AMSAT NEWS SERVICE ANS-130
The AMSAT News Service bulletins are a free, weekly news and infor- mation service of AMSAT North America, The Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation. ANS publishes news related to Amateur Radio in Space including 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.
The news feed on http://www.amsat.org publishes news of Amateur Radio in Space as soon as our volunteers can post it.
Please send any amateur satellite news or reports to: ans-editor at amsat.org.
In this edition:
* Deadline for 2015 TAPR/AMSAT Banquet ticket is Tuesday, May 12th at 1800 EDT * AMSAT at Dayton Hamvention 2015 * Work Fox-1A at Dayton * Top 10 Reasons to Come to Dayton * 7th European CubeSat Symposium * ISS Ham Video transmitter now transmitting * NASA Hosts Media Call on Draft Solicitation for New Class of Launch Services
SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-130.01 ANS-130 AMSAT News Service Weekly Bulletins
AMSAT News Service Bulletin 130.01 From AMSAT HQ Kensington, MD. May 10, 2015 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-130.01
Deadline for 2015 TAPR/AMSAT Banquet ticket is Tuesday, May 12th at 1800 EDT
The speaker at the 2015 TAPR/AMSAT Banquet will be Michael Ossmann, AD0NR, on "Adventures of a Hacker Turned Ham." Tickets ($35 each) MUST be purchased online in advance at the AMSAT Store no later than 1800 EDT (2300 UTC) Tuesday, May 12th. Tickets will not be sold at the Hamvention or at the door.
Tickets purchased online may be collected at the AMSAT booth (433-435, 444-446). More information may be found at http://www.amsat.org/?page_id=190.
[ANS thanks Alan, WA4SCA, for the above information]
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AMSAT at Dayton Hamvention 2015
The AMSAT theme for this year is "Year of The Fox", as we expect to launch both Fox-1A and Fox-1C in 2015 and we're announcing the plans for Fox-1D and Fox-1E.
The AMSAT booth is in the same location inside the Ball Arena as last year, in booths 433-435 and 444-446. The Tracking Software Demos (433) and Engineering & Education (434-435) are across the aisle from the Beginner's Corner (444) and Membership, Books & Shirts (445-446). The closest entrance to the AMSAT booth is the Ball Arena entrance (Door 1) at the southeast corner of the building. The satellite QSO demonstrations will be outside across from the entrance to the Ball Arena.
AMSAT Forum ----------- The AMSAT forum will be Saturday morning from 11:15 a.m. through 1:30 p.m. in Forum Room 5, close to the AMSAT booth. See the commercial vendor layout map in the Hamvention program or the Hamvention website for the location of Forum Room 5 (same as the last few years).
The following speakers will be presenting at the AMSAT Forum:
+ Moderator: Alan Biddle, WA4SCA
+ "AMSAT Status Report." Barry Baines, WD4ASW, AMSAT-NA President, will highlight recent activities within AMSAT and discuss some of the challenges, accomplishments, and exciting projects of the organization.
+ "ARISS Report 2015" Frank Bauer, KA3HDO, AMSAT-NA Vice President for Human Spaceflight, will discuss ARISS development & operations on the International Space Station.
+ "AMSAT-NA Fox Satellite Program." Jerry Buxton, N0JY, AMSAT-NA Engineering Vice President, will discuss the upcoming launches of four Fox spacecraft and exciting new engineering developments.
+ "AMSAT Satellite Operations." Drew Glasbrenner, KO4MA, AMSAT-NA Operations Vice President, will discuss current satellites, as well as those planned for launch in the next year.
+ "AMSAT's Skunk Works." Tom Clark, K3IO, AMSAT-NA President Emeritus, will discuss some innovative R&D items for future spacecraft.
+ "Amateur Satellites, Education, and You!" EMike McCardel, KC8YLD, AMSAT-NA Educational Relations Vice President, will discuss the resources and equipment which supports the educational goals of AMSAT-NA.
On-the-air Satellite Demonstrations -----------------------------------
Keith Pugh, W5IU and other volunteers will be conducting satellite demonstrations during the Hamvention. They will be demonstrating satellite operation using a manual station to work all the currently available FM satellites and SSB satellites. Hamvention has provided us a nice fenced area right outside the Ball Arena entrance in which to do our satellite demonstrations. A schedule of satellite passes for the Hamvention will be available in the Beginner's Corner and in the demonstration area.
[ANS thanks the AMSAT Dayton Hamvention Posse for the above information]
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Work Fox-1A at Dayton
Bring your HT to Dayton Hamvention, you can work each other on the Fox-1 engineering unit repeater at the AMSAT Engineering Booth!
Uplink: 435.180 MHz FM, CTCSS 67.0 Hz Downlink: 145.980 MHz FM ± Doppler (which should be minimal)
[ANS thanks Jerry Buxton, N0JY, AMSAT VP Engineering, for the above information]
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Top 10 Reasons to Come to Dayton
10. Rub shoulders with 25,000 of your best friends at the largest hamfest in the United States, including nearly all of the AMSAT Directors and senior officers.
9. Find out how to organize a contact with the astronauts on the International Space Station for your local school or youth group from our Education and ARISS experts.
8. Pickup the latest AMSAT golf shirts, T-shirts, and hats. Get your copy of the updated "Amateur Satellite Frequency Guide" (laminated frequency chart) and Gould Smith's just revised "Getting Started with Amateur Satellites" (book). We'll also have assembled wide-band preamps that are great for portable operation.
7. See the latest equipment from Icom, Yaesu, Kenwood, Flex, Alinco, M2, Arrow, and many other manufacturers of amateur radio equipment and accessories. Take advantage of discounted pricing you won't find anywhere else.
6. See demonstrations of SatPC32 and MacDoppler satellite tracking software, and get your operational questions answered. Meet Don Agro, author of MacDoppler (Friday & Saturday, 2-3 p.m.). See a demonstration of the LVB Tracker, a computer interface to the Yaesu azimuth-elevation rotors. Talk with Mike Young, who has built more LVB Trackers than anyone else. Assembled LVB Trackers will be available.
5. Hear the latest on the *five* Fox satellites, the geosynchronous rideshare opportunity, the International Space Station, other current and future satellites, Education news, and an AMSAT update at the AMSAT Forum Saturday, from 11:15 to 1:30.
4. Get one-on-one guidance on setting up your satellite station and making contacts at our "Beginner's Corner". Witness live demonstrations of contacts through satellites AO-7, FO-29, SO-50, AO-73, and the Fox-1C engineering model using handheld antennas.
3. Bring your dual-band HT and listen (on 2m FM) to the Fox-1A engineering model, and transmit through the model on 70cm. Meet and interact with some of the Engineering Team members working on the Fox-1 satellites.
2. Get satellite station and operating tips from some of the best satellite operators in the country, including John Papay K8YSE (1,405 grids confirmed), Doug Papay KD8CAO (1,045 grids), Drew Glasbrenner KO4MA (1,036 grids), Paul Stoetzer (444 grids), and Keith Pugh W5IU (ARISS Mentor).
1. Receive special premiums when you join or renew your AMSAT membership at Dayton, including an updated "Amateur Satellite Frequency Guide" (laminated frequency chart), an AMSAT pen/stylus, and special pricing on the SatPC32 satellite tracking software.
[ANS thanks Steve, N9IP, for the above information]
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7th European CubeSat Symposium
7th European CubeSat Symposium that will take place at Liège (Belgium) on 9-11 September 2015. The Symposium is co-organized by the von Karman Institute and the University of Liege (Space Structures and Systems Laboratory). As in the previous years, the Symposium is open to all CubeSat community around the World.
For more information and deadlines, please visit the symposium website www.cubesatsymposium.eu
Please remember to submit your abstract before the 15th June 2015. If you are a student, please apply for the sponsorship before that date.
The Symposium will be followed by a short course in astrodynamics organized by the University of Liège (more information at this link).
[ANS thanks Dr. Masutti for the above information]
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ISS Ham Video transmitter now transmitting
Friday May 1st, 2015 the Ham Video transmitter on board the Columbus module of the International Space Station was powered on and started transmitting in "Blank Transmission" (BT) mode.
In this mode, the transmitter is operated without camera. The digital TV signal is fully formatted, but the content of the video is black and the content of the audio is at zero level. From a technical perspective, the BT signal is all that is needed for testing and fine tuning ground stations.
The European network of chained ground stations is presently nearly complete. Six ground stations span the continent in "X" formation. For each ascending pass over Europe, four stations provide about ten minutes of solid copy and the same is true for descending passes:
- Ascending passes: Lisbon (Portugal ==> Poitiers (France) ==> Casale Monferrato (North Italy ==> Kolo (Poland) - Descending passes : Cork (Ireland) ==> Poitiers (France) ==> Casale Monferrato (North Italy ==> Matera (South Italy.
The chained ground stations are streaming the digital video to the BATC server (British Amateur Television Club). BATC set up a multiviewer page, accessible at:
The page shows all six streams from the chained ground stations. Each view can be maximized to full screen and the audio of each stream can be set to level or muted.
Presently, active stations stream technical data provided by the software developed by Jean Pierre Courjaud F6DZP. Several data are most interesting to observe: - the "constellations", which visualize the QPSK (quaternary PSK) modulated signal - the digital Signal/Noise ratio = MER (dB) (Modulation Error Ratio) - the control LEDs that change from red to green on decoding the digital signal.
The Ham Video transmitter frequency is 2395MHz and the symbol rate is 2.0Ms/sec. More information is available at:
http://www.ariss-eu.org/columbus.htm
The Ham Video transmitter will stay on as long as on board operations permit. When the ground stations will be operating reliably, the Ham Video transmitter will be used to enhance ARISS school contacts. Uplink will remain VHF audio only. This operational mode is dubbed ARISS Ham TV.
[ANS thanks Gaston, ON4WF, for the above information]
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NASA Hosts Media Call on Draft Solicitation for New Class of Launch Services
NASA's Launch Services Program has issued a draft Request for Proposal (RFP) for a new Venture Class Launch Services (VCLS), which would be commercial launch services for small satellites and experiments on science missions using a smaller than currently available class of rockets. NASA Logo
NASA will host a media teleconference at 1 p.m. EDT Monday, May 11 to discuss this strategic initiative, the RFP and the expectation for this class of launch services.
At present, launch opportunities for small satellites -- often called CubeSats or nanosatellites -- and small science missions are mostly limited to ride-share type arrangements, flying only when space is available on NASA and other launches. The Launch Services Program seeks to develop alternatives to this approach and help foster other launch services dedicated to transporting smaller payloads into orbit. The services acquired through such a contract will constitute the smallest class of launch services used by NASA.
Participants in the media briefing are:
Mark Wiese, chief, Flight Projects Branch, Launch Services Program Business Office, NASA's Kennedy Space Center Garrett Skrobot, mission manager, Educational Launch of Nanosatellites (ELaNa), Launch Services Program, NASA's Kennedy Space Center
This solicitation, and resulting contract or contracts, is intended to demonstrate a dedicated launch capability for smaller payloads that NASA anticipates it will require on a recurring basis for future science and CubeSat missions. CubeSats already are used in markets, such as imagery collection and analysis. In the future, CubeSat capabilities will include abilities, such as ship and aircraft tracking, improved weather prediction, and broader Internet coverage.
NASA intends to award one or more firm fixed-price VCLS contracts to accommodate 132 pounds (60 kilograms) of CubeSats a single launch or two launches carrying 66 pounds (30 kilograms) each. The launch provider will determine the launch location and date, but the launch must occur by April 15, 2018.
To listen to the media teleconference, call 321-867-1220, 321-867-1240 or 321-867-1260 or listen online at:
Media may participate in the briefing by calling the Kennedy Space Center news center at 321-867-2468 within 15 minutes prior to the start of Monday's teleconference to obtain a passcode for voice access.
The draft RFP is open for written questions and comments from industry entities until Wednesday, May 20. The final RFP, if issued, is anticipated to be released in June. The draft RFP may be accessed at:
For more information about NASA's CubeSat Launch Initiative, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/directorates/heo/home/CubeSats_initiative.html
NASA's Launch Services Program is focused on assuring the availability of long- term launch services for NASA while also promoting the continued evolution of the U.S. commercial space launch market. The capability anticipated to meet the requirement for a smaller launch vehicle represents an emerging category of launch services.
For more information about NASA's Launch Services Program, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/centers/kennedy/launchingrockets/index.html
[ANS thanks NASA for the above information]
/EX
In addition to regular membership, AMSAT offers membership in the President's Club. Members of the President's Club, as sustaining donors to AMSAT Project Funds, will be eligible to receive addi- tional benefits. Application forms are available from the AMSAT Office.
Primary and secondary school students are eligible for membership at one-half the standard yearly rate. Post-secondary school students enrolled in at least half time status shall be eligible for the stu- dent rate for a maximum of 6 post-secondary years in this status. Contact Martha at the AMSAT Office for additional student membership information.
73, This week's ANS Editor, Lee McLamb, KU4OS ku4os at amsat dot org