------------------------------------------------------------------------ Echo Flag : Permanent: N Export: N Personal Read: N BBS: SWEDX Conference: r.r.a.info Imported: 4/12/1994 To: ALL Num: 6363 Date: 4/08/1994 From: STEPHEN HOLMSTEAD Re: Time: 7:33 pm Subj: MONTHLY POSTING:Ham Satel Prvt: N Read: N From: stephen@hpdmlge.boi.hp.com (Stephen Holmstead) REVISION: 8 APR 1994 CONTENTS: Forward - my ramblings Bibliography - list of sources and how to get more information Modes - common satellite operating modes Satellites - descriptions and background history of common satellite Antennas - discussion of what works best Preamps - discussion of what is needed Rigs - popular satellite rigs and features Accessories and Other Stuff - things that make satellte operation easier Frequencies - list of most hamsats with uplink/downlink freq/modes FORWARD: Having recently started to get into Satellites, I asked MANY people what it took to get started and what to do. I found few people who could offer all the information necessary to start. I have attempted to compile this information for future newbies. If I have missed something, please ask and I will attempt to add it to the collection. Any comments can be sent directly to me, stephen@mail.boi.hp.com. Copies of this article should be available in the following locations: oak.oakland.edu:/pub/hamradio/docs/faq ftp.cs.buffalo.edu:/pub/ham-radio Clear Skies BBS (608)249-7130 Also, if you really want to get serious about satellites, I would STRONGLY recommend joining AMSAT to help promote the satellite hobby. AMSAT is a volunteer organization that works for the interests of amateur satellites. Dues are only US$30 per year and you will receive a subscription to "The AMSAT Journal". For US$80, you will receive first year dues and a copy of Instant Track computer tracking software which is a top-notch program. Instant Track was donated to AMSAT by its author and its sales account for a considerable portion of AMSAT's income. AMSAT-NA, 850 Sligo Avenue, Silver Spring, MD 20910-4703. (301) 589-6062. Credit cards welcome. NOTE: I am in no way connected with AMSAT-NA, other than I have found their publications quite useful. BIBLIOGRAPHY: The following text was compiled from the following sources and from comments from many operators: * "How to use the EZSATS pass tables by N9LTD" reprinted with permission. Full text, tables, and lots of other useful information can be obtained by sending a SASE to David Mullenix N9LTD, 2052 Brentwood Pky, Madison, WI 53704 or call the Clear Skies BBS at (608)249-7130. * "Amateur Radio Satellite Frequencies" This file can be obtained from the ARRL e-mail server. For information on the server, send an e-mail message to info-serv@arrl.org with 'HELP' in body of message. * "Summary - Getting onto the Hamsats" This was an article posted to rec.radio.amateur.misc newsgroup by Stephan Greene (sgreene@access.digex.com) on 20 Mar 1992. The article is also available via anon ftp from ftp.cs.buffalo.edu or Australian mirror at grivel.une.edu.au as file pub/hamradio/ham_sat_sum. * "An Amatuer Satellite Operation Upgrade Path" from the AMSAT Journal, September/October 1993, pp. 24-26. MODES: The combination of uplink freq, downlink freq, and transmission mode are all lumped together into standardized satellite MODES. Here is a list of common satellite modes used by satellites covered by this article: A - This mode requires a 2 meter SSB/CW trasmitter and a 10 meter SSB/CW receiver and supports CW and voice. B - This mode requires a 70 cm SSB/CW transmitter and a 2 meter SSB/CW receiver and supports CW and voice. Some satellites also support RTTY and SSTV in this mode. K - This mode requires a 15 meter SSB/CW transmitter and a 10 meter SSB/CW receiver and supports CW and voice. This mode is unique in that it can be done with a simple HF rig. JA- This mode stands for J Analog and requires a 2 meter SSB/CW transmitter and a 70 cm SSB/CW receiver and supports CW, voice. JD- This mode stands for J Digital and requires a 2 meter FM transmitter and and a 70 cm SSB/CW receiver and supports packet. S - This mode requires a 70 cm SSB/CW transmitter and a 2.4 GHz SSB/CW receiver and supports CW and voice. Many people use a 2.4 GHz to 2 meter converter with a 2 meter SSB/CW receiver instead of buying a 2.4 GHz SSB/CW receiver. T - This mode requires a 15 meter SSB/CW transmitter and a 2 meter SSB/CW receiver and supports CW and voice. Some satellites have dual modes that operate simultaneously. For example, AO-13 can operate in mode BS which means that it can do both mode B and mode S simulaneously. Other common dual modes are KT and KA. Also, satellites have 3 basic types of retransmissions: beacon, transponder, and repeater. Beacon - Most satellites have a fixed Morse beacon at the lower end of the satellites band-pass transponder. This is useful to detect when the satellite has crossed the horizon and is in range for operation. It can also be used to determine dopler shifts. Transponder - A transponder is a band-pass repeater. It accepts a range of frequencies on the input and retransmits the entire range on the output. All offsets withing that range are preserved. NOTE: since the satellite is transmitting many signals at the same time, it is dividing its output power amongst all of these signals. If someone transmits a very powerful signal into the satellite, it will spend most of its power retransmitting that signal and all of the other signals will drop in power. This is NOT a way to earn friends and people who overpower the satellites input are called "alligators" and are not very popular. Repeater - This closely resembles a land-based repeater. It listens for signals on one frequency and retransmits it on another frequency. All satellite repeaters (and transponders) are full duplex, meaning you can (and should) listen to you signal on the downlink (with headphones) while you are transmitting. SATELLITES: Some satellites are easier to work than others. The satellites that follow can be operated fairly easily and are referred to by some as the Easy Sats. What follows is a breif description of each satellite. A summary list of operating frequencies is included later. Mir Mir (promounced "mere" - "Peace" in Russian) is the Russian Space Station. It's been in orbit since 1986. All recent Russian Cosmonauts have been hams and have callsigns with "MIR" in them, such as U2MIR. Mir has 2-meter equipment on board and they operate packet and voice on 145.55 MHz. (This is the same freq as the Space Shuttles.) The cosmonauts also have a digital voice recorder which can repeatedly transmit voice announcements. The best way to get a QSL card from Mir is to connect to their TNC's mailbox, R0MIR-1, (That's R Zero MIR) leave a message AND GET A MESSAGE NUMBER. You must have the message number to qualify for a QSL. The TNC is often busy because amatuers forget to disconnect before Mir goes under their horizon. In a case like this, try connecting to yourself or a friend VIA R0MIR. And if you hear a heavily accented voice calling CQ, by all means say hello! 70 cm and ATV gear is being prepared for future flights! QSL Address: Sergei Samburov (RV3DR) Prospect Kosmonavtov. d.36, kw.96 Kaliningrad City, MOSCOW 141070, RUSSIA. Sergei can also be reached via packet radio as RV3DR @ RK3KP.#MSK.RUS.EU A special note on caculating Mir's orbit: Mir is big and it's in a low orbit. This means that there's a lot of atmospheric drag and it has to fire its rockets every month or two to boost itself back up or it would have re-entered and burned up long ago. Unfortunately, whenever this happens, it throws off all pass predictions. When this happens, Mir will arrive LATER than predicted, so if you tune to 145.55 and nothing happens at the predicted time, keep waiting, it may be along in 10-30 minutes. SEEING MIR: Mir is also the only EZSAT that can bee seen. Mir is very big, about the size of a semi-trailer, and when it comes over just after sunset or just before sunrise, you can often see it go by. This is because Mir will still be in sunlight whil you're in the earth's shadow. In these cases, Mir looks like a very bright star gliding acress the sky. It's a beautiful sight and well worth looking for. It's best to use a tracking program set to VISUAL to find visible passes. The best such programs will even draw you a star map and show you Mir's path across it. Don't forget to tune to 145.55 when you see it. Also, don't forget to get on the local repeater and tell people when you spot it so that others can share in the fun. RS-10/11, RS-12/13, OSCAR-21(RS-14) These three satellites are all in 600 mile high polar orbits, which carry them over the US six to eight times a day for 10-18 minutes at a time. They all have orbital periods of about 95 minutes and we typically get two sets of three or four passes spaced 95 minutes apart. The two sets of passes are spaced 12 hours apart and their passes come a little earlier each day because their orbits don't take quite exacly 95 minutes. These satellites all have a coverage circle about 4000 miles in diameter, so when they're about the horizon, you can use them to work hams anywhere in the conteinental US, Canada, Alaska, Mexico, Central America, South America down to the Equator, the Caribbean, Greenland, Iceland and parts of Scandinavia. Eastern hams can work Europe and the West can work Hawaii. All of these satellites are in boxes that are bolted to larger Russian satellites and draw their power from the large satellite's solar cells. They are VERY easy to hear and fairly simple to work. OSCAR-21 My favorite satellite. This is a German/Russian radio that uses a Digital Signal Processor (DSP) chip and it is Flexible with a capital "F"! It was launched in January, 1990 configured as a linear translator which received a band of 70 cm CW and SSB signals and relayed them on 2 meters. The bird was, to put it mildly, under-utilized. Then in 1992 the DSP chip was reprogrammed in orbit into a cross band FM repeater! If you've been wondering if DSP is as powerful as you've heard, now you know! In the past year, it's telemetry has been re-programmed from an obscure format to standard 1200 baud packet. WEFAX pictures (which are uploaded by teh ground controllers) were added in December 1993. (This is the same format used by many weather sats and short wave weather stations.) OSCAR-21 has an input frequency of 435.016 MHz, but 435.015 works just fine. It's output frequency is 145.987 MHz, but 145.985 or 145.990 will recieve it quite well. It has a strong transmitter and a ground plane antenna and most HTs have no trouble picking its signals up when it passes over. Mobiles and base stations with omni antennas will receive it full quieting. You can get into this bird with 20 watts and a six element beam antenna. I mount my beam on a photo tripod next to my car and run coax to my dual band mobile. You have to point the beam accurately, so I take a list of altitude and azimuth bearing generated by simple tracking software out with me and re-point the beam once a minute. In one summer, I worked the east and west coasts, several Canadians, Texas and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba before fall's cold weather drove me indoors. Some OSCAR-21 tips: you can hardly get a word in edgewise during "prime time" opening passes. Try the late night passes instead, they're much less crowded. OSCAR-21's transmit and recieve polarity rotate constantly during a +++ Hewlett Packard --- UUGate/2 v0.27(OS/2) * Origin: Internet gateway (cindy) (2:200/427.3)