ARISSat-1/KEDR On-Air Test

A test of the system will be conducted on the ISS from 1915 UTC July 30 to 1430 UTC July 31. The standard ARISSat-1/KEDR 2m downlink band plan should be transmitted. The satellite FM signal will also be downlinked on 437.55 MHz. ( borrowed from the details at www.AMSAT.org – go read more !)
Here is the posted frequency chart. Testing is about to start .!.!.

2011_ARISSat-1_Frequency_Chart

VHFDX.INFO

This site has crossed my radar a few times recently, and I finally got back to it with some time to look at what all is available there. The first thing I had been looking for was propagation information for VHF, particularly 6 meters. Looking deeper, I find real-time DX contact spotting on auto-refreshing maps.

Multi-band composite QSO map example

This really is a lot of information on one map ..!.. Looking at each band individually helps understand what frequencies are working and to where. I also found real-time MUF maps that show Sporadic E-skip ‘hot-spots’. WoW !
Go check out the North America 6m map on http://www.vhfdx.info – I registered with the site so that I can submit contacts and contribute to the data collection. Makes another good example of crowd-sourced science. I’ll be using this more . . .
Try it, you might like it …

Thanks Gabriel (EA6VQ) – this is a wonderful site. Well done sir .!.
/;^)

WhiteStar Balloon Update

There is a new update on http://whitestarballoon.com today;

White Star Balloon's website

and Dan Bowen boldly explains some of the complications encountered on their first launch attempt. There is a lot more complexity here than most casual observers may expect. What you don’t see is how many little details DID work as expected. This ain’t a typical party balloon, you don’t just ‘Let it go.”…

We will keep watch for future updates, and expect to be listening on the downlink for the telemetry when you are ready to try again.

/;^)

Help save our 70cm ham band

This is from an email from our ARRL Division Director
Greg Sarratt – W4OZK…
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Your prompt help to defend one of our amateur bands is urgently requested.

You may have already heard that our 440 MHz band is being attacked by a bill introduced into the US House of Representatives. In its current form, HR 607 would take away the 420-440 MHz segment that is presently allocated to Amateur Radio on a secondary basis as our 70 cm band. Along with certain other segments not allocated to Amateur Radio, the 420-440 MHz segment would become part of a spectrum “give back” involved in allocating 758-763 and 788-793 MHz for a Public Safety broadband network.

The concept of this network has merit. Everyone wants first responders to have the radio systems they need in order to protect themselves and us. However,