Ham Radio - Unmanned Spaceflight.com

Ham Radio

djellison View Member Profile	Jul 2 2009, 08:31 AM Post #1
Founder Group: Chairman Posts: 14432 Joined: 8-February 04 Member No.: 1	Anyone on UMSF into Ham Radio? I'm thinking of getting in to it, but only as a means to an ends (setting up a groundstation for Balloon flights, and Cubesats) I'm booked into the Amsat UK conference at the end of July in Guildford. I know a few of the CUSpaceflight badgerworks guys are going to be there. My current plan is to grab a fairly cheap UHF/VHF handheld to get my license with. A hand-held UHF/VHF arrow antennae to 'manually' listen in to sats to begin with - which can then be mounted on a rotator at some future point, and then upgrade to a better receiving set at some point. Doug

Replies (15 - 29)

PDP8E View Member Profile	Jul 3 2009, 03:51 AM Post #16
Member Group: Members Posts: 808 Joined: 10-October 06 From: Maynard Mass USA Member No.: 1241	As a HAM for a long time I am working with FCC to convert my recently late father's call sign (W1KXT)- also called in this situation a 'silent key' -- to mine. They are usually pretty responsive in these situations. To all the hams out there, -.-. - -.- ! -.-. - - .- -------------------- CLA CLL

djellison View Member Profile	Jul 20 2009, 08:20 AM Post #17
Founder Group: Chairman Posts: 14432 Joined: 8-February 04 Member No.: 1	Whoops http://www.uk.amsat.org/content/view/679/266/1/2/ I ended up on the schedule Something of a call to arms for the Amsat community to do the outreach that European scientists and STFC (H1'09 outreach funding cut by 50% for science in society projects) refuses to. D

RJG View Member Profile	Jul 20 2009, 11:26 PM Post #18
Junior Member Group: Members Posts: 53 Joined: 10-September 05 Member No.: 492	Excellent! Look forward to your presentation, Doug. Now that the 2009 programme is published I see that I made an error in only booking to go on the Saturday :-( Goodness knows when I'll get done the stuff I have to do over the weekend, but plans now revised and I'll be there both Sat and Sun. Not sure yet whether I'll be staying over or traveling from home each day. I see the CU Spaceflight guys will be giving a talk on Saturday. Be interesting to see whether they've recovered their long duration balloon payload from a tree north of Stoke on Trent by then! Look forward to meeting you! Rob Dormant member of both AMSAT-UK and BATC and a rather inactive G8DSU (Too many interests, too little time...) PS It's worth repeating that BATC will be streaming the presentations live (http://batc.tv 'live events'). I'd expect that the presentations will then be posted as archive recordings as per last year's event.

djellison View Member Profile	Aug 4 2009, 06:29 PM Post #19
Founder Group: Chairman Posts: 14432 Joined: 8-February 04 Member No.: 1	Barely out the box - and BOOM. AO51 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_pqTlhN8ss Couldn't believe it. No licence yet, to no TX'ing, but I'll be listening in.

PDP8E View Member Profile	Aug 4 2009, 07:19 PM Post #20
Member Group: Members Posts: 808 Joined: 10-October 06 From: Maynard Mass USA Member No.: 1241	Doug, nice gear! Amsat Echo is a great bird to listen in ... Kenwood (and the others) are getting so tiny! Cheers -------------------- CLA CLL

djellison

Aug 8 2009, 02:47 PM

Post #21

Founder

Group: Chairman
Posts: 14432
Joined: 8-February 04
Member No.: 1

AO19 doing morse - still with just the handheld and no Yagi yet.

I 'heard' about 7 runs of its telem. format, took me as long to decode it all by hand as it took 19 to get all the way back around again

- My best effort at decoding the figures I could understand are attached. Great little bit of fun that.

Attached thumbnail(s)

PDP8E View Member Profile	Aug 8 2009, 07:04 PM Post #22
Member Group: Members Posts: 808 Joined: 10-October 06 From: Maynard Mass USA Member No.: 1241	bravo! there are some programs and machines out there (tnc's -etc) that automatically decode morse code. this is one: http://www.dxsoft.com/en/products/cwget/ You should build a yagi, $20USD of parts and an afternoon, plenty diagrams on the web good luck! -------------------- CLA CLL

djellison View Member Profile	Aug 8 2009, 07:52 PM Post #23
Founder Group: Chairman Posts: 14432 Joined: 8-February 04 Member No.: 1	I have a dual-band Yagi (70cm2m) on the way

PDP8E View Member Profile	Aug 9 2009, 12:45 AM Post #24
Member Group: Members Posts: 808 Joined: 10-October 06 From: Maynard Mass USA Member No.: 1241	...or you could just order a dual band yagi and get it in the post! enjoy! -------------------- CLA CLL

PDP8E View Member Profile	Aug 9 2009, 12:54 AM Post #25
Member Group: Members Posts: 808 Joined: 10-October 06 From: Maynard Mass USA Member No.: 1241	...or you could just order a dual band yagi and get it in the post! enjoy! -------------------- CLA CLL

Okei View Member Profile	Aug 9 2009, 03:10 AM Post #26
Newbie Group: Members Posts: 6 Joined: 30-July 09 From: San Diego County, CA USA Member No.: 4888	QUOTE (SFJCody @ Jul 2 2009, 11:02 AM) There's nothing like a DS19/87B radio valve... Are you using "valve" in the amplifier sense (specifically, power tube sense)? Not a HAM, but the daughter of one and an FCC licensee. I have "worked" with power tubes (Tropospheric Scatter and Space/Polarization Diversity Communications Systems). If I were to get my Amateur license; I would learn code. Cheers

Okei View Member Profile	Aug 9 2009, 03:24 AM Post #27
Newbie Group: Members Posts: 6 Joined: 30-July 09 From: San Diego County, CA USA Member No.: 4888	QUOTE (Astro0 @ Jul 2 2009, 05:24 AM) Not me personally, but we have a Ham radio set-up at the Canberra DSN. I'm keen to learn how it all works. Please do; when I was involved with the DSN (back in 1979) I was told by our NASA Radio Engineer all of the details I could handle. This was at NASA Ames Research Center. Something about "Hydrogen-cooled MASERs" as their preamps. In 1985 when I visited the VLA (just prior to the VLBA deployment) they used some other gas (Neon maybe?). Solid-state parametric amps was the technology that was used prior for radiotelescopes, or at least at the VLA it was. Cheers

djellison View Member Profile	Aug 17 2009, 08:01 PM Post #28
Founder Group: Chairman Posts: 14432 Joined: 8-February 04 Member No.: 1	My Arrow Yagi has arrived. Heard AO19 again, very loud. Missed Amsat Echo - but will be listening out over the next few days.

djellison View Member Profile	Oct 2 2009, 01:53 PM Post #29
Founder Group: Chairman Posts: 14432 Joined: 8-February 04 Member No.: 1	Well - I passed the foundation licence (24/25...ARHGHG...gutted) - And my callsign M6DGE I'll be starting an intermediate course in January - and I'm picking up a Yaesu 817 on Monday

Okei View Member Profile	Oct 2 2009, 04:03 PM Post #30
Newbie Group: Members Posts: 6 Joined: 30-July 09 From: San Diego County, CA USA Member No.: 4888	QUOTE (djellison @ Oct 2 2009, 05:53 AM) Well - I passed the foundation licence (24/25...ARHGHG...gutted) - And my callsign M6DGE I'll be starting an intermediate course in January - and I'm picking up a Yaesu 817 on Monday Congrats! What a good score M6DGE.

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