PNW Amateur Activities

Ok - it's all last year but it's a start:

PNW Amateur Radio Events

Comprehensive List by N7CFO - http://www.n7cfo.com/amradio/hf/hf.htm

• May 7 - Stanwood Camano Amateur Radio Club Hamfest
• May 20-22 - Dayton, Ohio - http://www.hamvention.org
• June 3-5 - Seapac at Seaside - http://www.seapac.org
• June 25-26 - Field Day
• July 15-17 - Glacier Waterton Hamfest - http://www.gwhamfest.org
• Aug 12-14 - Pacific Northwest DX Convention in Everett WA - http://www.wwdxc.org/
• Sept 9-11 - NWAPRS Summer Gathering
• Sept 24 - Gallatin County Hamfest in Bozeman, MT
• Oct 7-9 -Pacific Northwest VHF Society Conference in Bend OR - http://www.pnwvhfs.org

Moving from wikidot.com to blog pages

Some NWAPRS notes have been gathered at the nwaprs.wikidot.com site.  That's not real convenient to edit and is extra trouble when we can put everything we need here on the blog.   So today we'll move the data and archive the old wiki pages.

Data Flow...

We're moving the static data from the nwaprs.info website to the 'pages' here...   The transistion has just started and much cleanup is still needed.   Stay tuned - and make packets.

Bill

New ISS object flying

Greetings APRS users,

There's a new ISS object flying in APRS-IS, but this object is different than others that have flown. It is flying with a MultiLine (http://www.aprs-is.net/WX/MultilineProtocol.aspx) description of the approximate reception footprint. It moves every two minutes, so if you're using an APRS client that displays MultiLine information (APRSISCE/32 and xastir at a minimum), you'll be able to see the footprint coming and know to anticipate a pass (or realize that you just missed one).

The ISS object has a comment that says "Msg4Pass". That means to send an APRS message to "ISS" (without the quotes) from any message-capable APRS platform. This can be APRS radios (if you're in range of a message-gating IGate), any of the PC-based APRS messaging clients (like UI-View), or any of the new mobile APRS-IS clients, provided that they do messaging.

When "ISS" (not the real space station, but the APRS satellite server) will calculate the current or next pass of the ISS for an observer at your station's last beaconed position (it will say "Please Beacon Position" if it doesn't know where you are). The response will be one of the following:

Az: aaa El: lll LOS:xx:yyz - If you are in a pass
AOS: xx:yyz+aa:bbc - If you are not in a pass
AOS: NONE - If there are no passes for your location in the next two days.

aaa and lll are the azimuth and elevation for an observer at your location at the time the message was processed. LOS is Loss of Signal and xx:yyz is the time remaining in the pass and will vary to show sufficient time periods (hh:mmh, mm:ssm, sss).

AOS is Acquisition of Signal with xx:yyz being the delta time until the pass begins and +aa:bbc is the expected duration of the upcoming pass. The longer the pass, the higher you can expect the max elevation to be and the more chance of working it as it flies by.

But Wait! There's MORE! If the text you send to ISS is a known station identifier (say KJ4ERJ-12), the returned pass information will not be for your location, but for that station's last known location. To be clear, "@ call-SSID" is appended to the end of the response so you know which observer it is for. Of course, if the satellite server doesn't know where your specified station is locate, you will receive "Please Beacon Position" as a response.

And that's not all! This doesn't only work for the ISS, but for any of the other satellites found in the TLE set fromhttp://www.celestrak.com/NORAD/elements/amateur.txt You can send an APRS message to "AO-51" to find out when that satellite will pass within range. If you have any trouble figuring out which satellite name a message can be sent to, send an APRS message to KJ4ERJ-12 (or an e-mail to here) and I'll see if I can map the TLE entry to the responder station ID. And of course, you can also send any other known station ID to any of the satellites to get the current or next pass information for that station's location.

Give the service a try, and let me know how it works out. There's nothing to remember except the satellite name (including the dash in most cases) and the fact that you send a message to the satellite. Nothing like ANSRVR or CQSRVR or SATSRV, just send the message to the satellite by name and it will return the pass information.

Lynn (D) - KJ4ERJ - Author of APRSISCE for Windows Mobile and Win32

PS. Don't look for ISS at aprs.fi as it flies too fast and is currently rejected by the speed limit filter. If you want to track the ISS object, add o/ISS* to your APRS-IS filter string. If you don't want to see it when it goes by, add -o/ISS* to your filter.

Here's a pair of chat transcripts with ISS and AO-51 (times are Eastern US):

21:35:39 New Chat Between KJ4ERJ-AP and ISS on 2011-10-13
21:35:41> foo (*2-21:35:41)
21:35:41< Az:325 El:12 LOS:4:19m
21:42:57> bar (*2-21:42:57)
21:42:57< AOS:4:44h+3:21m
21:48:41> WB4APR-15 (*2-21:48:41)
21:48:41< AOS:1:19h+8:23m @ WB4APR-15

21:43:09 New Chat Between KJ4ERJ-AP and AO-51 on 2011-10-13
21:43:11> FOO (*2-21:43:11)
21:43:11< AOS:5:45h+3:10m
21:43:26> ISS (*2-21:43:26)
21:43:26< AOS:5:45h+3:09m
21:43:37> N0GPS-3 (*2-21:43:37)
21:43:38< AOS:8:59h+12:24m @ N0GPS-3
21:48:58> WB4APR-15 (*2-21:48:58)
21:48:58< AOS:7:12h+13:23m @ WB4APR-15

14th Annual NWAPRS Summer Gathering

Invitation: Summer Gathering - Washington's Digital Ham Radio Event Sept 9-11, 2011

Please join us for the 14th Annual NWAPRS Summer Gathering.

This is a very social and very educational event right here in the Pacific Northwest in North Bend, WA. It is always the weekend after Labor Day.

The Summer Gathering is lots of fun and a great opportunity to learn and practice just about anything you can do with a computer and your ham radio.

We are expanding the event from the specific focus of APRS (the Automatic Packet/Position Reporting System) to a more general "Ham Radio's Digital Side". We continue to include much of APRS and developments in APRS and messaging as well as many other digital modes and software such as RMSExpress, NBEMS/FLDIGI, JT65 or WSPR or EasyPal, APRSMessenger, APRSISCE32. Sorry if that is all alphabet soup. We will make it all make sense at the event. Lots to learn and lots to try out.

Why would you want to do such a thing? Because there are modes out there that can allow you to operate less than a watt and be heard all around the world. Because you can do moonbounce with a modest station. Because you can work 28 dB below the noise and communicate all around the world. Or for the next emergency you can be ready with a modest station or compromised antennas and still communicate.

The sponsor for this event for the last 14 years has been the Northwest APRS Group

Review of the 13th Gathering in 2010

Balloon launch alerts

This could be handy...

Bill

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Tue, May 31, 2011 at 8:32 AM
Subject: [aprsisce] Balloon launch alerts
To: aprsisce@yahoogroups.com

I know there are a few on the list that like watching balloon flights
so I thought I would point out Jerry Gables auto alerts system.

I have messaged Lynn to see if this can be linked to the ANSRVR BALLON group.

The auto detect website is http://www.s3research.com/flightdata/

And the group for email alerts http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ARHABLaunchNotifier

Seems to work very well

Steve Daniels
G6UIM

Now 5 APRS Channels!

I like Bob's idea of using different channels. That and the options
below are interesting to consider with our alt-frequencies.
Unfortunately we can't use the D700 (D710?) with split baud rates..
That would be interesting to transmit on the 9k6 channel and receive
on stock 144.39.

Bill - WA7NWP

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Bob Bruninga
Date: Mon, May 23, 2011 at 8:43 AM
Subject: [aprssig] Now 5 APRS Channels!
To: TAPR APRS Mailing List <aprssig@tapr.org>

Here is an updated recommendation for APRS channels in your APRS radio.  The
purpose of all these channels is to allow you to configure the A side of
your radio without ever turning down the radio volume on that side.  This
makes sure you are always listening for voice alert calls, but can mute the
packets temporarily or change to any of these other functions without having
to touch any menus or function buttons.

Ch FREQCY OFFSETS CH NAMES TONES     USAGE
-- ------ ------- -------- --------- ----------------------------------
1) 144.39 simplex APRS raw No tone   for troubleshooting
2) 144.39 simplex APRSnorm CTCSS 100 with Voice Alert
3) 144.39 simplex APRSmute DCS xxx   for quiet or selcall at APRS events
4) 144.39 + 600   APRSevnt CTCSS 100 for special event with lots of HT's
5) 144.99 - 600   APRSdigi no tone   to be a WIDE1-1 offset digi

Notice, the change in channel 3.  The reason is, that unless you program the
actual CHANNEL NAMES shown above, then looking at the radio, you cannot tell
the difference between channel 2 and channel 3 operation.  Both show as
144.39 with CT.  But if you make the "mute" channel use an unknown DCS code,
then that channel will appear as 144.39 DC which is distinguishable from
144.39 CT.

Bob, WB4APR

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