|
|
|
Main Links
|
International Space Station Bill McArthur using Ham Radio aboard the International Space Station
Call sign NA1SS These are 4 recordings of my ISS voice contacts with Bill: 1 Dec 10th 1 Dec 10th as recorded by KD5MS 2 Dec 11th 3 Dec 17th as recorded by NO5X 4 Jan 29th Note: NO5X also made contact on the same pass! Here is a copy of my QSL card for a voice contact with Bill McArthur on while aboard the ISS on Dec 10th 2005.
I have done cross-band repeat, APRS Packet and Voice all via ISS! Thank you Bill McArthur, your the best! SuitSat: AJ3U has lots of recorded files for the SuitSat No5X and I set up our radios for the long anticipated the release of SuitSat and the subsequent SSTV image and audio transmissions. A few folks in Japan said the heard weak signals from the satellite. I heard nothing from EM15gk. Below is a image just as the SuitSat was released from the ISS.
see www.suitsat.org for reporting info. Audio 1. Bill talks about Suitsat Failure 02-04-2006 Satellites Great getting started document I Have great fun working the birds. I use NASA’s JTrack Web site and SatScape software to track and predict the satellite passes. I use Orbitron to control the radios and Yaesu 5500 rotors. Support AMSAT! Antennas I have a tower at 35 feet with a Yaesu 5500 rotor. The rotor has a horizontal mast of 8 feet. On this mast I have a 440MHz, 144MHz, 900MHz, 1.2GHz and 2.4GHz antennas. 440MHZ is a Cushcraft model TB416 twist, 16 element right polarized with 15db gain 144Mhz is a Cushcraft model A144-20T 20 element, right hand polarized with 13db gain The 900 Mhz is a Cushcraft PC901 4 element Yagi, Vertical polarized with 12db gain The 1.2 Ghz antenna is a M2 model 23CM22EZ 22 element Vertical polarized with 16db gain The 2.4 Ghz is a K5GNA dish with 144 IF mast mounted down converter with a LNA with 37db gain. below the rotor are two other antennas 137Mhz Home Made QHA for weather satellites 2 Meter Clover Leaf for ISS APRS (backup)
Rotor Controller The rotor is computer controlled by the SAEBRTrack. This was released in QST on Sept 1995 and uses the WiSP driver. I modified the circuit to included a LCD to display the current AZ/EL of the antenna, name of the satellite being tracked and also the new headings. I also reworked the Basic stamp software to support the added functions. In addition to this, I modified WISP driver so that WISP would work with the free Orbitron tracking software. The modified Wisp driver and BasicStamp Code is found here. The SAEBRTrack PCB is available at Far circuits for $6.00. There are some errors on the board that can be corrected fairly easily with very basic tools (fig B). I added some wires to the bottom of the PCB so I could connect the AZ/EL sensors to the A/D chip. I also drilled holes in the board so that I could use terminals from Radio Shack (Part # 276-1388) to hook up the rotor wires (fig C). I used a Dremal to cut the traces on the board to have something to solder the extra wires to (fig B). I used a preprogrammed pic from Peter Anderson to drive the 4x40 LCD display (fig A). Here is his display diagram. I installed the required parts on a Radio Shack perf board (fig A). The large ribbon cable is an old floppy drive cable and the smaller ones are serial cables. A When the interface boots it displays "SAEBRTrack AD5JN", (The call can be changed). After about 30 seconds the display clears. Line 1 AD5JN and then the satellite I have selected in Orbitron. Line 2 whether or not I have AOS and the current Satellite position Line 3 current antenna elevation position and position antenna is headed. Line 4 current antenna azimuth position and position antenna is headed. Fig A is not AOS, Fig B AOS and antenna is moving azimuth. A AO51 Telemetry Data I use a program called tlmEcho to decode the 9600 telemetry from the AO51 Satellite. Then then forward my collected data to the control ops. Here is a screen shot of the battery health of AO51 on Jan 11, 2006
AO27 WI really like the bird, It's signal is very strong and the folks that use it are a great bunch of guys. It's a slower pace than AO51 and many know each other by the first name. Great bird and easy to work. System Time When working with Satellites your computer time must be dead-nut on. A few seconds can be many miles off. I use some freeware software called automachron to keep time sync. Here are some time servers to try Time Servers.
Portable I have been working the AO51 satellite with an Alinco 596 Dual Band HT and an Arrow II antenna. I have built a micro duplexer based on a design from Chuck Duey. Here are the plans. This duplexer fits in the handle of the Arrow II. This drawing shows the performance of the micro duplexer. The micro duplexer PCB board can be purchased from Far circuits. |
