Category Archives: Amateur Radio

Amateur Radio

SSTV from the Space Station

“An innovative space transmission system built by volunteers has started sending down pictures from the international space station to the whole wide world via amateur radio. Thanks to SpaceCam1, anyone with a police scanner or a suitable radio rig, plus a computer and the appropriate software, should be able to receive pictures from orbit, the project’s organizers say.”

The full article is here.

This is great PR for the hobby. Well done to all concerned. I really should get off my ass and receive a picture or two. PCSAT2 will be returning back to Earth soon, so my equipment will no longer acting as a downlink station, and free to be used for something else. Maybe I’ll get around to it then.

Amateur Radio, Mapping

New APRS Digipeater

I’ve been testing two prototype Opentrackers from Scott N1VG for a while. I received cases for them the other day (seen below on top of my 2m Yaesu FT-1500M)

Opentracker 2

so it is now destined for the shack of Tommy, EI2IT. Hopefully it will cover a black spot around Cahir/Clonmel for members the Tipperary Amateur Radio Group. A predicted coverage map (generated with Splat is shown below.

ei7t-coverage.jpg

Amateur Radio

Getting back on the air!

I have been struggling to get back on the HF Bands for a while now. Though I am active on APRS from my car, both terrestrially and through the ISS, but I’ve not really been very active on voice modes.

I did have a few (my first) satellite contacts last October through AO-51 but I really haven’t had a chance to get back to it.

As I’ve not really been active for 10 years or so, I’ve had a major problem with my logging. A Stations log is where an operator is required to log each and every contact that (s)he makes. Sometime (mostly) us hams exchange a QSL card to confirm the contact. They look something like this:

EI7IG-3.jpg
I was actually driving back from a SAGE meeting at the time and basically just responed with a “Hi”, much to the bemusement (and maybe slight panic) of my passengers.

The point is my log has been a disaster, I’ve lost pages due to moving house, operating in different countries (when a small bag with radio and other bits of metal goes through the x-ray machine, they tend not to be worried about the paperwork when they ask you to open the bag… sir!). I started thinking about an electronic log again, but being a Linux user, the choices are slightly more restricted.

This time, however, I was pleseantly surprised when I came across LiHaLo. It is a L.A.M.P. application, and it works very very well. Last night, I finally got all of my current logbook entered and just towards the end, came across a small problem. Some of the satellites I had operated through were not ‘available’. A quick “insert” of a new entry into the satellite table, and problem is solved. It may not be very slick looking, but it is more than adequate my my needs.

Now I just need to get an external antenna up and get myself more organised for portable satellite operation and I should start increasing my ‘country’ total. At the moment it stands at (a pretty pathetic) 24 countries confirmed with QSL cards, 43 that I ‘think’ that I have worked. I never knew those statistics until I entered my logs into LiHaLo.

Amateur Radio, General

Project Argo

Earlier this year (late June/early) I was informed that there was an 8 wheel drive “ATV” type vehicle sitting idle in someones back garden and would I be interested in it (as if I would say no!). I was told it was was sitting on a trailer and both it and the trailer were in need of some work.

It turned out that it was an old ARGO, this one had obviously had a hard life. It was still on its trailer and both were in pretty bad shape, but niether Jim (my dad) or I were brave enough to try towing it behind our cars as it was quite a bit bigger than we had imagined. Tommy, EI2IT, volunteered to tow it with his Jeep. One sunday afternoon in June, Tommy, Jim and I headout out to the site, pumped the tyres on the trailer and headed (slowly) back to Clonmel to my parents house (much to my Mothers delight!).

Unfortunately, I was extremely busy workwise for most of summer, so Jim worked away on it pretty much on his own. The list of things to be done were (not a complete or ordered list):

  • Rebuild the engine (it was seized).
  • Free the chain drives (rusted).
  • Replace the bearings on the drive shafts.
  • Free the brakes (and replace perished seals)
  • Free the Winch

This is the first picture I got to take of it (July 24th, 2005):
Sad looking ARGO

At this stage Jim had it off the trailer, the top off, and had ascertained that the engine and the drives were all seized.

To make a long story short, this is what it looks like today (13th November 2005):
Healthy

All the pictures I took, at the various stages of work are here.

Hopefully, at some stage early next year, EI7TRG will be mobile somewhere on the side of Slievenamon, after getting in some driving practice, and then parking up and operating a portable station for a few hours.

Amateur Radio

Suitsat

“Now is the time to begin preparing your amateur radio station to receive signals from SuitSat, the most unusual Amateur Radio satellite ever orbited. SuitSat amateur radio equipment will be installed inside a surplus Russian Orlan spacesuit.”

What an interesting way to get rid of a surplus space suits, rather than store it in some building somewhere or bury it in a landfill why not use it as an educational tool. Read more about the project here.

Amateur Radio

SSETI Express

SSETI stands for the Student Space Exploration and Technology Initiative, funded by the Education Department of the European Space Agency (ESA). This morning, at approximately 06:52 UTC SSETI Express was successfully launched from Plesetsk Cosmodrome in Northern Russia. So far it seems to be operating within mission parameters.

See here for a BBC news story and here for the project homepage.