Tag Archives: Navy

Naval Academy Students Planning CubeSat with HF Uplink

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usna-logo1ARRL News — Students at the US Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, are planning an Amateur Radio CubeSat — dubbed HFSAT — that would carry an HF transponder as a primary payload as well as 2-meter APRS as a secondary mission when power is available. The 1.5 U CubeSat will have a linear uplink at 21.4 MHz and a downlink at 29.42 MHz.

“HFSAT is a small 1.5 U CubeSat that will demonstrate the viability of HF satellite communications as a back-up communication system using existing ubiquitous HF radios that are often a part of every amateur station,” said USNA Instructor Bob Bruninga, WB4APR, who developed APRS. Bruninga said HFSAT would be similar to the 1990s-era RS-12/13 Russian Amateur Radio satellite.

Bob Bruninga WB4APR

Bob Bruninga WB4APR

“HFSAT will continue the long tradition of small amateur satellites designed by students and hams at the US Naval Academy,” Bruninga told ARRL. The uplink will be at 21.4 MHz and downlink at 29.42 MHz, similar to [earlier] Mode K HF satellites. No launch has yet been identified.” Bruninga said HFSAT would be gravity gradient-stabilized by its full-sized, 10-meter, thin-wire, half-wave dipole.

Other unique features of HFSAT include its APRS telemetry command-and-control capability. “For VHF the students have modified a popular Byonics.com MTT4B all-in-one APRS Tiny-Track4 module for telemetry, command, and control to fit on a single 3.4-inch square card inside the CubeSat, that they will use for this and for future CubeSats,” Bruninga said. The students are working with Bill Ress, N6GHZ, on the HF transponder card, which will provide a bandwidth of 30 kHz, employing an inverting transponder to minimize Doppler. Todd Bruner, WB1HAI, will be the HFSAT control operator.

Bruninga said the HF transponder is a follow-on from the USNA’s existing PSAT 10-meter PSK31 transponder, still operational. HFSAT‘s telemetry downlink will be captured via stations in the worldwide ground-station network. The packet link is a secondary mission compared to the HF transponder on this spacecraft.

Once HFSAT is in space, Bruninga recommended using a vertical HF antenna, because it would match well with the antenna patterns and geometry of Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites. “When low on the horizon, both the satellite and the user antennas are in their main lobes, providing maximum gain at the distant horizons,” Bruninga said. “At the higher elevations, the satellite is 6 dB to 10 dB closer, significantly making up for the reduced antenna pattern geometry.”

He said hams would be able to use “simple, manual” pass-prediction tools, much as they used the old Oscar Locator in the early years of Amateur Radio satellites.

Happy Birthday to the United States Navy

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The Chief of Naval Operations has stated that the Navy Birthday is one of the two Navy-wide dates to be celebrated annually. This page provides historical information on the birth and early years of the Navy, including bibliographies, lists of the ships, and information on the first officers of the Continental Navy, as well as texts of original documents relating to Congress and the Continental Navy, 1775-1783.

The United States Navy traces its origins to the Continental Navy, which the Continental Congress established on 13 October 1775, by authorizing the procurement, fitting out, manning, and dispatch of two armed vessels to cruise in search of munitions ships supplying the British Army in America. The legislation also established a Naval Committee to supervise the work. All together, the Continental Navy numbered some fifty ships over the course of the war, with approximately twenty warships active at its maximum strength.

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The Birth of the Navy of the United States

On Friday, October 13, 1775, meeting in Philadelphia, the Continental Congress voted to fit out two sailing vessels, armed with ten carriage guns, as well as swivel guns, and manned by crews of eighty, and to send them out on a cruise of three months to intercept transports carrying munitions and stores to the British army in America. This was the original legislation out of which the Continental Navy grew and as such constitutes the birth certificate of the navy.

To understand the momentous significance of the decision to send two armed vessels to sea under the authority of the Continental Congress, we need to review the strategic situation in which it was made and to consider the political struggle that lay behind it.

Americans first took up arms in the spring of 1775, not to sever their relationship with the king, but to defend their rights within the British Empire. By the autumn of 1775, the British North American colonies from Maine to Georgia were in open rebellion. Royal governments had been thrust out of many colonial capitals and revolutionary governments put in their places. The Continental Congress had assumed some of the responsibilities of a central government for the colonies, created a Continental Army, issued paper money for the support of the troops, and formed a committee to negotiate with foreign countries. Continental forces captured Fort Ticonderoga on Lake Champlain and launched an invasion of Canada.

In October 1775 the British held superiority at sea, from which they threatened to stop up the colonies’ trade and to wreak destruction on seaside settlements. In response, a few of the states had commissioned small fleets of their own for defense of local waters. Congress had not yet authorized privateering. Some in Congress worried about pushing the armed struggle too far, hoping that reconciliation with the mother country was still possible.

Yet, a small coterie of men in Congress had been advocating a Continental Navy from the outset of armed hostilities. Foremost among these men was John Adams, of Massachusetts. For months, he and a few others had been agitating in Congress for the establishment of an American fleet. They argued that a fleet would defend the seacoast towns, protect vital trade, retaliate against British raiders, and make it possible to seek out among neutral nations of the world the arms and stores that would make resistance possible.

Still, the establishment of a navy seemed too bold a move for some of the timid men in Congress.

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USS Yorktown (Ret.) in October 1987.

USS Yorktown (Ret.) in October 1987.

A journey through history

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Opinion By Glen Davis

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Earning the Order of the Locks in 1978.

You may have heard that the Panama Canal recently celebrated its 100th anniversary on August 15. That news, no doubt, sparked every response from raucous partying to a shrug of the shoulders. If you heard about it at all. I cannot be sure about the raucous parties, either, as I was not invited to any of them.
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To explain the significance of the event to me; in short I passed through the Panama Canal in March of 1978 when it was a mere 64-years-old.

Please, please. Hold your applause.

When I joined the Navy in 1977, my first assignment was aboard the pre-commissioning unit for the USS Oldendorf (DD-972). The ship was built by Ingalls Shipbuilding in Pascagoula, Mississippi. The ship was homeported in San Diego. As a consequence, after commissioning in March of 1978 we passed through the Panama Canal to get to the Pacific side.

Our first mission was to kick the tires and check the oil looking for any “warranty” items needing repairs. That required returning to Pascagoula giving us another chance to pass through the canal.

What I remember being most impressed about was what an engineering marvel it was to that day. I recalled the hundreds of lives lost to accident and disease to accomplish this feat.
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To pass through the canal, the ship was pulled into the locks by engines set on tracks on the sides of the canal. The ship is raised or lowered to get it to the appropriate level to travel to the next stage whether it be to the next lock or one of the lakes created in between. All of this is accomplished by the force of the water, itself. There are no pumps, as I understand it.

640-790700-004While this may seem insignificant to you, as I will someday grow old, I look back on some of the places I visited in my Naval career. I reflect on the changes I have witnessed.
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SEALs want more ‘Don’t Tread on Me’ patches, 8 months after controversy

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image WASHINGTON — €” A military command that supplies U.S. Navy SEALs with new gear says it wants more shoulder patches emblazoned with “Don’t Tread on Me,” less than a year after a firestorm erupted after it was reported that the longstanding tradition could be ended.

U.S. Naval Special Warfare Command’s contracting office in Virginia Beach, Virginia, quietly announced its intent to buy more patches in a notice to industry published June 3. Companies interested in supplying them must be able to show they can obtain the materials used in numerous kinds of Navy uniforms, including those with desert and woodland patterns. The U.S. flag will have seven stripes that can be seen using infrared equipment, the command said.

The notice’s publication follows a controversy last year in which it was reported that Navy SEALs were no longer allowed to wear the “Don’t Tread on Me” logo, also known as the first First Navy Jack. Flown on U.S. vessels, the flag depicts a rattlesnake over red and white stripes.

Navy personnel closely associate the logo with the global war on terrorism because then-Navy Secretary Gordon England authorized it on May 31, 2002, as the official jack, or maritime flag, for the Navy for the duration of the global war on terrorism. The entire Navy began flying the Navy Jack on Sept. 11, 2002, the first anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. It has been widely worn on the left shoulder by sailors deployed in war zones since then, including SEALs.

Read more at Stars and Stripes

Navy conduct sea rescue for Rebel Heart

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rebelheartThe Navy has sent the frigate USS Vandegrift to the Rebel Heart to rescue a one-year old child who fell ill on the stalled 36-foot Hans Christian boat.

At last report, the California National Guard sent rescuers who parachuted onto the vessel, but the child did not respond to medications. The child is suffering a fever and an unknown rash.

Although the boat is said to be repaired, the Vandegrift should reach the Rebel Heart by tonight or early Sunday to take the crew off of the boat. The crew consist of San Diego residents Eric and Charlotte Kaufman with their daughters, Lyra, 1, and Cora, 3.

USS Vandegrift

USS Vandegrift

More at UT San Diego

Jeremiah A. Denton Jr., Vietnam POW and former U.S. senator, dies at 89

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obit0331395960841MARCH 28 – Jeremiah A. Denton Jr., a retired Navy rear admiral and former U.S. senator who survived nearly eight years of captivity in North Vietnamese prisons, and whose public acts of defiance and patriotism came to embody the sacrifices of American POWs in Vietnam, died March 28 at a hospice in Virginia Beach. He was 89.

The cause was complications from a heart ailment, said his son Jim Denton. Adm. Denton was a native of Alabama, where in 1980 he became the state’s first Republican to win election to the Senate since Reconstruction.

Adm. Denton lost a reelection bid six years later. But he remained widely known for his heroism as a naval aviator and prisoner of war, and particularly for two television appearances that reached millions of Americans through the evening news during the Vietnam War.

In the first, orchestrated by the North Vietnamese as propaganda and broadcast in the United States in 1966, he appeared in his prison uniform and blinked the word “torture” in Morse code — a secret message to U.S. military intelligence for which he later received the Navy Cross.

Read more at The Washington Post

Scrapped for a penny: USS Forrestal, Navy’s first supercarrier, begins final voyage

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USSforrestalThe U.S. Navy’s first supercarrier — the long-decommissioned Forrestal — has begun its final voyage to a Texas scrapyard, after the Pentagon tried to sell it, found no takers and had to pay a penny to get rid of it.

The 1,067-foot ship, which was shut down in 1993 after more than 38 years of service, was being towed Tuesday morning down the Delaware River and along the Eastern Seaboard before crossing the Gulf of Mexico to reach All Star Metals in Brownsville. U.S. Navy officials signed a 1-cent contract with the Texas company in October to dismantle the ship perhaps best known for a 1967 incident that killed 134 and injured more than 300 others, including a young Navy aviator named John McCain.

“We started our departure from the dock at 5:31 a.m.,” All Star Metals President Nikhil Shah told FoxNews.com, adding that the trip should take roughly 17 days. “This is the largest ship that we’ve ever dismantled, and the largest ship the U.S. government has ever awarded to be dismantled. It’s a very big job to us.”

Read more at FOX News

USS Freedom Departs U.S. 7th Fleet on Asia-Pacific Deployment

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SOUTH CHINA SEA (Sept. 7, 2013) - Members of USS Freedom's (LCS 1) visit, board, search and seizure team prepare to board a Royal Brunei Navy ship during a compliant boarding exercise as part of Southeast Asia Cooperation and Training (SEACAT).

SOUTH CHINA SEA (Sept. 7, 2013) – Members of USS Freedom’s (LCS 1) visit, board, search and seizure team prepare to board a Royal Brunei Navy ship during a compliant boarding exercise as part of Southeast Asia Cooperation and Training (SEACAT).

YOKOSUKA, Japan – (U.S. Navy Press Release) The littoral combat ship, USS Freedom (LCS 1), crossed the international date line while transiting the Pacific Ocean, Dec. 10, marking her departure from the U.S. 7th Fleet Area of Responsibility (AOR).

The 7th Fleet AOR covers more than 48 million square miles and spans from west of the international date line to the western coast of India.

Operating primarily in Southeast Asia as part of a maiden overseas deployment, Freedom joined about 100 ships and submarines deployed throughout this vast maritime region and assigned to 7th Fleet on any given day.

Since arriving in the AOR March 20, Freedom worked with many regional navies and other 7th Fleet units during a series of port visits, exercises, and exchanges. These engagements directly supported the Asia-Pacific rebalance and further reinforced cooperation and interoperability among the Navy’s partners and allies.

“We put Freedom to the test over the past several months and learned a great deal about how to operate littoral combat ships forward alongside our regional partners and allies in a challenging operational environment,” said Vice Adm. Robert Thomas, commander, U.S. 7th Fleet.

In the weeks prior to departing 7th Fleet, Freedom conducted separate passing exercises (PASSEX) with the Bangladesh navy ship BNS Somudro Joy (F 28) and the Brunei navy ships KDB Darulaman (PV 08) and KDB Ijhtihad (PV 17), supported humanitarian assistance and disaster relief (HA/DR) efforts in the Philippines, and conducted port calls in Brunei and Guam.

As many senior Navy officials noted recently, the maritime crossroads and vital waterways that connect Southeast Asia to the global economy are exactly where the Navy needs to be present, now and well into the future. Rotational deployments of littoral combat ships will help the Navy sustain presence, expand access to vital waterways and interact with littoral regions in unprecedented ways.

“Freedom’s deployment is just the beginning of littoral combat ship rotations to 7th Fleet,” said Thomas. “Increased numbers of these ships will become a regular fixture in this region as a tangible demonstration of our commitment to the rebalance. Their forward presence over the long term supports our Navy’s enduring commitment to security, stability and prosperity in the Asia-Pacific.”

USS Freedom’s first rotational deployment to Southeast Asia began March 1, when the ship departed San Diego and commenced a Pacific Ocean transit that included port visits in Hawaii, Guam and Manila. Freedom used Singapore as a logistics and maintenance hub between April 18 and Nov. 16, during which she participated in the International Maritime Defence Exhibition, three phases of the bilateral naval exercise Cooperation Afloat Readiness and Training with Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei, and the multinational exercise Southeast Asia Cooperation and Training. During port visits, Freedom hosted thousands visitors from throughout Southeast Asia.

Freedom remained homeported in San Diego throughout this rotational deployment to Southeast Asia. Crew 101, which has operated the ship since a planned swap with Crew 102 in August, will take the ship home to San Diego by the end of the year.

Fast, agile and mission-focused, littoral combat ships are designed to operate in near-shore environments and employ modular mission packages that can be configured for surface warfare, mine countermeasures, or anti-submarine warfare.

Chinese naval vessel tries to force U.S. warship to stop in international waters

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Handout photo taken September 20, 2012 and released to Reuters on September 25, 2012 of the Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser USS Cowpens (CG 63) in the Pacific Ocean.(Reuters)

A Chinese naval vessel tried to force a U.S. guided missile warship to stop in international waters recently, causing a tense military standoff in the latest case of Chinese maritime harassment, according to defense officials.

The guided missile cruiser USS Cowpens, which recently took part in disaster relief operations in the Philippines, was confronted by Chinese warships in the South China Sea near Beijing’s new aircraft carrier Liaoning, according to officials familiar with the incident.

“On December 5th, while lawfully operating in international waters in the South China Sea, USS Cowpens and a PLA Navy vessel had an encounter that required maneuvering to avoid a collision,” a Navy official said.

Read more at FOX News

North Korea sailors killed when ship sinks during ‘combat duties’

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north-korean-navy(Reuters)—At least 19 North Korean sailors were killed when a naval vessel sank during “combat duties” off the east coast last month, state media said, a rare admission by the impoverished and reclusive country.

South Korean media said the ship sank during a drill killing “scores”.

Photos released by North Korea’s KCNA state news agency showed leader Kim Jong Un laying flowers at the foot of a memorial to the dead, encircled by at least 19 graves emblazoned with the faces of the sailors.

“Submarine chaser No. 233 fell while performing combat duties in mid-October,” KCNA said.

Read more at Reuters