Quote for Today

I found this quote many years ago in a family members bible that was given to me. 

Nothing marked in it. No personal notes.

Just a book marker that read this quote. 

"Be true to yourself, help others, make each day your masterpiece, make friendship a fine art, drink deeply from good books - especially the Bible, build a shelter against a rainy day, give thanks for your blessings and pray for guidance every day."

Tubes

I bought this entire kit of tubes for $10.00 dollars.

I know, what to do with them? I have many projects in mind.

SAIPAN from June 21-22

JA3IUY will be active as AH0CI from the Saipan Rental Shack in the Northern Mariana Islands between June 21st and 22nd. Operations will be on all bands and modes. QSL via his home callsign, either direct or via the bureau. (OPDX)

Ham Radio assisted in Reactivating Three Decade Old NASA Satellite

Ham radio has assisted in reactivating an over three decade old NASA satellite.

The U-K newspaper the Daily Mail says that several radio amateurs were involved with Project Reboot in regaining control on May 29th of the 35 year old abandoned International Sun-Earth Explorer 3 spacecraft. Hams named in the article include Dennis Wingo, KD4ETA; Achim Vollhardt, DH2VA, and Mario Lorenz DL5MLO.

The International Sun-Earth Explorer was launched in 1978 to study Earth’s magnetosphere. It carries thirteen scientific instruments to measure plasmas, energetic particles, waves, and fields. As of this past May, all but one is thought to be functional. An on-board data handling system gathers the scientific and engineering information from all systems in the spacecraft. It then formats this information into a serial stream for transmission back to Earth by an on-board 5 watt transmitter.

After completing its main mission, the satellite was repurposed in 1983 to study two comets. At that time it was renamed the International Cometary Explorer and has been in a heliocentric orbit since then, traveling just slightly faster than Earth. It’s finally catching up to our planet from behind, and will be closest to Earth this August.

Now, KD4ETA has released an update on the attempts by the projects volunteers, including the radio amateurs, to gain control of the spacecraft. According to Wingo, the probe has been successfully commanded into engineering telemetry mode. He noted the job done by DH2VA and also Phil Karn, KA9Q, to make this happen. Karn is well known in the amateur radio community for his work on the KA9Q Network Operating System, the early 9600 bit FSK radio modems, and more recently, the introduction of forward error correction into the Amateur Satellite Service.

As we go to air, Project Reboot members are working on deadline. If they get the spacecraft to change its orbit quickly, it can use the Moon's gravity to get back into a useful halo orbit. If not, the fear is that for all practical purposes the International Sun-Earth Explorer 3 could be lost. We will keep you posted.

For the Amateur Radio Newsline, I’m Heather Embee, KB3TZD, in Berwick, Pennsylvania.

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The actual first command to the revived International Sun-Earth Explorer 3 spacecraft was successfully sent from the Arecibo Radio Observatory in Puerto Rico using the facilities 305 meter dish. This after the volunteer team installed the needed modulator, demodulator and power amplifier to make contact and control of the satellite possible. More is on the web at tinyurl.com/reboot-project (AMSAT-UK, Daily Mail, Southgate)

118 New Hams coming to the air from South Africa

Listen out for upward of 118 new hams coming to the air from South Africa. This after South African Radio League Radio Examination Manager ZS4GJA, reports a good pass rate for the ham radio exams administered last month.

Unlike other countries South Africa only has two amateur radio exams each year. They are held in May and October, with usually around 120 successful candidates for each session. Call signs for candidates who submitted all the paperwork prior to the May examination have been published and they may start using their new call signs immediately.

Artsat One Invader Reports Needed

Masahiro Sanada, JI1ZR reports the amateur radio CubeSat Artsat One Invader also known as CO-77 is in trouble and he is asks radio hams world-wide to keep an ear open for the bird and to report anything heard.

According to Sanada, the satellite does not reply to commands from the control station and those involved in the project are trying to find out why in hope of finding a fix or work-around. The downlink frequency for Artsat One Invader is 437.325MHz. If you hear the bird please send that information via a form on the web at api.artsat.jp/report

ICELAND DX – JUNE 27 TO JULY 4

In DX up-front, ON6KE has announced that he will be active stroke T F from Iceland between June 27th and July 4th. His operation will be low power holiday style, mostly in the early mornings and evenings on the High Frequency bands using CW, SSB and JT65. Equipment is a FT-817ND and magnetic loop antenna. QSL only electronically using Logbook of the World or eQSL.