Slashdot Mirror
Two For The Sky: Satellites For HAM And You
MaggieL -- KB3DXS writes: "The
amateur radio satellite Phase 3D
(now officially
AMSAT-Oscar 40
) was launched [Wednesday] night on an
Ariane 5 rocket.
It is now safely in its intended original orbit. AO-40 is the culmination of a ten-year long project to orbit a sophisticated, highly programmable communications platform for amateur radio use.
Over the next 270 days engines on board the satellite will gradually place it in its intended final orbit. I received some of the initial transmissions from the satellite this morning at my station ... this is *way* cool. Amateur radio is still thriving, despite fears among the old-school hams who think that the Internet has killed ham radio." Added to which, as
btbuzzard advises, you can now get your very own personal communications satellite carried by a device which would have been a lot scarier launching 10 or so years ago.
---
Comment removed based on user account deletion
i think radio technology has been under-rated in the last few years.. but i think we are going to see a big change.. especially with whats going on in the tech industry.. wireless communications expanding into areas and bands we havent seen.. I think this is something that a few people haven't forgetten thank god.. it isn't all about unix.. =)
Victoria Palmer - I brake for unix.boys, Windows just breaks. - http://www.escape.com/~juliet
Cool.. Can I mount my laser pointer on it and scare the hell out of people? (Fear the little red dot from space!!)
http://twitter.com/onion2k
i'm reading this site and ...isn't there a foobin' FAQ? i'm not a ham, prolly won't be a ham anytime this year, i just want to know (in a nutshell) what this thing does. not the ku band specs, not who worked on it, *what it does* in laymans terms.
[that is a hint and a half, kids]
My .02,
My .02,
zencode
iactivist.org/jason
I seriously doubt your PC is in any danger, since it is, as you mentioned, in a metal box. Besides, this is not the kind of signal your PC would be bothered by, except for maybe the soundcard...I do have some concerns about yourself though. How can you live with a guy like that next door? I would have payed him a visit after a week, maximum.
People replying to my sig annoy me. That's why I change it all the time.
Now these HAM Radio people have a satalite to play with, maybe we can reclaim some of that wasted radio bandwidth that has so far been wasted.
The radio spectrum is already damn cramped as it is, and with more and more wireless standards emerging, it's time to expand it. Taking bandwidth and frequencies from the HAM people isn't going to hurt, given that the number of HAM hobbiests have droped dramatically over the years. Why not take that bandwidth and shift the already low frequency commercial users into it? That frees up more higher frequency space for proper communications systems.
I know there will be a load of HAM users throwing their hands up in horror at this idea, but which is more important? The ability to communicate effictivly over radio frequencies, or to allow a hobbiest the chance to chat to a person they don't know in Australia? It's going to happen eventually anyway, so why not start now?
T. Lee
Simple.
Next?
Does anyone else agree. With all the spacejunk that NORAD already has to track do we really want to send up 2 pound useless satelites? Am I to be held liable if mine hit's the ISS?
Comment removed based on user account deletion
1. what is the power source? if it is a simple battery, then for how long it lasts? 45 KUS it's a lot of money for a few hours of operating...
2. who's gonna take the responsibility if this small crap hits ISS, another, multi-million satelite, space shuttle or some poor loser from NASA performing an EVA walk?
The next thing we are going to see is someone selling instruction to build your very own satellites.
--
Fuck the system? Nah, you might catch something.
In my opinion, the reason for the supposed death of ham radio is the lack of experimentation going on. Alot of hams just buy stuff out of a catalog, QSO on a couple of bands, and leave it at that. I think that QRP, satellite, and a resurgence of interest in building your own rig are the things that will carry Amatuer radio for another hundred years.
Got your email loud and clear. Where are you?
The states.
Really? Cool. I`m in france.
Really cool. What equipment are you using?
Dell 600, 64meg ram, 10gig hd but i`m looking to get a 20gig anyday now.
Far out. Ok got to go.
Hi, got your email, kind of corrupted though.
Yeah, i`m using an old ibm thinkpad, think the software is kinda rough though.
Yeah, i`m getting %20 instead of spaces here...
I see, ok, will check a few options. Nice set up though, its all black. Really cool.
Cool.
Cool.
Cool.
Almost. AO-40 does have a laser on it already. It's infrared, though.
-=Maggie Leber=-
Yup! We've seen This Article before! Yesterday, in fact.
Unfortunately, I can't meta-whore by ripping off all the Score: 5 posts from the old article because ONLY TWO FUCKERS POSTED TO IT!
How can you live with a guy like that next door? I would have payed him a visit after a week, maximum.
Jeez. He's using cheap, unshielded equipment. Of course there are going to be RFI problems. Sorry, that's not the ham's problem. That said, if you can find the ham, he/she would probably be very happy to lend you a hand in helping stamp out the worst of the problem. As a favour, not because it's required.
Of course, if they get there and find you running a PC with the cover removed (splashing noise all across the RF spectrum), then you deserve what you get. ^_^
--
NetInfo connection failed for server 127.0.0.1/local
Must be the quality of the writing. :-)
-=Maggie Leber=-
73 de N5VB (ex-KD5BIV) AR SK
>Sorry, that's not the ham's problem.
It is the ham's problem if their equipment is cheap and unshielded.
>As a favour, not because it's required.
Just wait till the FCC van starts driving around the neighborhood. There are limits on broadcasting, especially if they interfere with people a few houses away.
-Mark
I think this is a great opportunity of the spread of HAM users. I am not one myself but I think that this is a great hobby, especially for children. This is also a step toward a more commercial space. More and more commmercial launches are being made for satellites and soon other things will be being lauched commercially. The commercialization of space is the next frontier. We must embrace it or we may perish. What happens if we screw the earth up beyond the point of return? What will we do then? These are questions that we should eb asking ourselves now rather than later.
jomamanup, signing off
I'd like to have one of these in geo-syncronous orbit directly over my house. I've been a HAM for 8 years. I think it would be neat to beam stuff to my satelite for storage and be able to retrieve info from it. It would be a great place to store your public key. Just point people to your satelite.
just search the Internet for "boatanchors".
try { do() || do_not(); } catch (JediException err) { yoda(err); }
A programmable repeater satellite. Too cool! I remember OSCAR 1, a little handwired box in LEO that did nothing but transmit dit-dit-dit dit-dit (That's "hi" in case you are Bruce Perens or one of the other code-impaired people *G*).
I was totally thrilled when I managed to pick up that little "signal from space" on my WWII-surplus Hallicrafters receiver as OSCAR passed over California. I was, I think, 8 at the time.
Anyway, it has been far too long since I was active in ham stuff. There is more mystery and romance to radio than to the Internet, plus independence from land-based connections and the big companies (telcos etc.) that control the 'net.
Time to brush up on my code (won't take long) and make sure my theory knowledge is up to par (again, shouldn't take long to update), and take my test.
Maybe now I can afford gear that runs on them IC thingies. Whoo! I was always a rebuilder of junk and/or home brew person, started with a 3W CW xmtr I made myself on a bit of chassis, a 1/2 wave antenna (fancy name for "long piece of wire cut to a measured length hung out the window"), "spoke" with an old Western Union key (later replaced with a bug, then with a fancy Hammerlund electronic keyer - the first piece of transistorized equipment I ever made - from a kit - or owned at all.)
I miss ham radio. And I have no one to blame but myself for having let myself get away from it.
Time to go back to it!
- Robin
Hi! This is the Sig, blatantly attached to the end of this comment.
The FCC, along with the ARRL and a bunch of misguided (IMO) souls have so-diluted the value of having a Ham Radio license that it really doesn't mean anything anymore. I'm not talking about just the Morse Code thing. Once-upon-a-time you really had to know and understand the principles behind radio in order to get a license. And have some degree of competency at actually using the equipment. No more. It really doesn't take much more than a short stroll through the Ham bands to hear the results. In short: whenever I hear a so-called Ham denigrate a CB'er these days, I just laugh. What passes for an "Extra Class" licensee these wouldn't be a pimple on the hind-side of a General Class license of even 10 or 15 years ago.
Personally, I would have been far happier to see the Amateur Radio Service lose spectrum due to decreased "population" than see the hobby raped like it has been :-(. Quantity has been substituted for quality.
I allowed my license to expire out of sheer disinterest--disinterest resulting from what the hobby and has become. I suppose that, sooner-or-later, I'll have to get my equipment up on eBay. The likelyhood of my ever going to the trouble of getting a license again is about slim-to-none.
I used to argue that Ham Radio filled an important role in the community. If nothing else: for things like Skywarn and related activities. But I no longer believe that to be the case.
It's really too bad, what Ham Radio has done to itself. And yeah: I'm bitter. I used to really, really enjoy the hobby :-(.
It's nice to see that there is stil money for these kind of thinks. That there are still people that wane pay for using this stuff. The nice thing is the PacketRadio that you can do trough these Sat's buth com it's only 9600Bp/s in a age off internet that should not be alife any more ;-) Buth the idee talking to some one lifing 200 Km away from you using SAT or direct transision should be nice
-=[ MivaBe ]=-
It isn't the hams problem. In the US, ham operators can run home-brew non-FCC approved equipment. As someone else mentioned, check the back on most electronic equipment. It has a notice that you have to accept any interfearance. Hams are not responsible for interfearance they cause, but we will help lessen the effect if possible, and if approached nicely.
Mark
If the ham's equipment is unshielded and/or has other problems that make it bleed all over the radio spectrum, then yes, you're right, it's their problem.
It's very rare for the ham's equipment to be cheap though :-)
Most ham equipment is stupidly expensive, because:
> Just wait till the FCC van starts driving around the neighborhood.
> There are limits on broadcasting, especially if they interfere
> with people a few houses away.
Again, yes, BUT the ham's equipment has already undergone stupendous ammounts of expensive testing to make sure that it DOES NOT bleed all over the rest of the radio spectrum, and the ham has to pass some quite nasty exams to make sure they understand all the technical issues, and their license also states that they'll basically keep their equipment well maintained, and regularly perform tests to make sure it's not leaking into bands they're not licensed for.
On the other hand, anyone with just a little bit of the right knowledge can make cheap speakers, a cheap hifi, a cheap TV, or a cheap answering machine, and as long as it passes tests proving it doesn't EMIT more than it's allowed to, they're allowed to sell it. No exams and licenses needed by the manufacturer, let alone the end user.
In many cases, the ham/club will even cover the costs, even when it's not technically their problem. They'll do this just because they're generally friendly people, and also because it's far easier to cheer up a concerned neighbour by spending a few quid fixing their badly-made hifi, rather than getting into any messy, complicated, and often expensive disputes.
It's pretty obvious your answering machine isn't SUPPOSED to recieve the ham's tightly-controlled radio emissions, but if it does, the ham will usually be delighted to fix it for you, especialy if you can be friendly and reasonable about it.
Can you make out words in the messages, by the way? Can you get a callsign? They'll usually say "CQ, CQ, CQ, this is " repeatedly. Make a note of the callsign, ask your local ham radio club, and they'll be glad to help.
Nick Waterman, Sr Tech Director, #include <stddisclaimer>
"To me, it's kind of like the Internet. What could you do with the Internet five years ago?" he said. "And now look at all the applications they've got."
Yeah, but even five years ago, it didn't cost a developer $45,000 everytime he wanted to compile some source code to see how it would run...
-----
"You spilled my egg... I needed that egg."
Let's go back to riding horses...
heh, actually manufacturers equipment *is* supposed to be succeptible..have you seen the "FCC part B- this device cannot interfere with others but must accept all interference"..blahblahblah.
-
Am I missing something here? I'm reading and reading and I can't figure out who fronted the cash for this thing. Putting communications satellites in space is EXPENSIVE. Who sponsored this? 5 bucks from every HAM in the world?
Show me the money!
--
What happens when you outlaw guns
Thanks
Bruce
Bruce Perens.
Learn to read - well, I read the original sentence as: Over the next 270 days engineers on board the satellite will gradually place it in its intended final orbit A second space station? Anyway, where can I find more info on the satellite? From what I've read it seems to be _huge_ compared to the early satellites. General news articles just tell that it's 'improving HAM communications' (Failed my HAM tests many many years ago - damn that CW receive test - some problems with a 'rythm', started counting dots and dashes instead of listening => failed)
One take on it is The Wayback Machine .
-=Maggie Leber=-
If you can understand what he is saying, he is most likely using a CB radio. Hams use SSB or FM for voice and you would not be able to understand him - SSB would sound like a duck (no kidding) and you would not hear FM at all.
Bruce Perens.
Hams don't use "cheap unshielded equipment". It would interfere with other hams and they'd track it down fast.
Bruce
Bruce Perens.
Bruce
Bruce Perens.
You can probably tell the difference by what you hear.
If it's a Ham, you might find a local Ham Radio Club on a bulletin board at a ham radio store -- or you might find a club listed on the Web. You could write the club with a description of what you hear and when it happens; they might conduct a fox hunt and track it down themselves.
If it's CB then it's hard to stop, as there's not much enforcement of CB problems. If you find the culprit (perhaps with a CB receiver with a bad antenna) you would write the FCC in case they want to do something (such as if they've gotten many interference complaints from the area). Or his neighbors might like to know why their TVs are having trouble.
For communications, look at the tiny amateur radio handhelds that have been available for years.
__________________
All the same, I'm impressed. It would seem that a bunch of nerds managed to pull off a small but significant technical project with a minimum of institutional backing. I can see from AMSAT site that a lot of people put their expertise, sweat, and love into this thing. But there's a lot more I'd like to know. Who organized this thing? How did they raise the money for all that hardware -- not to mention the Ariane launch? The people part of this project strikes me as more interesting than the technical part.
__________________
Or with his call sign you can use almost any of the ham radio related websites to look him up and find out where he is to talk to him...
Geometrix
KB1FRY
as with the analog for telephone using twisted pair for digital (DSL), now we need to use the radio carrier to put our digital computer links vai this. new site: http://CHTANK.homestead.com/home.html
Retired dinosaur, simple user, volunteer, guinea pig
A database without transactions is no database at all.
Non gratis rodentus anus
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Most of those cheap devices are so called Part 15 devices. It means they HAVE to accept all interferance and may not interfere with others and most of the time it is even spelled out on the label! This also includes interference from your own mircowave, TV, Cell and cordless phone and not neccesarily your HAM radio neighbor. You thought you have no transmitting devices in your own home - huh ? As for the RF saftety, I asure you that every HAM Radio Operator has to evaluate their station every year so that it is in complience the the FCC rules. BTW, if you are concerned about the RF levels from your HAM radio neigbor, do not use your cell phone since the radioation you are exposed to by your phone is a couple of orders of magnitude higher than what he is doing. If there is a problem, please talk to your neighbor nicely and I am sure he is willing to take reasonable steps to cure the problems with YOUR equipment. He might not even be aware of your experience. If the problem originates from an unlicensed CBer who does not care that his signal splatters all over the place, call the FCC. Andreas, N6NU