[amsat-bb] Re: Funcube Donlge SDR
On 26/11/2013 12:56 πμ, Kevin Deane wrote: I thought there would be more users out there with all these new Baby Monitor Sats. I was hoping to use this for working AO-7, VO-52, FO-29. Anyone with some experience and a little detail would be much appreciated. Kevin KF7MYK I had to put a FM broadcast reject filter to see some usable 2 m signals. Funcube-1 and VO52 are loud and clear with a Ternstyle antenna. A 2 m band bass filter may be a good idea. In any case filtering is a must. 73s Alex KM39gc ___ 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] ARISS contact planned February 19, 2013 with school in Greece
OR4ISS heard laud and clear calling J41ISS many times but the ground station was absent... I have the wav from the pass for anyone interesting. 73s Alex SV8QG KM39gc ___ 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] Fwd: This weekends ISS Shadow-Beacon Plasma Experiment
Original Message Subject:[amsat-bb] This weekends ISS Shadow-Beacon Plasma Experiment Date: Sat, 12 Nov 2011 14:11:47 + (GMT) From: Trevor . m5...@yahoo.co.uk To: amsat-bb@amsat.org Only just seen this, hadn't realised there was a Space Plasma experiment using the 145.825 MHz packet system Space plasma experiment Shadow onboard International Space Station (ISS) with participation of radio amateurs http://knts.tsniimash.ru/Shadow/en/Overview.aspx Schedule http://knts.tsniimash.ru/Shadow/en/NewView.aspx?NewId=6ad52670-4421-4860-934b-2722cab3c97c 73 Trevor M5AKA ___ Unfortunately I didn't received anyTo SHADOW packets during the November 13^th 73's Alex ___ 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: [YCCC] Netbooks
What's the benefit of net-books? Size, weight, battery life? they are cheaper, but not that much - cheapest 15 notebooks are $280...320. CPU and memory are also not as good as in notebooks. Where you gonna use it? If someone tested net-book+radio configuration and it runs no problem 100% - I can be convinced that there is no reason to pay more for notebook and carry more weight to some DX country. AM On Sat, Aug 13, 2011 at 9:05 AM, ANTHONY JAPHA tjja...@earthlink.netwrote: All, Mni tnx for the responses about netbooks. Generally, a lot of satisfaction with them, with concerns abt. speed and keyboard size. In my application, neither should be a problem. ASUS was highly recommended. 73, Tony, N2UN ___ YCCC Reflector mailto:y...@contesting.com Yankee Clipper Contest Club http://www.yccc.org Reflector Info: http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/yccc ___ 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: Netbooks?
Tony, I have SatPC32 running perfectly on my MSI U130 netbook – 2GB RAM Windows 7 – driving my IC910H. Digital stuff like Fldigi and MMSSTV work just fine and it has all the guts needed to drive my Signalhound spectrum analyser and MiniVNA Pro using the inbuilt Bluetooth. I haven't tried it with HRD, mainly because the Sat Tracker still doesn't work with the Icom IC910H. The MSI packs a lot of punch in a small package. Cheers, Alex VK5ALX ___ 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] ARISSat-1 transponder worked over Australia
Worked VK2ZAZ briefly around 0144UTC Signals quite weak but readable. A couple of other stations heard but too noisy to get call signs. Nothing heard on the following (low) pass. Alex / VK5ALX ___ 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] VK/WD9EWK in late May 2011
Actually VK is the suffix so the call will be WD9EWK/VK Cheers, enjoy your visit. Alex / VK5ALX While I am in Australia, I plan on doing some satellite operating in FM and SSB as VK/WD9EWK. If asked, I will also operate as VK/VA7EWK. Both callsigns are legal in Australia under the class license that covers operating by foreign hams for short visits. ___ 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 Deactivation
Yes, I had 3 radios going with one listening on 437.550 MHz. Nothing heard on any frequency. Alex VK5ALX this is why we did not hear itthey had the 430mhz transmitter turned on... was anyone listening to the 70cm frequency? all the preparations on 2m and we were in the wrong place. ___ 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: VO-52 - OK to Work in FM?
Hi Clint. Check out this page on the Amsat India web site http://www.amsatindia.org/payloads.htm Alex / VK5ALX ___ 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] Ongoing Spacecraft Systems RD @ BU
Andrew Glasbrenner wrote: Date: Sat, 16 Jan 2010 20:11:46 -0500 From: Andrew Glasbrenner glasbren...@mindspring.com Subject: [amsat-bb] Re: AO-7 feat! To: Vince Fiscus, KB7ADL vlfis...@mcn.net Cc: amsat-bb@amsat.org Vince Fiscus, KB7ADL wrote: Well, it certainly wasn't on FM. Why couldn't the next LEO be like a new AO-7 with modern technology? Why does the Board insist on cramming another single channel bird down our throats? We also have a university in the Northeast working on a 3U cubesat that will support a transponder powerwise. This was all laid out in the donation letter, as well as Barry's Apogee View in the Journal. As Andrew mentioned, here at the State University of New York @ Binghamton we've been working along on our goals as outlined at the Symposium and in the latest edition of the Journal: (a) We have revised the ARISSat Power Supply Unit, Backplane and Solar Panel Charge Controller designs to use Pseudocapacitors instead of traditional batteries. Based on a worse-case, 600km orbit, we can produce a whole-orbit power budget of 7.5 watts using a 3U CubeSat design. If a spacecraft is launched into a more optimal orbit, like a sun-synchronous orbit, one of the two Pseudocapacitor banks can be removed. The design can be scaled to be used with other classes of spacecraft - 2U/1U CubeSat, Microsats, etc. The design has gone through two reviews with AMSAT Engineering. (Thanks Lou, Barry Tony!) (b) We have a light-weight deployable solar panel design with integral magnetorquer coils for attitude control. The design contains original research and integrates CubeSat research from: * University of Delft (hinge concepts use of Dyneema wire) * University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (flex-circuit magnetorquers carbon-fiber substrate) * the Aerospace Corporation (thin-film attachment of solar cells) The design will produce about 12-15 watts per minute in any orientation (worse-case) for 3U, less with 2U or 1U If a spacecraft is launched into a more optimal orbit the number of solar cells can be reduced while maintaining the power budget (c) We have analyzed the existing AMSAT spacecraft modules (from ARISSat P3D) and determined that: * We can fit the SDX and U/V Linear Transponder systems from ARISSat into a 2U or 3U CubeSat Chassis without significant re-design * The IHU is going to be slightly redesigned to incorporate the Command Decoder board functions * We can reuse the base concepts from P3D for the Sun Earth Sensor Systems * We can reuse a 3-axis Magnetometer design (Honeywell) * If the ARISSat boards were redesigned/repackaged they could fit within a 1U Chassis. (d) Things to do between now and Dayton: * Complete thermal analysis of a baseline 3U spacecraft * Antenna design (based on U of Delft's spring steel U/V antenna deployment system) * Complete Attitude Determination Control (ADAC) integration (magnetorquers, sun/earth sensors magnetometer) * Finish building engineering model This RD, being performed by Engineering Students for their Senior Design projects (8 ME's/EE's + 26 SE's), is being sponsored by AMSAT. So I encourage everyone to contribute what you can to AMSAT to help fund spacecraft systems development and launch opportunities. If we have reliable, lower-cost, modular systems, then AMSAT can be more responsive to any launch opportunity. We'll have more info on the research we're doing in the next issue of the Journal and look for us at the AMSAT table in Dayton! Alex Harvilchuck, N3NP NextGen CubeSat Program Manager ___ Sent via amsat...@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
[amsat-bb] Re: AMSAT, ITAR, More AMSAT-NA Volunteers Such .
Michael, W4HIJ wrote: Interesting stuff Alex. I'm currently working on an FM satellite station as that's all I can afford at present but I hope some of the NextGen birds will carry linear transponders too. At any rate, it all sounds very exciting. 73, Michael W4HIJ ARISSat-1 is flying a V/U Linear transponder with the 10.7MHz IF SDX board, the NextGen bus will fly the same equipment. I'm hoping that we can fly an L/S Linear transponder 10.7MHz IF Matrix as payload on the NextGen satellites. They're not going to be the most powerful transmitters nor the largest antennas flown, since we've got a limited power, mass, and volume budget. Remember, we're talking about a 3kg mass budget, a 3 liter (10cm x 10cm x 30cm) volume budget and an 8w DC power budget for the spacecraft . . . Think the size of a loaf of bread. Alex, N3NP ___ 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] AMSAT, ITAR, More AMSAT-NA Volunteers Such . . .
Ladies Gentlemen, Here's the main thing to think about ITAR. ITAR regulates OUTFLOW of information, it doesn't care about INFLOW of information. If you build or design it by a non-US Person (Citizen or Legal Permanent Resident) and you bring it INTO the US, ITAR does not care. So AMSAT-NA can use designs from P3E, but cannot design parts of P3E. So the logical thing to do is have all major future AMSAT spacecraft be AMSAT-NA managed spacecraft with design elements (camera systems, experiments, etc.) contributed by other AMSAT organizations. The only main technical interaction between the AMSATs would be via a standard, open-sourced, well-published-in-technical-journals interface specification. Money could be contributed from other AMSATs to fund launch development costs. As for the mantra of no one being able to develop the equipment in the US . . . The volunteer base is not capped, just expand the size of the volunteer base and organize it better. None of the experienced engineers should be directly building hardware, we should all be supervising teams of engineering students who actually build the equipment. There are over 250 University Engineering programs in the US. Each of those programs have at least 50 students in each graduating class. Let's say that we can get 15% of the students interested in working on a satellite project (my personal observations are more like 75% of the students are interested). Let's do the Math: Worse Case: 250 Schools x 50 students per graduating class x 15% = 1875 POTENTIALLY INTERESTED STUDENTS IN THE US Best Case: 250 Schools x 50 students per graduating class x 75% = 9375 POTENTIALLY INTERESTED STUDENTS IN THE US And this is just talking about COLLEGE SENIORS - EE's, ME's, CE's, CS's, SE's . . . double the number if you include the Juniors. Anywhere near this load of students would completely overload the current AMSAT-NA volunteer base. But talk about the potentially available volunteer base! With Binghamton University, I had 7 Hardware Engineering slots available on the team. There are 200 Hardware Engineers in the BU graduating class - about 168 of the students wanted to be on the Satellite Project Team, a 24x over-subscription. That's pretty impressive. I could have had more teams, but we need to crawl, the walk, then run with this activity - EVOLUTIONARY not REVOLUTIONARY (but let's just make sure evolution works quickly . . .) The current BU student team is stoked, they are really excited to be working the project. Every week I get thanked by the students for bringing the project to their attention. They have done some really great work and they have a great faculty advisor, Dr. Roger Westgate. I expect that there will be more than 1 project team next year working on an AMSAT satellite, assuming AMSAT is interested in sponsoring more. So stop crying into your beer over ITAR. The world is not coming to an end. Let's work to launch spacecraft within the ITAR limits. In the meantime, let the AMSAT-NA BoD navigate it's way through the byzantine structure of the US Govt to try to bring about change in ITAR. Alex Harvilchuck, N3NP ___ 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] AMSAT NextGen Program Progress
Just to give everyone a little update on how the AMSAT NextGen Program is doing @ Binghamton University . . . (a) CONTROL EXPERIMENT SYSTEMS - The Systems Engineering students are doing well analyzing the ARISSat documentation and will be scheduling meetings with the primary AMSAT engineering contact to discuss documentation questions. - Identified Design Changes Needing to Occur for NextGen: * The Control/Safety Timer needs to be adapted to conform with the CubeSat deployment switch standard * Consolidation of Camera functionality into a separate camera payload board (functionality is currently spread across a number of boards in the stack) (b) RF SYSTEMS - The Systems Engineering students are doing well analyzing the ARISSat documentation and will be scheduling meetings with the primary AMSAT engineering contact to discuss documentation questions. - Identified Design Changes Needing to Occur for NextGen: * Antenna design choice - single dual-band vs dual mono-band * New RF container design needed (c) POWER STRUCTURE SYSTEMS - The Systems Engineering students are doing well analyzing the ARISSat documentation and will be scheduling meetings with the primary AMSAT engineering contact to discuss documentation questions. - The Hardware Engineering students have been busy creating a preliminary design for solar panel deployment and use of supercapacitors to replace the battery. A Preliminary Design Review is being scheduled in mid-November with the AMSAT Engineering Team. - Identified Design Changes Needing to Occur for NextGen: * Replace Battery with modular stacks of Supercapacitors in parallel to the Solar Panels * Shrink ICB (Interconnect Board) to fit within CubeSat frame * Reduce PSU footprint by moving camera power function to a Camera Payload Board (CPB) * Slight PSU voltage supply design change * Remove test/program load functionality from ICB to external test board (XTB) via standard CubeSat PPOD maintenance ports (per CubeSat spec.) We are still on-target to have an engineering model ready for the AMSAT table at the 2010 Dayton Hamvention with readiness for launch later in 2010. Alex Harvilchuck, N3NP NextGen Program Manager ___ 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 Next Generation of Amateur Radio Satellites
Robert, Congratulations for volunteering to organize development of an analog linear transponder. Please contact me and the AMSAT Systems Engineering team for mass, volume, power consumption, and heat generation requirements for your linear transponder board. We will provide you the interface specification to the IHU for control and ICB (Interconnect Control Board) for power distribution. Oh, and they're not 10 year olds, they are 22 year olds who are about 8 months away from receiving their Electrical Engineering or Computer Engineering or Mechanical Engineering or Systems Engineering or Industrial Engineering Degree from the State University of New York system. And there are 34 (thirty-four) of them working on the NextGen Project for AMSAT. I will gladly set up a conference call next week at 6PM EDT on Wednesday where you can talk with the Systems Engineering team to discuss the details of the requirements. We are scheduling the CDR (Critical Design Review) for the last week in January 2010. I expect you will be ready for this design review because since such people exist and they will have designs that meet the spacecraft's requirements. You must have the board ready for Systems Integration Test in Mid-March 2010. We will be putting the system on AMSAT's table at the Dayton Hamvention. Please have your prototype board budget and schedule ready for PDR (Preliminary Design Review) during the 2nd week of December, 2009. They are tight time frames but we are just doing evolutionary, not revolutionary changes to the design. We also have a team of 27 upper-division undergraduate senior Systems Engineers, university System Engineering professors and experienced professional Systems Engineers with multiple decades of industry experience working on the project. I suggest, you and anyone else who wishes to declare their intension to volunteer on a board project should read our presentation from the AMSAT Symposium. Alex Harvilchuck, N3NP/SO4NNP Program Manager, AMSAT NextGen Program -- Message: 4 Date: Sun, 18 Oct 2009 12:37:44 -0500 From: Rocky Jones orbit...@hotmail.com Subject: [amsat-bb] Re: Why do hamsats? (Or anything else...) To: b...@innismir.net Cc: Amsat BB amsat-bb@amsat.org, k...@arrl.net Message-ID: col106-w45fa0985c6ee33197b1b54d6...@phx.gbl Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Date: Sun, 18 Oct 2009 12:57:34 -0400 From: b...@innismir.net To: orbit...@hotmail.com I wrote: In my view better engineering doctrine would imply that we try and put the digital transponder ON ISS and let it cook there for a bit. you replied Yup, that would be ideal, I'm nominating you to head that project. This is right up your alley, as since you and your friends within the JSC can navigate the political process easily. Lets run this in tandem with the ARISSSat project. Thanks for volunteering! -- Ben Jackson - N1WBV - New Bedford, MA bbj at innismir.net - http://www.innismir.net/ one has to wonder Ben why didnt they try it? There would have been a few more issues involved in terms of operating the thing on ISS other then just deploying it (mostly RF work)... but... as for me heading the project. I'd deep six the entire software defined transponder, put it on a development effort with some heavy program guidance...find some people who wanted to build linear transponders even if they were overseas (such people exist already) and start flying as many of those as possible. Right now what in my view the satellite community needs is a 100 percent Oscar 7 or 10...not some technological development issues. If I were king we would have something to offer the USAF if they had spare lift on a Centaur as they just had...remember the original Oscar's flew on USAF vehicles. in the meantime I will continue to keep my technical skills sharp (grin) by helping the 10 year olds put together a buoy that is going to float in Clear Lake... Robert WB5MZO ___ Sent via amsat...@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
[amsat-bb] Re: Not everyone is working on ARISSat-1 . . . . The AMSAT NextGen Spacecraft Bus
As I mentioned a few weeks ago . . . Not all of us are focused on ARISSat-1. I left everyone with two thoughts: * Look to the Empire State near the Harvest Moon * A gift may arrive near the ides of May At the AMSAT Symposium (which happens to be occurring near the Harvest Moon) a paper was presented on behalf of a team of students from the State University of New York at Binghamton (Binghamton University), Thomas J Watson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. The students form, as part of their Senior Design Projects, the core of an AMSAT volunteer team to modify the ARISSat-1 design into the Next Generation of OSCARs using the CubeSat specification, i.e. the NextGen Project. It will be an OPEN, modular design in furtherance of the decision at last year's symposium to create a building block architecture for future satellites. The core student team consists of 27 Systems Engineering students who are focusing on requirements analysis of ARISSat-1, documenting the ARISSat-1 systems, and analyzing the lessons learned from ARISSat-1 / other prior spacecraft. The goal is to have a modular, evolutionary design ready for NextGen's presentation at the 2010 Dayton Hamvention. (which happens to be occurring near the ides of May . . . ). There are also 7 Mechanical, Electrical and Computer Engineers working together with the Systems Engineers on the Power and Structure Systems of NextGen. The EEs will be focusing on redesigning the ARISSat-1 Power Systems to use Supercapacitors instead of batteries and reducing the footprint of some of the boards (ICB especially). The MEs will be focused on modifying the structure to incorporate deployable solar panels with a scalable design that will work for 1U, 2U and 3U sizes. So that's a total core team of 34 Students . . . plus advisers, mentors and volunteers The goal is for NextGen to be a Picosat-class bus structure that AMSAT, or any other University, can use for 1U, 2U, or 3U CubeSat spacecraft. We will be using good Industrial Engineering concepts to drive the unit cost down while maintaining reliability. If we can get the cost low enough to mass produce the NextGen bus, AMSAT could make the bus available at low-to-no-cost to qualified University groups - AMSAT would handle spacecraft operations during the primary mission, but when the primary mission is complete, the satellite is turned over to AMSAT for it's secondary mission as a new Amateur Radio Satelite - an OSCAR in every CubeSat. Now the satellite, given the right conditions, could have a lifetime equivalent to AO-7. This will allow Universities and Schools to focus on developing the payload and experiments to fit within the integrated and proven spacecraft bus. An Engineering Model of the NextGen CubeSat spacecraft bus will be on display at the Dayton Hamvention AMSAT Booth for everyone to study. The BU team is the core of the AMSAT team, but we are looking for other individuals and University/School teams to participate in all aspects of the spacecraft design - RF Systems - Guidance, Navigation, Control Experiment Systems - Power Structure Systems. This is an ongoing effort, it is not a one time event, but the start of a stable, evolutionary design process that will further STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering Mathmatics) with the Next Generation of engineers and amateur radio operators. We're going to do Evolutionary Change, not Revolutionary Change. We're going to utilize, modify and develop Reusable Modules We're going to start with Picosat-class and work our way up We're going to use good Systems Engineering standards and practices WITHOUT stifling creativity and the need to have FUN We're going to all LEARN something from each other Volunteers are needed, the adventure awaits! Time to stop talking and time to get working. There have been lots of posts on this list (AMSAT-BB) about not having enough of in-orbit spacecraft, - well now is your chance to make a difference. V O L U N T E E R ! Even if you only have an hour a week, you can mentor a student over the phone or you can peer review a document that the students(or someone else) are working on. If you have more than an hour a week, you can implement a small design change to an existing subsystem; you could respin the board layout to meet a reduced form factor; you could redesign a module to use different technology (there are lots of ways to do an SDX and lots of ways to do an IHU). If you are working with a University/School who is working on a CubeSat or thinking about it, talk to me, we're looking for other teams to contribute. Your students will get experience dealing with geographically-distributed virtual teams. Please feel free to contact me with any questions, comments or offers to volunteer. Alex Harvilchuck, N3NP NextGen Program Manager Alex, N3SQ wrote: There are some of us out here who are trying to bring a little order to the chaos and help
[amsat-bb] Not everyone is working on ARISSat-1
There are some of us out here who are trying to bring a little order to the chaos and help AMSAT, but we are all not working on ARISSat-1. Our effort lies in the following vectors and scalars: - Change needs to be EVOLUTIONARY not REVOLUTIONARY. - Chaos can be harnessed with the correct application of traceability. - The future leads through the correct application of effort There are clouds of dust on the horizon . . . . . with the sound of many hoof-beats in the distance . . . . . is that a bugle call-to-arms I hear on the wind? Those who know, understand. Those who need to know will find out soon enough. I will leave you with these two thoughts until next time . . . * Look to the Empire State near the Harvest Moon. * A gift may arrive near the ides of May. *Dobranocz* ___ 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
