AmateurRadio.com

An engineer turned UFO researcher is hoping to launch a low-earth orbit CubeSat to search for evidence of extraterrestrial life. Canadian Dave Cote has assembled a seven-person team to design, fund, build and launch the project that he hopes will provide some answers about the origins of recent unidentified object sightings across the globe.

“We have had astronauts, military personnel, police officers and the former Defence Minister of Canada come forward stating that extraterrestrial UFOs are real, and that we are being visited,” says Cote. “How can this be ignored and brushed off as nonsense?” Concerned that the public isn’t getting straight answers, the group has turned to crowdsourcing the project on Kickstarter.

Measuring roughly the size of a shoebox, CubeSats can pack a lot of science equipment into a small space. They have also made satellite deployment much more affordable, in some cases costing less than the price of a lower-end automobile. Sites like CubeSatShop.com have taken much of the complexity out of ordering needed components.

Cote says they’re a “go for launch” already but are looking for more funding so they can pack it with as much science equipment as possible. They aim to include image, infrared, electromagnetic, and radiation sensors. This would give them the capability of not only verifying visual data, but also correlating it with other events such as electromagnetic and radioactive fluctuations.

The team plans to measure ionized radiation with a scintillation counter and two cameras will capture a near 360-degree view around the CubeSat. They plan to remove the infrared filters on the cameras to cover more of the visual range.

Cote hopes to use amateur radio frequencies to transmit the data back to earth and a worldwide network of ham volunteers to receive it.

“We are planning to use the ham frequencies to send data down from the CubeSat to earth in hex or datafax protocol,” says Cote. “From what we understand, we should be able to send a 100kB packet every few minutes and this will enable us to send image thumbnails from space, along with some basic EM data.”

While the details of the transmissions have yet to be determined, Cote hopes to assemble a worldwide team of hams willing to receive and log whatever data the satellite captures.

“We need help from the ham community, in capturing the data and relaying it to our site,” he says. “There will be a 15-minute window for download from the CubeSat, and then another volunteer would be needed for the next 15-minute time window.”

Cote is cautiously optimistic that the satellite will provide corroboration of UFO reports from eyewitnesses on Earth. But even if the satellite doesn’t capture evidence of faraway visitors, he’s hopeful that it will record interesting natural phenomenon like meteors and solar flares.

“We can only hope that those who would like to know the truth will step forward and help,” he says.

To learn more about the project or to volunteer, visit their KickStarter page.

Matt Thomas, W1MST, is the managing editor of AmateurRadio.com. Contact him at editor@amateurradio.com.

The history of SOS, questions on Emergency and nets. Transistors.

51:49

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George Thomas, W5JDX, is co-host of AmateurLogic.TV, an original amateur radio video program hosted by George Thomas (W5JDX), Tommy Martin (N5ZNO), Peter Berrett (VK3PB), and Emile Diodene (KE5QKR). Contact him at george@amateurlogic.tv.

S.Thule Island - courtesy: k5tr

Operations from the South Sandwich Islands (Thule) has caused a lot of excitement on the bands over the past ten days ... but for myself, it was more of a last-minute frenzy, which I'll elaborate on later.


The expedition, composed of a crew of 14 operators from the 'Intrepid DX Group', left Port Stanley in the Falkland Islands aboard the MV Braveheart, on a 38-day roundtrip to South Sandwich and then to South Georgia ... two of the rarest DX entities on the planet, and by any standard, not the easiest places to reach!

South Sandwich was on-the-air from January 18th to the 25th, when a sudden turn of events put an end to the operation from the island. Not long after they suddenly disappeared from the air, this bulletin appeared on the DX newswebsite:

Today at 21:20 UTC, Nigel Jolly, Braveheart owner, declared an emergency and ordered to VP8STI team to cease all operations and return to the ship.

A large ice flow that had broken away due last nights storm starts to block the entrance to the Bay where they were camped. There was strong potential for the ice flow to prevent Braveheart to get them.

Team is now safely aboard the Braveheart and they are moving away from Southern Thule Is. All the equipment and personal gear is still on the island. They hope to return to camp site during next good weather window.

Once they retrieve their equipment, they could make a determination as to whether they can proceed to South Georgia to do VP8SGI as planned.

The latest word sounds very hopeful:

Finally yesterday, team was able to collect all gear from Thule Is.
All team members are OK and they are on the way to South Georgia where they will arrive after three days sailing.

They will try to be on the air during eight days as VP8SGI.

Personally, I want to thanks to all who send support messages to us, expressing their concerns about VP8STI team situation.
 
Delorme tracker is working, you can see Braveheart progress at: http://www.intrepid-dx.com/vp8/location.php

RV Braveheart

I had been aware of the expedition but had not been paying too much attention ... after checking my master DXCC checklist and finding that I had already worked South Sandwich on 160m, several years ago, I didn't really need it. I'm not sure why I checked my list again on the 25th but when I did, I realized that I had really messed-up ... it was actually South Georgia that I had worked on 160 and not South Sandwich! I had never worked South Sandwich, on any band, and it was one of the last 9 entities that I needed for having worked them all ... big mistake.

I soon realized that operations on South Sandwich would be coming to a screeching halt at any moment and scrambled to see where they were presently operating. Unfortunately they seemed to spend most of the day (25th) on the WARC bands, for which I have no antennas ... I really need to hang a 30m dipole up in the trees one of these days for situations just like this.

As darkness approached VE7 land, I began seeing a few spots for them on 20m phone, not my favorite mode, nor the most efficient for working pileups.

Zeroing-in on their frequency found them with a nice 5x7 signal on 14.180kHz and listening from 14.235 - 14.245kHz. The operator was working North America by call districts and when I tuned-in, was working "Ø" 's. He would work ten stations and then change. He started on down the list, calling for "9" 's and then "8" 's but when he had finished with them, he called for "1" 's ... hmm. Perhaps he had started with "7" 's before I arrived and was working his way through the list once again.

It seemed to take forever when he had finally finished with the "6" 's and his signal was now considerably weaker ... "7" 's should be next. But no ... it was even better!

Luckily I had been following his tuning technique as he worked through the pileup and was able to track his listening frequency as he worked his way from 14.235 to 14.245 and back again. I had my transmit frequency already set on the frequency of the last "6" that he had worked ... when he called for "any VE's?" ... as luck would have it, he came back on my first call, not only making my day but making my week!

After a bit of a scare, I was very fortunate to work them on what turned out to be their last full day of operation, as they left the air, and South Sandwich, after only a few more hours of operation.

From now on I'll be checking my list much more carefully.


Steve McDonald, VE7SL, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from British Columbia, Canada. Contact him at ve7sl@shaw.ca.

I’m happy to report I’ve been involved in adding three new hams to our ranks in the past two weeks. I had lunch with one today and we got to talking about radios. He wants to get on the local repeaters right away, and so we started talking about analog versus Fusion versus D-STAR. When we got to the topic of price, I was blown away to find out he had found brand new D-STAR ID-51 VHF/UHF handhelds for $299.95 shipped. It’s a long way from a $20 Baofeng, but to have the ability to talk around the world on VHF or UHF for $299.95? That’s a pretty good deal.

Michael Brown, KG9DW, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Illinois, USA. Contact him at michael@thefarmonline.com.

I’m happy to report I’ve been involved in adding three new hams to our ranks in the past two weeks. I had lunch with one today and we got to talking about radios. He wants to get on the local repeaters right away, and so we started talking about analog versus Fusion versus D-STAR. When we got to the topic of price, I was blown away to find out he had found brand new D-STAR ID-51 VHF/UHF handhelds for $299.95 shipped. It’s a long way from a $20 Baofeng, but to have the ability to talk around the world on VHF or UHF for $299.95? That’s a pretty good deal.

Michael Brown, KG9DW, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Illinois, USA. Contact him at michael@thefarmonline.com.

The snow plows came through to clear our street.  Even so, they never really plow the entire street. They clean it up for sure, so that you can travel safely down the road, but there's always that snow plow residue on the sides of the street. So, until the snow melts substantially, I can't park on the street, as I usually do, there's just not enough room to park and still have space for other cars to get by.  That means I have park in the driveway. Since I generally get home last, I have to get up and move my Jeep when my wife Marianne has to leave for work at 5:00 AM (I've mentioned - she's a nurse).

So this morning, after moving my car for her, I made some coffee and headed down into the shack. I had about a half hour before I had to shower, shave and get dressed for work. I figured that maybe, just maybe, I'd hear K5P, as this is their last day on the island, I believe. And sure enough, there they were on 80 Meters, calling CQ!  And from the rate they were answering stations, you could tell they were listening for ATNOs - stations they had never worked before (which would have been me!).

They were decently loud - about 559 with QSB on 3.530 MHz with QSB.  Even so, this was the best I've heard them throughout the entire DXpedition. I put the KX3 into "Dual Watch" mode, so I could figure out where they were listening, and then I fired up the KXPA100 to 90 Watts and jumped into the fray.

Then some idiot proceeded to come onto their QRG (the frequency they were transmitting on) and began to send an non-ending string of S9 dits, totally obliterating them.

"You can't work 'em if you can't hear 'em."

Sigh.

72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP - When you care to send the very least!
Larry Makoski, W2LJ, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from New Jersey, USA. Contact him at w2lj@arrl.net.

The snow plows came through to clear our street.  Even so, they never really plow the entire street. They clean it up for sure, so that you can travel safely down the road, but there's always that snow plow residue on the sides of the street. So, until the snow melts substantially, I can't park on the street, as I usually do, there's just not enough room to park and still have space for other cars to get by.  That means I have park in the driveway. Since I generally get home last, I have to get up and move my Jeep when my wife Marianne has to leave for work at 5:00 AM (I've mentioned - she's a nurse).

So this morning, after moving my car for her, I made some coffee and headed down into the shack. I had about a half hour before I had to shower, shave and get dressed for work. I figured that maybe, just maybe, I'd hear K5P, as this is their last day on the island, I believe. And sure enough, there they were on 80 Meters, calling CQ!  And from the rate they were answering stations, you could tell they were listening for ATNOs - stations they had never worked before (which would have been me!).

They were decently loud - about 559 with QSB on 3.530 MHz with QSB.  Even so, this was the best I've heard them throughout the entire DXpedition. I put the KX3 into "Dual Watch" mode, so I could figure out where they were listening, and then I fired up the KXPA100 to 90 Watts and jumped into the fray.

Then some idiot proceeded to come onto their QRG (the frequency they were transmitting on) and began to send an non-ending string of S9 dits, totally obliterating them.

"You can't work 'em if you can't hear 'em."

Sigh.

72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP - When you care to send the very least!
Larry Makoski, W2LJ, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from New Jersey, USA. Contact him at w2lj@arrl.net.