Tag Archives: AMSAT

May 17 2012

AMSAT-LU Balloon Launch May 19

LU7AA brings news that on Saturday May 19 from 11hs-LU on (GMT-3), a free Balloon UV Repeater will fly from the city of General Pico (Airport), Province of La Pampa, Argentina, 571 Km west of Buenos Aires City. See details and photos http://www.amsat.org.ar/globo19.htm

Given administrations requests by Amsat Argentina, launch is authorized and appropiate NOTAM (NOTification to AirMen) had been issued and granted by National Civil Aviation Administration.

Contest & Prices: first 10 station making the most distance & contacts will receive special certificate, top winner will receive a UHF/VHF handy.

Payload will operate as an UHF to VHF crossband repeater, with CW tlm, APRS location and SSTV emissions in local and space frequencies.

According estimates Balloon could reach 100,000 feet height, traveling from 50 to 100 miles towards east.

Thus allowing contacts between stations located in provinces of Buenos Aires, Santa Fe, Entre Rios, Cordoba, Catamarca, Santiago del Estero, La Pampa, San Luis, Mendoza, San Juan, Rio Negro, Neuquen, Uruguay & Chile. (Launch is from Argentina Geo-Center to permit higher participation). See coverage map on
http://www.amsat.org.ar/picocubr.jpg and estimated trajectory in
http://www.amsat.org.ar/pico120519.jpg .

For these experiences, Amsat-LU works with and it is thankful to hams of Radio Clubs of Gral.Pico, QRM Belgrano, APRS Group and amsat-LU members development team as well as those who have actively participated and sent their reports in previous events.

More information at
http://www.amsat.org.ar/lu4aao/experimento_globo_y_parapente.htm.

Several flown experiments have been successfully operated during 2011/12 in manned-gliders, airplanes, captive and free Balloons allowing operational & practice for hams contributing to platform validaton of LUSEX satellite (LU Satellite EXperiment) on development by Amsat Argentina. More on http://lusex.org.ar

In order to monitor the payload (if you are within 400 miles of launch area) you need just an FM receiver either handy or base, in 145.950 for repeater and/or 144.930 for APRS. The repeater, that is activated via 123 Hertz subtone, operates receiving voice FM in 435.950 kHz (-112dbm, 0,56 uV) and emits with 2W the received audio live on 145.950 kHz.

Simultaneously APRS data will be sent in Packet at 1200 bauds in 144.930, and also in 145.950.

The DTI APRS symbol would change from a Balloon (/O) during the ascent to a glider (/g) during parachute descent.

Payload would operate as voice repeater activated by 123 Hz subtone during 1 minute, a warning bip at 40 seconds will indicate telemetry is coming, which is emitted if the repeater is not in use, if in 20 seconds more voice repeater still in use a two bips will be heard signaling that short APRS packages will begin in the different frequencies, also every 5 minutes CW (telegraphy with tones of audio) with CQ + callsign (LU7AA), sequence#, ext. and int. centigrade temperatures and voltage of batteries, after which the cycle will repeat.

Experiment will also emit SSTV pictures in ROBOT-36 (36 seconds) in real time, showing what glider/Balloon sees. Every 5 minutes during ascent/descent and more spaced at high altitudes. (It can be received among others with MIXW, MMSTV & RX-SSTV ).

To study propagation and allow DX station to listen, balloon will also carry a 150 mW CW 7021 Khz transmitter, emiting callsign, sequence, external and internal temperatures and battery voltage.

Payload would also carry on board two TV cameras (one towards earth and another towards horizon) recording video and sound during the flight. These captured videos could be recovered when payload is recovered.

APRS trajectory could be seen every minute, including speed, height, external and internal temperatures and 7.2v battery voltage using UI-View (download from the UI-View official site on http://www.ui-view.org/) and/or to see/follow from Internet connecting to http://aprs.fi/?call=lu7aa-11 or locally via Packet at specified frequencies.

There are georeferenced Maps for UI-View in
http://www.amsat.org.ar/pico.jpg, http://www.amsat.org.ar/pico.txt.
Download and place them in directory Program Files/Peak Systems/UI-View32/MAPS and rename .txt file to .inf.

The experiment in 435.950 KHz besides voice, receives and accepts DTMF sequences commands on demand, I.E. sending B* (DTMF with handy keyboard on UHF) will return S5 … ….. in 145,950 VHF CW, reporting in CW signal strength received from your station, if S9+10 will returns P10.

There are also DTMF commands qualifying emission of CW tlm or APRS beacon or SSTV emission, commands that allows remote release of payload, mode changes, timers control, energy, power, etc.

Frequencies for previous coordination, announcements and flights will be 7090 Khz LSB +/-10 Khz and local repeaters.

During the flights will remain active wide coverage AMSAT-LU APRS Igate LU7AA-10 on 144.930 and 430.930 KHz, operating from the Constituyentes Investigation Center transferring whatever is received towards Internet.

For being an experiment oriented to a next satellite, the contacts made between stations via this payload will be considered valid for the recently announced permanent, gratuitous and applicable Satellite Certificate that AMSAT-LU and RClub QRM Belgrano grants, more info on http://www.amsat.org.ar/certsat.html.

During the Balloon flight, amateur groups will chase the payload, aiming to locate and recover. Trapping ventures holds on this activity, as in the case of the Pampero 15 Balloon sent from San Miguel del Monte which landed in the middle of the Magdalena’s state prison … See http://www.lu5egy.com/Proyecto_pampero/vuelo_15/n_1esk.htm

All reports welcome. If you wish or can organize or want be part of control, or like to pursuit and recovery, or like operating and capturing data as an independent station, and/or wishes to join us personally in this adventure from the launching places email us to parapente at amsat.org.ar.

We appreciate reading of this information and thankful if distribution possible.

73, LU7AA, Amsat-LU, aiming at the future by making the present funny.
Web: http://www.amsat.org.ar/
Email: info at amsat.org.ar

May 9 2012

2012 AMSAT Forum at Dayton – Saturday May 19 


The AMSAT Forum at the 2012 Dayton Hamvention will be on Saturday
morning May 19 from 11:15 to 13:30 in Forum Room 5. The moderator
will be Alan Biddle, WA4SCA

The speakers will be:

Barry Baines, WD4ASW;  AMSAT Status Report
------------------------------------------
Barry, AMSAT President, will highlight recent activities within
AMSAT, and discuss some of the challenges and accomplishments
of the organization.

Mark Hammond, N8MH;  AMSAT Educational Relationships
----------------------------------------------------
Mark, AMSAT VP of Educational Relationships, will discuss his
education activities.

Gould Smith, WA4SXM;  ARISSat-1 Operation in Space
--------------------------------------------------
Gould, AMSAT Project Manager for ARISSat-1, will talk about its
operation aboard the ISS, the  deployment and operations this past
fall and winter.

Tony Monteiro, AA2TX;  Project Fox - AMSAT's First CubeSat
----------------------------------------------------------
Tony, AMSAT Engineering VP, will discuss the design and status
of Project-FOX.

Howard Long, G6LVB; "FUN in Space for All!"
-------------------------------------------
Howard, AMSAT-UK Committee, will discuss the FUNcube project
which will enable amateurs and students to have FUN in space.
For amateurs, the spacecraft will carry conventional UHF to VHF
linear transponders. For students of all ages, the same space-
craft will provide strong telemetry transmissions which they can
easily receive at schools in support of science, technology,
engineering, and math subjects (STEM).

[ANS thanks Gould Smith, WA4SXM and Alan Biddle, WA4SCA for the
 above information]
May 5 2012

AO-27 Demo

AO-27 transmits with a power output of 0.5 W into a quarter-wavelength whip antenna. Satellites are approximately 500 miles (800 km) distant when directly overhead and over 2,000 miles (3,200 km) distant when near the horizon. For use on AO-27 with a half-wavelength whip, your receiver sensitivity at 436 MHz should be at least 0.18 uV for 12 dB SINAD, which corresponds to the approximate signal strength of AO-27 at 10 degrees elevation when your whip antenna is correctly positioned for the polarization of the incoming signal. At the horizon, AO-27’s signal strength, under similar conditions, is approximately 0.13 uV. Most modern, high-quality amateur radio transceivers will meet these specifications if designed to operate at this frequency (i.e., without modifications). Most scanners, and most radios which have had to be modified to cover 436 MHz, will not.
AO-27 transmits FM on about 436.795 MHz, plus/minus Doppler shift of up to 10 kHz on either side. Their uplink frequency is 145.850 MHz, plus/minus Doppler corrections of up to approximately 3.4 kHz.
by Ray Soifer, W2RS

Continue reading →

Apr 27 2012

Multi-Cubesat Launcher Built by Naval Postgraduate School.

Vidur Kaushish, a student at the Naval Postgraduate School, works on the NPS CubeSat Launcher. (Courtesy NPS website)

Students at the Naval Postgraduate School have developed an auxiliary payload platform that will permit the launch of as many as 24 cubesats at a time. AMSAT News Service reports that the NPS CubeSat Launcher is designed to release satellites one at a time by opening spring-loaded doors at the desired orbital altitude. The first launch, slated to carry 11 cubesats, is planned for this August.

 

Apr 21 2012

Sponsor Plaques Fitted at National Radio Centre

Dave Johnson G4DPZ with NRC Sponsor Plaques 2560

Dave Johnson G4DPZ with NRC Sponsor Plaques

Sponsor plaques have now been fitted in the reception to the RSGB National Radio Centre at Bletchley Park.

Dave Johnson G4DPZ is one of a number of individuals and organisations who either gave freely of their time or supplied equipment to make the National Radio Centre the premier exhibition that it is.

AMSAT-UK donated the WiMo X quads for 144 and 430 MHz along with pre amps and polarisation switches for the amateur radio satellite station. They are connected to a Kenwood TS-2000 loaned by Kenwood Electronics.

A full list of NRC sponsors can be seen at http://www.nationalradiocentre.com/nrc-sponsors.php

AMSAT-UK on Amateur Radio Satellites for World Amateur Radio Day http://www.uk.amsat.org/6516

Apr 9 2012

PY4ZBZ captures stunning image from Noaa 15 using AMSAT-UK FUNcube Dongle.

Roland (PY4ZBZ) used an AMSAT-UK FUNcube Dongle VHF/UHF software defined radio to capture this stunning image from Noaa 15

Noaa 15 Image

“NOAA-15 vertical pass over my QTH
Sete Lagoas GH70un Brasil
Received with FCD+DCA antenna+Spectravue”

The FUNcube Dongle was developed as part of the educational outreach for AMSAT-UK FUNcube satellite project. Although it was designed  to enable school students to receive the satellite beacon the wide frequency coverage of 64 – 1700MHz has meant that it can be used for many other applications.

The AMSAT-UK FUNcube Dongle VHF/UHF SDR is available at http://www.FUNcubeDongle.com/
It is also sold by Martin Lynch & Sons (ML&S) at http://tinyurl.com/MLandS-FCD

FUNcube Yahoo Group http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FUNcube