Tag Archives: Satellite

Education and Training, Featured, General, Newsletter, On The Air

Ham Radio Bootcamp – Sign up for Fall Session

The Nashua Area Radio Society will be holding a Ham Radio Bootcamp this Fall.  This is a program to help new or inactive hams to gain the skills they need to get on the air.   You are invited to join us for the first session, which will be held on Saturday, October 26th from 10:00 am to 2:00 pm.  A light lunch will be provided.

Ham Radio Bootcamp First HF Contact
First HF Contact at Bootcamp

Here is the planned schedule for the Fall Ham Radio Bootcamp.  Mark these dates on your calendar!

  • Session 1: October 26th
  • Session 2: November 9th
      • How to set up your 1st HF station
      • HF Operating
      • Digital Operating
      • Ground Plane Antenna Kit
  • Session 3: November 16th
      • Building and tuning up HF Wire Antennas

We will also be scheduling a 4th Ham Radio Bootcamp session, which will be a trip to Ham Radio Outlet in Salem.  Stay tuned to the forums for details.

HamXposition
Dan and Kenzie Satellite Intro at Bootcamp

 

For more information on Ham Radio Bootcamp, see the articles from previous sessions held locally and at Boxboro.

If you are interested in attending, RSVP to Anita, AB1QB at [email protected].  If you would like to participate in the HT programming session, please send your HT make and model.

Hope to see you on October 26th!

Featured, General, Newsletter, Space, Station Equipment

Adding L-Band (24 cm) to Our Satellite SDR System

We’ve recently received our L24TX Transmit Converter from Down East Microwave. The unit is compact, simple, and produces up to 25W output in the satellite section of the 23 cm band (1260 MHz – 1270 MHz, actually 24 cm). The L24TX is a transmit-only device that is intended to enable L-band uplinks for Satellite use. This article is about our most recent project which involved integrating the L24TX into our Flex Satellite SDR System to enable L-Band Satellite operation  …

Source: Satellite Station 4.0 Part 10 – Adding 23 cm To Our Satellite SDR

We are making progress on our project to enable remote Satellite operation via the Internet. The latest step is the addition of L-band (24 cm) uplink support to our Flex Satellite SDR System.

L-Band Satellite SDR
L-Band 24 cm Transmit Converter

We’ve also made some good progress on custom software to link MacDoppler and our Flex Radio Satellite System via the Internet.

The article in the link above shares information about how to go about adding Transverters and Band Transmit Converters to a Flex SDR. the step needed to configure the Flex SmartSDR software, as well as links, cover other aspects for our Satellite System 4.0 Project are included.

You can read the latest updates about this project via the link above.

Fred, AB1OC

Activities, Featured, General, Newsletter, On The Air, Space

AMSAT 50th Aniversary Celebration – W3ZM/1 Activations in CT and RI

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Burns, WB1FJ approached me a few weeks ago doing some portable satellite activations as part of the AMSAT 50th Aniversary Celebration. The idea was to use the AMSAT Callsign WZ3M/1 to put the states of CT and RI on satellites.

Simple Portable Satellite Station
Portable Satellite Station on Mt. Washington

We had recently tested our portable satellite station during the Nashua Area Radio Society’s activation of Mt Washington. The WZ3M/1 activations were a great opportunity to continue testing our portable satellite station by making some more linear and FM contacts.

Radio Management via MacDoppler
MacDoppler Satellite Tracking Software

Preparations for our activations included creating a Pass Summary of predictions for the day of our activation using prediction data from MacDoopler. You can take a look at our pass summary here.

W3ZM/1 Activation
W3ZM/1 Activation in RI

Our first activation was near the fire station in Burrillville, RI. We found an open spot and set up our station, antenna, and solar power system. This was a great public spot and we had several visitors come by to take a look at our setup and ask questions about satellites and Amateur Radio.

We made quite a few contacts at this location using both FM satellites like AO-92, AO-92, and SO-50 as well as a few contacts using linear satellites like CAS-4A and CAS-4B.

W3ZM/1 Activation
W3ZM/1 Activation in CT

We moved to a Church in CT for the next part of our activation early in the afternoon. This site was a little less open than the first one but we were still able to make a number of contacts here.

The photo above shows a view of our portable setup which consisted of an Icom 910H transceiver, a MacBook Air Laptop running MacDoppler, and an Elk Log-periodic antenna on a tripod. The computer and MacDoppler controlled the radio VFOs to automatically correct for Doppler shift which enabled us to do contacts using linear satellites. We used an iPhone running a satellite tracking app to help point the antenna during satellite passes.

We used a pair of 90W portable solar panels, a pair of LIPO batteries, and an MPPT charging system to provide power for our radio and the computer. It was a sunny day and our solar power system kept our batteries fully charged through both activations.

We did pretty well overall making a total of 15 contacts between. The downlink side of our antenna system was the weakest link in the setup. Folks that we worked on linear satellites indicated that our uplink signals were solid but we had some trouble hearing weaker stations on the downlinks. We have some ideas for an improved antenna system for our next portable activation – stay tuned for more on this.

All in all, Burns and I were pretty pleased with these activations. We had a lot of fun, helped a few folks some new states, contributed to AMSAT’s 50th Celebration, and we learned some things that we can use to improve our portable station.

Fred, AB1OC

Radio Amateurs Developing Skills Worldwide