AMSAT NEWS SERVICE ANS-017
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:
* ARRL President Bestows President’s Award on AMSAT’s Tom Clark, K3IO * Joseph Spier, K6WAO, Appointed VP-Educational Relations * 25 Year AMSAT Office Volunteer Bob Carpenter, W3OTC, SK * Nepal students to speak to Tim Peake * ESA Online Astronaut Selection Tes
SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-017.01 ANS-017 AMSAT News Service Weekly Bulletins
AMSAT News Service Bulletin 017.01 From AMSAT HQ Kensington, MD. January 17, 2016 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-017.01
ARRL President Bestows President’s Award on AMSAT’s Tom Clark, K3IO
The ARRL has honored veteran AMSAT personality and Amateur Radio digital pioneer Tom Clark, K3IO (ex-W3IWI), with its President’s Award. ARRL President Kay Craigie, N3KN, presented the award plaque to Clark at a January 10 meeting of the Potomac Valley Radio Club in Blacksburg, Virginia. The plaque, which bears a likeness of ARRL Co-Founder Hiram Percy Maxim, W1AW, recognizes Clark’s 60 years of advancing Amateur Radio technology.
Former AMSAT President and current AMSAT Director Bob McGwier, N4HY, stated directly. “There would be no AMSAT to inspire all of this work without Tom Clark,” he said, noting that the organization was in serious trouble after the Phase 3A satellite launch failure.
“Tom took over as president of AMSAT, and he saved the organization and inspired all of us to look to the future and aim for the stars,” McGwier said. “All that has followed, including PACSAT and microsats, CubeSats, AO-13, all the way through AO-85, are a direct result of Tom Clark saving AMSAT and providing it leadership as president from 1980 to 1987 and continuous leadership on the Board of Directors of AMSAT from 1976 until today.”
McGwier said it was Clark who convinced him in 1985 that the future lay in digital signal processing — DSP. “We started the TAPR/AMSAT DSP project, and it was announced in 1987,” he said. “We showed in our efforts that small stations with small antennas could bounce signals off the moon, and, using the power of DSP, we could see the signals in our computer displays.”
McGwier said this led to the SDX, the Software Defined Transponder, included in ARISSat and in AMSAT’s Phase 3E. McGwier said Clark was an early supporter of women in science, too.
“Tom is now and always will be a leader, mentor — the chief scientist for all of Amateur Radio,” he said.
Clark is an adviser to Virginia Tech as adjunct professor of aerospace and ocean engineering and of electrical and computer Engineering. McGwier said Clark will play a crucial role in the Phase 4B geosynchronous satellite opportunity on the USAF Wide Field of View spacecraft, in which Virginia Tech is a partner.
[ANS thanks ARRL for the above information]
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Joseph Spier, K6WAO, Appointed VP-Educational Relations
AMSAT President Barry Baines, WD4ASW has accepted the resignation of E. Michael "EMike" McCardel, AA8EM, as VP-Educational Relations and appointed Joseph Spier, K6WAO, as his replacement.
E. Michael McCardel, AA8EM, of Howard, OH was first appointed as an Associate Director for Educational Outreach under former VP Educational Relations Mark Hammond, N8MH, in 2011 and succeeded Mark as VP Educational Relations in September 2013. Among EMike's biggest successes were establishing a solid relation with ARRL's Education Division and working closely with ARISS as a member of its Executive Team. He was instrumental with keeping ARISS going and restructuring the ARISS program after funding was cut for Teaching From Space (TFS). At the time TFS was the primary NASA partner and education liaison for ARISS. TFS lead the school proposal and selection process in the USA. That process is now lead by ARRL and AMSAT. AMSAT VP Human Spaceflight Frank Bauer, KA3HDO, notes, "EMike has been invaluable to ARISS and I will miss his support. He and I worked behind the scenes to rescue ARISS through our discussions at the ISS Conference in 2014. And his rapport with ARRL is outstanding…something I will miss dearly. I thank EMike for making that all happen for ARISS."
EMike also worked at establishing relations with various colleges and universities. He pushed to make aware the importance of AMSAT as an educational organization by emphasizing how education is part of AMSAT's earliest Mission Statements and Objectives and reminding us of all the educational programs and outreaches AMSAT has engaged in during its history.
AMSAT President Barry Baines, WD4ASW notes, "EMike made a positive difference and helped set the course in a number of areas involving Educational Outreach, ARISS, and the overall direction of AMSAT. While I regret losing your considerable enthusiasm and talents, I understand the need to 'recalibrate' your priorities."
EMike will complete his duties on January 31, citing time and commitments outside of AMSAT as his reason for stepping down. EMike will continue serving AMSAT as one of the rotating editors for the AMSAT News Service (ANS).
With EMike's resignation, the appointment of Joseph Spier, K6WAO of Weimar, CA, as the new VP-Educational Relations is also announced. Joe came on board with the Educational Relation's team in 2011 serving as Associate Director then Director for Educational Outreach.
EMike noted, "Joe and I started with Educational Relations at the same time and we have always had a great personal and working relationship. Joe is extremely enthusiastic and someone who thinks outside the box. Many have pointed out those similarities between us. However, Joe will bring a different dimension to the position because of his background in engineering. I support Joe as he takes over and am excited to see what new and exciting things are in store for AMSAT Education under his direction."
“I’m very pleased that Joe has agreed to become our next VP-Educational Relations”, notes AMSAT President Barry Baines, WD4ASW. “Joe is passionate about integrating amateur radio into educational opportunities at all educational levels. His engineering background will help in interacting with university engineering departments encouraging a greater focus on educational impacts of amateur spacecraft, developing new ways of bringing science to the class room. He recognizes the importance of ARISS in reaching out to students based upon his personal involvement in managing an ARISS contact as part of the 2012 Pacificon Convention. His interaction with young people at the 2014 ARRL Centennial Convention where he encouraged their curiosity about AMSAT’s cubesat design by their holding the engineering mockup while visiting the AMSAT booth created many positive impressions for both the students and their parents. I look forward to working with Joe to further enhance our ability to touch students through amateur radio satellites and develop new ways to incorporate education into AMSAT’s mission.”
E. Michael McCardel, AA8EM, former KC8YLD V.P. for Educational Relations, AMSAT-NA
[ANS thanks EMike, AA8EM, for the above information]
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25 Year AMSAT Office Volunteer Bob Carpenter, W3OTC, SK
Bob Carpenter, W3OTC died on January 8th. Since 1991 Bob had volunteered at the AMSAT Office on a weekly basis. He was our computer specialist and handled the donations for AMSAT.
A memorial service will be held on January 23rd at 7:00PM a the Guild Memorial Chapel, Asbury Methodist Village, 211 Russell Ave, Gaithersburg MD.
[ANS thanks Martha for the above information]
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Nepal students to speak to Tim Peake
UK astronaut Tim Peake KG5BVI will be using amateur radio to talk to students at Brihaspati Vidhyasadan School (BVS) in Nepal on Wednesday, January 20.
The Himalayan Times reports this is the first link up between a school in Nepal and the International Space Station (ISS). It will be a Telebridge contact via Tony Hutchison VK5ZAI in Australia and is scheduled for Wednesday, January 20 at 08:37:04 UT. The ISS should be in range of the Telebridge station for about 8 minutes.
BVS is organizing an Exhibition during the week of the contact from January 19-23. Experts as well as knowledgeable students will be at hand to respond to queries of visiting students who will be able to get acquainted with amateur radio during the exhibition.
The Nepal Amateur Radio Operators’ Society is one of the organizations supporting the exhibition.
Brihaspati Vidyasadan is a 32 year old High school, located in Kathmandu, Nepal. Brihaspati runs classes from nursery to 100 at secondary level and the 10+2 program in Science and Management at the higher secondary Level. Besides these Brihaspati also runs Diploma in Hospitality Managemant and Tourism in affiliation with Confederation of Tourism and Hospitality (CTH), UK.
Brihaspati is known for its academic excellence. To date Brihaspati has produced over 2000 SLC graduates and over 600 +2 graduates who have achieved excellent academic achievements. Brihaspati has also been awarded the “Best School in Nepal” in 2055BS.
Brihaspati is also known for its co-curricular and extra-curricular activities including sports, debates and concerts. Over the years the school has achieved Inter-school successes in football (soccer), cricket and basketball at national levels. School has also successes in inter-school competitions like debate, elocution and concerts.
For its academic, co-curricular and extra-curricular achievements Brihaspati has been placed among the Class A schools of Nepal by the Ministry of Education, Government of Nepal.
Brihaspati staff and students have been known for their innovation in education. The school is reputed to be the first school in Nepal to introduce computer education. Brihaspati houses clubs like Lokopakar, which is a student club that looks into Humanitarian aid. Brihaspati students recently started gThink Inkh, an activity designed using the principles of Extreme Design from Stanford for instilling critical thinking and problem solving skills in students. This program has gained attention of a lot of people in the academia at a very rapid pace.
Brihaspati is located in a 25 acre land space at the heart of Kathmandu within the Balmandir compound. It has academic facility that is of very high standards. It houses the Free and Open Source Research Lab and Ham (amateur radio) facility that students and staff have access to.
Recently during the earthquake of Nepal, one of the buildings of Brihaspati was used by ham radio operators from Nepal and India to coordinate search and reconciliation of families where over 500 families were reunited with their loved ones.
Read The Himalayan Times story at https://thehimalayantimes.com/nepal/nepali-students-to-talk-to-astronaut-in-
intl-space-station/
Brihaspati Vidhyasadan School http://www.bvs.edu.np/bvstalkstoiss/ https://www.facebook.com/bvsTalksToISS/
ARISS http://www.ariss.org/upcoming-contacts.html
[ANS thanks AMSAT-UK for the above information]
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ESA Online Astronaut Selection Test
The European Space Agency is offering a trial version of a test developed for future astronauts for you to try at home – and by taking part you will help us select a new generation of astronauts.
Read the ESA press release at:
http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Human_Spaceflight/Astronauts/Test_your_ast...
ut_skills_and_help_ESA
Access the astronaut selection test at:
http://www.nlr.org/the-astronaut-selection-test/
[ANS thanks the European Space Agency for the above information]
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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