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{
    "url": "https://mailman.amsat.org/hyperkitty/api/list/[email protected]/email/JTXLW4LKIQ77CWKP62VGQ6EPAAHTEDP2/?format=api",
    "mailinglist": "https://mailman.amsat.org/hyperkitty/api/list/[email protected]/?format=api",
    "message_id": "[email protected]",
    "message_id_hash": "JTXLW4LKIQ77CWKP62VGQ6EPAAHTEDP2",
    "thread": "https://mailman.amsat.org/hyperkitty/api/list/[email protected]/thread/JTXLW4LKIQ77CWKP62VGQ6EPAAHTEDP2/?format=api",
    "sender": {
        "address": "morsesat (a) optonline.net",
        "mailman_id": "72f51eafcada419487d1a984af73dff5",
        "emails": "https://mailman.amsat.org/hyperkitty/api/sender/72f51eafcada419487d1a984af73dff5/emails/?format=api"
    },
    "sender_name": "Dee",
    "subject": "[ans]  ANS-028",
    "date": "2007-01-28T05:44:40Z",
    "parent": null,
    "children": [],
    "votes": {
        "likes": 0,
        "dislikes": 0,
        "status": "neutral"
    },
    "content": " \n\nAMSAT NEWS SERVICE\nANS-028\n\nANS is a free, weekly, news and information service of AMSAT North America, \nThe Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation. ANS reports on the activities of a \nworldwide group of Amateur Radio operators who share an active interest in \ndesigning, building, launching and communicating through analog and digital \nAmateur Radio satellites.\n\nPlease send any amateur satellite news or reports to:\n\[email protected]\n\nIn this edition:\n\n* End of PCSAT-1 Full Sun Digipeater Operations\n* OSCAR 11 Request for Reports\n* OSCAR 7 News\n* ARISS Status - January 2007\n* Satellite Shorts From All Over\n* Energizing Young Minds \n\n\nSB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-028.01\nEnd of PCSAT-1 Full Sun Digipeater Operations\n\nAMSAT News Service Bulletin 028.01\n From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.\nJanuary 28, 2007\nTo All RADIO AMATEURS\nBID: $ANS-028.01\n\n\n\nBob Bruninga, WB4APR, writing from the US Naval Academy Satellite\nLab in Annapolis, Maryland reports, \"We've reached the end of \nPCSAT-1 packet digipeater operations from the most rececnt full\nsun period.\"\n\nDuring the 1/19/07 afternoon pass over USA, PCSAT-1 was overloaded \nover the west coast and crashed back to W3ADO-1 at 1850z.  But one\nminute later ground controllers had AOS at the Naval Academy ground \nstation and recovered it to PCSAT-1 and digipeating.  \n\nBut the number of users was just so high, that there was no way\nPCSAT-1's batteries would survive the next eclipse.  So after 8 \nminutes of operations and just prior to LOS, the Naval Academy \nturned off the digipeater and set the MYCALL to NODIGI as a way of \nletting users know the digipeater was off.\n\nThis is probably the end of this PCSAT-1 operating period.  Ground\ncontrollers will see if the NODIGI will hold.  But eclipses still \nget longer and eventually PCSAT-1 will be back to resetting on every \norbit and be practially useless except mid-day sunnyside passes for \na lucky packet or two.\n\nThe next full receovery period will be the second week in March.\n\n[ANS thanks Bob Bruninga, WB4APR at the US Naval Academy Satellite \n Ground Station for the above information]\n\n/EX \n\n\nSB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-028.02\nOSCAR 11 Request for Reports\n\nAMSAT News Service Bulletin 028.02\n From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.\nJanuary 28, 2007\nTo All RADIO AMATEURS\nBID: $BID:U2RPT129.CWV\n\n\n    \nTELEMETRY AND REPORTS WANTED!\n\nTo investigate the date problem mentioned below, I would welcome some\ntelemetry from differents parts of the world, at times when the orbits do\nnot pass over the UK. These times are approximately from 10:00 to 16:00 and\nfrom 19:00 to 04:00 UTC. If you don't have a decoder, I can now accept\nshort WAV files of good audio, duration up to 30 seconds.\n\nI would also like reports of reception around the times of expected beacon\nswitch ON and OFF. No telemetry wanted, just when you listen, and whether\nyou heard, or didn't hear the bird. Please e-mail to the address below.\n\nDuring the period 29 December 2006 to 23 January 2007, the satellite was\nheard from 08 to 18 January. Good steady signals have beeen heard on all\npasses, and excellent copy of the telemetry obtained.\n\nThe on-board clock has maintained accurate time, over the reporting period,\ngaining 2.5 seconds. However the hour counter sometimes shows an error of\nof 10 hours, ie. in its most significent digit. The 'day of the week'\ncounter operates reliably, zero representing Thursday.\n\nThe date counter appears to be incrementing correctly, but the day of the\nmonth is not reset to one, at the end of each month.  Possibly, it resets\nto 41, ie. the unused bit representing 40 permanently stuck at a one. On 17\nJanuary the date was shown as 51 December 2006.  Further investigation is\nrequired to establish exactly how the date connter changes.\n\nIf the satellite's watchdog timer continues to operate normally, the beacon\nshould switch ON around 28/29 January 2007. The satellite is in full sunlight\nat the present time, and will remain in this state until mid-April 2007,\nwhen eclipses start again.\n\nI am indebted to Bob G4VRC and Dean AL7CR for their reports. Reports around\nthe times of the expected beacon switch ON/OFF, are especially useful. Many\nthanks.\n\nThe current status of the satellite, is that all the analogue telemetry\nchannels, 0 to 59 are zero, ie they have failed. The status channels 60 to\n67 were still working. The spacecraft computer and active attitude control\nsystem have switched OFF, ie. the satellite' attitude is controlled only by\nthe passive gravity boom gradient, and the satellite is free to spin at any\nspeed. When telemetry was last received it showed that one of the solar\narrays had failed, and there was a large unexplained current drain on the\nmain 14 volt bus. After 22 years in orbit the battery has undergone around\n100,000 partial charge/discharge cycles, and observations suggest that it\ncannot power the satellite during eclipses, or sometimes during periods of\npoor solar attitude.\n\nThe watchdog timer now operates on a 20 day cycle. The ON/OFF times have\ntended to be very consistent. The average of many observations show this to\nbe 20.7 days, ie. 10.3 days ON followed by 10.4 days OFF. However, poor\nsolar attitude may result may result in a low 14 volt line supply, which\nmay cause the beacon to switch OFF prematurely, and reset the watchdog\ntimer cycle. When this occurs, the beacon is OFF for 20.7 days.\n\nThe Beacon frequencies are -\n\nVHF 145.826 MHz.  AFSK FM  ASCII Telemetry\n\nUHF 435.025 MHz.  OFF\n\nS-band 2401.5 MHz. OFF\n\nListeners to OSCAR-11 may be interested in visiting my website. If you need\nto know what OSCAR-11 should sound like, there is a short audio clip for\nyou to hear. The website contains an archive of news & telemetry data. It\nalso contains details about using a soundcard or hardware demodulators for\ndata capture.  There is software for capturing data, and decoding ASCII\ntelemetry.  The URL is www.users.zetnet.co.uk/clivew/\n\n\n[ANS thanks Clive, G3CWV, for the above information]\n\n/EX\n\nSB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-028.03\nOSCAR 7 News\n\nAMSAT News Service Bulletin 028.03\n From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.\nJanuary 28, 2007\nTo All RADIO AMATEURS\nBID: $ANS-028.03\n\n\n\n\nYesterday afternoon I had the distinct pleasure of working some DX on AO-7 \nmode B from here in subtropical Florida. I caught a 4 degree max pass to the \nnortheast that eventually covered a good bit of northwestern Europe, and had \nthe pleasure to catch G1WPR in IO93 finishing up with K3SZH. Signals were 55 \nwith some QSB on my uplink, probably due to all the energy wasted in heating \nthe neighborhood palm trees. My QTH does not have what anyone could consider \na clear horizon! As I was going LOS I also heard I believe W3JZ working \nG1WPR. At the time the footprint extended across the US from Idaho to \nCentral Florida, and just about all of Canada, so the opportunity to work \nsome satellite DX is there for many.\n\nThe 24 hour timer continues to change modes while the satellite is in \ncontinuous illumination, with the mode change occurring around 1130 UTC. \nEclipses return April 3rd, 2007, and we expect the timer to be interrupted \nnear this date.A good website to check to quickly find out what mode it is \nin can be found at: http://oscar.dcarr.org/ .\n\nGood Luck and enjoy!\n\n[ANS thanks Drew, KO4MA,for the above information]\n\n/EX\n\n\nSB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-028.04\nARISS Status - 26 January 2007\n\nAMSAT News Service Bulletin 028.04\n From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.\nJanuary 28, 2007\nTo All RADIO AMATEURS\nBID: $ANS-028.04\n\n\n\n\nINTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION STATUS REPORT: SS07-04\n\n HOUSTON - This week, the crew aboard the International Space Station \n prepared for an unprecedented series of spacewalks. NASA astronauts \n Mike Lopez-Alegria and Suni Williams are scheduled to begin a \n 6.5-hour spacewalk from the station around 9 a.m. CST on Wednesday, \n Jan. 31. It will be the first of a record four spacewalks planned \n during the next month. \n\n Lopez-Alegria and Williams will conduct other spacewalks on Feb. 4, 8 \n and 22. The first three spacewalks will originate from the station's \n Quest airlock and the astronauts will use U.S. spacesuits. \n Lopez-Alegria and cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin will use Russian \n spacesuits for the last spacewalk and will exit the station from the \n Pirs airlock. \n\n The three U.S. spacewalks will rearrange the station's cooling system, \n bringing online new portions of the system that were activated during \n a shuttle mission in December 2006. The Russian spacewalk will free a \n stuck antenna on the ISS Progress 23 cargo craft docked to the aft \n end of the station, ensuring that craft can safely undock in April. \n\n The crew began the week unloading some of the more than 2.5 tons of \n food, fuel and supplies that were delivered to the station on Jan. 19 \n by the ISS Progress 24 cargo craft, which included fresh produce, \n gifts from home, new clothing, spare parts, oxygen and water. \n\n The crew's attention quickly turned to preparations for the upcoming \n spacewalks. On Monday, the crew began working with the U.S. \n spacesuits. Batteries for the suits were charged, and the suit \n cooling systems were cleaned. \n\n On Tuesday, Lopez-Alegria and Williams trained using an onboard, \n laptop computer-based simulation. The training refreshed their skills \n operating the Simplified Aid for Extravehicular Activity Rescue, or \n SAFER, jetpack that is worn on spacesuits. The backpack allows \n spacewalkers to fly back to the station in the event they become \n separated from the complex. \n\n On Thursday, ground controllers in Houston commanded the station's \n robotic arm to maneuver into the position it will occupy for the \n start of the spacewalk. Aboard the station, the crew reviewed the \n plans for the first spacewalk. \n\n Lopez-Alegria and Williams continued checks of their spacesuits and \n checks of the SAFER backpacks Friday. The SAFER backpacks are \n propelled by compressed nitrogen gas, and, during the checkout, the \n harmless gas was released, depleting the nitrogen in one unit below \n the usable quantity. Two other usable SAFER backpacks remain onboard, \n however, and the loss of the third unit does not affect plans for the \n upcoming spacewalks. \n\n The crew took time during their work on Monday to speak with \n television host Martha Stewart. Crew members also took time to field \n questions by amateur radio from two schools, one in Ottawa, Ontario, \n Canada, and another in Winnebago, Neb. \n\n For more about the crew's activities and station sighting \n opportunities, visit: \n\n http://www.nasa.gov/station \n\n[ANS thanks Arthur, for the above information]\n\n/EX\n\n\n\nSB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-028.05\nSatellite Shorts From All Over\n\nAMSAT News Service Bulletin 028.05\n>From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.\nJanuary 28, 2007\nTo All RADIO AMATEURS\nBID: $ANS-028.05\n\n* Ed Long, WA4SWJ, the Editor of The AMSAT Journal is asking for help\ntranslating a technical article written in German into English.  Ed\nwrote, \"I have a highly interesting technical article for the Journal \non oscillator stability but it is written in German. Unfortunately I \ncannot make the translation and need some help. Is anyone out there \nable to translate German that could help? John Bubbers used to do that \nfor us but he has retired so I need some assistance. It is several \npages long. You'll get credit in the Journal for the translation.\"\n\n* The Tokyo Institute of Technology Cute-1.7+APD team reported this \nweek that the call sign of C0-56 (also known as Cute-1.7 + APD) had to \nbe changed from JQ1YCC (old call sign) to JQ1YPC (new call sign).\nSee:  http://lss.mes.titech.ac.jp/ssp/cute1.7/index_e.html\n\n* AMSAT-NA server manager Paul, KB5MU reported an outage with all \[email protected] mail aliases (including [email protected] addresses) \nbetween 0930z to 1852z on 1/24/07.  Service has been restored and no \nupdates were lost. Messages sent to your mail aliases during the outage \nwill have been bounced back to the sender with a \"User unknown\" error \nmessage. You may see some residual error messages still working their\nway through the worldwide email system, but service at amsat.org should \nbe back to normal now. If you see any ongoing problems with the mail \nalias system, please notify [email protected] and Paul \npromises to investigate.\n\n* Pehuensat's elusive signal was copied in Buenos Aires, Argentina \non 01/21/07 at 21:48 LU (GMT-3). Pehuensat-1 was heard on 145.825 with \na weak but clear signal just above noise by ear, but they unable to \ndecode the AX25 packet beacon. The rig was a FT-736 & omni super turn-\nstile antenna for 2 meters. Engineer Jorge  Lassig, director of the \nPenhuesat Uncoma project informed amateurs that the satellite takes \nbetween 48 and 72 hours to charge its batteries, due to the inadequate \nposition of the nosecone to which it is still attached in reference to \nthe sun.  Once the batteries are recovered, the satellite transmits \nduring several orbits until they discharge again causing the onboard \ncomputer to set the system in safe mode, leaving just the oscillator \non.  Folks at Uncoma are evaluating when the nosecone will change its \nposition in space to improve the battery charging process of Penhuesat.\n\n[ANS thanks everyone for the above information]\n\n/EX\n\n\nSB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-028.06\nEnergizing Young Minds\n\nAMSAT News Service Bulletin 028.06\n>From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.\nJanuary 28, 2007\nTo All RADIO AMATEURS\nBID: $ANS-028.06\n\n\n\n\nNEWINGTON, CT, Jan 24, 2006 -- Eleven electrical engineering students at \nThe College of New Jersey\n<http://www.tcnj.edu/%7Eengsci/> had a hand in designing some of the \nsoftware defined radio (SDR)\nhardware that will fly aboard SuitSat-2. The college seniors signed up \nlast fall for \"Software Defined Radio\n,\" taught by adjunct professors Bob McGwier, N4HY, and Frank Brickle, \nAB2KT -- both members of the\nAmateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS \n<http://www.rac.ca/ariss>) SuitSat-2 team.\n\nThe second SuitSat will have a software designed Amateur Radio \ntransponder (SDX) on board. SuitSat-2\nis being viewed as a test bed for the hardware AMSAT hopes to launch on \nits Phase 3E Eagle\n<http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/eagle/EaglePedia/index.php/Main_Page> \nsatellite.\n\nEarly on, the students studied signal processing and communication \ntheory as well as what Brickle\ncalls \"esoteric corners of computer science.\" Then, using Matlab \n<http://www.mathworks.com/>\n -- a high-level technical computing language -- the students \nimplemented modulators and\ndemodulators for SSB, FM, BPSK and AFSK.\n\n\"Students get a little bit of verbal swimming instruction, and then we \ntoss them straight into the\nocean,\" is how Brickle described the process.\n\nBy mid-semester, the students were designing their experiments and \ngetting them up and running.\nBoards were powered up without diagnostic hardware or software, since \nthat's how the circuitry\nwill be on orbit -- \"walking a tightrope without a net,\" as Brickle sees it.\n\n\"Given the complexity of what the SDR/SDX in SuitSat-2 will be required \nto provide, the applications\n will need to run in an unprecedented software environment: pre-emptive \nmultitasking under\nfreeRTOS,\" he explained. FreeRTOS is an open-source, round-robin \noperating system for\nembedded devices.\n\nInstead of being scared off, the students ran with the challenge and \ndemonstrated obvious enthusiasm,\nBrickle reports. \"We will be doing a very good thing if we continue to \ninvolve these kids, and more like\nthem, in our future AMSAT projects,\" he said. What surprised him most, \nhe added, was that the students\nfocused on taking new approaches to \"very fundamental engineering issues \nthat aren't flashy or trendy.\"\nMcGwier remarked that both students and teachers shared in the excitement.\n\nThe SuitSat-2 team, under the leadership of Lou McFadin, W5DID, has been \nworking on the design of\na power converter for the solar panels, the internal housekeeping unit, \nthe antenna mount, the transmitting\nand receiving hardware and how it will mount atop the suit's helmet. An \nISS crew could launch SuitSat-2\nduring a spacewalk as early as next fall. SuitSat-2 could have an \noperational lifetime of six months or more.\n\n{ANS Thanks ARRL for this article}\n\n/EX\n\nIn addition to regular membership, AMSAT offers membership in the President's \nClub. Members of the President's Club, as sustaining donors to AMSAT Project \nFunds, will be eligible to receive additional benefits. Application forms are \navailable from the AMSAT Office.\n\n73, \nThis week's ANS Editor,\nDee Interdonato, NB2F\nnb2f at amsat dot org\n\n\n\n\n",
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