Posts by DB2OS

  • Could some give me an update on the status of the QO100 uplink and downlink modules listed in AMSAT shop?

    Quote from M0VKK

    I think it might be a good idea just to put more realistic delivery times in the shop so that peoples do not expect their orders before it is possible to deliver them. If people know it will be 5 or 6 weeks instead of the 2 quoted this issue would not arise.

    Not really...

    The problem was, that we allowed for "pre-ordering" and the delivery time was realistic at that time, until we had to stop because of the known issues.

    Anyway, we learned from that, which means we will only start selling again when we have the items on stock and next time we should also have better predictions for delivery times...

    Having said this, the Down-Converters are sold-out now. Indeed, everyone who ordered and paid for it, will still get one... no panic ;-)

    There will be a new version produced in May with some more features, to be announced soon...

  • Proposal for an Internet Remote Base station (IRB) in the footprint of QO-100.

    Dear All,


    this thread is going completely "off topic" now...


    I also think it's not fair to discuss organizational matters of another AMSAT organization here in this Forum.


    I think most of us (including me) are not able to judge and discuss who is right and who is wrong...


    However, I have respect for both sides and I really hope someone within AMSAT-NA is able to bring the opponents back on a round table for an open and fair discussion, which allows both sides to exchange their views, ideas and feelings.. Sometimes a little misunderstanding could result in big fights.. This would definitely be a waste of energy and talented people!


    Therefor this topic will be closed.

  • Could some give me an update on the status of the QO100 uplink and downlink modules listed in AMSAT shop?

    Hi Dave, the problem is also that we depend on delivery time from the suppliers. As you might remember, we just had to stop shipping in the moment we got the kits. In addition, the manufacturer of the Feeds also was overloaded by his orders and could only partially deliver in separate shipments... Indeed, the volunteer staff was in overload too... We made some re-organizations in the procedures recently and hope to become better and better.. ;-)


    Nevertheless, I should mention that we did not receive any funding from any amateur radio organizations so far. We did get some compensation for the equipment installed in Qatar, but otherwise we used our own organization money and indeed our private vacation.. ;-) So any donation to AMSAT-DL is welcome :-)

  • Frage zu Mitgliedschaft

    Lieber Kurt,


    sobald Deine Beitrittserklärung angekommen ist und der Mitgliedsbeitrag verbucht wurde, bekommst Du ein Bestätigungsschreiben.


    Wenn Du eine Dauerabbuchung einrichtest oder anderweitig den Jahresbeitrag bezahlt hast, bekommst Du keine Rechnung zugeschickt.

    Nur wer nicht bezahlt hat, bekommt eine Rechnung ;-)


    Da Spenden bis 200€ nicht nachgewiesen werden müssen, reicht für das Finanzamt die normale Kontoabbuchung...


    Ich freue mich, dass Du Dich dazu entschlossen hast bei AMSAT-DL Mitglied zu werden, um so auch unsere Arbeit zu unterstützen..


    73s Peter


    PS: Wir wollen unsere >15 Jahre alte Mitgliederverwaltung auf eine moderne Vereinssoftware umstellen, damit hoffen wir diese Dinge in Zukunft auch zu vereinfachen...

  • Internationalization for GNU Radio Companion: German Language Support



    Quote from W5NYV

    We talked amongst ourselves, and we'd like to know if AMSAT-DL would be interested in helping localize for German?

    The lead architect of GNU Radio Project is German, and is very supportive. I speak intermediate German, and can help here too! But we will need more eyeballs to check the translations, and as GNU Radio continues to rapidly evolve, we will need to keep an "eye" on things and make sure that the translations stay up to date. Maintenance!

    Hi Michelle!


    AMSAT-DL would definitely support such an initiative, since P4-A / QO-100 gave SDR software development in general a big boost, for example SDR based drift-compensation, DVB-S2, and so on...


    Indeed we need support from the active community in this forum and among our AMSAT-DL members...


    I thought localisation might have already been done, but although I have installed GNU Radio, I need to work more with it ;-)

  • Amsat-dl Shop

    (original author requested to delete his account and all his messages)

    Sorry, that the volunteer in-charge was 3 days on a business trip and not able to answer your eMail within 2-3 days. He has currently a back-log of 1-2 weeks and he can either answer emails or prepare the shipping..


    But thanks for calling AMSAT the "badest supplier ever"; an non-profit organisation, which delivered the Es'hail-2 AMSAT P4-A QO-100 transponder to YOU for free...


    If you are so unhappy with a non-profit organization run by volunteers in their little spare-time, than I suggest you cancel your order and get 100% re-fund.

  • NB passband monitoring

    Quote from DL4OCH


    To affect the ALC in such a case, you really need power and gain from the antenna.

    Actually it's the AGC working on the NB, which we activated with the Gain change a few weeks ago.. and it's working fine.. good test too ;-)


    We are thinking in a similar direction.. someone just trying to figure out his capabilities, as our transponder is an ideal test place for him..


    Anyway, we should observe and analyse in the background and otherwise keep quiet on it.. it might go away from alone, otherwise they would reveal themselves. Whoever is jamming, we should not give him any kind of feedback.. Let's ignore...

  • Zum QO-100: NUR SO EINE IDEE

    Lieber Klaus,


    vielen Dank für Deinen Beitrag und Gedanken zu dem Thema.. für solche und ähnliche Vorschläge sind wir immer dankbar.


    Natürlich liegt es auf der Hand und wir erinnern uns auch noch gerne an OSCAR-10 & OSCAR-13 zurück, als u.a. Lothar mit DP0GVN öfters dort QRV war.


    Tatsächlich verfolgen wir schon seit einer geraumen Zeit diesen Plan und ich konnte diesbezüglich vor einigen Tagen viel versprechende Gespräche führen. Über weitere Details können wir leider erst berichten, wenn es soweit ist und tatsächlich realisiert werden kann. Aufgrund der extremen Witterungsbedingungen (Schnee, Temperatur, usw.) sind zum Beispiel Außenantennen nicht machbar.. Aber es gibt dort ein Radom...


    Durch die 24/7 Verfügbarkeit durchaus sehr interessant für Notfunk- bzw. Backup-Betrieb, aber eben auch für Schulkontakte (vergleichbar mit der ISS bzw. ARISS)...

    Auch regelmäßige Aussendungen von SSTV bzw. digitaler Bildübertragung wäre sicher eine gute Sache...


    Ich hoffe wir können dann bald mehr berichten!


    73s Peter

  • photo of the QO-100/Es'hail satellite

    It's exactly like that Wolfgang.. all the power point presentations and articles we wrote before the launch were officially approved to make sure we will not run into misunderstandings... it's a different world between us and the commercial industry.


    This is one of the rare pictures taken by me in the canteen, so I guess its public domain ;-)

  • Amsat-dl Shop

    I Just received the following update from our BOD member Michael DD5ER:


    ----------------


    Hello, everybody,


    For your information I was on duty for the last 3 days.


    The orders with order date until 14.3.2019 are sent out.


    Here there are still a few isolated cases where some "Special treatment" is required.


    According to current knowledge, all individual orders with date up to 14.3. 2019 for the shipment area Germany and EU, Switzerland and rest of foreign countries are partly also out.


    Michael

    AMSAT-DL e.V.

  • Amsat-dl Shop

    Dear All,

    Sorry that eMail's have been not answered and communication is slowly, this should not be the the case under "normal" circumstances. We have been giving "delivery times" on the web page for the pre-orders, but obviously this was not always visible for everyone or might have been confusing as well..

    It's also not an excuse, but the Bochum team (and we all) are practically "under water"... in particular after the unexpected high amount of orders. Also hampered by the "selling stop" when a last minute analysis and design change change was required before starting shipping..

    As you know, as a non-profit organization our people (as well as the AMSAT-DL BOD) are volunteers and not paid for their work. We try to provide a good service, but we can either send eMails or pack the goods and send it out. We try to give away these goods for a very low price with pratically no profit. We could probably hire people to run the shop, but than we would need to drastically increase the prices. That's not our intention.. Our original intention was to give the community this service to buy QO-100 hardware kits, but we are also not running an "AMAZON style" business. We even don't ask membership status, but all the infrastructure is paid by AMSAT-DL membership,..

    So please be patient with all involved. I know that eMails are currently answered slowly and some peoples nerves are already on the edge, but that's because there is a huge amount of eMails with questions we can not answer or which can already be found here in the forum. Sometimes people are sick, or are on vacation, have family issues, a regular job, etc.... in that case there will be also additional delays..

    I fully understand that a lot of people are eagerly waiting and getting frustrated to wait for their converters to get QRV on QO-100, so am I... I decided that before I will receive mine, I will give mine to the community first!

    I really hope for your understanding and I will ask the team if they can provide some information on the current state of shipping in this forum.

    BTW: Shipping to non-EU countries like Switzerland need more work and time due to customs, but the deliveries should be on there way as far as I know.

    73s Peter

  • NB passband monitoring

    I would say definitely not a radar but "man made" noise, it would be even very sad if it is "ham made" noise for some kind of stupid testing...

    Obviously someone was using a lot of power and a very big antenna and caused strong interference on both the NB and WB using a programmable RF sweep generator or whatsoever..

    Anyway, it was also observed and monitored by the Es'hailSat CMC in Qatar, which gave me a call.

    If it occurs again, hopefully we will find it before the Qataris will do...

  • Maintenance on the WB Transponder!

    Thanks Heiner, I also just "twittered" it... Hopefully a "Power On" reset will fix it. Otherwise we have also redundant hardware installed in the shelter at the Teleport. And if that is not enough, we can turn on also the DATV backup beacon from Bochum :-)

  • Maintenance on the WB Transponder!

    There is currently an "unplanned" outage of the DATV-Beacon on the WB transponder.


    Today (2019-03-30) afternoon the DVB-S2 modulated Beacon which is transmitted from the Teleport in Qatar disappeared and a "carrier missing" alarm was observed by the control and monitoring center. There was no alarm in the SSPA and also the transponder continues to run nominally.


    The RF engineers will investigate our equipment tomorrow.


    We would kindly ask not to transmit on the DATV Beacon frequency.