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Dayton Hamvention AMSAT Demonstration Plans

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AMSAT will again have a demo station at the Dayton Hamvention this year. The station will be located outside the main entrance to Ball Arena, near the AMSAT booth.

This year, the focus of many of the demonstrations will be on the use of inexpensive software defined radio (SDR) equipment as a downlink receiver. Using an SDR like a FUNcube Dongle Pro+, SDRPlay, or AirSpy allows owners of common all-mode transceivers with VHF/UHF functionality (such as the Yaesu FT-817, Yaesu FT-857, Icom
IC-706MKIIG, or Icom IC-7100) to add full duplex satellite capability for use with linear transponder satellites at minimal cost. The receiver used will consist of a FUNcube Dongle Pro+ with a low cost 10.1″ Windows 10 tablet.

We may also use other radio combinations during the weekend.

Demos will take place during satellite passes from 8:00am (12:00 UTC) until 5:00pm (21:00 UTC) on Friday and Saturday and from 8:00am until 12:00pm (16:00 UTC) on Sunday. Please keep in mind that the RF environment at the Hamvention is challenging and the arena blocks low elevations to the north and northwest. Due to these factors, we will only be attempting passes with a peak elevation greater than 10 degrees. Please stop by for any satellite pass or at any other time if you have questions about satellite operating.

A special demonstration on SO-50 will take place during the 12:19pm (16:19 UTC) pass on Saturday May 21st. Nine year old Hope Lea, KM4IPF, will operate that pass after completing her talk at the ARRL Youth Forum.

If you are not attending the Hamvention, please call us if you hear the AMSAT demo station on the air!

Paul Stoetzer, N8HM, and Keith Pugh, W5IU, at the AMSAT Dayton Demo Station in 2014
Paul Stoetzer, N8HM, and Keith Pugh, W5IU, at the AMSAT Dayton Demo Station in 2014

AMSAT DAYTON HAMVENTION DEMOS – 2016

TZ = UTC

N 39.820328 W 84.255224 ELEV. 296 M

MIN PEAK ELEV. = 10 DEG

GRID = EM79ut

* = Listen Only Pass – Telemetry, Doppler, Ant. Perf, etc.

WinAos QTH: -84.3/39.8 T#: 14019 Sat.: 12 [Standard]
———————————————————-
Day Objects AOS (U) LOS Period maxEl AZ
———————————————————-
20.05.2016 XW-2A 12:17 12:26 09 62 016 – 187
20.05.2016 ISS * 12:28 12:37 09 40 300 – 143
20.05.2016 NO-84 * 12:28 12:38 10 21 294 – 168
20.05.2016 AO-85 12:45 12:59 14 62 200 – 036
20.05.2016 XW-2F 12:52 13:01 09 19 351 – 224
20.05.2016 AO-85 14:26 14:40 14 23 249 – 025
20.05.2016 AO-73 14:51 15:02 11 56 018 – 185
20.05.2016 EO-79 * 15:04 15:14 10 14 119 – 004
20.05.2016 SO-50 15:53 16:06 13 50 332 – 137
20.05.2016 FO-29 16:01 16:17 16 18 111 – 358
20.05.2016 AO-73 16:28 16:36 08 11 343 – 242
20.05.2016 EO-79 * 16:39 16:50 11 49 180 – 343
20.05.2016 SPROUT * 16:50 16:59 09 14 039 – 152
20.05.2016 UKUBE-1 * 16:57 17:08 11 30 025 – 171
20.05.2016 SO-50 17:34 17:45 11 17 309 – 187
20.05.2016 FO-29 17:43 18:02 19 88 163 – 348
20.05.2016 AO-07 18:12 18:28 16 15 099 – 356
20.05.2016 SPROUT * 18:25 18:36 11 44 004 – 209
20.05.2016 UKUBE-1 * 18:33 18:44 11 22 357 – 225
20.05.2016 FO-29 19:31 19:46 15 16 219 – 331
20.05.2016 AO-07 20:01 20:22 21 67 150 – 346

WinAos QTH: -84.3/39.8 T#: 14020 Sat.: 12 [Standard]
———————————————————-
Day Objects AOS (U) LOS Period maxEl AZ
———————————————————-
21.05.2016 NO-84 * 12:04 12:14 10 22 295 – 167
21.05.2016 XW-2F 12:39 12:49 10 26 358 – 217
21.05.2016 AO-85 13:11 13:25 14 59 222 – 030
21.05.2016 XW-2C 13:12 13:20 08 11 345 – 238
21.05.2016 XW-2A 13:17 13:26 09 19 353 – 223
21.05.2016 SO-50 14:38 14:50 12 17 340 – 108
21.05.2016 AO-85 14:54 15:05 11 12 274 – 021
21.05.2016 AO-73 15:10 15:21 11 80 011 – 196
21.05.2016 EO-79 * 15:16 15:26 10 18 127 – 004
21.05.2016 SO-50 16:19 16:31 12 61 324 – 157
21.05.2016 FO-29 16:49 17:08 19 39 137 – 353
21.05.2016 EO-79 * 16:51 17:02 11 36 187 – 339
21.05.2016 SPROUT * 17:04 17:15 11 21 029 – 163
21.05.2016 UKUBE-1 * 17:14 17:26 12 45 020 – 182
21.05.2016 FO-29 18:34 18:53 19 42 189 – 342
21.05.2016 SPROUT * 18:40 18:51 11 30 360 – 217
21.05.2016 UKUBE-1 * 18:51 19:00 09 15 349 – 237
21.05.2016 AO-07 19:03 19:22 19 31 122 – 351
21.05.2016 AO-85 20:04 20:14 10 15 345 – 100
21.05.2016 AO-07 20:54 21:15 21 61 173 – 341

WinAos QTH: -84.3/39.8 T#: 14021 Sat.: 12 [Standard]
———————————————————-
Day Objects AOS (U) LOS Period maxEl AZ
———————————————————-
22.05.2016 ISS * 12:19 12:27 08 17 288 – 162
22.05.2016 XW-2F 12:27 12:37 10 36 001 – 210
22.05.2016 XW-2A 12:44 12:54 10 47 006 – 203
22.05.2016 XW-2C 13:00 13:09 09 16 350 – 229
22.05.2016 AO-85 13:37 13:51 14 29 242 – 026
22.05.2016 AO-73 13:53 14:02 09 12 037 – 147
22.05.2016 SO-50 15:04 15:16 12 35 337 – 128
22.05.2016 EO-79 * 15:28 15:39 11 24 135 – 359
22.05.2016 AO-73 15:29 15:40 11 48 005 – 206
22.05.2016 FO-29 15:56 16:12 16 17 110 – 359

CY9C DXpedition to St. Paul Island Announces Satellite Operation

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The CY9C DXpedition to St. Paul Island, scheduled for August 19, 2016 – August 29, 2016, has announced that Lee Imber, WW2DX, has joined the DXpedition team and will add satellite operations, as well as 2 meter EME and 6 meter operations, to the DXpedition plans.

St. Paul Island is located in gridsquare FN97 in the Cabot Strait between Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia and Cape Ray, Newfoundland and is a separate entity on the ARRL DXCC list. It also counts as a country for the AMSAT OSCAR Satellite Communications Achievement Award, AMSAT OSCAR Sexagesimal Award, and AMSAT OSCAR Century Award. Most of Europe and North America should be easily workable from this location. St. Paul Island has not been activated on satellite since July 1998.

For further information about the DXpedition, please see the CY9C DXpedition website.

This operation and other planned amateur satellite grid/DX operations are posted on the AMSAT Upcoming Satellite Operations page.

Spraycan-lighthouse
Lighthouse on St. Paul Island

ÑuSat-1 to Carry AMSAT Argentina Linear Transponder – Launch Scheduled for May 30, 2016

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The Argentinian earth observation satellite ÑuSat-1 will carry a linear transponder built by AMSAT Argentina. The satellite is scheduled to launch on a CZ-4B rocket from Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in China on May 30, 2016 into a 500 km sun-synchronous orbit with an inclination of 97.5 degrees and a Local Time of the Ascending Node (LTAN) of 10:30.

The AMSAT Argentina U/v inverting transponder, named LUSEX, wiil have an uplink of 435.935 MHz to 435.965 MHz and a downlink of 145.935 MHz to 145.965 MHz. Total power output is 250 mW. There will also be a CW beacon at 145.900 MHz with a power output of 70 mW.

For more information, see the AMSAT Argentina Facebook group.

UPDATE:  A website with preliminiary Keplerian elements and further information is now live at http://lusex.org.ar/

12932861_1060516537339676_6532789529620124104_n

The AMSAT Argentina LUSEX transponder board. (Photo courtesy AMSAT Argentina)

LUSEX on  ÑuSat-1 – Launch Scheduled May 30, 2016
Uplink LSB 435.965 MHz through 435.935 MHz
Downlink USB 145.935 MHz through 145.965 MHz
70 mW CW beacon 145.900 MHz

OUFTI-1 D-STAR Repeater Satellite Scheduled for Launch Today

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UPDATE: The preliminary keps listed below are incorrect. Use these for the three cubesats until new keps are released.

AAUSAT4
1 00003U 00001A 16116.99330001 .00000000 00000-0 00000-0 0 0018
2 00003 98.2172 124.4782 0152400 241.4610 358.4169 15.02516156 00011

From Stefan Dombrowski, ON6TI: 

OUFTI-1, the first D-STAR repeater in space, is currently on the launchpad in Kourou, French Guiana. The launch is scheduled for Monday, April 25th at 21:02:11 UTC.

On board this Fregat flight, VS14. are Sentinel-1B, Microscope, Norsat-1 as well as 3 cubesats participating at ESA’s “Fly Your Satellite” programme. Those 3 cubesats are:

AAUSAT-4 is an initiative of the University of Aalborg, Denmark and will have as primary payload an AIS receiver to allow tracking of ships. AAUSAT-4 will transmit on 437.425 MHz using CW and the CSP spacelink format. Further information is available on the homepage http://www.space.aau.dk/aausat4/

e-st@r-II is an initiative of the University of Turin, Italy and will transmit a CW beacon on 437.485 MHz. More information is available at http://www.cubesatteam-polito.com/operations/radio-amateurs/

Finally, OUFTI-1 is a cubesat designed at the University of Liège, Belgium. One of its payloads is a complete D-STAR repeater. The initial mode will be a CW beacon on 145.980 MHz. Technical details and the software to decode its telemetry can be found on http://events.ulg.ac.be/oufti-1/radioamateurs/
The CW beacon will transmit periodically for 2 minutes followed by 1 minute of silence.
The AX25 beacon will be turned on later, once the attitude of the satellite has stabilized.
Following timing is expected on Monday, April 25th:

Launch: 21:02:11 UTC (you can watch this live on http://www.esa.int/spaceinvideos/esalive)
Separation: 23:50:24 UTC
Activation: 00:20:24 UTC (Tuesday)

OUFTI-1 and e-st@r-II will start transmitting just in reach of Mexico. 1st pass over the US will be a few minutes later, covering around 00:32:00 UTC the whole US with a very high elevation. The next pass around 02:00:45 UTC will benefit the western half of the US.

The preliminary TLE’s for all 3 cubesats are

OUFTI-1
1 99999U 16116.99345058 .00011869 00000-0 69250-3 0 00006
2 99999 098.1425 127.7912 0173917 231.5709 358.3214 15.00025810000019

Reception reports are welcome on the IRC http://webchat.freenode.net/?channels=#cubesat

jacques_verly_on9cwd_and_amandine_denis_on4eya_with-oufti-1