February 2013 - AMSAT-BB - mailman.amsat.org

STRaND-1 TLE's
by Trevor . 24 Feb '13

24 Feb '13

These provisional TLE's have been released for the launch of STRaND-1 currently planned for on Monday, February 25 at 125 UT. 437.568 MHz. STRaND-1 1 44871U 58056A 13056.56026665 .00000000 00000-0 +10729-3 0 330 2 44871 98.6073 245.8068 0005347 261.8502 98.1779 14.33079817200821 The Surrey Space Centre twitter feed @SpaceAtSurrey #S1Launch #STRaND1 https://twitter.com/SpaceAtSurrey AMSAT-UK - http://www.amsat-uk.org/ 73 Trevor M5AKA

1 0

ANS-055 AMSAT News Service Weekly Bulletins
by Lee McLamb 23 Feb '13

23 Feb '13

AMSAT NEWS SERVICE ANS-055 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: * STRaND-1 Launch Information * AMSAT and Virginia Tech Sign Collaboration Agreement * Upcoming ARISS Contacts * AMSAT-DC Workshop on Portable Satellite Ground Stations * US Airforce Upgrades SpaceTrack Website For Keplarian Orbital Data * Mission to Mars Announcement Expected SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-055.01 ANS-055 AMSAT News Service Weekly Bulletins AMSAT News Service Bulletin 055.01 From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. February 24, 2013 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-055.01 STRaND-1 Launch Information For those following the STRaND-1 launch on Twitter, the official launch hashtag of STRaND-1 spacecraft is #S1Launch. Post lunch we #STRaND1 hashtag will be used. Launch time is 12:25 GMT 25th Feb 2013 and has been cleared by the Launch Authorization Board (LAB) for PSLV - C20 Live video launch feeds for Monday's PSLV launch will be available at http://www.webcast.gov.in/live/ and http://ibnlive.in.com/livetv/ ---- STRaND-1 telemetry format http://www.amsat-uk.org/?page_id=12875 STRaND-1 information http://www.amsat-uk.org/?page_id=12196 [ANS thanks Trever, M5AKA, for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- AMSAT and Virginia Tech Sign Collaboration Agreement Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University ("Virginia Tech") and Radio Amateur Satellite Corp. ("AMSAT") signed a Collaboration Agreement on February 4, 2013 that establishes a relationship for future projects in the development of space hardware, software, algorithms, documentation of same and an agreement to protect each other by protecting ITAR-covered materials and identifying same for the other. The agreement was signed by AMSAT President Barry Baines, WD4ASW and Virginia Tech Assistant Vice President for Sponsored Programs Administration John Rudd. The Agreement establishes a relationship that will allow both organizations to work together on future space mission opportunities as may arise. VT established the Center for Space Science and Engineering (Space@VT) in 2007 and with completion of the new Center for Space Science and Engineering Research Facility in 2012, has facilities for development of space hardware and cubesat development. Programmatic and technical coordination and direction will be coordinated between Dr. Robert W. McGwier ,PhD of Virginia Tech and Anthony Monteiro, AA2TX AMSAT's VP-Engineering. "Establishment of a formal relationship between VT and AMSAT provides the foundation for potential future satellite program opportunities for AMSAT as well as enhances prospects for AMSAT support of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) education outreach" notes AMSAT President Barry Baines, WD4ASW. "Space@VT recognizes the success that AMSAT brings to building successful spacecraft and with the development of Fox-1, to bring reliable hardware in support of scientific payloads as well as enhance prospects for student projects to successfully fly in space. AMSAT benefits from a partner that will help provide justification for funding of spacecraft that supports amateur radio in space," he added. Virginia Tech Professor Bob McGwier, N4HY is looking forward to working with AMSAT on future projects. Bob remarked, "Being able to combine the student space science and engineering programs of Virginia Tech with AMSAT's long history of innovative technical development in spacecraft is a win-win for both parties. I look forward to working with AMSAT on projects that mutually benefit space science, student engineering programs, and the amateur radio community." [ANS thanks AMSAT President Barry Baines, WD4ASW, for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- Upcoming ARISS Contacts An International Space Station school contact has been planned with participants at Soleado Elementary School, Ranchos Palos Verdes, CA on 25 Feb. The event is scheduled to begin at approximately 19:53 UTC. The duration of the contact is approximately 9 minutes and 30 seconds. The contact will be direct between NA1SS and KE6JPM. The contact should be audible over California and portions of the western U.S. Interested parties are invited to listen in on the 145.80 MHz downlink. The contact is expected to be conducted in English. Soleado Elementary School's mission is to educate each and every one of its students to their fullest potential while cultivating a lifelong love of learning. Named for its beautiful location in the hills of Rancho Palos Verdes, our school is proud of its rich cultural background, academic achievement, and involvement in extra-curricular activities. Our mascot, a rosy-cheeked sun, is an exceptionally fitting characterization of our school, which wraps our students in the arms of a caring and supportive community that nurtures development of the whole child. Founded in 1968, even Soleado's physical design embodies community and cooperation, with each core educational building housing five classrooms with one wall "open" to a shared "big room" in the center. The open classroom environment facilitates daily teacher collaboration and student interaction within and among grade levels, while "big rooms" allow for large group activities and foster a positive feeling of family among our students and staff. In addition to our strong sense of community and our open classroom model, another distinguishing characteristic of our school is its cultural and linguistic diversity. With 420 "Soleado Suns" this year in grades DK through 5, our student body encompasses families who come directly from 30 different countries speaking 21 languages. Other upcoming contacts: * 4th Dimotiko Scholeio Chaidariou, Chaidari (near Athens), Greece, direct via J41ISS Thu, 28Feb2013, 09:42 UTC * Talcott Mountain Science Center & Academy, Avon, CT, direct via W1TMS Thu, 28Feb2013 15:53 UTC ARISS is an international educational outreach program partnering the participating space agencies, NASA, Russian Space Agency, ESA, CNES, JAXA, and CSA, with the AMSAT and IARU organizations from participating countries. ARISS offers an opportunity for students to experience the excitement of Amateur Radio by talking directly with crew members on-board the International Space Station. Teachers, parents and communities see, first hand, how Amateur Radio and crew members on ISS can energize youngsters' interest in science, technology, and learning. Further information on the ARISS program is available on the website http://www.ariss.org/ (graciously hosted by the Radio Amateurs of Canada). [ANS thanks David, AA4KN, for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- AMSAT-DC Workshop on Portable Satellite Ground Stations REGISTER NOW for the AMSAT-DC Spring Workshop 2013. Those who wish to attend the "Workshop on Portable Satellite Ground Stations" on Saturday, March 23, must call Martha in advance at AMSAT headquarters at 301-589-6062 to receive a workshop registration number. Your unique registration number is your ticket to get in, starting NET 9:00 A.M. EST. There will be no registration at the door. The suggested donation for advanced registration and admission for non-members is $25. Registration for each AMSAT member who participates in the event and registers in advance is free. "The $25 USD donations collected by Martha will go directly to a worthy cause," says AMSAT Area Coordinator Pat Kilroy, "namely, to the AMSAT Fox Project." In lieu of the $25 suggested donation by non-members, one may apply for AMSAT membership with Martha at the standard rate and then receive a workshop registration number for free. The door to the Visitor Center auditorium at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland (ZIP Code 20771) will open for station set ups no earlier than 9:00 A.M. The program will officially begin at ten and run nearly all day continuously, easily to 4:00 P.M. or beyond. Participants are welcome to bring their own brown bag lunch. Drinks and condiments will be donated by fellow AMSAT members. The workshop program will be informal, with participants given the floor to show their wares and explain their operation. That is, one teaching one another the best practices, tools and techniques of successful satellite contacts. "Our program will be an experiment unto itself to gauge interest and to plan future AMSAT workshops. Feedback is always welcome," says Pat. All participants are encouraged to bring their wares to assemble, show and explain. To volunteer or ask questions contact Pat Kilroy, N8PK, at n8pk(a)amsat.org. [ANS thanks Pat Kilroy, N8PK, for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- US Airforce Upgrades SpaceTrack Website For Keplarian Orbital Data The following is the latest from Vandenburg: ************************************** We are pleased to announce the upgrade of www.Space-Track.org to add the look and functionality that matches what is now on https://beta.space-track.org. The bulk file downloads from our current Space-Track site will continue to be available to scripters for a limited time after the upgrade using established URLs. This upgrade will vastly improve how the Space-Track User community interacts with orbital element sets, the satellite catalog and conjunction data. With a robust Representational State Transfer (REST-ful) Application Programming Interface (API), scripters will be able to get the latest data available, customized for their purposes. Here are just a few of the new features that will become part of the upgraded www.Space-Track.org: - A streamlined and intuitive user interface that is easier to navigate and allows simple searches - A robust help and documentation section - "Favorites" lists to identify logical groupings of catalog objects that Users can monitor via the web interface or with the site's API If you have production scripts that currently use beta.space-track.org, we recommend that you change your scripts to point at www.Space-Track.org on or after 20 February 2013. If you have scripts that screen-scrape or download text/zip files from the current yellow-colored legacy www.Space-Track.org, they will continue to perform correctly for a few months, but we recommend that you quickly transition your scripts to take advantage of the new API. Documentation is available under "Help" to assist you, as well as the API query builder tool on the upgraded site. We have also started sharing information about Space-Track's new features on tumblr, facebook and twitter, so please engage us on your favorite social media platform. Our sites are http://space-track.tumblr.com, http://www.facebook.com/SpaceTrack and http://www.twitter.com/SpaceTrackOrg We understand that any significant upgrade has the potential to cause frustration for our user community and we apologize if this creates any adjustment problems for you. For help or clarification, please email us at admin(a)space-track.org. Thank you, The www.Space-Track.org Team [ANS thanks the Space-Track Team for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- Mission to Mars Announcement Expected Inspiration Mars Foundation, led by the first private space traveler, Dennis Tito, has announced they intend to make a major announcement next Wednesday, February 27th concerning a 501 day mission to Mars. The press release said the news conference next week would be "detailing its plans to take advantage of a unique window of opportunity to launch an historic journey to Mars and back in 501 days, starting in January 2018. This "Mission for America" will generate new knowledge, experience and momentum for the next great era of space exploration. It is intended to encourage all Americans to believe again, in doing the hard things that make our nation great, while inspiring youth through Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education and motivation." With the stated goal of "accelerating America's human exploration of space" one can surmise that the mission is a human mission to Mars. The other people who will take part in the news conference include: - Taber MacCallum, chief executive officer and chief technology officer of Paragon Space Development Corporation and crew member for two-year mission in Biosphere 2 - Dr. Jonathan Clark, associate professor of Neurology and Space Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine and space medicine advisor for the National Space Biomedical Research Institute - Jane Poynter, president and chairwoman of Paragon Space Development Corporation and crew member for two-year mission in Biosphere 2 This kind of expertise in closed ecological life support systems lends credence to a human mission to Mars. [ANS thanks SpaceRef 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 addi- tional benefits. Application forms are available from the AMSAT Office. Primary and secondary school students are eligible for membership at one-half the standard yearly rate. Post-secondary school students enrolled in at least half time status shall be eligible for the stu- dent rate for a maximum of 6 post-secondary years in this status. Contact Martha at the AMSAT Office for additional student membership information. 73, This week's ANS Editor, Lee McLamb, KU4OS ku4os at amsat dot org

1 0

Yaesu FT-726R parts available
by Andrew Glasbrenner 23 Feb '13

23 Feb '13

I have an old 726 that I'm parting out. The band modules are headed for Ebay today, but if anyone needs another part, please let me know. Unfortunately, no satellite board or CTCSS encoder. No guarantees any of it works, but the price will be right. The radio did power up but had low output and issues with the VFO encoder. Email at ko4ma(a)amsat.org please. 73, Drew KO4MA

1 0

current operational amateur satellite lits
by jim＠beeson.cc 23 Feb '13

23 Feb '13

Can anyone direct me to a lits of currently operational amateur satellites? Thanks.

3 2

2.4GHz broadband router on satellite?
by James French 22 Feb '13

22 Feb '13

What are the possibilities of building a satellite that uses a Linksys WRT54GL router with a modified DD-wrt or HSMM-Mesh software as a store and forward BBS, to route a received request from one station to another station, or even to connect to a on board networked camera to receive images? What kind of uplink power would be needed from the home station? How fast could the speed(s) get theoretically? How big would the antenna have to be on the craft and for the ground station to even be able to do this adequately? Would the doppler be too much to even consider this? Would the space environment be too harsh for something like this? This is just something I was thinking about this morning and thought I would toss it out. James W8ISS

5 5

Re: current operational amateur satellite list
by Trevor . 22 Feb '13

22 Feb '13

> Can anyone direct me to a list of currently operational > amateur satellites? See http://www.dk3wn.info/p/?s=active+satellites&x=0&y=0 73 Trevor M5AKA

2 1

STRaND-1 Launch Information
by Trevor . 22 Feb '13

22 Feb '13

>From Twitter https://twitter.com/SpaceAtSurrey Official launch hashtag of STRaND-1 spacecraft is #S1Launch. Post lunch we will be using #STRaND1 hashtag. Launch time:12.25 GMT 25th Feb 2013 #UniOfSurrey #SSTL Launch Authorisation Board (LAB) for PSLV - C20 @STRaND mission has cleared the launch on Monady, Feb 25, 2013. @university of surrey #S1Launch Just been given new / different live video launch feeds for Monday's PSLV launch http://www.webcast.gov.in/live/ and http://ibnlive.in.com/livetv/ Launch time correction - 12.25 [UT] on Monday, not 12.35. Our typo... ---- STRaND-1 telemetry format http://www.amsat-uk.org/?page_id=12875 STRaND-1 information http://www.amsat-uk.org/?page_id=12196 73 Trevor M5AKA

2 2

Re: 2.4GHz broadband router on satellite?
by Andrew Glasbrenner 22 Feb '13

22 Feb '13

Close, but not on 2.4Ghz. We did that on 2m, 70cm, and 33cm. Aeneas was the satellite I was thinking of that had a WiFi-like payload. http://viterbi.usc.edu/news/news/2012/usc-viterbi-s366666.htm 73, Drew KO4MA -----Original Message----- >From: "Mark L. Hammond" <marklhammond(a)gmail.com> >Sent: Feb 22, 2013 11:20 AM >To: "Trevor ." <m5aka(a)yahoo.co.uk> >Cc: amsat-bb <amsat-bb(a)amsat.org> >Subject: [amsat-bb] Re: 2.4GHz broadband router on satellite? > >Maybe Drew KO4MA will reply--but I thought he did some "global >listening" on 2.4GHz with AO-51 (frequency agile receiver). Seems >like he published some plots in The Journal? > >Take home from what I recall--it was very noisy! > >Mark N8MH > >On Fri, Feb 22, 2013 at 10:49 AM, Trevor . <m5aka(a)yahoo.co.uk> wrote: >> Apart from power budget issues and Doppler the real killer will be the very high noise level on 2.4 GHz. >> >> In urban areas you can expected to receive strong WiFi signals across all of 2402-2450 almost regardless of where you beam. >> >> Any signals from a satellite would need to be strong enough to overcome this interference. 5 GHz is likely to suffer a similar problem in a few years as more use is made of that band for WiFi etc. >> >> 73 Trevor M5AKA >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> 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 > > > >-- >Mark L. Hammond [N8MH] >_______________________________________________ >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

1 0

QFHA for SO-50... polarization issue ???
by Ing. Pavel Milanes Costa 22 Feb '13

22 Feb '13

This weekend I tested a Quadrifiliar Helicoidal Antenna for 70cm (LHCP) I designed it by the online calculations of jcoppens on the internet... It is a 1/2 turn and 1 lambda, about 5 meters of elevation with ~25 cm of RG-58U (a section of it is coiled to form a balum) and then ~15 meters of A.H. LDF4-50A down to the shack directly to the radio, of course BNC to N adapter on the antenna and N to PL259 on the radio side... It's at mast top. Results are good... In passes of over 20 degrees (almost the real horizon here) I have a good copy, until... TCA, in which I lost the signal completely... TCA = Time of Closest Approach. In northbound passes (I've not tested it in southbound) it work as I just said... I have been reading and investigating this strange issue and I think it is due to polarization... I had read that SO-50 is linear polarized on 2m AND 70cm with aprox 45 degrees each other... Then Linear to LHCP in the worst case is 3dB loss (half power) but consistent over the entire pass... or have SO-50 some circular/elliptical component in it's signals that renders useless the antenna after TCA? spin maybe? There is any chapter of the book I missed or other variable(s) that I have not taking into account here? Any comment, link or other kinds of help are welcomed.. 73 de CO7WT.

4 5

Pic of STRaND-1 smartphone CubeSat on PSLV-C20 Launcher
by Trevor . 22 Feb '13

22 Feb '13

ISRO have released a picture of STRaND-1 and other CubeSats mounted on the PSLV-C20 rocket. A launch on Feb 25 is currently expected. See http://www.amsat-uk.org/?p=12858 ---- 73 Trevor M5AKA AMSAT-UK http://www.amsat-uk.org/ Join or Renew your AMSAT-UK membership at http://shop.amsat.org.uk/shop/category_7/Membership-of-AMSAT-UK.html ----

1 0