A follow-up to our previous news on the DELFI-N3XT transponder test was received via e-mail today:

Dear all,

Today we did a first transponder test. We could hear the beacon, but unfortunately did not hear anything back from our calls. Also we were missing the noise floor of the transponder band. Our hypothesis is that our adjustable LO (Si570) which is mixed with the IF band could not be programmed correctly and hence the pass-band goes outside our filtered band (which is a good thing, because we do not want to transmit on illegal frequencies). This LO is adjustable by I2C communication and should be programmed each time at power up (so each time the transponder mode is activated. We will do two attempts more tomorrow at the morning ground passes and even if that doesn’t help we will keep on trying with different settings. If the situation changes I will update you again.

Best regards,

Jasper, PC4JB

AMSAT-NA will be at the 2014 Orlando HamCation on Friday through Sunday, 7-9 February 2014. Stop by the AMSAT booth where John Papay, K8YSE will be demonstrating his two remote satellite stations.  Don’t miss the AMSAT Forum on Saturday, February 8th.  It will be moderated by Dave Jordan,  AA4KN and will be located in the Children’s Safety Village, Classroom I, 1:45 – 2:45 PM.  Speakers will include AMSAT-NA President Barry Baines, WD4ASW on AMSAT’s activities, Lou McFadin, W5DID on the new HamTV experiment on the International Space Station, and AMSAT-NA Vice President for Operations on AO-73 and other new amateur satellites.  Drew will also will be on hand both Saturday and Sunday conducting portable satellite contacts and fielding questions from the crowd.

FLASH: Drew and John will be operating as W100AW/4 for the portable demos from the HamCation!

This year’s Symposium commemorative shirts are now available for order.  Orders must be placed by October 1, 2013.  Shirts ordered will be available for pickup at the Symposium, but will not be sold at the Symposium or on the AMSAT Store.  Please order using the Symposium Shirt Order Form.

As a result of the 2013 Board of Directors Election, Barry Baines, WD4ASW; Tony Monteiro, AA2TX, Alan Biddle, WA4SCA, and Mark Hammond, N8MH, will serve on the board for two years. The first alternate is JoAnne Maenpaa, K9JKM, and the second alternate is Steve Coy, K8UD. The results of the voting with 688 ballots cast are as follows;

Barry Baines, WD4ASW          521
Tony Monteiro, AA2TX               518
Alan Biddle. WA4SCA               424
Mark Hammond, N8MH             365

JoAnne Maenpaa, K9JKM         316
Steve Coy, K8UD                      186

Frank Griffin, K4FEG                 158
Bryan Klofas, KF6ZEO              141

Submitted by
Martha Saragovitz
Manager