Posts by DB2OS

    The question is also, can 2 ham radios one in the explo mission and one at the headquarter: Geneva, Berlin or Paris give the microphone to discuss as an example medical supply or transport schedule from RedCross or Army to the medical team under his supervision, I will say yes but I am not sure....

    As explained above, this is normally not allowed according to the rules for the amateur radio service.


    It is only allowed if an emergency is officially declared and such usage is officially backed-up by your local regulatory office and the national regulatory office of the satellite owner...


    ITU Radio regulation says:

    Article 25.3 Amateur stations may be used for transmitting international communications on behalf of third parties only in the case of an emergency or disaster relief. An administration may determine the applicability of this provision to amateur stations under its jurisdiction


    Please refer to the following documentation:

    https://www.iaru-r1.org/on-the-air/emergency-communications/

    https://life.itu.int/radioclub/rr/art25.pdf

    Normally we use the immarsat satellite, but prices per minute are very expensive and [...] The money that we will save by using the satellite will be used for the patient....

    Despite full respect what you are doing for humanity, the above reasoning would definitely not be compatible with the ITU regulations for the amateur radio and amateur satellite services...


    So I assume what you meant is during official emergency communication situation, officially backed-up by your local regulatory office and the national regulatory office of the satellite owner... which would be indeed an exception from the usual restrictions applied to amateur radio...


    73s Peter

    In order to coordinate potential emergency communications during the actual or any other crisis, the following frequency will be assigned as international emergency frequency on QO-100 NB Transponder:


    QO-100 International Emergency Frequency :!:

    Downlink: 10489.860 MHz

    Uplink: 2400.360 MHz

    SSB channel: max. 2.7kHz bandwidth



    All users on QO-100 are encouraged to monitor this frequency, but keep it clear for emergency traffic!

    Die DP0GVN QSL-Karten Sonderedition für QO-100 gehen in den Druck.

    Ein besonderer Dank geht an Dominik R4BE/DL5EBE, der seit fast 15 Jahren QSL-Manager für DP0GVN ist.

    QSL-Karten werden sowohl über das DARC-QSL-Büro als auch per Direktversand erhältlich sein (bitte Rückporto beilegen).


    DP0GVN QSL cards special edition for QO-100 go to print. Special thanks to Dominik R4BE/DL5EBE, who has been QSL manager for DP0GVN for almost 15 years. QSL cards will be available both via DARC QSL bureau or direct mail (please include return postage).



    OE3GBB

    Der OCXO hat 20ppb (0,02ppm) Frequenzstabilität, daran kann es eigentlich nicht liegen.

    Solche OCXO's sind in guten Meßgeräten eingebaut..


    Verwendest Du auch den QO-100 LNB mit dem Referenztakt aus dem AMSAT-Downconverter?


    Wichtig ist, dass der OCXO/TCXO keinem direkten Luftzug ausgesetzt ist.. sonst kann er Temperaturschwankungen nicht schnell genug nachregeln...



    Präzision: mit dem Poti 11 kann man die 40,0 MHz Sollfrequenz ggf. noch fein abgleichen, dazu sollte man aber einen entsprechend genauen Frequenzzähler haben ;)

    How about the dozens of ham's who use the web-SDR as receive system, because their own system isn't working that good on rx or even don't have an rx setup, isn't this remote too?

    NO, you even don't need a Ham Radio license just for receive only...

    Bear in mind that from a professional perspective it is 'odd' that a satellite operator allows 'non coordinated' users on/through their space vehicle!


    Very well said, Remco!


    It did indeed require some educational work at the time that I, or someone in AMSAT, could not simply grab the telephone to "call" a user, as is actually the case with commercial uplink stations.

    ... and that amateur radio essentially has the privilege of self-regulation, apart from some technical measures.


    73s Peter

    11(2)(b) of the UK Amateur license Terms, conditions and limitations says;

    “Messages sent from the station shall not be encrypted for the purposes of rendering the Message unintelligible to other radio spectrum users”


    Which seems clear, you can use encryption as long as the 'purpose' is not to make the message unintelligible to other radio spectrum users. If encrption were not to be permitted at all it would be easy for the regulations to say so.

    That is indeed a very interesting interpretation ;)


    Honestly, it does somehow not make sense to me...

    The only reason why someone would "encrypt" something is for hiding and obfuscation or what would be the purpose otherwise?

    Encoding is a completely different thing, which is often confused with encryption, although the effect might be the same..


    As I wrote earlier in this thread, german administration is following the ITU-RR rule of "open language" and "Encryption" is only allowed for satellite control..


    But that does not make sense either because people don't understand that you can make a secure connection even without encryption..


    On a satellite command link, you want authentication to avoid someone is "hijacking" the satellite.. but that does not mean you have to encrypt.. You just create a "signed" envelope.. Something like a CRC across the content or a "signature" like in PgP with the key only known by the sender and receiver.. Thus you have a secure command link, but the contents of the messages are still readable. The AMSAT P3 satellites already implemented this technique 40 years ago !!


    From my point of view, Lora is not encrypting !!


    It is just using coding in the physical layer (modulation) . Indeed it is undisclosed, but legally a different matter...


    My last non-informal information of the BNetzA is (via DARC): "As long as you can buy a freely available device to listen to the communication, everything is OK... "


    To me this would make sense...


    73s Peter

    Hi Adrian,


    the question is not what is "remote" - the question is how it's going to be used and by whom...


    I think the above statement is very clear:


    Remote operation used by groups (private or club stations) is not wanted by the satellite operator.


    73s Peter

    Unser Schatzmeister hat mir gerade mitgeteilt, dass offenbar in der (veralteten) Software für die Mitgliederverwaltung etwas schiefgelaufen ist.


    Einige Mitglieder die bereits Ihren Mitgliedsbeitrag für dieses Jahr bezahlt haben, haben trotzdem eine Rechnung bekommen...


    Es sollte eigentlich so sein, dass alle die Ihre Mitgliedsbeiträge (und ggf. ausstehende Beiträge) beglichen haben keine Rechnung mehr bekommen... aber irgendwo hat sich ein Bug eingeschlichen.


    Sorry dafür...


    73s Peter

    Hello Mike OE3DMB and Andreas OE3MZC,


    Many thanks for your positive feedback. These kind of open and hassle-free discussions are very welcome,


    After some internal and external discussions, I'm not really thinking that LoRa is fully legal, but probably more in a “tolerated grey zone”:


    ITU-RR and so the local authorities clearly demand “open language” in the amateur-radio and amateur-satellite service, which is to be translated as “open modulation and open protocols” in modern digital modes by means of publicly available documents and descriptions. Furthermore, “encoding” (not to talk about encryption) as a sort of obfuscation is not allowed in our amateur radio services.


    When AMSAT first introduced the 400 Bit/s BPSK telemetry on the P3-satellites, it was required to publish all details (modulation, protocols, etc.) beforehand in public, for example widely available amateur radio magazines. Otherwise I would probably never became interested in amateur radio satellites and AMSAT, when my brother and myself build our own hardware and software to decode the telemetry from OSCAR-10.


    OK, we can buy the LoRa chip...


    LoRa is using proprietary encoding in the physical layer. Would LoRa be “patented” it would be openly documented, but they would disclose their intellectual property than. Only protected by patents, others could copy or modify it. Expensive and lengthy patent lawsuits would be the result. Sometimes it is easier and cheaper to keep these details secret instead, as with LoRa. So they indeed use some kind of "obfuscation" directly in the physical layer (modulation) to deal with this business model.


    I think it’s not even good to argue with D-STAR and the questionable AMBE Vocoder. When I was looking for more information, for example on Wikipedia, there is a lot of criticism and commercial fighting involved. AMBE is obviously patented and everyone who wanted to use it had to pay a high license fee for it, as part of the silicone price. In 2017 the patents have expired, obviously opening the doors for free open source software solutions probably ending these endless discussions…


    Maybe a good compromise is to argue that the LoRa-Chips are widely available at reasonable price and not limited to closed user groups.


    Anyhow, I'm not against LoRa.. the opposite is true.. But before using it, I wanted to to better understand the legality of it..

    But I have to confess, there is no black or white.. it's in the grey ;)


    On the other hand, it's an very interesting technology to play with and evaluate.. and that's also the purpose of our hobby...


    73s Peter

    Hallo Michael,


    eine Grundsatzdiskussion erübrigt sich m.E. auch deswegen, weil die Regeln und Rahmenbedingungen oben bereits ziemlich eindeutig beschrieben sind.. Es fehlt vielleicht noch der Hinweis, dass QO-100 eine unbemannte automatisch arbeitende Weltraumfunkstelle ist und der rechtliche Eigentümer das Recht hat, die Spielregeln für die Nutzung seines Systems selber zu bestimmen, wie zum Beispiel Verbot von FM- oder einen, über die oben beschriebene persönliche Nutzung weit hinausreichenden, Remote-Betrieb (Ausnahme Not- und Katastrophenfälle). Natürlich müssen sich die Regeln innerhalb der gesetzlichen Bestimmungen der zuständigen Verwaltung (CRA) und ITU-RR bewegen, die den Rahmen bilden.

    So die allgemeine Rechtsauffassung derjenigen fachlichen Stellen, mit denen ich gesprochen habe.


    Konkret zu Deiner Frage:

    Selbstverständlich wird sich AMSAT-DL selbst auch an diese Regeln halten. Der Aufbau einer solchen fernbedienten Remote-Station (§13AFuV) in Bochum ist nicht geplant. Übrigens mag die Funkstation zwar allen Mitgliedern gehören, aber auch Klubstationsrufzeichen sind immer personenbezogen. Es gibt einen zugeteilten Lizenzinhaber und die anderen Funkamateure der Gruppe dürfen die Klubstation mitbenutzen, haben dabei aber das Rufzeichen der Klubstation zu verwenden und nicht das eigene Rufzeichen... siehe §14AFuV


    73s Peter

    Hallo Ulrich,


    der Betrag muss derzeit jedes Jahr auf das Bankkonto oder per Paypal überwiesen werden.

    Wenn man es vergisst, bekommt man dann eine eine Rechnung zugeschickt..

    Die ersten Rechnungen für bisher ausstehende Mitgliedsbeiträge sollen in Kürze in die Briefpost gehen...


    Die "normale" Mitgliedschaft beträgt 120€,

    Als man irgendwann den Mitgliedsbeitrag erhöhen musste, hat man sich nicht so richtig getraut und einen Mindestbeitrag von 90€ eingeführt. Tatsächlich bezahlen auch fast alle Mitglieder diesen Betrag von 120€, sozusagen mit einer zusätzlichen Spende von 30€.


    Ich selber habe auch immer Schwierigkeiten dies zu erklären ;)

    Ich denke wir werden dies irgendwann mal ändern. da es eher verwirrend ist..


    vy 73s

    Peter, DB2OS