would have said “that’s crazy. We will have half dozen systems up and running”. We have 5-6 years left of ISS. We need to make the best of what little time we have left. Everyone needs to work harder, better and faster. I would hate to see those remaining 11 unused antennas go to waste when ISS burns up. http://www.marexmg.org/fileshtml/futureprojects.html “Let’s Light this candle” Alan B. Shepard __ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com ___ 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] Lets Fix ISS, Replace ARISS
Marex Miles Mann WF1F Marex w...@marexmg.org August 25, 2009 Dear ARISS supporters: I am writing to you because of the extremely poor track record that ARISS has accumulated over the past 12 years regarding ISS hardware projects. The only way to correct the problem and fix the Amateur Radio educational program is to completely reorganization the current ARISS hardware structure. Under the new ARISS Closed Door policy, only selected members from AMSAT-NA are allowed to participate. This new policy has turned the once open ARISS into a closed door Monopoly controlled by the AMSAT Corporation. Based on the current actions of ARISS and their very poor performance with in-flight hardware I would like to propose a complete reorganization of the ARISS hardware process. Please review the enclosed information. I look forward to discussing the proposal with you are your earliest opportunity. Sincerely G. Miles Mann Memo from ARISS April 2009 From Gaston Bertels ARISS Chairman Hi Miles, By decision of the ARISS Board, participation to ARISS-i meetings is limited to delegates from the Member Societies and observers nominated by these societies. USA member societies are the ARRL and AMSAT NA. Only these societies can nominate participants to the ARISS-i meetings. Best regards 73 Gaston Bertels, ON4WF ARISS Chairman ARISS Reorganization Proposal By Miles Mann June 17, 2009 Rev 1.01 What is ARISS? The goal of ARISS was to create an organization to select, control and coordinate Amateur Radio projects designed for the International Space Station (ISS). The ARISS program would then assist the 16 countries (Russia, Canada, Japan, Brazil, USA, member nations of ESA, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom), which are supporting the ISS to help choose the best educational Amateur Radio projects for ISS. Each county would have delegate-voting privileges on ARISS and project selection activities. Summary: When Dave Larsen and Miles Mann (MAREX) helped form ARISS in August 1996, one of our goals was to keep Space open for the public and not turn the ISS, into a monopoly controlled by the AMSAT Corporation. We were partially successful. Unfortunately most of the ARISS voting delegation came from AMSAT Corporation representatives from different counties and a few other radio clubs. The newly formed ARISS agreed to allow competing clubs to submit proposals. The MAREX team helped create ARISS, however since the majority of people present were from the AMSAT Corporation, MAREX was not allowed to have any voting privileges. Prior to 2009, ARISS would say that its meetings were open to the public and other clubs were welcome to observer. In 2009 ARISS changed its open door policy to a closed-door policy. The public is no longer allowed to attend any of the meetings. Now, only selected members of the AMSAT Corporation are allowed to present Amateur radio project proposals to ARISS for International Space Station. The AMSAT Corporation has full control over the voting and the hardware selection process, thus creating a monopoly on the International Space station for Amateur Radio projects. ARISS Reorganization Proposal: There are two main reasons to reorganize the ARISS delegate voting structure. 1) The AMSAT Corporation has a monopolistic control over ARISS and has routinely blocked competitive Educational Amateur radio projects from being submitted. The new closed-door policy and Selected AMSAT Members only policy are part of the struggling AMSAT Corporations attempt to make the International Space Station their private Space Station monopoly. The actions of the AMSAT Corporation remind me of a fictional movie Quote Star Wars, A New Hope Princess Leia, says to Governor Wilhuff Tarkin: The more you tighten your grip, the more star systems will slip through your fingers 2) Over the past 12 years AMSAT Corporation has demonstrated its inability to Select, Manage and Maintain Educational Amateur Radio hardware projects for the International Space Station. The hardware track record of the AMSAT Corporation control over ARISS projects on ISS has been very poor. In a separate document I will go over the hardware failures and the success we have had in the ARISS project. You will clearly see a pattern of extremely poor hardware management, including: Poor project selection (even when there is ample evidence to reject a project, the AMSAT Corporation would approve a project) Inability to maintain projects in flight. When problems were discovered in-flight, the AMSAT Corporation would either deny the problem existed or take 3 or 4 plus years to correct the problem. Failure to provide NASA and ESA valid project status information. The AMSAT Corporation would routinely deny there are problems with equipment, even when ISS crewmembers in-flight
[amsat-bb] Re: ILN... Is this our future ride to the moon? MM
The Amateur radio community does not have the resources to build a better communication system than a professional commercial company. So we have two options, use existing lander hardware for communication or design our own stand alone transceiver project that just uses existing power and or antennas. After the lander has released the Rover, the lander “May” have some unused resources. Lets see if any of these unused resources (if any) can be used for Amateur Radio projects. How is the Lander going to be powered? Batteries only: If so, there will be no power for projects. The lander telemetry will stop after a few days. This is not a likely scenario. Solar Panels and Batteries: In this option, there may be some available power during lunar days to run other projects. This is the most sensible solution. Atomic Battery: This is the best option, however it’s politically sensitive. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atomic_battery The power source is one of the keys to designing a possible Amateur Radio project. Let’s ping our contacts at NASA and see what we can learn about the Moon Lander projects. Flash Back: On ISS, the Russian team proposed that we re-use navigation antennas from the FGB modules for Amateur Radio (1996). The idea worked and on the very first ISS mission we had access to an already installed antenna. It was a simple idea and it worked. Education Spin: Contributing to the project from a scientific nature may be difficult, we will have to get some universities involved, or we could focus on the educational nature of the project. Lets try to put the educational spin that School and university are communication via the Moon, with radio station designed and built by the schools. I am not saying that NASA would approve this project, but until we try we will not know. This project does not have to be an AMSAT project, we can make it a University project. Sincerely Miles WF1F --- On Mon, 7/6/09, James French w8...@wideopenwest.com wrote: From: James French w8...@wideopenwest.com Subject: Re: [amsat-bb] ILN... Is this our future ride to the moon? MM To: MM ka1...@yahoo.com Cc: amsat-bb@amsat.org, Armando Mercado am25...@triton.net Date: Monday, July 6, 2009, 9:33 AM On Mon, 2009-07-06 at 05:53 -0700, MM wrote: Yes Exactly! We need to form a proposal team that can evaluate the data to find out if an EME-Repeater is viable. Time is short. One thing, Miles. Frank Bauer commented: On another topic, WRT the Lunar ILN, if you read the solicitation, they are discussing *15 kg* payloads. And these need to accomplish some scientific objective to further lunar exploration. Given this, I do not think the ILN is a viable AMSAT project. What would be the SCIENTIFIC payload that we would be providing? I know that I mentioned in previous replies that we MIGHT be able to land a chance on something that A government would be doing if we could MAYBE provide a communications package for a craft. Going by Frank's statement and putting it into the context of what we are planning, I would NOT be surprised that we got turned down because we are not prov- iding something that contributes to the SCIENTIFIC nature of the mission. The government probably ALREADY has a contractor to build and provide the communications package(s) for these missions. Is there anything else that is being proposed that we can get in on the ground floor to provide this knowledge and equipment? I haven't seen anything and personally I didn't even know about the ILN even. I am NOT trying to be the one to burst the bubble here. This subject HAS been brought up a number of times over the past four years of putt- ing something on the lunar surface. Each time, the answers and suggest- ions have gotten better as we have gotten more people that know what it takes climb on board the discussion. Hopefully this time this discussion will get past just that, discussion, and progress to an Idea of Concept stage that can then be taken to the next step, finding a suitable candi- date for this. James W8ISS ___ 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: The Moon is our Future
From WF1F: Yes, that is one of the many challenges we have to plan for. 14 days of pure sunlight (Lunar-Day) and 14 days of freezing darkness (Lunar-Night). We also have some unknown questions about our power source. Will we be able to run during the 14 days of darkness or will we be operating during the Lunar days only? What I mean by Simple, is the design of the transponder needs to be Simple (KISS). Strictly analog circuits for the transponder, NO DSP, NO CPU’s, No SDR to run the transponder. We need the reliability of the AO-10 transponder and not the complexity of AO-40. --- On Thu, 7/2/09, Nigel Gunn G8IFF/W8IFF ni...@ngunn.net wrote: From: Nigel Gunn G8IFF/W8IFF ni...@ngunn.net Subject: Re: [amsat-bb] The Moon is our Future To: MM ka1...@yahoo.com Cc: kg4...@gmail.com, amsat-bb@amsat.org, Jack K. kd1p...@gmail.com Date: Thursday, July 2, 2009, 8:56 AM There is nothing simple about a project that can withstand the extreme temperature changes and eclipse periods that exst on the moon. It's probably the most hostile environment we're likely to build for. MM wrote: A plan for a simple transponder (KISS no complex P3E). ___ 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: The Moon is our Future
Hello Joe: Thank your comments. My EME experience is minimal. I have only been able to hear a few signals from the Moon and have yet to complete a full 2-way EME (new antenna in progress). I am sure there are some people on this emailing forum that have more experience than I have with EME communications. The reason for a small antenna setup on the NASA lander proposal is because I believe it will be harder to convince NASA to allow us to install a 20 foot boom on the lander. Right now this is the concept theory phase. Is a 2m/440 SSB transponder practical? If our analysis proves that it is not, then we can move on higher in frequency until we find an affordable solution (within the ITU guidelines). The ground stations will need to be Oscar class or better (12-15+ dBd). The question is, which frequency combination will give us the best bang for the buck and provide access to the most users? A Moon repeater will never be accessible via a HT. And with the exception of one (1) truck I saw, it will not be accessible to mobile SSB systems. --- On Thu, 7/2/09, Joe n...@mwt.net wrote: From: Joe n...@mwt.net Subject: Re: [amsat-bb] The Moon is our Future To: MM ka1...@yahoo.com Cc: kg4...@gmail.com, amsat-bb@amsat.org, Jack K. kd1p...@gmail.com Date: Thursday, July 2, 2009, 9:20 AM MM wrote: Theoretically we may have a free ride to the Moon for an Amateur radio repeater! [snip] One theory: We need a simple Mode-J transponder (2-meters up, 440 down). Low power consumption. Assume minimal antenna gain from the Lander (3 dBd on each antenna) Assume transmitter power 5-10 watts. Why go with the minimal antenna gain? From the moon the whole Earth only displays less than 2 degrees in the sky. ( Moon shows 0.5 degrees from earth) Why spill all the power where people are not? In addition, once the antennas are positioned, that's more or less it. There is a slight wobble (Libration) of 6.5 degrees So any antenna with a 3 db point that exceeds 6.5 degrees is just wasting transmitter power. And with this link budget even an active bird that has landed and not flying it still will need some pretty hefty power to not need a major antenna setup on the earth side of the system. Just remember what an Oscar 10 station took to have reliable communications,, At Apogee it was only 35,000 miles away, the Moon is almost a ten fold increase in distance, to keep the lander from having to run hundreds of watts to be heard on the earth, ever DB of antenna gain will be needed for sure! Joe WB9SBD ___ 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: Has anyone considered???
Yes, Digital is an option. However, i would want it to pass through the analog transponder unprocessed. The reason is that we can't afford the Million dollar Radiation hardened chips to support digital processing required on satellites. DSP or SDR will add to the Cost and add many years to the project. WE need projects much faster than have been delivered in the past, 1-2 year schedules not 10 year schedules. Miles --- On Thu, 7/2/09, Jack K. kd1p...@gmail.com wrote: From: Jack K. kd1p...@gmail.com Subject: Has anyone considered??? To: bruni...@usna.edu, 'Joe' n...@mwt.net, 'MM' ka1...@yahoo.com Cc: amsat-bb@amsat.org, kg4...@gmail.com Date: Thursday, July 2, 2009, 8:40 AM Has anyone considered the notion that the communications from a HEO or Moon or Mars need not be analog? Has anyone considered a digital mode such as WSJT for comms? I know for a fact people are running meteor scatter and EME using a single beam (albeit a long one) and 150 watts. This is not out of the reach of most hams and it is not non-viable communications mode... Heck the US Navy even ran RTTY in the 60's from Hawaii to Maryland as a normal mode of communications (yes it was big and wieldy, I just mentioned it as an aside). DE - KD1PE - Jack Why go with the minimal antenna gain? ... any antenna with a 3 db point that exceeds 6.5 degrees is just wasting transmitter power. I think that would be about a 24 dB gain antenna. Pretty big and would take some careful alignment... Kinda like a realy big EME array Just remember what an Oscar 10 station took to have reliable communications, At Apogee it was only 35,000 miles away, the Moon is ...] [250,000 miles] Which is 7 times farther, squared or 50 times more power (about 17 dB). ___ 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: The Moon is our Future
Of course, lets get more Universities involved and build more Leos satellites to fill those small ballast spots on new satellites. The Moon option could be cheaper than a HEO's, if we can get it in as Public Relations NASA project. The cost to get a ride on a HEO satellite is multiple millions just for the ride into space. Amsat paid over a million dollars just to ride a Prototype Rocket (AO-4). If you want to ride a Non-prototype rocket to high orbit, add another 20 million. Cheap High orbit rocket rides are few and far between. The Moon is the most affordable ride option this decade. 20 years ago NASA was looking for ballast for the TDRS satellites. We had the opportunity to put a ham project on a few GEO satellites and missed the opportunity. Lets not miss the Moon. http://www.marexmg.org/fileshtml/ArissRebuild.html --- On Thu, 7/2/09, David - KG4ZLB kg4...@googlemail.com wrote: From: David - KG4ZLB kg4...@googlemail.com Subject: [amsat-bb] Re: The Moon is our Future To: amsat-bb@amsat.org Date: Thursday, July 2, 2009, 11:15 AM On the contrary, we need more LEO's to augment and replace the existing aged fleet. Whilst AMSAT works on the HEO's lets put some of our efforts towards the Universities who seem to regularly put up 2/70 satellites! -- David KG4ZLB www.kg4zlb.com Jack K. wrote: I heard the same things when the first HEOs went up. It takes to much money, it takes to much specialized equipment, it takes to much knowledge, it is for elitists only... The bottom line is a LOT of hams used them and it took some ingenuity, some new equipment, and yes we all had to learn now things to use them. the bottom line is they worked and worked well... My suggestion is quit looking at pitfalls and problems as reasons not to do something, but as opportunities to learn to accomplish new things (or improved communications anyway) and move forward... We can put up all the leos we want, but until someone makes something like B. Bruninga's cell concept work, we are only going to have more of the same, We don't need more of the same! DE - KD1PE - Original Message - From: kd8...@aol.com To: bruni...@usna.edu; 'Joe' n...@mwt.net; 'MM' ka1...@yahoo.com Cc: 'Jack K.' kd1p...@gmail.com; amsat-bb@amsat.org; kg4...@gmail.com Sent: Thursday, July 02, 2009 8:28 AM Subject: Re: [amsat-bb] Re: The Moon is our Future ___ 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 ___ 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] The Moon is our Future
Hi James: I am in favor of any band that has the desired results. I just used the 2/440 bands as the opener. Remember the higher in frequency the less affordable the system becomes and the fewer Amateur Radio operators and Short Wave listeners will have access to those frequencies. We do not want to design a system that only 2 people can afford. Goals: Uplink to the Moon with an antenna system that would cost less than $1000 USD. Receive from the Moon with an Antenna system that would cost less than $1000 USD. An Off the Shelf transceiver system that cost less than $2000 USD. With a properly designed repeater and properly selected Amateur Radio bands, it should be possible to meet these goals. I have seen some project proposals for ISS for example, that when reviewed it was discovered that no one could afford the project (2 megabit fast TV, the link budget, Antenna, Receiver requirement and precision rotor made the project only affordable by a government). If we are going to seriously think about a Moon repeater, we need to make sure the Earth stations are practical and affordable. It would also be helpful if we had more Amateur Radio band with ITU approved Satellite segments. Anyone interested in going to the next WARC meeting to petition for downlink access to 1.2 Gig and wider band access on 70cm. Thanks Miles WF1F MarexMG.org --- On Thu, 7/2/09, James French w8...@wideopenwest.com wrote: From: James French w8...@wideopenwest.com Subject: [amsat-bb] Re: The Moon is our Future To: AMSAT-BB AMSAT-BB@amsat.org Date: Thursday, July 2, 2009, 12:30 PM On Thu, 2009-07-02 at 10:52 -0500, tosca...@umn.edu wrote: As far as the dreaming goes, wouldn't an L/S transponder be better than a V/U or U/V transponder? Granted, the path loss is greater, but the antenna gain is easier to produce... Miles, Why not use a L/s, U/L. or a U/s transponder for this? Why limit ourselves to V/u for everything? Aren't we supposed to 'experiment' with the higher frequencies we have allocated? Its in the AMSAT by-laws to support the higher frequencies. From the AMSAT-NA by-laws Section three, subsection E: Encouraging the more effective and expanded use of the higher frequency amateur radio frequency bands. This would mean smaller antennas with MUCH better gain and beamwidth. I vote in favor of at least a L/s transponder for this. James W8ISS ___ 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 ___ 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: The Moon is our Future
Hi W0JT: I like your simple explanation of the path loss; it should help many understand that an Active Repeater on the Moon will not require as big of an antenna system as passive Moon EME station. Now we just need to run the path loss numbers a few different ways to see which Amateur Radio Band option works the best. If we are able to piggyback on a NASA funded Unmanned Moon lander, then we have the possibility of the least expensive flight to High orbit possible. This is an opportunity we just can not miss trying for. Our only other option for affordable high orbit flight may be with China. I believe the High orbit flights with NASA and EAS are now cost prohibitive. 73 Miles WF1F MarexMG.org --- On Thu, 7/2/09, tosca...@umn.edu tosca...@umn.edu wrote: From: tosca...@umn.edu tosca...@umn.edu Subject: [amsat-bb] Re: The Moon is our Future To: amsat-bb@amsat.org Date: Thursday, July 2, 2009, 11:52 AM On Jul 2 2009, kd8...@aol.com wrote: Don't want to get a whole new thing started here but - I don't think we ever went to the moon in 1969 and I don't think we will ever goto the moon - in 2012 or whenever they proposed a return to the moon With that level of disbelief I can certainly see why you are predisposed to discount the possibility of a moon-based transponder. I would love to see an amatuer repeater on the moon thou - from my understanding EME is expensive to do, so I think it would leave most of us out Not necessarily. Remember, with conventional EME, you send as large a signal as you can muster towards the moon, incur huge path losses along the way, then incur a huge loss because the moon is a very imperfect reflector of RF energy, then incur the huge path loss back from moon to earth. With a moon-based repeater, you send as large a signal as you can muster towards the moon, incur the same path loss from earth to moon; BUT, THEN you enlarge the signal with a gain antenna at the repeater, and then have a sensitive receiver that can detect and amplify the signal. The repeater then transponds the signal to a different frequency band, amplifies it as much as equipment weight and power availability allow, transmit it through a gain antenna, and only THEN incur the huge path loss from moon to earth. Because the path loss is only in a single direction, and instead of an inefficient (lossy) passive reflector, you have gain antennas for reception and transmission, plus amplification on receive and on transmit, the net earth station requirements should be much less than conventional EME. That's not to say it would be easy, just that it should be easier than conventional EME in terms of station requirements on earth. As has been mentioned numerous times already, the station requirements for the space end of the system are enormously more difficult than anything we've ever tackled so far with either LEO or HEO satellites. But there's no harm in DISCUSSING the idea, and learning about the pitfalls and possibilities as part of the discussion. Even if it never comes to pass, we should all be a bit more knowledgeable after having had the discussion. As far as the dreaming goes, wouldn't an L/S transponder be better than a V/U or U/V transponder? Granted, the path loss is greater, but the antenna gain is easier to produce... While I am a firm believer in the KISS principle (Keep It Simple, Stupid!), I am getting a little tired of hearing people complain endlessly about the downfall of AO-40 being due to its complexity. Uhh, the downfall of AO-40 was human error, which will ALWAYS be an issue. The only reason that AO-40 was ever usable at all was BECAUSE of its complexity, i.e., the redundancy of multiple transponders that could be switched into place after initial failures, etc. OF COURSE, a mission to the moon needs to be as light and compact as it can be made, and therefore much simpler than AO-40, but due to the harsh environment in which it would be asked to operate, it needs to be as complex as necessary to get the job done, i.e. not as simple as AO-10 or AO-13. 73 de W0JT AMSAT-NA LM#2292 ___ 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 ___ 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] Moon can cost less than HEO/GEO
High orbit launch prices It is hard to find exact values for the price per kilo to a geo-stationery orbit. I did find a few old numbers on the web suggesting that around the year 2000 prices were approximately 25,000 to 35,000 USD per kilo. I can only assume it will cost more today’s 2009 dollars. If we were to build our own Geo-stationary satellite and were able to keep the weight down to the same weight of AO-40 (244 kilos), that would only cost us $8.5 USD million in launching fees (plus inflation). That is not including the cost of the satellite. A ballpark Geo-stationary amateur radio satellite and launching fees would be in the 20-40 million-dollar range per satellite (SWAG). If you have an extra 40 million kicking around then go ahead and build us a Geo satellite. Or if you work at Huges and can talk them into attaching a Micro Satellite to the next geo satellite for Free great, go for it. I can’t afford that and I do not know anyone at Huges, so I am looking into the piggyback options. Let some other company pay the big bucks for the flight and navigation and just tag along for the ride. In this case NASA wants to send Un-manned Landers to the Moon. All we need to do is convince them to let us attached a 1-2 kilo micro-satellite to the moon lander and use some of their power and antennas, etc. Just look at the Huge Savings $$$ No navigation system (we have never had much luck at building our own rocket motors (AO-10- damaged satellite, AO-13 Miss fired and caused a premature reentry and AO-40 Kaboom) No command and control RF links (just command between the Microsat and existing command and control system) NASA will pay for the rocket (we hope) Assuming a good landing, there will not be any need for periodic orbital changes. It’s true that our resources for building new satellites are very limited. I believe that Putting the effort into building a Moon qualified micro satellite seems to be the most economical path to take. And will provide the greatest return on our investment. Sincerely Miles WF1F MarexMG.org ___ 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: M2 Xyagi sat 2 meter antenna
Hi Norman: I used KLM with a polarity switch many years ago. The polarity switch seemed unreliable and lossy, and I often forgot to change polarity on Leo’s. When I replaced my KLM with M2, I decided not to bother with switching polarity and just run RHCP. The benefits: No switch losses, more gain. Do not need to worry about forgetting to hit the polarity switch. Transmitter power not limted to switch. Other Tips: Go with the most elements you can afford for a single boom. 20+ elements on 2-meters 40+ elements on 440 Coax: You can now get Flexible thick coax that will support an antenna Rotor. Most people used RG-8 style coax, which is approximately 10 mm in diameter. However you can now get flexible rotor grade coax which is approximately 15 mm in diameter, and has much lower loss than the best RG-8 style coax. Example: Belden RG-213 145 MHz 2.5 dB loss per 100 feet 438 MHz 4.5 dB loss per 100 feet LMR 600 UltraFlex Rotor cable 145 MHz 1.1 dB loss per 100 feet 438 MHz 2.0 dB loss per 100 feet As you can see, by switching from 10mm coax to 15mm coax you can reduce you loss by over 50%. The 15mm cables cost 2-3 times as much, however you will not have to worry about coax losses any more on Frequencies below 2 gig. 73 wf1f --- On Wed, 5/27/09, Norman W Osborne ve3...@gmail.com wrote: From: Norman W Osborne ve3...@gmail.com Subject: [amsat-bb] M2 Xyagi sat 2 meter antenna To: amsat-bb AMSAT-BB@amsat.org Date: Wednesday, May 27, 2009, 1:41 PM Hi Everyone, Anyone out there using m2 Xyagi sat antenna with switching? Would like to hear your comments. I have settled on the gulf alpha for 70cm but I am looking for more gain for 2 meters. 73, Norman. ___ 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 ___ 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] Icom IC-910 Sale
Hi all, I am selling my Icom IC-910 satellite rig, with all the options listed. Selling price $1800.00 The rig was in use for 6 months. Includes all of the needed options. contact directly via the email address below. 73 Miles wf1...@comcast.net http://www.icomamerica.com/products/amateur/910h/ Basic Radio Chassis Icom IC-910H 1119.95 High Stability Crystal CR-293 Crystal 289.95 DSP unit UT-106 DSB Two units 279.90 1.2 Ghz band unit UX-910 1.2ghz 549.95 144 mhz preamp IC-AG25 149.95 440 mhz preamp IC-AG35 169.95 1.2 ghz preamp IC-AG1200 163.95 Band filter CW FL-132 119.95 Band filter CW FL-133 99.95 New price Icom total$2,943.50 IC-910H - All Mode VHF/UHF/1.2 GHz Satellite Radio The new dimension in the VHF/UHF World! Click on the small image to get a large picture of the IC-910H. The IC-910H is an all new 2m/440 MHz/1.2 GHz** all mode satellite radio. Measuring only 9 1/2(W) X 3 11/16(H) X 9 13/32(D) in. and weighting 10 lb (without UX-910), it is compact and lightweight for field operation. The IC-910H features a powerful 100 W of output on 2 meter band, and 75 W on 430/440 band provided by the newly designed power amplifier circuit, which employs bipolar transistors in parallel. The combination of the aluminum die-cast chassis and effective cooling fan ensures stable output for continuous operation. The IC-910H receiver sensitivity is an amazing 0.11 µV (at 10 dB S/N on SSB, CW), while the image and spurious responses are minimized for good signal fidelity. Used with the optional preamplifiers for each band, indispensable for receiving weak DX signals or satellite communications, you will experience top class receiving characteristics in the VHF/UHF bands. By adding the optional UX-910 1200 MHz band unit, the IC-910H becomes an all mode tri-band transceiver. It is also capable of crossband and full duplex operation. The IC-910H has two data sockets for simultaneous two band packet communications. High speed PLL lockup time makes 9600 bps high speed packet communications possible. In the satellite mode, the downlink and uplink frequencies are displayed simultaneously on the main and sub bands respectively. Normal/reverse tracking is available, and Doppler shift compensation is a breeze. Ten satellite memory channels store uplink downlink frequencies and operating mode. Optional UT-106 DSP unit provides AF DSP (digital signal processing) functions: noise reduction and automatic notch filter. When two UT-106 units are installed in the IC-910H, the DSP functions work for the main and sub bands simultaneously.Tell me about the new, optional PS-125 power supply to go with my new IC-910H. Download the IC-910H PDF brochure. Specifications: 100 W of stable output power on VHF (75 W on UHF) High performance receiver Additional 1200 MHz band unit (UX-910) 9600 bps packet operation Two data sockets for simultaneous two band packet communications. Satellite communications Simultaneous display of uplink and downlink frequencies Satellite memory channels Normal/reverse tracking Easy Doppler compensation All receiver functions work on main and sub bands IF shift Attenuator Noise blanker Sweep function observes conditions around the displayed frequency Four types of scanning Memory pad temporarily stores the operating frequencies and modes Electronic keyer with a dot/dash ratio control FM-narrow mode (FM-N) (except 1200 MHz band) CI-V capability for PC control 50 tone CTCSS encoder One touch repeater function ___ 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
