Category Archives: Space

Just catching up on a few things spewing forth from the internetz.

From the Great Minds Think Alike Department, Jeff KE9V suggests that the world needs a really good transceiver focused on 50 MHz and higher. I’ve always had this irrational attraction to VHF and higher and would love to have a solid radio in this category.

Don’t miss the Jamboree On The Air (JOTA) this weekend. Also, take a look at this ARRL article on Radio Scouting. Our local Scout troop will be on the air as KB0SA for JOTA.

Based on the blog posting by Jerry KD0BIK, I picked up a Kelty Redwing backpack, for SOTA and other hiking activities. The 20% off coupon for REI was a good incentive to pick up the pack.

I managed to miss the 2012 Pacificon hamfest. Early in the year, I figured out that I needed to be in the San Francisco area right around the Pacificon date, so it looked like a sure thing. Unfortunately, circumstances changed and I missed it again this year. I keep hearing great things about Pacificon so it may be the best hamfest in the USA, based on a quality venue and great programs. I will have to wait until next year to validate this theory.

The LA Times has a great time-lapse photography video of space shuttle Endeavor moving through the streets of LA. Check it out.

HamRadioSchool.com has a neat video of a flagpole vertical antenna getting installed. There’s some really good content on that website. But I might be biased, since I’ve been contributing a few articles under the Shack Talk banner.

My buddy Ken WA6TTY has written a review of the new ARRL RFI Book. Ken is an EMC expert and does an excellent job of reviewing the book.

– 73, Bob K0NR

Every once in a while, I stumble onto something that just makes me think “holy cow, how did they do THAT?”

The most recent is the German AMSAT group ( AMSAT DL) transmitted a signal to Venus and received the reflected signal as it came back to earth.

From the AMSAT (US) web site:

AMSAT-DL Achieves Outstanding Technical First:
Earth-Venus-Earth Path

Marburg, 27 March 2009 – On March 25, 2009 the AMSAT-DL team in Germany attained a major milestone in their mission to send a spacecraft to Mars. The team used their mission control station at the IUZ Sternwarte Observatory in Bochum to transmit a radio signal to Venus. After approximately 5 minutes delay and after traveling nearly 100 million kilometers the reflected signal from the surface of Venus was received. This was the first time a German station has received echoes of signals from other planets.

You may be aware that it is a common feat for radio amateurs to bounce signals off the moon and hear the return signal. Hardcore VHF enthusiasts contact each other on the VHF and higher bands by using the moon as a reflector. (Sometimes I kid them that using the moon as a “repeater” is cheating. Of course, it is nothing like that.) This mode is called Earth-Moon-Earth (EME) or simply Moonbounce. The path loss is high, around 250 to 310 dB, so high gain antennas and power amplifiers are required. EME is still on My List of Things to Do and I hope to get around to it someday.

If EME is an accomplishment, then consider the challenge of Earth-Venus-Earth (EVE).  The original press release is in German but the information is available in English on the Southgate Amateur Radio Club web page.  The signal traveled almost 100 million kilometers which results in a round trip delay of about 5 minutes. This is over 100 times the distance for EME.  The frequency used was 2.4 GHz, with an FFT analysis used to pull the signal out of the noise (with an integration time of 5 minutes). I have not seen an analysis of the path loss, so we’ll just use call it ginormous.

Why did AMSAT-DL decide to do this? Well, they want to prove out the feasibility of communications before they launch their spacecraft towards Mars!

73, Bob K0NR

I pulled this from the AMSAT-BB email list
(a good update on the NA1SS activity this week by Richard Garriott):

Date: Tue, 21 Oct 2008 20:48:26 -0400
From: “Frank H. Bauer” <ka3hdo@comcast.net>
Subject: [amsat-bb] ARISS Update October 21, 2008
To: <amsat-bb@amsat.org>

All,

I think you all can agree that this has been a stellar and an historic week for Amateur Radio on the International Space Station!

Speaking on behalf of the ARISS international team of volunteers and the AMSAT community, we really appreciate the overwhelming flood of positive comments that we have received from the ham radio community and the general public regarding the ham radio operations on ISS this past week.
Collectively, we have all made history..starting with Richard, W5KWQ and his father Owen, W5LFL and continuing with all of you that participated and/or volunteered in his ISS journey. And along the way, we have sparked the imaginations of thousands of students. Got more interest in satellite operations. And, I understand, excited some youths to the point where they are now licensed.

Richard Garriott, W5KWQ has been extremely prolific on the ARISS ham radio system, making hundreds of voice contacts, operating the packet system during the crew sleep times and transmitting hundreds of SSTV images throughout the day. He put the newest ARISS hardware, the Kenwood VC-H1 to good use, performing the vast majority of contacts with this hardware system coupled with the Kenwood D700 Transciever. The remaining SSTV downlinks were performed with the software-based SSTV system—using either the SpaceCam software or MMSSTV software that are on-board ISS. Given the limited availability of ISS computer systems, the ARISS team will continue to utilize the VC-H1 well after Richard’s flight. So don’t be surprised if you see some VC-H1 SSTV operations from Mike Fincke, KE5AIT, during his stay as the commander of Expedition 18.

The team apologizes for the temporary shut-down of the ARISS SSTV server. We have been a victim of our own success in that the site has been overwhelmed by the popularity of Richard’s SSTV images. We hope to get the system operational very soon. This may take a URL change, so please check the listservs and the ARISS SSTV blog http://www.ariss-sstv.blogspot.com/ for updated information. http://www.ariss.org will also carry updates.

ARISS Development and Operations

As a reminder to all, the ARISS team is an international volunteer working group that is sponsored by three major entities in each ISS region—the National Amateur Radio Society, the International AMSAT organization and the National Space Agency. The 5 regions that comprise the ISS development are Canada, Europe Japan, Russia, and the USA. In the USA, the two ham radio sponsors are the ARRL and AMSAT-NA. NASA is the USA space agency sponsor. Over 12 years ago, the formulation of the ARISS working group was a specific request from NASA. They wanted the amateur radio community to internationally consolidate into one team all the development and operations of the ISS Ham radio system. This specific request from NASA, and ultimately the other space agencies, was to provide a single focus of ham radio on ISS within the amateur radio community and within the space agencies. As a result, the 5 international delegations that make up ARISS tightly coordinate the day-to-day mission operations as well as the strategic hardware development planning and implementation. The success of this past week would not have been realized without this tight coordination, particularly between our Russian colleagues, led by Sergey Samburov, RV3DR
and our international operations team, led by Will Marchant, KC6ROL.

Individuals are always welcome to volunteer their support to ARISS through their regional delegation. Please see the ARISS web site http://www.ariss.org for more information on your regional delegates.

Voice QSOs

We have received some reports of individuals providing advice to the ISS on-orbit crew or making specifc requests to the ISS crew to change or modify the ARISS hardware, on-board software or ham radio operations. The ARISS team would like to remind the amateur community that we all have a duty to the international space agencies to coordinate ISS ham radio operations through ARISS. Our advice to you is that if you have a specific request or idea, that you forward it to one of the ARISS international delegates or
ARISS team leaders. These individuals are identified on the ARISS web site http://www.ariss.org. Also, please remember that there are a *lot* of hams that would like to get their QSO with the ISS (including me!) So please use courtesy and keep your contact short. And once you have made a contact, please do not go for a repeat despite the intense temptation to do so. I think you all know that this is an “open” hobby. So all are listening in, observing and remembering your operating habits.

On behalf of the ARISS team, I thank you all for your interest in Ham Radio on ISS. Enjoy the contacts! And remember the ARISS teams and organizations that have made the ham radio system on ISS such a tremendous success. This includes the national amateur radio societies and international AMSAT organizations. As well as the international space agencies and the ISS on-board crew members.

73, Frank Bauer, KA3HDO
AMSAT-V.P. for Human Spaceflight Programs
ARISS International Chairman

Richard Garriott, W5KWQ is on his way to the International Space Station (ISS) as the sixth “space tourist” riding on a Soyuz spacecraft. This would be just another rich guy buys a ride into space story, except that Richard is a ham radio operator, a successful technogeek and the son of a famous astronaut.

For me, the story starts back in November of 1983 when the Space Shuttle mission STS-9 included an astronaut named Owen Garriott, who is a radio amateur (W5LFL). This was the first flight that had SAREX (Space Amateur Radio Experiment) on board, which was a modified commercial VHF FM handheld radio set for the 2-Meter ham band. Everyone was listening for the first ham radio transmissions from space, myself included. I was living in the greater Seattle area at the time and I happened to hear the first transmission between W5LFL on the Shuttle Columbia and WA1JXN in Montana. Columbia was coming in over the Pacific Ocean and I could hear W5LFL very clearly. So clearly, I wondered if it was really him (or could some local guy on 2M FM be messing with us.) In retrospect, I should have known….after all, a transmission from the shuttle overhead is a slam-dunk, line-of-sight piece of cake QSO on 2 Meters. AA5TB has made a few audio recordings of W5LFL radio transmissions available on the web.

Owen Garriott’s son Richard wanted to follow in his dad’s footsteps as an astronaut, but found out as a kid that his eyesight would keep him out of the astronaut corps. There is a great article in Wired magazine that gives the background on Richard’s journey into space. (If you are interested in this story at all, the Wired article is a must read.) Richard has his own RichardInSpace website that is also interesting. So instead of being an astronaut, he ends up writing computer gaming software and makes millions of dollars. (Apparently, Richard is famous in the computer gaming world.) Not a bad tradeoff, I suppose, as he is now able to pay for the ride up to the ISS.

While the ARRL announcement tells about the ham radio side of the story, the mainstream media has picked up on the “son follows father into space” story, sometimes with a mention of ham radio. Richard plans to transmit pictures from space using Slow-Scan Television (SSTV). The ARISS (Amateur Radio aboard International Space Station) sent out this announcement:

The ARISS team received word from ARISS Russia delegate Sergey Samburov,
RV3DR, that the current ISS crew expect to transmit SSTV on October 12 from 18:00-21:00 UTC. This is your opportunity to test out your SSTV reception capability and to post images on the ARISS SSTV Gallery. The planned downlink for this operation will be 145.80 MHz with Robot 36 as the expected SSTV mode of operation.

You should be able to receive these photos yourself by using an FM receiver on 145.80 MHz, a PC with soundcard and the MMSSTV software. Oh, the ISS needs to be within radio range, which means you need to figure out how to track it in real time. Or just go to this NASA website. The ARISS team has established a blog for providing updates on the SSTV operation and a web page for sharing of SSTV photos from around the world.

Just so it doesn’t get missed: there is another radio amateur on board, Mike Fincke (KE5AIT). Some web pages to watch for current information include http://www.ariss.org/, http://www.amsat.org/, http://www.arrl.org/ and http://www.issfanclub.com/ .

All of this is very interesting to me, taking me back to 1983. Then, I realize that was 25 years ago. Is the space shuttle really that old? Afraid so.

73, Bob K0NR

Update 22 Oct 2008:

Richard has been active on voice using NA1SS….also SSTV. I’ve heard him multiple times but haven’t been able to work him yet. There is a great video out on YouTube with SSTV pictures and audio recordings.

I had previously reported that Bill McArthur KC5ACR was very active on 2M FM from the International Space Station (ISS) using the ISS callsign NA1SS. Bill took up the challenge of completing WAS and WAC (and accomplished it). The high point for me was working NA1SS on Dec 5, 2005.

Bill was at the Dayton Hamvention this year and did a presentation on his experience with ham radio on the ISS. I also had the opportunity to meet Bill later in the day and thank him for energizing the ham radio community via his ARISS radio operating. We chatted briefly and I managed to get a photo of the two of us together.

73, Bob K0NR

Here’s a note from Bill McArthur KC5ACR, thanking the ham community for their support. He needs to thank us? After hearing Bill chat with school kids and lots of hams, I conclude that he is one fine ham. Thanks to you, Bill!

73, Bob K0NR

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 085.03
From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.
March 26, 2006
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-085.03

To the Amateur Radio Community,

As Expedition 12 draws to a close onboard the International
Space Station, a note of gratitude is due.

I would like to express my deep gratitude to the world-wide
amateur radio community for your participation in this great
adventure. Clearly, one of the benefits for Amateur Radio
is bridging the distances between us. Through your parti-
cipation, you helped realize the potential for the human
exploration of space to do exactly that. Thanks to you,
over the past six months, the International Space Station
has been more international than ever before. Together,
we achieved many significant milestones from space, DXCC,
WAC, WAS, and most importantly, 35 school contacts
(as of March 21).

Special thanks go to Kenneth Ransom, N5VHO, without whose
tireless efforts to coordinate our activities onboard none
of this could have been achieved. Kenneth provided invaluable
technical advice, as well as raising the bar as each goal was
achieved. I would also like to thank the ISS Fan Club for
your enthusiastic support of ARISS. And personal thanks
to Cor – PD0RKC in The Netherlands, Alain – IZ6BYY in Italy,
Keith – ZS6TW in S. Africa, and Patrick – WD9EWK in Arizona
for enlisting the participation of the stations we needed
to meet the goals for Expedition 12.

It is with no small degree of sadness to realize that soon
I will no longer be able to float to the aft part of the
station, dial up our frequency pair and call “CQ”, knowing
that a host of friends are waiting to talk. Good luck to
you all. Thank you, again, for your participation in this
greatest of all human endeavors. I look forward to listening
as you continue your enthusiastic support of the International
Space Station and, one day, human colonies on the Moon and Mars.

73 de NA1SS
Bill McArthur, KC5ACR
Commander, Expedition 12
International Space Station