- AMSAT-BB - mailman.amsat.org

Re: AO-51 Tracking Widget
by Clint Bradford 18 May '11

18 May '11

>> where to get N2YO widget??? Donate a little money to N2YO via Paypal, and then ask him for a copy. Clint Bradford. K6LCS clintbradford(a)mac.com

1 0

Re: What is the status of AO-51 again?
by Andrew Glasbrenner 18 May '11

18 May '11

>I do (did), but that page is not very helpful regarding an individual pass? > >"The uplink is 145.880, and the downlink is 435.150. We are working on >trying to automate this." > >So I am on 435.150 but the last couple of passes have been silent over >FN20. Can others confirm? > This is the important part: "At this time the command team is turning the repeater on and off during some US passes, mainly in the afternoon, and only as available. The repeater is open to all when this happens." It's only going to be on when a command station is around and available to do it, until we get the process automated. I haven't had the chance to turn it on since Sunday afternoon. 73, Drew KO4MA AMSAT-NA VP Operations

2 1

Live wed cast
by wa4hfn＠comcast.net 18 May '11

18 May '11

http://w5kub.com/ Log in and watch WA4HFN

1 0

What is the status of AO-51 again?
by Alexander Sack 18 May '11

18 May '11

Hello: I read the status page and the news page and it has me a bit confused. At some point the AO-51 was working for me (as of last week). But the last three passes I have heard nothing. Is the DL still 435.150Mhz? I just want to confirm either a) I am looking at the wrong status page or b) AO-51 is down for now. 73 -aps

2 3

30th Anniversary of GB1MIR operation
by Trevor . 18 May '11

18 May '11

Helen Sharman GB1MIR became the United Kingdom's first astronaut when she blasted off from Baikonur in Kazakhstan at 1250 GMT on May 18, 1991 on her way to the MIR space station from where she operated GB1MIR. A video of her space flight can be seen at http://www.southgatearc.org/news/may2011/helen_sharman.htm 73 Trevor M5AKA Daily Amateur Radio Email/RSS News: http://www.southgatearc.org/ Email Your News To: editor at southgatearc.org Or Upload At: http://www.southgatearc.org/news/your_news_1.htm ----

2 1

Endeavor Arrives
by Clint Bradford 18 May '11

18 May '11

That was incredible ... Endeavor just safely arrived at the ISS. Clint ---------------------------------- Clint Bradford, K6LCS http://www.clintbradford.com

1 0

Re: 20th Anniversary of GB1MIR operation
by Trevor . 18 May '11

18 May '11

Last email should of course have said 20th not 30th anniversary !!!!! > Helen Sharman GB1MIR became the United Kingdom's first astronaut > when she blasted off from Baikonur in Kazakhstan at 1250 GMT on > May 18, 1991 on her way to the MIR space station from where she > operated GB1MIR. A video of her space flight can be seen at > > http://www.southgatearc.org/news/may2011/helen_sharman.htm > > 73 Trevor M5AKA > Daily Amateur Radio Email/RSS News: http://www.southgatearc.org/ > Email Your News To: editor at southgatearc.org > Or Upload At: http://www.southgatearc.org/news/your_news_1.htm > ----

1 0

Re: My First Satellite Contacts
by Bob- W7LRD 17 May '11

17 May '11

I hear that comment about the linear satellites, "costing a lot". For years I ran a couple of single band all mode transceivers. Probably 20 years old and you have to adjust for doppler correction with that big knob. However they work quite well and can be had for the cost of a "bell and whistle" hand held. Hamfests, ebay they're all over the place. 73 Bob W7LRD Seattle ----- Original Message ----- From: "Rick Tejera" <saguaroastro(a)cox.net> To: "Ben Napper" <ben.napper(a)gmail.com>, amsat-bb(a)amsat.org Sent: Tuesday, May 17, 2011 9:19:09 PM Subject: [amsat-bb] Re: My First Satellite Contacts Ben, Congratulations and welcome to the kool-aid. You never forget your first satellite contact, mine was W6AJP 21 July @ 0100UT on AO-51. Your comments are spot on. What's the saying? We have two ears so we should listen twice as much as we talk. Like you, I'd love to get on the linear birds, but it's just not financially feasible right now. Someday.... I use both HRD and N3FPJ's Contact log. I also keep a paper log as well and Just recently set up for LotW. HRD is free and N3FPJ does ask for a $19 registration fee, But I tend to lean that way, $19 is not a big expense in my book and I like the way it work better. Hat being said I upload to LotW from HRD, because I've figured that part out first :). Try 'em both (N3FPJ has a 45 day free demo period) and go with what works best for you. Go here for information about LotW and Satellite logging: http://www.arrl.org/files/file/LoTW%2520Instructions/N5JB.pdf Again Welcome to the birds. Hope to work you soon. 73 Clear Skies Rick Tejera Saguaro Astronomy Club Phoenix, Arizona www.saguaroastro.org saguaroastro(a)cox.net K7TEJ, AMSAT 38452 -----Original Message----- From: amsat-bb-bounces(a)amsat.org [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Ben Napper Sent: Tuesday, May 17, 2011 14:32 To: amsat-bb(a)amsat.org Subject: [amsat-bb] My First Satellite Contacts Wow! I've been grinning ear-to-ear for a little while now that I have my first satellite contacts completed. I find it astonishing that a hobby as mundane sounding as Amateur Radio can have any aspect of it that is as exhilarating as this experience has been. From the day I got my Tech ticket, I've wanted to work the birds, but, being a younger ham, life takes its turns. Thank you to my #1 - K8YSE, #2 - AC0RA, #3 - W7JPI, #4 - WA4NV, and #5 - K8TL. That said, I've learned a few things while lurking on here and the satellites. - Be patient. There's a lot of hams and only a few FM birds. (I'd love to get into the linear birds too, but I'd need congressional approval from the wife for the budgetary consideration required to make that a reality.) - Don't try to transmit on the bird's downlink frequency. No matter how hard you try, you will be doing a lot of talking to yourself. - Clean up the dog poo in the backyard. Now, some questions: I want to use Ham Radio Deluxe as my log (unless I hear of something that is much better) and I'm setup for LotW. How often should I upload to LotW? Are there any gotchas with logging satellite contacts? Best practices? Also, I want to (eventually) do paper QSL cards. If you do them, how do you usually handle them? Who do you recommend to use to get them made? Thanks, Ben Napper - KC0PCQ _______________________________________________ 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

3 2

Re: IARU-R1 to Discuss Problem of D-STAR Repeaters in Sat Band
by Lee Maisel 17 May '11

17 May '11

As far as I can tell, D-Star is counter to the whole Amateur radio philosophy. I havent really wanted to have anything to do with it, and after hearing this, I'm even more convinced.

1 0

CDE AR22R
by Howard Kowall 17 May '11

17 May '11

Hope this is ok to post but I have seen rotor talk on here before I just picked up an old CDE AR22R rotor and controller It is missing the choke for the pulse switch from the rotor to the controller anybody ever have to replace one of these or know the value ?? In the drawing it is labeled CH and part #A52 50426-00 and I cant find anything on it Thanks in advance to all that read and reply Howard VE4ISP

1 0

AMSAT-NA Board of Directors Nominations Due by June 15th
by Alan P. Biddle 17 May '11

17 May '11

It is time to submit nominations for the upcoming open seats on the AMSAT-NA Board of Directors. The deadline is June 15th. A valid nomination requires either one Member Society, or five current individual members in good standing, to nominate an AMSAT member for the position. Four director's terms expire this year: Barry Baines, WD4ASW Alan Biddle, WA4SCA Drew Glasbrenner, KO4MA Tony Monteiro, AA2TX The four candidates receiving the highest number of votes will be seated as full Board members for two year terms. The two candidates receiving the next highest number of votes will be seated as alternate Board members for one year terms. Beginning this year, in addition to traditional submissions of written nominations which remains unchanged and is the preferred method, initial nominations may be made by electronic means. These include e-mail, FAX, or electronic image of a petition. Electronic petitions should be sent to MARTHA(a)AMSAT.ORG or faxed to 301-608-3410. Written nominations, consisting of names, calls, and individual signatures, should be mailed to: AMSAT-NA 850 Sligo Ave #600 Silver Spring, MD, 20910 No matter what method is used, petitions MUST arrive no later than June 15th at the AMSAT-NA office. If the nomination is a traditional written nomination, no other action is required. If it is other than this, i.e. electronic, a verifying traditional written petition MUST be received at the AMSAT-NA office at the above address within 7 days following the close of nominations on June 15th. ELECTRONIC SUBMISSIONS WITHOUT THIS SECOND, WRITTEN VERIFICATION ARE NOT VALID UNDER THE EXISTING AMSAT-NA BYLAWS. Alan Biddle WA4SCA AMSAT Corporate Secretary

1 0

Thursday Dayton Airport at noon
by Gould Smith 17 May '11

17 May '11

We will be picking up people Thursday 19 May around noon at the Dayton airport. Anyone wishing a ride to Hara (to work) and later to the hotel, let me know ASAP. 73, Gould

1 0

Dayton Frequency?
by KM9U 17 May '11

17 May '11

I plan to attend Dayton this year (first time since 1981) and would like to meet some of those that I've contacts with on the satellites. I was wondering if there might be an "agreed on" 2m or 70cm frequency (other than the normal simplex frequencies) that has been established for our "group"? Hope to see many of you in Dayton! 73, Chuck, KM9U

3 4

Endeavour Lifts Off
by B J 17 May '11

17 May '11

A nice launch this morning and the external tank's just been jettisoned. 73s Bernhard VA6BMJ @ DO33FL

2 1

SA 14.099 MHz CubeSat IARU-R1 Paper
by Trevor . 17 May '11

17 May '11

A paper is being submitted to the IARU-R1 conference on the South African CubeSat that will carry an HF beacon on 14.099 MHz. Read the paper - SC11_C4_26 I SARL CubeSat to carry 14 MHz beacon.pdf - in the C4 (HF) Papers that can be downloaded from: http://www.iaru-r1.org/index.php?option=com_remository&Itemid=173&func=sele… 73 Trevor M5AKA

1 0

IARU-R1 to Discuss Problem of D-STAR Repeaters in Sat Band
by Trevor . 17 May '11

17 May '11

The IARU Region 1 Conference takes place in Sun City, South Africa in August. The papers to be discussed at the conference are now available. Among the papers is SC11_C5_16 OEVSV D-Star in Italy using SAT-Band Download the Sun City IARU General Conference papers from http://www.iaru-r1.org/index.php?option=com_remository&Itemid=173&func=sele… International Amateur Radio Union Region 1 Tri-annual conference hosted by the South African Radio League Sun City 12 - 19 August 2011 http://www.iaru2011.org.za/ 73 Trevor M5AKA

1 0

satellite VUCC #210!
by Patrick STODDARD (WD9EWK/VA7EWK) 16 May '11

16 May '11

Hi! After I resubmitted my satellite VUCC application last Tuesday (10th) through the Logbook of the World, things seem to be working so much better. That application was approved the day after I submitted it (Wednesday, 11 May). Then the VUCC certificate and pin were mailed from ARRL on Thursday according to the postmark on the cardboard mailing tube, and it was in my mailbox today. Now this is how the electronic VUCC application process should work. Again, thanks to those who have submitted their logs to the LOTW system. I'm now at 114 confirmed via LOTW, as one more grid was confirmed in the past few days since my application was processed. I'm happy that ARRL was able to process this application in a way much more timely than my original VUCC application back in February. I think there are still some bugs in the process of moving VUCC into the LOTW system, and maybe some will be able to talk with the ARRL folks at Dayton later this week about that. The document that John K8YSE referenced earlier today about the discrepancy between VUCC and DXCC application fees is an interesting read. It shows what I (and others) have felt about the VUCC fee structure. This, too, is something that should be brought up to the ARRL at Dayton. This has already had an effect on whether hams will apply for - or get endorsements for - VUCC awards. For those going to Dayton, have a great time! 73! Patrick WD9EWK/VA7EWK http://www.wd9ewk.net/

3 2

Re: Dayton Frequency?
by Dave Taylor 16 May '11

16 May '11

Don't overlook the various events described on the AMSAT web site. The Thursday night gathering and Friday banquet are particularly good times to meet and hob-nob with your fellow satellite users. -- Dave, W8AAS On May 16, 2011, at 8:36 PM, KM9U wrote: > Well, its beginning to sound like I'd be better off using a cell > phone...so sad. My number is area code 3 one seven, 5 zero fore, > fife six four too > > KM9U > . > ----- Original Message ----- From: "Dave Taylor" <dave.w8aas(a)verizon.net > > > To: "AMSAT BB" <amsat-bb(a)amsat.org> > Sent: Monday, May 16, 2011 20:14 > Subject: [amsat-bb] Re: Dayton Frequency? > > >> Those repeaters have been suggested by AMSAT in the past because they >> are close to the Fairborn hotel where AMSAT has its room block and >> because the repeater owners have welcomed us. >> >> Setting the record straight, however, they do not belong to DARA; >> they >> are run by the Upper Valley ARC. >> >> -- Dave, W8AAS >> (looking forward to being home in Dayton again) >> >> >> On May 16, 2011, at 6:15 PM, Alan P. Biddle wrote: >> >>> Chuck, >>> >>> Nominally, there are a couple of DARA repeaters which are suggested >>> for >>> AMSAT: >>> >>> 145.410 MHz -600 KHz 118.8 Hz Pl >>> 442.375 MHz +5 MHz 118.8 HZ Pl >>> >>> I monitor them when driving around, but don't hear much AMSAT- >>> specific >>> traffic. Friendly folks though! Inside the arena, I don't even >>> try, due to >>> the intermod and general din. >>> >>> >>> 73s, >>> >>> Alan >>> WA4SCA >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> -----Original Message----- >>> From: amsat-bb-bounces(a)amsat.org [mailto:[email protected]] >>> On >>> Behalf Of KM9U >>> Sent: Monday, May 16, 2011 4:48 PM >>> To: amsat-bb(a)amsat.org >>> Subject: [amsat-bb] Dayton Frequency? >>> >>> I plan to attend Dayton this year (first time since 1981) and would >>> like to >>> meet some of those that I've contacts with on the satellites. >>> I was wondering if there might be an "agreed on" 2m or 70cm >>> frequency >>> (other than the normal simplex frequencies) that has been >>> established for >>> our "group"? >>> >>> Hope to see many of you in Dayton! >>> 73, >>> Chuck, KM9U >>> >>> >

2 1

revised VUCC fees; comparison updated
by John Papay 16 May '11

16 May '11

Chris, KC0YBM, discovered that the new VUCC application form dated "May2011" has some reduced fees on it. I have revised my one page comparison accordingly. It can be downloaded at: http://www.papays.com/vuccfees052011.pdf The major concern is the initial application for VUCC compared to DXCC. If you submit 120 cards for your initial VUCC award, you'll pay $35.00. If you submit 120 cards for your initial DXCC award, you will pay only $12.00! This certainly discourages participation in the VUCC program from those just starting out. Note that once again fees were changed without any fanfare. You just download the application and see what they are. Considering all of the email we get from the ARRL, you would think that the new fees would be announced via that venue. Just another point to discuss with the ARRL. Please print some copies of the new version and take them with you to Dayton. It will help put pressure on the situation. 73, John K8YSE

1 0

Re: Satellites Over US West Coast
by Paul Delaney - K6HR 16 May '11

16 May '11

OK now I'm getting somewhere! My SatPC32 predictions DO NOT match the info on the AMSAT link below! My location appears to be entered correctly into the tracking program, the PC clock is correct and the keps are updated against the 'nasa.all' source. AMSAT shows next FO-29 pass as 22:41:15 - 23:01:29 My SatPC32 shows FO-29 pass as 22:24:00 - 22:33:00 No wonder I don't hear anything! Now...what could be wrong in my SatPC32 setup to cause this? Paul Delaney - K6HR paul.hamradio(a)verizon.net http://k6hr.dyndns.org:8080 Can you hear the beacon on FO-29? You also might have to adjust the uplink frequency in he CAT menu in SatPC32 to find your signal. Do your SatPC32 predictions match the ones from the AMSAT online prediction? http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/tools/predict/ i'd be happy to be on one of the passes to listen for you or transmit. 73, Andreas, N6NU

4 3

Re: Fm satellite Frequencies and Doppler
by Clint Bradford 16 May '11

16 May '11

Here is ONE site that has 'bout everything you need to know to work the current FM birds ... http://www.work-sat.com Clint, K6LCS >> ... Would someone be kind enough to give me a list of frequencies with doppler correction for the Fm birds. I have Ao51 but not heard for a while . Its for easy programming into my Ht.

6 10

IHU
by Clint Bradford 16 May '11

16 May '11

Excuse my ignorance (just consider the source, guys ... ) but what is the "IHU" that's onboard AO-51? -Internal Heating Unit? -Receiver section (I Hear U?) -Temp sensor (It's Hot Underneath) DREW>> ... the IHU crashes each eclipse ... Clint Bradford clintbradford(a)mac.com

4 3

Re: Fm satellite Frequencies and Doppler
by Jeremy Bomkamp 16 May '11

16 May '11

It should be on for every ascending pass about the time it crosses 28-30 degrees north latitude. There is a program here that will allow you to see when AO-27 is in analogue repeater mode: http://sites.google.com/site/ao27satellitescheduler/

1 0

Satellites Over US West Coast
by Paul Delaney - K6HR 16 May '11

16 May '11

Hello, I have been listening during satellite passes for weeks now, and hear nothing. I am in DM03. Has anyone in the Southern California area heard or worked a satellite in the past two or three weeks? Paul Delaney - K6HR paul.hamradio(a)verizon.net http://k6hr.dyndns.org:8080

5 5

Digi @ Dayton?
by Zachary Beougher 16 May '11

16 May '11

Hi All, Does anyone know if anyone sets up a digipeater at Dayton, or do we rely on the local digi’s? 73, Zack KD8KSN

3 6

Fm satellite Frequencies and Doppler
by mm0kjg 16 May '11

16 May '11

Hello there. Would someone be kind enough to give me a list of frequencies with doppler correction for the Fm birds. I have Ao51 but not heard for a while . Its for easy programming into my Ht. Cheers Kev De MM0KJG 73's

2 1

Re: IHU
by Clint Bradford 16 May '11

16 May '11

YABDM - "Yet Another Bradford DUH! Moment ... " - thanks, gentlemen. "Internal Housekeeping Unit." Clint

1 0

Demonstration Schedule for Dayton 2011
by Keith Pugh 16 May '11

16 May '11

This year with AO-51 and HO-68 on the Sick List and SO-67 scheduled for Europe and Africa, the schedule will be a little slim for the FM Birds. We will do the best we can with the Linear Birds and the available FM Birds. The attached schedule is in UTC and corresponds to the times that the Dayton Demonstration Area will be staffed. Since this is an outdoor area, we could have weather problems; however, the "Weather Guessers" are showing a good weekend so far. WinAos QTH: -84.3/39.8 T#: 12192 Sat.: 9 [Standard] DAYTON HAMVENTION ---------------------------------------------------------- Day Object AOS (U) LOS Period maxEl AZ Grid EM79ut ---------------------------------------------------------- 20.05.2011 ISS 12:47 12:56 09 66 237 - 052 Listen Only: 20.05.2011 AO-07 13:34 13:54 20 29 007 - 237 ISS and HO-68 20.05.2011 VO-52 13:42 13:54 12 30 023 - 169 20.05.2011 SO-67 14:05 14:16 11 49 018 - 183 Europe Schedule: 20.05.2011 HO-68 14:18 14:35 17 25 029 - 160 SO-67 20.05.2011 ISS 14:23 14:31 08 13 283 - 047 20.05.2011 VO-52 15:19 15:30 11 23 357 - 224 Sick List: AO-51 20.05.2011 SO-67 15:40 15:48 08 10 345 - 240 20.05.2011 HO-68 16:05 16:24 19 60 011 - 210 Time: UTC 20.05.2011 AO-27 17:10 17:20 10 10 105 - 008 20.05.2011 ISS 17:35 17:43 08 17 318 - 090 20.05.2011 HO-68 17:54 18:07 13 11 355 - 263 20.05.2011 SO-50 18:04 18:17 13 45 194 - 038 20.05.2011 AO-27 18:46 19:01 15 73 162 - 348 20.05.2011 ISS 19:10 19:19 09 57 305 - 134 20.05.2011 AO-51 19:45 19:56 11 14 114 - 005 20.05.2011 SO-50 19:45 19:58 13 22 247 - 025 20.05.2011 AO-27 20:28 20:39 11 11 221 - 324 20.05.2011 FO-29 20:43 21:03 20 56 018 - 181 20.05.2011 AO-07 20:49 21:07 18 18 107 - 355 20.05.2011 AO-51 21:21 21:36 15 73 170 - 346 21.05.2011 AO-07 12:34 12:55 21 63 013 - 211 21.05.2011 ISS 13:11 13:19 08 24 261 - 046 21.05.2011 SO-67 13:47 13:57 10 28 024 - 171 21.05.2011 VO-52 14:00 14:13 13 46 018 - 181 21.05.2011 HO-68 14:01 14:18 17 18 033 - 154 21.05.2011 AO-07 14:28 14:44 16 14 003 - 262 21.05.2011 SO-67 15:21 15:30 09 17 353 - 229 21.05.2011 VO-52 15:37 15:47 10 15 351 - 237 21.05.2011 HO-68 15:48 16:08 20 76 013 - 203 21.05.2011 ISS 16:24 16:31 07 10 319 - 073 21.05.2011 SO-50 16:54 17:04 10 13 160 - 053 21.05.2011 HO-68 17:37 17:52 15 15 359 - 252 21.05.2011 ISS 17:59 18:07 08 35 313 - 111 21.05.2011 AO-27 18:18 18:32 14 44 147 - 354 21.05.2011 SO-50 18:33 18:46 13 65 218 - 031 21.05.2011 ISS 19:34 19:42 08 18 293 - 159 21.05.2011 FO-29 19:49 20:07 18 24 027 - 155 21.05.2011 AO-27 19:59 20:12 13 21 203 - 334 21.05.2011 SO-50 20:16 20:26 10 11 272 - 018 21.05.2011 AO-51 20:42 20:56 14 46 149 - 354 22.05.2011 AO-07 13:27 13:47 20 32 008 - 233 22.05.2011 SO-67 13:29 13:38 09 17 032 - 159 22.05.2011 ISS 13:35 13:43 08 13 284 - 048 22.05.2011 HO-68 13:45 14:00 15 13 037 - 144 22.05.2011 VO-52 14:19 14:31 12 71 013 - 191 22.05.2011 SO-67 15:02 15:12 10 27 358 - 217 22.05.2011 HO-68 15:31 15:51 20 82 016 - 195 I hope to talk to many of you on the "Birds" this weekend. 73 - Keith, W5IU

1 0

VUCC Fees - Dayton Hamvention
by John Papay 16 May '11

16 May '11

If you are planning on going to Dayton, please take some time to visit the ARRL area not far from the AMSAT booth. Seek out the highest ranking officials you can find and talk with them about the VUCC program and LOTW. The fee schedule for VUCC applications, both paper and LOTW, released back in mid January has not changed to my knowledge. Very little has been said about this issue to date. The fees were excessive and if continued, would have a negative impact on the VUCC program. You can talk about the high cost of an application but there is nothing like comparing it to the cost of a similar DXCC application. When you do that, it is apparent that something is not right. I prepared a one sheet comparison of three typical VUCC vs DXCC applications to give to ARRL officials at the Orlando Hamcation. Newington was not present at Orlando but the Florida Director was and got a copy. I have uploaded my comparison to my website. Please print some copies, put them in your hamfest bag and give them to those you talk with at the ARRL. The more League officials that see this, the better chance we have of getting these fees reduced and in line with DXCC application fees. Download the comparison at: http://www.papays.com/vuccfees2011.pdf There are many issues with the VUCC program other than fees. I made an application back in mid January, two days after the new few schedule appear on arrl.org. It was processed and my totals appeared on my LOTW page. Last week I received the endorsement stickers but have yet to receive the "VUCC Grid Report" which lists all of your confirmed girds on the left side of the pages and has space on the right side for you to list the new grids you are applying for credit. Without this sheet, you cannot file for another endorsement via an Awards Manager (card checker) or by sending them to the League. I know that they have been having problems with implementing VUCC in LOTW, but the lack of information about the status of the VUCC Program is troubling. The new website was supposed to help disseminate information faster but it is not working in the case. As ARRL members we should be kept informed of the VUCC issues, status and timelines. This is another great point to discuss with ARRL officials. Hope to see many of you at the Hamvention. 73, John K8YSE

2 1

Re: Digi @ Dayton?
by Zachary Beougher 16 May '11

16 May '11

Sorry - an APRS position packet. Forgot that part of the equation... :-/ Zack KD8KSN -----Original Message----- From: Zachary Beougher Sent: Monday, May 16, 2011 10:00 AM To: Nigel Gunn G8IFF/W8IFF Cc: amsat-bb(a)amsat.org Subject: Re: [amsat-bb] Digi @ Dayton? Just a regular position packet. Zack KD8KSN -----Original Message----- From: Nigel Gunn G8IFF/W8IFF Sent: Monday, May 16, 2011 9:56 AM To: Zachary Beougher Cc: amsat-bb(a)amsat.org Subject: Re: [amsat-bb] Digi @ Dayton? What do you want to digi? There are several APRS stations on 144.390 but I'm not aware of any general packet stations. On 16-May-11 13:42, Zachary Beougher wrote: > Hi All, > > Does anyone know if anyone sets up a digipeater at Dayton, or do we rely > on the local digiâ€™s? > > 73, > > Zack > KD8KSN > _______________________________________________ > 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 -- Nigel A. Gunn, 1865 El Camino Drive, Xenia, OH 45385-1115, USA. tel +1 937 825 5032 Amateur Radio G8IFF W8IFF (was KC8NHF 9H3GN), e-mail nigel(a)ngunn.net www http://www.ngunn.net Member of ARRL, GQRP #11396, QRPARCI #11644, SOC #548, Flying Pigs QRP Club International #385, Dayton ARA #2128, AMSAT-NA LM-1691, AMSAT-UK 0182, MKARS, ALC, GCARES, XWARN, EAA382.

2 1

Fwd: live broadcast of hamvention
by wa4hfn＠comcast.net 16 May '11

16 May '11

----- Forwarded Message ----- From: "t m" <wa5kub.video2(a)gmail.com> To: "wa5kub video3" <wa5kub.video3(a)gmail.com> Sent: Sunday, May 15, 2011 10:02:53 PM Subject: live broadcast of hamvention !!! Live Dayton Hamvention Broadcast !!! Announcement. The 9 th annual live web TV broadcast is here again. Over $5000 in prizes to lucky viewers. Prizes include Ft-950, IC80AD, LDG auto antenna tuners, Diawa SWR/wattmeters, Antennas, Heil Boom sets, Tentec mics, $500 toward and Alpha Amp, communication speakers, Kantronics KPC-3+, Peetbros weather stations, Ham hats, qsl cards, coax, magazine subscriptions, and much more. We gave away over $10,000 in prizes last year. All you have to do is be logged into the chat room at http://w5kub.com and tell us you are there when we pick and call your name. You will be able to see live video/audio TV on the internet. There were over 50,000 hams follow us last year in over 150 countries. Here is our schedule. We will be live from Wednesday morning May 18 th until we get home Sunday night. Wed May 18 th 0800 Central time 1300 UTC watch us drive live the 550 miles from Memphis to Dayton, OH. Thurs May 19 th , 0900 Eastern time. 1400 UTC we will be setting up our fleamarket space Thurs afternoon we will probably broadcast the U.S. Air Force Museum Friday 0800 May 20 th 0800 Eastern or 1200 UTC start broadcasting the Dayton Hamvention Friday afternoon May 20 th at 3:00 Pm eastern 1900 UTC we will have Astronaut Col Doug Wheelock as our guest. Friday night May 20 th 1900-2100 UTC broadcast the D-star meeting at the Drury Hotel Saturday May 21 0800 Eastern or 1200 UTC Dayton Hamvention Sunday May 22 0800 Eastern or 1200 UTC Dayton Hamvention Sunday afternoon, watch us drive live back to Memphis , Tn (10 hour drive) Watch us, join in on the chat room and talk directly to us or other hams around the world. W5KUB is not associated in any way with the Dayton Hamvention. We do this as a hobby and at no cost to the ham community. It cost a substantial amount of cash to put on a broadcast of this size. Any donations are appreciated using the Paypal donation button on our website but it is not required. We just want hams to have fun. Many can not make this trip because of distance, finances, or sickness. We get great pleasure out of doing this for those people. Our web site is up 365 days a year. When not live, we run recorded videos. Come join us anytime. Also sorry but we had to change the chat room at the last minute. This new service does not support any IRC clients such as Mirc. We provide a built in client on our page. http://w5kub.com Thanks, Tom W5KUB

1 0

AMSAT INDIA April 2011 Newsletter
by Nitin Muttin [VU3TYG] 16 May '11

16 May '11

The April 2011 issue of the AMSAT-INDIA newsletter is now available for free download. Topics in this month's edition include: - Update on the Technical talk held on April 17th - Update on the CubeSat Communication system project by AMSAT INDIA. - News from AMSAT organisations around the world Download the newsletter from http://amsatindia.org/Newsletter/AMSATINDIA-News-April2011.pdf Previous issues are available at: http://www.amsatindia.org/Newsletter/ Regards Nitin [VU3TYG] Secretary, AMSAT India vu3tyg(a)amsatindia.org www.amsatindia.org ________________________________________________

3 2

short grid trip
by Rodney Waln 16 May '11

16 May '11

hi, sorry for the short notice, i will be making a short trip to SD, by way off NE my usual trip up to visit the middle if south Dakota, i am hoping to do a finish up the grids i started, the target will be semi rare DN93-92 and EN03-02 that some need, time and satellites will be subject to availability of Sat's and travel times, so i would say afternoon and evening passes will be best also. kc0zhf

1 0

ND9M/MM QSLs -> Dayton
by claryco＠aol.com 15 May '11

15 May '11

Hi all, QSLs for my recent maritime mobile grid trip are due in from the printer (finally!) on Tuesday. Cori and I will hopetully leave for Dayton on Wednesday (no later than Thursday). I'll get as many cards answered and in the mail as possible in the short time before we leave. We'll be back home a few days after the madness ends, and I'll get everything else caught up then. If you'll be at Dayton also and would like me to bring QSLs for you, contact me off list and we can set something up for an in-person "drop". 73, Jim, ND9M / VQ9JC

2 1

APRS beaconing on the ISS no luck....
by Alexander Sack 15 May '11

15 May '11

Hello AMSAT-BB: I have TH-D72A HT connected to a ANLI AL-800 34" telescoping whip. This morning there was an almost 90 degree pass over my grid square (FN20rk). I get loads of packets but for the life of me I can't beacon myself! :-( I have my Decay Algorithm off, I have beaconing every 30 seconds (I even manually beacon by pressing F+[Beacon] as per the Kenwood manual). I have my beaconing in APRS format. Is this just not gonna happen on a HT? I have tried 4 times with no luck (all high elevation passes). Again I see every packet that flies by (comparing my HT list with that on ariss.net). Very frustrating. Help! -aps (KC2ZSX)

7 12

ANS-135 AMSAT News Service Weekly Bulletins
by JoAnne Maenpaa 14 May '11

14 May '11

AMSAT NEWS SERVICE ANS-135 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: * Ready, Set, GO! AMSAT is Ready for Dayton Hamvention * AMSAT at Smithsonian Space Day 2011 * Second Call for Speakers for AMSAT UK Colloquium 2011 * 2011 AMSAT Field Day Competition * ISRO Request For VO-52 HAMSAT User Feedback and Comments * ARISSat-1 Update * Satellite Shorts From All Over * New High For Space Tourism: Lunar Tour SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-135.01 Ready, Set, GO! AMSAT is Ready for Dayton Hamvention AMSAT News Service Bulletin 135.01 >From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. May 15, 2011 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-135.01 The 2011 Dayton Hamvention will be held this year from May 20-22, 2011 and AMSAT will be there. The AMSAT theme for 2011 is "Providing Education Through Amateur Satellites". We will have multiple exhibits of the new AMSAT satellites on display. You'll find AMSAT at the same spot (Booths 444-449) in the Ball Arena, right across from the ARRL area and just inside the door from the Sat- ellite Demonstration area. Plan to visit all of the AMSAT activities! AMSAT has planned a number of great activities during the Hamvention. Here is a sample of the events and activities planned for the entire weekend. Links to all of these activities can be found on the AMSAT web page: http://www.amsat.org. This list has been updated since last week's bulletin! + Meet astronaut Doug Wheelock, KF5BOC Friday 1:30-2:30, Saturday, 3:00-4:00 at the AMSAT booth. + ARISSat-1 operational prototype will be on display. o Tune your HT to 145.950 MHz to hear a preview of the FM downlink. o Watch the demonstration of the ARISSatTLM software receive and display the CW beacon and BPSK telemetry using G6LVB's FUNcube Dongle. + Howard Long, G6LVB will be at the AMSAT booth periodically to talk about his FUNcube Dongle (FCD) project. This small (1" x 3") USB software defined radio will receive from 64 - 1700 MHz. + CAMSAT delegates will be at AMSAT booth. The CAMSAT delegation con- sists of Alan, BA1DU; Ken, BH4REQ; Jin, BA4TA; and Michael, BD5RV/4. + The ARRL Expo, next door to AMSAT, will have the backup OSCAR-1 satellite on display, resurrected by W1AW Station Manager Joe Carcia, and ARRL Lab Test Engineer Bob Allison, WB1GCM. The CW transmitter is tuned to 145.080 MHz. It will transmit at Part 15 levels with only 10 microwatts of power across a 50 ohm dummy load. A satellite transceiver will be positioned next to the unit that will be used to receive the CW signal. You will hear it transmit "HI HI," just as it did 50 years ago. + The fifth annual AMSAT/TAPR Banquet will be Friday night May 20. Just a reminder that the cutoff date for the AMSAT-TAPR dinner at Dayton is Monday May 16th. You can register at the AMSAT Store web- site: http://www.amsat-na.com/store/item.php?id=100158 We will NOT be selling tickets at the booth. Our new Banquet speaker will be Bob Bruninga, WB4APR speaking on "Power from Space and in your Shack". David Rowe, VK5DGR is unable to attend. Read about Bob's presentation on the AMSAT at Dayton webpages at: http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/hamvention/2011/Banquet.php + AMSAT Thursday Night Get-together at Tickets Pub & Eatery. + Dave Jordan, AA4KN will speak about ARISS at the Teachers Forum at 1000 on Friday in Room 3. The title of his talk "Space Communi- cations from the Classroom-ARISS and AMSAT". Dave will describe as how to apply for an ARISS contact at your school and find out how amateur radio satellites can be accessed and used for class- room projects." + The AMSAT Forum will be on Saturday May 21 1115-1330 in Forum Room 5 on Saturday. Moderated by Alan Biddle, WA4SCA you will have a chance to hear and see the latest news of amateur radio in space. o AMSAT President Barry Baines, WD4ASW will present an AMSAT Status Report o Alan Kung, BA1DU, CEO of AMSAT-China, will discuss the activities of AMSAT-China. o Project Manager for ARISSat-1, Gould Smith, WA4SXM, will talk about its operation aboard the ISS, and the planned deployment and opera- tions this summer. o Tony Monteiro, AA2TX, will discuss the design and status of Project-FOX. o Alex Harvilchuck, N3NP, will present NextGen CubeSat Program Update. + NASA Astronaut Doug Wheelock, KF5BOC is scheduled to speak from 1315-1415 on Saturday in Forum Room 3. Doug is attending Hamvention as guest of ARRL and AMSAT. According to the Forum listing, "Doug will share his experiences about space flight and using Amateur Radio in space." + Lou McFadin, W5DID is scheduled to speak at the "Introduction to Digital-ATV" Forum, scheduled on Saturday from 1530-1700 in Forum Room 2. The title of his talk is "DATV Space Station Project". + Satellite demonstrations will take place outside the Ball Arena entrance Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Be sure and come by the booth and renew your membership and receive an AMSAT multiblade screwdriver as a premium! The AMSAT leadership team will be at Hamvention and invite you to take advantage of this opportunity to interact with both board mem- bers and senior officers. If you have issues or concerns that you wish to express here is your chance to do so. [ANS thanks AMSAT HQ for the above information] /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-135.02 AMSAT at Smithsonian Space Day 2011 AMSAT News Service Bulletin 135.02 >From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. May 15, 2011 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-135.02 Dave Taylor, W8AAS reported a very successful AMSAT presence at Space Day 2011 held at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum on the Mall in Washington DC on May 7. According to the ARISS status report, the average crowd in the Museum on this Saturday in May is about 30,000. Featured displays included prototype picosats, cubesats, space hard- ware including laser reflectors for the kids to try out. A crowd of 250 people watched the ARISS contact as six youngsters asked questions. Each one had three questions to ask and we got through all of them with time to thank Cady Coleman, KC5ZTH, give her a round of applause, and hear her response. Mark Steiner, K3MS handled the ARISS uplink/downlink from NASA Goddard amateur radio station K6DUE. Prior to the contact, former Payload Specialist Greg Linteris spoke to the crowd. Greg had trained with Cady for one of his flights. He was also on one of the last SAREX missions (STS-94). This year a group from Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology brought a working prototype of their Cubesat. They demon- strated with the prototype how one can uplink a text message and their Cubesat converts the text message to speech and transmits the speech on the downlink. They are manifested on a SpaceX Falcon 9 launch for early next year. Orbital Sciences has been providing them with assistance for the project. At Space Day a new version of the AMSAT-OSCAR slide show was run. A link to a PDF version of the slide show has been added to the AMSAT web page. (see http://www.amsat.org). Thanks to all who helped out: Dave Taylor, W8AAS Perry Klein, W3PK Dick Daniels, W4PUJ Mark Kanawati, N4TPY Samudra Haque, N3RDX Don Sylvain, WA3WOD from the Smithsonian Amateur Radio Club NN3SI Mark Steiner, K3MS from NASA Goddard K6DUE Bob McCown, N3IYI from NASA Goddard K6DUE Photos will be published in the AMSAT Journal. [ANS thanks Perry Klein, W3PK and Dave Taylor W8AAS for the above information] /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-135.03 Second Call for Speakers for AMSAT UK Colloquium 2011 AMSAT News Service Bulletin 135.03 >From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. May 15, 2011 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-135.03 This is the second call for speakers for the AMSAT-UK Colloquium 2011 which will be held at the Holiday Inn, Guildford, UK (same venue as in 2010) from *Sat 30 Jul to Sun 31 July 2011* AMSAT-UK invite speakers, about amateur radio, space and associated activities, for this event. Offers of talks should be sent *ONLY* to G4DPZ, via the following routes: e-mail: david.johnson AT blackpepper.co.uk SnailMail: QTHR from http://www.QRZ.com Likewise if anyone knows of a good speaker, please send contact and other information to G4DPZ. [ANS thanks Dave, G4DPZ for the above information] /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-135.04 2011 AMSAT Field Day Competition AMSAT News Service Bulletin 135.04 >From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. May 15, 2011 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-135.04 AMSAT Director of Awards, Bruce Paige, KK5DO says, "It's that time of year again: Summer and Field Day!" Each year the American Radio Relay League (ARRL) sponsors Field Day as an emergency preparedness exercise. The event takes place during a 24-hour period on the fourth weekend of June. For 2011 the event takes place during a 27-hour period from 1800 UTC on Saturday June 25, 2011 through 2100 UTC on Sunday June 26, 2011. Those who set up prior to 1800 UTC on June 25 can operate only 24 hours. The Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation (AMSAT) promotes its own version of Field Day for operation via the amateur satellites, held concurrently with the ARRL event. Bruce advises, "If you are considering ONLY the FM voice satellites like AMSAT-OSCAR 16, AMRAD-OSCAR-27, SaudiSat-Oscar-50, or AMSAT- OSCAR-51 for your AMSAT Field Day focus. Don't, unless you are simply hoping to make one contact for the ARRL rules bonus points." The congestion on FM LEO satellites was so intense in prior years that we must continue to limit their use to one-QSO-per-FM-satel- lite. This includes the International Space Station. You will be allowed one QSO if the ISS is operating Voice. You will also be allowed one digital QSO with the ISS or any other digital, non- store-and-forward, packet satellite (if operational). Please refer to these links for the full document of the AMSAT Field Day rules: http://www.amsat.org/ (link on AMSAT.org front page to PDF file) And, an alternative site is: http://www.amsatnet.com/2011fd.doc (MS-Word Doc File) http://www.amsatnet.com/2011fd.pdf (PDF File) These documents also cover the message exchange format, scoring requirements, reporting requirements, station classes, etc. [ANS thanks AMSAT Director of Awards, Bruce Paige, KK5DO for the above information] /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-135.05 ISRO Request For VO-52 HAMSAT User Feedback and Comments AMSAT News Service Bulletin 135.05 >From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. May 15, 2011 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-135.05 The VO-52 HAMSAT community has received a request from the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), in Bangalore for user reports on the satellite's performance. Shri. T. Parimalarangan, HAMSAT Operations Director, ISRO Tracking, Ranging and Command Centre (ISTRAC) asks that feedback be sent via e-mail directly to him at: tprangan(a)istrac.org. Mani, VU2WMY, Secretary & Station-In-Charge at the Upagrah Amateur Radio Club VU2URC at the ISRO Satellite Centre requests a copy to be sent to him at: wmy(a)isac.gov.in. ISTRAC/ISRO is interested in gathering VO-52 data with responses to these questions: 1. Qualitative/quantitative performance report. (Signal strength telemetry observations, availability). 2. Observation on the quality of services from the launch to present (trend of the onboard behaviour as seen from the ground). 3. Comparison with other amateur radio satellites. 4. Positive/negative aspects of HAMSAT. The data will be used to generate a HAMSAT Performance Report on the 6th anniversary since launch. ISRO values direct feedback from the user community. [ANS thanks Mani, VU2WMY for the above information] /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-135.06 ARISSat-1 Update AMSAT News Service Bulletin 135.06 >From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. May 15, 2011 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-135.06 The ARISSat-1 satellite was intended to be activated in April as part of the 50th anniversary of Yuri Gagarin's famous flight. However, no ground stations reported hearing the satellite. To follow up, the ARISSat-1 team had a teleconference with represent- atives of RSC-Energia (Russia) and NASA to request a clarification of the events and discuss what happened. According to RSC-Energia, the battery in ARISSat-1 was only charged once on the ground and was then used for a variety of tests and dur- ing the February activation event. It was not recharged prior to the April Yuri Gagarin activity since it can only be charged a limited number of times on the ISS. The cosmonauts reported that they activated the satellite and con- firmed that they heard the signal on the ham radio equipment on board the ISS. Since the battery was nearly depleted of its original charge, they switched the satellite off after six hours of operation in order to prevent over-discharging the battery. The battery was then removed from the satellite and stored separately as per their normal battery handling procedures. For more information on this battery, please see the JAN/FEB 2011 AMSAT Journal. RSC-Energia reported that their plan is to recharge the battery about three weeks prior to the EVA deployment. This will give the cosmonauts time to reinstall the battery and test the satellite to make sure it is working properly. The EVA deployment is planned for late July of this year. [ANS thanks AMSAT Vice-President of Engineering, Tony Monteiro, AA2TX for the above information] /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-135.07 Satellite Shorts From All Over AMSAT News Service Bulletin 135.07 >From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. May 15, 2011 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-135.07 + Congratulations to Paolo Nespoli IZØJPA! Paolo now has the record for the number of contacts during a single flight at 42. He is part of Expedition 26/27). + AMSAT-UK is now active on Twitter as @AMSAT_UK. Keep up to date with all the AMSAT-UK news and updates. + MILESTONE! On Saturday May 7, Bob Herrell, AJ5C, acheived his 5,000th amateur radio satellite contact when he worked Kerry, WC7V on the FO-29 satellite using SSB. Bob posted a video at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yt6gM7K7Kv0. The Southgate ARC news site also carried the story: http://www.southgatearc.org/news/may2011/5000_sat_qsos.htm Bob, congratulations on a remarkable acheivement. + SA AMSAT said that its Space Symposium 2011 will go full steam ahead on Saturday 21 May. The auditorium at Radiokop will be the venue and the SARL National Amateur Radio Centre being used for refreshment breaks and lunch. The new arrangement has substantially reduced the registration fee to R75 for SARL and SA AMSAT members if booked before 15 May 2011. Students and scholars will enter free if a student card or scholar ID is submitted at the time of Registration. The conference will be opened by the CEO of the South African National Space Agency, Sandile Malinga. John Willescroft, ZS6EF, will demonstrate the development of a totally new concept which allows a solar panel to be released from SAiSAT once in Space. For full details, registration forms and programme, visit: http://www.amsatsa.org.za + Spaceflightnow.com has posted a movie capturing the Atlas 5 rocket's launch over the weekend that successfully deployed the first in a new generation of missile warning satellites for the U.S. military. Watch on-line at: http://spaceflightnow.com/atlas/av022/video.html + OY, FAROE ISLANDS. Operators Hans/PA0VHA, Steef/PA2A and Wim/PA2AM will be active as OY/homecall from Skaelingur, Streymoy Island, in the Faroes (EU-018), between May 22nd and June 3rd. Activity will be on all bands using CW and RTTY. Also, look for activity on 6 and 4 meters, and PA2AM will also be on AO-51 satellite. Streymoy Island has a population of 11 and some sheep! QSL via their home callsigns. ADDED NOTE: This team also plans activity from Market Reef later this year. (Ohio/Penn DX Bulletin) + The next Hudson Valley Satcom Nets "HV Satcom" Net ia scheduled for May 26, at 8PM EDT (UTC-4) on the 146.970 MHz repeater, (Pl 100), and also on Echolink node N2EYH-L. More info: http://www.hvsatcom.org (Stu, WA2BSS) + Technical papers are solicited for presentation at the 30th Annual ARRL and TAPR Digital Communications Conference to be held September 16-18, 2011 in Baltimore, Maryland. These papers will also be pub- lished in the Conference Proceedings (you do NOT need to attend the conference to have your paper included in the Proceedings). The sub- mission deadline is July 31, 2011. Please send papers to: Maty Weinberg, ARRL, 225 Main St, Newington, CT 06111 or you can make your submission via e-mail to: maty(a)arrl.org. + Squrl may be a useful tool for storing your on-line videos. Its pri- mary function is to help visitors collect interesting videos online for later "consumption". First-time visitors will need to complete a short registration, and they can get started saving videos from a range of sources. Visitors can also organize playlists, and then email them to friends and colleagues. This version is compatible with all operating systems. See: http://www.squrl.com/ + AMSAT's Keeper of the Keps, Ray Hoad, WA5QGD says he has updated the name designation in the AMSAT KEPs for FAST1 as FO-69 and FAST2 as FO-70. This matches the OSCAR desginators assigned to these satellites earlier this year. [ANS thanks everyone for the above information] /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-135.08 New High For Space Tourism: Lunar Tour AMSAT News Service Bulletin 135.08 >From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. May 15, 2011 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-135.08 This week MoonDaily.com posted a story, "Space Adventures proposes modified Soyuz TMA for Lunar tourists" which follows below: U.S. Space Adventures, the only company currently offering tourist orbital spaceflights, has offered to equip the Russian Soyuz TMA spaceship with additional living space for eight-day commercial flights around the moon, the company said late on Thursday. The firm announced on April 28 that it would offer moon orbit tourist trips, albeit with a price tag of around $150 million per seat. "After consultation with Rocket Space Corporation Energia (the Soyuz TMA design authority), modifications to the Soyuz TMA configuration have been agreed upon. The most important is the addition of a sec- ond habitation module to the Soyuz TMA lunar complex," Space Adven- tures said. A moon tour mission would include separate launches of a Soyuz and the upper stage, their docking in a low Earth orbit, a flight to the moon with the upper stage engine, the separation of Soyuz from the upper stage rocket, an orbit around the moon, return to Earth and landing. Space Adventures is currently selecting candidates for the next space tour together with the Russian Federal Space Agency. The company quoted Vice Chairman Richard Garriott as saying it had sold one of the two seats for the flight and anticipated that the launch would occur in 2015. The CEO of Russia's Gagarin Research and Test Cosmonaut Training Center Sergei Krikalyov has said the center was ready to train a professional cosmonaut and a space tourist for the future flight. This story is on the MoonDaily.com web site, see: http://tinyurl.com/3zn8xhl [ANS thanks MoonDaily.com 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 ham who was a physics professor. His lectures could be quite animated and exciting. He would jump off of the desk or fling frisbees to illustrate his point. One day in class he was spinning on an office chair holding weights in each hand when he lost his balance and tumbled into the first row. He apologized to his class for going off on a tangent. 73, This week's ANS Editor, JoAnne Maenpaa, K9JKM K9JKM at amsat dot org

1 0

Uni_trac wanted
by Frank Viggiano 14 May '11

14 May '11

Does any one have a uni_trac serial or a usb satellite tracker then want to part with?frankviggiano(a)rocketmail.comThanks , Frank, KB2MVN

1 0

SO-67 operating practice Europe
by Ib Christoffersen 14 May '11

14 May '11

Hi Europeans, As Hans, ZS6AKV, said the plan for next week gives us the opportunity to use it during the week. As always it is just a plan. See it on: http://www.amsatsa.org.za/ This week I have listened to a lot of the passes over Europe and I have a few comments: Do NOT use the CTCSS tone. It is heard on the downlink. It is much better to use normal FM deviation and adjust mike gain until you sound good on the downlink. And please limit the number of QSOs per orbit. Give others a chance. Also there is no need to contact the same station on each orbit. Have fun. 73 OZ1MY Ib

1 0

Contact Page
by Joe 14 May '11

14 May '11

I asked a question on the AMSAT main web site using their web page contact them page. How long does it usually take to get an answer? Joe WB9SBD -- The Original Rolling Ball Clock Idle Tyme Idle-Tyme.com http://www.idle-tyme.com

2 1

SO67 Correction Sorry USA
by Hans 14 May '11

14 May '11

Hi all My apologies if I got you hopes up in the US! SO67 will be operating over Europe again this week. The schedule planned going forward is as follows: Till 22 May Europe 23 - 29 May Australasia 30 May - 5 June Americas 6 June - 12 June Europe 13 June - 19 June Central Asia ( if I receive the schedule in time) 20 June - 3 June Australasia ( 2 weeks) Visist www.amsatsa.org.za <http://www.amsatsa.org.za/> check out how to win a So67 first day cover! 73 Hans ZS6AKV

1 0

KD8KSN/M & a question
by Zachary Beougher 14 May '11

14 May '11

Hi All, Thanks for the QSO during my few mobile ops the past couple days – and for your patience. We had three small road trips planned for various reasons Wednesday-Friday, so it provided a great opportunity to try the mobile equipment out, find out what combinations work better than others, etc., etc., so I can perhaps get on the air a little more while mobile during vacations and such. I will be uploading all QSOs to LoTW within a day or so, and if anyone wants a card just email me the QSO details. I did have a question: One consistent issue I found while operating is that I could just barely hear a bird from AOS-TCA, but from TCA-LOS I could hear fine, even down to 10-5 degrees. I am not understanding why I can’t hear one side of the pass, but I can hear the other fine – almost full quieting with the preamp. I should also mention that I experienced this issue on AO27 and SO50, not AO51. I would thinnk it would be a polarization issue, but that still doesn’t make sense to me. My main setup consisted of: Uplink: TH-D7A (7w plugged into 12VDC), Comet CA-2x4SR mag for uplink. Downlink: FTM-350AR, ARR SP432VDG preamp on battery or 12v, Arrow duplexer (440 side hooked up which solved my desense issues so I could work full duplex), and a 19” quarter wave mag. I had posted here about a month or so ago wondering if intermod would be an issue using a preamp while mobile. I monitored about 7-8 passes over the past three days while mobile and intermod was never an issue. I did have a little bit of alternator whine on the FTM-350AR’s receive, but it was very minimal. That could be solved by running the cables directly to the battery. Since we were in the family vehicle I just used the cig lighter (I know that’s not a good idea, but it was only for a couple days). 73! Zack KD8KSN

2 2

S067
by Hans 13 May '11

13 May '11

SO67 will be available on selected passes over South Africa this weekend. All of next week it will continue to provide service over the Americas. Starting Monday 23 May it will be Australasia's turn and the US for the week starting 30 May. Get the schedule on www.amsatsa.org.za <http://www.amsatsa.org.za/> . 73 Hans ZS6AKV

1 0

Re: IC9100 and SATPC32
by Andrew Glasbrenner 13 May '11

13 May '11

>W5IU does very well with the FT-1634. (Two FT-817s.) As does WD9EWK, KB5WIA, and some guy down in the swamps in Florida! 73, Drew KO4MA

1 0

Re: IC9100 and SATPC32
by Alan P. Biddle 13 May '11

13 May '11

Jim, I always ask that question. Depending on who you talk with, you get slightly different versions of the same answer. The FT-847 went out of production due parts availability. Like many here, they equate satellite with P3 HEO, and feel that until that happens, there is no justification for the additional engineering work to bring out an updated version. I have been told there is a notional design for one. Others have gotten different versions. Will ask again. Alan WA4SCA -----Original Message----- From: kq6ea(a)verizon.net [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Friday, May 13, 2011 11:27 AM To: morsesat(a)optonline.net Cc: APBIDDLE(a)mailaps.org; amsat-bb(a)amsat.org Subject: Re: [amsat-bb] Re: IC9100 and SATPC32 I keep wondering if/when Yaesu will bring out a replacement for the FT-847. If anybody is going to Dayton this year, PLEASE ask them. Unless they keep getting questions about it, they won't know there's a market for it. 73, Jim KQ6EA May 13, 2011 09:18:58 AM, morsesat(a)optonline.net wrote: Unless the IC-9100 comes down in price about $2,000, I don't care if it will work with SATPC32. I am not getting rid of my IC-910's unless someone drops an IC-9100 in my lap. 73, Dee, NB2F -----Original Message----- From: amsat-bb-bounces(a)amsat.org [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Alan P. Biddle Sent: Friday, May 13, 2011 7:57 AM To: AMSAT-BB Subject: [amsat-bb] Re: IC9100 and SATPC32 Frank, I just cruised by the SATPC32 web site and find that there is a patch for the IC-9100 on the download page. According to the explanation, this version will not work with the IC-910, though a full version is on the way. Alan WA4SCA -----Original Message----- From: amsat-bb-bounces(a)amsat.org [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Frank Woolfe Sent: Wednesday, March 16, 2011 7:57 AM To: amsat-bb(a)amsat.org Subject: [amsat-bb] IC9100 and SATPC32 Well the IC9100 has hit the market, when is SATPC32 going to be updated to accommodate this new offering from ICOM? Frank H Woolfe; Dip EE, VK5KV. _______________________________________________ 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 _______________________________________________ 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

4 4

New AMSAT-TAPR Banquet Speaker
by Gould Smith 13 May '11

13 May '11

David Rowe, VK5DGR, had to cancel his trip to Dayton and won't be able to speak at the AMSAT/TAPR Banquet next week. We are pleased to announce that Bob Bruninga, WB4APR will be the speaker for the 2011 AMSAT/TAPR Banquet. Friday May 20, 2011, Kohler Presidential Banquet Center, Kettering, OH Bob's topic is "Power from Space and in Your Shack" (see the abstract below). For more information and to make dinner reservations, visit http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/hamvention/2011/Banquet.php ASAP because reservations must be made in advance and close end-of-day on Monday. May 16. *** "Power from Space and in Your Shack" By Bob Bruninga, WB4APR Last year Solar energy passed from a niche market for greenies to an economic opportunity that beats money in the bank. The monetary return for every dollar on your roof can exceed 10% per year for life which far exceeds the security of any other investment in a bank or our fickle economy. But this economic advantage is overlooked, misunderstood or wasted by many hams because of our warped and twisted prior love-affairs with batteries and generators on which we depend for field-day and emergency power. To fully grasp today's economics of renewable energy we must learn to completely separate our needs for economical energy 99.9% of the time from our desires for emergency power for only 0.1% of the time. There are economical solutions for both but they are separate and mutually exclusive. Further, over the last decades there has been a hidden evolution of power supplies in every aspect of our daily lives. Everything we do with energy from our ham shack to our big screen TV depends on this technology but it has also provided us with unbelievable versatility to access power from just about any source from 100 to 240 VAC or 100 to 330 VDC or any voltage down to 12 volts.. Where to find power? Have you looked on the roof of your house or under the hood of your car recently? The better that hams understand these subtle evolutionary changes in energy, the better we are prepared not only for Field Day, for emergencies but also for the future of our families.

1 0

Re: FW: AO-51 WELCOME BACK
by Andrew Glasbrenner 13 May '11

13 May '11

We've been turning the satellite on, and off, manually on passes over North America when a command station is available. This has generally been the afternoon passes, and only on an as-available basis. Uplink is 145.880, Downlink 435.150. 73, Drew KO4MA -----Original Message----- >From: Humberto González <xe1fze(a)hotmail.com> >Sent: May 13, 2011 11:08 AM >To: amsat-bb(a)amsat.org >Subject: [amsat-bb] FW: AO-51 WELCOME BACK > > > > > > > > > > >Hi John, yes was active in that pass, but was working in QRP Frequencies, Up 145.880 Dn 435.150. Was strange because I was trying to hear the activity of ground stations and Ups, several stations were there including N8MH. > >But looks like was too soon to celebrate, in the followed pass didn't hear nothing. > > > >Will see what happens next days, and of course the official info > > > >73's > >Bert, XE1FZE > > >> From: aa5jg(a)fidmail.com >> To: xe1fze(a)hotmail.com; amsat-bb(a)amsat.org >> Subject: Re: [amsat-bb] AO-51 WELCOME BACK >> Date: Fri, 13 May 2011 02:15:00 +0000 >> >> I listened to the 2140z pass today and didn't hear anything. Was it on >> then? >> >> 73s John AA5JG >> >> ----- Original Message ----- >> From: "Humberto González" <xe1fze(a)hotmail.com> >> To: <amsat-bb(a)amsat.org> >> Sent: Thursday, May 12, 2011 10:08 PM >> Subject: [amsat-bb] AO-51 WELCOME BACK >> >> >> > >> > AO-51 is back, was nice surprise see the bird active again on the QRP >> > repeater. Heard several stations saounding like nice music to my ears. >> > Congratulations to all AO-51 team and the stations whom participate in any >> > way to achive the comeback of this nice bird. >> > >> > Bert / XE1FZE - DL80 >> > _______________________________________________ >> > 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

1 0

IC9100 and SATPC32
by Frank Woolfe 13 May '11

13 May '11

Well the IC9100 has hit the market, when is SATPC32 going to be updated to accommodate this new offering from ICOM? Frank H Woolfe; Dip EE, VK5KV.

3 2

FW: AO-51 WELCOME BACK
by Humberto González 13 May '11

13 May '11

Hi John, yes was active in that pass, but was working in QRP Frequencies, Up 145.880 Dn 435.150. Was strange because I was trying to hear the activity of ground stations and Ups, several stations were there including N8MH. But looks like was too soon to celebrate, in the followed pass didn't hear nothing. Will see what happens next days, and of course the official info 73's Bert, XE1FZE > From: aa5jg(a)fidmail.com > To: xe1fze(a)hotmail.com; amsat-bb(a)amsat.org > Subject: Re: [amsat-bb] AO-51 WELCOME BACK > Date: Fri, 13 May 2011 02:15:00 +0000 > > I listened to the 2140z pass today and didn't hear anything. Was it on > then? > > 73s John AA5JG > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Humberto González" <xe1fze(a)hotmail.com> > To: <amsat-bb(a)amsat.org> > Sent: Thursday, May 12, 2011 10:08 PM > Subject: [amsat-bb] AO-51 WELCOME BACK > > > > > > AO-51 is back, was nice surprise see the bird active again on the QRP > > repeater. Heard several stations saounding like nice music to my ears. > > Congratulations to all AO-51 team and the stations whom participate in any > > way to achive the comeback of this nice bird. > > > > Bert / XE1FZE - DL80 > > _______________________________________________ > > 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

AO-51 Status
by Clint Bradford 13 May '11

13 May '11

I am not sure if there is a "formal" alliance 'tween AMSAT, the AO-51 control team, and this Web site ... http://oscar.dcarr.org/ ... but it sure would seem helpful if all signal reports for AO-51 were entered there! Clint, K6LCS

1 0

AO-51 WELCOME BACK
by Humberto González 12 May '11

12 May '11

AO-51 is back, was nice surprise see the bird active again on the QRP repeater. Heard several stations saounding like nice music to my ears. Congratulations to all AO-51 team and the stations whom participate in any way to achive the comeback of this nice bird. Bert / XE1FZE - DL80

2 1

satellite VUCC applications via LOTW
by Patrick STODDARD (WD9EWK/VA7EWK) 12 May '11

12 May '11

Hi! Back in February, shortly after ARRL announced that the VUCC award would be supported in Logbook of the World, I uploaded my satellite QSOs to that system. I have since added other non-satellite QSOs, and have uploaded subsequent satellite QSOs (including the QSOs from the Sierra Vista AZ hamfest and my operating from the DM51/DM52 grid boundary last Saturday). On 8 February, I filed an application for a satellite VUCC award using the 103 grids I had credit for in LOTW. After 3 months and lots of face-to-face chats with my ARRL section manager and division director, along with e-mails to the LOTW help desk and other e-mails copied to several in the ARRL hierarchy, my VUCC application was cancelled yesterday. There have been problems in the migration of the VUCC award into the LOTW system, and my application was apparently a victim of those problems. Thankfully, the credit card I submitted with the application had not been charged - probably the only thing ARRL did right in the past 3 months with that (not charging it until the application was processed). I don't know the reason(s) why my application was cancelled, even after additional e-mails yesterday asking for more information. I was told that I could resubmit my VUCC application, now that the original application was cancelled. In the past 3 months, my grid count in LOTW went up 10, to 113. I filed my application, and waited. This time, the application was approved in 24 hours! When I log into LOTW now, I see that I have been awarded a satellite VUCC. Other than seeing what gets charged to my credit card for the new application, ensuring there is no charge for the cancelled application and getting the certificate in the mailbox, this is the way things should work when an application is filed through LOTW. The fees are another matter, but at least the process of getting a VUCC through LOTW appears to be finally working. Thanks to all of those who have been uploading satellite QSOs to the LOTW system. Many - like me - started in the last few months since the announcement that VUCC would be supported in LOTW. A few have been uploading satellite QSOs over the past few years. I'll wait and see if ARRL revisits the matter of the VUCC fees before I apply for an endorsement to my satellite VUCC (I have over 300 more grids I could add to it, using QSL cards), but for now I have a VUCC coming my way. I will continue uploading my satellite QSOs to LOTW, for those who want to use that to apply for or endorse a satellite VUCC. I know I could have applied for a satellite VUCC with QSL cards as far back as late 2006. I know I had accumulated enough cards for a VUCC back then. I put it off, thinking "Why not wait until I have 125?" Then 150, 175, 200, and so on into the 300s. Around the 350 mark, I decided to wait until I reached 400. By this point, it was about the time ARRL made its announcement about VUCC in LOTW along with the new fee structure. I decided to try the on-line application, instead of having to buy dinner for my local card checker as he went through my cards (especially if I filed the application with all the grids I have confirmed). I may still be on the hook for a lunch or dinner, if I write out an application to endorse my VUCC in the future. :-) 73! Patrick WD9EWK/VA7EWK http://www.wd9ewk.net/

3 3

Office Closed
by Martha 12 May '11

12 May '11

The AMSAT office will be closed on Friday, May 13th and Monday, May16th. I will be back in the office on Tuesday. -- 73- Martha

1 0

AMSAT-DL Symposium and AGM on May 14 in Bochum
by Peter Guelzow 12 May '11

12 May '11

Dear All, just as a reminder.. If you are not too far away, you're welcome to join in. http://translate.google.de/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amsat-dl.org%2Finde… For those who can't attend, we will publish a full report in the next issue of the AMSAT-DL Journal. 73s Peter, DB2OS

1 0

LOL
by Kevin Deane 12 May '11

12 May '11

Ok guys, my first time USING the ELK in my hand, not my first contact. I have snuck it up on the roof fixed position a lot, no antenna's allowed, and got tired of only hearing a small part of the pass. It works great if you point it in the right place. I am used to an array and two rigs at my brothers... Anywho, just thought I would clear that up. Not exactly sure who keeps AO-51 working but thanks again! Kevin KF7MYK

1 0

HudsonValleySatcomgroupNet Tonight 5/12 At 8 PM EDT ON Echolink N2EYH-L
by Cotejaune2＠aol.com 12 May '11

12 May '11

Please join us tonight for the Net.Hope to hear you there.73 Gary WA2AQH.The echolink connection is only on for the net.

1 0

AO-51
by Kevin Deane 12 May '11

12 May '11

I got to talk on the AO-51 today was pretty neat! Sorry for my bad performance, I was using the Elk, handheld for the first time and probably should not practice on that bird. I dont know how you guys do it, my arm was all getting tired, gotta be a better way to do that. Camera tripod or something? Also I was receiving it on the western pass, but there was no one there. Unless I was picking up something else on that frequency...Is it on all the time now? Will it be on this morning? I thought you guys were turning it on and off? Anyway, thanks to all who do the work, something about talking on the satellite's, I love it every time! Kevin KF7MYK

3 2

CAMSAT and HO68 at Dayton Hamvention 2011
by Michael Chen 11 May '11

11 May '11

Guys, Are you going to Dayton this year? If you do, try to stop by the CAMSAT and HO68 display at AMSAT booth and say hello. I'll be happy to meet you. Alan, BA1DU is going to present amateur satellite activities in China as well as HO68 in AMSAT forum. I believe this will be the first time that a delegation from China to demonstrate on Dayton Hamvention. Everyone is welcomed. The CAMSAT delegation consists of Alan/BA1DU, Ken/BH4REQ, Jin/BA4TA, and I. After Dayton, we are going to visit Newington on May 24, NYC on 25-26, and Washington D.C. on 27-30. If you are in these area and interested, leave me a message to find a good time to get together for a cup of coffee. Michael Chen, BD5RV/4 AMSAT-China: http://www.camsat.cn ----------------------------------- Twitter: http://twitter.com/bd5rv Email: michael.bd5rv(a)gmail.com MSN: bd5rv(a)jsdxc.org Skype: michael-bd5rv

2 1

Re: Iredell County
by Clint Bradford 11 May '11

11 May '11

>> ... dude, it's NC, not TN ... Sorry 'bout that. Clint is geographically-challenged ... (grin) Clint Bradford, K6LCS

1 0

Iredell County TN Club
by Clint Bradford 11 May '11

11 May '11

Here's a club interested in growing their membership - they get their monthly meetings published on their local newspaper's Web site ... http://tinyurl.com/ICARS-Show Clint Bradford, K6LCS

2 1

For Sale
by Gerry 11 May '11

11 May '11

DCI Band Pass Filter Model DCI-146-4-H (new in box never used).......................................$290.00 CAN +S&H SX1000 Quad Band Power meter……………………………………………........................................... $110.00 CAN + S&H TNC7 Multi dual speed TNC 1200/9600 Bd RS232/USB also38.4kbaud modem ............... $175.00 CAN+S&H Uni Track 2003……………………………………………… ...............................................$125.00 CAN +S&H Directive System Antennas: 1…..DSH12-27 Helix, 2.3 – 2.5 GHz……………………………………………….........................................$115.00 CAN +S&H 1…..DSH23-12 Helix, 1.24 – 1.3 GHz……………………………………………..........................................$110.00 CAN +S&H DSH23-12 23 cm RHCP 12 turn helix 14.5 dBic gain in a machined radome for best weather protection. 1.2-1.3 GHz bandwidth. 50 ohm feed with N (f) connector on 8" backplane. All stainless hardware; Designed for PHASE 3D uplink operation. Wide bandwidth actually covers from 900 - 1600 MHz. DSH23-12 DSH12-27 2400 MHz (12cm) RHCP 27 turn helix 18.1 dBic gain in a machined PVC radome for best weather protection. 2.3-2.5 GHz bandwidth. 20 degree beamwidth; 50 ohm feed with N (f) connector on 8" backplane; All stainless hardware; 34" overall length; Designed for PHASE 3D operation, and other circular polarization modes within the 1.8 to 2.8 GHz frequency range. Gerry VE4GTB We’ll meet again, don’t know where don’t know when. But I know we’ll meet again some sunny day.

1 0

Yaesu G-5400B and G-5500 controller
by Sven Arne Astrup 10 May '11

10 May '11

Hallo! I am owner of both the Yaesu G-5400B and the G-5500 azimuth/elevation controller. Could someone tell me: What kind of rotators (Azimuth and Elevation) came with the G-5400B? What kind of rotators (Azimuth and Elevation) came with the G-5500? None of the rotators are marked with type or part number. 73 de Sven LA6KJ

4 6

Maryland Aerospace Inc. List: You are now unsubscribed
by Maryland Aerospace Inc. 10 May '11

10 May '11

We have removed your email address from our list. We're sorry to see you go. Was this a mistake?Did you forward your email to a friend, and they accidentally clicked the unsubscribe link?If this was a mistake, you can re-subscribe at: [1]Subscribe Links: 1. http://miniadacs.us2.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=339fbb5f8c155aa3fe3833ac6&… For questions or comments, please contact us at: dpark(a)imicro.biz Links: 2. mailto:[email protected]

1 0

Darn word wrap
by Kevin Deane 10 May '11

10 May '11

I must have missed the music pass, I did hear a woman speaking spanish though sounded non satellite related, but these things happen and I personally do not think it is a big deal. If this were a perfect world it sure would be boring! Try that one...Sure miss AO-51 by the way. I liked a possible six passes a day now only possible four, woe's me cry, pout, boo hoo. Kevin KF7MYK

1 0

AO_27 Spanish Woman
by Kevin Deane 10 May '11

10 May '11

I must have missed the music pass, I did hear a woman speaking spanish though sounded non satellite related, but these things happen and I personally do not think it is a big deal. If this were a perfect world it sure would be boring! Kevin KF7MYK

1 0

Re: Music on AO-27 on Sunday
by Jeffrey Koehler 10 May '11

10 May '11

Please...tell me it was Stairway to Heaven? Jeff WB2SYK FN13xc Sent from my Verizon Wireless Phone Alexander Sack <pisymbol(a)gmail.com> wrote: >On Tue, May 10, 2011 at 2:16 PM, <kf1buz(a)gmail.com> wrote: >> I as well heard the music, happend as a xe station was calling. >> >> > >Okay, you guys got me....what was playing? :-) > >-aps >_______________________________________________ >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

Music on AO-27 on Sunday
by Lee Maisel 10 May '11

10 May '11

During one of the afternoon passes, I can't believe that some fool was actually playing loud music. Shameful.

4 3

CubeSat News from MAI
by Maryland Aerospace Inc. 10 May '11

10 May '11

A newly re-designed MAI-200 ADACS is available for nanosatellite systems. Is this email not displaying correctly? [1]View it in your browser. Precision Fine Pointing and Ultra Low Jitter Links: 1. http://us2.campaign-archive1.com/?u=339fbb5f8c155aa3fe3833ac6&id=0baa1b6ba0… Announcing the all new MAI-200. Redesigned mechanics allow dynamic balancing to < 1mg-mm, enabling nanosat missions requiring arc-sec level pointing and extremely low jitter. The only fully integrated turnkey Attitude Determination and Control System (ADACS) on the market featuring both attitude determination and attitude control in the same package. Also available as a wheels-only system without the ADACS computer or electromagnets. _Specifications:_ Momentum Storage: 10.8mNms Maximum Torque: 0.625 mNm Mass Unbalance: 1 mg-mm Command & TLM Interface: RS-232 Dimensions: 3.937" x 3.927" x 3.10" Weight: 1.99 lb (907 gm) Operating Temp: -40C to +80C Vibration: > 10 g rms Radiation: 30 krad For more information, or to request a quote, please visit [2]www.miniADACS.com. [3]Visit Us On Facebook [4]Follow on Twitter [5]Forward to a Friend _Maryland Aerospace Inc._ specializes in CubeSat attitude determination and control systems. MAI markets the MAI-100 and MAI-200, which uniquely integrate both attitude determination with attitude control in a single package. Please contact us at [6]discover(a)miniADACS.com for more information or custom solutions for your mission. Visit Us! [7]Maryland Aerospace _Copyright © 2011 Maryland Aerospace Inc., All rights reserved._ You are receiving this email because you are active in the CubeSat community. _Our mailing address is:_ Maryland Aerospace Inc. 2138 Priest Bridge Ct. Suite #3 Crofton, Maryland 21114 Email Marketing Powered by MailChimp http://www.mailchimp.com/monkey-rewards/?aid=339fbb5f8c155aa3fe3833ac6&afl=1 [8]unsubscribe from this list | [9]update subscription preferences | [10]view email in browser Links: 2. http://miniadacs.us2.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=339fbb5f8c155aa3fe3833a… 3. http://miniadacs.us2.list-manage2.com/track/click?u=339fbb5f8c155aa3fe3833a… 4. http://miniadacs.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=339fbb5f8c155aa3fe3833ac… 5. http://us2.forward-to-friend1.com/forward?u=339fbb5f8c155aa3fe3833ac6&id=0b… 6. mailto:[email protected]?subject=MAI%20ADACS%20Inquiry 7. http://miniadacs.us2.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=339fbb5f8c155aa3fe3833a… 8. http://miniadacs.us2.list-manage.com/unsubscribe?u=339fbb5f8c155aa3fe3833ac… 9. http://miniadacs.us2.list-manage.com/profile?u=339fbb5f8c155aa3fe3833ac6&id… 10. http://us2.campaign-archive1.com/?u=339fbb5f8c155aa3fe3833ac6&id=0baa1b6ba0…

1 0

Fwd: HAMSAT - Feedback from Users - Reg.
by Mani VU2WMY 10 May '11

10 May '11

Dear friends, I am herewith enclosing the mail received from Shri. T. Parimalarangan, HAMSAT Operations Director, ISRO Tracking, Ranging and Command Centre (ISTRAC), Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), Bangalore. On his behalf, I kindly request all the HAMSAT VO-52 users across the globe to send in their valuable (4 points as mentioned below) feed back as requested by HAMSAT Ops Dir. The feed backs can be sent directly to him at: tprangan(a)istrac.org and a copy to me at: wmy(a)isac.gov.in On this 6th anniversary of HAMSAT VO-52, we thank all the users who have provided us their feed back last year. All the feed backs have been complied and presented to the HAMSAT Mission Management Board and for the records. The MMB has expressed it happiness looking at the quantity and quality of feed backs received from various parts of the Globe. We are very hopeful, that we would be getting a good response this year as well and many more years to come. Thanks in advance. with regards Mani, VU2WMY Secretary & Station-In-Charge Upagrah Amateur Radio Club VU2URC ISRO Satellite Centre HAL Airport Road, Bangalore-560 017. Phone:(O)91-80-25082054/2598/2192 Mobile: 91-80-98803 41456 E-mail ID: wmy(a)isac.gov.in vu2wmy_mani(a)yahoo.com isrohams(a)yahoo.com ----- Forwarded message from tprangan(a)istrac.org ----- Date: Tue, 10 May 2011 16:08:26 +0000 From: T PARIMALA RANGAN <tprangan(a)istrac.org> Subject: HAMSAT - Feedback from Users - Reg. To: "wmy(a)isac.gov.in" <wmy(a)isac.gov.in> Cc: T PARIMALA RANGAN <tprangan(a)istrac.org> Dear Mr. B A Subramani, Greetings from HAMSAT OPS. This is to bring to your kind attention that HAMSAT has completed 6 years of space based services on 5-5-2011 and going strong. Believe, this bird continue to be the pet of HAMs. To commemorate this event, we are generating a HAMSAT Performance Report and naturally, it will not be complete without the feedback from the User Community. Hence, may I request your goodself to forward this mail to all our HAM friends in India and abroad and request to send their feedback at the earliest (may be in a couple of days): 1 Qualitative / quantitative performance report 2 Observation on the quality of services from the launch, till date (trend of the onboard behaviour as seen from the ground) 3 Comparison with its contemporaries 4 Positive / negative aspects of HAMSAT HAMSAT continue to be monitored by ISTRAC and good health ensured. Convey my regards to all in our HAM Community. With Best Regards, T PARIMALARANGAN Operations Director ISTRAC/ISRO tprangan(a)istrac.org Ph: 080 - 2202 9011 (O) 080 - 2535 0132 (R) 0 - 9480333563 (M) 080 - 2202 9062 (fax) ------------------------- Disclaimer: This e-mail and any files transmitted with it are for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and legally privileged information. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply e-mail and destroy all copies and the original message. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure, dissemination, forwarding, printing or copying of this email or any action taken in reliance on this e-mail is strictly prohibited and may be unlawful. The recipient acknowledges that any views expressed in this message are those of the individual sender and no binding nature of the message shall be implied or assumed unless the sender does so expressly with due authority of ISTRAC Management. Before opening any attachments please check them for viruses and defects as all liability for viruses is excluded to the fullest extent permitted by law. ------------------------- ----- End forwarded message ----- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Confidentiality Notice: This e-mail message, including any attachments, is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply e-mail and destroy all copies of the original message. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------

1 0

First Call for Speakers for AMSAT UK Colloquium 2011
by David A. B. Johnson 10 May '11

10 May '11

Hi All, This is the first call for speakers for the AMSAT-UK Colloquium 2011 which will be held at the Holiday Inn, Guildford, UK (same venue as in 2010) from *Fri 29 Jul to Sun 31 July 2011* AMSAT-UK invite speakers, about amateur radio, space and associated activities, for this event. Offers of talks should be sent *ONLY* to G4DPZ, via the following routes: e-mail: david.johnson AT blackpepper.co.uk SnailMail: QTHR from www.QRZ.com AMSAT-UK also invite anyone with requests for Program Topics to submit them as soon as possible to G4DPZ. Invitations for specific subjects will be included in the future call. Likewise if anyone knows of a good speaker, please send contact and other information to G4DPZ. 73 Dave G4DPZ

1 1

searching advice on low hpass filter for 146 MHz
by Werner Kullmann, HB9BNK 10 May '11

10 May '11

To improve the reception of the sats on 145.9xx MHz with my little yagi, I recently acquired a SSB-preamplifier SP-2000. To my dismay, the reception on my IC910H was intermittend heavily distorted. After a while I found, that a nearby located commercial transmitter (POCSAG) emitting bursts on 147.300 is so strong, that the frontend of the IC910H (or its AGC) practically quites the receiver on 145.900. When the bursts stop, reception resumes. Difficult to qso. I have experimented with a large cavity filter and found, that the impact of the bursts can be reduced, so that normal satellite work is possible again. Now I am looking for advice on how to build a steep low pass filter, eliminating everything above 146 MHz, to be mounted before the preamp on the mast. The filter must however be capable to accept the rf power, if I work in V/U mode. Thank you for any ideas ! Werner, HB9BNK

6 8

ANS-130 AMSAT News Service Special Bulletin ARISSat-1 Update
by JoAnne Maenpaa 09 May '11

09 May '11

SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-130.01 AMSAT News Service Special Bulletin - ARISSat-1 Update AMSAT News Service Bulletin 130.01 >From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. May 10, 2011 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-130.01 The ARISSat-1 satellite was intended to be activated in April as part of the 50th anniversary of Yuri Gagarin's famous flight. However, no ground stations reported hearing the satellite. To follow up, the ARISSat-1 team had a teleconference with represent- atives of RSC-Energia (Russia) and NASA to request a clarification of the events and discuss what happened. According to RSC-Energia, the battery in ARISSat-1 was only charged once on the ground and was then used for a variety of tests and dur- ing the February activation event. It was not recharged prior to the April Yuri Gagarin activity since it can only be charged a limited number of times on the ISS. The cosmonauts reported that they activated the satellite and con- firmed that they heard the signal on the ham radio equipment on board the ISS. Since the battery was nearly depleted of its original charge, they switched the satellite off after six hours of operation in order to prevent over-discharging the battery. The battery was then removed from the satellite and stored separately as per their normal battery handling procedures. For more information on this battery, please see the JAN/FEB 2011 AMSAT Journal. RSC-Energia reported that their plan is to recharge the battery about three weeks prior to the EVA deployment. This will give the cosmonauts time to reinstall the battery and test the satellite to make sure it is working properly. The EVA deployment is planned for late July of this year. [ANS thanks AMSAT Vice-President of Engineering, Tony Monteiro, AA2TX for the above information] /EX

1 0

G5400B
by Joe Leikhim 09 May '11

09 May '11

I have a G5400B AZ/EL rotor which has never had any problems. I am now reinstalling after being QRT for a long while. Is it possible to crack these open for simple inspection and a preventative greasing or am I facing a major tear-down? -- Joe Leikhim Leikhim and Associates Communications Consultants Oviedo, Florida www.Leikhim.com JLeikhim(a)Leikhim.com 407-982-0446

2 1

New Link on AMSAT.org Web - AMSAT-OSCAR Slide Show from Space Day 2011
by JoAnne Maenpaa 09 May '11

09 May '11

Hello Everyone, AMSAT and ARISS participated in Space Day at the National Air and Space Museum on the Mall in Washington, DC on Saturday, May 7. We featured display tables and ARISS had a contact with the ISS. More coverage on this event will be in upcoming ANS bulletins and in the AMSAT Journal. Perry, W3PK says at Space Day, AMSAT showed a new version of the AMSAT-OSCAR slide show. Perry took Dick Daniels, W4PUJ, slides, added captions and converted them to PowerPoint. We have added the slide show file as a PDF to the http://www.amsat.org front page. The link is directly below the paypal donation widget. This is a fascinating document of AMSAT's proud history, tradition, and heritage of amateur radio in space. -- 73 de JoAnne K9JKM k9jkm(a)amsat.org Editor, AMSAT News Service

1 0

Kevins Comics
by Kevin Deane 09 May '11

09 May '11

Ok, I put all of my Comics/Qsl cards on nvllrc.org I usually make one or two a week and am getting a little better at it. I hope that the control operators do not take offense, I always have thought that they are supposed to be semi mean and sarcastic. So I do appreciate all the work you guys do and hope that no offense is taken. Kevin KF7MYK nvllrc.org

2 1

KB5WIA California Lost Coast (CM79/CM89/CN70/CN80) August 6-9 2011
by David Palmer 09 May '11

09 May '11

Hi Everyone, Just FYI, plans are coming together for a satellite mini grid-expedition in early August this year. The idea is to camp out near Shelter Cove on the remote northern California Lost Coast area. As much as possible, I'll hike with the portable satellite gear (Twin FT817ND's, Elk antenna, solar panels and battery) and work from the grid intersection of CM79, CM89, CN70, and CN80. This is the same location that was activated on 6m last year for the completion of the FFMA award -- CM79 is a pretty rare grid, and the adjacent ones aren't terribly common in the sat community either. As usual, I'll try for as many linear and FM passes as I can manage. Operation (and the trip itself!) is still dependant on weather and other factors, but I just wanted to give the group a heads up on this one. 73 de Dave KB5WIA

1 0

Re: AO-51 Data
by Clint Bradford 09 May '11

09 May '11

>> ... you can't ... shouldn't ... don't go out any buy anything just for this ... Heavy sigh. It's just that this has been such a good friend ... Guess I picked the wrong week to stop drinking Pina Coladas. Long live AO-51. I have a 67 degree elevation pass coming up in 30 mins ... Clint, K6LCS

9 8

Iss repeater or crossband.
by mm0kjg 09 May '11

09 May '11

Hello there. Can someone tell me when the Iss repeater will be active. My thought's are that if Oscar 51 is sick just now wouldn't it be nice to use the repeater on the Iss. Or is the repeater used only for School's chat's?. Kev De MM0KJG

2 1

AEA PK-96
by N0JY 08 May '11

08 May '11

All y'all, I've not yet done any digital satellite work, and I'm getting an itch to head that direction. Slowly it will be, and I have a few questions that I haven't been able to resolve on the internet. A local ham has an AEA PK-96 he has offered me. Is this older TNC suitable for the various modes of satellite packet on the current birds? Also, is WiSP the software I would want to use and does it run on Vista and Windows 7? Thank you for your help. 73, Jerry NØJY __________ Information from ESET NOD32 Antivirus, version of virus signature database 6105 (20110508) __________ The message was checked by ESET NOD32 Antivirus. http://www.eset.com

2 1

SO-67 plan starting 9 May
by Ib Christoffersen 08 May '11

08 May '11

Hello all in Europe, The plan for next week is at: http://www.amsatsa.org.za/ Please remember it is a plan. Good luck. 73 OZ1MY Ib

1 0

Next "HV Satcom.org" Net
by Stuart Balanger 08 May '11

08 May '11

*Hi all, The next 2 "HV Satcom" Nets are skeduled for May 12, & 26, at 8PM (EDT; -4 UTC); on the 146.970 MHz. Repeater, (Pl 100), w/ an echolink node of "N2EYH-L" More info: www.hvsatcom.org (w/ a link to WA2AQH's home page) More info (Mt.Beacon ARC) (www.wr2abb.org/home/) 73,.Stu (WA2BSS;Director;MBARC) Ps The reason this wsn't included in the ANs Weekly Bulliton, was that last week I had a case of mild flu,& a cold, & didn't feel like doing it! Happy Mothers day (To all Mom's) *

1 0

NZ5N today at DX Club picnic, please call
by Bill Dzurilla 08 May '11

08 May '11

Hi, I'll be at the S. Florida DX Club picnic today (Sunday) for the AO-27 pass at around 1350 Eastern time (1750Z). If you hear me, please call and say hello to the gang. 73, Bill NZ5N

1 0

OSCAR 7 CW
by Bato, Andras 08 May '11

08 May '11

Let me remind you the best satellite possibility, i.e. AO-7 in CW mode! In case you do not know Morse code you can learn it in week beginning with Monday and finishing it in Friday4 Remember: If not CW it's CB! gl de ha6nn Andras

1 0

ARISSAT update
by R Oler 08 May '11

08 May '11

anyone have one? There must have been some telecons by now Robert G. Oler WB5MZO

3 2

Ben Stevenson, W2BXA (SK)
by Rsoifer＠aol.com 08 May '11

08 May '11

Sadly, ARRL reports that Ben Stevenson, W2BXA, has passed away. He was 97 and active on the air almost until the end. See _http://www.arrl.org/news/noted-dxer-ben-stevenson-w2bxa-sk_ (http://www.arrl.org/news/noted-dxer-ben-stevenson-w2bxa-sk) In addition to the many achievements listed in the article, Ben and I made the first-ever two-way contact by satellite-to-satellite relay in any radio service, using AO-7 and AO-6 in 1975. Ben was a good friend for nearly 40 years. I'll miss him. 73 Ray W2RS

2 1

5,000th Contact
by Bob Herrell 08 May '11

08 May '11

I would like to thank Kerry, WC7V, for my 5,000th Satellite contact today. We made the contact on FO-29 SSB. I have posted a video on YouTube if you are interested. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yt6gM7K7Kv0 Would also like to thank all the other hams that have made this possible. Look forward to working you again soon. See ya on the birds! 73, Bob Herrell AJ5C

5 4

Funnies
by Kevin Deane 08 May '11

08 May '11

I put some of them on my QRZ look up thinga ma jig if anyone is interested. :) Kevin KF7MYK

1 0

ANS-128 AMSAT News Service Weekly Bulletins
by JoAnne Maenpaa 07 May '11

07 May '11

AMSAT NEWS SERVICE ANS-128 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 ********************************************************************** * Volunteers are needed to Help at the AMSAT booth at Dayton. Gould * * WA4SXM, is looking for volunteers to help man the AMSAT booth dur- * * ing the 2011 Hamvention. People are needed all 3 days for 2 hour * * shifts. Please send the days and times you are available to help * * as well as how many shifts you are willing to work via e-mail to * * wa4sxm at amsat.org. * ********************************************************************** In this edition: * AMSAT at the Dayton Hamvention 2011 * The DARA Matching Gift Challenge * May 16 Deadline for Dayton AMSAT/TAPR 2011 Banquet Reservations * AO-51 Batteries Failing * Calling all software developers - AMSAT needs you! * W5KUB Dayton Webcast to Feature Interview with Astronaut * Satellite Shorts From All Over * Satellite Presentations for May 2011 * 6th Anniversary of HAMSAT VO 52 * Ben Stevenson, W2BXA Silent Key SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-128.01 AMSAT at the Dayton Hamvention 2011 AMSAT News Service Bulletin 128.01 >From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. May 8, 2011 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-128.01 The 2011 Dayton Hamvention will be held this year from May 20-22, 2011 and AMSAT will be there. The AMSAT theme for 2011 is "Providing Education Through Amateur Satellites". We will have multiple exhibits of the new AMSAT satellites on display. You'll find AMSAT at the same spot (Booths 444-449) in the Ball Arena, right across from the ARRL area and just inside the door from the Sat- ellite Demonstration area. Plan to visit all of the AMSAT activities! AMSAT has planned a number of great activities during the Hamvention. To help produce and deliver our great list of AMSAT activities we need you to volunteer to help at the AMSAT booth all three days for 2 hour shifts. Please contact AMSAT-VP User Services, Gould Smith, WA4SXM by e-mail (wa4sxm(a)amsat.org) to tell him the days and times you are avail- able to help as well as how many shifts you are able to help. Here is a sample of the events and activities planned for the entire weekend. Links to all of these activities can be found on the AMSAT web page: http://www.amsat.org. + Meet astronaut Doug Wheelock, KF5BOC Friday 1:30-2:30, Saturday, 3:00-4:00 at the AMSAT booth. + ARISSat-1 operational prototype will be on display. o Tune your HT to 145.950 MHz to hear a preview of the FM downlink. o Watch the demonstration of the ARISSatTLM software receive and display the CW beacon and BPSK telemetry using G6LVB's FUNcube Dongle. + AMSAT Thursday Night Get-together at Tickets Pub & Eatery. + The AMSAT Forum will be on Saturday May 21. Moderated by Alan Biddle, WA4SCA you will have a chance to hear and see the latest news of ama- teur radio in space. o AMSAT President Barry Baines, WD4ASW will present an AMSAT Status Report o Alan Kung, BA1DU, CEO of AMSAT-China, will discuss the activities of AMSAT-China. o Project Manager for ARISSat-1, Gould Smith, WA4SXM, will talk about its operation aboard the ISS, and the planned deployment and opera- tions this summer. o Tony Monteiro, AA2TX, will discuss the design and status of Project-FOX. o Alex Harvilchuck, N3NP, will present NextGen CubeSat Program Update. + Satellite demonstrations will take place outside the Ball Arena entrance Friday, Saturday and Sunday. + The fifth annual AMSAT/TAPR Banquet will be Friday night May 20. (More information below). Be sure and come by the booth and renew your membership and receive an AMSAT multiblade screwdriver as a premium! The AMSAT leadership team will be at Hamvention and invite you to take advantage of this opportunity to interact with both board mem- bers and senior officers. If you have issues or concerns that you wish to express here is your chance to do so. [ANS thanks AMSAT HQ for the above information] /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-128.02 The DARA Matching Gift Challenge AMSAT News Service Bulletin 128.02 >From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. May 8, 2011 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-128.02 The Dayton Amateur Radio Association (DARA) has also announced a fundraising challenge for AMSAT whereby they will match on a 1:3 basis up to $5,000.00 for donations made in 2011. That is, for every $3.00 that AMSAT raises, DARA will provide $1.00 up to a maximum of $5,000 donated by DARA. AMSAT will be conducting fundraising at Hamvention, where donations will count against this goal. Please consider making a donation to AMSAT at Hamvention or anytime this Spring as we strive to meet this goal. We appreciate DARA's support for AMSAT and see this as an opportunity for donors to increase the impact of their donations by taking advantage of this matching program. This is the 60th year of the Dayton Hamvention, sponsored by DARA (Dayton Amateur Radio Association). As has been the case for the many years Hamvention will be at the Hara Arena Complex on the north side of Dayton. Further information on Hamvention 2011, including advance ticket sales and motel accommodations, can be found at the Hamvention web site: http://www.hamvention.org/ [ANS thanks AMSAT HQ for the above information] /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-128.03 May 16 Deadline for Dayton AMSAT/TAPR 2011 Banquet Reservations AMSAT News Service Bulletin 128.03 >From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. May 8, 2011 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-128.03 May 16 Deadline for Dayton AMSAT/TAPR 2011 Banquet Reservations The cutoff date for the AMSAT-TAPR dinner at Dayton is May 16th. You can register at the AMSAT website. As in previous years, we will NOT be selling banquet tickets at the AMSAT booth. The fifth annual joint AMSAT/TAPR Banquet will be held Friday evening, May 20, 2011 during the Dayton Hamvention. The Banquet will be at the: Kohler Presidential Banquet Center 4572 Presidential Way Kettering, OH 45429 (just south of Dayton). The price for the Banquet is $30 per person. Reserved tickets may be picked up at the AMSAT booth at Hamvention on Friday, or at the door. You may make reservations for the 2011 AMSAT/TAPR Banquet online in the AMSAT Store: http://www.amsat-na.com/store/item.php?id=100158 AMSAT Presidents Club Gold members should let Martha know if they are planning to attend the banquet. For additional information contact Martha at the AMSAT office (martha(a)amsat.org). Banquet Schedule ---------------- 6:30 PM Doors open and Cash bar is available with Beer, Wine, Liquor and soft drinks. 7:15 PM Buffet Dinner service begins. The Center has a justly deserved reputation for good food and service. 8:15 PM Presentation by David Rowe, VK5DGR - The Village Telco There are now billions of mobile phones all over the world. However in many developing countries, mobile phones are simply too expensive to use. For example, in a country where people earn $1.50/day, a phone call can cost 21 cents/minute. This is a huge tax on communica- tions. David Rowe, VK5DGR, will describe how a community of people from around the world set out to fix this problem, using a mix of Wi-Fi and open source software. The result is the Village Telco - a DIY telephone company that anyone can set up. A Village Telco is constructed from a network of "Mesh Potatoes" - small Wi-Fi boxes that are mounted on homes in a village. They form a mesh network, relaying telephone calls for each other. Each Mesh Potato connects to a regular telephone inside village homes. Phone calls on the network are free. A local person in the Village can be trained in a few hours to set up and maintain the network. To build the Village Telco we borrowed many ideas from Ham Radio, such as sharing hardware designs and community networks. The talk will include real world stories of how Village Telcos are helping people in several developing countries, and explain why a simple phone call that we take for granted can be so important. [ANS thanks AMSAT HQ for the above information] /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-128.04 AO-51 Batteries Failing AMSAT News Service Bulletin 128.04 >From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. May 8, 2011 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-128.04 AMSAT Vice-President of Operations Drew Glasbrenner, KO4MA reported the AO-51 Command Team is having a difficult time trying to restore AO-51 to operation. The current situation is the satellite will not retain the upload of the flight software across eclipse. The batteries are in very poor condition. AO-51 ground control stations plan a few more things to try, but with eclipses peaking around July at approximately 27 minutes, the long term situation is grim. There is a brief period around November where eclipses are as short as 16 minutes, but past that it is a long climb to 30 minutes or longer eclipses for many years. At this time the Command Team cannot provide an estimated "return to service" date. Stations with 9k6 digital capability can listen in on control station attempts at recovery on 435.150 MHz on many passes over the US. Please support AMSAT-NA and the other AMSAT groups around the world, and help us get new satellites into orbit. Projects like Fox, FunCube, P3E, and Kiwisat need your financial support to keep our amateur sat- ellite fleet flying. You can donate to AMSAT-NA via the link on the front page at http://www.amsat.org. Keep up with the latest AO-51 Control Team News on-line at: http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/echo/CTNews.php [ANS thanks AMSAT-NA VP Operations Drew Glasbrenner, KO4MA for the above information] /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-128.05 Calling all software developers - AMSAT needs you! AMSAT News Service Bulletin 128.05 >From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. May 8, 2011 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-128.05 To receive the new BPSK-1000 telemetry format from ARISSat-1, AMSAT has developed demodulation and decoding software called ARISSatTLM. This software is designed to be used with a standard 2-meter SSB receiver. With the advent of software defined radios, we would like to test receiving the telemetry on one of these new devices such as the "FUNcube Dongle" receiver. This would require modifying the software to use an I/Q source and doing the Doppler tracking in software. The ARISSatTLM software by Phil Karn KA9Q and Douglas Quagliana KA2UPW is open source and is available here: https://svn.sarpeidon.net/suitsat2/repos/ground_station_software Interested software developers are invited to download the software and see what you can do with it for your favorite SDR. [ANS thanks AMSAT Vice-President of Engineering Tony Montiero, AA2TX for the above information] /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-128.06 Dayton Webcast to Feature Interview with Astronaut Doug Wheelock AMSAT News Service Bulletin 128.06 >From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. May 8, 2011 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-128.06 If you cannot make it to Dayton this year you can watch the event via the webcam broadcast by Tom Medlin, W5KUB. Tom had 28 contacts with Col. Doug Wheelock during Expedition 25 on the International Space Station. Tom and Doug will meet in-person with the event to be broadcast on the webcam link at: http://w5kub.com. W5KUB.Com will start the live broadcast on Wednesday May 18th at approximately 0800 Central Time or 1300 UTC with the webcam mounted in the car for the 550 mile drive to Dayton. They will broadcast the shelter set up on Thursday morning May 19th at Hara Arena at 0900 Eastern time or 1300 UTC. Thursday afternoon they will try to broad- cast the Air Force Museum. Then they will be live for the entire Hamvention Friday May 20th through Sunday May 22nd. Tom says, "We will also be giving away over $5000 to lucky winners on our broadcast. All you have to do is be logged into our chatroom and claim your prize when your name is called. We have so many prizes that we will be giving them out every 20-30 minutes during live broadcasts." This year prizes include: + Grand prize FT-950 + Icom IC80AD D-star radio + headsets with mic from Heil Sound + headset and mic from TenTec + Diawa wattmeters + LDG auto antenna tuners + Comet antennas + baluns + communication speakers + weather stations + ham hats + QSL cards + ham plaques + And many other ham related prizes Last year over 50,000 unique hams followed the broadcast in about 150 countries. Log into the chat room on the web site and chat with us or other hams watching the broadcast. You can also join the ham chat room via your IRC client: server: irc.liveharmony.org then join #hamradio. Tom concludes, "Watch for our interview with Astronaut Doug Wheelock when he visits the W5KUB booth. There will also be other surprise inter- views and guests." The http://w5kub.com website on-line 24 x 7, 365 days per year. It will have recorded videos on when we are not live. Come on over and say hello. [ANS thanks Tom Medlin, W5KUB for the above information] /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-128.07 Satellite Shorts From All Over AMSAT News Service Bulletin 128.07 >From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. May 8, 2011 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-128.07 + AMSAT extends sincere sympathy and best wishes to ISS astronaut Paolo Nespoli, IZ0JPA from Italy upon his recent sad news while in orbit on the International Space Station about the passing of his mother following an illness. She was 78. Nespoli is scheduled to return to Earth in three weeks. + A school contact with Greenville was done with the recently instal- led Ericsson radio from the Columbus module on the ISS. The ARISS team has received some reports that the signal may been lower than from past contacts. Please pass along your thoughts on how the sig- nals seemed to be. ARISS had several contacts on Saturday, so if you listened, please tell ARISS how the signals sounded to you. Please post your signal reports on the sarex(a)amsat.org list. + NASA has made available for the public a new online collection of images of our solar system and locations on Earth where astrobiology researchers travel to conduct field research. The 90+ images in the collection were chosen for their scientific significance and sheer beauty. The photos can be viewed on the "From Earth to the Solar System (FETTSS)" website at: http://fettss.arc.nasa.gov/ A related story is at: http://tinyurl.com/3wzjve5 (skynightly.com) + NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory says the Space Images Version 2 app for iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch and Android is available for free down- load from: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/apps/spaceimages/index.cfm The Space Images are also available on a web site: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/spaceimages/ + Kazakhstan Special Event Stations to celebrate the 50th anniversary of manned space flight using special callsigns will remain active until May 31. UN50SK (homecall UN7GWC), UO50G (UN2G), UP1ASTR (UN0GL), UP50F (UN7FW), UP50ASTR (UN6GK), UP50YG (UN7Z), UQ50G (UN6QC), UQ50L (UN7LZ) and UQ50P (UN7PL). They have also a special award and the rules can be found at: http://un-dx.ucoz.com/index/yuri_gagarin/0-36 (DXNL 1726 - May 4, 2011 DX Newsletter) + Here's your chance to dress up your QSL mailings with new postage stamps honoring Mercury astronaut Alan Shepard, America's first man in space, and NASA's MESSENGER probe, the first spacecraft to orbit Mercury. For more information see: http://tinyurl.com/637uz3n (UniverseToday.com) + Something to talk about on 75 meters besides the weather ... Research- ers at Northwestern University have created a new kind of cloaking material that can render objects invisible in the terahertz range. Though this design can't translate into an invisibility cloak for the visible spectrum, it could have implications in diagnostics, security, and communication. See: http://tinyurl.com/3m8uehs (spacewar.com) + 70MHz is not an amateur band in the USA, but European stations may try to listen for a new 4-Meter Band Radio Science E-skip Trans- Atlantic propagation beacon from the East Coast of the US. Its operating frequency is 70.005 MHz, QTH is FM07fm, CW emissions. The callsign of the beacon is WE9XUP. Any and all QSL/SWL reports are welcome via email to: WA1ZMS ( at ) ARRL ( dot ) NET. The beacon is scheduled to run 24 hours a day until 1 Sept, 2011. + Additional information about the Resourcesat-2, Youthsat, and X-Sat satellites launched on PSLV-C16 rocket on April 20 from India can be found on-line at: http://tinyurl.com/3fh53zt (spacemart.com) + A group of Cornell-developed, fingernail-sized satellites may travel to Saturn within the next decade, and as they flutter down through its atmosphere, they will collect data about chemistry, radiation and particle impacts. Three prototypes of these chip satellites, named "Sprite," will be mounted on the International Space Station after the space shuttle Endeavour delivers them on its final flight. The thin, 1-inch-square chips will be mounted to the Materials International Space Station Experiment (MISSE-8) pallet, which will be attached to the space station, exposing them to the harsh conditions of space to see how they hold up and transmit data. More information at: http://tinyurl.com/3fs5ks7 (spacemart.com) + Dave, KB1PVH is still looking for operators for CT, NH, NJ for the 13 Original Colonies Special Event. If anyone wants to participate send him an email at kb1pvh(a)gmail.com. More info on-line at: http://www.13colonies.info/ + 'CQ EGYPT' Amateur Radio Magazine from The Egyptian Radio Amateurs Society (ERASD). One of their foremost goals is providing educational programs and materials to promote amateur radio and develop the sci- entific and technical skills of the Egyptian and Arab youth. In this context, ERASD is currently issued an online magazine focused on simp- lifying science and technology to youth in general, and more particu- larly in areas related to amateur radio and satellite. The Magazine articles will be a mix of English and Arabic. The May issue is NOW on-line at: http://erasd.net/CQSUAMATEURRADIOMAGAZIN.aspx [ANS thanks everyone for the above information] /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-128.08 Satellite Presentations for May 2011 AMSAT News Service Bulletin 128.08 >From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. May 8, 2011 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-128.08 Clint Bradford, K6LCS, will be presenting his "How to Work the FM Amateur Satellites With Your HT" session at the following clubs in the month of May, 2011. ALL are welcome to attend. Attendees will be shown everything needed to work the FM ham satellites - with a re-occurring theme of, "Most hams already have most of the necessary equipment ... " Attendees should download the four-page tutorial beforehand at ... http://www.work-sat.com ... and Clint welcomes pre-presentation questions. Call him at 909-241-7666, or send email to clint(a)clintbradford.com . Chattanooga Tennessee ARC, 7PM local time Thursday, May 5, 2011 American Red Cross chapter 3801 McCallie Avenue Chattanooga TN 37403 Iredell County ARS, 7PM local time May 12, 2011 Julia's Talley House Restaurant Highway 21 North Troutman NC 28166 Palos Verdes ARC, 7:30PM PDT Wednesday, May 18, 2011 Hesse Park Community Room 23901 Hawthorne Boulevard Rancho Palos Verdes CA 90275 West Coast ARC, 7PM PDT Thursday, May 19, 2011 Huntington Beach Senior Outreach Center 1718 Orange Avenue Huntington Beach CA 92648-2478 Barrow ARC, 7PM local time Tuesday, May 24, 2011 Barrow Regional Medical Center - 3rd floor conference room 316 North Broad Street Winder Georgia 30680 [ANS thanks Clint Bradford, K6LCS for the above information and thanks him for his on-going outreach work for amateur radio in space.] /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-128.09 6th Anniversary of HAMSAT VO 52 AMSAT News Service Bulletin 128.09 >From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. May 8, 2011 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-128.09 Mani, VU2WMY, Secretary & Station-In-Charge of the Upagrah Amateur Radio Club VU2URC at the ISRO Satellite Centre in India released the following statement this week: "It gives us great pleasure and satisfaction to say that 'HAMSAT-VO 52' has completed 6 years of successful operation in orbit. HAMSAT was launched on 5th May 2005 aboard PSLV-C6 from Sriharikotta. The transponder and the beacon on-board were never been off the air, even for a second from the time they were switched 'ON'. Looking at the health parameters, HAMSAT is still in good condition and we are sure it would provide fruitful services for many more years to come. On this happy occasion, we express our sincere thanks to the entire ISRO HAMSAT project team for this great feat. Our thanks to AMSAT- India, Kumar VU2BGS and William PEIRAH for their contributions." [ANS thanks Mani, VU2WMY for the above information] /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-128.10 Ben Stevenson, W2BXA Silent Key AMSAT News Service Bulletin 128.10 >From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. May 8, 2011 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-128.10 AMSAT has received the sad news of the passing of Ben Stevenson, W2BXA, of Colonia, New Jersey, on May 5, 2011. He was 97. An ARRL member since 1934, Stevenson was also a charter member of the North Jersey DX Association (NJDXA) since 1957, serving as its first president. Stevenson held Satellite DXCC #1, Mixed DXCC #6 (390 countries confirmed) and Phone DXCC #6 (388 countries confirmed). He held WAZ No.1, as well as DXCC on 10 bands, 6 through 160, plus of course OSCAR. At his death he had 225 confirmed on Top Band, all from a 1-acre lot in central New Jersey. He held his call sign con- tinuously for 82 years. Ray Soifer, W2RS recalls, "Ben was a good friend for nearly 40 years. Ben and I made the first-ever two-way contact by satellite- to-satellite relay in any radio service, using AO-7 and AO-6 in 1975. Ben often said that the secrets of success in DX are persis- tence and consistency. Not a bad formula for success in life either. I'll miss him." [ANS thanks the ARRL and Ray Soifer, W2RS 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 ham who realized several reasons why he was getting older ... he realized him and his teeth don't sleep together; when he went to try to straighten out the wrinkles in his socks he discovered he wasn't wearing any; he woke up looking like his drivers license picture; and when his wife told him to suck in his gut he realized he had already done so. 73, This week's ANS Editor, JoAnne Maenpaa, K9JKM K9JKM at amsat dot org

1 0

Re: [CDXC] Ben Stevenson, W2BXA (SK)
by Rsoifer＠aol.com 07 May '11

07 May '11

Further to my earlier email, Ben had several other achievements of which he was quite proud, which weren't mentioned in the arrl.org article. He held WAZ No.1, as well as DXCC on 10 bands, 6 through 160, plus of course OSCAR. At his death he had 225 confirmed on Top Band, all from a 1-acre lot in central New Jersey. He often said that the secrets of success in DX are persistence and consistency. Not a bad formula for success in life either. 73 Ray W2RS In a message dated 5/7/2011 4:57:04 P.M. GMT Standard Time, Rsoifer(a)aol.com writes: __http://www.arrl.org/news/noted-dxer-ben-stevenson-w2bxa-sk__ (http://www.arrl.org/news/noted-dxer-ben-stevenson-w2bxa-sk_) (_http://www.arrl.org/news/noted-dxer-ben-stevenson-w2bxa-sk_ (http://www.arrl.org/news/noted-dxer-ben-stevenson-w2bxa-sk) )

1 0

AO-51 - Requiem
by Clint Bradford 07 May '11

07 May '11

>> ... because since 2004 when AO-51 was operational a lot of Hams invested a lot of money to buy FM hand held equipments, Arrow antennas and ELK antennas to work ... Huh? 2004 was the year the Yaesu FT-60R was released. For under $200. The Kenwood TH-D7 was available - always a battery hog, but expensive due to its TNC/APRS capabilities. To say that we blew our collective wads on "hand held equipment" for working FM birds doesn't make sense to me. And I was working at the US' largest ham radio equipment dealer then: that phenomenon did not occur. >> ... if AO-51 will be in trouble for a long time and if a similar satellite will not replace it than a lot of money all around the world has been invested in FM equipment for very small ... The equipment purchased to work the FM sats covers the two most popular voice bands in the US, if not the planet. There's no "handheld equipment" that is exclusively made for sat work. >> ... The situation for the linear satellite users is very bad as well because HO-68 was only activated for a limited numbar of orbits ... I do not understand why some folks are so hot for '68. Its primary mission was never going to be "amateur radio." It is run by the Chinese, who could really care less about what we would like to see happen with it. (Sorry, my wife has been to Tibet three times in the past five years, and has some really illustrative stories on how obscenely the Chinese treat some very peaceful people.) The Chinese projects have little or no interest for me. >> ... I don't have any information about the Fox project ... Right at the top of the AMSAT-org Web site you will find ... http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/fox/ >> ... I wanted a HEO so bad! When I win the lottery, we'll have a geo-synchronous bird above North America ... Clint, K6LCS

3 2

WD9EWK @ DM51/DM52 now...
by Patrick STODDARD 07 May '11

07 May '11

Hi! I am at the DM51/DM52 boundary now, and will be on AO27 shortly.... And other passes this afternoon. 73! Patrick WD9EWK/VA7EWK http://www.wd9ewk.net/

2 1

What need to know About Portugal
by AMRAD 07 May '11

07 May '11

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hV1Sez9uIRA

1 0

Corrected link
by Rsoifer＠aol.com 07 May '11

07 May '11

_Click here: Noted DXer Ben Stevenson, W2BXA (SK)_ (http://www.arrl.org/news/noted-dxer-ben-stevenson-w2bxa-sk)

1 0

So 67
by kf1buz＠gmail.com 07 May '11

07 May '11

We are doing a special event in reno Will try to hit the next pass W7ecw emcomm west call Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

1 0

ISS orbit reboosted
by Alan P. Biddle 07 May '11

07 May '11

According to various sources, the ISS orbit was raised 1 km Thursday. This will result in a "slippage" of the old Kep's predictions of about 20 seconds per day. So make certain your Keps are up to date. The Celestrak updates used by most tracking programs look good. 73s, Alan WA4SCA

2 1

Portable Sat Antennas
by JHBRTOO＠aol.com 06 May '11

06 May '11

My two cents worth-- I like the ELK for portable operation first because it lays flat in the trunk and it is a single feed line antenna (although the front line is unusual) I do use an Arrow also with two feed lines to a Combiner/Duplexer/Diplexer/ Whatever mainly or when I use two rigs for CW/SSB. I think both antennas are very comparable operationally, the ELK being a little easier to haul around. Nuf Said bout that Thanks to all for your info on many subjects-- hams helping hams. Dave WA6EKR

1 0

AO-51 Monitoring ..
by Bruce Semple 06 May '11

06 May '11

Listening in on the 05/06/2011 - 2250Z 435.150 with 9.6K capability -- Nothing "heard" -- no carrier detected .. probably not a good sign - WA3SWJ

2 1

AO-51 Over West Coast
by Clint Bradford 06 May '11

06 May '11

Was anything attempted that normally would have been heard on 435.150 just now (5PM PDT)? Nothing was heard ... It is scary being so attached to an inanimate object that I have never been any closer than 500 miles. Clint

1 0

Investigation over the IC 9100 for the existence of "birdies"
by i8cvs 06 May '11

06 May '11

Hi All, I would like to know is someone on the list has already tested the new all mode IC 9100 to verify the existance or not of "birdies" into the VHF/UHF/SHF bands. The specifications of the IC 9100 says that the spurious signals are suppressed by more then 70 dB from HF to 50 MHz and by more then 60 dB from 144 to 440 MHz Tanks for any report. 73" de i8CVS Domenico

1 0

AO-51 Data
by Clint Bradford 06 May '11

06 May '11

>> ... If you have 9k6 digital capability, you can listen in on our attempts at recovery on 435.150 on many passes over the US. ... I am packet-illiterate. But HRO locally does not have the Yaesu mic cable in stock to interface any of the West Mountain RigBlaster products I could purchase for my Yaesu FT-8800. How else can I attempt to monitor this? HRO is open four more hours today ... Clint, K6LCS 909-241-7666

3 2

HRD
by Kevin Deane 06 May '11

06 May '11

Thanks guys that was fast, I guess I could have looked a little harder...Must be getting old... Kevin

1 0