scott's blog

Santa granted, but not to me. Very fine. KCRW kudos.

With 37 sounds and 4 tones, Mandarin is beyond my imminent learning, but I have this start: Xī Wàng (to hope, to wish for, to desire).

Hope OSCAR 68 is the designated name for XW-1, the Chinese satellite that launched December 14 and soon began supporting communications by amateur radio.

The first North American pass with the FM transponder activated was immensely crowded, hampering almost everyone's ability to make a contact or upload a packet. Mostly I listened to chaos. Occasionally, I would transmit a partial syllable and quickly determine I was having no luck with low power and an indoor Arrow antenna.

A day or two later, I managed to get in "1AIA" while the satellite was coming over from the north, prompting a persistent KC9ELU to try an exchange. But no go.

SumbandilaSat launched September 17 and the control team has been stepping the South African satellite through its commissioning activities. Only in the past few days has the amateur radio transponder been activated over the United States, and this morning was the first apparent opportunity for east coast stations to be in the footprint of an active OSCAR 67.

I unexpectedly heard nothing at the appointed hour, but when I cast my callsign skyward the downlink was clear and then I had a call from K8YSE. Success on SO-67! John kindly shared a recording of the entire pass, and ZR1JAK mapped stations heard during this and the subsequent pass (which was out of range for me) based on John's captured audio.

I haven't tracked and recorded the ANDE-2 experimental satellites yet, to say nothing of decoding and submitting any data. Best intentions...

...or PA`A... still keeping an eye on it...

One hundred three at SeaTac today? That's more than uncomfortable, it's "excessive heat." Hard to think that I have nothing to complain about when suffering under temps in the eighties, dew points well past seventy, and sticky everything.

Seattle's all-time record high. Wonder when -- in this extreme-weather-event century -- that'll be broken. Meanwhile, sorry to all the wilters out there.

And be sure to get that heat cleared out well before the twelfth so my visit isn't stifled!

I was awakened to watch it. Age 10. Groggy memories. Wood cabinet black and white, northeast corner of the living room, from the sofa, surrounded by palpable attentiveness.

Borrowing from NASA and encountering other lunar tidbits.

This graphic shows the approximate locations of the Apollo moon landing sites.
Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio

NPR story
Here.

Commentary on story
Here.

Hoax and Futurama
Here.

AMSAT Special Transmission

July 20 AMSAT-NA will mark the 40th anniversary of the first manned lunar landing with a special event on AO-51. AO-51 will transmit a message commemorating the event Monday, July 20 during evening passes in the U.S. and Europe. The message will be transmitted on the 435.300 MHz FM downlink and will contain a Robot 36 SSTV image as well as a voice message.

The Winbook FX turns 13 in 10 days. The Axim X30 will be 4.

Got to the playground around 5. Chatting while A- swings. Glance to blue sky and see bird in flight coming my way. Big. Floating closer. Eagle? Wingspan about right. Wings fairly flat. Head looks light. Body's dark. Tail is dark. And long and large, well suited to the bird. Neck doesn't look folded or extended. It's come in from the east just north of where we sit. I'm getting my best view. Still trying to stay engaged in the conversation, but this thing doesn't look like anything. Wings rounded? Pointed? It's turning north. "It'll fly over our house in a minute." Hopeless now. Cormorant? Golden Eagle? Anhinga? LBH?

I've always appreciated the TV meteorologists who keep an eye on the sky for something more than weather. A quick hint during the evening newscast about a planetary conjunction or lunar eclipse is always welcome here. And the weather man ought to know if it's worth looking up; no point seeking Venus beside a waning moon if it's nothing but clouds up there.

So tonight, when WCSH's Roger Griswold specified the start and end times for an overhead pass by the International Space Station, and added that it would be as bright as an "evening star," we made plans to step out into the clear night and crane our necks.

He said "southwest" so that's where I was looking. Fortunately A- had motile eyes and said "What's that?" to a solidly bright object racing toward us from the south-southwest. Instantly we were all on it, our first-time view of the ISS blazing in the sun. Boy, that thing cruises!