AmateurRadio.com

Some weeks, it’s all I can do to find something to talk about, some weeks things just seem to fall into my lap to talk about. This I think is going to be one of the latter. If you enjoy the outdoors and Ham Radio, this video shows you some HF work on a hill near the Bay Area.I don’t know the person’s callsign, as he didn’t share it in the video, but still, it’s a nice little video to watch. And it looks like a lot of fun too.

http://youtu.be/cV9iJIa5feo

73.

Rich also writes a Tech blog and posts stories every Tuesday and Thursday on Q103, The Rock of Albany’s website, as well as Amateur Radio stories every Monday thru Friday here on AmiZed Studios.

If you have been itching for some meteor scatter to work, well, isn’t it a coinky-dink, that the Perseids with peak on August 12th, which is tomorrow. With luck, you could work a station 2000 miles away by bouncing a signal off the ionized trail of a meteor! How sick is that!The Perseids Meteor Shower is so named because of the direction of the meteors, which look to come from the constellation Peresus. This meteor shower has been observed for about 2000 years, so there is no guess work in knowing when it will come around.

Now I have never worked meteor scatter, so I checked the googles and found a nice webpage with some technical info and tips for meteor scatter on 2 meters and 6 meters. And for an added bonus, here’s a video.

73.

Rich also writes a Tech blog and posts stories every Tuesday and Thursday on Q103, The Rock of Albany’s website, as well as Amateur Radio stories every Monday thru Friday here on AmiZed Studios.

If you’re like me and have been wanting to receive signals from ARISSat-1, it is pretty easy. Here’s is a simple way that you can do it in the field, with just something to record audio and a receiver that can hear the satellite on 145.950MHz.

73.

Rich also writes a Tech blog and posts stories every Tuesday and Thursday on Q103, The Rock of Albany’s website, as well as Amateur Radio stories every Monday thru Friday here on AmiZed Studios.

It’s hard to believe it’s been 10 years since that tragic day. But as we all know, life will go on and we will remember. Where we all were, what we were all doing and those feelings of seeing what happened.

KCRA Logo

The King’s County Repeater Association will be honoring September 11th with an on the air station on September 10th, from 1300-2100z. Here are the frequencies for the event.

20m – 14.295 USB

KC2RA repeater: 146.430 MHz ( 1.0) PL 136.5
40m – 7.250 LSB Echo link: KC2RA-R
EchoLink node # 132967 (KC2LEB-R)

Frequencies will vary based on band usage and conditions, and all frequencies will not be on at the same time. The station is a part of the events for the 911 activities at Conference House on Staten Island.

The KCRA will send QSL cards honoring the event via self addressed stamped envelope to: KCRA 911 Memorial Event, PO Box 280288, Brooklyn, NY 11228-0288.

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Rich also writes a Tech blog and posts stories every Tuesday and Thursday on Q103, The Rock of Albany’s website, as well as Amateur Radio stories every Monday thru Friday here on AmiZed Studios.

So after ARISSat-1 was deployed, I have been trying to receive a signal from it. Specifically SSTV signals. I haven’t been very sucsessful. For one, I haven’t been able to be at the radio when it makes a pass because of work and family commitments. I’m hoping this week, I’ll have more time to sit down and be there to listen for. But the first thing is, I need to know where it is. 

Screen shot of MacPort installed Gpredict

I took a look at some of the tracking software out there for my Mac and found that there is only really one program that I could find for the Mac natively, that was “fully” featured with all the bells and whistles. But it was pretty steeply priced for me at $98. I decided t see what else was out there for free. The only one I found that I liked, was Gpredict. It’s written for Linux, but there are ports for it for Windows and Mac, and it’s open source, so it’s free.

The only draw back was, it wasn’t native, so I had to install from source or use MacPorts, a project that ports open source Linux software to the Mac platform, since Mac OS X is based on FreeBSD. The install took me about an hour because of all the dependencies needed for GPredict. MacPort installed them all with no problem.

So after some false starts and finally reading some more info on it, I managed to get it running on my Macbook Pro. After I ran it for the first time, it saw that the info for the satellites was out of date and asked to do an update, giving me the option to do it online or through a file I downloaded.

Gpredict supports fast and accurate real-time satellite tracking using the NORAD SGP4/SDP4 algorithms, No software limit on the number of satellites or ground stations and Radio and antenna rotator control for autonomous tracking.

After uploading and doing a little more research, I was able to find ARISSat-1 on the list, under RadioSkaf-V. Once I found it, I was able to track it no problem. Now, it’s just a matter of having the time to do it. In the meantime, I encourage you to check out GPredict, and try it out. Since it’s free you’ve got nothing to lose.

But if you also have a suggestion for Mac satellite tracking software, please, share it in the comments, and share any experience you have with GPredict.

73.

Rich also writes a Tech blog and posts stories every Tuesday and Thursday on Q103, The Rock of Albany’s website, as well as Amateur Radio stories every Monday thru Friday here on AmiZed Studios.

So when I checked my Mac yesterday for pictures from ARISSat-1′s for SSTV, I was a little disappointed I didn’t have any. I know one of the problems was that it was deployed late because of a 70cm antenna issue, but also of a dumb mistake on my part. But now I have to wait another day for a pass. But to keep track and pass the time, I have a couple mobile apps to help me.

Satelittle Tracker Icon

The first one is Satellite Tracker. It’s free and it’s a pretty good app for iOS. There is a paid version that gives you maiden head info too, but being that I am a poor working Ham, I need to pinch pennies when I can. The description from iTunes says,

Track satellites as they pass over your location. This application allows you to select any number of satellites and will show the track through the sky of the next pass(es) of each over your location. Frequency information can be added so you know how to tune into the signals. The satellite information is downloaded via the internet, and the iPhone GPS can be used to automatically track your location. Options allow the display of the sun and moon locations and the angle of the iPhone/iPod Touch to indicate to guide where to point your antenna. This application is primarily intended for those who use the Amateur Radio satellites but weather and other satellites can also be tracked.

NASA TV Icon

Another great app that I literally just found, like just before I was writing this, was the NASA TV app. I can now watch NASA TV as well as video on demand and see when NASA programming will be appearing on other TV networks. So this is pretty awesome that I can watch NASA TV on my lunch breaks at work. Here’s the description,

The NASA Television App brings live and on-demand TV programming to your iPhone or iPod Touch. Watch the latest NASA events unfold in real-time or select from a list of recently uploaded videos. Plan your viewing up to a week in advance with the NASA TV schedule, and check out a list of NASA-related programming on other networks.

These are the kind of apps I like. They offer a lot and at a real decent price. While FREE is obviously the best, the cost of some of these apps are well what they’re worth. So if you have an iOS device, please grab them and GO!

73.

Rich also writes a Tech blog and posts stories every Tuesday and Thursday on Q103, The Rock of Albany’s website, as well as Amateur Radio stories every Monday thru Friday here on AmiZed Studios.

It’s the big news of the week for Amateur Radio. ARISSat-1 will be deployed today from the International Space Station thanks to 2 Russian Cosmonauts. The satellite will have 4 Slow Scan TV cameras as well as a CW and BPSK beacon. According to what I have read you’ll be able to pick it up with just a simple hand held and a quarter wave whip antenna. I plan on testing that statement out myself.It’ll also have on board, a cross-band linear transponder for SSB/CW work. A little something for everyone. I’m thinking the SSTV is going to be what I am shooting for. AMSAT-NA has a special page setup with more information on how to receive signals from the satellite. Below is the live feed from NASA-TV. The Sat is being deployed at 14:00 UTC.

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Rich also writes a Tech blog and posts stories every Tuesday and Thursday on Q103, The Rock of Albany’s website, as well as Amateur Radio stories every Monday thru Friday here on AmiZed Studios.