Posts Tagged ‘skars’
I am now the Chairman of a radio club!
March 26th, 2015 | 
Author: Firstly my apologies, last weeks post about the Eggciting Eggsplorer-1 HAB project and the talk and demonstration on SSDV wasn't posted on Amateurradio.com due to an error.
This week South Kesteven ARS (SKARS) held an EGM where I was voted on as the new Chairman. Nigel Booth M0CVO has stepped down following four years in the position citing increasing business commitments. Nigel intends to remain an active member, I and the other members wish to thank Nigel for his efforts over the years and wish him well with his business ventures.
SKARS has a small membership at present which we hope to increase but the committee finds itself in the Catch-22 position of not having a lot of funds in order to put on activities and promote ourselves to increase the membership.
I have created a social media presence in the form of a Facebook page and twitter account in addition to updating the societies web page.I am hoping that permission willing the GB2EGG and Eggsplorer-1 project will significantly promote the society and the hobby.
I know running a club/society isn't a trivial undertaking, especially if working full time having chaired a large dog agility training club many years ago. It can take a lot of effort and time and it can sometimes be a thankless task.
Indeed my first twenty-four hours has Chairman saw my first sacrifice, a lovely Yaesu FT-450D was delivered yesterday and I have yet to take it out of the box!
Something to be remedied this evening.
This week South Kesteven ARS (SKARS) held an EGM where I was voted on as the new Chairman. Nigel Booth M0CVO has stepped down following four years in the position citing increasing business commitments. Nigel intends to remain an active member, I and the other members wish to thank Nigel for his efforts over the years and wish him well with his business ventures.
SKARS has a small membership at present which we hope to increase but the committee finds itself in the Catch-22 position of not having a lot of funds in order to put on activities and promote ourselves to increase the membership.
I have created a social media presence in the form of a Facebook page and twitter account in addition to updating the societies web page.I am hoping that permission willing the GB2EGG and Eggsplorer-1 project will significantly promote the society and the hobby.
I know running a club/society isn't a trivial undertaking, especially if working full time having chaired a large dog agility training club many years ago. It can take a lot of effort and time and it can sometimes be a thankless task.
Indeed my first twenty-four hours has Chairman saw my first sacrifice, a lovely Yaesu FT-450D was delivered yesterday and I have yet to take it out of the box!
Something to be remedied this evening.
GB2FFC – JOTA 2014
Last weekend South Kesteven Amateur Radio Society (SKARS) operated the GB2FFC special event station at the First Foston Scout Group for the 2014 Jamboree on the Air (JOTA) weekend.
JOTA is an annual event in which Scouts and Guides all over the world make contact with each other by means of amateur radio, giving them an opportunity to experience wireless communication and electronics.
This was a first for both SKARS and the Scout group and we set up a SSB voice station and a data mode station primarily running PSK. The QTH was the Scout hut in the village of Foston, between Newark-on-Trent and Grantham (IO92PX)
Nigel (M0CVO) and Sean (M6ENN) ran the SSB voice station as well as supervising the popular Morse key trainer. This allowed the children to tap out their names using a crib sheet and gave them a certificate to acknowledge their achievement. Working voice proved challenging due to the high noise level in the hut due to the other scout activities. Despite this they still managed to work stations mainly on 20 and 40m. Nigel ran a Kenwood TS-480SAT into one of his own M0CVO DBD-2040 loaded dipoles at approximately 100W
I operated the data station consisting of my FT-857D and interfaces connected to a laptop running PZTLog feeding a M0CVO Magitenna at 30W. I also had my Czech morse key connected to the TR9500 acting as a sounder and they really like the military style key.
Explaining the PSK datamode and what the program was doing to young children was quite challenging. The Scout group were also running JOTI (Jamboree on the Internet) which consisted of laptops running an IRC chat application allowing world wide groups to talk to each other so the distinction between that and the slower PSK station was a bit difficult for some of them to grasp. Thankfully there were two very intelligent and enthusiastic Scouts who got the idea and understood the QSO process and were soon explaining it to the other Scouts leaving me free to type and push the macro buttons. One of them described it as 'awesome!'
GB2FFC ran from 09:00-15:00 UTC on the Saturday and 12:00-15:00 UTC on the Sunday and made 88 QSOs in total, mostly other amateurs but we did manage a number of other JOTA stations in both modes. The whole event was great fun and we were made very welcome by the Scout group. The enthusiasm was infectious so hopefully it will be the start of a regular annual club event helping out the Scouts for JOTA - plans were already being sketched out for next year, maybe involving camping!
Here are the PSK QSO maps for the weekend. Saturday was on 20m and 15m and were just European, Sunday I was operating mostly on 10m hoping for some transatlantic contacts, and did make a couple in the short time we had - didn't quite manage to connect with some South American and Asian stations but they could be seen and decoded to the delight of the children.
JOTA is an annual event in which Scouts and Guides all over the world make contact with each other by means of amateur radio, giving them an opportunity to experience wireless communication and electronics.
This was a first for both SKARS and the Scout group and we set up a SSB voice station and a data mode station primarily running PSK. The QTH was the Scout hut in the village of Foston, between Newark-on-Trent and Grantham (IO92PX)
Nigel (M0CVO) and Sean (M6ENN) ran the SSB voice station as well as supervising the popular Morse key trainer. This allowed the children to tap out their names using a crib sheet and gave them a certificate to acknowledge their achievement. Working voice proved challenging due to the high noise level in the hut due to the other scout activities. Despite this they still managed to work stations mainly on 20 and 40m. Nigel ran a Kenwood TS-480SAT into one of his own M0CVO DBD-2040 loaded dipoles at approximately 100W
I operated the data station consisting of my FT-857D and interfaces connected to a laptop running PZTLog feeding a M0CVO Magitenna at 30W. I also had my Czech morse key connected to the TR9500 acting as a sounder and they really like the military style key.
Explaining the PSK datamode and what the program was doing to young children was quite challenging. The Scout group were also running JOTI (Jamboree on the Internet) which consisted of laptops running an IRC chat application allowing world wide groups to talk to each other so the distinction between that and the slower PSK station was a bit difficult for some of them to grasp. Thankfully there were two very intelligent and enthusiastic Scouts who got the idea and understood the QSO process and were soon explaining it to the other Scouts leaving me free to type and push the macro buttons. One of them described it as 'awesome!'
GB2FFC ran from 09:00-15:00 UTC on the Saturday and 12:00-15:00 UTC on the Sunday and made 88 QSOs in total, mostly other amateurs but we did manage a number of other JOTA stations in both modes. The whole event was great fun and we were made very welcome by the Scout group. The enthusiasm was infectious so hopefully it will be the start of a regular annual club event helping out the Scouts for JOTA - plans were already being sketched out for next year, maybe involving camping!
Here are the PSK QSO maps for the weekend. Saturday was on 20m and 15m and were just European, Sunday I was operating mostly on 10m hoping for some transatlantic contacts, and did make a couple in the short time we had - didn't quite manage to connect with some South American and Asian stations but they could be seen and decoded to the delight of the children.
Repairing a Kenwood TR9500, Part1 – The Diagnosis
A fellow SKARS club member picked up a nice condition Kenwood/Trio TR9500 70cm all-mode transceiver (circa 1980) from the Hamfest last year for not a lot of money and he hoped to use it for the UKAC contests unfortunately it proved to be faulty.
From the description of the fault and studying a downloaded service manual I suspected a relatively simple fault and saw an opportunity to acquire it and offered to buy it for the price he had paid. However I have decided to be more charitable rather than mercenary and have offered to give it a look over and repair it for him if I can.
The fault as described was the rig receives okay but on transmit there was a carrier on FM with no audio and a very quiet SSB signal. A faulty microphone had been ruled out and someone had suggested a bad connection internally. Due to the compactness of the unit and the difficulty in dismantling no one had felt confident to attempt any further inspection. I wasn't so sure this was the issue so at the last meeting I picked up the rig and currently have it on the workbench.
I want to confirm the fault first and so I connected up a dummy load and RF power meter and using the FUNCube Dongle SDR I could observe and monitor the output signal. Sure enough on FM there was a nice carrier at 10W with very faint audio, on SSB there was a small visible signal again with very little modulation. Whistling, blowing and tapping of the microphone could be seen on the waterfall... just!
I connected a switch to the Morse key input and confirmed the rig transmitted in CW with no issue.
On the block diagram there is a switchable tone burst oscillator for repeater access and the output of this is joined to the output from the microphone amp. Encouragingly the tone burst can be clearly seen and heard in the transmission again pointing to an issue with the microphone amp.
To get to the carrier unit PCB it was a simple matter of removing the bottom cover. The PCB is held in a metal frame mounted with five screws and can be lifted out, as pictured above. But before I did that I checked the continuity to the microphone socket and the 8V supply to the amplifier circuit and both were fine (see diagram below)
The poor quality image from the scanned service manual shows the bottom of the carrier unit, this is the side of the PCB visible without needing to remove it. The microphone connector is in the top left, putting an oscilloscope on the microphone input (pin1) a signal was observed, however the output (pin8) had an almost identical signal with little or no amplification. Injecting a low level audio signal from the a generator on this pin could be seen and heard in the transmitted signal. This observation together with the tone burst seemed to confirm the other audio circuitry was functioning normally and the microphone amp wasn't.
Actually removing the carrier unit PCB proved a bit tricky as it has a number of small and very secure connectors with ageing and delicate wiring, but I did manage to extricate it and a visual inspection didn't show up any obvious issues such as broken tracks or joints.
This is the detail of the microphone amplifier section from the schematic. Using a meter I have checked the continuity of tracks and have checked all the resistors for shorts or open circuits and they all read the correct values. The capacitors all look okay and checking the signals either side of C3 the C7 coupling capacitors show they are functioning correctly. This left Q1 a 2SC2240(GR) transistor as the likely culprit and I have ordered a replacement which should arrive in the next few days. I am hoping this will make it spring back to life.
From the description of the fault and studying a downloaded service manual I suspected a relatively simple fault and saw an opportunity to acquire it and offered to buy it for the price he had paid. However I have decided to be more charitable rather than mercenary and have offered to give it a look over and repair it for him if I can.
The fault as described was the rig receives okay but on transmit there was a carrier on FM with no audio and a very quiet SSB signal. A faulty microphone had been ruled out and someone had suggested a bad connection internally. Due to the compactness of the unit and the difficulty in dismantling no one had felt confident to attempt any further inspection. I wasn't so sure this was the issue so at the last meeting I picked up the rig and currently have it on the workbench.
TRANSMITTER CIRCUITLooking at the block diagram of the carrier unit and the above functional description in the service manual I suspected the microphone amplifier Q1 to be faulty.
The microphone signal is amplified with the microphone amplifier Q1 (2SC2240(GR)), which is commonly used for both SSB and FM transmission modes and is incorporated in the carrier unit (X50-1720-XX). The amplified signal is then fed to both the SSB and FM circuits.
I want to confirm the fault first and so I connected up a dummy load and RF power meter and using the FUNCube Dongle SDR I could observe and monitor the output signal. Sure enough on FM there was a nice carrier at 10W with very faint audio, on SSB there was a small visible signal again with very little modulation. Whistling, blowing and tapping of the microphone could be seen on the waterfall... just!
I connected a switch to the Morse key input and confirmed the rig transmitted in CW with no issue.
On the block diagram there is a switchable tone burst oscillator for repeater access and the output of this is joined to the output from the microphone amp. Encouragingly the tone burst can be clearly seen and heard in the transmission again pointing to an issue with the microphone amp.
To get to the carrier unit PCB it was a simple matter of removing the bottom cover. The PCB is held in a metal frame mounted with five screws and can be lifted out, as pictured above. But before I did that I checked the continuity to the microphone socket and the 8V supply to the amplifier circuit and both were fine (see diagram below)
The poor quality image from the scanned service manual shows the bottom of the carrier unit, this is the side of the PCB visible without needing to remove it. The microphone connector is in the top left, putting an oscilloscope on the microphone input (pin1) a signal was observed, however the output (pin8) had an almost identical signal with little or no amplification. Injecting a low level audio signal from the a generator on this pin could be seen and heard in the transmitted signal. This observation together with the tone burst seemed to confirm the other audio circuitry was functioning normally and the microphone amp wasn't.
Actually removing the carrier unit PCB proved a bit tricky as it has a number of small and very secure connectors with ageing and delicate wiring, but I did manage to extricate it and a visual inspection didn't show up any obvious issues such as broken tracks or joints.
This is the detail of the microphone amplifier section from the schematic. Using a meter I have checked the continuity of tracks and have checked all the resistors for shorts or open circuits and they all read the correct values. The capacitors all look okay and checking the signals either side of C3 the C7 coupling capacitors show they are functioning correctly. This left Q1 a 2SC2240(GR) transistor as the likely culprit and I have ordered a replacement which should arrive in the next few days. I am hoping this will make it spring back to life.
M6GTG/P The results are in!
Last nights 144MHz UKAC Contest gave me the opportunity to try operating portable for the first time. Caravanning in the Lake District just outside the town of Keswick I had spent the previous evening preparing (see earlier post) and after a day out walking I set up the station in the awning.
I hoisted the 3-Element Delta Beam to full height and waited for the appointed time. The campsite was very quiet but I still attracted some strange looks as people wandered past!
In the end I struggled only making 6 contacts, I searched and pounced initially and then called CQ for a time with no response. The caravan site has a strict no-noise policy after 22:30 so shutdown and packed up just before 22:00 Despite the low number of QSOs I wasn't disappointed, given my location and low power (10W) I was glad of any contacts.
Earlier in the day my wife and I took the dogs on a walk to the top of Latrigg which is just to the North of the campsite and is one of the lowest fells in the Lake District at 381m asl. From the summit we could clearly see the campsite below at just 218m. So perhaps not the best spot to be operating from, being surrounded on all sides by mountains.
Next month I am away to the Isle of Skye for the UKAC 6m contest, encouraged by the Delta Beam I might have a go at constructed one for then (if the wife agrees)
In the meantime I have got the magitenna up for HF but haven't used it yet after all I am here on holiday and have to spend time with the wife and dogs!
Just a correction in my earlier post about passing my intermediate I neglected to acknowledge the help of Nigel (M0CVO) and SKARS for the assessments and organising the exam.
I hoisted the 3-Element Delta Beam to full height and waited for the appointed time. The campsite was very quiet but I still attracted some strange looks as people wandered past!
In the end I struggled only making 6 contacts, I searched and pounced initially and then called CQ for a time with no response. The caravan site has a strict no-noise policy after 22:30 so shutdown and packed up just before 22:00 Despite the low number of QSOs I wasn't disappointed, given my location and low power (10W) I was glad of any contacts.
Earlier in the day my wife and I took the dogs on a walk to the top of Latrigg which is just to the North of the campsite and is one of the lowest fells in the Lake District at 381m asl. From the summit we could clearly see the campsite below at just 218m. So perhaps not the best spot to be operating from, being surrounded on all sides by mountains.
Next month I am away to the Isle of Skye for the UKAC 6m contest, encouraged by the Delta Beam I might have a go at constructed one for then (if the wife agrees)
In the meantime I have got the magitenna up for HF but haven't used it yet after all I am here on holiday and have to spend time with the wife and dogs!
Just a correction in my earlier post about passing my intermediate I neglected to acknowledge the help of Nigel (M0CVO) and SKARS for the assessments and organising the exam.
HAB Talks
I was shocked when I realised it has been nearly two months since my last update. The pace of life really hasn’t let up and neither have the time pressures of work, however on with recent radio antics...
Last week I gave two talks and demonstrations at local radio societies on High Altitude Ballooning in the UK and how to track them.
The first was at South Kesteven ARS (SKARS) the club I am a member of. The second was at Spalding and District ARS (SDARS)
This was an updated version of the talk I gave last year at SKARS. Since then I have started work on my own tracker NERD-1. Sadly development has stalled and is still only at the prototype stage (NERDTEST) but I was able to use it to demonstrate reception and tracking using the UKHAS Habitat system spacenear.us/tracker
The SDARS venue had a projector and a decent WiFi Internet connection which allowed me to demonstrate how to set up DL-FLDIGI for a ground station and NERDTEST being received and both showing up on the map in real time.
My original PowerPoint presentation has been given a total makeover and I has included some videos of Felix Baumgartner, Dave Akerman’s Babbage Teddy Bear and wacky chef Heston Blumenthal's ‘Spud-in-space’ feature from his new television program.
To show a real tracker Steve Smith (G0TDJ) of Project Hab had been kind enough to loan me his VAYU-NTX unit.
I am not the most confident of people when it comes to public interaction and it was encouraging to see people genuinely interested in what I was talking about and keen to have a look and I have had some very nice feedback.
Giving these talks has spurred me to pull my finger out and get on with actually flying something and finishing the payload!
Another mothballed project is my Ultimate3 beacon kit, still being only a Foundation licence means I cannot use it to transmit but that may be about to change as tomorrow I am sitting my Intermediate exam which will allow me to properly experiment with transmitters. The exam was arranged through SKARS by Chairman Nigel Booth and the date came through a little sooner than I was expecting so perhaps not quite as prepared as I really should be, but with a decent electronics background and some quick revision it should be fine....
My operating has been largely limited to the UKAC VHF contests, setting aside a few hours per week is manageable and my results are gradually improving, even getting some complements on my operating.
Two weeks ago I was able to attend the local Dambusters Hamfest at Thorpe Camp and managed to pick up a decent rotator, this has proved invaluable for the UKAC as I don’t have to keep going outside the shack to turn the antenna.
Now if I hear someone calling CQ and can monitor a QSO to get the locator and the bearing a quick turn of the dial and I have a better chance. The program I use is BD_2004 from W1GHZ, running in console window it is a simple case of setting up your own locator and then entering other locators the bearing and distance are given.
As well as the weeknight UKAC there have been a couple of weekend VHF contests, I managed a couple of hours this weekend on the RSGB 144MHz May Contest and I had the best DX ever and nearly every QSO was in a new locator square!
I wasn’t able to spend more time on the contest as we took the dogs on a sponsored dog walk on Sunday in aid of the local hospice and on Saturday I attended the British Astronomical Association, Radio Astronomy Group General Meeting at the National Space Centre.
The notion of amateur Radio Astronomy is something that has fascinated me, up to now the only dabbling I have done has been with meteor detection using reflections from the Graves space radar (blog entry). This year some of the talks dealt with using RTL-SDR and Arduino/Raspberry PI in low-cost observation. Also at the meeting was a number of demonstrations and stands from other projects we I was able to garner a great deal of useful information.
Being able to detect ‘Hydrogen-Line’ emissions to map the Galactic plane using a FUNCube or RTL-SDR dongle is astonishing, not to mention low cost VLF receivers to detect Sudden Ionospheric Disturbances SIDs and magnetometers to measure the effect of the solar wind on the earth’s magnetic field!
It is all on the to do list, but it was a great day with some really fascinating talks and some exciting plans by the group. It was a shame I had to leave earlier than I wanted as I did miss some of the later presentations.
Anyway best get an early night!
Last week I gave two talks and demonstrations at local radio societies on High Altitude Ballooning in the UK and how to track them.
The first was at South Kesteven ARS (SKARS) the club I am a member of. The second was at Spalding and District ARS (SDARS)
This was an updated version of the talk I gave last year at SKARS. Since then I have started work on my own tracker NERD-1. Sadly development has stalled and is still only at the prototype stage (NERDTEST) but I was able to use it to demonstrate reception and tracking using the UKHAS Habitat system spacenear.us/tracker
The SDARS venue had a projector and a decent WiFi Internet connection which allowed me to demonstrate how to set up DL-FLDIGI for a ground station and NERDTEST being received and both showing up on the map in real time.
My original PowerPoint presentation has been given a total makeover and I has included some videos of Felix Baumgartner, Dave Akerman’s Babbage Teddy Bear and wacky chef Heston Blumenthal's ‘Spud-in-space’ feature from his new television program.
To show a real tracker Steve Smith (G0TDJ) of Project Hab had been kind enough to loan me his VAYU-NTX unit.
I am not the most confident of people when it comes to public interaction and it was encouraging to see people genuinely interested in what I was talking about and keen to have a look and I have had some very nice feedback.
Thanks @nerdsville for an excellent talk on High Altitude Balloons and telemetry, look forward to your launch. pic.twitter.com/H8AevMNQ13
— Spalding DARS (@SDARS) May 16, 2014
Excellent talk at Club tonight by @nerdsville on high altitude balloons and radio data. Andrew knows his subject and enthusiasm infectious.
— Jim Scott G0HGH (@photoimagery) May 16, 2014
Giving these talks has spurred me to pull my finger out and get on with actually flying something and finishing the payload!
Another mothballed project is my Ultimate3 beacon kit, still being only a Foundation licence means I cannot use it to transmit but that may be about to change as tomorrow I am sitting my Intermediate exam which will allow me to properly experiment with transmitters. The exam was arranged through SKARS by Chairman Nigel Booth and the date came through a little sooner than I was expecting so perhaps not quite as prepared as I really should be, but with a decent electronics background and some quick revision it should be fine....
My operating has been largely limited to the UKAC VHF contests, setting aside a few hours per week is manageable and my results are gradually improving, even getting some complements on my operating.
Two weeks ago I was able to attend the local Dambusters Hamfest at Thorpe Camp and managed to pick up a decent rotator, this has proved invaluable for the UKAC as I don’t have to keep going outside the shack to turn the antenna.
Now if I hear someone calling CQ and can monitor a QSO to get the locator and the bearing a quick turn of the dial and I have a better chance. The program I use is BD_2004 from W1GHZ, running in console window it is a simple case of setting up your own locator and then entering other locators the bearing and distance are given.
As well as the weeknight UKAC there have been a couple of weekend VHF contests, I managed a couple of hours this weekend on the RSGB 144MHz May Contest and I had the best DX ever and nearly every QSO was in a new locator square!
I wasn’t able to spend more time on the contest as we took the dogs on a sponsored dog walk on Sunday in aid of the local hospice and on Saturday I attended the British Astronomical Association, Radio Astronomy Group General Meeting at the National Space Centre.
The notion of amateur Radio Astronomy is something that has fascinated me, up to now the only dabbling I have done has been with meteor detection using reflections from the Graves space radar (blog entry). This year some of the talks dealt with using RTL-SDR and Arduino/Raspberry PI in low-cost observation. Also at the meeting was a number of demonstrations and stands from other projects we I was able to garner a great deal of useful information.
Being able to detect ‘Hydrogen-Line’ emissions to map the Galactic plane using a FUNCube or RTL-SDR dongle is astonishing, not to mention low cost VLF receivers to detect Sudden Ionospheric Disturbances SIDs and magnetometers to measure the effect of the solar wind on the earth’s magnetic field!
It is all on the to do list, but it was a great day with some really fascinating talks and some exciting plans by the group. It was a shame I had to leave earlier than I wanted as I did miss some of the later presentations.
Anyway best get an early night!
FUNCube Decode Issues
I had a pleasant surprise last week at the AGM/Prize giving evening of the South Kestevan Amateur Radio Society (SKARS) being awarded the Most Promising Newcomer!
I also had a small write up in Tim Kirby's (G4VXE) VHF/UHF section of the February issue of Practical Wireless about my I-Cube1 reception which I have mentioned on here before.
I haven't progressed very far with my Arduino projects. There has been a set back in the plans to build and use an Ultimate3 QRSS kit. I had incorrectly assumed as it was a kit being sold commercially that it would satisfy my foundation conditions. However I have been advised that Foundation license holders may use radio equipment constructed using commercially available kits which satisfy IR 2028 which is all a bit vague and woolly, but I don't believe this particular kit does.
There is a simple solution, I will just have to take my intermediate assessment and exam at the first opportunity!
I have been doing a little WSPR spotting, getting some nice spots.
Over the Christmas/New Year period I have neglected the FUNCube-1(A073) satellite and was slipping down the telemetry upload rankings, sad I know!
Now I have got back the upstairs 'shack' I set up my original FUNCube Dongle on the laptop running the dashboard application continually to capture/decode the telemetry using the loft mounted discone. I took the opportunity to upgrade to the latest version 8.14 of the dashboard software, however something was amiss when checking the statistics I was only adding the odd frame here and there, sometimes not making a single decode during the high power daylight passes.
I switched back over to the newer FUNCube Dongle PRO+ running my main PC, which I had also updated to the version 8.14 dashboard and saw the same behaviour, rather than getting daylight decodes of 30+ frames I was just getting the odd 1 or 2.
My first thought it was an antenna or interference issue, but checking the SDR waterfall the signal is still very strong with little QRM. Suspecting a software issue introduced by the update I checked the FUNCube forum and found a thread which appeared to confirm my suspicions.
I have a number of discussions on twitter with various people including David Johnson (G4DPZ) an AMSAT-UK Committee Member and one of the developers of the FUNcube ground segment. David kindly performed an analysis of one of the passes yesterday where I managed just 2 frames, and from the results it does appear to be an issue at this end, rather than issue with the spacecraft.
I have uninstalled v8.14 and put back on an earlier version of the dashboard (v8.09) and thanks to a windows update last night have also performed a full reboot!
There was a good pass this morning at 62 degrees maximum elevation (to the east), followed by a lower pass at 22 degrees elevation (to the west so not so good) and it seems things have improved managing 68 and 17 frames respectively. So could this be an issue with the latest dashboard?
If anyone has suffered similar performance fall-off, or indeed not suffered any issues then please add some feedback to the FUNCube forum.
My copy of Radcom arrived but didn't have much time to read it..
I also had a small write up in Tim Kirby's (G4VXE) VHF/UHF section of the February issue of Practical Wireless about my I-Cube1 reception which I have mentioned on here before.
I haven't progressed very far with my Arduino projects. There has been a set back in the plans to build and use an Ultimate3 QRSS kit. I had incorrectly assumed as it was a kit being sold commercially that it would satisfy my foundation conditions. However I have been advised that Foundation license holders may use radio equipment constructed using commercially available kits which satisfy IR 2028 which is all a bit vague and woolly, but I don't believe this particular kit does.
There is a simple solution, I will just have to take my intermediate assessment and exam at the first opportunity!
I have been doing a little WSPR spotting, getting some nice spots.
Over the Christmas/New Year period I have neglected the FUNCube-1(A073) satellite and was slipping down the telemetry upload rankings, sad I know!
Now I have got back the upstairs 'shack' I set up my original FUNCube Dongle on the laptop running the dashboard application continually to capture/decode the telemetry using the loft mounted discone. I took the opportunity to upgrade to the latest version 8.14 of the dashboard software, however something was amiss when checking the statistics I was only adding the odd frame here and there, sometimes not making a single decode during the high power daylight passes.
I switched back over to the newer FUNCube Dongle PRO+ running my main PC, which I had also updated to the version 8.14 dashboard and saw the same behaviour, rather than getting daylight decodes of 30+ frames I was just getting the odd 1 or 2.
My first thought it was an antenna or interference issue, but checking the SDR waterfall the signal is still very strong with little QRM. Suspecting a software issue introduced by the update I checked the FUNCube forum and found a thread which appeared to confirm my suspicions.
I have a number of discussions on twitter with various people including David Johnson (G4DPZ) an AMSAT-UK Committee Member and one of the developers of the FUNcube ground segment. David kindly performed an analysis of one of the passes yesterday where I managed just 2 frames, and from the results it does appear to be an issue at this end, rather than issue with the spacecraft.
I have uninstalled v8.14 and put back on an earlier version of the dashboard (v8.09) and thanks to a windows update last night have also performed a full reboot!
There was a good pass this morning at 62 degrees maximum elevation (to the east), followed by a lower pass at 22 degrees elevation (to the west so not so good) and it seems things have improved managing 68 and 17 frames respectively. So could this be an issue with the latest dashboard?
If anyone has suffered similar performance fall-off, or indeed not suffered any issues then please add some feedback to the FUNCube forum.
My copy of Radcom arrived but didn't have much time to read it..
 |
| The culprit! ;-) |
