Yet Another New Satellite – UKube-1

Posted on June 18, 2016 by robert

I noticed a day or two ago that the UKube-1 transponder had been turned on.  I believe it is going to be left in that mode full-time.  I finally had a chance to capture a telemetry frame today during a 1136 AM pass.

The same software Funcube Dashboard, is used to decode the UKUBE-1 telemetry, and no sooner than I had 145.915 entered into my Doppler.sqf file for SatPC32, then I heard the hiss of the 1.2K BPSK, and a few seconds later I was rewarded with a captured frame:

UKUBE 1 First Telem Frame

Notice all the First Column “Failed” data — this is due to the fact that Funcube-2 is integrated into another larger satellite (UKube-1).  Also don’t let the title of the program “FUNcube-1 Dashboard” fool you.

Going to the data warehouse, you select the “UKube FC2 Payload” on the right side, and sure enough you can see your data posting:

UKUBE1 Data Upload 1

UKUB1 11 packets

Note that UKube-1 is using the same boards as AO-73, so they have the same thermal issue on the uplink receiver.  Reports indicate the actual frequency is 12-15 KHz higher than the posted values:

  • 145.915 MHz FUNcube-2 telemetry 1k2 BPSK
  • 145.930-145.950 MHz FUNcube-2 transponder downlink
  • 435.080-435.060 MHz uplink (but more like 435.095-435.075 MHz)

By the way, this is the 12th communication satellite that is in my SatPC32 list (ISS, AO-7, FO-29, NO-44, SO-50, AO-73, NO-84, AO-85, XW-2A, X2-2C, XW-2F, UKube-1).  I’m maxed out!

Posted in Satellite, UKUBE-1 | Leave a comment

Field Day 2016 Satellite Passes for FN41

Posted on June 15, 2016 by robert

The table of times listed below will likely be off a bit since FD is about 10 days in the future and the TLEs will have changed slightly by then.  However it is good enough for planning purposes.  Daylight and early evening optimal passes are colored in red.  Pointing a beam at the peak azimuth and about 2/3 the peak elevation will be an optimal setting for a fixed antenna.

All times are in EDT and based on a FN41 (Rhode Island) location:

Satellite                 AOS                 LOS Duration Peak AZ Peak EL
————————————————————————-
AO-07 6/25/2016 1:56:18 PM 2:16:55 PM 00:20:37 55.1° 28.1°
FO-29 6/25/2016 2:00:21 PM 2:19:27 PM 00:19:06 267.9° 25.1°
AO-07 6/25/2016 3:47:08 PM 4:10:16 PM 00:23:08 254.6° 72.5°
SO-50 6/25/2016 4:18:03 PM 4:32:33 PM 00:14:30 115.5° 39.7°
XW-2C 6/25/2016 5:38:05 PM 5:49:40 PM 00:11:35 71.0° 30.3°
XW-2A 6/25/2016 5:40:31 PM 5:49:34 PM 00:09:03 65.2° 11.3°
AO-07 6/25/2016 5:44:01 PM 6:01:39 PM 00:17:38 272.7° 12.9°
SO-50 6/25/2016 5:58:44 PM 6:13:01 PM 00:14:17 313.7° 29.5°
XW-2F 6/25/2016 6:23:13 PM 6:35:21 PM 00:12:08 257.5° 70.8°
XW-2A 6/25/2016 7:12:01 PM 7:23:04 PM 00:11:03 260.6° 40.5°
XW-2C 6/25/2016 7:12:46 PM 7:23:36 PM 00:10:50 267.4° 17.4°
AO-73 6/25/2016 8:22:23 PM 8:34:21 PM 00:11:58 66.9° 21.7°
AO-85 6/25/2016 9:47:58 PM 10:03:26 PM 00:15:28 115.6° 38.5°
AO-73 6/25/2016 9:58:06 PM 10:10:49 PM 00:12:43 263.8° 31.5°
AO-85 6/25/2016 11:28:30 PM 11:43:55 PM 00:15:25 312.2° 34.8°
SO-50 6/26/2016 12:49:19 AM 1:03:17 AM 00:13:58 48.7° 37.1°
FO-29 6/26/2016 1:09:54 AM 1:26:12 AM 00:16:18 98.0° 51.8°
SO-50 6/26/2016 2:30:02 AM 2:43:13 AM 00:13:11 247.3° 26.0°
FO-29 6/26/2016 2:55:27 AM 3:10:06 AM 00:14:39 299.9° 21.7°
AO-07 6/26/2016 3:48:30 AM 4:10:48 AM 00:22:18 99.1° 39.0°
AO-07 6/26/2016 5:41:21 AM 6:03:47 AM 00:22:26 296.6° 49.4°
XW-2F 6/26/2016 5:56:13 AM 6:06:20 AM 00:10:07 90.8° 11.9°
AO-85 6/26/2016 6:20:06 AM 6:33:26 AM 00:13:20 47.5° 30.9°
XW-2A 6/26/2016 6:35:01 AM 6:44:09 AM 00:09:08 91.5° 10.9°
XW-2C 6/26/2016 6:44:25 AM 6:56:39 AM 00:12:14 97.8° 44.8°
XW-2F 6/26/2016 7:29:40 AM 7:41:51 AM 00:12:11 285.4° 47.5°
AO-07 6/26/2016 7:35:14 AM 7:51:28 AM 00:16:14 319.0° 11.6°
AO-85 6/26/2016 8:00:48 AM 8:13:32 AM 00:12:44 247.2° 28.3°
XW-2A 6/26/2016 8:07:11 AM 8:18:06 AM 00:10:55 287.2° 38.1°
XW-2C 6/26/2016 8:19:16 AM 8:29:32 AM 00:10:16 294.6° 13.7°
AO-73 6/26/2016 9:45:03 AM 9:58:55 AM 00:13:52 98.5° 45.4°
FO-29 6/26/2016 11:20:23 AM 11:39:19 AM 00:18:56 64.2° 30.4°
AO-73 6/26/2016 11:21:46 AM 11:34:01 AM 00:12:15 294.3° 18.6°
AO-07 6/26/2016 12:59:35 PM 1:16:24 PM 00:16:49 42.9° 12.9°
FO-29 6/26/2016 1:04:03 PM 1:24:52 PM 00:20:49 259.9° 58.9°

Posted in AO-7, AO-73, AO-85, FO-29, Satellite, SO-50, XW-2A, XW-2C, XW-2F | Leave a comment

Back to AO-73 Dashboard for a Bit

Posted on June 7, 2016 by robert

The SatGate appears to be working fine, and it seems to find more unique packets than duplicate ones, so it appears to work.  Ultimately I want to package that up with a RPi running XASTIR using a TNC-Pi and a TK-762G as a stand-alone product.

I did put the rig back onto AO-73 for a bit.  During a pass this morning around 1400 UTC, I watched 98 packets decode.  Dang, I really wanted 100+  But I have a few birdies that show up toward the end of the pass, when Doppler has shifted things pretty low (I’m using SatPC32 to doppler control).  Those start to mess with the incoming data.

I also observe that there is still an unaccounted drift towards lower frequencies of about 600 Hz over the length of the pass.

image

Posted in AO-73, Satellite | Leave a comment

And Just Like That — 255 Confirmed!

Posted on June 3, 2016 by robert

So I did my daily check-and-hope of LotW today and was shocked to see a confirmation from a Botswana station contact made 2 years ago!  That was country 255, completing my 2016 DX goal.  From the date, it has to be a contact made during the CQ World Wide CW DX Contest.

Screen Shot 2016-06-03 at 4.30.05 PM

I think that this was either Neil, VA7DX or Roger, ZS6RJ operating as A25DX.

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2016 Goal Review

Posted on June 1, 2016 by robert

At the beginning of each year I set some goals for myself.  These were the goals I set for 2016:

2016 Goals:

  • 255 Confirmed Countries
  • 1,200 DX Band-Points
  • WAS Completed on 12 Meters
  • Successful ARISS Contact at All Saints Academy
  • Teach a Technician Class for Monsignor Clarke Middle School
  • Teach a Technician Class Elsewhere
  • Complete my K1

As my DXCC update indicates, I stand at 254 confirmed countries, so one more to go (and at least three DX stations have shown me in their Club Log file — so some green stamps and mailed envelopes should take care of that.

DXCC Challenge is over 1,200 band-points now, so that one is complete.  My WAS on 12-meters is still missing WV.  With the decline in sunspots that band has very little activity.  That said I did hear WV once on 12-meters this year and failed to make a contact with them.

The ARISS contact at ASA was wildly successful, but the class at Monsignor Clarke Middle School fell through (not enough student interest for after school).  We may well hold it as a formal class during school in the fall.

Finally my K1 was completed.  I did break down and buy the internal tuner, so I will need to build that and install it at some point.

So 3 out of 7 goals completed so far.

Posted in From the OM | Leave a comment

DXCC Update

Posted on June 1, 2016 by robert

You can tell that DX hasn’t been as easy to find since I haven’t updated my DXCC info in a month or more.

As of the end of May, 2016, I have the following confirmed in LotW:

LOTW Status May 31st

Ironically, Challenge went from 1,202 to 1,203 because of a Canadian ham who confirmed a JT9 contact we had today on 17-meters.  Imagine not having Canada on all bands from where I live.  In truth I had worked literally dozens of Canadian stations on 17-meters but nobody confirmed a contact until VE7NBQ did — Thank you!

CanadaOn17m

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SatGate Worked!

Posted on May 31, 2016 by robert

SatGate worked after I made changes to the SatGate2/IGate Settings tab, changing the “Gate only these” list to be RS0ISS*.  (That did not allow PSAT-1 to route through as you might expect — see below).

Immediately after a pass of ISS, T2SOCAL status showed the following status under my call.  It showed that I was a validated station, had been online 36 minutes, and was last heard from 29 minutes ago.  I was known to be running the UISSSatGate software, and had IGated a total of 7 packets, 6 of which were duplicates:

satgate

I checked for Raw Packets on APRS.fi for each callsign in my igated.txt log file, and only one showed that I had routed it as a SGate; one from WB2CMF:

2016-05-31 20:22:09 EDT: WB2CMF>APRS,RS0ISS*,qAR,WB4SON:=4050.03N/07303.51W- Hi from Farmingville, NY

The other six forwarded packets had all been duplicated by someone else. For example, consider a packet from KE4DV that appeared in my igated.txt log file.  When I checked out the Raw Packets on APRS.fi, sure enough, it had been routed by WA8LMF-SG:

2016-05-31 20:20:58 EDT: KE4DV>APX206,RS0ISS*,qAR,WA8LMF-SG:=/;`mL;1tL-   Hello from Seaford, VA FM17te

 

Before heading off to bed, I changed the IGate to “Gate All”, and now I see PSAT-1 packets routing through — Look at the latitude/longitude change in 63 seconds (from 34N/31W to 25N/28W):

  • 20160601060737 : PSAT-1]APOFF,ARISS,qAR,WB4SON:!25 . N\028 . WS140/999/W3ADO s#001740,0z290
  • 20160601060634 : PSAT-1]APOFF,ARISS,qAR,WB4SON:!34 . N\031 . WS140/999/W3ADO s#001739,0z290
Posted in APRS, ISS, Packet, Satellite | Leave a comment

Where Did the SatGate2 RF->Internet Packets Go?

Posted on May 31, 2016 by robert

I had UISS, CAT7200, and SatGate2 running last night.  My hourly beacon was showing up just fine on the APRS network, but I was disappointing that nothing appeared to get routed from the RF side to the Internet.

When I woke up this morning, I eventually made it to my Wombat Room (man-cave where my ham radio gear is locate — OK the furnace room, especially comfortable in the hot summer).  I was expecting to see that I simply hadn’t received any packets from the RS0ISS.  That was not the case, the UISS log showed many:

Fm WB3FKP To CQ Via RS0ISS* <UI pid=F0 Len=56 >[02:06:38]
:ISS-5 :Hello to all over the ISS ! wb3fkp@gmail.com
Fm WB3FKP To CQ Via RS0ISS* <UI pid=F0 Len=18 >[02:06:47]
:Heard :K0KOC-1
Fm WB3FKP To CQ Via RS0ISS* <UI pid=F0 Len=53 >[02:06:57]
Mark in Alden, PA 65W and 5/8wave GP Hello Via ISS
Fm K0KOC-1 To 3Y2S1Y Via RS0ISS* <UI pid=F0 Len=12 >[02:07:43]
‘i4wl #/]=
Fm N1NCB-1 To APOT21 Via RS0ISS*,APRS,CQ <UI pid=F0 Len=45 >[02:08:37]
/060848h4355.01N/06954.33W_14.1V 71F EPE015
Fm AK3Q-1 To SYPV3W Via RS0ISS* <UI pid=F0 Len=16 >[03:42:45]
`p8ll -\]”5k}=

So there were plenty of opportunities for routing to occur, but it had not.  I checked the IGate Settings and saw this:

image (7)

The RF to Inet IGate is turned on, setup for only packets that I receive directly.  BUT WAIT, what’s that “Gate only these” callsign?  Is it R0ISS* ? That is the DEFAULT setting for SatGate2.  It should have been RS0ISS*.   I’ve made that correction and will wait for passes later today to see if thing are routing.

By the way I received many packets from PSAT-1 last night.  They won’t route through with the current “Gate only these” callsign.  And setting it to ARISS will allow too much to route through.  For now I’m trying PSAT-1 as I understand that call is used when the digipeater is turned off.

Posted in APRS, ARISS, ISS, Packet, Satellite | Leave a comment

So How Do You Get a APRS Passcode

Posted on May 30, 2016 by robert

If you want to connect to the APRS IS network, you need a Passcode that will validate your callsign.  Per the APRS-IS Guidelines “It is the responsibility of each software author to provide the proper passcode to their individual users on a request basis. This is to aid in keeping APRS-IS restricted to amateur radio use only.”

Posted in APRS | 9 Comments

Getting SatGate 2 to run Under Win 10 32-bit

Posted on May 30, 2016 by robert

I think I used my quota of good luck up getting UISS and CAT7200 running on my Win10 laptop.  That laptop had a fresh install of Win10 32-bit on it, so it had no legacy files from prior Windows versions.

When I added in the SatGate 2 Module to UISS (provides a sGate function — routing packets received from the ISS or other packet satellites onto the APRS network), I received an error that “MSCOMCTL.OCX” was missing.  A bit of Googling had me understanding that it was part of the ActiveX controls that Microsoft started rolling out around 1996 and it was no longer supported in Windows 10.  But when those controls existed, they were in a directory called C:\Windows\sysWOW64, a directory that didn’t exist on my laptop.

I checked my desktop PC which had been running Win 7, and probably XP before that.  Sure enough, the C:\Windows\sysWOW64 directory existed, and MSCOMCTL.OCX, dated April 15, 2005 was sitting in that directory.

So I did the following on my laptop:

  1. I created a C:\Windows\sysWow64 directory, letting Win10 security know that I really wanted to do that.
  2. I copied my MSCOMCTL.OCX file into that new directory
  3. I registered the ActiveX control by entering CMD<CTRL><SHIFT><ENTER> which opened up a command window with elevated privlidges.
  4. I ran regsvr32 C:\Windows\sysWOW64\mscomctl.ocx

That successfully registered mscomctl.ocx, the only ActiveX file in that directory (note the elevated CMD and the location are critical — errors will happen if you don’t do those things correctly).

Now the SatGate 2 Module will start under UISS, and appears to be working.

While this is a work-around that gets things going, I am not happy about having an ActiveX control, notoriously full of security holes, on either my desktop or laptop — especially because the last security fix was dated 6/7/2012, 7 years after the version I have. Eek.

Interesting reading here:  http://www.fmsinc.com/microsoftaccess/controls/mscomctl/

And here:  https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/2597986

After reading the above, it appears I should have installed the MSCOMCTL.OCX file into the C:/Windows/system32 directory instead.  But it is working where it is, and I suspect that is because I used regsvr32.

Posted in APRS, ARISS, Digital Mode, IC-9100, Packet, Satellite | Leave a comment