Category: satellites

The Copasteic Flow Blog — German UHF Mobile CW Through a Geostationary Satellite, Agent Sonya’s Homebrewing, More

It is always good to be reminded that someone out there is listening and reading, especially when it is nice folks like Hamilton and his family. These are the people who built the TouCans rig that was (is?) suspended above San Francisco at the center of a dipole antenna.

Following posts on the SolderSmoke blog, Hamilton has been monitoring the CW activites of a German ham who sends UHF CW signals through the sunroof of his car to the QO-100 satellite in geostationary orbit. See above. Very cool. Listen live to the satellite here:

https://eshail.batc.org.uk/nb/

Also cool is Hamilton’s analysis of Agent Sonya’s ability to homebrew a 1930s era CW station that could be used to communiate with Moscow Center. Hamilton believes she could do it. I have my doubts. But the discussion is a lot of fun.

Check our their blog:

https://copaseticflow.blogspot.com/

Thanks to Hamilton and his kids!

A New Distance Record with an ESP-32 Module? Sort of. A cool video from HB9BLA.

It was nice to watch a video from Andreas again. And to be reminded of the presence in geostationary orbit of QO-100. Really sad that we STILL have no equivalent over the United States.

Andreas engages in a lot of the kind of digital wizardy that I have learned (because of my own shortcomings) to stay away from. Still, this is a very interesting experiment, with lots of focus on antenna gain and path loss at UHF. I plan on again listening to QO-100 via the website. Thank you Andreas!

Oscar 7… and Oscar 11 (aka UoSat-2)? Did Oscar 11 do much the same thing as Oscar 7?

Above is a pretty good video by Retro Rockets. Some will quibble about the technical details presented, especially about early radio, but I think the video does a pretty good job of describing the early production of ham radio satellites.

As I watched this video however, I started to wonder if OSCAR 7 was in fact unique in coming back from the dead. Back in 2018, I watched signals from OSCAR 11 (aka UoSat -2) as it tumbled through space with its battery dead, powered by a direct connection to its solar panels:
This was what Retro Rocket said was Oscar 7’s claim to fame, right?

In both cases, what happened was pretty cool, but did OSCAR 11 sort of repeat the supposedly miraculous rebirth of OSCAR 7?

Who can tell us more about Lovelock’s homebrew shortwave radio?

“Three years earlier, Lovelock had listened on his homemade shortwave radio in Finchley to the ‘beep, beep, beep’ transmission of the USSR’s Sputnik, the first satellite that humanity had put into orbit. Now he was playing with the super powers.”


A bit of a soap opera, but the radio question is, I think, interesting.

Arthur C. Clarke Talks about Satellites, SETI, Remote Work, and Wrist Radios (1976 Video)

He was, of course, right about the impact of satellites, but he was the inventor of the geo-stationary concept. I wonder how he would react to the low-earth orbit Starlink system we are now using.

He coments about how contact with extraterrestrial civilizations could come at any time, but notes that false alarms are common — this made me think of recent explanations of the famous “Wow!” signal.

His “Communicate don’t Commute” idea seems to foreshadow the “remote work” via Zoom that kicked in during the pandemic.

And he talks about Dick Tracy-like wrist radios. I sort of have one now (thanks to Elisa), in the form of my Apple Watch. But it may be that putting a camera in there would be a bit too much…

“The Far Sound” — Bell System Video from 1961 — Good Radio History (video)

This is a really OLD video, but there is a lot of great material here:

— Tubes. (Valves or Thermatrons)
— Coax.
— Frequency Division Multiplexing.
— Negative Feedback and the fight against distortion.
— Transistors and early experiments with semiconductors.
— Fiber optics and Masers.
— Satellite communications.
— Early hopes for video communications.

The video is, by today’s standards, extremely misogynist. And the sound experiment with the poor woman wearing a male head was just weird. But still, an interesting film.

Thanks to Mark KM4GML for reminding us of this wonderful Bell Labs (AT&T) video archive.

Some Pictures of SolderSmoke Shack South

That’s me at the operating position. Window looks out to the terrace and to the ocean to the East, the Mona channel. The shack is on the top (seventh) floor.

Here is the view from the terrace, looking South. The big terrain feature is Cabo San Rafael.
From the terrace looking North.
Looking East into the morning sun
From the terrace looking West.
Antennas will go up there. Perhaps solar panels too.

A bog portion of the shack is a workbench with tools and test gear.
Yesterday an old friend from Santo Domingo, Luis Ernesto HI8LEZ stopped by. Thirty years ago we were pioneers in the use of amateur radio satellites from the Dominican Republic. Luis Ernesto is in the book!

1,280 Antennas at 12 GHz — How Starlink Works

One commenter questioned why we went with the more expensive Starlink system. The simple answer is that it is just better, faster, and more reliable than the alternatives. Many people here are clamoring for this sytem, and they are doing this for a reason. On speed tests I am showing downloads of about 150 Mbps. That is fast. The truth is that my wife is more of an innovator than I am — she was the one who decided on Starlink.

When we were installing this system, I didn’t even know what they meant by “Dishy.” I didn’t know there were motors in the antenna. And I certainly didn’t know about the complicated software and hardware that allow the Dishy antenna to track the Starlink low earth orbit satellites without the use of the motors. The above video explains it all very well.

This is all a great demonstration of what can be done with digital technology, microchips, software and UHF.

Ham Radio in China — Interesting info from 高大伟 David Cowhig

Chinese Radio Licenses and Operating Certificates

David Cowhig (aka WA1LBP, aka Gao Da Wei) was Hambassdor for 73 Magazine on Okinawa when I held a similar “position” on the island of Hispaniola. David is a real Asia hand, and is fluent in both Mandarin and Japanese. He is uiniquely sitated to provide info on ham radio in China. In a recent post he provides this info, and describes how we may soon be hearing from ham Taikonauts in space:

https://gaodawei.wordpress.com/2024/05/22/2024-ham-radio-in-china-soon-chinese-hams-in-space/

Thanks David!

AA9IL’s Sputnik Tube, Altoids Tin Transmitter

November 24, 2023
Hello Bill
I have just built an tested a 20 meter “Sputnik” transmitter. It uses two Soviet era “rod” tubes and is fixed tuned to 14.060 MHz. I was able to compress the design to fit in an Altoids tin. The plate tuning capacitor was replaced with a fixed capacitor value closest to the variable for peak power out. Plate voltage is 90 volts and I key both the oscillator and PA via the B+ line. Power output is around 200mW and my first test transmission from the Chicago area was picked up 864 miles away on the east coast via the Reverse Beacon Network. It was definitely Joy of Oscillation and Joy of Transmission!

73, Mike
AA9IL
EN52
—————-

Mike’s rig has been heard by many Reverse Beacon Network stations:

——————
November 29, 2023
Bill:
I started a QSO with AC2C in Ellicott, MD who responded to my CQ but the band dropped (20m)

But that’s a good start and I’ll keep at it! So, yay!
73 Mike
——————-
Here are some earlier blog post on rigs using Soviet rod tubes:
https://soldersmoke.blogspot.com/search?q=Sputnik+tubes

Quetzal-1 — The Guatemalan CubeSat

Wow, here’s another piece of tech news from a place in which I have some experience. Yesterday I posted about the Telekino developed and tested in Bilbao early in the 20th century — today’s post is about a much more recent effort in Guatemala: this one to launch a small satellite, a CubeSat.


Hack-A-Day reports that the Guatemalan University recently open-sourced all their data on the satellite: https://hackaday.com/2023/07/04/quetzal-1-satellite-goes-open-source/ The Hack-A-Day comments are, as usual, harsh and critical, filled with the assumption that the commenters could have done better.

But hey, three cheers for Quetzal 1 and the Guatemalan satellite builders!

Farhan Speaks to Students about Satellites and Direct Conversion Homebrew Receivers (audio)

In our talks at the local high school we have frequently mentioned Ashhar Farhan, his Cubesat experience, and his use of a direct conversion receivers teach electronics to students in Hyderabad, India. So we were really please to have the opportunity to bring Farhan himself in to speak to the students we have been working with.

Here is the audio of Farhan’s talk:

http://soldersmoke.com/FarhanTJ.mp3

The acoustics in the room are not great, so you may have to listen carefully, but it is worth it. Farhan dispenses a lot of tribal knowledge and wisdom about satellites and about the value of homebrewing simple radio equipment.

SolderSmoke FOREVER! Archived in the WayBack Machine

There were recently some stories about an effort to put on the Internet Archive recordings and other material from the history of ham radio. I am pleased to report that the SolderSmoke podcasts have been included in the new collection:


They also archived the recordings of my contacts with the MIR space station (and other spacecraft) from the Dominican Republic in the mid 1990s:


I have also suggested that they find a way to archive all of Jean Shepherd’s recordings about ham radio.

Thanks to Kay K6KJN for putting our material into the archive.

SolderSmoke (Old Smoke) Podcast #103 — March 15, 2009 — From Rome — QRSS, Knights and Wizards, LTSpice, and an Echolink QSO with Jeff KO7M (the guy with the Piper Cub)

15 March 2009 

Beware the Ides of March! Ostia Beach and Ostia Antica 248 Knights of QRSS. And Wizards! ET Phones Home (with QRSS?) Possible new grabbers in VK6 and Dubai Telescope, Satellites... REAL QRP QSOs on 80 and 40 Saving an old Toshiba Laptop ECHO-QSO WITH JEFF, KO7M: -- Piper Cubs and MFJ Cubs -- Satellite QSOs -- LT Spice and test gear MAILBAG: Gene W3PM listens from QE2, HB WSPR rig Jim AL7V sending parts for my W3PM rig Jim AB3CV's color burst Gnat Jason NT7S on Tektronix guys and SolderSmoke Kevin ZL3KE on old computers Paul M1CNK's DDS 30-based QRSS beacon Soeren OZ2DAK on exercise bikes to power beacons

IGY! Science and the Vanguard Satellite in 1959 (video)

The International Geophysical Year (1958-1959) was a very scientifically productive period. It is really amazing how much we learned from tiny satellites like Vanguard. Like the shape of the Earth! Great stuff in this video.

Very cool telescopes and cameras set up around the world to monitor the early satellites. And there is a quick mention of ham radio efforts to monitor the new spacecraft.

Thanks to Josh G3MOT for sending this to us.

Go IGY!