Aug 17 2015

2015 UKHAS Conference

SSDV picture from a PIE balloon - Image credit Dave Akerman M6RPI/2E0LTX/M0RPI

SSDV picture from a PIE balloon – Image credit Dave Akerman M0RPI

There’s an impressive line-up of radio amateurs among those giving presentations at the UK High Altitude Society (UKHAS) conference in London on Saturday, August 22, 2015.

The UKHAS conference attracts those interested in learning about building and flying High Altitude Balloons or in tracking their 434 MHz signals. The conference takes place at the University College London (UCL).

Schedule:
09:30     Assembly – Drinks & Biscuits
10:00     Welcome & Introduction
10:10     10 years of UKHAS – Steve Randall G8KHW & Ed Moore M0TEK
10:30     HF Pico – Andy Nguyen VK3YT (Streamed)
11:00     Crossing the Karman Line – Laurence Blaxter & Leo Bodnar M0XER
11:30     Break
11:45     QB50 – Dhiren Kataria M6END MSSL
12:15     Stratos School Habbing – Dave Green
12:45     A balloon-borne accelerometer technique for measuring atmospheric turbulence – Graeme Marlton
13:15     Lunch
14:15     A Short Guide to Parachutes – Ed Moore M0TEK
14:30     Predictor – Adam Greig M0RND & Daniel Richman M0ZDR
14:45     UKHASnet Weekend
15:00     Flexible timings: workshops, discussions etc
– IQ Sampling and Software Defined Radio for Beginners – Adam Greig M0RND (G06)
– Eagle CAD Workshop – Anthony Stirk M0UPU (G08)
– UKHASnet node demo – James Coxon M6JCX (Lobby)

UKHAS are also offering the option to complete the amateur radio Foundation Practical Assessments and Exam at the conference. This has been fully booked, perhaps a sign of the shortage of Foundation exams in central London.

Conference registration information is at
https://ukhas.org.uk/general:ukhasconference2015

Aug 16 2015

ARISS International Meet This Week in Tokyo

ARISS LogoARISS International Delegates, its Board of Officers, and international team members will meet at Big Sight, Tokyo, Japan on August 20-23, 2015 for a critical meeting to discuss ARISS strategy, teamwork, hardware and operations.

Delegates are voting members of ARISS-I representating the 5 ISS member regions: United States, Russia, Japan, Canada and Europe.

The meeting will open with remarks from meeting host Keigo Komuro, JA1KAB from ARISS Japan and JARL.

Other agenda items will include:
• Welcome by the Japanese Space Agency JAXA & an Overview of the JAXA Innovative Satellite Technology Demonstration Program
• ARISS working group business discussions and reports, including: regional reports, ARISS Terms of Reference update, space agency coordination status, sustainability & fundraising and ARISS future endeavors
• Technical discussions on current and future hardware developments, including: Next Generation ARISS Radio Systems, the Astro-Pi Project, and an update on the Ham-TV system
• Operations discussions, including presentations on: Educational Activities, International Expansion & Planning of SSTV. School
Selection and Regional Scheduling Procedures and plans for the
upcoming Tim Peake Mission

Along with their ambitious schedule the delegates will begin each day with an opportunity for informal discussions and will have the opportunity to visit the Tsukuba Space Center.

[ANS thanks ARISS-I for the above information]

Amateur Radio on the International Space Station
• ARISS International organisation http://www.ariss-eu.org/international.htm
• ARISS-Europe Terms of Reference http://www.ariss-eu.org/tor.htm
• ISS Amateur Radio stations http://www.ariss.org/contact-the-iss.html

Aug 15 2015

RSGB Letter in PC Pro Magazine

PC Pro Magazine LogoRSGB President John Gould G3WKL highlights Amateur Satellites, FUNcube and the RSGB Youth Committee in a letter, an edited version of which appears on page 30 of the October issue of PC Pro Magazine, in the shops now.

See the full text of John’s letter at http://www.pcpro.link/252rsgb

The letter was a follow-up to an article in the August issue of PC Pro Magazine by Jon Honeyball G1LMS
http://www.southgatearc.org/news/2015/july/ham_radio_in_pc_pro_magazine.htm

Twitter links:
G1LMS – https://twitter.com/jonhoneyball
G3WKL – https://twitter.com/G3WKL
RSGB  – https://twitter.com/theRSGB
Youth Committee – https://twitter.com/theRSGByouth
PC Pro https://twitter.com/pcpro
AMSAT-UK https://twitter.com/AmsatUK

Aug 14 2015

Activation of linear transponder on EO-79

QB50p1 and QB50p2 - Image Credit ISIS

QB50p1 and QB50p2 – Image Credit ISIS

The AMSAT-NL transponder on EO-79 is being activated to support the International Lighthouse and Lightship Weekend (ILLW).

On the AMSAT Bulletin Board Wouter PA3WEG posted:

We apologize for the short notice, this opportunity came along very last minute, and again we took it.

QB50p1 (EO-79) carries the FUNcube-3 400 mW inverting linear 435/145 MHz SSB/CW transponder provided by AMSAT-NL with support from AMSAT-UK.

• 435.035-435.065 MHz LSB Uplink
• 145.935-145.965 MHz USB Downlink

TLEs are NORAD # 40025, COSPAR designator 2014-033-R

Remember that the FUNcube family of transponders do not need much power to work them.

I will be operating at Scheveningen Lighthouse PA25SCH, NL0025

Thanks to the Von Karman Institute and Innovative Solution In Space for the opportunity to use the transponder.

Have FUN over the weekend!

Wouter PA3WEG
AMSAT-NL

International Lighthouse and Lightship Weekend (ILLW)
http://www.illw.net/
https://www.facebook.com/ILLWeekend

Aug 13 2015

Amateur Radio Allocations Discussed

Logo WRC RA 2015At the CEPT CPG-PTA-8 meeting in Catania, Sicily, July 21-24, 2015 several amateur radio allocations were discussed.

The minutes contain these items of interest to the Amateur and Amateur Satellite Services:
4.13.1.1 IMT/MBB above 6 GHz
4.13.1.3 Amateur allocation to 50-54 MHz
4.13.1.7 To consider an allocation to the space operation service in the range 137-960 MHz to accommodate the growing number of small non-GSO satellites
4.13.1.11 Studies towards an identification for land mobile and fixed services operating in the frequency range 275-450 GHz
4.13.1.14 Amateur proposal for new primary allocation between 1800-2000 kHz

Annex VI notes these potential new IMT (mobile broadband) allocations were discussed:
• 10.0-10.45 GHz – France/Germany/Italy/Denmark – Lack of bandwidth.  UK, Sweden support parts of this band
NATO harmonized band.
• 45.5-48.9 GHz – No opposition received on this band. Added to draft Resolution. IARU noted that the amateur service have a global primary band between 47-47.2 GHz
• 66-71 GHz, 71-76 GHz, 81-86 GHz – Satisfies bandwidth argument and no opposition was expressed. Bands added to draft Resolution.

To download the meeting documents:
• Go to http://www.cept.org/ecc/groups/ecc/cpg/cpg-pt-a/client/meeting-documents
• Click on 2015
• Click on 8th CPG PTA Meeting – 21-24 July – Sicily
• Click Input Contributions and Goto table
• Tick documents
• Click on Minutes and Annexes and Goto table
• Tick documents
• Do same for Annex IV – Draft Briefs, Annex V – Draft ECPs, Annex VI – misc
• Click the Download selected button

WRC-15 takes place in Geneva, Switzerland, from November 2-27, 2015
http://www.itu.int/en/ITU-R/conferences/wrc/2015/

Aug 13 2015

Michael Ossmann AD0NR at Chaos Computer Camp

Rad1o Badge 50-4000 MHz SDR Transceiver given to attendees at the Chaos Computer Camp 2015

Rad1o Badge 50-4000 MHz SDR Transceiver given to attendees at Chaos Computer Camp 2015

The lectures at the Chaos Computer Camp, taking place August 13-17 in Mildenberg, Germany, are being streamed live to the web.

Mike Ossmann AD0NR – Image Credit www.insinuator.net

Mike Ossmann AD0NR – Image Credit http://www.insinuator.net

Among the attendees is radio amateur Michael Ossmann, AD0NR, who was guest speaker at the 2015 Dayton Hamvention AMSAT / TAPR banquet.

The founder of Great Scott Gadgets he grew up as a computer nerd embracing the hacker ethos. Eventually Michael became very interested in the security of wireless systems such as a remote keyless entry, a garage door opener, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth. He designed Ubertooth One, a Bluetooth sniffer that was successfully funded on Kickstarter.

Not one to rest, Michael later designed and successfully funded HackRF One, an open source SDR platform that attracted the attention of the amateur radio community.

The @rad1obadge issued to Chaos Computer Camp attendees is a full-featured 50-4000 MHz SDR Transceiver with an output power of 5-7 dBm.

It is based on a Wimax Transceiver which sends I/Q samples in the range of 2.3 to 2.7 GHz to an ARM Cortex M4 CPU.

Michael Ossmann AD0NR at Chaos Computer Camp 2015

Michael Ossmann AD0NR at Chaos Computer Camp 2015

The CPU can then process the samples stand alone for various applications (like FM receiving, Spectrogram display, RF Controlled power plugs, etc.) or send the samples via USB 2.0 to a Computer where they can be processed with the help of GNU Radio.

The extended frequency range is provided by a mixer that can be inserted into the RF path. For immediate usage, the board contains a 2.5 GHz chip antenna which can be replaced with an easily soldered Antenna connector for usage in different frequency ranges. The rad1o also contains an LCD and Joystick as did the r0ket from the last CCCamp.

A talk given on Thursday evening, August 13, covered the inception and creation of this year’s Rad1o Camp Badge. From a description of the hardware including differences to the HackRF one, the software concept and extension possibilities to first projects done by attendees. Michael Ossmann AD0NR makes a guest appearance towards the end of the video.

Watch the @rad1obadge 50-4000 MHz SDR Transceiver talk
https://media.ccc.de/browse/conferences/camp2015/camp2015-6884-the_rad1o.html

Watch the @SatNOGS Open Source Satellite Ground Station Network talk
https://media.ccc.de/browse/conferences/camp2015/camp2015-6926-satellite_open_ground_station_network.html

Chaos Computer Camp 2015 https://events.ccc.de/camp/2015/wiki/Main_Page

Live Streaming https://streaming.media.ccc.de/

Recordings are at https://media.ccc.de/browse/conferences/camp2015/

Schedule https://events.ccc.de/camp/2015/Fahrplan/

Rad1o transceiver with antenna socket - Credit Tom Theisen

Rad1o transceiver with antenna socket – Credit Tom Theisen

Watch the talk Adventures of a Hacker Turned Radio Ham which Michael gave at the AMSAT-TAPR Banquet at Dayton in May 2015.

In it he talks about his unique perspective on the community as an outsider looking in, why he resisted getting an amateur radio license for years, and why he finally decided to join.

Michael shares his thoughts on what it means to be a hacker, what it means to be a ham, and what amateur radio may look like in the decades to come
https://amsat-uk.org/2015/07/12/tapr-amsat-2015-talks/

Michael Ossmann AD0NR on Twitter https://twitter.com/michaelossmann

Antennas at Chaos Computer Camp 2015 - Credit Daniel Cussen EI9FHB

Antennas at Chaos Computer Camp 2015 – Credit Daniel Cussen EI9FHB