Posts by CT2IRJ

  • Software DVB-S demodulator

    Hi!

    Was about to say the same.
    Nice feature.

    @SWL - markro92
    Only one very small quirk:
    The buffer counter...
    The text is aligned to the far right and when the counter reaches 2 digits (xx / 8192) the interface "shifts" a little to the left...
    I know that the actual buffer number should stay low, but sometimes it is not easy, especially whent trying to fine tune a station.

    Other issue is that not allways the Pluto "starts" seeing anything.
    I mean, it is detected by the software, but no matter what you change, frequency, symbolrate, etc, it does not show anything on the waterfall.


    Keep up the good work.

  • Hurricane Lorenzo - Azores Islands -Temporary Emergency Frequency - 10489.660 MHz (with 10kz guardband) 2400.160 MHz uplink

    Further info from our colleagues involved on EmComms:


    Emergency Coms network has been officially terminated at 1700 UTC.


    We thank all involved in assisting those in need of help. CEURA for coordinating with the Government, local clubs and CU7AA, CU6NS, CU7AG, CU7BZ, CU5AM, CU7CL, CU7ABM, CU7AAZ, CU7CC, CU7AAR, CU7AZ, CU0AGQ, CU7BJ, CU7AJ, CU5AQ, CU7AO, CU7ABL, CU3URA, CS8ABG, CU2ZG, CU7ABB plus CU7BC.

    A special Thank You to AMSAT-NA for keeping AO-92 in U/v mode and AMSAT-DL for letting us into the mixed section of the QO-100 NB transponder.

    Fortunately there were no casualties, but the damage has taken a huge toll.

  • Hurricane Lorenzo - Azores Islands -Temporary Emergency Frequency - 10489.660 MHz (with 10kz guardband) 2400.160 MHz uplink

    Hi everybody,
    Some update on the Azores Islands after hurricane Lorenzo:

    Hurricane Lorenzo powered across the Atlantic Ocean on Wednesday, lashing the Azores with heavy rains, powerful winds and high waves and significantly damaging one island's main port.

    The Azores Civil Protection Agency said the Category 2 hurricane felled trees and power lines as it passed just west of the Portuguese island chain.

    The U.K. Met Office forecast "very strong winds and heavy rain" for western areas of the country on Thursday and Friday.


    The Portuguese weather agency said the most affected islands in the Azores archipelago were Flores and Corvo, where weather stations reported gusts of up to 163 kph (101 mph) — lower than forecast as Lorenzo lost some power over cooler water.


    Azores Civil Protection Agency chief Carlos Neves said 39 people were safely evacuated and no injuries were reported. He said the main port on the island of Flores had suffered "grave damage" as part of the dock, the port's building and some cargo containers had been "swallowed" by the sea.

    Emergency crews were removing fallen trees from roads and restoring downed power lines, Neves said.



    As the situation is now much more calm, it is time to thank AMSAT-DL President Peter Gulzow DB2OS for his prompt response to my request, and to all that one way or the other kept this thread under watch and finally to all our Colleagues who had spent some time monitoring the frequencies.

    It is also a great stepping stone to discuss, assign and establish a well known and defined frequency on QO-100 bandplan, for emergency use.
    It is an invaluable platform to assist in this type of occurence, it's coverage of around 1/3 of the globe is strategically important and so it is the easyness to deploy and mantain a portable emergency station on affected areas.


    Once again, thank you for your support.

    73 de CT2IRJ

  • Hurricane Lorenzo - Azores Islands -Temporary Emergency Frequency - 10489.660 MHz (with 10kz guardband) 2400.160 MHz uplink

    DD0KP and all,

    Heiner, .660 was just a suggestion by Remco.
    I agree that this subject has to be well coordinated between all of us, and that we must agree on some terms and conditions.
    Since nothing was prepared in advance and this is a prement situation, any suggestion is wellcome.
    .660 for me is fine. Is in the "Mixed Modes" segment, wich allows for other types of modulation to be used (e.g. SSTV).

    For the future, there should be some guidelines and rules to follow.
    In the present, if no other QRG suggested, .660 will do.

    Heiner, after the symposium that you're attending next saturday, then some definitive rules are produced.
    Unfortunately, Lorenzo _is_ in fact moving towards the Azores, and is expected tomorrow, albeit losing force it has still potential for causing moderate to severe damage.

    73 and tks to all participants in this important thread.

    CT2IRJ

  • Hurricane Lorenzo - Azores Islands -Temporary Emergency Frequency - 10489.660 MHz (with 10kz guardband) 2400.160 MHz uplink

    From the Colleagues in Azores Islands, the following notice:


    As hurricane Lorenzo (category 4) approaches the Azores the emergency network has been activated. Amateur Radios will be active with the Government and emergency response teams. Local analog and DMR repeaters, both in VHF and UHF, satellites and HF. We ask all stations to give way for emergency traffic coming in and out of the Azores islands (CU, CQ8, CR8, CS8 and CT8 prefixes). More details to follow soon.

    The Frequencies announced on the image attached are for land based comms, but if the situation requires, they can also resort to some Sat operations.

    AMSAT has provided the following info:

    Thank you All for your consideration on this matter, and hoping that things go well to our fellow friends in Azores.





    Best 73 de CT2IRJ

  • Thank you for shutting down QO-100!

    @IK8XLD, hi.


    As I said in my post, "I believe"... I didn't said "I'm sure".
    Also didn't give a full callsign, so noone was fully identified here in the forum.
    The Colleague in question was approached by another italian ham that I personally contacted and he immdiatelly colaborated, and joined the webmonitor chat.
    I'm also happy that you've made some tests and it went well. We can assume on more DATV operator on the sat.
    And that's good.

    So, I was wrong, and the two incidents were not related, I assume it.

    Nevertheless some "strange things" continue to happen, at least on the WB side of the tpx.


    I have nothing further to discuss on this subject.


    73 de CT2IRJ

  • Thank you for shutting down QO-100!

    GM

    One suggestion:

    To create a specific page for QO-100, independent from the AMSAT-DL homepage, where all the information and guidelines would be accessible, "translatable" (if this word really exists :) ) .

    Users should be encouraged to visit and read the rules.

    Also the freenode chat on the NB could be more attractive, (read user friendly) if it where to be similar to the one on the WB Webmonitor, where the users can immediately see the messages posted.

    Reminding that all of this is only effective if people adhere to the rules, when we're talking of pirates and idiots, no matter what the rules are, they ignore them.

    Let's hope that this is only a contingency and no further "harder" measures are taken by the sat owner.

    This is, as said before, an golden opportunity to all the Ham radio community, and we should be thankfull for it.
    If this particular case could help with further similar operations we could envisage a global network of GEO sats.


    73 de CT2IRJ

  • DO NOT EXCEED NOMINAL POWER ON THE TRANSPONDER

    Quote from G0MJW

    Unfortunately there are idiots about and ones who like to cause trouble. How about reducing the gain again or making the AGC stronger to make such activities more difficult?


    And just a thought, where was the moon?

    Hi.

    Mike made two valid points, the idiots and the troublemakers.
    The problem is, if the gain is reduced or the AGC made stronger, wouldn't that cause the idiots to use more uplink power in order to overcome the decrease in signal on the downlink?

    We know that if something is made difficult, one does try harder...
    Take the example of a seized bolt.


    73 de CT2IRJ

  • Thank you for shutting down QO-100!

    Hi,

    Robert DD4YR, made a point.
    If the offender (let's call it this way) does not read the forum or use the chat pages or webmonitor, LEILA per se will have no affect.

    Anyway, on the WB one offender was allready identified.
    His signal roamed around all of the WB segment, and consequently some part of the NB also.
    I have sent messages to two of his friends (OWU) asking them to assist in this matter.
    Let´s hope that this was the first and last "alarm" on Es'hail-2 ground station.
    Also, I believe that this 2 incidents are related and caused by the same person.

    73 de CT2IRJ

  • Possible new allocation of the 144-146 MHz band

    GM all,
    From the IARU R1 website:
    CEPT CPG finalises its positions for WRC-19

    Category: Latest
    Published: Friday, 30 August 2019 09:31
    Written by Don Beattie

    The CEPT Conference Preparatory Group met this week in Ankara, Turkey. Items of interest to the amateur service which were finalised were:

    - Agreement to a European Common Proposal (ECP) on allocating 50-52 MHz to the amateur service in Region 1 on a secondary basis with a footnote listing those countries where the amateur service will have a primary allocation in the band 50-50.5 MHz (WRC Agenda Item 1.1)

    - Agreement to an ECP on spectrum to be considered for International Mobile Telecommunications, which does not now include the primary amateur band at 47-47.2 GHz (WRC Agenda Item 1.13)

    - Agreement to an ECP that retains the current regulatory position in the 5725-5850 MHz frequency band which includes secondary allocations to the amateur service and the amateur-satellite service (WRC Agenda Item 1.16)

    - Removal of 144-146 MHz from a French proposal for study of additional spectrum for aeronautical applications. (WRC Agenda Item 10)

    - At the insistence of the European Commission, a WRC-23 agenda item was considered necessary to address the world-wide protection of Regional Navigational Satellite Systems from amateur emissions in the band 1240-1300 MHz. A draft WRC Resolution was agreed which underlines the importance of this frequency band to the amateur service and explicitly excludes the removal of existing allocations as part of the proposed agenda item. (WRC Agenda Item 10)

    - There was no change to the already agreed CEPT position on Wireless Power Transmission (WRC Agenda item 9.1.6). This states that no change is needed in the Radio Regulations to address the question of operating frequency for WPT-EV, but leaves open the question of spurious emissions from WPT-EV.

    Commenting on the outcome of CPG, IARU Region 1 President Don Beattie, G3BJ, said that the IARU team at Ankara (the only representatives of the amateur service at the meeting) had presented clear and convincing arguments for the amateur service position and he was pleased that regulators had recognised the strength of the amateur case. He expressed his thanks to everyone who had contributed to the outcome at CPG.

    The issues now move to WRC in Egypt in November for final resolution. IARU will be there.


    Well, for now it seems that 2M band is safe, however we must keep an open eye to possible new spectrum requirements that might affect us.


    Regarding 23cm band, the issue has escalate to a new level and will be at the table on WRC-23.



    Best 73

  • Schwache Signale - Wetter?

    Hi DO8SN,

    excuse me for not replying in your native language.

    Just some thoughts to troubleshoot your problem.

    #1 - Is the LNB working correctly?
    #2 - are you feeding it with the correct voltage? above 18V it switches polarization to H

    #3 - Is your dish pointed correctly, and LNB skew appropriate?

    Give us some more details on your setup in order to give you some advice.


    Best 73 de CT2IRJ