eHam.net News

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Yaesu Announces FT-70DR 5W 2M/70CM C4FM:

Posted: 21 Mar 2017 07:50 AM PDT
http://www.eham.net/articles/38856


Today, Yaesu announced the, a 5W Dual-
Band C4FM Handheld. The is a compact System Fusion transceiver
providing both conventional analog FM
operation and the advanced C4FM Digital
mode.


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W4HM Daily HF Radio Wave Propagation Forecast:

Posted: 21 Mar 2017 07:49 AM PDT
http://www.eham.net/articles/38852


I'm now posting my daily solar, space and
geomagnetic weather observations and
discussions, as well as a HF radio wave
propagation forecast.


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Just Like Houston: Engineering Students Work On Satellite Ground Station:

Posted: 20 Mar 2017 06:24 PM PDT
http://www.eham.net/articles/38851


Houston, we've had a problem here." Astronaut Jack Swigert uttered that
famous statement on April 13, 1970, when problems became apparent during
the failed Apollo 13 mission. Members of NASA's Mission Control Center in
Houston immediately went to work to figure out what happened and ultimately
saved the lives of the crew. Since the space age began, spacecraft and
their crews have been communicating with ground stations via radio. Now,
University of Virginia engineering students are about to join that
tradition with their own ground station for tracking a small spacecraft of
their own design. The station will allow student engineers to track and
collect data from their craft, scheduled to be launched into orbit in late
2018 aboard a NASA-sponsored rocket as part of an International Space
Station resupply mission. "We're building our own version of NASA's Mission
Control, to communicate with our own spacecraft," said Christopher Goyne, a
mechanical and aerospace engineering professor who serves as faculty
adviser for the project. "Our students have a lot of work to accomplish
prior to launch, and during the six- to 12-month flight mission." The
student-built spacecraft, shaped as a cube about the size of a softball,
will be part of a joint mission with other Virginia universities to conduct
atmospheric density studies, which will help NASA better understand the
rates at which low-orbiting spacecraft slow down and ultimately descend
back to Earth when encountering the "drag" of the outer edges of our
atmosphere. The craft, called a CubeSat (for cube-sized satellite), will be
the first developed and flown by UVA. Assembly and testing will be
completed this summer. Goyne's group recently began work to construct the
ground station, with assistance from the UVA Amateur Radio Club. The
mini-satellite is being designed to accommodate a small UHF radio that
transmits in the amateur radio band. The station will transmit instructions
to the craft as it passes over from horizon to horizon, and also receive
scientific data from the craft. The ground station will communicate with
other satellites in space, and possibly with crew members aboard the
International Space Station.


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Sun Goes Blank for Two Weeks Straight:

Posted: 20 Mar 2017 06:23 PM PDT
http://www.eham.net/articles/38850


(WATTSUPWITHTHAT) -- Over the weekend, we reviewed the state of the solar
data for March 2017. Now, there's a two week straight lack of sunspots, the
longest stretch since 2010. Overview: The sun is currently blank with no
visible sunspots and this is the 14th straight day with a blank look which
is the longest such stretch since April 2010 according to spaceweather.com.
Historically weak solar cycle 24 continues to transition away from its
solar maximum phase and towards the next solar minimum. In April 2010 - the
last time there was a two week stretch with no visible sunspots -- the sun
was emerging from the last solar minimum which was historically long and
deep. There have already been 26 spotless days in 2017 (34 percent of the
entire year) and this follows 32 spotless days last year which occurred
primarily during the latter part of the year. The blank look to the sun
will increase in frequency over the next couple of years leading up to the
next solar minimum -- probably to be reached in late 2019 or 2020. By one
measure, the current solar cycle is the third weakest since record keeping
began in 1755 and it continues a weakening trend since solar cycle 21
peaked in 1980. One of the impacts of low solar activity is the increase of
cosmic rays that can penetrate into the Earth's upper atmosphere and this
has some important consequences.