November 2010 - AMSAT-BB - mailman.amsat.org

Keps for OOREOS?
by Mark L. Hammond 21 Nov '10

21 Nov '10

Does anybody have keps for O/OREOS that is in good agreement with hearing the bird? 73, Mark L. Hammond [N8MH]

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keps
by Nick Pugh K5QXJ 21 Nov '10

21 Nov '10

I cannot seem to find the keps for the new sat launched Friday. I have the object numbers but no data Can somebody point me in the right direction. Thanks nick Office 337 593 8700 Cell 337 258 2527 Helping UL become a world Class Engineering and Educational School

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aa5ck Saturday
by ted 21 Nov '10

21 Nov '10

Thanks for the QSOs during my trip to em16. I'll get cards out in a few days and no return cards are necessary. 73...ted...aa5ck

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ANS-325 AMSAT News Service Weekly Bulletins
by JoAnne Maenpaa 21 Nov '10

21 Nov '10

AMSAT NEWS SERVICE ANS-325 ANS is a free, weekly, news and information service of AMSAT North America, The Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation. ANS reports on the activities of a worldwide group of Amateur Radio operators who share an active interest in designing, building, launching and communicating through analog and digital Amateur Radio satellites. Please send any amateur satellite news or reports to: ans-editor(a)amsat.org In this edition: * CubeSat Launch Includes Amateur Radio Missions * AMSAT Rolls Out Web Fund Raising Widgets * FUNCube Comes to Life at Martlesham, First Command & Telemetry Success * WAS-Satellite Certificate Now Accepted as Credit for AMSAT Awards * FO-29 Returns to Service * Satellite Shorts From All Over * CubeSat Winter Session and IAA Conference in Rome, January 24-29 SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-325.01 CubeSat Launch Includes Amateur Radio Missions AMSAT News Service Bulletin 325.01 >From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. November 21, 2010 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-325.01 A Minotaur-4 launch from the Kodiak Launch Complex in Alaska, managed by Alaska Aerospace Corp. on November 19 lifted seven satellites into a 400 mile high circular orbit. Four of the satellites will be of interested to amateur radio operators: + FASTRAC (science and amateur radio mission) + RAX - Radio Aurora eXplorer (science and amateur radio mission) + NanoSail-D + O/OREOS FASTRAC ------- http://fastrac.ae.utexas.edu/for_radio_operators/overview.php Status: Beacon copied and decoded after launch. The FASTRAC mission consists of two satellites built by students at UT-Austin. This mission is divided into two basic phases, both phases relying heavily on the participation of the amateur radio community. The first phase is the science portion of the mission. During this phase the two satellites will be sharing GPS data as long as they are within range of each other. The GPS data will be processed on board each satellite and then stored in flash memory to calculate an on-orbit relative navigation solution. Also, the satellites will be performing attitude determination with the GPS receiver. FASTRAC 1 will be firing the micro-discharge plasma thruster whenever the thrust vector is within 15 degrees of the anti- velocity vector. The data will be relayed to the ground when the sat- ellite is in communication with a ground station. A coordination plan is being developed so that participating amateur radio ground stations can play a major role in collecting this data and relaying it back to the FASTRAC web site. The second phase of the mission begins by reconfiguring the satel- lites for use by the amateur radio community. The capabilities of these satellites are governed largely by the functionality of the Kantronics KPC9612-Plus TNC. The satellites will be reconfigured after the primary mission to serve on the APRS network. FASTRAC 1 "Sara Lily" FASTRAC 2 "Emma" --------------------- ---------------- Downlink 437.345 MHz FM 145.825 MHz FM Beacon 437.345 MHz* 145.825 MHz* Uplink (1200 Baud) 145.980 MHz FM 435.025 MHz FM Uplink (9600 Baud) 145.825 MHz FM 437.345 MHz FM * AX.25 1200 AFSK beacon data format RAX (Radio Aurora eXplorer) --------------------------- http://rax.engin.umich.edu/ Status: Beacon copied and decoded after launch. RAX is a space weather science spacecraft carrying a 9600 baud UHF transceiver that will transmit telemetry in the amateur satellite bands. This mission also consists of a primary scientific experiment with future reconfiguration for amateur radio experimentation. In the science phase the satellite will use a a radar receiver capable of 1 MHz I/Q sampling of select bandwidths between 400-500 MHz, includ- ing the amateur satellite bands. The primary objective of the mission is to use the onboard radar rece- iver in conjunction with a powerful radar station in Alaska to study the formation of a plasma anomaly known for causing the scintillation of radio signals in the UHF and higher bands. This scintillation effect is known to inhibit our space radar tracking capabilities and ground- space communications. The RAX team is looking for amateur ground stations to help acquire RAX's 437.505 MHz beacon during the next few weeks of early launch and continue to help collect telemetry throughout the mission. The amateur radio phase of the mission is still under development. The RAX team will invite the AMSAT community to get involved with submit- ting proposals on how the radar receiver could be used for amateur radio experiments after the primary mission objective is achieved. They will issue a call for proposals which will be posted to the AMSAT-BB in the next few months. NanoSail-D ---------- http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/smallsats/nanosaild.html NanoSail-D is a test of solar sail mechanism technology. The solar sail is designed to operate predominantly as a drag sail and will cause it to de-orbit in less than 100 days as a test of small satellite de-orbiting techniques. The amateur radio beacon will transmit a one-half second data signal every 5 seconds on 437.270 MHz. The satellite will operate primarily on battery power because of the short duration of the mission. O/OREOS ------- http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/smallsats/oreos/main/index.html Status: Beacon copied and decoded after launch. O/OREOS is a biological test spacecraft developed by scientists and engineers at NASA Ames Research Center. O/OREOS is a triple cube spacecraft planned to perform two tests during its 1-year mission. The first experiment will test how microorganisms survive and adapt to the stresses of space; the other will monitor the stability of organic molecules in space. O/OREOS includes an amateur radio beacon operating on 437.305 MHz. This satellite also includes a novel de- orbit mechanism design by a Santa Clara University graduate student. AX.25 437.305 MHz O/OREOS Beacon decoding information: http://beacon.engr.scu.edu/BeaconProcessingSystem/OOREOSBeaconDecoding.pdf If you are able to capture the beacon telemetry, please take the time to file a report at http://beacon.engr.scu.edu/Submission.aspx which is an interface to the Beacon Data Processing System. An overview of the Kodiak launch can be found on-line at: http://www.spaceflightnow.com/minotaur/stps26/101112launchpreps/ Photos of the payloads during integration with the launcher can be found on-line at: http://spaceflightnow.com/minotaur/stps26/101112cleanroom/ [ANS thanks the CubeSat Teams and SpaceFlightNow.com for the above information] /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-325.02 AMSAT Rolls Out Web Fund Raising Widgets AMSAT News Service Bulletin 325.02 >From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. November 21, 2010 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-325.02 AMSAT-VP Operations Drew Glasbrenner, KO4MA announced AMSAT is now using a new web based fund raising tool on Facebook called Fundrazr along with a web widget from PayPal Labs you can add to other web pages. He hopes this will stimulate additional fund raising support for ARISSat-1 and AMSAT-FOX. He is looking for help rolling these web page widgets out to the public. Both are designed to be spread virally and attract donations from those outside the normal AMSAT circles. For those with private webpages or blogs, we have a PayPal widget that can also be added to your own webpages and blogs. It has been added to the front page at http://www.amsat.org . Please consider adding it to your own webpages and blogs in a prominent place. Drew concludes, "I'm proud to announce that the Facebook and PayPal widget campaign has raised $1,000 over the last 48 hours! This is a great first step towards replenishing the funds used in the construc- tion of ARISSat-1, and beginning the design and construction of AMSAT-FOX. Thank you to those who posted the fundraiser to their own pages, and to those who donated." Drew's Facebook page at http://bit.ly/c861N7 now prominently includes the Fundrazr widget that you can share or post. Drew has also added the PayPal Labs widget on his QRZ.com entry, see: http://www.qrz.com/db/KO4MA or http://www.qrz.com/db/K9JKM For the FundRazr app on Facebook, go to Drew's Facebook page and click share. For the PayPal widget on all other web sites, use the "add to site" button. It will prompt you how to do it. It also lets AMSAT see who and where it has been posted, and how much money has been raised from each location. Please let Drew know if you add either of these so he can track results! (e-mail: ko4ma(a)amsat.org) [ANS thanks Drew, KO4MA for the above information] /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-325.03 FUNCube Comes to Life at Martlesham, First Command & Telemetry Success AMSAT News Service Bulletin 325.03 >From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. November 21, 2010 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-325.03 The UK Martlesham Microwavers Round Table weekend also included an AMSAT-UK FUNCube developer meeting. The aim of the working session was to build a `stack' of the various boards which will make up FUNcube and see if they worked! Congratulations are in order to the FUNCube team being able to report success on these milestones: + Prove that we could command the satellite remotely via RF. + Receive and examine the telemetry from the stack remotely using the FUNcube dongle. + Command the antennas to deploy. + Command the satellite to change modes between transponder mode to education mode, and back again. The main 'new' PCBs that arrived were David's PA, Wouter's RF board, and the CCT board from Jason and his team. Photos of the meeting and FUNCube construction and testing videos can be viewed on-line at: http://funcube.org.uk/working-meetings/cubesat-mtg-1314-nov-2010/ A screenshot of the first captured telemetry from FUNCube can be seen on-line at: http://www.funcubedongle.com/?p=195 The Spectravue plot to the right shows the satellite's downlink received using a FUNcube Dongle. To the right hand side of the plot, the solid green `hump' is the telemetry and the signal to the right of that being simultaneous transponded SSB voice traffic. To the bottom left, old hands will recognise the AO-40RCV window being used to decode raw frames. The basic telemetry specification is based heavily on AO-40's FEC model. [ANS thanks the AMSAT-UK FUNCube developers and Howard, G6LVB for the above information] /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-325.04 WAS-Satellite Certificate Now Accepted as Credit for AMSAT Awards AMSAT News Service Bulletin 325.04 >From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. November 21, 2010 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-325.04 AMSAT Director of Contests and Awards Bruce Paige, KK5DO says congratulations are in order for these radio amateurs who earned operating awards this month: The following have entered into the Satellite Communicators Club for making their first satellite QSO: Club Station, SP9PEX Rick Tejera, K7TEJ Merle Olmsted, AA4QE Zachary Beougher, KD8KSN George Heath, KF5IRG Anthony Sirianni, Sr., KD8OEE The following have earned the AMSAT Communications Achievement Award: Ronald Oldham, N8RO #521 Ryan Case, KB9RID #522 Merle Olmsted, AA4QE #523 Zachary Beougher, KD8KSN #524 The following have earned the South Africa AMSAT Communications Achievement Award: Ronald Oldham, N8RO #US152 Bob Herrell, AJ5C #US153 Ryan Case, KB9RID #US154 Merle Olmsted, AA4QE #US155 Zachary Beougher, KD8KSN #US156 The following have earned the AMSAT Sexagesimal Award: Ronald Oldham, N8RO #154 Zachary Beougher, KD8KSN #155 Bob Herrell, AJ5C #156 Terry Moorby, VE3DIJ #157 The following have earned the AMSAT Century Club Award: Nick Kucij, KB1RVT #40 The following have earned the W4AMI 5000 Satellite Communications Achievement award: Zeljko Ulip, 9A2EY #25 Bruce also said that in some cases he can credit holders of the ARRL Worked All States (with the Satellite endorsement) toward appropriate AMSAT Satellite Operating Awards. He will accept a scanned copy of your Worked All States-Satellite certificate as proof of 50 of the 60 con- tacts to fill in the missing states for the AMSAT Sexagesimal Award or to qualify for the AMSAT Communication Achievement Award. Contact Bruce via e-mail (kk5do(a)amsat.org) with your specific details to see if you qualify. Unfortunately, the ARRL W.A.S. certificate cannot be used towards the South Africa AMSAT Award. As all contacts for this award must be done on LEO satellites, there is no way to determine if LEO or HEO was used on the certificate. Full information on all of the AMSAT Satellite Operating Awards can be found on-line at: http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/awards/ [ANS thanks Bruce Paige, KK5DO for the above information] /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-325.05 FO-29 Returns to Service AMSAT News Service Bulletin 325.05 >From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. November 21, 2010 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-325.05 Mineo Wakita, JE9PEL reported that the FO-29 Command Team succeeded in bringing FO-29 back in service on 07:46UTC, 16 Nov 2010. Good signals have been reported. Rick, WA4NVM reported, "I caught Kerry, WC7V with a booming signal at 2 degrees elevation. Its nice to hear this bird again!" Two weeks ago, Yutaka Murata, JA1COU reported that the JARL FO-29 command team hypothesized that recent shutdowns of the satellite may have been caused when the temperature aboard FO-29 became too high to allow continuous operations and to accept commands or any other satellite operations. The FO-29 command team expected that the temperature aboard FO-29 would drop as the length of eclipse increases: Eclipse of FO-29 is: November 1 0% (full illumination) November 20 14% November 30 17% [ANS thanks Mineo Wakita, JE9PEL and Yutaka Murata, JA1COU for the above information] /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-325.06 Satellite Shorts From All Over AMSAT News Service Bulletin 325.06 >From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. November 21, 2010 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-325.06 + An article and accompanying video on the SouthGate Site shows how terrestrial operation can impact satellite operations when the operators unwisely choose their frequency: http://tinyurl.com/24r4bdx (SouthGate) + Congratulations to Loren, K7CWQ on being awarded Satellite WAS #323 from the ARRL. His first contact was on 11-6-2009 with K8YSE. All of his contacts have been with an HT and an Arrow antenna from his driveway. + NASA and the National Institute of Aerospace have launched a new planetary rover engineering competition called Exploration Robo-Ops Student Challenge. University teams are eligible to win as much as $10,000 for designing and building a planetary rover. Teams are required to submit a project plan proposal by Dec. 15. More info can be found at SpaceDaily.com http://tinyurl.com/28nsglr + Tom, W5KUB was on Memphis, TN Channel 5 news with his amateur radio contact with the ISS. Video at http://tmedlin.com/iss.wmv + ReadySat Go is a store-and-forward CubeSat being developed by students at San Jose State University. They have posted a video showing construction of the satellite on the SouthGate site: http://tinyurl.com/274f7wq + NASA's Eyes on the Solar System is a browser application that gives you a 3D environment operating in real time, so you can virtually tag along with our robot spacecraft. More information and the stuff you need to download can be found at: http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/eyes/ + Check out the Ten Years Of the ISS in Pictures feature on-line at UniverseToday.com ... http://tinyurl.com/27nglfh + The Daily Mail had a feature showing astronaut Tracy Caldwell Dyson and the views from the ISS Cupola: http://tinyurl.com/38eryox [ANS thanks everyone for the above information] /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-325.07 CubeSat Winter Session and IAA Conference in Rome, January 24-29 AMSAT News Service Bulletin 325.07 >From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. November 21, 2010 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-325.07 The 1st IAA Conference on University Satellites Missions and Cubesat Conference which will be held in Rome, Italy on January 24-29, 2011. Submissions are due by December 18, 2010. Early registration begins on January 10, 2011. The conference is organized by a team of professors, students and researchers from the School of Aerospace Engineering of Sapienza University of Roma (GAUSS - Gruppo di Astrodinamica dell'Università degli Studi Sapienza - Group of Astrodynamics of Sapienza University) The Conference is supported by several authorities including: + The International Academy of Astronautics (IAA) + The European Space Agency (ESA) + Kosmotras) + The Von Karman Institute (VKI) + The Centro Ricerche Progetto San Marco + Sapienza Università di Roma + Morehead State University Two days of the Conference will be entirely dedicated to the Winter Session of the Cubesat Workshop, for the first time in Europe. More information can be found at: http://www.gaussteam.com under the section 'events'. An e-mail contact for the conference is: gauss.group(a)gmail.com [ANS thanks Group of Astrodynamics, Sapienza University of Roma for the above information] /EX In addition to regular membership, AMSAT offers membership in the President's Club. Members of the President's Club, as sustaining donors to AMSAT Project Funds, will be eligible to receive additional benefits. Application forms are available from the AMSAT Office. And, with that please keep in mind the young ham expressing his frustration of his radio battery dying so his therapist recommended that he find an outlet. 73, This week's ANS Editor, JoAnne Maenpaa, K9JKM K9JKM at amsat dot org

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AO-51 Mode L/S Mobile (thanks, guys)
by K5OE 21 Nov '10

21 Nov '10

Working satellites has always been a blast, especially when pushing the envelope in either technology, skill, or simply practicality. I was eager to work mode L/S mobile, not having worked that mode since I was in Darwin, NT (VK8OE, 1995)... and then I had a small dish and a TS-2000 in my SUV. It was easy, as I had full duplex, but there was nobody to talk to since the bird was mostly over the Indian Ocean! Now 5 years later and I am back in South Texas and missing that thrill from a "you can't do that" challenge. In my truck I have an FT-100. This rig worked mode V/S easily this past summer when I was visiting the US (I was P29OE then). The 2.4 gHz downlink was with an old 10-turn helix (my very first mode-S antenna, used to listen to Oscar-11), a TSI 3731 downconverter to 2 m and a Hamtronics 10 m downconverter. This arrangement allowed me to use the 2 m uplink from the FT-100, albeit in split mode (not full duplex). This mode was loud and easy. N5UXT, Angelo, was my first V/S contact, followed by N5AFV, Allen. Mode L/S required a little more hardware. I used an old MML trippler (varacter diode) I bought on ebay in the 90's for about $20. My uplink on 422.902 with about 10 W out didn't work well yesterday into my 2m/70cm vertical, so today I changed it out for a old (everything I have is old) home brew dual-band patch feed leftover from an AO-40 antenna (that same 18" DSS dish I took to Australia). Even though the downlink and uplink are both LHCP, they worked well enough on today's western pass of 20 degrees (from EL29) to make contact with K4YYL, AK5V, and N5UXT (again!). Thanks, guys. I know I was off frequency as I was guessing at the uplink frequency based on the downlink Doppler, dividing it in half then dividing that by 3... and all the while changing and hanging my arm out the truck window with a handful of gear! I appreciate you guys coming back to me. It's good to be home in Texas, it's good to work a satellite, and it's great to have such a frequncy agile bird to play with! I can't wait to get the shack set up this winter (the ARRL 10 m contest is just around the corner). 73, Jerry, K5OE

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Looking for a HAWAII contact
by ke4kol＠bellsouth.net 21 Nov '10

21 Nov '10

I am close to making contacts with all states. I only lack a few. But Hawaii is really going to be tough. Is there an active satellite operator in Hawaii that would like to work with me to make a contact. If so, contact me off line. Thanks, Jim KE4KOL

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HAMCON 2011 - ARRL SW Division
by Clint Bradford 20 Nov '10

20 Nov '10

I just received the sign-up info for an AMSAT table at the September 9-11, 2011, ARRL SW Division Convention in Torrance, CA. I'll be presenting and demo'ing ... and need fellow AMSATers to man the table and sign up some new AMSAT members! SO ... Are you interested? I know it's a little early. But I want to get us the best table location we can. There will be AC available if you want to bring your laptop. Please let me know via private email if you can help out! I will purchase an ad in the conference program for AMSAT. Clint Bradford, K6LCS clint(a)clintbradford.com 909-241-7666

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Successful Grid Expediton to DM16/16
by Mike and Paula Herr 20 Nov '10

20 Nov '10

We had a very successful grid expedition to DM16 and DM 17 in Death Valley. A total of 55 QSOs were made, 38 fro DM 16 and 17 from DM 17. This was my first Grid Expedition and I can see how it can be addictive. Others far more experienced than I like WD9EWK, K8YSE and others can certainly add their lessons learned but here were mine: - Using the Pelican case to hold the irgs in the ready position worked very well. Just pop them open and go. - Death Valley is deep. I loss the first 10 degrees at the horizon. - FO29 became available during the trip, but I hadn't brought along pass info for it. - The SLAB (Sealed Lead Acid Battery) worked well, but needed recharging by the third day. - Einstein said something to the effect the Time is what keeps everything happening at the same time. I found this to be incorrect. At the same time for a satellite pass the cookies were ready in the solar oven, workers fired up a chain saw to work on a near by salt ceder, and someone was backing in his diesel belching land yacht (motor home) into the spot next to us. I'm preparing the QSL cards. If you worked me and need DM17 or 16, just dropped me a card to my QRZ address. 73 Mike WA6ARA OBTW - looking to repeat at least part of this in February.

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New sat's experiences ?
by PA3GUO 20 Nov '10

20 Nov '10

Just to cheer up others with poor results - you're not alone :-) FASTRAC downlink at 145.825: ISS + other QRM and clearly my 9k6 is not sensitive. Quite a few packets heard, nothing decoded. Here I (my station) clearly failed. FASTRAC & O/OREOS downlink at 437: lot of QRM (50Hz humm, 50 KHz wide at 437.320) O/OREOS: Yes I did hear it, 4 second packet period interfal, but I could not decode. Others (eg DK3WN) have better results. Seems 4 KHz above official freq, all the time, so I assume its not due to the keplerset (else that would not be 4 khz all the time ?) Your experiences ? Mike: what does your SDR analysis say wrt the frequency ? O/OREOS keplerset: accepted by HRD (go to keplers, click add file (next to the list of URLs and upload the keplerset manually. But: I suspect it to be invalid, some programs do not accept the O/OREOS keplerset, HRD only accepted after I turned off the checksum check. Anyway lot of new signals to hunt for. (and 145.825 will become VERY busy) Looking forward to hear you results ! - Henk, PA3GUO (after a VERY short night)

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Re: Please help us Track the FASTRAC satellites once they are launched Nov. 19th!!
by Tee Dubb 20 Nov '10

20 Nov '10

Oops. Attached the file this time. ----- Original Message ---- From: Tee Dubb <tdub20120(a)yahoo.com> To: Sebastian Muñoz <smunoztoro(a)gmail.com>; lightsey(a)mail.utexas.edu; Amsat-BB <amsat-bb(a)amsat.org> Sent: Sat, November 20, 2010 11:28:35 AM Subject: Re: [amsat-bb] Re: Please help us Track the FASTRAC satellites once they are launched Nov. 19th!! Thanks to Alan Biddle and Davind Barber for TLE files! The attached one ingested into HRD for me, no in-views yet, so can not yet report successful downlink. Thanks, Tom KJ4EAW ----- Original Message ---- From: Tee Dubb <tdub20120(a)yahoo.com> To: Andrew Glasbrenner <glasbrenner(a)mindspring.com>; Sebastian Muñoz <smunoztoro(a)gmail.com>; lightsey(a)mail.utexas.edu; Amsat-BB <amsat-bb(a)amsat.org> Sent: Sat, November 20, 2010 9:26:45 AM Subject: [amsat-bb] Re: Please help us Track the FASTRAC satellites once they are launched Nov. 19th!! Guys: I apologize if I'm replying incorrectly to the board - I have only read up until now. I will gladly respond to suggestions. I attempted to take the sep vector posted on the web (http://fastrac.ae.utexas.edu/for_radio_operators/users/phpBB3/predictedorbi…) and turn it into a text file for use in HRD Sat Tracker, but had no immediate joy. Before I fool around for a couple hours trying to get something to work, has anyone else plugged the TLEs into HRD Sat Tracker, or is there an online resource? I see Bruninga's reference to SATPC, but I do not have that installed on this PC. I look forward to at least finding a dang beacon - decoding AFSK will be a challenge as I do not routinely attempt such things. I'll take an ELK log periodic and aim it when I get tracking sw working. I'll be listening with a Yaesu FT897. Thanks for the help, and congrats to all on a great launch. I guess it's Minotaur/Kodiak 1, and NRO/NASA/KSC 0 as far as recent launch attempts. Tom KJ4EAW ----- Original Message ---- From: Andrew Glasbrenner <glasbrenner(a)mindspring.com> To: Sebastian Muñoz <smunoztoro(a)gmail.com>; lightsey(a)mail.utexas.edu; Amsat-BB <amsat-bb(a)amsat.org> Sent: Mon, November 15, 2010 9:24:52 PM Subject: [amsat-bb] Re: Please help us Track the FASTRAC satellites once they are launched Nov. 19th!! Congratulations on making it to this point. The next week I'm sure will be full of anticipation waiting for that rocket to lift off! One of the things I think is so great about your project, from what I have read and been told, is that you've incorporated a secondary amateur two-way digipeater capability into your satellites. As I understand it, you plan to operate this after your primary mission is completed? It might be a great motivation to the AMSAT folks on amsat-bb to hear some details of this planned operation, as I'm sure others like myself are particularly interested in helping out student satellites that give back to the community. With so many new student satellites, it's rare to see one that may eventually be open for everyone to use, and that is to be commended and rewarded with support. So, if you don't mind, let the folks at amsat-bb(a)amsat.org know what your plans are in this regard. On a separate note, I've started and entry on the AMSAT-NA satellite status pages for FASTRAC-1 and -2 (http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/satellites/futures.php), and hope to fill in the details over the next few days. Please, once your satellites reach orbit and operate, apply for an OSCAR number from AMSAT-NA and join the fleet of amateur radio satellites (http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/satellites/futures.php). I'll also ask that your Keplerian elements get included in the AMSAT distribution list. Please let me know if there is anything else the amateur community can do to help. 73, and good luck, Drew KO4MA AMSAT-NA VP Operations _______________________________________________ Sent via AMSAT-BB(a)amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb _______________________________________________ Sent via AMSAT-BB(a)amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb

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