AMSAT NEWS SERVICE ANS-253
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@amsat.org
****************** AMSAT 2006 Space Symposium **************************
Online registration and hotel reservation for the 2006 AMSAT Space Symposium has been posted to the AMSAT website, and information about the Symposium has been expanded. The 2006 AMSAT Space Symposium will be held October 6, 7 and 8 at the Crowne Plaza in Foster City California in the beautiful San Francisco Bay Area.
Please visit http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/symposium for additional information and an index to the expanded Symposium web pages.
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In this edition: * Mentor Graphics Makes Generous Donation * AMSAT Ballots due 9/15/06 * 2006 AMSAT Symposium * AO-51 PL Needed * Suit-Sat Re-enters * ARISS STATUS
SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-253.01 Mentor Graphics Makes Generous Software Donation
AMSAT News Service Bulletin 253.01 From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. September 10, 2006 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-253.01
AMSAT is very pleased to annouced an extremely generous donation of software tools from Mentor Graphics. Mentor Graphics has donated 20 licenses for entire suites of software with a total value in the hundreds of thousands of dollars! The software will used for the design, simulation, verification and test of circuits and multi-layer printed circuit boards for both the Eagle spacecraft as well as development of the User ground station for the digitial transponder.
This software will be a great benefit to the Eagle and HPSDR team members working to develop the hardware that will make Eagle space and ground systems a reality.
AMSAT thanks Mentor Graphics for their most generous donation.
[ANS thanks Rick, W2GPS, for the above information]
/EX
SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-253.02 All AMSAT Ballots Due by Friday, 9/15/06
AMSAT News Service Bulletin 253.02 From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. September 10, 2006 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-253.02
Note to All AMSAT Members. Please make your vote count and get them mailed to AMSAT HQ by Friday, 9/15/06. Exercise your right to select your leadership and steer the group in the direction you feel is the proper course. Drop it in the mail now! Background on all the candidates can be found on the AMSAT web site to help your decisions.
[ANS thanks Martha for the above information]
/EX
SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-253.03 2006 AMSAT Symposium
AMSAT News Service Bulletin 253.03 From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. September 10, 2006 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-253.03
The annual Symposium is now about a month away. You can still sign up to attend this exciting event being held in San Francisco, CA. Meet all the leadeship and enjoy the classic talks given by superb speakers. Mingle with those that make satellites a reality-yes, real rocket scientists. All the information you need to join in this event are on the website. Stop by and read how to attend and see the great lineup of speakers and demonstrations that make this event unique.
[ANS thanks Emily, N1DID, for the above information]
/EX
SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-253.04 AO-51 PL Needed
AMSAT News Service Bulletin 253.04 From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. September 10, 2006 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-253.04
Remember that you need a PL of 67 Hz to access AO-51 in mode J-FM (except in QRP mode).
Please, especially if you haven't worked a given satellite in mode J-FM before, make sure you can hear well enough copy callsigns before transmitting. There might be occasions on SO-50 when you're the only one on, but over the 'States, this is rather rare on AO-51, especially in high power mode.
We're having problems with dead carriers on AO-51 this week, where sometimes even the regulars with good antenna setups can't get in due to interference from stations without PL. Please listen first and use the correct PL.
73's and good luck!
September 11 to September 18 FM Repeater, L/S Uplink: 1268.700 MHz FM, No PL Tone Downlink: 2401.200 MHz FM
[ANS thanks KD6PAG, for the above information]
/EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-253.05 Suitsat Re-enters
AMSAT News Service Bulletin 253.05 From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. September 10, 2006 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-253.05
All,
On September 7, 2006 at 16:00 GMT, SuitSat-1 re-entered about 1400 km south-southwest of Western Australia. For more details, including the winners of the Chicken Little Contest, please go to:
http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/ariss/suitsatContest.php
I want to thank all who made SuitSat-1 the phenomenal event that it was. Your hard work and dedication paid off.
In just 3 weeks the SuitSat team developed and delivered a safe satellite system that has gained the confidence of the international space agencies. The web and PR team were able to garner unprecedented press coverage of our ham/educational outreach activity, including over 9 million hits on www.suitsat.org in February. Students around the world had the opportunity to participate in a 7 month "school spacewalk" with the artwork, pictures, signatures and voices on-board. And the "super-sleuth" ham radio operator extraordinaires were able to pull a significant amount of data from the satellite despite of its low signal strength.
And my congratulations to the students and adults who won the Chicken Little contest!!
Next for SuitSat-1--the commemorative certificates/diplomas. And at the AMSAT-NA symposium/ARISS meeting we will discuss our thoughts and plans for a potential SuitSat-2.
Stay tuned!
73, Frank H. Bauer, KA3HDO AMSAT V.P. for Human Spaceflight Programs ARISS International Chairman
[ANS Thanks Frank Bauer, KA3HDO, for the above information]
EX/
SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-253.06 ARISS STATUS
AMSAT News Service Bulletin 253.06 From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. September 10, 2006 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-253.06
ARISS Status September 4, 2006
1. Tennessee School Contact Successful
On Monday, August 28, students from Northeast Middle School in Clarksville, Tennessee had the opportunity to speak with the ISS. Jeff Williams, KD5TVQ, answered 19 questions asked by ten children via the telebridge station VK4KHZ in Australia. Jeff Williams’ niece was one of the children selected to participate in the session. A local paper covered the contact. Twenty-one connections, including 3 repeater nodes, from 7 countries were made to the EchoLink AMSAT (101 377) and JK1ZRW (277 208) servers. Audio was also fed into the IRLP Discovery Reflector 9010, and was webcast courtesy of Verizon Conferencing. The Leaf-Chronicle wrote a story on the event entitled, “Students make long-distance call to astronaut in outer space.” See: http://www.theleafchronicle.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060829/NEWS01/6...
2. ARRL Article on Japanese Contact
ARRL covered the Sendai Yoshinari School contact in its article, “Junior High Schoolers in Japan Speak with Astronaut via Ham Radio.” See: http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2006/09/01/3/?nc=1
3. School Contact Mentioned on Space.ref
The Space.ref website has a brief entry on the Teven Tintenbar School in Australia. See paragraph 19 on: http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewsr.html?pid=21694
4. Options to Speak with Friends, Family from Space Include Ham Radio
The Canadian Space Agency web site describes the options available to the ISS crew members for contacting friends and family on Earth. Ham radio is one of the options mentioned. See: http://www.space.gc.ca/asc/eng/astronauts/living_relaxing.asp
5. ARISS TIM Held
The ARISS team held a Technical Interchange Meeting August 28 -31 at Goddard Space Flight Center. ARISS Delegate Sergey Samburov was able to attend the discussions which covered ARISS hardware and software, SuitSat-2 design and development, and school operations.
[ANS thanks Carol, KB3LKI, 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.
73, This week's ANS Editor, Dee Interdonato, NB2F nb2f at amsat dot org
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