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Amateur Radio ISS contact next week at Gilwell Park

A contact between the International Space Station and youngsters at Gilwell Park, north London, is scheduled for Tuesday 8 August (next week), as part of Youngsters on the Air 2017.

The youngsters will take part in a Q&A session with astronaut Paolo Nespoli, IZØJPA, Flight Engineer of Expedition 52/53, lasting around 10 minutes.

The contact will be at 1838 UTC (that’s 1938 local time) on 2m FM, likely on the standard ARISS frequency of 145.800 MHz, and should be readily receivable using handheld Yagis, turnstiles, or even rubber duck antennas over the UK and northern Europe.

A simultaneous HamTV transmission is also planned, with live pictures from ISS coming down via DVB-S, streamed live via the BATC website.

Some more information provided by Southgate ARC here.

Many thanks to the ARISS team for once again coming together to make this event happen – we look forward to seeing the results.

Events, News

“Night on the Air” 10th August, RRFC, Sonning Lane

Next meeting is at Reading Rugby Football Club, Holme Park, Sonning Lane, RG4 6ST, Thursday 10th August.

It’s “Night on the Air” so we will have a few stations set up – probably a couple of HF stations. Feel free to bring along any portable gear to
play/experiment with. Just be aware there may be 100W of RF kicking
about on HF which delicate equipment may not appreciate if connected to any nearby antenna.

Start 8pm but feel free to arrive earlier to help with setup or just enjoy the evening.

If you are new to the hobby this is a great opportunity to see amateur
radio in action and have a go at operating yourself.

With luck, we will also have a demo of an “Antenna test range”.

On the military kit side, with luck, we will also have a “Clansman”
dipole and 30-70MHz vertical antenna/dummy load atop. I suspect there will be some other “green” radios on parade.

Should weather preclude outdoor operations we will meet anyway as
the bar will be open.

Looking forward to seeing you there.

73

John
G4RDC

Events, News

Thursday 27th July – ‘Fix it’ / Alignment evening

Next meeting is Thursday, 27th July, 8pm Woodford Park.

It’s a ‘Fix it’ evening (Alignment evening in old money) so bring along those radio/electronics items needing attention. Even if we can’t fix items on the evening we may be able to work out a plan for them.

I’ll try and make sure we have some test gear available (scope, maybe spectrum analyser, meter etc.)

Computers also welcome – I’ll bring a VGA/HDMI monitor.

As per last meeting, would be great if you can let me know what you’re bringing first but no problem if not.

Even if I have to use many kettles, we’ll do coffee, tea and biscuits. The urn was indisposed last time.

Member stories, Satellites, VHF

ISS SSTV 2m FM transmissions this weekend

This weekend, ARISS is celebrating its 20th anniversary with a series of SSTV transmissions from the ISS – International Space Station.

Transmissions will be on 145.800 FM in PD 120 or PD180.

These should be easily receivable on a handheld tuned to 145.800 with anything better than the stock whip. Last time around they were loud! A 3 element tape measure yagi will work very well for this, and it’s not much effort to knock one together. Full quieting signal should be achievable.
Images can be decoded live during the passes on a smartphone using, for example, “SSTV Slow Scan TV” by Black Cat Systems for iPhone, or “Robot36 – SSTV Image Decoder” on Google Play for Android. A cable will help, but holding the mic up to the HT speaker should work okay. Alternatively recording the audio through whatever means will allow you to play around decoding later.
Passes for the weekend can be found on http://www.heavens-above.com as well as other sources. Be sure to set your location. Some key passes:

Thu 23:23:21
Fri 00:58:35
Fri 22:32:15
Sat 00:06:25
Sat 23:14:23
Sun 00:50:21
Sun 22:22:34
Sun 23:58:03
Mon 01:34:30

Event is scheduled to end at 18:00 UTC on Monday 24 July.

Most of the passes this weekend are visible, so assuming no cloud, antenna pointing shouldn’t be a problem 🙂
 
Most favourable pass taking into account the time looks like Sat 23:14:23 BST.
 
For those of you who have not spotted ISS in the night sky as yet, at its peak it is second only in brightness to the moon in the night sky, appearing as a solid bright white point typically low in the south-western sky from the UK, appearing to move across the sky about the same speed as an airplane at altitude. At its highest point, on a high pass, it really is hard to miss – easily brighter than Venus or Jupiter. Some passes it will fade into shadow, some it will pass across the whole sky brightly reflecting full sunlight, well into the late night down here.
 
If the same format is followed this time around as last, there will be 2.5 ish images per pass with a few tens of seconds gap in between, with no carrier.
 
Happy sat spotting…
Update
In the end I slept through most of the passes! However here’s the one image I did capture:
I put together a simple cable to connect my Wouxun handy to my iPhone based on this circuit,  used an inexpensive Nagoya NA-771 whip, and for aiming, I listened for ISS on a second handy on its stock antenna, held closely and parallel to the Wouxun, broadside to ISS. Almost perfect copy, up to at least S6 or so. Great fun!
Did you capture anything? Tell us @MX0AAA!
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Clansman SURF unit – another interesting object

For anyone into military radio, Patrick kindly pointed out that these Clansman SURF units are available quite cheaply on well know auction sites currently. It is essentially a variable bandpass filter I believe, designed for using VHF manpacks together in close proximity. It is a beautiful piece of engineering if slightly radioactive!

I love the worm drive – a variable capacitor and variable inductor is driven from the tuning knob via this drive.

Looks like new inside.

Uncategorized

Some Clansman fun at the RADARC barbecue

Sorry about the bright pink basket!!

We had some Clansman fun at the Barbecue – thanks John, Patrick and Alison for helping out – learnt a lot about the Clansman kit. The mast is a Clansman 5.4 metre with Clansman dipole (eventually set correctly for 60m!) and an elevated groud spike antenna on top for 4 metres.

Events, Talks

In-depth DMR talk by Denis G0OLX and Colin G4EML

Denis Stanton G0OLX and Colin Durbridge G4EML will be with us on Thursday 22nd June for an in-depth look at DMR or “Digital Mobile
Radio” (so sayeth wikipedia). These two chaps are acclaimed experts in the field (at least by Ian G8NXJ so that must be right). Find out all
about colour codes, code plugs and time slots. Rig prices are becoming affordable making this relatively new area of our hobby quite accessible.

Venue: Woodford Park, Woodley, 8pm.

Refreshments to be served as usual.

Events, News, Talks

Signals Analysis of MH370

We have a special meeting forthcoming on 8th June (election day).

Venue: Palmer Building, Reading University, Lecture Theatre 109.

Use Shinfield Road entrance to campus. Post Code RG6 6UR.

Alan Schuster Bruce from Inmarsat will give a talk entitled “Signals
Analysis of MH370”.

He will talk about the innovative methods used in the analysis of
satellite radio signals from Malaysian Airlines MH370 to determine its flight path.

The disappearance of flight MH370 just over three years ago, you may recall, was an event of global significance. I personally was proud to see a UK company immediately leading the world in science and technology with heroic efforts to explain what happened. And particularly to see radio communications being “front and centre”.

It is a real privilege for us to be able to host this meeting.

It’s fine to bring guests but please let me know if you intend to do so
and how many.

Parking permits are not required on site. The closest car park to Palmer is Car Park 4.  Please see Whiteknights campus map and keys 2016 (1)

73

John
G4RDC

Website for the Reading And District Amateur Radio Club