Wednesday, 13 January 2016

ARISS connection with the Secondary School of First Instance "Benedetto Croce", Civate, Italy

Follow the event live Wednesday January 13, 2016 , starting at 11:30 (early contact with the ISS at 12:29 )
Will answer students' curiosity American NASA astronaut Tim Kopra , to the ISS in December 2015, flight engineer of Expedition 46 commander and the upcoming Expedition 47




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A successful ARISS telebridge contact was held atScuola Secondaria di Primo Grado “Benedetto Croce”, Civate, Italy on January 13, 2016 through amateur ground station VK5ZAI in Australia. The astronaut for the contact was Tim Kopra, KE5UDN, using callsign NA1SS. 20 student questions were answered.

There was an audience of 150 students, teachers, administrators and guests and the event was covered by a local TV station and newspaper. Audio of the event was carried by the amateur radio services Echolink and IRLP.  

The connection will be made telebridge mode, with the support of the Australian station VK5ZAI operated by Tony Hutchison.
Here the official announcement from the site of ARISS Europe:  http://www.ariss-eu.org/documents/archive/2016_01_11.txt

Tuesday, 12 January 2016

Chertsey Radio club introduces MB6ICU

Today after friendly discussions with Ofcom and ETCC, We are very happy to announce the Chertsey DMR / Brandmaster hotspot MB6ICU

Access is on 434.5125 Talkgroup is TG9 (local)  colour code 1 and slot 2

MB6ICU is mostly on Brandmaster channel 4400



You can control the channel by setting your code plug up as follows

In contacts you will need each of the groups you wish to access
So popular in the UK 4400, 4401, 4402 and 4403 also add 4000(no-link)

next set up the channels
In digital channels you will need to create the following

MB6ICU-Main
frequency tx / rx: 434.5125
colour code 1
timeslot 2
TX contact Local TG9



Next create

MB6ICU-Drop (this will disconnect current channel)
frequency tx / rx: 434.5125
colour code 1
timeslot 2
TX contact 4000

Next create

MB6ICU-to-4400
frequency tx / rx: 434.5125
colour code 1
timeslot 2
TX contact 4400 UK

Next create

MB6ICU-to-4401
frequency tx / rx: 434.5125
colour code 1
timeslot 2
TX contact 4401 UK1

Add 4402 and 4403 and any other channels you require to your channel list.

Next you will need to create a ZONE

Call the zone MB6ICU
Add each of the channels starting with MB6ICU-Main
to the zone.



Now save your code plug and upload to your radio.

To operate MB6ICU tune radio to MB6ICU / MB6ICU-Main
Listen, to ensure no one else is using the hot-spot.
If they are please join in say hello.

If not firstly rotate the channel knob to MB6ICU-Drop and TX for about 5 seconds
This will drop all channels and return the hot-spot to disconnected
Next rotate the channel knob to the channel you wish to use, again tx for 5 seconds
This will force the hot-spot to connect to your chosen channel.

Next you need to change channel back to MB6ICU-Main

You are now connected and can use the hotspot on your chosen channel.

any questions my details are on qrz.com

Enjoy the hot-spot

M0JFP / Chetsey radio club.

Friday, 8 January 2016

ISS-Tim_contact Sandringham School, St. Albans, Hertfordshire, UK

Here is what I heard from my home in Staines Middlesex UK (IO91SK)
Here is the AMSAT echolink recording of the contact 

On the AMSAT echolink they played this recording as part of the warm up:

7 Minutes before AOS, warm up message for the school

This is the end of the speeches and thank yous!

Found this video of the ISS pass from YouTube


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  • A direct contact with students at Sandringham School, St. Albans, Hertfordshire, UK is scheduled for Fri 2016-01-08 08:47:47 UTC 83 deg. This will be the first ARISS contact associated with astronaut Tim Peake and the Principia Mission.  An audience of 1300+ is expected. During the morning, the BBC will be devoting their live national BBC Breakfast news program to the pre-contact activities and the contact itself at the school.

Sandringham School is a high performing coeducational non-selective and non-denominational secondary school, consistently graded Outstanding by Ofsted and being in the top 100 highest performing non-selective schools in England for the past 3 years.
 
The school is a specialist science college, arts college and leading edge provider. It is also designated as one of the first ‘World Class Schools’ in the country. The school operates a significant amount of community and outreach activities, is an Initial Teacher Training provider and runs a Teaching School Alliance for Hertfordshire.  Sandringham is also a “Gifted and Talented” lead school and International School, with significant international activities taking place throughout the year. The school also coordinates National Initiatives with the Education Endowment Foundation and has a significant reputation in the country for delivering outstanding comprehensive education.
 
The total number of students on roll is 1300 and expanding, with children from age 11 – 19, including a very large and academic sixth form. The catchment area is local, serving the needs of St. Albans and Wheathampstead although sixth form students join the school from further away if they meet the entrance criteria.
 
We have over 100 teachers in the school including specialist teachers of computing science and three female physics teachers all of whom have a specialist interest in space and astronomy. In addition, the headeacher is a very active radio amateur who is extremely supportive of this contact.

Thursday, 7 January 2016

Hytera 685 getting started series: Install USB drivers

USB driver for Hytera 685 can be downloaded from HAM-DMR.nl
Make sure you choose 32 or 64 bit depending on your computers hardware.

Using 7zip or winrar or winzip open the file
Double click on folder DMR_SW_usb driver......




Double click on the DMR_SW_usb driver folder



Double click on driverinsstaller


You should now see a long list of files
Double click on setup.exe



Click run


Click Install





Be patient can take a couple of minutes


Click on OK

Hytera 685 getting started series: Install Customer Programming Software CPS


The Hytera CPS can be downloaded from ham-dmr.nl

Save the file and open it with 7zip winzip or winrar
Double click on setup.exe



Click on Run



The password is in SN.txt or copy and paste this: D78V70007022EM5C00
Click next



Click on Next


Click on accept the terms and then click on Next


Fill in your name or call sign and put anything for company.
Click on Next


if you need to change file location click on change (not usually needed)
Click on Next


Click on Install


Click on Finish