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ANS-242 AMSAT News Service Weekly Bulletins
by Joseph Spier 30 Aug '15

30 Aug '15

AMSAT NEWS SERVICE ANS-242 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: * AMSAT-NA Board of Directors Ballots Due by 15 September * 2015 AMSAT Symposium Dayton Hotel Reservation Correction * AMSAT-NA Office Closed until September 9th * New Distance Record Set on FO-29 by KG5CI and F4CQA * Bring the Space Station Into Your Classroom With NASA's STEM on Station Website * IARU Reiterates Commitment to Coordinate Satellites Only Within International Band Plans * CPUT planning successor to Africa’s first nanosatellite * ASU Chosen to Lead Lunar CubeSat Mission * AMSAT Events * ARISS News SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-242.01 ANS-242 AMSAT News Service Weekly Bulletins AMSAT News Service Bulletin 242.01 >From AMSAT HQ KENSINGTON, MD. DATE August 30, 2015 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-242.01 --------------------------------------------------------------------- AMSAT-NA Board of Directors Ballots Due by 15 September Ballots were mailed to AMSAT-NA members in good standing by 15 JULY 2015, and must be returned to the AMSAT-NA office by 15 SEP 2015 in order to be counted. Those sent outside North America were sent by air mail. Your completed ballot should be returned as promptly as possible, and those from outside North America preferably by air mail or other expedited means. This year there are eight candidates: Barry Baines, WD4ASW Jerry Buxton, N0JY Steve Coy, K8UD Drew Glasbrenner, KO4MA Mark Hammond, N8MH EMike McCardel, KC8YLD Bob McGwier, N4HY Bruce Paige, KK5DO The four candidates receiving the highest number of votes will be seated as voting Board Members with two year terms. The two candidates receiving the next highest number of votes will be non-voting Alternate Board Members with terms of one year. Please vote for no more than four candidates. Please take the time to review the candidate statements that accompany the ballot and determine who you wish to see on the Board. Election of Board members is both an obligation as well as an opportunity by our membership to help shape the future direction of AMSAT-NA. [ANS thanks AMSAT-NA for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- 2015 AMSAT Symposium Dayton Hotel Reservation Correction The 2015 AMSAT Space Symposium will be held Friday through Sunday, Oct 16, 17, 18, 2015 in Dayton, Ohio. This year we will be at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, 33 East 5th Street, in downtown Dayton, a 3.5 star Hotel which has been recently renovated. Here is the corrected and latest hotel reservation information provided by Crowne Plaza: + Reservations toll-free phone number: 1-800-689-5586 + Group rate reservation code: "AMSAT" + Deadline for discounted reservations: September 17, 2015 by 3:00 PM US eastern time The Symposium Committee announced that arrangements are made for a tour of the Air Force Museum at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton for Monday, October 19. You may wish to extend your hotel reservation until Monday if you would like to participate on this tour. You must call the 800 number for Crowne Plaza to make your hotel reservations. Registration for the Space Symposium and events can be done on-line via the AMSAT Store: http://store.amsat.org/catalog/ The latest 2015 AMSAT Space Symposium information is posted on the web at: http://www.amsat.org/?page_id=3667 -or- click on the "Events" tab at the top of the page at http://www.amsat.org [ANS thanks the 2015 AMSAT Symposium Posse for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- AMSAT-NA Office Closed until September 9th The AMSAT Office in Kensington, MD will be closed until Wednesday, September 9th. Enjoy the last of summer! [ANS thanks Martha at AMSAT-NA for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- New Distance Record Set on FO-29 by KG5CI and F4CQA Dave, KG5CCI reported that at 1732UTC on August 27th, 2015, a QSO was made between himself, KG5CCI, and F4CQA on via the FO-29 satellite. Dave explained, "This was not a scheduled contact, I simply answered Christophe's CQ call. I knew it was a good contact at the time, but as I was portable up on Arkansas' Shinnall Mountain, I did not have the resources available to calculate distances. After returning to my office I began to log the contacts I had made, and noticed the estimated distance between EM34 and JN17 was in excess of 7500km. About the same time I came to this realization, my email chirped with a message from Christophe, who had came to the same conclusion." After some quick exchanges, and verifying 10 digit locators, Dave and Christophe have settled on an official distance of 7599.959km between Dave's grid of EM34ST11TL and Christophe's grid of JN17EA22OT. The http://no.nonsense.ee/qth/map.html website was used for distance calculations. Dave concluded, "To the best of our knowledge, referencing data found on Amsat-UK's website (at http://amsat-uk.org/2015/05/06/uk-texas-extreme-dx-contact/) this breaks the previous distance records of 7537.799km between W5CBF and G4DOL, and the 7538.685km contact between K4FEG and DK1TB. Dave had a camera setup to record the pass as well, and you can view a raw clip of the contact here: https://youtu.be/orY0Re0IY30 If anyone has any questions about the contact, Dave will be happy to answer them. Special thanks and a solid *GOOD-DX* to Christophe for the contact. [ANS thanks Dave, KG5CCI for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- Bring the Space Station Into Your Classroom With NASA's STEM on Station Website NASA is celebrating NASA astronaut Scott Kelly, Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko and their yearlong mission to the International Space Station with the launch of the new STEM on Station website! The website features lesson plans, videos and up-to-the-minute education news. Follow along with Scott and Mikhail to find out what we hope to learn from their extended mission. Get to know the International Space Station, and learn how work there benefits life on Earth as well as prepares us for our future journey to Mars. The STEM on Station website also features Learning Launchers. These "Teacher Toolkits" focus on research and activities related to the space station. Each month, a new Learning Launcher will feature One-Year Mission research or another topic related to the space station. Use lesson plans, videos and related resources to bring the International Space Station into your classroom. Since more topics will be featured, check back often to see what's coming next. We are working "Off the Earth, For the Earth . and in the Classroom"! To check out the new website, visit http://www.nasa.gov/education/STEMstation. [ANS thanks the NASA Education Express Message -- Aug. 27, 2015] --------------------------------------------------------------------- IARU Reiterates Commitment to Coordinate Satellites Only Within International Band Plans In apparent reference to efforts by China's Amateur Satellite Group (CAMSAT) to coordinate operating frequencies for nine satellites set to launch in early September, the International Amateur Radio Union (IARU) has made it clear that it will not coordinate frequencies that do not conform with accepted band plans for all three IARU regions. The IARU has informed CAMSAT CEO Alan Kung, BA1DU, that it was only able to coordinate uplink and downlink frequencies for two of the nine spacecraft (CAS-3/XW-2D and E), but it has not made that letter public. CAMSAT has said it plans to launch the nine satellites, all carrying Amateur Radio payloads, on September 7 or 8. "The IARU Satellite Adviser, Hans van de Groenendaal, ZS6AKV, and his advisory panel are mandated to coordinate frequencies within the IARU band plans for amateur satellites," said a public statement released on August 20 by IARU Secretary Rod Stafford, W6ROD. "Coordinated frequencies must comply with band plans that are common to all three IARU regions. Satellites coordinated outside these plans could cause interference to terrestrial amateur operations in other regions." The IARU statement suggested that the popularity and high occupancy of 2 meters "led to a request by satellite builders for coordination outside the spectrum reserved for satellites in the IARU band plans (145.800-146.000 MHz), as not enough channels are available to satisfy their requirements." The IARU said that, in theory, satellites could be programmed only to operate while orbiting above their countries of origin, but "because satellite orbits make it difficult to pinpoint operations, spillover to other regions may occur during parts of the orbit. Accordingly, IARU will not coordinate frequencies for satellites which are planned to operate outside the internationally aligned IARU band plans for amateur satellites." The IARU statement noted that its frequency coordination service aims to "maximize spectrum utilization and avoid possible interference to other satellites and ground stations." The IARU recommended that satellite groups "work on a sharing plan or use other parts of the Amateur Service spectrum designated for satellite operation," and it suggested resurrecting 10 meters - once popular as a satellite band, but largely unused today - as one possibility for uplink channels. "The band segment 29,300-29,510 MHz has been used for Amateur-Satellite downlinks for more than 40 years, beginning with Australis-OSCAR 5 in 1970 and AMSAT-OSCAR 6, AMSAT's first communication satellite, in 1972," the IARU statement noted. Just one amateur satellite actively uses a 29 MHz downlink - AMSAT-OSCAR 7, launched in 1974. Conceding that 29 MHz downlink frequencies "would not be practical for today's very small satellites" due to antenna size considerations, the IARU said the band could be used for uplinks, even with small receiving antennas, because Earth stations can run sufficient transmit power to overcome the disadvantage. "The IARU Satellite Adviser and his panel believe that the 10 meter band offers a good alternative to 2 meter uplinks," the IARU said. AMSAT President Barry Baines, WD4ASW, said his organization's Advanced Satellite Communications and Exploration of New Technology (ASCENT) initiative is exploring alternatives to address the proliferation of CubeSats and the resulting pressure on 2 meters and 70 centimeters. He pointed out that the 200 kHz IARU allocation on 2 meters "is not very wide" given the number of satellites being launched, but the use of 10 meters is impractical in this era of CubeSats. "It is incumbent upon the Amateur-Satellite community to develop new ways of 'keeping Amateur Radio in space' that take advantage of other bands and provide enhanced services through appropriate technologies, given the need to find suitable bandwidth for an increasing number of satellites," Baines told ARRL. He said using digital technology could provide multi-channel capability, and design work is already under way. Transitioning to "underutilized amateur spectrum on bands such as 5 GHz and 10 GHz is also a possibility, Baines added, although he was quick to point out that AMSAT does not intend to abandon use of 2 meters and 70 centimeters for its own satellite projects. The IARU said that when a large group of satellite sharing the same band is launched, "they will soon drift apart which enhances the opportunity to share the same frequencies. For example, during the initial phase, just after launch, a time-sharing system could be used to monitor the payloads before initializing transponders and other systems." "Currently the IARU team also coordinates frequencies for satellites built by universities and educational groups in an effort to maximize spectrum utilization and mitigate any possible interference to Amateur Radio operations," the IARU statement concluded. "The IARU is committed to work with these groups and with the ITU to find other spectrum for these satellites." [ANS thanks the ARRL for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- CPUT planning successor to Africa’s first nanosatellite Following on the successes of ZACube-1, a.k.a. TshepisoSat, ZACube-2 is the second instalment in the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT) F’SATI mission series. The satellite will serve as technology demonstrator for essential subsystems and form the basis on which an innovative Software Defined Radio (SDR) platform will be developed as primary payload. The SDR is highly flexible to address a wide range of communication needs and will be a test bed to validate vessel detection. Additionally, the satellite will feature a medium resolution imager as secondary payload to demonstrate the feasibility of future remote sensing applications such as ocean colour monitoring and large fire tracking. This paper details the conceptual design and highlights the choices made around the proposed development http://www.amsatsa.org.za/ZACube-2%20%20The%20successor%20to%20Africa%E2%80… %20first%20nanosatellite.pdf Read the recent article by Hans van de Groenendaal ZS6AKV in EngineerIT magazine at http://www.ee.co.za/article/cput-planning-successor-africas-first-nanosatel… .html Southern African Amateur Radio Satellite Association (SA AMSAT) http://www.amsatsa.org.za/ [ANS thanks AMSAT-UK for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- ASU Chosen to Lead Lunar CubeSat Mission A spacecraft the size of a shoebox with Arizona origins will soon be orbiting our nearest neighbor to create a map of water-ice on the moon. The NASA-selected CubeSat will be designed, built and operated at Arizona State University and is one piece of the agency's larger mission to fully characterize the water content at the lunar South Pole in preparation for exploration, resource utilization and improved understanding of the moon's geologic history. The spacecraft, called the Lunar Polar Hydrogen Mapper, or "LunaH-Map" for short, will produce the most detailed map to date of the moon's water deposits, unveiling new details about the depth and distribution of the ice that has been tentatively identified from previous missions. Confirming and mapping those deposits in detail will help NASA understand how much water might be available and will help inform NASA's strategy for sending humans farther into the solar system. The ability to search for useful assets, such as hydrogen, can potentially enable astronauts to manufacture fuel and other provisions needed to sustain a crew for a journey to Mars, reducing the amount of fuel and weight that NASA would need to transport from Earth. This is the third major space project for which NASA has selected ASU in the past year, and it is the first planetary science spacecraft mission that will be led by ASU. It represents a major achievement for planetary geologist Craig Hardgrove, the School of Earth and Space Exploration postdoctoral research associate who proposed the mission and will be overseeing it as principal investigator. "All of our previous NASA mission involvement has consisted of us having instruments on other people's missions. This is ASU's first interplanetary mission - this is our mission, our chance to trail blaze," said Jim Bell, professor in ASU's School of Earth and Space Exploration and mission deputy principal investigator. "It's a privilege to be leading this fantastic team, and I want to make sure we do it right and deliver on our promise to NASA," Hardgrove said. CubeSats are part of a growing movement that is revolutionizing space exploration because of their small size and low cost of construction and operation, effectively opening the door to early-career scientists, providing them an opportunity to operate missions of their own. "How much good science can we do with these small missions? We don't know the answer, but we will be one of the first groups to try to answer the question," Bell said. Although this is one of NASA's first forays into deep-space science experiments with CubeSats, the technology isn't new to NASA and universities, which have recognized their value and have been building them for years. "CubeSats are a model for a new way to gain access to space, but they are also a model for how to teach students how to design, build, operate and troubleshoot a real space mission," said Bell, who also directs ASU's NewSpace Initiative. "Students want to know how a spacecraft works, but not just from a PowerPoint presentation. This is their opportunity to build something. Break it. Fix it. Test it again. Launch it. Operate it. And that is the beauty of CubeSats; they provide students with the experience of going through the complete mission process." LunaH-Map will be designed, built and tested on ASU's Tempe campus, in partnership with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and several other partners supplying space-qualified hardware and services. LunaH-Map leverages technology from at least six small commercial space companies with expert knowledge and experience in building spacecraft hardware: Radiation Monitoring Devices, Busek, KinetX, NASA's Ames Research Center, Catholic University of America, and Planetary Resources. Overseeing all aspects of the spacecraft engineering is the mission's chief engineer and co-investigator, Jekan Thanga, an assistant professor in ASU's School of Earth and Space Exploration. Much of the design and development of LunaH-Map will be done in his Space and Terrestrial Robotic Exploration (SpaceTREx) Laboratory and clean rooms in ASU's state-of-the-art Interdisciplinary Science and Technology Building 4, which with their glass windows offer an opportunity for visitors to watch the spacecraft being built, tested and operated. In total, there will be 15 to 20 ASU professionals, including students, working on all aspects of the design, development, testing and delivery of the spacecraft. "Within the United States there only about seven institutions that are doing interplanetary CubeSat missions," Thanga said. "ASU brings together scientists and engineers to work on radical new concepts together, from the start. This innovative collaboration strategy leads to greater science return, and more creativity and capability." Other co-investigators from ASU include Professor Mark Robinson and Associate Research Professor Paul Scowen from the School of Earth and Space Exploration. LunaH-Map, along with a number of other deep-space CubeSats, is a candidate to fly to lunar orbit on Exploration Mission-1, the first flight of NASA's Space Launch System (SLS), which will be the most powerful rocket ever built and will enable astronauts in the Orion spacecraft to travel deeper into the solar system. NASA will provide several CubeSat missions spots on the maiden SLS mission. LunaH-Map is a 6U ("6 unit") CubeSat. One "unit" is a cube measuring 4.7 inches on a side; LunaH-Map strings six of these CubeSat building blocks together and weighs as much as a small child (about 30 pounds). But just because it is small, doesn't mean it is less sophisticated - in this case, as with our smartphones, size doesn't compromise capabilities. LunaH- Map's design allows for all the necessary sensors and instruments to be securely packaged inside. A jack-in-the-box-like deployer releases the spacecraft and panels pop out like little wings. Once it arrives at the moon, the tiny spacecraft will embark on a 60-day science mission, consisting of 141 science orbits, using a suite of science instruments. Its main instrument is a neutron detector designed to sense the presence of hydrogen by measuring the energies of neutrons that have interacted with and subsequently leaked back out of the material in the top meter of the lunar surface. "We know from previous missions there is an increased abundance of hydrogen at the lunar poles. But we don't know how much or exactly where," Hardgrove said. "NASA has funded three different CubeSats to learn more: Lunar IceCube, Lunar FLASHLIGHT and LunaH-Map. They all look for water in different ways and provide different types of information." As LunaH-Map flies over the lunar South Pole at a very low altitude, it counts the energies of neutrons that have leaked out of the lunar surface. The energy distribution of the neutrons that hit the detectors tells us about the amount of hydrogen that's buried in the top meter of lunar soil. LunaH-Map will map the hydrogen content of the entire South Pole of the moon, including within permanently shadowed regions at high resolution. LunaH-Map will measure the bulk hydrogen content, up to a meter beneath the lunar surface, while the instruments on both Lunar IceCube and FLASHLIGHT will tell us about the very top few microns. LunaH-Map will create the highest-resolution maps of regional near-surface (top-meter) water-ice distribution across the entire South Pole of the moon. "Science is a human endeavor, and part of that is knowing each other and trusting each other. And when it comes to a NASA mission and taxpayer dollars to do exploration, you got to have the credentials. You have to be trusted, you need to have proven yourself, you need to show that you can make it happen and you won't fail. And we've got a history now where that's the case," said Linda Elkins-Tanton, director of ASU's School of Earth and Space Exploration. http://www.moondaily.com/reports/ASU_chosen_to_lead_lunar_CubeSat_mission_ 999.html [ANS thanks SpaceDaily.com for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- AMSAT Events Information about AMSAT activities at other important events around the country. Examples of these events are radio club meetings where AMSAT Area Coordinators give presentations, demonstrations of working amateur satellites, and hamfests with an AMSAT presence (a table with AMSAT literature and merchandise, sometimes also with presentations, forums, and/or demonstrations). *Saturday and Sunday, 5-6 September - ARRL Roanoke Division Convention Shelby, NC Hamfest, AMSAT Forum scheduled for Saturday *Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, October 16-18 2015, AMSAT Symposium in Dayton OH (Dayton Crown Plaza) *Saturday, 7 November 2015 – Oro Valley Amateur Radio Club Hamfest in Marana AZ *Saturday and Sunday, 7-8 November 2015 – Stone Mountain Hamfest and ARRL Georgia Section Convention in Lawrenceville GA *Saturday, 5 December 2015 – Superstition Superfest 2015 in Mesa AZ [ANS thanks AMSAT-NA for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- ARISS News Successful Contacts The direct ARISS contact with Kantonschule am Burggraben, Switzerland on August 24, 12:24 UTC, via HB9SG was successful. Contact was established at 12:24 UTC, only 50 seconds later than expected. 18 questions were answered. The downlink signal was loud and clear. Only during the first 4 questions there was a bit QRM due to the antenna location in the middle of the city. The audience was about 300 persons in the contact room and about 1000 students and 230 others via the live-stream on the Internet. TV stations, 3 radio stations "Radio SRF3" and nationwide newspapers covered the event. TV links: http://www.tvo-online.ch/?playlist=news (TV-Ostschweiz) „Erde an ISS“ http://www.teletop.ch/programm/heute-auf-tele-top/art/heute-auf-tele-top- 001691193/ (Tele Top) (look at minute 16.07) Radio links: http://www.srf.ch/wissen/technik/aus-der-aula-ins-all-eine-kanti-in-st-gall… funkt-mit-der-iss (SRF3 - Nationales Radio) Pictures can be found on http://cloud.syso.ch/photo/#!Albums . Maconaquah School Corporation, Bunker Hill, IN, direct via WD9GIU The ISS callsign was NA1SS The astronaut was Kimiya Yui KG5BPH Maconaquah had a very successful contact. All 20 questions were asked and there was one extra. They might have been able to have a few more but they signed off about 1 minute before LOS. It was an outstanding contact. Upcoming ARISS Contacts Sochi, Russia, direct via TBD The ISS callsign is presently scheduled to be RSØISS The scheduled cosmonaut is Mikhail Kornienko RN3BF Contact is a go for 2015-08-29 11:15 UTC Ulvila Upper Secondary School, Finland, direct via OH1F The ISS callsign is presently scheduled to be OR4ISS The scheduled astronaut is Kjell Lindgren KO5MOS Contact is a go for: Tue 2015-09-01 11:44:03 UTC Kazakhstan, direct via TBD The ISS callsign is presently scheduled to be RSØISS The scheduled astronaut is Aidyn Aimbetov Contact is a go for 2015-09-08 07:10 UTC Watch http://www.ariss.org/upcoming-contacts.html for information about upcoming contacts as they are scheduled. [ANS thanks ARISS, and Charlie, AJ9N 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, Joe Spier, K6WAO k6wao at amsat dot org -- -73 k6wao Joe Spier k6wao(a)amsat.net

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ANS-235 AMSAT News Service Weekly Bulletins
by Lee McLamb 22 Aug '15

22 Aug '15

AMSAT NEWS SERVICE ANS-235 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: * Launch Date for AMSAT Fox-1A * Satellite Antennas and the Amateur Radio Parity Act of 2015 * CubeSat Developers' Workshop Presentations Online * JAXA H-II Transport Vehicle to Deliver Two ESA Cubesats * IARU Coordination of Satellite Frequencies * IARU Region 3 Act on Band Plan Satellite Allocations * AMSAT Satellite Communications Awards * Send Your Name to Mars on NASA's Next Red Planet Mission SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-235.01 ANS-235 AMSAT News Service Weekly Bulletins AMSAT News Service Bulletin 235.01 From AMSAT HQ Kensington, MD. August 23, 2015 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-214.01 Launch Date for AMSAT Fox-1A Jeru Buxton, N0JY, AMSAT Vice President of Engineering advises that AMSAT has been informed that the launch of Fox-1A is now scheduled for October 8. No other details are available at this time. [ANS thanks Jerry, N0JY, for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- Satellite Antennas and the Amateur Radio Parity Act of 2015 AMSAT members are encouraged to contact their congressional representatives and senators, asking them to sign on to The Amateur Radio Parity Act of 2015 as a co-sponsor. Passage of the Act (currently consisting of bills in both the House and Senate) will directly benefit AMSAT members and likely help us grow our membership numbers. Putting satellites in orbit is only half the challenge of "working the birds." Reaching them with an appropriate ground station is the other half. Many of us living in housing developments, condos or apartments would love to have a fixed station antenna system but are severely limited by restrictive CC&Rs that forbid outside antennas. We are relegated to working ISS, SO-50 and future LEO satellites with Arrows, Elks and HTs. The Radio Amateur Parity Act of 2015 would not give Amateurs "carte blanche" to do whatever they wished in terms of erecting radio antennas where they now are prohibited. But it would eliminate blanket prohibitions, requiring HOAs and other private land use regulators to extend reasonable accommodation to Amateurs who want to erect antennas. The ARRL is leading on this issue for the larger Amateur Radio community. Sample letters for the U.S. House and Senate, along with instructions for their use. can be found at this link: http://www.arrl.org/amateur-radio-parity-act [ANS thanks Joe Neil Kornowski, KB6IGK for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- CubeSat Developers' Workshop Presentations Online The 12th Annual Summer CubeSat Developers’ Workshop was a great success!! The Workshop feedback has been amazing, and truly underscores the efforts of all who participated, from the engaging, entertaining, and provocative technical presentations to the incredible networking opportunities. Thank you to all Presenters, Attendees, Sponsors, Live Stream Viewers, and Organizers! Your contribution was invaluable to the success of the Workshop and greatly appreciated! For those of you who could not make it, or for those of you who want to review what you saw, all presentations can be found online on cubesat.org with a link to the video of the presentation. Please join us at the 13th Annual Spring Developers’ Workshop at Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo, CA from April 20-22, 2016. [ANS thanks The CubeSat Workshop Team for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- JAXA H-II Transport Vehicle to Deliver Two ESA Cubesats Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's (JAXA) launch of its H-II Transport Vehicle (HTV)-5 to the International Space Station on Wednesday, Aug. 19 included two cubesats. These satellites will then be deployed together into space in the first half of September, with the involvement of Danish ESA astronaut Andreas Mogensen. Both CubeSats originated from Denmark. GOMX-3 is a 3U Cubesat. The mission and its payloads will be used for story telling and teaching. It will include an ADS-B receiver, magnetometer data, solar cells and green energy and radio operation. An experimental X Band transmitter plus an SDR receiver will also be carried. GOMX-3 downlink: 437.250 MHz with 1k2-9k6 GMSK data from a NanoCom AX100 using CSP protocol. AAUSAT-5 is a 1 unit cubesat. The primary mission is to receive AIS beacons from ships with a new design based on AAUSAT-3. In addition to that a educational payload for high school outreach was designed by engineering students. The AIS receiver payload is based on SDR principles. Once deployed from the ISS it is expected to remain in orbit for approx 6 months. AAUSAT-5 downlink: 437.425 MHz, GMSK telemetry. Danish Ministry of Science and Education, House of Natural Sciences http://nvhus.dk/house-of-natural-sceinces.aspx ESA Cubesat launch announcement: http://tinyurl.com/ESA-Gomx SpaceRef.com article about AAUSAT-5: http://tinyurl.com/AAUSAT-Article [ANS thanks ESA for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- IARU Coordination of Satellite Frequencies The IARU have announced they are committed to only coordinate satellite frequencies within the internationally aligned IARU band plans. The two metre amateur band is one of the most popular and populated bands in all the spectrum allocated to the amateur and amateur satellite services. This recently led to a request by satellite builders for coordination outside the spectrum reserved for satellites in the IARU band plans (145.800 – 146.000 MHz) as not enough channels are available to satisfy their requirements. The IARU Satellite Adviser, Hans van de Groenendaal, ZS6AKV and his advisory panel are mandated to coordinate frequencies within the IARU band plans for amateur satellites. Coordinated frequencies must comply with band plans that are common to all three IARU Regions Satellites coordinated outside these plans could cause interference to terrestrial amateur operations in other regions. In theory satellites could be programmed so that they only operate over their country of origin. Because satellite orbits make it difficult to pinpoint operations, spill over to other Regions may occur during parts of the orbit. Accordingly, IARU will not coordinate frequencies for satellites which are planned to operate outside the internationally aligned IARU band plans for amateur satellites. The IARU offers frequency coordination in an effort to maximise spectrum utilisation and avoid possible interference to other satellites and ground stations. The IARU requests that satellite groups work on a sharing plan or use other parts of the amateur service spectrum designated for satellite operation. When a large group of satellite sharing the same band are launched, they will soon drift apart which enhances the opportunity to share the same frequencies. For example, during the initial phase, just after launch, a time sharing system could be used to monitor the payloads before initialising transponders and other systems. For instance, the 10 metre band, once popular with satellite builders, is today not significantly used. The band segment 29.300-29.510 MHz has been used for amateur-satellite downlinks for more than 40 years, beginning with Australis- OSCAR 5 in 1970 and AMSAT-OSCAR 6, AMSAT’s first communications satellite, in 1972. The band segment was very popular for downlinks in the 1970s and 1980s. Today, only one amateur satellite actively uses a 29 MHz downlink: AMSAT-OSCAR 7, launched in 1974 [and RS-15 on 29.3525 MHz – Editor]. While a 29 MHz downlink would not be practical for today’s very small satellites, owing to the size of the antenna required, the band could be used very practically for uplinks even with small receiving antennas, because transmitting power at the earth station is easy to obtain. The IARU Satellite Adviser and his panel believe that the 10 metre band offers a good alternative to 2 metre uplinks Currently the IARU team also coordinates frequencies for satellites built by universities and educational groups in an effort to maximise spectrum utilisation and mitigate any possible interference to Amateur Radio operations. The IARU is committed to work with these groups and with the ITU to find other spectrum for these satellites. Rod Stafford W6ROD Secretary International Amateur Radio Union (IARU) [ANS thanks Rod, W6ROD, for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- IARU Region 3 Act on Band Plan Satellite Allocations The IARU Region 3 (Asia/Pacific) Directors have submitted a band plan paper concerning amateur satellite allocations for consideration at the IARU Region 3 Conference which takes place October 12-16 in Bali, Indonesia. This is the 16th Conference and it will be hosted by the Amateur Radio Organisation of Indonesia (ORARI). 60 Premier and 12 Suite hotel rooms have been booked at the Sanur Paradise Plaza Hotel which is described as being situated in Sanur, the secretly sophisticated side of Bali. ORARI plans to run a special event station YB16IARU from October 11-16 from the conference and the delegates will be taken on a tour of Bali. The President of ORARI, Sutiyoso YB0ST, says: “It’s an exciting time for us as we continue to grow and thrive, remaining always adaptable, motivated and responsive. The world of amateur radio is an exciting area in which to work and play, and we’ll continue to meet and bring inspired people together in forums like this, to ensure IARU Region 3 remains at the cutting edge.” The changes proposed by IARU Region 3 Directors would appear to prohibit the use of the Amateur Satellite Service channel 144.490 MHz as an uplink for crewed space missions. Use of this channel was agreed by IARU Region 3 some 20 years ago but the new paper says: “Note 2: The other portion of the band 144.035-145.8 MHz is exclusively identified for the amateur service.” At the same time IARU Region 3 had agreed the crewed space mission downlink channel would be 145.800 MHz using 5 kHz deviation FM with a Doppler shift of +/- 3.75 kHz. The paper does not record this. Read the IARU R3 Directors amateur satellite band plan paper at http://www.iaru- r3.org/16r3c/docs/022%20Modification%20to%20R3%20Band%20Plan.docx The Wireless Institute of Australia (WIA) have presented a satellite band plan paper, see http://www.iaru-r3.org/16r3c/docs/023%20Changes%20to%20R3%20Bandplan.docx Other papers submitted for the conference may be seen at http://iaru-r3.org/16th-triennial-conference-of-the-iaru-r3-documents/ 16th IARU R3 Conference http://www.iarur3conf2015.org/ IARU Coordination of Satellite Frequencies http://amsat-uk.org/2015/08/20/iaru-coordination-of-satellite-frequencies/ [ANS thanks AMSAT-UK for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- AMSAT Satellite Communications Awards Bruce Paige, KK5DO, AMSAT Director Contests and Awards provided the following corrected list of AMSAT Satellite Communications Award recipients as an update to the list previously published in ANS-228. Steve Kristoff, AI9IN #564 Frank Westphal, K6FW #565 Fraser Bonnett, W3UTD #566 Carlton Noll, KA4H #567 (also a new member to AMSAT) [ANS thanks Bruce, KK5DO, for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- Send Your Name to Mars on NASA's Next Red Planet Mission Mars enthusiasts around the world can participate in NASA’s journey to Mars by adding their names to a silicon microchip headed to the Red Planet aboard NASA's InSight Mars lander, scheduled to launch next year. "Our next step in the journey to Mars is another fantastic mission to the surface," said Jim Green, director of planetary science at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "By participating in this opportunity to send your name aboard InSight to the Red Planet, you're showing that you're part of that journey and the future of space exploration." Submissions will be accepted until Sept. 8. To send your name to Mars aboard InSight, go to: http://go.usa.gov/3Aj3G The fly-your-name opportunity comes with “frequent flier” points to reflect an individual's personal participation in NASA’s journey to Mars, which will span multiple missions and multiple decades. The InSight mission offers the second such opportunity for space exploration fans to collect points by flying their names aboard a NASA mission, with more opportunities to follow. Last December, the names of 1.38 million people flew on a chip aboard the first flight of NASA's Orion spacecraft, which will carry astronauts to deep space destinations including Mars and an asteroid. After InSight, the next opportunity to earn frequent flier points will be NASA's Exploration Mission-1, the first planned test flight bringing together the Space Launch System rocket and Orion capsule in preparation for human missions to Mars and beyond. InSight will launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California in March 2016 and land on Mars Sept. 28, 2016. The mission is the first dedicated to the investigation of the deep interior of the planet. It will place the first seismometer directly on the surface of Mars to measure Martian quakes and use seismic waves to learn about the planet's interior. It also will deploy a self- hammering heat probe that will burrow deeper into the ground than any previous device on the Red Planet. These and other InSight investigations will improve our understanding about the formation and evolution of all rocky planets, including Earth. For additional information about the InSight mission, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/insight/main/index.html You can follow the mission on Facebook and Twitter at: https://www.facebook.com/NASAInSight and https://twitter.com/nasainsight [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

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ANS-228 AMSAT News Service Weekly Bulletins
by E.Mike McCardel 15 Aug '15

15 Aug '15

AMSAT NEWS SERVICE ANS-228 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: * ARISS-I Delegates Meet This Week in Tokyo * Activation of Transponder on EO-79 August * Plans for New Amateur Radio Station for ISS Columbus Module * South Texas Balloon Launch to Fly Amateur Radio Payload * AMSAT Awards Update * Jeff Lamb NX9B Earns 73 0n 73 Award * Small Satellites: Possible Future WRC Agenda Item * ARISS News * Satellite Shorts From All Over SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-228.01 ANS-228 AMSAT News Service Weekly Bulletins AMSAT News Service Bulletin 228.01 >From AMSAT HQ KENSINGTON, MD. August 16, 2015 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-228.01 ARISS-I Delegates Meet This Week in Tokyo ARISS International Delegates, its Board of Officers, and international team members will meet at Big Sight, Tokyo, Japan on August 20-23, 2015 for a critical meeting to discuss ARISS strategy, teamwork, hardware and operations. Delegates are voting members of ARISS-I representating the 5 ISS member regions: United States, Russia, Japan, Canada and Europe. The meeting will open with remarks from meeting host Keigo Komuro, JA1KAB from ARISS Japan and JARL. Other agenda items will include: * Welcome by the Japanese Space Agency JAXA & an Overview of the JAXA Innovative Satellite Technology Demonstration Program * ARISS working group business discussions and reports, including: regional reports, ARISS Terms of Reference update, space agency coordination status, sustainability & fundraising and ARISS future endeavors * Technical discussions on current and future hardware developments, including: Next Generation ARISS Radio Systems, the Astro-Pi Project, and an update on the Ham-TV system * Operations discussions, including presentations on: Educational Activities, International Expansion & Planning of SSTV. School Selection and Regional Scheduling Procedures and plans for the upcoming Tim Peake Mission Along with their ambitious schedule the delegates will begin each day with an opportunity for informal discussions and will have the opportunity to visit the Tsukuba Space Center. [ANS thanks ARISS-I for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- Activation of Transponder on EO-79 August The AMSAT-NL transponder on EO-79 will be activated to support the International Lighthouse and Lightship Weekend (ILLW). We apologize for the short notice, this opportunity came along very last minute, and again we took it. QB50p1 (EO-79) carries the FUNcube-3 400 mW inverting linear 435/145 MHz transponder provided by AMSAT-NL with support from AMSAT-UK. - *Uplink:* 435.035-435.065 MHz LSB - *Downlink:* 145.935-145.965 MHz USB TLEs are NORAD # 40025, COSPAR designator 2014-033-R Remember that the FUNcube family of transponders do not need much power to work them. I will be operating at Scheveningen Lighthouse PA25SCH, NL0025 Thanks to the Von Karman Institute and Innovative Solution In Space for the opportunity to use the transponder. Have FUN over the weekend! In related news Peter Portanova, W2JV, announced that he will be active from the Fire Island Lighthouse- FN30KP from 1400 U to 2100 U Saturday and Sunday celebrating Lighthouse/ Lightship weekend. The call will be W2GSB/LH and will be on all Amateur Satellites including EO-79. If you would like a commemorative QSL card please SASE to my QRZ QTH, and more information is available on my QRZ page, thank you. [ANS Thanks Wouter PA3WEG and Peter W2JV for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- Plans for New Amateur Radio Station for ISS Columbus Module Plans are under way to develop a new, higher-power Amateur Radio station for the ISS Columbus module. The current radio is a lower- power unit that sometimes results in weak signals during ISS-to-Earth educational contacts. A new radio system will improve communication capability for students scheduled to participate in ARISS educational contacts and related activities. The new system also would allow greater interoperability between the Columbus module and the Russian Service Module. ARISS said that integration of the equipment into the ISS infrastructure and the necessary testing and certification require hours of engineering resources that it cannot afford. "Each ARISS contact offers the opportunity to inspire young people through ARISS's unique window into space exploration activities, opening the horizon of possibilities of a career in a STEM field," said ARRL Education Services Manager, Debra Johnson, K1DMJ. "Each contact also introduces students and their communities to Amateur Radio. The program needs your help to secure these opportunities for the future." Individuals may donate to ARISS online via the AMSAT website (select the "ARISS Donate" button). AMSAT is contributing the necessary personnel resources to handle gifts to ARISS. Individuals contributing $100 or more will receive the new ARISS Challenge Coin. Corporate donors should contact Frank Bauer. [ANS thanks AMSAT News Service, ARISS, and Debra Johnson, K1DMJ for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- South Texas Balloon Launch to Fly Amateur Radio Payload South Texas Balloon Launch Team announced their next flight via their BLT-42 balloon and payload is scheduled for August 22, 2015 at 10:00 Central Daylight Time (UTC-5). The launch site will be from the Wharton Intergalactic Spaceport, Wharton, TX (Coords: 29.2543, -96.1544 Grid: EL19WG). The flight payload includes: + Live DTV-B Color ATV = 434 Digital TV 0.3W + Crossband FM Repeater Up 147.435 Down 446.000 + Digital Camera with a picture every 15 seconds + Balloon Burst Cam Recorder + APRS Coconut v1.2 - AB5SS-11 - 144.390 MHz + APRS GPS Downlink = 144.390 W5ACM-9 250 mW + TWO GoPro Cameras for HD Recording with Micro Cam Recorder pointing down + New Surface Mount Fireball - 28.322 MHz 50.000 MHz - 50 mW + Austin Experiments - Raspberry Pi w/TP-Link WiFi Omni Antenna + Dallas Experiments KE5GDB - SSTV System - 144.5 MHz FM - 0.5 W Website:http://www.w5acm.net/ APRS.FI: AB5SS-11, W5ACM-9 Telemetry: APRS: 144.390Mhz, Contact: John Maca ab5ss(a)swbell.net QRZ: AB5SS Check http://www.w5acm.net/b42.html or contact Andy MacAllister, w5acm(a)amsat.org for the latest flight/payload information. [ANS thanks the BALLOON_SKED(a)yahoogroups.com e-mail list for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- AMSAT Awards Update Here are our newest award recipients and quite a good batch we have this time. AMSAT Communication Achievement Award Steve Kristoff, AI9IN #565 Fraser Bonnett, W3UTD #566 Carlton Noll, KA4H #567 (also a new member to AMSAT) ------ AMSAT Sexagesimal Award Frank Westphal, K6FW #169 Hector Luis Martinez Sis, CO6CBF #170 Carlton Noll, KA4H #171 ------ AMSAT Century Award Hector Luis Martinez Sis, CO6CBF #45 ------ AMSAT South Africa Communication Achievement Award Frank Westphal, K6FW #US193 Fraser Bonnett, W3UTD #US194 Carlton Noll, KA4H #US195 [ANS thanks Bruce Paige, KK5DO for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- Jeff Lamb NX9B Earns 73 0n 73 Award Congratulations to Jeff Lamb, NX9B, for working 73 different stations on AO-73 since September 1, 2014 and becoming the 27th recipient of the 73 on 73 Award. [ANS thanks Paul N8HM for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- Small Satellites: Possible Future WRC Agenda Item The CEPT CPG-PTA-8 meeting in Catania, Sicily, July 21-24, discussed a number of issues related to WRC-15 among them a paper submitted by The Netherlands – Small satellites: further aspects for the development of a future agenda item. The paper’s summary says: Following proposals from 12 CEPT members, WRC12 decided to place the subject of nanosatellites and picosatellites on the WRC19 agenda for adoption at WRC15. Since then a growing number of small satellites, launched year on year has been recorded, and a growing number of diverse applications has been implemented ranging from technology demonstration and research to Earth observation. The applications of these small satellites vary widely, but all of these satellites have one common need which is Telemetry, Tracking and Command (TT&C). Providing for proper TT&C will allow positive satellite control at all times, and, when combined with ranging capability, may provide for orbit determination as well which in turn can aid in the tracking of space objects. At this moment, the study work under the related agenda item 9, issue 9.1.8 which deals with regulatory aspects for nanosatellites and picosatellites is finished. The studies have indicated a number of difficulties in the application of the Radio Regulations. These difficulties, however, do not justify a change of Articles 9 and 11. Considering that most bands currently used for satellite telemetry and command such as the 2200-2290MHz SRS/SOS/EESS allocation are heavily crowded, the growth in numbers of small satellites launched offers new challenges which were not faced before. Therefore, the proposal for AI 10 is to invite ITU-R in the forthcoming study period to identify additional allocations to the space operation service (SOS) within the 137MHz-960MHz range. This frequency range is particularly suitable for small satellites since it offers favourable propagation characteristics while allowing moderately complex antenna systems and antenna pointing requirements on board the satellite. CPG-PTA-8 meeting in Catania, Sicily, July 21-24, 2015 http://tinyurl.com/ANS228-WRC To download the meeting documents: • Go to http://tinyurl.com/ANS228-Documents • Click on 2015 • Click on 8th CPG PTA Meeting – 21-24 July – Sicily • Click Input Contributions and Goto table • Tick documents • Click on Minutes and Annexes and Goto table • Tick documents • Do same for Annex IV – Draft Briefs, Annex V – Draft ECPs, Annex VI – misc • Click the Download selected button [ANS thanks Trevor M5AKA and AMSAT-UK for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- ARISS News + A Successful contact was made between Space Jam 9, Rantoul, Illinois, USA and Astronaut Kjell Lindgren KO5MOS using Callsign OR4ISS. The contact began 2015-08-08 16:58 UTC and lasted about nine and a half minutes. Contact was telebridge via IK1SLD. ARISS Mentor was AJ9N. + A Successful contact was made between Fleurance Astronomy Festival, France and Astronaut Mikhail Kornienko RN3BF using Callsign RSØISS. The contact began 2015-08-14 19:42:00 UTC and lasted about nine and a half minutes. Contact was telebridge via IK1SLD. ARISS Mentor was F6ICS. Upcoming ARISS Contact Schedule as of 2015-08-13 16:00 UTC Higashioka Elementary School, Toyonaka, Osaka, Japan, direct via 8N3HO The ISS callsign is presently scheduled to be NA1SS The scheduled astronaut is Kimiya Yui KG5BPH Contact is a go for: Tue 2015-08-18 11:42:14 UTC 82 deg Pima County 4H/Vail Vaqueros 4H Club, Tucson, AZ, direct via W7LB The ISS callsign is presently scheduled to be NA1SS The scheduled astronaut is Kjell Lindgren KO5MOS Contact is a go for: Sat 2015-08-22 18:37:55 UTC 87 deg Sochi, Russia, direct via TBD) The ISS callsign is presently scheduled to be RSØISS The scheduled astronaut is Mikhail Kornienko RN3BF) Contact is a go for 2015-08-29 11:15 UTC * Watch for the official announcements for when US schools will be able to send in proposals for an ARISS contact. The window will be open from 2015-09-01 to 2015-11-01. These proposals will be for school contacts during the second half of 2016. [ANS thanks ARISS, Charlie AJ9N and David AA4KN for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- Satellite Shorts From All Over + AMSAT Award Comments Paul Stoetzer N8HM congratulates all those who earned the AMSAT Awards, mentioned in the rticle above. Paul says, "I'd like to point out a couple of them. First, congrats to Hector on the Century Award. The Century Award is tough enough to complete from the East Coast of the United States, but Hector managed to complete it from Cuba. He made many of these QSOs with homebrew equipment and had the additional handicap of not being able to use AO- 7's Mode B transponder due to Cuban regulations, so he had to wait until FO-29 was near apogee on the right passes to make his longest distance QSOs. Second, congratulations to Carl on the Sexagesimal Award. Like me, he has operated solely with portable equipment and low power and he appears to be on the way to beating my pace to the Century Award (it took me 23 months from when I started getting on the air daily, Carl has been on for only about a year)." Hector, W5CBF/CO6CBF, responded, "Actually, the AMSAT Century Award has been the hardest award in my amateur radio career. The lack of AO- 7 mode B made it even harder. Thanks very much to all the operators who made it possible and special thanks to the DX stations that accepted the challenge of an extreme QSO." [ANS thanks Paul N8HM and Hector W5CBF/CO6CBF for the above information] + UK Ham's ISS Contact Gathers No Moss There’s been a lot of coverage in mainstream media of the ham in England who made contact with astronauts aboard the ISS last month. This bit in Time is the latest, and possibly most mainstream. http://time.com/3995908/international-space-station-radio/ [ANS thanks Sean KX9X 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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ANS-221 AMSAT News Service Weekly Bulletins
by Joseph Spier 08 Aug '15

08 Aug '15

AMSAT NEWS SERVICE ANS-221 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: * AMSAT-NA Board of Directors Ballots Due by 15 September * July/August 2015 AMSAT Journal Sent to the Print Shop * SPROUT Deployable Membrane – Request for Telemetry * Frequencies Announced for Nayif-1 CubeSat * UK radio ham’s ISS contact in the press * Work continues on ESEO FUNcube-4 * Scout ISS ham radio contact video * Last Call for Papers: ARRL/TAPR Digital Communications Conference * Satellite Frequency Co-ordination Announcement from IARU Region 1 * Chinese Amateur Radio Satellites Set to Launch in Early September * Do not Digipeat via PCSAT in IARU Region 1 * Planned DX Activity Via Satellite * AMSAT Events * ARISS News * Satellite Shorts From All Over SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-221.01 ANS-221 AMSAT News Service Weekly Bulletins AMSAT News Service Bulletin 221.01 >From AMSAT HQ KENSINGTON, MD. DATE August 9, 2015 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-221.01 --------------------------------------------------------------------- AMSAT-NA Board of Directors Ballots Due by 15 September Ballots were mailed to AMSAT-NA members in good standing by 15 JULY 2015, and must be returned to the AMSAT-NA office by 15 SEP 2015 in order to be counted. Those sent outside North America were sent by air mail. Your completed ballot should be returned as promptly as possible, and those from outside North America preferably by air mail or other expedited means. This year there are eight candidates: Barry Baines, WD4ASW Jerry Buxton, N0JY Steve Coy, K8UD Drew Glasbrenner, KO4MA Mark Hammond, N8MH EMike McCardel, KC8YLD Bob McGwier, N4HY Bruce Paige, KK5DO The four candidates receiving the highest number of votes will be seated as voting Board Members with two year terms. The two candidates receiving the next highest number of votes will be non-voting Alternate Board Members with terms of one year. Please vote for no more than four candidates. Please take the time to review the candidate statements that accompany the ballot and determine who you wish to see on the Board. Election of Board members is both an obligation as well as an opportunity by our membership to help shape the future direction of AMSAT-NA. [ANS thanks AMSAT-NA for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- July/August 2015 AMSAT Journal Sent to the Print Shop The July/August 2015 AMSAT Journal is complete and has been sent to the print shop. The Journal is sent six times a year to all members as one of AMSAT's membership benefits. In this issue you will find: + AMSAT Announcements + Apogee View by Barry Baines, WD4ASW + AMSAT-NA, AMSAT-DL, and Virginia Tech Announce Potential Phase-3E Opportunity + AMSAT 2015 Field Day Results by Bruce Paige, KK5DO + A Field Day 2015 Experience by George Carr, WA5KBH and Hector Martinez, CO6CBF/W5CBF + AMSAT-NA Board of Directors Ballots in the Mail by Alan Biddle, WA4SCA + Engineering Update July/August 2015 by Jerry Buxton, N0JY + AMSAT at Dayton 2015 by Keith Baker, KB1SF/VA3KSF + Orbital Debrief - July/August 2015 by Paul Stoetzer, N8HM + ARISS Announces New Challenge Coin + Israel's Duchifat-1 Cubesat Open for Users by Shamai Opfer, 4Z1WS and David Greenberg, 4X1DG + Investigation of the International Arms Export Control Act of 1976 by Elizabeth Garbee, KC0OTR + A Quick Satellite Rover Trip by Kevin Manzer, N4UFO + 2015 AMSAT Symposium at Dayton Announcement + AMSAT Help Wanted Ads The Journal is always looking for your articles about your station, antenna topics, operating events and photos, technical articles suitable for amateur radio in space, software applications, software defined radio. To help you get started we have a web page "How to Write for the AMSAT Journal" posted at: http://www.amsat.org/?page_id=1709. The editors are available to help get you from idea into print. A big round of thanks goes to our contributors for this issue. The editors do a lot of work behind the scenes to get each issue ready. Thanks to Bernhard, VA6MBJ; Douglas, KA2UPW/5; James, K3JPH; Joe, KB6IGK; Red, KC4LE. [ANS thanks the AMSAT Journal Team for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- SPROUT Deployable Membrane – Request for Telemetry Students at Nihon University in Japan are requesting the assistance of radio amateurs in collecting telemetry from the SPROUT satellite which has deployed an inflatable membrane structure. The SPROUT JQ1YGZ Team say: We’d like to show to everyone about SPROUT, and we’d like to ask receiving cooperation to everyone. SPROUT was launched at May 24, 2014 from Tanegashima Space Center in Japan. There are 3 main missions in SPROUT. ·Deployment demonstration of inflatable membrane structure. ·Demonstration of attitude determination and control technology for several kilogram class nano-satellite. ·Upbringing of human resources of a space sector For more information http://sat.aero.cst.nihon-u.ac.jp/sprout-e/ Please see this website. This time, we made a deployment demonstration of inflatable membrane structure. But it’s necessary to get a deal of data to get information on a satellite, and it takes time to get one of data only my satellite communication ground station. So when everybody of amsat would do reception cooperation, information on a satellite can be got quickly. We’d like to request reception cooperation of everybody of “AMSAT” for study promotion. If you wouldn’t mind, please reception cooperation. Please inform the following mail address of your question and a reception report – sprout_contact(a)forth.aero.cst.nihon-u.ac.jp Best regards SPROUT JQ1YGZ Team on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100008270115808 SPROUT transmits on 437.525 MHz FM 1k2 AFSK AX.25 http://www.dk3wn.info/sat/afu/sat_sprout.shtml SPROUT SSTV activation http://amsat-uk.org/2014/05/31/sprout-sstv-digitalker-active/ [ANS thanks AMSAT-UK for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- Frequencies Announced for Nayif-1 CubeSat Nayif-1 is an educational single CubeSat project with the goal of providing an actual space project for Emirati University students. Additionally it is intended to enthuse and educate young people about radio, space physics and electronics. The 1U CubeSat is a collaboration between the Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Center and the American University of Sharjah both in the United Arab Emirates. The spacecraft will only require simple ground station antennas and an SDR dongle receiver. This will make it uncomplicated for schools and colleges to use with their students. It is anticipated Nayif-1 will be launched into an elliptical, sun synchronous, Low Earth Orbit (LEO) about 400 by 750 km. In such an orbit the satellite passes over the Emirates at least twice a day. This would allow the morning passes to be used for educational purposes and the evening passes for Amateur Radio communications. The student team will develop and operate a special ground station for this spacecraft. They will also be developing a unique “Dashboard” to display the received telemetry data and greetings messages in Arabic. Nayif-1 will incorporate a novel autonomous attitude determination and control system. This will be the first flight of this system. Additionally it will carry a UHF to VHF linear transponder (FUNcube-5) that will have up to 0.5 watt output and which can be used by Radio Amateurs worldwide for SSB and CW communications. A launch is planned for late 2015 on a SpaceX Falcoln 9. IARU coordinated frequencies for NAYIF-1: • 145.940 MHz 1200 bps BPSK FUNcube beacon • 500 mW inverting SSB/CW linear transponder – 435.045-435.015 MHz Uplink – 145.960-145.990 MHz Downlink Follow Nayif-1 on Twitter https://twitter.com/Nayifone Nayif-1 http://amsat-uk.org/satellites/communications/nayif-1/ [ANS thanks AMSAT-UK for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- UK radio ham’s ISS contact in the press Adrian Lane 2E0SDR got some great newspaper publicity for the hobby when he made an amateur radio contact with an astronaut on the International Space Station. The story was published in the Thursday, August 6, 2015 edition of many UK national daily newspapers including The Sun, The Times, Telegraph, Independent, Daily Mail, Daily Express and Mirror. The Thursday edition of the BBC Radio 4 Today show also featured the story at 8:09:46am. To hear it fast forward to 2:09:46 in this recording: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0643x5z#play During Thursday evening the story featured on the TV news station CNN. On Friday, August 7, Adrian was interviewed about the contact on the BBC TV Victoria Derbyshire programme. Watch the interview at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-33816779 The astronaut Adrian talked to was Kjell Lindgren who holds the amateur radio callsign KO5MOS. Kjell was operating the ISS amateur radio station in the ESA Columbus module using the callsign NA1SS. There is another ISS amateur radio station in the Russian Service module which uses the callsign RS0ISS. The online version of the Daily Mail story features a video interview with Adrian 2E0SDR http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3186534/Radio-ham-contacts- International-Space-Station-GARDEN-SHED.html CNN Story – Ham radio and the ISS broadcast 1930 GMT Aug 6, 2015 https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=35&v=XNs_b73Oiac Read the Telegraph story at http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/11786461/Radio-ham- talks-to-space-station-from-garden-shed.html Read the Mirror newspaper story at http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/amateur-radio-enthusiast-dials- international-6199955 The Sun newspaper story is behind a paywall at http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/6575742/One-small-step-for-a-ham.… The Register story: HAM IN SPAAAAAACE http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/08/06/radio_ham_talks_to_iss_astronaut_fr… arden_shed_in_gloucestershire/ [ANS thanks AMSAT-UK for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- Work continues on ESEO FUNcube-4 AMSAT-UK members have been busy this week working on the FUNcube-4 amateur radio payload for the new European Student Earth Orbiter (ESEO) satellite. On Friday, August 7, 2015 they tested the transponder and it seems to work fine. More testing and characterisation will follow over the next few days. This is the third mission within the European Space Agency’s Education Satellite Programme. The satellite, which has a mass of 40 kg and measures 33x33x63 cm, is planned to launch into a Low Earth Orbit (LEO). The spacecraft will carry a 1260/145 MHz FM transponder and 145 MHz 1200 bps BPSK telemetry beacon to provide a telemetry downlink that can be easily received by schools and colleges for educational outreach purposes. The data will be displayed in an attractive format and provide stimulation and encouragement for students to become interested in all STEM subjects in a unique way. The target audience is primarily students at both primary and secondary levels and the project includes the development of a simple and cheap “ground station” operating on VHF frequencies in the Amateur Satellite Service. This station is an omni-directional antenna feeding a FUNcube DonglePRO+ SDR receiver which will receive the signals direct from the satellite and transfer the data to specially developed graphical software running on any Windows laptop. 2015 International Space Colloquium Presentations Playlist https://www.youtube.com/user/AMSATUK/playlists [ANS thanks AMSAT-UK for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- Scout ISS ham radio contact video Scouts at the 23rd World Scout Jamboree at Bunkyo-ku in Japan had an amateur radio contact with the International Space Station. The contact on July 31, 2015 was between 8N23WSJ and NA1SS operated by astronaut Kjell Lindgren, KO5MOS from the ISS Columbus module. Watch Radio scouting with the ISS https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGhQ8OamfTY ARISS 23rd World Scout Jamboree contact http://www.southgatearc.org/news/2015/august/ariss_event_0308.htm 23rd World Scout Jamboree http://www.23wsj.jp/ [ANS thanks AMSAT-UK for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- Last Call for Papers: ARRL/TAPR Digital Communications Conference ARRL/TAPR are soliciting technical papers for presentation at the 34th Annual ARRL/TAPR Digital Communications Conference, to be held October 9-11 in Chicago, Illinois. Papers will also be published in the Conference Proceedings. You do not have to attend the conference to have your paper included in the Proceedings. The submission deadline is August 17, 2015. E-mail your submission to Maty Weinberg at ARRL Headquarters at maty(a)arrl.org<mailto:[email protected]> Please to do not send zip files as these will be rejected by our e-mail server. [ANS thanks Steve Ford, WB8IMY, and the ARRL for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- Satellite Frequency Co-ordination Announcement from IARU Region 1 The following announcement has been released by the IARU International Secretariat: For some years, IARU has sought, through its group of volunteer satellite coordinators, to assign appropriate frequencies to be used by space satellites operating in the amateur bands. These efforts have generally been successful, allowing satellites to operate without undue interference to each other and to other services using the bands in question. The IARU role in coordination of frequencies is supported by ITU. IARU is aware of a few satellites already operating in amateur bands which are causing difficulties in parts of the world as the frequencies they use do not appear to accord to existing band plans. IARU has now become aware of plans to launch a series of satellites where the frequencies proposed appear to conflict with existing IARU band plans in some parts of the world. IARU is investigating how this has arisen, and is discussing the issues with the parties involved. We will make a further statement as soon as possible. http://www.iaru-r1.org/index.php/88-news/1461-satellite-frequency-co-ordina… [ANS thanks Trevor, M5AKA for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- Chinese Amateur Radio Satellites Set to Launch in Early September China’s Amateur Satellite Group CAMSAT said this week that nine satellites carrying Amateur Radio payloads have been delivered to the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in Central China. CAMSAT CEO Alan Kung, BA1DU, said they’re expected to launch between September 7 and 9. All are part of the CAS-3 series of satellites. Four of the microsatellites and two of the CubeSats included in the launch have been designated as the XW-2 (Hope-2) amateur satellite system (XW-2A through XW-2F), although Kung also refers to them using their initial CAS-3A through CAS-3F nomenclature. The other three satellites — a CubeSat, a nanosatellite, and a picosatellite, carry the designations CAS-3G through CAS- 3I, respectively. CAMSAT announced earlier this year that the launch date would be postponed from mid-July until early September. “Each satellite of the CAS-3 series will work independently, and they are made by different organizations,” Kung told ARRL. The XW-2 series satellites are equipped with substantially identical Amateur Radio payloads — a U/V mode linear transponder, a CW telemetry beacon and an AX.25 19.2k/9.6k baud GMSK telemetry downlink, CAMSAT said in May. Each Amateur Radio complement has the same technical characteristics, but will operate on different 70 centimeter uplink and 2 meter downlink frequencies. XW-2A through XW-2F have identical quarter-wavelength deployable monopole whip antennas made of steel tape. CAMSAT worked with three entities to complete the other three satellites: CAS- 3G (DCBB), a 2U CubeSat being built by Shenzhen HIT Satellite Ltd of China for educational purposes; CAS-3H (LilacSat-2), a Harbin Institute of Technology of China microsatellite for science experiments and Amateur Radio, and CAS-3I (NDT- Phone Sat), a National University of Defense Technology of China picosatellite for carrying out technical experiments. CAS-3G and CAS-3I will downlink digital telemetry on amateur frequencies, while CAS-3H will carry a U/V FM transponder and APRS. Details on all satellites are attached (see "Downloads," below). Kung said a Long March-6 rocket will carry the XW-2 and CAS-3 satellites into orbit along with 11 other satellites. http://www.arrl.org/news/chinese-amateur-radio-satellites-set-to-launch-in- early-september [ANS thanks the ARRL, CAMSAT CEO Alan Kung, BA1DU, and IARU for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- Do not Digipeat via PCSAT in IARU Region 1 As has been reported in the RSGB News, the PCSAT spacecraft was launched some fourteen years ago and has, due to an on-board power system issue, started to transmit APRS on 144.390 MHz Although this is the correct frequency for APRS operation in IARU Region 2, it is not compatible with our Region 1 bandplan which has this part of the band designated for weak signal and particularly Meteor Scatter operation. The orbit of this spacecraft means that sometimes it is in full sunlight and, at other times, it is eclipsed for a major percentage of the orbit. As the on- board batteries have lost their ability to hold a charge, the problem can only occur when it is in sunlight. Various methods of mitigate this problem are presently under active consideration but in the meantime it is important that no amateur in Region 1 should attempt to digipeat through this spacecraft. Additionally those amateurs on the east coast of the American continent are also requested not to attempt to activate the spacecraft when it can be “seen” from Europe. At IARU level, further work is being undertaken to reduce the risk from future spacecraft potentially causing similar problems. Such problems could result from developers not following the globally agreed bandplans for amateur satellite operations. In particular the IARU Satellite Coordinator has been requested to make urgent contact with the team responsible for XW-2(CAS-3) mission of nine satellites from China. Some of the proposed frequencies do not respect the internationally agreed Region 1 Bandplan for 2 metres. [ANS thanks AMSAT-UK for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- Planned DX Activity Via Satellite HH, HAITI. Doug, KD8CAO, son of K8YSE (OPDX Webmaster), will be active as HH8/KD8CAO from Jacmel (FK38rf) between August 15-22nd. He is there on a "Medical Mission Trip" with his XYL. Activity will be mainly on the satellites (SSB/FM), with a possibility of some HF activity (QRP). His activity on the satellite will be on FO29, AO7, AO73 and SO50. As this was being written, Doug was thinking of using/taking his FT-817 (this could change). QSL via KD8CAO and LoTW. T47, CUBA (LH Op). Members of the Camaguey Contest Crew got special permission to operate as T47LH during the ILLW from the Colon Light- house at Sabinal Key, Cuba. A crew of 5 hams (CO7RR, CO7SF, CO7FR, CO7DS and CO7WT) will be active from mid-day August 14th to mid-day August 16th. Operations are planned on all HF bands (60m is pending approval) and Satellite via SO-50 passes during the ILLW. For more info and details, see the QRZ.com page for T47LH. QSL route is TBD. V7, MARSHALL ISLANDS. A group of JA operators will be active from Majuro Island (OC-029) between September 24-28th. Operators are YL Mami/JP3AYQ (V73YL) and her husband Sanny/JJ3CIG (V73H), Team Leader Takio/JH3QFL (V73A), Co-Leader Keizo "Kay"/JH3AZC (V7EME) and Hiro/JR3GWZ (V73GW). Activity will be on the HF bands, 6 meters, satellite, EME, CW, SSB and RTTY. Radios are a FT857 and FT847. Their antennas will be a homebrew 3 element full size beam (3 bands) and a SpiderBeam antenna (5 band). They will also have a Elecraft 500w amp to use. QSL all operators via their home callsigns. ADDED NOTES: * YL Mami, JP3AYQ, states (on QRZ.com), that her activity will be holiday style (she like to scuba dive) on the HF bands using CW (be patient), SSB and the Digital mode (RTTY). Suggested frequencies are the IOTA frequencies, such as 14260, 14040, 21260 and 21040 kHz. QSL via JP3AYQ, direct, by the Bureau or LoTW. Log will be uploaded to LoTW and ClubLog. She does have a Blog page at: http://jp3ayq.269g.net * Sanny, JJ3CIG/KH0YA, states (on QRZ.com), that he plans to operate on the JT65 mode. QSL via his home callsign, direct or by eQSL. [ANS thanks Ohio/Penn DX Bulletin #1225 for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- AMSAT Events Information about AMSAT activities at other important events around the country. Examples of these events are radio club meetings where AMSAT Area Coordinators give presentations, demonstrations of working amateur satellites, and hamfests with an AMSAT presence (a table with AMSAT literature and merchandise, sometimes also with presentations, forums, and/or demonstrations). *Saturday, 15 August 2015 – Arctic Amateur Radio Club Hamfest in Fairbanks AK *Sunday, 16 August 2015 – demonstration at Chena Hot Springs AK *Saturday and Sunday, 22-23 August 2015 – Boxboro Hamfest and ARRL New England Convention in Boxborough MA *Saturday and Sunday, 5-6 September - ARRL Roanoke Division Convention Shelby, NC Hamfest, AMSAT Forum scheduled for Saturday *Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, October 16-18 2015, AMSAT Symposium in Dayton OH (Dayton Crown Plaza) *Saturday, 7 November 2015 – Oro Valley Amateur Radio Club Hamfest in Marana AZ *Saturday, 5 December 2015 – Superstition Superfest 2015 in Mesa AZ [ANS thanks AMSAT-NA for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- ARISS News Successful Contacts Maroochydore State School, Maroochydore, Queensland, Australia, telebridge via LU1CGB The ISS callsign scheduled was NA1SS The scheduled astronaut was Kjell Lindgren KO5MOS Contact was successful: Thu 2015-08-06 10:10:26 UTC 59 deg The Maroochydore ISS contact was a success with all 10 questions answered in detail by Kjell. There were good signals right through the entire contact. The principal Stuard Maish just had enough time to thank Kjell before LOS. Space Jam 9, Rantoul, IL, telebridge via IK1SLD The ISS callsign was scheduled to be OR4ISS The astronaut was Kjell Lindgren KO5MOS Contact was successful: Sat 2015-08-08 16:58:02 UTC 33 deg Space Jam 9 just had a successful contact. All 24 questions got asked and we did get 24 answers. The last 3 or 4 were pretty noisy but he was there. There was no notice any signal dropouts and the signal seemed pretty steady throughout. Space Jam 9 has about 1000 scouts there for the weekend. The contact was held outside so all could see. Space Jam 9 did their annual balloon launch, they told me it went to 101000 feet and traveled about 40 miles. They had a beacon going and a cross band repeater. The electronics were recovered just fine. Greetings to all stations from the participants and volunteers of Space Jam 9 in Rantoul, Illinois. Though primarily a weekend Scouting and STEM education event, we are open to all interested youth. Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts from 24 states have come together in an educational and fun format to learn more about the life skills that will prepare them for the increasingly complex technological future. Training is our theme this year. While it is well known that Scouting teaches pioneering skills like camping and wilderness survival, the new pioneers and wilderness are in outer space and we are working hard at 44 technology oriented Merit Badges and activities, plus some fun things like the Duct Tape Merit Badge. Talking to the astronauts on the ISS is an unforgettable part of the experience at Space Jam and that's next on our list. We will not know for many years whether one of these youths becomes an astronaut themselves but it is certain that they are all part of tomorrow's leaders. ESA Space Camp, Külsheim, Gemany A telebridge contact with students at ESA Space Camp, Külsheim, Gemany, was successful Mon 2015-08-03 10:43:44 UTC 75 deg. The interview was conducted via W6SRJ with astronaut Kjell Lindgren, KO5MOS, who answered 21 questions for students. The European Space Agency (ESA )Space Camp 2015 was held in the Germany at a sport and activity centre Aktiv-Welt in Külsheim, which is situated on the beautiful landscape of Baden-Württemberg. The camp will run from Sunday 26 July to Saturday 8 August 2015. 165 children aged 8 to 17 years old will be participating in this annual space camp from every ESA establishment in Europe where their parents are working. The children will learn in the spirit of international cooperation and team work where the camp theme of “ My planet, beyond Earth”, will be take these young explorers on a continuing journey around our planet and beyond. The children will be participating in a range of physical and cultural activities as well as a full space education program. Apart from the science element, the children will learn how to work as part of a team, to be respectful of different cultures and embrace and appreciate the various talents each child brings to a group. Good training for any ‘first contacts’ that the future may bring! Learning through active participation will be paramount as with every camp - as well as having FUN! Beyond Earth – as last year, the children will continue to ‘reach for the stars’ with new and innovative activities involving rocket design and launches as well as making observations of the night sky using telescopes. With such an environment as in Külsheim, we hope to explore more of the sky in relatively low light pollution. The children will be expected to communicate activities in a range of ways from designing and drawing to building models. It is hoped that the spirit of fun and collaboration with such an international group of young children will enable them to learn new things as well as share information which will help each other be better acquainted with the space environment their families work in. The audio file can be downloaded from the internet at https://www.dropbox.com/s/eb1y6ke2lgg0h35/ISS-final.mp3?dl=0 Upcoming ARISS Contacts Fleurance Astronomy Festival, France, telebridge via IK1SLD The ISS callsign is presently scheduled to be RSØISS The scheduled astronaut is TBD Contact is a go for: Fri 2015-08-14 19:42:01 UTC 46 deg Fleurance is a small town located in the South-West of France near Toulouse, in the Gers department, with about 7,000 inhabitants. One of the main specialties of this city is the French gastronomy, and especially everything made from duck (e.g. french foie gras, duck magret) and melon. In terms of beverages, Gers is the home region of Armagnac (french alcohol made from white wine), Floc de Gascogne (made from Armagnac and grape must) and Pousse-Rapiére (made from Armagnac and a kind of Champagne). Since 1991, the French Astronomy Festival takes place in August in Fleurance where more than 10,000 people attend this summer event, the largest European festival on astronomy and space topics. More than 50 international researchers as well as astronauts are welcomed and give lectures to everyone coming to the festival over the week. Since 2006, Astro-jeunes, a kids festival, is organized during the same week, and welcomes more than 200 children per day to unveil them the mysteries of our universe and space conquest history. A dozen of children from this festival and the Fleurance high-school "Hubert Reeves" (sponsor of the Festival) have prepared this contact both with their physics and English teachers. Watch http://www.ariss.org/upcoming-contacts.html for information about upcoming contacts as they are scheduled. [ANS thanks ARISS, and Charlie, AJ9N for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- Satellite Shorts From All Over * Live Broadcast of Space Launch System RS-25 Engine Test Firing The Space Launch System, or SLS, Liquid Engines Office is conducting a series of tests for its RS-25 engine. The seven-test series began in January 2015 and will conclude in September 2015. On Aug. 13, 2015, at 4:30 p.m. EDT, a 550-second test will be conducted at Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. The seven-test series will provide critical data on the new engine controller unit and will show how the RS-25 will perform. New ablative insulation and heaters also will be tested during the series. NASA's SLS will help send humans to deep space destinations like an asteroid and Mars. SLS is an advanced, heavy-lift launch vehicle that will provide an entirely new capability for science and human exploration beyond Earth's orbit. The SLS will give the nation a means to reach beyond our current limits and open new doors of discovery from the unique vantage point of space. The test will be carried live on NASA TV beginning at 4 p.m. EDT and will be streamed at http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.html. Please make plans to watch and hear the rumble as NASA continues on its Journey to Mars. To learn more about the Space Launch System, visit http://www.nasa.gov/exploration/systems/sls/ [ANS thanks NASA Education Express Message -- Aug. 6, 2015 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, Joe Spier, K6WAO k6wao at amsat dot org

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AMSAT News Service Special Bulletin - ANS-216 RadFXSat/Fox-1B Launch Opportunity
by JoAnne Maenpaa 03 Aug '15

03 Aug '15

AMSAT NEWS SERVICE SPECIAL BULLETIN ANS-216 In this edition: * RadFXSat/Fox-1B Launch Opportunity Announcement November 2016 SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-216.01 ANS-216 AMSAT News Service Special Bulletin AMSAT News Service Bulletin 216.01 >From AMSAT HQ KENSINGTON, MD. August 4, 2015 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-216.01 RadFXSat/Fox-1B Launch Opportunity Announcement November 2016 AMSAT has been notified by Scott Higginbotham, Mission Manager for ELaNa-12 (Fox-1A launch) and ELaNa-14 (RadFxSat/Fox-1B launch) in NASA's Launch Services Program at Kennedy Space Center, "The ELaNa-14 CubeSat complement is scheduled to fly along with NOAA's JPSS-1 spacecraft on a Delta II that will be launching from VAFB on November 15, 2016. Due to a number of CubeSats recently dropping off of the manifest for this flight, a door has been opened, and it is my pleasure to inform you that your respective CubeSats (RadFXSat, GoldenEagle-1, EagleSat, and MiRaTA) have all been officially added to the manifest." AMSAT will begin working with Tyvak, the CubeSat Dispenser and Dispenser Integration Contractor for this flight. Additional news regarding the schedule milestones toward meeting launch requirements will be released as more information becomes available. In a message sent to AMSAT Vice President Engineering, Jerry Buxton, N0JY, Higginbotham concluded, "Congratulations and welcome aboard!" Planned Frequencies for the Fox-1 FM Series Cubesats -------------------------------------------------------------- Uplink FM (67 Hz tone) Downlink FM ---------------------------- ----------- Fox-1A 435.180 MHz 145.980 MHz RadFxSat/Fox-1B * 435.250 MHz 145.960 MHz Fox-1C* 435.300 MHz/1267.300 MHz ** 145.920 MHz Fox-1D* 435.350 MHz/1267.350 MHz ** 145.880 MHz * Pending IARU Coordination, Changes will be announced ** Switchable by command station, not operational simultaneously Download the Fox-1A Operating Guide from the AMSAT Station and Operating Hints page: http://www.amsat.org/?page_id=2144 [ANS thanks NASA and Jerry Buxton, N0JY, AMSAT Vice President Engineering for the above information] /EX

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ANS-214 AMSAT News Service Weekly Bulletins
by Lee McLamb 01 Aug '15

01 Aug '15

AMSAT NEWS SERVICE ANS-214 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: * Fox-1A Mated to the Centaur for Launch * AMSAT 2015 Symposium Papers * PCSAT Default Beacon Transmissions on 144.390 MHz * 2015 AMSAT-UK Colloquim Videos Aavilable Online * FUNcube Certificate of Achievement and QSL Card * Upcoming ARISS Contact Schedule SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-214.01 ANS-214 AMSAT News Service Weekly Bulletins AMSAT News Service Bulletin 214.01 From AMSAT HQ Kensington, MD. August 2, 2015 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-214.01 Fox-1A Mated to the Centaur for Launch AMSAT-NA's Fox-1A satellite which will launch on a NASA ELaNa flight from Vandenburg AFB has been mated to the Centaur upper stage which will carry it to orbit. A photo of the NPSCuL mated to the Centaur with the P-POD containing Fox-1A, BisonSat, ARC1 and 7 other P-PODs can be seen on the AMSAT website. http://www.amsat.org/?cat=21 [ANS thanks Jerry, N0JY, for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- AMSAT 2015 Symposium Papers The 2015 AMSAT-NA Annual Meeting and Space Symposium to be held on the weekend of October 16-18, 2015. Proposals for papers, symposium presentations and poster presentations are invited on any topic of interest to the amateur satellite community. We request a tentative title of your presentation as soon as possible. The final copy must be submitted by September 15 for inclusion in the printed proceedings. Abstracts and papers should be sent to Dan Schultz at n8fgv at amsat.org The 2015 AMSAT Space Symposium and Annual Meeting will be held October 16, 17, 18, 2015 at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, 33 East 5th Street, in Downtown, Dayton, Ohio. [ANS thanks the 2015 Symposium Committee for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- PCSAT Default Beacon Transmissions on 144.390 MHz An FM APRS signal has been received in England causing interference to the MGM frequency and weak-signal Meteor Scatter (MS) operation which is just below 144.390 MHz. A MS DXpedition was disrupted by such activity earlier in the month and interference has been occurring at various times since. Bob Bruninga, WB4APR, explains that the beacon was planned over 15 years ago for operation only when PCSAT is over North America based on published band plans at that time. Now, after 14 years on orbit, the ability to turn that backup beacon off has been lost. PCSAT (now 14 years old) had a backup fail-safe beacon on 144.39 that would activate after any unknown spacecraft reset to give a backup comm link in case the primary 145.825 channel died. Being on the North American APRS frequency with hundreds of IGates there would always be at least one that would hear this "emergency call home" from PCSAT even though the channel is generally saturated. It worked. The problem is, that now PCSAT resets on every orbit due to negative power budget and so, on every orbit that beacon comes back on. Even if we did get a command up to reset it, that setting would last only 15 minutes to the next eclipse. We learned our lesson! That was our FIRST amateur satellite and we sure learned NOT to use a "connected-packet-command link" that needs ACKS and Retries and logon passwords just to LOGON before you can even send a SHUTUP command. All our satellites since, operate without the multiple Send, connect, ACK, retry, ACK, command, ACK overhead.... just to get one command understood. Now, only the receiver on the spacecraft has to be functional to command it to silence in a single packet. But too late for PCSAT. We are sorry that we have no good answers. But we hope we can mitigate this instance of "friendly fire" collateral damage so that we don't cause an overall black-eye to amateur radio overall friendly operations? What you may hear will be 2 one-second packets per minute, one at 1200 baud and one at 9600 baud, trying to "call home". [ANS thanks Bob, WB4APR, for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- 2015 AMSAT-UK Colloquim Videos Aavilable Online Thanks to the cooperation between the BATC and AMSAT-UK, this years colloquium footage is becoming available online already. The BATC and AMSAT-UK teams are working to upload all video material on to the AMSAT-UK YouTube account. (http://youtube.com/user/AMSATUK) Video's will become available as soon as uploading is complete. Since the high-definition files are rather large, please allow for some time for editing and uploading. For convenience, if you wish to watch the entire colloquium, go to the playlist at https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLTDI7lbh1cWq2av8hb6EzddopHERvDH0i [ANS thanks Wouter, PA3WEG, for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- FUNcube Certificate of Achievement and QSL Card As announced at the AMSAT-UK International Space Colloquium 2015, a ‘Certificate of Achievement’ and/or an amateur radio style ‘QSL’ card are now available online. Only those who have successfully received telemetry from FUNcube-1 and uploaded it to the Data Warehouse are able to download these documents. AO-73 (FUNcube-1) The Certificate of Achievement is aimed at educational establishments such as schools, and the QSL card at radio amateurs who would like confirmation of their report. However, station operators are welcome to download both if they wish. Each is personalised with the callsign/name which has been previously registered with the Warehouse, and the date and time of the first packet to be uploaded by the requesting station is also added. Download your Certificate or QSL card from http://amsatuk.me.uk/on/funcube_qsl.php FUNcube-1 (AO-73) Telemetry: • Dashboard App http://funcube.org.uk/working-documents/funcube-telemetry-dashboard/ • Data Warehouse Archive http://warehouse.funcube.org.uk/ • Whole orbit data http://warehouse.funcube.org.uk/wod.html?satelliteId=2 BBC News video about FUNcube-1 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-25084547 FUNcube website http://www.FUNcube.org.uk/ FUNcube Yahoo Group http://amsat-uk.org/funcube/yahoo-group/ [ANS thanks AMSAT-UK for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- Upcoming ARISS Contact Schedule as of 2015-07-31 23:30 UTC ESA Space Camp, Külsheim, Gemany, via W6SRJ The ISS callsign is presently scheduled to be NA1SS The scheduled astronaut is Kjell Lindgren KO5MOS Contact is a go for: Mon 2015-08-03 10:47:58 UTC 67 deg Maroochydore State School, Maroochydore, Queensland, Australia, telebridge via W6SRJ The ISS callsign is presently scheduled to be NA1SS The scheduled astronaut is Kjell Lindgren KO5MOS Contact is a go for: Thu 2015-08-06 10:10:15 UTC 59 deg via LU1CGB Space Jam 9, Rantoul, IL, telebridge via IK1SLD The ISS callsign is presently scheduled to be OR4ISS The scheduled astronaut is Kjell Lindgren KO5MOS Contact is a go for: Sat 2015-08-08 16:57:49 UTC 33 deg ************************************************************************* >From 2015-12-20 to 2016-01-04, there will be no US Operational Segment (USOS) hams on board ISS. So any schools contacts during this period will be conducted by the ARISS Russia team. /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

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