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March 2014

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ANS-005
by Joe Spier 20 Apr '14

20 Apr '14

AMSAT NEWS SERVICE ANS-005 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: * NASA Digital Learning Network Special Opportunity * Winter Issue of AMSAT-UK OSCAR News Available * Hillbilly Tracking for Low Earth Orbit Satellites * High Resolution Data available on FUNcube Data Warehouse * Call for Papers for the AMSAT-SA Space Symposium * OPDX Interview With ND9M.VQ9JC Diego Garcia * AMSAT Representatives Requested for Vienna Wireless Society Hamfest * ARISS News - TBD * Satellite Shorts from All Over SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-005.01 ANS-005 AMSAT News Service Weekly Bulletins AMSAT News Service Bulletin 005.01 From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. January 5, 2013 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-005.01 --------------------------------------------------------------------- NASA Digital Learning Network Special Opportunity ***Special Opportunity*** Would you like to have your class participate in an interactive webcast with an astronaut? NASA invites students and teachers to an inside look at America's Spaceport at 2:30pm ET on January 31st. Four schools (target audience grades 5-9) will have the special opportunity to connect directly and ask questions of astronaut and Director of NASA's Kennedy Space Center Bob Cabana. Learn about his education and training, living and working in space, and the future of space exploration. All other schools may participate by watching the web stream athttp://dln.nasa.gov. Email rachel.b.power(a)nasa.gov for more information. [ANS thanks NASA for the above announcement] --------------------------------------------------------------------- Winter Issue of AMSAT-UK OSCAR News Available E-members of AMSAT-UK can now download the PDF of the Winter edition of the OSCAR News magazine here (as well as previous 2013 and 2012 issues). The paper edition should be posted to members soon. In this issue • FUNcube-1 Operations Report • FunCube Dongle Pro+ V2.0 on Shortwave • The Fun-Loop • Space Science at Someries Junior School • A newcomers view of satellite operating • UKube-1, ESEO, QB50pc1 – Update • Low Cost DVB-S Receivers Suitable For HAMTV • HAMTV Reception • FUNcube-1 – The Launch – A Personal Account • IET/RSGB Joint Meeting • $50SAT a low cost amateur radio satellite • Shorts The AMSAT-UK Membership year lasts for 12 months starting on January 1 each year. Membership of AMSAT-UK is open to anyone who has an interest in amateur radio satellites or space activities, including the International Space Station (ISS). E-members of AMSAT-UK are able to download OSCAR News as a convenient PDF that can be read on laptops, tablets or smartphones anytime, anyplace, anywhere. Join as an E-member at Electronic (PDF) E-membership There are two rates for the paper edition to cover the extra postage costs: UK Rest of the World (Overseas) [ANS thanks AMSAT-UK for the above announcement] --------------------------------------------------------------------- Hillbilly Tracking for Low Earth Orbit Satellites In a video, Travis Goodspeed KK4VCZ describes his Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite tracking system to the 30th Chaos Computer Congress which took place December 27-30, 2013 at the Congress Center Hamburg in Germany. The YouTube description reads: Satellites in Low Earth Orbit have tons of nifty signals, but they move quickly though the sky and are difficult to track with fine accuracy. This lecture describes a remotely operable satellite tracking system that the author built from a Navy-surplus Inmarsat dish in Southern Appalachia. The entire system is controlled through a Postgres database, fed by various daemons spread across multiple machines. So when I click on a satellite on my laptop or cellphone, it runs “UPDATE target SET name=’Voyager 1?;” and the motor daemon then begins to track the new target while the prediction daemon maintains accurate estimates of its position in the sky. Additional daemons take spectral prints or software-defined radio recordings of the targeted object for later review. There is a description of the system on Travis Goodspeed’s Blog at http://travisgoodspeed.blogspot.co.uk/ Other 30c3 videos available at http://www.youtube.com/user/albertveli/videos 30th Chaos Computer Congress https://events.ccc.de/congress/2013/wiki/Main_Page [ANS thanks AMSAT-UK for the above announcement] --------------------------------------------------------------------- High Resolution Data available on FUNcube Data Warehouse As promised, we are making the FUNcube-1 (AO-73) CubeSat High Resolution Data available for download from the Data Warehouse. It contains Hi-Res data generated every hour, on the hour for the 60 minutes preceding the extract. Please note that unlike the Whole Orbit Data, the Hi-Res data may be incomplete (have significant gaps) because of a lack of ground stations on the ground track. Now that we have the WOD and Hi-Res extracts working, we are going to move on to the RealTime extract. Please provide any feedback on the FUNcube forum. 73 and Happy New Year, Dave, G4DPZ FUNcube-1 High Resolution Data https://warehouse.funcube.org.uk/highres.html?satelliteId=2 Data Warehouse – Telemetry Archive https://warehouse.funcube.org.uk/ Dashboard App – Telemetry Decoder http://funcube.org.uk/working-documents/funcube-telemetry-dashboard/ [ANS thanks AMSAT-UK for the above announcement] --------------------------------------------------------------------- Call for Papers for the AMSAT-SA Space Symposium SA AMSAT has announced that its annual Space Communication symposium will be held on Saturday 24 May 2014 at the Innovation Hub in Pretoria. Proposals for papers are now called for. Submit a brief overview of the planned paper by 15 March 2014 to saamsat(a)intekom.co.za. Authors will be advised of the acceptance of their paper by 31 March. The final written paper will be requited by 30 April and PowerPoint presentation by 15 May. Please also include a short CV and a photograph of your self. Registration for the symposium will open on 1 February. Follow details of www.amsatsa.org.za. [ANS thanks SARL News for Sunday, December 29, 2013 for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- OPDX Interview With ND9M.VQ9JC Diego Garcia (Here is an interview from the Ohio/Penn DX Bulletin with Jim Clary, ND9M, known for his amateur radio and amateur satellite operation from Diego Garcia, and maritime mobile operation. - ANS Ed.) VQ9, CHAGOS (Update). Last week we reported that Jim, ND9M, is once again active as VQ9JC from Diego Garcia. Jim informed OPDX that he arrived on the island a month ago, but he had to get his license renewed; it expired a couple days before he landed. Jim states, "Normally, I get it renewed within one business day, but this time there was an administrative hiccup that led to a month- long delay. The British military officer in charge of the island - called the 'Brit Rep' - was new to his post here. He read all the can's and cannot's of the job, and the legal info about issuing ham licenses says that tickets are signed by the Territorial Commissioner who's back in the U.K. The Brit Rep finally got the official word last week that issuing authority was delegated to the local office, and my license was signed the next day. This was the first time in the 15 years I've been coming here that anything like that had happened. In fact, licensing had been so smooth here that in 2008, I walked in to the Brit Rep's office without an appointment and left 45 minutes later with not only a signed renewal for my regular VQ9JC license but also a special temporary license for my VQ98JC operation. I wonder if anyone else can claim receiving two licenses fully authorized with- out previous notice that fast! Anyway, I'm still operating Field Day style from the covered picnic table at the park which has AC power and dozens of gecko lizards chasing the bugs. The table is about 30 feet from the wall of the jungle, and this weekend I'll try to thread a 135-foot OCF dipole through all the trees in the jungle so that I can not only leave the antenna up but also have multi-band capability. If I hoist the antenna where it can be seen, I would stand a very good chance of it being quickly removed as the 150 pound fishing line that I use to secure the antenna and the copper wire are both precious commo- dities here. The OCF dipole doesn't work on 15m, 30m, or 60m, even with a match- box, so I'll put up separate dipoles for 15 and 30 and feed those two and the OCF to a switch. I don't know yet if I'll put up a 60m dipole. The 80m OCF is going to be a big enough project just to get it hoisted to only 25 feet; the jungle's pretty thick! I'll also be putting up a 20m dipole and maybe a 30m dipole as well on the ship. Obviously, I sign /MM during any contacts made from the ship as I did earlier this year. Contacts with me as /MM aren't valid for DXCC of course, but SKCC ops can count them if my ship's QTH is near the island. The rig is an FT-857D. I'll be running 100 watts most of the time, but I'm expecting to do some QRP work from here too. Most of my oper- ating will be CW as usual (with a cootie most times), but I'll be on SSB occasionally. Also, I'm a rookie when it comes to digital comms, but I'm hoping to get my Rigblaster and FLDigi software configured to do some PSK and RTTY work. While on board the ship, I use an Icom IC-760 that I have set up in my service shop. I feed the coax through a helicopter control center that's directly above my shop. My shipboard antennas are about 115 feet above the water line. I don't have internet connectivity when I'm at my operating QTH on the island, so I obviously can't help with real-time QSY requests or the ever present 'EU PSE' when I'm calling for NA & SA stations." OPDX asked Jim about the status of the club station, possibly using a special VQ prefix for 2014, activity on the satellites and if he would attend the 2014 Dayton HamVention, and he replied, "Yeah, the ham club station is gone forever unfortunately. The log periodic has been grounded and dismantled, and everything in the shack has been turned back over to the Navy. I'm here six months out of the year of course, but once Larry, VQ9LA left three years ago, there was no one reliably present during my off times. When the Navy's MWR office personnel made a routine visit, they found nobody there since I was Stateside, so they decided that the club was no longer in use and took what they thought were appropriate steps. By the time I got back to the island and worked my way up the chain of command, the deal had been sealed. And yes, I'm working the satellites out here although there aren't many ops to work. I'll be on the birds when I get home again next year. I don't know yet if my XYL Cori (KK4CGA) and I will be at Dayton this coming May or not. We're hoping to go to New England for the ARRL Centennial in July, and we'll likely do only one trip. My assignment schedule has me returning to the ship a few days before the national convention, and I'm trying to work things out with the guy that's here when I'm off ship for him to stay a little longer so that I can attend. He hasn't given me a firm answer yet though. My plan for 2014 is to get VQ94JC issued for sometime during the second half of the year. The local licensing office has no require- ments toward my getting a ticket other than having one already issued by the FCC. My US license expires in April, and the FCC won't enable the renewing process until 90 days before the expir- ation date, so I have to wait until early January to do that. If I can get the renewed license here - actually just a scanned copy will do and my XYL will send that - I can turn that over to the local office, and they should issue me the short-term ticket. Emphasis on special. It's all legal of course, but the folks in that office are all British military who typically do one-year tours here before being re-assigned, so I can never assume that the next person will cooperate. I'm optimistic though as I've already had 7 VQ9xJC licenses plus the VQ975FOC ticket earlier this year, so the precedent's pretty well established. When I started doing the VQ9xJC bit in 2007, I did it just for fun and I thought the WPX chasers would like it. I really didn't expect to still be doing it after so many years. Now I'm looking ahead at rounding out the decade of annual special callsigns and thinking about what special prefix variation to initiate after the 10th one!" QSL via ND9M. [ANS thanks Ohio/Penn DX Bulletin No. 1143 for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- AMSAT Representatives Requested for Vienna Wireless Society Hamfest Jack Welch, coordinator for the Vienna Wireless Society Hamfest, in Northern Virginia is seeking AMSAT-related representatives, who would like to either do a classroom presentation or a parking lot demo during their winterfest this February. The event is on Feb 23rd in Annadale, VA. It will be held at the Northern Virginia Community College. They have a classroom and seminar room available for 30-60 minute presentations. Also available are parking lots, some for parking, some for tailgating, that have a pretty good view of the horizon for demos. If you are available to help pleae contact AMSAT Director-Field Operations, Patrick Stoddard, WE9EWK, at wd9ewk(a)amsat.org or Jack Welch, AI4SV, dhakajack at gmail dot com Our hamfest info is at: http://www.viennawireless.org/winterfest.php [ANS thanks Jack Welch AI4SV for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- ARISS News Uncoming ARISS contact with Zespel Szkel Technicznych, Ostriw Wielkopolski, Poland An International Space Station school contact has been planned with participants at Zesp?l Szk?l Technicznych, Ostr?w Wielkopolski, Poland on 08 Jan. The event is scheduled to begin at approximately 10:43 UTC. The duration of the contact is approximately 9 minutes and 30 seconds. The contact will be direct between OR4ISS and SP3POW. The contact should be audible over Poland and adjacent areas. Interested parties are invited to listen in on the 145.80 MHz downlink. The contact is expected to be conducted in English. The Centre of Technical Schools in Ostrew Wielkopolski is a school which educates future electronics and mechatronics engineers, computer scientists and renewable energy specialists. Our school has been cooperating with Polish universities, electronic and mechatronic industrial plants and schools in Germany and the UK, what brings very good results. Thanks to the participation in the ARISS program our school has partnered with the Space Research Centre of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw. Our students participate in various forms of extra-curricular activities which develop their passions and interests. As a result, they have created many interesting electronic and mechatronic devices. For example, some of the recent constructions include fpv plane, a qudrocopter, a stratospheric balloon capsule, some amateur radio equipment and many more. Currently, the school has 800 students aged 16 - 19 years. The Center of Technical Schools has invited its younger mates (students 13 - 15 years old) from Junior High School No. 1 named of Polish Nobel laureates in Ostr?w Wielkopolski and 10 - 12 year-old students from Pope John Paul II Primary School in Lamki so that they all can participate in the ARISS program. Preparations for the ARISS contact began in late 2011. A series of amateur radio classes were carried out so that students could learn the rules of work on the radio. It was a very interesting experience to carry out radio communications through amateur radio satellites and to take photos from NOAA satellites. In addition, we monitored other radio signals from the space. Most emotions were from the radio contact with the ISS in the APRS system and from listening to ARISS contacts of other schools in Poland and Europe. The schools participating in the ARISS program organized a series of events to promote various fields of science, particularly those that are the most relevant for the development of astronautics. Participants will ask as many of the following questions as time allows: 1. What scientific experiments are carried out on the space station at present? 2. How does the magnetic needle work in space? 3. How do you handle different illnesses? 4. How would a pendulum clock work on board of the ISS? 5. Was there anything that surprised or impressed you during your stay in space? 6. What was the largest mammal (except for humans) which was on the ISS? 7. How do flying insects behave in zero gravity? 8. Do you know how many centimeters your body lengthened in weightlessness? 9. Is it easy to use a pen or a fountain pen on the space station? 10. Do you think that time in space passes faster? 11. How do you observe and explore the Moon? 12. What or how did you feel when you saw the Earth from space for the first time? 13. Does Kirobo work well and fulfill its mission on the ISS? 14. Is it hard to get used to weightlessness? 15. Is it possible to be able to breed crystals in weightlessness? PLEASE CHECK THE FOLLOWING FOR MORE INFORMATION ON ARISS UPDATES: Sign up for the SAREX maillist at http://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/sarex Visit ARISS on Facebook. We can be found at Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS). To receive our Twitter updates, follow @ARISS_status Next planned event(s): 1. Berkeley Middle School, Williamsburg, VA, direct via K4RC Wed, 08Jan2014, 18:33 UTC ARISS is an international educational outreach program partnering the participating space agencies, NASA, Russian Space Agency, ESA, CNES, JAXA, and CSA, with the AMSAT and IARU organizations from participating countries. ARISS offers an opportunity for students to experience the excitement of Amateur Radio by talking directly with crewmembers on- board the International Space Station. Teachers, parents and communities see, first hand, how Amateur Radio and crewmembers on ISS can energize youngsters' interest in science, technology, and learning. Further information on the ARISS program is available on the website http://www.ariss.org/ (graciously hosted by the Radio Amateurs of Canada). [ ANS thanks David, AA4KN for the above update] --------------------------------------------------------------------- Satellite Shorts from all over SkyCube 2meter highly reflective balloon The empty gray box shown at the top of the satellite model is the container that holds SkyCube's balloon. We will command the ballon to inflate 90 days into the mission. Most CubeSats are far too small to see from the ground, but SkyCube will be an exception. The satellite will carry a tightly-packed balloon, made of 0.35-mil (9 µm) low-density polyethylene, coated with highly reflective titanium dioxide (TiO2) powder. During the final phase of the mission, the balloon will be inflated with a 4- gram CO2 cartridge, and expand to a diameter of nearly 7 feet (2 m). This will make SkyCube brightly visible to millions of people on the ground as it passes over the Earth's twilight regions. SkyCube's balloon serves another purpose. Once it inflates, SkyCube's orbit will decay rapidly due to atmospheric drag. Less than two weeks after balloon inflation, SkyCube will re-enter the Earth's atmosphere and burn up harmlessly. The balloon lets SkyCube end its mission cleanly, and avoid becoming space debris that could harmfully impact future missions. SkyCube's balloon was developed by Global Western, an experienced supplier of aerostats for NASA, JPL, and others with unique high-altitude ballooning needs. Further details are available in SkyCube's Orbital Debris Assesment Report (ODAR), required by NASA and approved with our FCC license, above. [ANS thanks Kevin Fetter and the Seesat-l mailing list for the above short] 2M Scotland Listen for Paul Robinson, 2E1EUB/2M1EUB/P operating portable from Scotland beginning on 4 January for 7 days. Paul plans to be active on the satellites via AO7, AO73, VO52, FO29 and SO50. His operations will be from his van, holiday style. Paul says that on this trip he will only be in NE Scotland this time. [ANS thanks Paul, 2E1EUB/2M1EUB/Pfor the above short] --------------------------------------------------------------------- /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, Joe Spier, K6WAO k6wao at amsat dot org

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ANS-086 AMSAT News Service Special Bulletin - Tony Monteiro, AA2TX SK
by JoAnne Maenpaa 28 Mar '14

28 Mar '14

SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-086.01 AMSAT News Service Special Bulletin - Tony Monteiro, AA2TX SK AMSAT News Service Bulletin 086.01 >From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. March 27, 2014 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-086.01 Anthony "Tony" J. Monteiro, AA2TX (SK) AMSAT VP-Engineering and Board Member Anthony J. Monteiro, AA2TX of North Andover, MA died on Wednesday morning, March 26, 2014 while hospitalized in Boston, MA from cancer. He was 55. He is survived by his wife, Mary Lou and daughter, Veronica, a college freshman. Tony was first licensed in 1973 as a Novice and subsequently held an Extra Class Amateur Radio License. An avid operator, he described his first contact in an AMSAT BoD Candidate's Statement in 2011: "I earned my novice ticket in 1973 and made my first ham radio contact with a transmitter made from parts out of an old TV set. A Heathkit HR-10B receiver and a 65-foot piece of wire strung out of a window for an antenna made up the rest of my station, which was pretty modest even by 1973 standards! Even so, I will never forget the thrill of my very first contact." His interest in amateur radio and electronics led him to earn a BS in Electrical Engineering from Drexel University and a MS in Com- puter Science from Stanford University. His professional career started at Bell Laboratories in New Jersey developing network man- agement systems and then consumer products. After working at several startup companies, Tony landed at Cisco Systems where he managed the development of ADSL, voice over packet, and content networking products. He retired from industry in 2002 and focused his efforts working on satellite projects. Tony joined AMSAT in 1994 and started working the satellites. He earned ARRL VHF/UHF Century Club-Satellite #58 and worked 49 states (only Hawaii was not logged) as well. Tony worked a number of stations while he commuted along the I-495 corridor outside Boston. Many will remember working him through AO-40 as he utilized his "cardboard box horn antenna." Tony led a workshop at the 2003 AMSAT Space Symposium where students built similar antennas, demonstrating the ease in which one could build a 2.4 GHz S-band antenna to receive the AO-40 downlink. Additional technical contributions to the amateur satellite com- munity that Tony made included "InstantTune Automatic Radio Tuning" software, "A Simple Desense Filter for Echo", and several extremely low cost projects such as "A $5 Mode V/S Adapter using a Sub-Harmonic Mixer". AMSAT-UK currently offers a 70 CM Parasitic Lindenblad antenna based upon his design. Tony also played a significant role in space-based hardware develop- ment. He collaborated on the NO-60 satellite. As AMSAT's VP-Engineer- ing, he served as the software designer for the SDX (Software Defined Transponder) on ARISSat-1/Kedr that was deployed from the Inter- national Space Station by Russian Cosmonauts during a space walk in August 2011. Tony led the Fox-1 Engineering Team from inception in 2009 and led AMSAT's efforts to apply for acceptance of Fox-1 in the NASA Education Launch of NanoSat (ELaNA) in 2011 and Fox-1B in 2012. He established relationships with several universities to secure scientific payloads for Fox-1 and Fox-1B, including student experiments. A strong proponent of student involvement in satellite projects, Tony served as coordinator of AMSAT Engineering relationships with SUNY-Binghamton, Penn State-Erie, Virginia Tech, and Rochester Institute of Technology where students developed new technologies to be applied in future AMSAT spacecraft as "Capstone" projects. These projects, such as the development of storage capacitors to replace batteries developed by SUNY-Binghamton, provided student experiences that will ultimately be flown in space. The AMSAT JOURNAL in recent years featured several articles concerning these projects. Tony was elected to the AMSAT Board of Directors in 2011 following service for one year as a BoD alternate. Him wise counsel and focus on finding ways to make it affordable for AMSAT to fly amateur radio systems in space resulted in several innovative approaches. It was Tony that convinced the NASA ELaNA program to modify their qualifi- cation criteria to add "not for profits" to those that could apply for launch grants. It was Tony that met with universities that were looking for ways to fly their payloads but didn't have the experience to build satellites, encouraging collaboration that would benefit both AMSAT and the university. Tony's approach to participation in the AMSAT Leadership Team reflect- ed his approach to life. Whenever he had a thought to share with the entire AMSAT Board of Directors and/or Senior Officers via e-mail, he always started with "Dear Friends". As AMSAT VP-Operations Drew Glas- brenner, KO4MA noted, "I always admired how he reminded me we were all friends despite whatever argument was raging." Arrangements for a service for Tony will be announced at a later date. In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be made to Radio Amateur Satellite Corp. (AMSAT), 850 Sligo Avenue, Suite 600, Silver Spring, MD 20910. Barry A. Baines, WD4ASW President-Radio Amateur Satellite Corp. (AMSAT) [ANS thanks AMSAT President Barry Baines, WD4ASW for the above information] /EX

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ANS-061 AMSAT News Service Weekly Bulletins
by E.Mike McCardel 02 Mar '14

02 Mar '14

AMSAT NEWS SERVICE ANS-061 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: * ISS Amateur Radio CubeSats Deployed * Successful launch of ham radio satellites * LituanicaSAT-1 Lithuanian CubeSat * LitSat-1 with linear transponder deployed * ITF-1 CubeSat Team Request Reports * AMSAT at the Dayton Hamvention -- First call for volunteers * Free Online Course -- Space Systems Engineering 101 * Free NASA Online Course -- Teaching Tomorrow's Engineers * Ham Video Commissioning now scheduled * ARISS News * Satellite Shorts From All Over SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-061.01 ANS-061 AMSAT News Service Weekly Bulletins AMSAT News Service Bulletin 061.01 >From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. March 2, 2014 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-061.01 ISS Amateur Radio CubeSats Deployed On Friday, February 28, 2014 at 0730 UT astronaut Koichi Wakata KC5ZTA deployed a batch of amateur radio CubeSats from the International Space Station (ISS). LituanicaSAT-1, LitSat-1, ArduSat-2 (2U), UAPSAT and the 915 MHz SkyCube were successfully ejected from a NanoRacks deployment pod. At 0855 UT Dmitry Pashkov UB4UAD received the LituanicaSAT-1 beacon. and received LitSat-1 at 1030 UT. At 1022 UT Mike Rupprecht DK3WN received LitSat-1. Mike had heard UAPSAT at 0845 UT. The Peruvian Chasqui 1 CubeSat was also onboard the ISS. At the time of writing it is unclear if this has also deployed. Frequency information at http://tinyurl.com/ANS-061-ISS-Cubes UB4UAD website in Google English http://tinyurl.com/UB4UAD DK3WN satellite blog http://www.dk3wn.info/p/ [ANS thanks AMSAT-UK for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- Successful launch of ham radio satellites On Thursday, February 27 at 1837 UT a cluster of Japanese amateur radio satellites were launched from the Yoshinobu Launch Complex at the Tanegashima Space Center At 1948 UT Francisco Jimenez-Martin Sanchez EA1JM received the 437.325 CW (A1A) beacon from the ARTSAT1:INVADER CubeSat Also on the first pass at 1952 UT Jan van Gils PE0SAT received OPUSat STARS-II (comprises Mother and Daughter satellites) TelkyoSat-3 ShindaiSat-1 ARTSat1:INVADER The student team that developed the ITF-1 CubeSat would appreciate any reports of their satellite on 437.525 MHz FM Morse code, see http://amsat-uk.org/2014/02/26/itf-1-cubesat-team-request-reports/ Frequencies and further information on these satellites is at http://tinyurl.com/ANS-061-JapaneseHamSats [ANS thanks AMSAT-UK for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- LituanicaSAT-1 Lithuanian CubeSat The amateur radio CubeSat LituanicaSAT-1, call sign LY5N, was developed by Lithuanian university students and young engineers and was deployed from the International Space Station (ISS) on Friday, February 28. The team ask radio amateurs and SWL’s to listen for the FM Morse code beacon on 437.275 MHz after deployment and submit reports (see Tracking below). They say there will be Mission emblem stickers with signed QSL cards and for the first 10 registered reports, LituanicaSAT-1 branded note books! The tiny satellite is just 10x10x10 cm with a mass of 1.090 kg yet it has a VGA camera and a 145/435 MHz FM voice transponder, designed and built by Lithuanian radio amateurs. The prototype of the FM repeater has been operating in the home of its designer Žilvinas Batisa LY3H in Elektrenai, Lithuania. Further information at http://ly3h.epalete.com/?p=303 The communications payload comprises: • FM Morse Code Beacon 437.275 MHz LY5N • FM Voice Repeater 145.950 MHz uplink (PL 67 Hz CTCSS) 435.180 MHz downlink • AX.25 Packet Radio 145.850 MHz uplink 437.550 MHz downlink 9600 baud FSK, FM LituanicaSAT-1 uses passive magnetic attitude control system consisting of permanent magnets that create a control torque and soft magnets that provide dampening torque using hysteresis effect. Following attitude sensors are implemented for attitude determination: • PS-MPU-6000A MEMS motion sensor • PS-MPU-9150A MEMS motion sensor • L3GD20 MEMS three-axis digital output gyroscope • HMC5883L three axes digital magnetometer There are two computers in LituanicaSAT-1: the flight computer based on ARM Cortex-M4F microcontroller and secondary (back-up) computer based on Arduino ATMega 2560 microcontroller. These two computers and their periphery are laid out on different sides of one shared PCB. The flight computer is the central control unit of the satellite responsible for maintaining the normal operating mode of the satellite, monitoring and control of energy resources, control of attitude determination sub-system and performance of telecommands received from the satellite ground station in Lithuania. The LituanicaSAT-1 team developed the secondary flight computer based on the open source hardware and software project named Arduino. This computer will ensure limited, however safe functionality of the satellite in case of failure of the main onboard computer and will also take and record the first pictures made by Lithuanians from space as well as control the radio beacon of the satellite. There are 4 monopole antennas on LituanicaSAT-1: three UHF antennas and one VHF antenna. Each antenna is made of approx. 0.2 mm thick and 5 mm wide spring steel measurement tape. In deployed configuration, all UHF antennas are pointed towards the Z+ body axis direction and VHF antenna is pointed toward –Z body axis. Tracking In the days after deployment LituanicaSAT-1 will be very close to the International Space Station (ISS). To determine when you’ll be able to hear the 437.275 MHz FM Morse code beacon look at the position of the ISS on either the ISS Fan Club website at http://issfanclub.com/ or the N2YO satellite tracking site at http://n2yo.com/ (tick the Draw footprint box). Due to Doppler shift the beacon may appear to be +/- 10 kHz of the nominal frequency. Submit reception reports including small audio file or any other data online at http://www.kosmonautai.lt/en/data- submission/ Links • Web Google English http://tinyurl.com/KosmonautaiLituanicaSAT-1 • Wiki Google English http://tinyurl.com/WikiLituanicaSAT-1 • Facebook https://www.facebook.com/Lituanicasat1 The LituanicaSAT-1 mission is specially dedicated to honor the 80th Anniversary of the flight across the Atlantic by Lithuanian-American pilots Steponas Darius and Stasys Girenas. Therefore the satellite bears the name of the original aircraft used during this historic flight – “Lituanica”. On July 15, 1933, Steponas Darius and Stasys Girenas took off from Floyd Bennett Field in New York in their airplane Lituanica and flew across the Atlantic Ocean, covering a distance of 6,411 kilometers without landing, in 37 hours and 11 minutes. Tragically they crashed by the village of Kuhdamm, near Soldin, Germany just 650 km from their destination of Kaunas in Lithuania. [ANS thanks AMSAT-UK for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- LitSat-1 with linear transponder deployed The amateur radio CubeSat LitSat-1, call sign LY1LS, was deployed from the International Space Station (ISS) on Friday, February 28 at 0730 UT. It carries a 435/145 MHz linear transponder for SSB/CW communications. The LitSat-1 team have issued this statement: Our country Lithuania is heading towards a historic moment – start of the first Lithuanian satellite in space. First ever Lithuanian Cubesat Litsat1 was deployed from the International Space Station (ISS) on Feb 28 at 07:30 UT from the International Space Station (ISS). We are very interested in getting the first data from our small satellite as soon as possible, therefore we would like to ask your help with that. We will send special QSL cards for radio amateurs with first reports about received signals from our satellite. The 3 stations first received the signals from the LitSat1 satellite will receive QSL cards signed by the High level officials of the Lithuanian government. Please send your SWL reports (screen snapshots) with received packet data of Litsat-1 beacon to Kaunas University of Technology Radio Club. Contact point E-mail: address: litsat(a)ktu.lt Please find below the technical data for the reception of Litsat 1: Beacon/TLM down link 145.850 MHz Beacon RF packets are AX.25 UI frames https://www.tapr.org/pub_ax25.html Main parameters of the beacon frames are: TX baud rate 9600 bps (G3RUH), repetition period ~4.5s, beacon duration ~0.5 s, source call address – TNC, destination call address – LY1LS. Digital data: Telemetry Digital communication with Litsat-1 is based on Helium 100 (HE-100) transceiver. The payload info field starts with the 2 header bytes “Bb”=0×4262 (Beacon broadcast), following with 2 bytes indicating further data field length (should be 0×0087), then the sat status telemetry structure (114 bytes) and finishing with the short text message (21 bytes). For any other information you are very welcome to contact us: litsat(a)ktu.lt A linear transponder will be activated later. Uplink 435.150 MHz LSB Downlink 145.950 MHz USB Bandwidth ±15 kHz from center CW beacon 435.1375 MHz (LY1LS/B) Normal mode – transponder, beacon OFF 73! Darius Kybartas LY3DA Litsat-1 team Kaunas University of Technology Email: litsat(a)ktu.lt LitSat-1 on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/palydovas President Congratulates Lithuanian Amateur Radio CubeSat Builders http://amsat-uk.org/2014/01/12/president-congratulates-amateur-radio- cubesat-builders/ Two Lithuanian Amateur Radio CubeSats Plan 2013 Launch To ISS http://amsat-uk.org/2013/06/26/two-lithuanian-cubesats/ The other Lithuanian CubeSat deployed from the ISS on Friday is LituanicaSAT-1 which carries a 145/435 MHz FM transponder. http://amsat-uk.org/2013/04/12/lituanicasat-1/ The two Lithuanian groups built the CubeSats in 2013 which was the 80th anniversary of the historic flight by Lithuanian pilots Steponas Darius and Stasys Girenas in the airplane Lituanica. On July 15, 1933, they took off from Floyd Bennett Field in New York and flew across the Atlantic Ocean, covering a distance of 6,411 kilometers without landing, in 37 hours and 11 minutes. Tragically they crashed by the village of Kuhdamm, near Soldin, Germany just 650 km from their destination of Kaunas in Lithuania. [ANS thanks AMSAT-UK for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- ITF-1 CubeSat Team Request Reports The amateur radio CubeSat ITF-1 (YUI) plans to launched from Yoshinobu Launch Complex at the Tanegashima Space Center on Thursday, February 27. Toshihiro Kameda JJ3GRX reports: The data reception App for our satellite ITF-1 (YUI) is now available at the Google Play Store. You can find it with keyword “TSUMUGI” or “ITF-1?. After deployment, the first path was right above western Europe from 7:20 pm on February 27 UT. It is before the path above Japan. We strongly want to obtain reception data. Report via the Web Form is greatly appreciated, but just e-mail “heard” would be very helpful. The 1U CubeSat was built by students at the University of Tsukuba. The formal name ITF-1 comes from the initial letter of the university slogan “Imagine The Future”. The satellite also has a popular name YUI which means “bond” in Japanese, it came from the project’s concept‚ “Creating the Worldwide Human Community”. ITF-1 has the callsign JQ1ZLO and the 437.525 MHz satellite beacon will send telemetry by a Morse Code audio tone on an FM transmitter running 300 milliwatts output. The Project Manager is Ms. Ayano Okamura a fourth-year student of the College of Engineering Systems‚ School of Science and Engineering. Preliminary Keplerian Two Line Elements (TLEs) ‘Keps’ http://yui.kz.tsukuba.ac.jp/wordpress_yui_2/wp- content/uploads/2014/02/ITF-1.txt Detailed information is at http://yui.kz.tsukuba.ac.jp/?page_id=1083&lang=en Launch of Japanese amateur radio satellites http://amsat-uk.org/2014/02/23/launch-of-japanese-amateur-radio- satellites/ [ANS thanks AMSAT-UK for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- AMSAT at the Dayton Hamvention -- First call for volunteers Last year, we had 41 people assist with the AMSAT booth at the Dayton. It was the efforts of those volunteers that made the 2013 Dayton Hamvention a success for AMSAT. The interaction with AMSAT members, satellite operators, designers, and builders makes the whole experience for participants a lot of fun. The 2014 Hamvention is May 16-18. Would you consider helping AMSAT at Dayton this year? Whether you're available for only a couple of hours or if you can spend the entire weekend with us, your help would be greatly appreciated. Please send an e-mail to Steve, n9ip at amsat dot org if you can help. [ANS thanks Steve N9IP for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- Free Online Course -- Space Systems Engineering 101 Space Systems Engineering 101, a new massive open online course from NASA and the Saylor Foundation, launches on March 3, 2014. The six-week general-audience course is free to the public and provides a unique opportunity to learn from and alongside NASA's engineers. Students who participate can earn a free certificate. The course will feature lectures from NASA scientists and engineers and Google Plus Hangouts with NASA personnel. Winners of an optional project competition will receive a chance to tour NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. For more information and to register for the course, visit http://www.saylor.org/2014/02/blog-announcement-space-systems-engineer ing-course-starts-march-3rd/. Questions about this opportunity should be directed to http://www.saylor.org/feedback/ [ANS thanks NASA Education Express Message -- Feb. 20, 2014 for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- Free NASA Online Course -- Teaching Tomorrow's Engineers NASA Educator Professional Development and the National Science Teachers Association have joined forces to create and offer this first-of-its-kind online course for middle school educators. Participants can earn a certificate acknowledging 15 hours of effort. Graduate credit is available for a fee. Module 1: Introduction to the Engineering Design Process Event Dates: March 26, March 31, April 7 and April 17, 2014 Module 2 (optional): Implementing the Engineering Design Process in Your Classroom Event Dates: April 21 and April 28, 2014 For more information about the course and to register online, visit http://learningcenter.nsta.org/products/online_courses/NEScourse.aspx. Questions about this series opportunity should be directed to John Entwistle at john.d.entwistle(a)nasa.gov. [ANS thanks the NASA Education Express Message -- Feb. 27, 2014 for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- Ham Video Commissioning now scheduled The Ham Video transmitter, which is stored in the Columbus module of the International Space Station, will be installed March 6, 2014. The transmitter will be powered on briefly, just the time needed to check that the connection cables to the antenna, to the power supply and to the camera are installed properly. All control LEDs nominal, the transmitter will be considered ready for Commissioning and will be unpowered. The first Commissioning step is planned March 8. Michael S. Hopkins KF5LJG will power on the Ham Video transmitter in configuration 1: ARISS antenna 41 Frequency 2.422 GHz Symbol rate 1.3 Ms/s The transmission will start shortly before the pass of the ISS over the Matera ground station in south Italy at approximately 13.29 UTC. The ground station will stream the video over the BATC server http://www.batc.tv/ .Please select Member Streams and ISS. During the pass, different configurations will be tested with ARISS antenna 41. After the pass, the Ham Video transmitter will stay powered on in configuration 1 till the following Commissioning step, which is planned Sunday March 9, 2014 at approximately 12.40 UTC. For about 24 hours, the DATV signal will be transmitted permanently, but the camera will be powered off. The reason is, that the camera is battery powered and no provisions are made for frequent battery replacement. This mode is called "blank" transmission. During Commissioning step 2, different configurations will again be tested, this time with ARISS antenna 43. The Matera ground station will stream the video over the BATC server. Possibly, blank transmissions will occur in the period between Commissioning step 2 and the following step, which is not yet planned. We will circulate Ham TV Bulletins to inform on blank transmissions. Reports on reception of blank transmissions are very welcome. Reports can be filed via this webpage: http://www.spaceflightsoftware.com/ARISS_FSTV/submit.php http://www.spaceflightsoftware.com/ARISS_FSTV/submit.php Participants using the Tutioune receiving software, developed by Jean Pierre Courjaud F6DZP, can record as well as stream detailed parameters of the received signal. Please see: http://www.vivadatv.org/ http://www.vivadatv.org/ Thank you for your participation [ANS thanks Gaston ON4WF, Stefan VE4NSA and HamTV Bulletin #7 the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- ARISS News Succesful Contacts + A Successful contact was made between Exploration Place, Wichita, KS, USA, and Astronaut Koichi Wakata KC5ZTA using callsign NA1SS. The contact began 2014-02-28 16:24:0418:04 UTC and lasted about nine and a half minutes. Contact was direct via WØSOE. ARISS Mentor was W5IU. Exploration Place offers visitors of all ages interactive environments, hands-on experiences, Kansas' largest domed theater - the Boeing Dome Theater and Planetarium - imaginative spaces, and outdoor recreation, all located on a 20-acre site along the scenic Arkansas River in downtown Wichita, Kan. www.exploration.org . www.facebook.com/ExplorationPlace . www.Twitter.com/DiscoverAtEP Mueller Aerospace and Engineering Discovery Magnet Elementary is located in Wichita, Kansas. Mueller became an aerospace and engineering magnet in 2008 and received a federal grant in 2010 to support the magnet themes with new curriculum, professional development, supplies and technology for teaching aerospace and engineering with a STEM emphasis. It is the only aerospace magnet in the state of Kansas and the first school in Kansas to identify itself as a STEM magnet school. The Wichita Amateur Radio Club, Inc., established in December, 1932, is organized as a 501c3 Non Profit corporation. Its objectives and purposes are to encourage the public to recognize the value of the amateur radio service and enhance the voluntary noncommercial communication service by providing emergency and other useful communication; extend every amateur operator's ability to contribute to the advancement of the radio art; improve the service by advancing skills in the communication and technical areas; expand the number of trained operators and technicians in the amateur radio corp.; and enhance international gook will through amateur radio. For this ARISS event these three entities are came together to provide a unique opportunity for the students to speak to astronauts on board the ISS. The contact would not have been possible without technical assistance from the Wichita Amateur Radio Club, Inc. Exploration Place has worked with Mueller Elementary for several years on projects and is excited to once again provide this opportunity with support from NASA. + A Successful contact was made between Musashino Elementary School of Hamura-shi, Hamura, Japan, and Astronaut Koichi Wakata KC5ZTA using callsign NA1SS. The contact began 2014-03-01 08:14:19 UTC and lasted about nine and a half minutes. Contact was direct via 8N1MA. ARISS Mentor was 7M3TJZ. Hamura city is located in about 45 kilometers to west from Tokyo-to center, and is wrapped in naturalness around the Tama River. The area is 9.91 square kilometers. The Tama River flows to the south from the west of city, and it's learned about as a town with an intake of the Tamagawa water supply excavated in the Edo Period. The Musashino elementary school was founded in 1979 and 610 students are on the register now. Upcoming ARISS Contact Schedule Space experiments "about Gagarin FROM SPACE" Centre Tourism and Youth Policy Ruzaevo Municipal District, Republic of Mordovia, direct via UB3UAD Contact is a go for 2014-03-02 10:24 UTC Space experiments "about Gagarin FROM SPACE" Center of Space Communications, St. Petersburg, who are winners of the contest "Ask your question astronaut.",direct via RA1AJN Contact is a go for 2014-03-03 09:33 UTC Space experiments "about Gagarin FROM SPACE" Secondary school ? 50 YA Gagarin Kursk, direct via RW3W Contact is a go for 2014-03-03 11:09 UTC Central Square Middle School Amateur Radio Club, Central Square, NY, direct via KC2ILA Contact is go for: Mon 2014-03-03 14:05:15 UTC Rock Bridge Elementary School, Columbia, MO, direct via KMØR Contact is a go for: Wed 2014-03-05 14:00:13 UTC [ANS thanks ARISS, Charlie AJ9N and David AA4KN for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- Satellite Shorts From All Over + ITF-1 information right after deployment requested. JJ3GRX Toshi, project member of the satellite ITF-1 "YUI" launched on Feb.27, reports "As you may know, we have not succeeded to receive any signal from the satellite." We are gathering the information especially before 1st reach to Japan. If you monitored 437.525MHz between 19:13 - 20:15 Feb.27 (UTC), please report the information. "Monitored the freq. but no signal" is now very precious information for us. If it is the case for many stations, we must consider the power supply problem. Providing the information is greatly appreciated. [ANS thanks Toshihiro KAMEDA, JJ3GRX for the above information] + Owen Garriott (W5LFL) will speak about his experiences on Skylab at the National Air and Space Museum on March 13. Tickets are free but must be reserved at http://airandspace.si.edu/events/detail.cfm?id=9565 [ANS thanks Dan Schultz N8FGV for the above information] + CQ-DATV 9 (March) is now available for download from http://www.cq-datv.mobi/ebooks.php. + Celebrating Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin's 80th Birthday Keep an ear open during the entire month of March for Russian special event station UE 80 HS. This operation is being held to celebrate the 80th anniversary of Russia's first astronaut Yuri Gagarin who was born on March 9th 1934. Gagarin was the first human to journey into space when his Vostok spacecraft completed an orbit of the Earth on April 12th, 1961. If you work UE 80 HS, please QSL via RW 6 HS. [ANS thanks the Ohio/Penn DX Bulletin for the above information] + Satellite Activation Planned From Isle of Lewis Members of the Camb-Hams will once again be active as GS3PYE/p, but this time from the Decca cottage, on the Isle of Lewis (IOSA OH01, SCOTIA HI21, WLOTA 1477, Outer Hebrides, between April 26th and May 3rd. Activity will be on 80-10 meters using five stations on the air, simultaneously, and all capable of running the legal power limit from five amplifiers. Also, look them on 6m and 4m which has a great take-off to the UK and Europe using the legal power limit. With the success of EME in the past years, the group plans a 2m and 23cm EME station with a focus on 23cm. There will also be 2m/70cm Satellite activity. QSL via M1ACB. For more information and updates, visit: http://dx.camb-hams.com [ANS thanks Ohio/Penn DX Bulletin No. 1152 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, EMike McCardel, KC8YLD kc8yld at amsat dot org

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