Oct 4 2014

Silverstone B-64 balloon still flying

Track of the B-64 balloon

Track of the B-64 balloon

The B-64 balloon launched at 06:51 GMT on July 12, 2014 from Silverstone is still in the air flying at just over 12,000 metres and transmitting on 434.500 MHz Contestia 64/1000 and also APRS.

B-64 envelope - Image credit Leo Bodnar M0XER

B-64 envelope – Image credit Leo Bodnar M0XER

On Saturday, October 3 Phil Heron MI0VIM reported decoding data while it was over the North Atlantic ocean, coming up to the 6th time it would pass the United Kingdom on it’s continuing journeys around the world.

B-64 was built by radio amateur Leo Bodnar M0XER, he made both the plastic foil envelope and the solar powered transmitter payload which weighs just 11 grams.

Leo has utilised some clever techniques storing positions when the balloon is out of radio contact then later transmitting a log file of previous locations in the comments field of the APRS packet. This enables a fairly complete path to be built up. B-64 only stores 5 days worth of data, where you get a straight line on the track it has been out of radio contact.

See the B-64 track at
http://habhub.org/mt/?focus=B-64

July 31 B-64 completes first journey around the world
https://amsat-uk.org/2014/07/31/434-mhz-balloon-b-64-completes-epic-journey/

Useful balloon links
https://amsat-uk.org/beginners/balloons/

B-64 transmitter payload weighs just 11 grams - Credit Leo Bodnar M0XER

B-64 transmitter payload weighs just 11 grams – Credit Leo Bodnar M0XER

Oct 4 2014

4M lunar ham radio payload shipped

4M payload under test

4M payload under test

Ghislain Ruy LX2RG reports the 4M Lunar flyby amateur radio payload was shipped on Thursday, October 2 and he departs for the Xichang Satellite Launch Center on Sunday, October 5.

He says the lifetime of 4M is quite an unknown: it may be as short as 100 hours (so at least to the Moon) and could extend for some weeks if the attitude is favorable.

It is now known that the spacecraft will not re-enter the Earth atmosphere after the flyby but instead enter a wonderful orbit. You will find information animations and some JT65B test files at

https://cloud.luxspace.lu/public.php?service=files&t=33c4a21c09ba3736a55fc09896e463f6

The launch will be transmitted by CNTV/CCTV: http://www.cntv.cn/ or http://english.cntv.cn/ or http://english.cntv.cn/live/p2p/index.shtml

LX2RG says the team are setting up their ground station, and are especially looking for southern hemisphere stations: ZS, VK and ZL, Southern America continent mainly, as they will be placed first hand for the early hours.

Launched is planned in a narrow window at 17:59:xx UTC on October 23 and flyby is to occur nominally on October 28 at 00:33 UTC.

4M is planned to start transmissions at 19:17 UTC, possibly with 10 minutes additional delay.

K1JT has developed a special version of WSJT. In addition of all the features of the standard version, it includes also the display and logging of the dT to three decimal places and the logging of the manual offset that can be entered in JT65B modes. This version should be used by all who wants to participate to the ‘Multilateration’ experiment.

The participant to this experiment should also make sure that the clock of their PC stays synchronized to the UTC time. Desired accuracy should be within 1ms and within 10ms at the very least. Use of NTP synchronizing software is a must.

The special version can be downloaded with the following links:
http://physics.princeton.edu/pulsar/K1JT/WSJT_10.0r4336a.exe
https://cloud.luxspace.lu/public.php?service=files&t=2720825f74104b31ebd699dcc0fd6268

The LuxSpace ground station comprises 2 x 8 element crossed Yagis from Joachims antenna (with an improved design to lower the back lobe), a SSB.de LNA and Yaesu antenna rotators.

Best regards.

Ghislain Ruy LX2RG
Email ruy@luxspace.lu with “4M Amateur” in the subject

Read the paper 4M Mission: a Lunar FlyBy experiment
http://tinyurl.com/4M-Mission-V3

EME 2014 slides: 4M, A Moon Flyby Mission
http://tinyurl.com/4M-slides-eme2014

Manfred Memorial Moon Mission (4M) http://moon.luxspace.lu/

4M-LXS Lunar amateur radio payload
https://amsat-uk.org/2014/09/01/4m-lunar-payload/

Oct 2 2014

UK schools contact with International Space Station

Astronaut Alexander Gerst KF5ONO

Astronaut Alexander Gerst KF5ONO

On Wednesday, October 8 at 10:08:49 UT there will be an ARISS contact between astronaut Alexander Gerst KF5ONO on the International Space Station (ISS) and students at the Winter Gardens Primary School, Canvey, Essex and Pilton Bluecoat School, Barnstaple, Devon.

The ISS will be over the USA at the time and they will be making use of an amateur radio Telebridge Ground Station in California, W6SRJ, to actually make the link to the Space Station.

South Essex Amateur Radio Club (SEARS) http://www.southessex-ars.co.uk/

Sep 30 2014

ISS Expedition 42 Poster Released

ISS Expedition 42 official crew poster

ISS Expedition 42 official crew poster

Radio amateur and astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti IZ0UDF has put the final touches to the official crew poster for the International Space Station (ISS) Expedition 42. It is now available to download. 

Samantha Cristoforetti IZ0UDF

Samantha Cristoforetti IZ0UDF

The poster parodies the popular The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams and is without doubt the best ISS crew poster yet released.

USA’s Terry Virts and Russia’s Anton Shkaplerov portray the two-headed Zaphod Beeblebrox, Russia’s Alexander Samokutyaev is Humma Kavula, USA’s Butch Wilmore is Arthur Dent, Russia’s Elena Serova is Ford Prefect with Italy’s Samantha Cristoforetti as Trillian. NASA’s Robonaut 2 guest-stars as Marvin the Paranoid Android.

Samantha should launch from Baikonur in Kazakhstan on November 23, 2014 at 2059 UT (3:59pm EST) also flying with her in the Soyuz will be Anton Shkaplerov and Terry Virts. She is expected to return to Earth in May 2015.

Download the high resolution (57 MB) poster from
http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/exp_42_sfaposternw-2014-07-007_highres.pdf

Samantha Cristoforetti IZ0UDF on Twitter https://twitter.com/AstroSamantha

ISS Expedition 42 http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/expeditions/expedition42/

Sep 30 2014

Help needed to track 144.390 MHz APRS Balloons

James Cutler KF6RFX and Benjamin Longmier KF5KMP - University of Michigan

James Cutler KF6RFX and Benjamin Longmier KF5KMP University of Michigan

Benjamin Longmier KF5KMP and his team are looking for stations in the Azores and Portugal to help track their balloons.

On the UK High Altitude Society (UKHAS) group he writes:

My team (Project Aether) launched a balloon recently that did a lap around the Midwest in the US, headed East past Nova Scotia and is still floating strong. We don’t have any contacts in the Azores or Portugal, and are requesting help in contacting some of these folks that might be able to decode our APRS packets.

Tactical callsign: Aeth21-9
APRS track: http://aprs.fi/#!mt=terrain&z=9&call=a%2FAETH21-9&timerange=259200&tail=259200
144.390 MHz FM

We also have two more experimental balloons that will be heading into the Atlantic within ~24hrs.
Tactical callsign: Aeth22-1
APRS track: http://aprs.fi/#!mt=terrain&z=7&call=a%2FAETH22-1%2Ca%2FAETH22-3&timerange=259200&tail=259200
144.390 MHz FM

Tactical callsign: Aeth22-3
APRS track: http://aprs.fi/#!mt=terrain&z=7&call=a%2FAETH22-1%2Ca%2FAETH22-3&timerange=259200&tail=259200
144.390 MHz FM

Thanks for any help!
-Ben
email: longmier at umich.edu

Links to balloon beginners guides and tracking information
https://amsat-uk.org/beginners/balloons/

Sep 29 2014

Ham Radio at Monkton Stargazing Weekend

AO-73 (FUNcube-1) - Image credit Wouter Weggelaar PA3WEG

AO-73 (FUNcube-1) – Image credit Wouter Weggelaar PA3WEG

On October 11-2 the Monkton Nature Reserve & Thanet Observatory will be listening to the amateur radio satellite FUNcube-1 and will have an ARDF activity.

On the BIS World Space Week pages they say:

Daytime – we will have solar telescopes to observe the Sun’s surface and prominences. We will have on show the only Solar Ionospheric Disturbance monitor in the United Kingdom which will indicate when the Sun is giving out a solar flare – of huge importance to the communication and navigation satellites in orbit.

The Hilderstone Radio Club will demonstrate the reception of data from the FUNcube satellite in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) giving information on the temperature of its special black and shiny panels in deep space. Using this data visitors can determine the period of its orbit and its speed. They will also demonstrate the reception of weather satellite pictures sent by radio waves to Earth.

We will put on a radio direction finding activity, similar to Geocaching, where visitors have to find hidden transmitters using only a handheld radio and antenna, with a prize for the shortest time.

The club will also set up a special radio station so that visitors can send messages to amateur radio enthusiasts around the world. Information on Space will be provided by the UK Space Agency and worksheets on satellites will be available with questions set by the Nottingham Geospatial Institute.

Source: http://www.bis-space.com/wsw/event-news/monkton-stargazing-weekend/

Celebrate UN-declared World Space Week October 4-10. The biggest public space science #STEM event in the world – Use hashtag #WSW2014
Twitter https://twitter.com/WorldSpaceWeek
Web http://www.worldspaceweek.org/

Hilderstone Radio Club http://g0hrs.org/

Monkton Nature Reserve & Thanet Observatory http://www.monkton-reserve.org/one-b/