NASA - Space Shuttle

NASA - Space Shuttle: "Astronauts Prep Shuttle for Saturday Landing
Fri, 27 Mar 2009 01:49:09 PM GMT+0100

The crew’s wakeup song, 'Bright Side of the Road' by Van Morrison, was played at 5:13 a.m. EDT for Mission Specialist Richard Arnold.

The STS-119 crew is scheduled to stow items in the crew cabin this morning and complete a check out Discovery’s flight control surfaces. These surfaces will guide the orbiter’s unpowered flight through the atmosphere to a landing.

Landing is scheduled for 1:39 p.m. Saturday at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida with a second opportunity one orbit later at 3:14 p.m."

406 MHz distress alert beacon detected

An US west coast listener logged the following:

"From POR NCS


Eik LES 26-MAR-2009 14:16:45 045836

A 406 MEGA HERTZ DISTRESS ALERT BEACON HAS BEEN DETECTED IN POSITION 03 DEGREES 09.1 MINUTES NORTH LATITUDE, 147 DEGREES 12.0 MINUTES EAST LONGITUDE, 630 NAUTICAL MILES SOUTH EAST OF GUAM AT 261313Z MARCH 2009. ALL MARINERS IN THE AREA ARE REQUESTED TO KEEP A SHARP LOOKOUT FOR ANY AIRCRAFT OR VESSEL IN DISTRESS, ASSIST AS ABLE, AND REPORT ANY SIGHTINGS TO U S COAST GUARD SECTOR GUAM AT 1 671 355 4910 OR BY E-MAIL USING RCCGUAM@USCG.MIL"

U.S. destroyers on move as N. Korea prepares rocket launch - CNN.com

U.S. destroyers on move as N. Korea prepares rocket launch - CNN.com: "U.S. destroyers on move as N. Korea prepares rocket launch

Story Highlights
* Navy is moving ships capable of shooting down ballistic missiles to the Sea of Japan
* North Korea is preparing for an expected rocket launch next month
* Government of North Korea says the launch is of a commercial satellite
* Japan says it is ready to fire on the rocket if any part of it enters Japanese airspace"

Busy freqs tonight: 4848 and 6807 kHz

Satscape - Satellite tracking on your computer

Satscape - Satellite tracking on your computer: "Satscape is a satellite tracking program for Windows, Mac OS, Linux, Sun Solaris, and FreeBSD operating systems. You can use it to find out the position of any of the 8000+ satellites and orbital debris in orbit around the earth right now, anything from the International space station to a misplaced spanner can be tracked right on your screen with no special equipment."

Wowzers! That's a damn cool application!

39 brazilian satcom pirates busted by cops

Yesterday, Paulo sent this information:

"It came to my attention that our brazilian friends on Fleetsat and UFO frequencies got a nasty surprise today, from their federal police and Brazil´s comunications authority. According to the news, 39 persons got busted, one was arrested and large amounts of equipement seized. All of them are licenced amateur radio operators whose operating location was determined by the US Dept of Defense, in cooperation with brazilian federal police and other US agencies. Besides all of these equipment seizures, the authorities have identified the manufacturers of some of the hardware used, one of them actually was arrested.

Some links, in portuguese for now:

http://www.estadao.com.br/noticias/geral,apreendidos-aparelhos-de-comunicacao-ilegal-por-satelite,340892,0.htm

http://www.uai.com.br/UAI/html/sessao_2/2009/03/18/em_noticia_interna,id_sessao=2&id_noticia=103003/em_noticia_interna.shtml


http://www.otempo.com.br/noticias/ultimas/?IdNoticia=35429

http://www.fatimanews.com.br/canais/noticias/?id=81792"

However, there is still a lot of activity on 255.55 MHz.

ARRLWeb: ARRL NEWS: Surfin': Software Defined Radioing with a Mac

ARRLWeb: ARRL NEWS: Surfin': Software Defined Radioing with a Mac: "Sebastian Mrozek, DO8SEM, wrote software called DSP Radio and you can download a copy at his DSP Radio Documentation Web page. DO8SEM's software runs on Macs connected to SoftRock hardware; his Web page describes the complete hardware and software setups. DSP Radio is still in beta, so all its features may not be complete, but it is functional enough to allow you to have fun trying SDR on a Mac."

*Dundalk Amateur Radio Society EI7DAR*

*Dundalk Amateur Radio Society EI7DAR*: "EI7DAR
DUNDALK AMATEUR RADIO SOCIETY"

For those interested in SAR comms, a live stream is offered at this cool site.

PE1OIT - KaaSDR



PE1OIT - KaaSDR: "KaaSDR is a simple open-source software-defined radio program written in C++. It uses the PC’s soundcard to process I/Q signals from a receiver, such as the Softrock 40 or some other simple homebrew SDR RX."

heeeeeeeeel mooi! :)

STS-119 Mission Update

STS-119 Mission Update: "STS-119 Mission Update
LIFTOFF!
03/16/09 00:44
Space shuttle Discovery has cleared the launch tower! It is tracing a brilliant arc of white and orange flames through the dusky-night sky on its way to orbit.

The twin solid rocket boosters will burnout shortly and fall away as Discovery continues its climb powered by its three main engines. Once in orbit, it will take Discovery about two days to catch up to the International Space Station.

The astronauts of STS-119 are to install the last major set of solar arrays to the orbiting laboratory complex during the mission.

Japan's Koichi Wakata also will switch from the shuttle to the station crew and current station crew member Sandra Magnus will become a member of the Discovery crew."


Well done, folks!

NASA - Space Shuttle

NASA - Space Shuttle: "Discovery Countdown Enters Final Hold
Sun, 15 Mar 2009 11:58:54 PM GMT+0100

Discovery's countdown has entered the last planned hold at T-9 minutes. During the 45-minute hold, the Mission Management Team, Mission Control team and Launch Control team will conduct polls and give a final 'go' decision for launch.

Launch is targeted for 7:43 p.m. EDT."


...this includes some activity on 5711 kHz/USB

NASA - NASA's Shuttle and Rocket Missions

NASA - NASA's Shuttle and Rocket Missions: "Date: March 15
Mission: STS-119
Launch Vehicle: Space Shuttle Discovery
Launch Site: Kennedy Space Center - Launch Pad 39A
Launch Time: 7:43 p.m. EDT
Description: Space shuttle Discovery launching on assembly flight 15A, will deliver the fourth starboard truss segment to the International Space Station."

Interesting frequencies for this event:
5711 kHz/USB
10780 kHz/USB
259.7 MHz/NFM
261.575 MHz/NFM
261.875 MHz/NFM

STS-119 Mission Update

STS-119 Mission Update: "STS-119 to Launch No Earlier Than Sunday
03/11/09 23:36
Space shuttle Discovery’s launch to the International Space Station now is targeted for no earlier than March 15. NASA managers postponed Wednesday’s planned liftoff due to a leak associated with the gaseous hydrogen venting system outside the external fuel tank. The system is used to carry excess hydrogen safely away from the launch pad.

Liftoff on March 15 would be at 7:43 p.m. EDT. The exact launch date is dependent on the work necessary to repair the problem. Managers will meet Thursday at 4 p.m. to further assess the troubleshooting plan."

NASA - NASA's Shuttle and Rocket Missions

NASA - NASA's Shuttle and Rocket Missions: "Date: March 12
Mission: STS-119
Launch Vehicle: Space Shuttle Discovery
Launch Site: Kennedy Space Center - Launch Pad 39A
Launch Time: 8:54 p.m.
Description: Space shuttle Discovery launching on assembly flight 15A, will deliver the fourth starboard truss segment to the International Space Station."

Those delays suck :(

NASA - NASA's Shuttle and Rocket Missions

NASA - NASA's Shuttle and Rocket Missions: "Date: March 11
Mission: STS-119
Launch Vehicle: Space Shuttle Discovery
Launch Site: Kennedy Space Center - Launch Pad 39A
Launch Time: 9:20 p.m. EDT
Description: Space shuttle Discovery launching on assembly flight 15A, will deliver the fourth starboard truss segment to the International Space Station."

Interesting frequencies for this event:
5711 kHz/USB
10780 kHz/USB
259.7 MHz/NFM
261.575 MHz/NFM
261.875 MHz/NFM

3325 kHz/USB UNID russian voice comms

Since about half an hour I'm listening to the UNID russian comms on 3325 kHz. I can hear only one station (l/c in central europe).

Got any information about it?

REACH 472 - 11.175

Just heard REACH 472 calling mainsail on 11.175 MHz. Raised an unknown, unheard ground station for a phone-patch to DSN (312) 779-4795.

REACH 472 was requesting a weather forecast for Moron AB in Spain (ETA 1230z) and Rota NS as alternate.