Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Smartphone-Sat- STRAND-1

STRAND-1 AMATEUR RADIO SMARTPHONE CUBESAT TO LAUNCH FEBRUARY 25

The BBC says that the world’s first 'smartphone-sat' project called STRAND-1 will be ready to launch at the end of February. The STRAND-1 CubeSat will carry a Google Nexus One Android smartphone into space to demonstrate the feasibility of using cheap smartphone’s electronics to control a spacecraft.

Also included will be a software-based speech synthesizer to commemorate the U-O-SAT family of amateur radio satellites that were launched in the 1980′s. There will also be an amateur radio AX.25 packet radio downlink on 437.575 MHz.

The STRAND-1 satellite was built in Guildford in the United Kingdom by volunteers from the Surrey Space Centre and Surrey Satellite Technology Limited in their spare time. It is planned to be launched on February 25th into a 785 km orbit by the Indian Space Research Organization rocket. More is on-line at www.amsat-uk.org and we will have more ham radio space related news later on in this weeks Amateur Radio Newsline report. (AMSAT-UK)
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NWS Radio Site is Off Air Due to Copper Theft

National Weather Service Coordination Meteorologist Hector Guererro reports that a case of vandalism at the Coleman National Weather Service transmission site in Texas. One that took the Weather Radio station transmitter temporarily off the air.

Guererro said that county authorities reported that vandals broke into the transmitter building north of Coleman and stole the copper data feed lines that come from the city of San Angelo. The weather alert transmitter, which identifies as WXN-89, operates at 162.475 MHz. News reports say that many area Weather Alert radios and scanners are tuned to that frequency.

The lines are being replaced and the transmitter should be back on the air by the time you hear this report. Federal officials as well as Coleman county authorities are investigating the break-in and vandalism that damaged the federal government transmitting facility. (Nuizer.com, Brownwooid News)
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KWWK KNOCKED OFF THE AIR BY COPPER THIEF

Rochester Minnesota police are investigating a recent copper theft that took a local radio station off the air. Early Monday, February 4th, someone broke into the KWWK radio transmitter and tower site. The thief made off with both copper transmission line and a motor. An engineer found the crime when he went into work around 4 a.m.. Damage to the property is estimated at $550. (KTTC, others)
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My Stamp Collecting Blog

My Stamp Collecting Blog

Counter Added January 1, 2011

free counters

HOW TO READ PROPAGATION NUMBERS

The A index [ LOW is GOOD ]

  • 1 to 6 is BEST
  • 7 to 9 is OK
  • 11 or more is BAD

Represents the overall geomagnetic condition of the ionosphere ("Ap" if averaged from the Kp-Index) (an average of the eight 3-hour K-Indices) ('A' referring to amplitude) over a given 24 hour period, ranging (linearly) typically from 1-100 but theoretically up to 400.

A lower A-Index generally suggests better propagation on the 10, 12, 15, 17, & 20 Meter Bands; a low & steady Ap-Index generally suggest good propagation on the 30, 40, 60, 80, & 160 Meter Bands.

SFI index [ HIGH is GOOD ]

  • 70 NOT GOOD
  • 80 GOOD
  • 90 BETTER
  • 100+ BEST

The measure of total radio emissions from the sun at 10.7cm (2800 MHz), on a scale of 60 (no sunspots) to 300, generally corresponding to the sunspot level, but being too low in energy to cause ionization, not related to the ionization level of the Ionosphere.

Higher Solar Flux generally suggests better propagation on the 10, 12, 15, 17, & 20 Meter Bands; Solar Flux rarely affects the 30, 40, 60, 80, & 160 Meter Bands.

K index [ LOW is GOOD ]

  • 0 or 1 is BEST
  • 2 is OK
  • 3 or more is BAD
  • 5 is VERY VERY BAD

The overall geomagnetic condition of the ionosphere ("Kp" if averaged over the planet) over the past 3 hours, measured by 13 magnetometers between 46 & 63 degrees of latitude, and ranging quasi-logarithmically from 0-9. Designed to detect solar particle radiation by its magnetic effect. A higher K-index generally means worse HF conditions.

A lower K-Index generally suggests better propagation on the 10, 12, 15, 17, & 20 Meter Bands; a low & steady Kp-Index generally suggest good propagation on the 30, 40, 60, 80, & 160 Meter Bands.

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