Real-Time Satellite Status
I saw this site posted on the amsat-bb mailing list, and had to share: Live OSCAR Satellite Status Page. It looks to be a great way to see how operational the various satellites are, in more or less real time. I'll have to start contributing to this.
Ham Radio at Penguicon 2010
Penguicon is coming up, and rumor has it I won't be the only ham there. I talked to one gentleman (whose name and call I've forgotten) that's in the area and had planned on finding a decent simplex 2m frequency to use there, that could be cool. I've been to Penguicon before, but this is the first one since I've gotten back into amateur radio, and the first once I'll be going to since finally getting around to getting myself an HT, so I'm looking forward to seeing what comes of that.
I'm thinking I'll check for any satellite passes during the con and bring my Arrow antenna, and see about working a pass or two while there. I have an unlicensed friend that might be interested to see that, and who knows, maybe it'll get some attention. After all, the density of electronics and computer nerds at this con is pretty great, so it's worth a try. Even if it's just me though, it's a chance to stand around outside waving around an antenna and get slightly fewer strange looks. With any luck, maybe I'll make a contact. Depending on how busy I am this week and how weather is, it could very well be (and likely will be, if I make a contact) my first satellite QSO. It'd be neat to have it at Penguicon.
No idea if any ham radio related events, talks, or panels are going on - I don't think so, but I haven't checked the events list recently. If not, meh. Maybe next year, even if I have to be the one to volunteer to do it.
First Listen to AO-51
I noticed this afternoon there'd be a pretty good pass by AO-51 just after 6pm. After dropping my girlfriend off at home (because she had to go home anyway, not because she's afraid of me with big antennas and electronics, although that also may be true), I got home and had just enough time to grab the Arrow antenna and whatnot, and head out to the park just a short walk from my apartment.
I didn't do so bad, only getting one car passing by that seemed to yell something to me as I was quickly scanning the southern horizon for a signal. Not bad for a creepy-looking long-haired guy with a big antenna in his hand. I didn't catch what they said though, because I had earphones in, so I choose to believe it was "You're awesome!".
Anyway, it was a big of a handful, juggling the Zire for PocketSat+ and very minimal notes (kind of logged what I heard), the antenna, the radio, and so on. Despite that though, I did hear plenty. The equipment-juggling made writing down things difficult, but I heard some mentions of EM40 (right near New Orleans, pretty great - laugh if you like, but for me, that's some real DX), FN42, and the call sign N8MH.
I didn't transmit at all, but I didn't plan to, either - I'm still just testing the waters. I'm thinking doing this would be much easier if I had either a tripod, a second person, or both. We'll see. All in all though, a great little taste of working satellites, certainly enough to go onward from.
PocketSat+ Installed
So here's an example of one of the fairly uncommon times I bother to boot into Windows: stuff with my Palm Zire 72. While the Zire 72 might be considered little aged in the age of consumer frenzy every time Apple releases yet another crippled portable product, it gets the job done, so I see no reason to replace it. I'm not exactly a heavy user, though - I mostly just read books on it with Plucker, and now, I hope, use it to track satellites with PocketSat+.
I had previously tried getting PocketSat to work, but I have a habit of letting the Zire run out of battery power to the point where the main memory clears, so I tend to just run software off of the SD card, since that doesn't mind a lack of power. But, this doesn't always work, or when it does, it can be tricky since some libraries have to be installed in main memory. In this case, a MathLib had to be, and I always seemed to have problems with the map files, too.
So today I finally just booted Windows and tried installing it, and whatever problems I was having before seemed to not be a problem now. This is good - I can use it "in the field" to see where the satellite is without having to take a full-size laptop out with me. One step closer to working some VHF/UHF satellites. It wasn't exactly a show-stopper before, but it sure makes things a little nicer.
So, I've got my triband (144/220/440) HT, the Arrow 144/440 handheld antenna, PocketSat on the Zire, Orbitron on the laptop... The only thing left to do is get out and wave the antenna in the air a bit and see what I can do. I haven't checked yet, but depending on if I'm otherwise busy or not, maybe even do it this weekend. Might be a nice thing to do right after Saturday's club breakfast and Field Day meeting.
Calendar
| S | M | T | W | T | F | S |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| « Mar | ||||||
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | |||
| 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 |
| 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 |
| 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 |
| 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | |
Blogroll
Ham Organizations
Other Things of Mine
Podcasts
Tags
Archives
- March 2011 (2)
- January 2011 (1)
- December 2010 (1)
- October 2010 (3)
- September 2010 (1)
- August 2010 (1)
- July 2010 (3)
- June 2010 (4)
- May 2010 (2)
- April 2010 (4)
- March 2010 (3)
