NASA Ames Research Center
Amateur Radio Club

NA6MF
http://hamradio.arc.nasa.gov

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Last Update: April 30, 2008

Don’t use your walkie-talkie while driving on Ames property

Ames Amateur Radio Club Demonstrates at Yuri’s Night: April 12, 2008

The NASA Ames Amateur Radio Club (AARC), along with help from some other amateur radio groups, demonstrated exciting wireless communications capabilities during Yuri’s Night. One of the activities showed how signals could be sent from earth to the moon, and back to the earth, using surface of the moon as a reflector (earth-moon-earth or EME) for “moonbounce” communications. The other activity, Amateur Television (ATV), demonstrated how live video feeds could be sent between locations at Yuri’s Night, and also transmitted via a repeater to anyone in the south bay area, using a regular TV to tune into the over-the-air signal. The EME effort was significantly assisted by folks from the 50 MHz-and-up club, as well as folks associated with the Jamesburg dish (http://www.jamesburgdish.org), in Cachagua Valley, near Salinas. Also participating in this EME activity were several students from the San Jose State University amateur radio club. Led by Jim Moss, the participants were able to successfully communicate with folks in Texas and Europe using a dish antenna, and able to hear stations using a “yagi” beam antenna. We also had a yagi array lent from M2 Antenna Systems Inc. Amateur television (ATV) effort demonstrated how anyone with a ham radio license can transmit TV using same techniques just like professional broadcasters. Assisted by members of the K6BEN-ATV group, activities were continuously shown on amateur television throughout the south bay area. Anyone using a TV with an aerial antenna, and tuned to cable channel 57 would have been able to see and hear these transmissions. Using conventional equipment, a “rover” with video camera (similar to what a news broadcaster might use) and a portable lowpower TV transmitter to send video and audio live throughout the event area. Anyone using a TV with an aerial antenna, and tuned to cable channel 58 would have been able to see and hear the roving transmissions. Yuri’s Night Bay Area was a huge public relations bonanza for NASA, particularly with a large number of 20-somethings attending (average age of NASA people is 50). This illustrates many paid $40-50, arrived on their own time, not affiliated with the government or the aerospace industry, and never seen or heard the kinds of stuff NASA does. They may have come for the shows and music but they saw and interacted with those who are excited about exploration and technology. Event is the world space party commemorating the first human space flight by Yuri Gagarin (April 12, 1961). Center director Pete Worden stated, “We clearly communicated the value of spaceflight to this generation and future generations, and you could see that many of our passengers enjoyed learning what NASA and Ames are all about in addition to enjoying the music, dance and art that made the day so colorful.” Acknowledgments of contributors (not all of these people were present in the AARC booth, but all made contributions in one way or another): Ames Amateur Radio Club (AARC): Mark Allard, KD6CWM Dave Hartzell, N0TGD Mark Foster, KI6DHU Don Reynolds, KI6CCS Michael Wright, K6MFW K6BEN Amateur Television (ATV) group: Ben Carlucci, W2NYC Byron Beck, KG6UOB Johnathan Corgan, AE6HO Nicholas Corgan, KG6MYQ EME Jamesburg dish staff: Jim Moss, N9JIM Goran Popovic, AD6IW Joel Wilhite, KD6W Kevin Hague, N5XSA Pat Barthelow, AA6EG (did not attend but did arrangements) Mike Staal, K6MYC Brad Douglas, KB8UYR, SVWUX member San Jose State University students: Eric Stackpole, KF6JBP Robert Norris, KI6MIN Jeff Orr, K66KCO Nader Shakerin, KI6DBU Mikhail Blinkov Alan Maenchen, KD6E Evan Luine, KI6EQF Websites: Photos from 50MHz and Up Group http://www.nasa.gov/YNBA/ http://yurisnightbayarea.net NA6MF - EME Operation from Yuri’s Night (youtube) Yuri’s Night Bay Area Pete Worden welcoming speech (youtube) Shana Dale’s blog on Yuri’s Night

Re-transmission of NASA-TV during STS Mission

Audio on 145.585 MHz:

Ames Amateur Radio Club (AARC) re-transmits audio portion on 145.585 MHz (simplex). Click here for more info on audio re-transmission.

Video on Amateur Television: (ATV re-transmissions may be occasional)

AARC re-transmits NASA-TV on the K6BEN video repeater. Click here for more info on ATV re-transmission of NASA-TV.

Receiving K6BEN in south San Francisco bay area

K6BEN video repeater is on 421.25 MHz, same frequency as cable channel 57. To receive K6BEN, set your TV set to cable channel 57, connect a UHF antenna (vertically polarized) aimed at Mt. Hamilton (east SJ foothills). Recommended antenna is a UHF (70 cm) yagi antenna.

NASA Schedules and News Links

NASA-TV schedule (in PDF or XLS), see http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/mission_schedule.html
Daily schedule at http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/MM_NTV_Schedule.html
Launch schedules at http://www.nasa.gov/missions/highlights/schedule.html
NASA Breaking News http://www.nasa.gov/rss/breaking_news.rss
NASA News Releases http://www.nasa.gov/news/releases/latest/index.html
NASA News Events http://www.nasa.gov/news/index.html

AARC Continuing Meetings

The club is continuing a series of technical presentations on amateur radio. This is not only for people who already have a ham license, but for those who might be considering getting into amateur radio. There are many applications of ham radio that are not only interesting and useful, but which are also essential in emergencies on land and at sea. The first presentation was an overview of using high frequency (HF) radio on sailboats for voice and email communications. Future technical presentations may include presentations on bouncing signals off meteor showers (“meteor scatter”), digital communications, and how to get your amateur license.