ANS May 2017

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ANS-148 AMSAT News Service Weekly Bulletins
by E.Mike McCardel 28 May '17

28 May '17

AMSAT NEWS SERVICE ANS-148 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: * 2017 AMSAT-NA Board of Directors Nominations Notice * Spring 2017 CubeSat Workshop Presentations and Video Posted * LilacSat-1 Deployed From ISS and Is Operational * February launch for Jordanian CubeSat * ARISS News * Satellite Shorts From All Over SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-148.01 ANS-148 AMSAT News Service Weekly Bulletins AMSAT News Service Bulletin 148.01 >From AMSAT HQ KENSINGTON, MD. May 28, 2017 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-148.01 2017 AMSAT-NA Board of Directors Nominations Notice It's time to submit nominations for the upcoming AMSAT-NA Board of Directors election. Four directors' terms expire this year: Barry Baines, WD4ASW, Jerry Buxton, N0JY, Drew Glasbrenner, KO4MA, and Bob McGwier, N4HY. In addition, up to two Alternates may be elected for one year terms. A valid nomination requires either one Member Society or five current individual members in good standing to nominate an AMSAT-NA member for Director. Written nominations, consisting of the nominee's name and call, and the nominating individual's names, calls and individual signatures should be mailed to: AMSAT-NA, 10605 Concord St, #304 Kensington, MD 20895-2526. In addition to traditional submissions of written nominations, which is the preferred method, the intent to nominate someone may be made by electronic means. These include e-mail, fax, or electronic image of a petition. Electronic petitions should be sent to martha(a)amsat.org or faxed to (301)822-4371. No matter what means is used, petitions MUST arrive no later than June 15th at the AMSAT-NA office. If the nomination is a traditional written nomination, no other action is required. If it is other than this, i.e. electronic, a verifying traditional written petition MUST be received at the AMSAT-NA office at the above address within 7 days following the close of nominations on June 15th. ELECTRONIC SUBMISSIONS WITHOUT THIS SECOND, WRITTEN VERIFICATION ARE NOT VALID UNDER THE EXISTING AMSAT-NA BYLAWS. [ANS thanks AMSAT Office for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- Spring 2017 CubeSat Workshop Presentations and Video Posted This year was the biggest CubeSat Workshop yet, with almost 550 attendees from 19 different countries The 2017 CubeSat Developers Workshop has posted all presentations at: http://mstl.atl.calpoly.edu/~workshop/archive/ (2017 & Spring folders) You can also find all video footage from the workshop on their YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCENz0fNHsDR8Kz3jM6C_VWw [ANS thanks the CubeSat Team for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- LilacSat-1 Deployed From ISS and Is Operational LilacSat-1 has improved their documentation correcting their links. The satellite was deployed from ISS and is operational. https://amsat-uk.org/2017/05/19/lilacsat-1-cubesat-iss/ http://lilacsat.hit.edu.cn/?page_id=594 FM to Codec2 digital audio repeater of LilacSat-1 is now switched on. 145.985 PL 67 UP, 436.510 DOWN It seems a few folks keep posting LilacSat-1 information in the Twitter format and toss in a few links. Here is another link if it helps any ... http://destevez.net/2016/10/lilacsat-1-codec-2-downlink/ Built by students at the Harbin Institute of Technology the new LilacSat CubeSat has a 145/436 MHz FM / Codec2-BPSK Digital Voice transponder. It will deploy from the ISS at 0815 GMT Tuesday, May 23. The Lilac 2 satellite multi-mode transponder can work as an APRS digipeater and FM repeater. The science goals of the mission include building flight software development for an on-orbit test platform, which is used to analyze the effect of space single particle effects on FPGA software function and performance. The satellite also includes equipment for global flight ADS-B and monitoring and tracking of large wildlife traces and other tasks. The satellite also carries an industrial infrared camera to explore the feasibility and effectiveness of using satellite satellites to monitor the environment. The FM transponder is expected to be a popular mode using amateur radio FM walkie-talkies or mobile radios. The voice filter passband is in the range of 300~3500 Hz. Below 300Hz below the sub-audio in the form of baseband data emplying a CCSDS mode of 300 bps telemetry data transmission. The BJ1SI-1 APRS digipeater will immediately forward the received UI frame in real-time. The BJ1SI-2 APRS digipeater will allow delayed forwarding with a user specified forwarding path and an ASCII coded time delay. Uplink ------- + Frequency 145.985 MHz PL 67 + Antenna 1/4 wavelength monopole, linear polarization + FM repeater Analog voice, no PL + APRS Digi AX.25 UI 1200 bps AFSK Downlink -------- + Frequency 436.510 MHz + Callsign BJ1SI + Antenna Turnstile LHCP (Forward, main lobe) RHCP (Backward) + Telemetry CSP/CSP + AX.25 UI (Cube Satellite Space Protocol) was originally developed by the AAUSAT3 team at the University of Aalborg in Denmark and is an open source, lightweight network layer protocol) + FM repeater Analog voice + CSP + APRS Digi AX.25 UI 1200 bps AFSK + Power 23/27 dBm [ANS thanks the Harbin Institute of Technology for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- February launch for Jordanian CubeSat Fourth year electrical engineering student Aya Jaafari is a member of the JY1-SAT team. She says working on the CubeSat has allowed her to practically implement a lot of what she learns theoretically at university The Jordan Times reports on the country's first CubeSat JY1-SAT which was built under the Masar initiative of the Crown Prince Foundation (CPF), by 16 young Jordanian men and women. The satellite is scheduled to be launched on a mission in February 2018, a date on which the team pins great hopes and ambitions. These young Jordanians were supervised by a group of experts and academics through their weekly meetings held at the Royal Jordanian Radio Amateurs Society (RJRAS). JY1-SAT was chosen as a tribute to His Majesty the Late King Hussein of Jordan whose amateur radio call sign was JY1. The CubeSat will carry an Amateur Radio FUNcube 435/145 MHz SSB/CW transponder and a Slow Scan Digital Video (SSDV) system to transmit stored images reflecting the Jordanian culture and its historical heritage. Read the full story at http://tinyurl.com/ANS148-Jordanian-Nanosat Royal Jordanian Radio Amateurs Society https://www.facebook.com/jy6zz/ JY6JY is a dedicated ground station to be used for communication with JY1-SAT. The call sign JY6JY is registered to the Office of Royal Highness Crown Prince Al Hussein Bin Abdullah II of Jordan https://www.qrz.com/db/JY6JY JY1SAT applies for frequency coordination https://amsat-uk.org/2017/05/16/jy1sat-frequency-coordination/ [ANS thanks AMSAT-UK for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- ARISS News + A Successful contact was made between Saint Joseph School, Ronkonkoma, NY and Astronaut Jack Fisher K2FSH using Callsign NA1SS. The contact began 2017-05-22 12:35 UTC and lasted about nine and a half minutes. Contact was telebridge via W6SRJ. ARISS Mentors were Dave AA4KN and Bob WB4SON. Special Congratulations ANS would like to congratulate the Santa Rosa Jr College Amateur Radio Club W6SRJ and trustee Tim Bosma W6MU for their 100th successful ARISS contact during the telebridge with Saint Joseph School, Ronkonkoma, NY on May 22 Upcoming ARISS Contact Schedule Australian Air League South Australia Wing, Elizabeth, South Australia, Australia, telebridge via W6SRJ The ISS callsign is presently scheduled to be NA1SS The scheduled astronaut is Thomas Pesquet KG5FYG Contact is a go: Wed 2017-05-31 09:35:31 UTC [ANS thanks ARISS, Charlie AJ9N and David AA4KN for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- Satellite Shorts From All Over + CubeSat Workshop presentations available The 2017 CubeSat Developers Workshop, held in San Luis Obispo CA April 26-28, was the biggest event yet, with almost 550 attendees from 19 different countries! All 2017 presentation slides are now available online at http://mstl.atl.calpoly.edu/%7Eworkshop/archive/ You can also find all video footage from the workshop at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCENz0fNHsDR8Kz3jM6C_VWw Stay tuned for the announcement of the dates for the 15th Annual Developers Workshop next year http://www.cubesat.org/ [ANS thanks AMSAT-UK 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, AA8EM aa8em at amsat dot org

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ANS-141 AMSAT News Service Weekly Bulletins
by Joe Spier 21 May '17

21 May '17

AMSAT NEWS SERVICE ANS-141 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 Forum Streamed Live at Hamvention 2017 * AMSAT-NA to Assume Control of FalconSat-3 Soon * CQ Hall of Fame List - ARISS and AMSAT * AMSAT-DL Announces Launch Date for Es’hail-2 With the P4-A GEO Rideshare * AMSAT-SA Space Symposium 27 May * Work the AMSAT Hamvention Demo Station! * QB50 ISS CubeSat Deployments May 23-25 * AMSAT Events SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-141.01 ANS-141 AMSAT News Service Weekly Bulletins AMSAT News Service Bulletin 141.01 >From AMSAT HQ KENSINGTON, MD. DATE May 21, 2017 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-141.01 --------------------------------------------------------------------- AMSAT Forum Streamed Live at Hamvention 2017 The DARA/Hamvention went totally digital and Live Streamed the AMSAT Forum. A copy of the forum may be viewed here: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/k8ud-coy-ameritech-net Search either DARALIVE or AMSAT. "AMSAT Status Report" Barry Baines, WD4ASW, AMSAT-NA President, highlighted recent activities within AMSAT and discussed some of the challenges, accomplishments, projects, and late breaking news. "AMSAT Engineering Program" Jerry Buxton, N0JY, AMSAT-NA Vice President Engineering , spoke about the exciting new engineering developments that the ASCENT Program is working on as well as the latest updates on the Fox-1 project CubeSats. "AMSAT Satellite Operations" Drew Glasbrenner, KO4MA, AMSAT-NA Vice President Operations , surveyed the current operational amateur satellites, as well as what's planned for launch in the next year. "NxtGen Crystal Radio” Joe Spier, K6WAO, AMSAT-NA Vice President Educational Relations , discussed the development of the NxtGen Crystal Radio, an educational ground station for classrooms to be used to teach Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM). "ARISS Report 2017" Tim Bosma, W6MU, standing in for Frank Bauer, KA3HDO, AMSAT-NA Vice President for Human Spaceflight, discussed the 20th Anniversary of ARISS, ARISS engineering developments & operation on the International Space Station. Frank Bauer, KA3HDO, AMSAT-NA Vice President for Human Spaceflight has been awarded Amateur of the Year. [ANS thanks 2017 AMSAT Hamvention Team for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- AMSAT-NA to Assume Control of FalconSat-3 Soon US Air Force Academy satellite was launched in 2007 on Atlas 5 to 560 km, 35.4 degrees orbit, and now is at 468-481km orbit, which is several years before decay. The Satellite operates as an amateur V/u store and forward Pacsat at 9k6 (or faster) and will sustain 1w operation. The AMSAT command team is preparing to assume control once the final agreements are completed. FalconSat-3 is in a low inclination orbit presenting opportunities for equatorial and tropical stations. More details soon. [ANS thanks Drew Glasbrenner, KO4MA, AMSAT-NA Vice-President, Operations for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- CQ Hall of Fame List - ARISS and AMSAT CQ NEWS RELEASE (Announcing: 2017 Inductees, CQ Amateur Radio Hall of Fame) (Xenia, Ohio - May 19, 2017) - The CQ Amateur Radio Hall of Fame has 18 new members for 2017, CQ magazine announced today. This brings to 310 the total number of members inducted since the hall's establishment in 2001. The CQ Amateur Radio Hall of Fame honors those individuals, whether licensed hams or not, who have made significant contributions to amateur radio; and those amateurs who have made significant contributions either to amateur radio, to their professional careers or to some other aspect of life on our planet. The 2017 inductees (listed alphabetically) are: * King Bhumibol Adulyadej of Thailand, HS1A (SK) * John Brosnahan, W0UN (SK) - President of Alpha Power, NOAA physicist and instrumental in design and construction of the HAARP facility in Alaska. * Garrett Brown, W3AFF - Inventor of the Steadicam, which earned him both Oscar and Emmy awards for filmmaking technology * Britton Chance, W2IBK (SK) - Pioneer in magnetic imaging; MIT professor, team leader in MIT Radiation Lab developing WWII radar; * John Crockett, W3KH - Repeater coordination pioneer; developed Southeastern Repeater Assn (SERA) Universal Coordination System; managed SCHEART system of linked repeaters in hospitals; VP Engineering for SC Educational TV network * Julius T. Freeman, KB2OFY (SK) - Tuskegee Airman and Congressional Gold Medal recipient; frequent speaker at schools and civic organizations * Limor Fried, AC2SN - Founder of Adafruit Industries, major supplier of open-source electronics to the Maker community; honored by President Obama in 2016 as a "Champion of Change" and by the Internet of Things Institute as one of the 25 most influential women in the IoT industry * Robin Haighton, VE3FRH (SK) - Founding member of Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS), former president of AMSAT-NA * David Honess, M6DNT - Developed AstroPi project, which sent two Raspberry Pi computers to the International Space Station as plat- forms for students on Earth to write and run their own computer code in space; honored for this work with the Sir Arthur Clarke Award, presented by the Arthur C. Clarke Foundation and the British Interplanetary Society * Pete Kemp, KZ1Z (SK) - Author and educator, directly responsible for licensing over 700 new hams * Kristen McIntyre, K6WX - Apple software engineer and inventor (her name is on 22 granted or pending patents), promoter of STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) subjects for girls through various talks and YouTube presentations * Pat McPherson, WW9E (SK) - Founder and longtime coordinator of SATERN (Salvation Army Team Emergency Radio Network) * Andy Nguyen, VK3YT - Pico-ballooner, pioneered round-the-world microballoon flights carrying amateur radio * Tim Peake, KG5BVI - UK astronaut very active in ARISS program during time on International Space Station; coordinated ISS end of the AstroPi project (see David Honess, above) * Mike Santana, WB6TEB (SK) - Two-way radio engineer, designed Clegg FM-76 220-MHz transceiver and President line of CB rigs, favorites for conversion to 10 meters * Allan Steinfeld, W2TN, ex-KL7HIR (SK) - Longtime Race Director of the New York City Marathon, considered one of the fathers of the modern running movement * Gerald Youngblood, K5SDR - Pioneer of software defined radio (SDR) and founder of FlexRadio Two new members each are also being inducted into the CQ DX and Contest Halls of Fame at the respective Dayton DX and Contest dinners. Their names will be announced separately. [ANS thanks CQ Hall of Fame for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- AMSAT-DL Announces Launch Date for Es’hail-2 With the P4-A GEO Rideshare According to the Es'hailSat corporate website, the launch of P4-A / Es'hail-2 is now scheduled for 2018. Further information will be announced when available. Meanwhile AMSAT-DL is preparation the ground-station equipment which will be installed at the Es'hailSat Satellite Control Center in Qatar, at QARS HQ in Doha and at AMSAT-DL HQ in Bochum. Es’hail-2 details are published on their web page: https://eshailsat.qa/en/satellites/index/#tab-16 Es’hail-2 will also provide the first Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation (AMSAT) geostationary communication capability that connects users across the visible globe in one single hop and in real-time. It will allow also the AMSAT community to validate and demonstrate their DVB standard. [ANS thanks AMSAT-DL and Es’hail-2 for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- AMSAT-SA Space Symposium 27 May The AMSAT-SA Space symposium on 27 May 2017 promises to be one of the most exciting events on this year's calendar. Learn how you can operate on the new geostationary satellite to be launched later this year giving South Africans 24-hour communication with a simple put together ground station. Hannes Coetzee, ZS6BZP, has done the work and will share it with you. Denel Spaceteq will share details about their work on the EO-Sat1 satellite being built for SANSA to become part of the African earth observation satellite network. Anton Janovsky will show you and demonstrate how to build a SDR with a Raspberry Pi. Find out how the Kletskous project has progressed including a demonstration of the transponder and other sub-systems plus many more interesting discussions and demonstrations. There are awesome attendance prizes to be won including two Pi Top laptops, 2 Raspberry Pi starter kits and 2 Raspberry Pi dummy kits, a MFJ artificial ground and a MFJ world receiver. Full program and registration details are available on www.amsatsa.org.za or request details by sending an e-mail to admin(a)amsatsa.org.za [ANS thanks the SARL weekly news in English for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- Work the AMSAT Hamvention Demo Station! As previously announced, AMSAT will have it's traditional presence at Hamvention this year, including a satellite demo station. This year, the demo station will operate under the AMSAT club callsign W3ZM/8. We intend to be on all passes of voice satellites between 12:00 UTC and 21:00 UTC on Friday, May 19th and Saturday, May 20th and between 12:00 UTC and 16:00 UTC on Sunday, May 21st. We may also try the NO-84 and ISS packet digipeaters using a Kenwood TH-D7A(G) HT. The callsign for packet will be just W3ZM. Please call us using APRS messages on packet. Hamvention is located in the six digit gridsquare is EM89aq. As a reward for working the AMSAT demo station during the first Hamvention at the Greene County Fairgrounds in Xenia, Ohio, individuals working us will receive a digital certificate upon request. Please email n8hm(a)amsat.org with your QSO details to receive a certificate. [ANS thanks Paul Stoetzer, N8HM, AMSAT-NA Secretary for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- QB50 ISS CubeSat Deployments May 23-25 The second phase of QB50 CubeSats should be deployed from the International Space Station over three days from May 23-25, 2017. Built by university students and research organisations from 23 c ountries around the world, the QB50 constellation aims to study the lower thermosphere 200-380 km above the Earth. 11 QB50 CubeSats were deployed in the first phase and a further 17 will be deployed in the second phase. The beacons should be activated about 30 minutes after deployment. The QB50 CubeSats have downlinks between 435.7 and 438 MHz and reports from radio amateurs are most welcome. Beacon data received can be uploaded to a dedicated QB50 webpage at https://upload.qb50.eu/ LilacSat-2 (ON02CN), which deploys at 0815 GMT on Tuesday, May 23, is carrying a FM to Codec2-BPSK Digital Voice transponder, an APRS digipeater and camera. Further information at https://amsat-uk.org/2017/05/19/lilacsat-1-cubesat-iss/ Two of the ISS QB50 CubeSats deployed in the first phase, ON01FR 437.020 MHz and ON05FR 436.880 MHz, carry V/U FM transponders. The uplink frequency for both is 145.860 MHz with 210.7 Hz CTCSS, see http://site.amsat-f.org/2017/05/12/qb50-document-de-description-des- telemesures-des-satellites-on01fr-on05fr/ List of QB50 CubeSats with Beacon format and frequency information https://upload.qb50.eu/listCubeSat/ Keplerian Two Line Elements (TLEs) ‘Keps’ for new satellites launched in past 30 days http://celestrak.com/NORAD/elements/tle-new.txt QB50 project https://www.qb50.eu/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/QB50Mission On the deployment days radio amateurs and QB50 teams will be on the #CubeSat IRC channel. Join the deployment chat at http://irc.lc/freenode/cubesat Don’t have a suitable 435-438 MHz receiver? Try listening online with the SUWS WebSDR located near London http://websdr.suws.org.uk/ On June 19, 2014 two precursor QB50 CubeSats were launched, QB50p1 and QB50p2, which carried amateur radio transponders https://amsat-uk.org/2014/06/19/successful-launch-of-amateur-radio-satellit… [ANS thanks AMSAT-UK 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). *21 May 2017, HamVention in the Greene County Fairgrounds and Expo Center, Dayton, Ohio *Friday and Saturday, 9-10 June 2017, HAM-COM in Irving TX *Saturday, 10 June 2017 – Prescott Hamfest in Prescott AZ *Tuesday, 20 June 2017 – presentation for Superstition Amateur Radio Club in Mesa AZ [ANS thanks AMSAT-NA 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 at Hamvention 2017, Joe Spier, K6WAO k6wao at amsat dot org

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ANS-134 AMSAT News Service Weekly Bulletins
by Lee McLamb 14 May '17

14 May '17

AMSAT NEWS SERVICE ANS-134 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: * Top 10 Reasons to Come to Dayton * Canadian Grid Expedition Announcement * Asia Islands on the Air Satellite Activation * South Korea Air Force Academy Proposes FM Repeater K2Sat to IARU * Lloyd V. Berkner Space Policy Internships * Vector Space Completes First Test Flight SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-134.01 ANS-134 AMSAT News Service Weekly Bulletins AMSAT News Service Bulletin 134.01 From AMSAT HQ KENSINGTON, MD. DATE May 14, 2017 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-134.01 Top 10 Reasons to Come to Dayton 10. Rub shoulders with 25,000 of your best friends at the largest hamfest in the United States, including most of the AMSAT Directors and senior officers. See the latest equipment from Icom, Yaesu, Kenwood, Flex, Alinco, M2, Arrow, and many other manufacturers of amateur radio equipment and accessories. Take advantage of discounted pricing you won't find anywhere else. 9. Find out how to organize a contact with the astronauts on the International Space Station for your local school or youth group from our Education and ARISS experts. 8. Pickup the latest AMSAT golf shirts, T-shirts, and hats. Get your copy of the updated "Amateur Satellite Frequency Guide" (laminated frequency chart) and Gould Smith's just revised "Getting Started with Amateur Satellites" (book printed in color). We'll also have assembled wide-band preamps and antennas that are great for portable operation. 7. See demonstrations of SatPC32 and MacDoppler satellite tracking software, and get your operational questions answered. Meet Don Agro, author of MacDoppler (Friday & Saturday, 2-3 p.m.). See a demonstration of the LVB Tracker, a computer interface to the Yaesu azimuth-elevation rotors. Talk with Mike Young, who has built more LVB Trackers than anyone else. Assembled LVB Trackers will be available. 6. Hear Carl Laufer talk about “The World of Low Cost Software Defined Radio” at the AMSAT Banquet on Friday evening. Carl is the creator and author of the extremely popular RTL-SDR Blog, author of the book, “The Hobbyist Guide to RTL-SDR,” and supplier of the RTL-SDR dongle. 5. Hear the latest on the *five* Fox satellites, Phase 5, the International Space Station, other current and future satellites, education news, and an AMSAT update at the AMSAT Forum Saturday, from 10:45 to 12:15. 4. Get one-on-one guidance on setting up your satellite station and making contacts at our "Beginner's Corner". Witness live demonstrations of contacts through satellites AO-7, AO-73, AO-85, FO-29, SO-50, XW-2A, XW-2B, XW-2C, XW-2D and XW-2F using handheld antennas. 3. Meet and interact with some of the Engineering Team members working on the Fox-1 satellites and our new Five and Dime AMSAT ground terminal. 2. Get satellite station and operating tips from some of the best satellite operators in the country, including John Papay K8YSE (1,591 grids confirmed), Drew Glasbrenner KO4MA (1,510 grids), Doug Papay KD8CAO (1,200 grids), and Paul Stoetzer (904 grids). 1. Receive an updated "Amateur Satellite Frequency Guide" (laminated frequency chart) when you join or renew your AMSAT membership at Dayton, and take advantage of special pricing on the SatPC32 satellite tracking software. [ANS thanks Steve, N9IP, for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- Canadian Grid Expedition Announcement Ken, VE3HLS reports he plans for the activation of four never-activated on satellites grids (as far as he can tell) grids are coming together. The expedition takes place next weekend, May 20th and 21st 2017; a long weekend up here in Canada. He will be driving up from his home QTH in FN03 and will arrive in Chibougamau QC on the afternoon of Saturday May 20th. There are several favorable passes on Saturday evening and hw hopes to spend a few hours handing out FN29 to get warmed up. Sunday the 21st looks like a bonanza of great passes! The trouble will be deciding when to break so he can move to a different location. The plan at this time is to set up on the FN29/39 boundary in the morning and operate there for a few hours. Then he will move to FO20/30 and then FO20/FN29. More information about operating schedules will be posted on amsat-bb as he gets closer to departure date. He will also post information on his QRZ page at https://qrz.com/db/VE3HLS [ANS thanks Ken, VE3HLS for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- Asia Islands on the Air Satellite Activation Operators Makoto/JI5RPT and Toru/JI5USJ will be active as homecall/1 from Shikine Island (North Izu Island) between 0000z, May 20th and 0000z, May 21st. Activity will be on 160/80/40/30/20/17/15/12/10/6 meters using CW, RTTY and PSK31. There will also be satellite operations. Please note: In case of heavy rain or other conditions, the operation schedule may vary. For QSL info, please check QRZ.com for details. [ANS thanks the Ohio/Penn DX Bulletin #1314 for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- South Korea Air Force Academy Proposes FM Repeater K2Sat to IARU The Republic of Korea Air Force Academy has submitted a coordination request to the IARU for the K2Sat satellite, a 3U CubeSat Mission. The K2Sat's primary mission is to demonstrate satellite imaging and transfer, to also test voice repeating capability. The followings are the payloads: 1. On-board camera 2. On-board voice repeater proposing a V/U FM voice transceiver 3. 9k6 BSPK AX25 downlink for data and telemetry and planning a 2 Mbit QPSK downlink on S Band. The launch is planned for a 500/600km SSO orbit in 2018. [ANS thanks the IARU for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- Lloyd V. Berkner Space Policy Internships The Space Studies Board is seeking applicants for the Lloyd V. Berkner Space Policy Internships for autumn 2017. The goal of the program is to provide promising undergraduate and graduate students with the opportunity to work in the area of civil space research policy in the nation's capital. Established in 1958, the Space Studies Board is the principal advisory group providing independent scientific and programmatic advice to NASA and other government agencies on all aspects of civil space research and associated ground-based activities. Interns typically undertake one or more short-term research projects designed to assist with or to enhance ongoing study projects. Applicants must be registered students (undergraduate or graduate) at a U.S. university or college who have completed their junior year. Applicants should have long-term career goals in space science research, applications or policy. Applications are due June 2, 2017. For more information and a full list of eligibility requirements, visit http://sites.nationalacademies.org/SSB/SSB_052239. Please direct questions about this internship to Dr. David H. Smith at dhsmith(a)nas.edu. [ANS thanks NASA Education Express for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- Vector Space Completes First Test Flight Vector Space has conducted a crucial test of their Vector-R rocket that the company hopes will expand the small satellite launch market via small-scale launchers. As SpaceX has disrupted the large scale market, so does Vector Space hope their new rocket system can disrupt the small scale market by eliminating the need for ride-share requirements small satellites currently face while significantly lowering the cost to small satellite customers. The first test flight, conducted on 3 May from the Mojave Desert in California, used a single-engine scaled-down model of the three-engine Vector-R rocket and allowed the company to test aspects of launch operations – including its infrastructure-lite launch architecture approach – for their rocket as well as portions of its 3D-printed components and pressure-fed engine design. The suborbital test flight launched from the Friends of Amateur Rocketry site in California’s Mojave Desert at 12:00 PDT (19:00 GMT) on 3 May and reached a maximum altitude of 1,370 m (4,500 ft). The second test flight, expected in July, will radically shift launch operations to a never-before-used location – the U.S. state of Georgia – and will highlight what Vector Space says is an innovative solution to various launch market needs with an ability to launch from locations outside the standard U.S. Ranges. This Georgia test will occur from Camden County – the state’s southern-most county, which borders Florida’s north-eastern most boundary. Following completion of the Vector-R test flight series, Vector Space plans to introduce the Vector-R rocket for commercial launch operations in 2018. From there, the company currently has 12 commercial launches for the Vector-R planned in 2019, with an eventual eye toward ramping up operations to 100 launches of the Vector-R later in its operational life. [ANS thanks NASASpaceFlight.com 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-127 AMSAT News Service Weekly Bulletins
by Lee McLamb 07 May '17

07 May '17

AMSAT NEWS SERVICE ANS-127 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 at the Dayton Hamvention -- Call for volunteers * Hamvention Instructor's Forum to Feature Space Weather and AMSAT-NA * 2017 AMSAT-NA Board of Directors Nominations Notice * RadFxSat/Fox-1B Launch Moves Left * UBSEDS24 Balloon with SSDV – 2nd Launch Attempt, 8 May * AMSAT Sweden Celebrates 35 Years * Ciaran Morgan, M0XTD, and ARISS-UK Team Awarded the Louis Varney Cup SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-127.01 ANS-127 AMSAT News Service Weekly Bulletins AMSAT News Service Bulletin 127.01 From AMSAT HQ KENSINGTON, MD. DATE May 7, 2017 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-127.01 AMSAT at the Dayton Hamvention -- Call for volunteers The Dayton Hamvention is less than two weeks away, May 19-21! If you’ve been waiting to volunteer until you’d firmed up your plans, we need to hear from you ASAP! If you're an experienced satellite operator, we can use you and your experience. If you've never operated a satellite before, we can use your help too. Whether you're available for only a couple of hours or if you can spend the entire weekend with us, your help would be greatly appreciated. Please send an e-mail to Steve, n9ip(a)amsat.org if you can help. Thank you! [ANS thanks Steve, N9IP, Dayton Team Leader, for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- Hamvention Instructor's Forum to Feature Space Weather and AMSAT-NA Carole Perry, WB2MGP, who may be Amateur Radio's premier supporter of youth, will moderate her 30th Hamvention Youth Forum later this month, when Hamvention® convenes for the first time at its new venue in Xenia, Ohio, May 19-21. The Youth Forum is set for Saturday, May 20, 9:15 AM until noon, in Room 2. She's lined up nine young presenters who will speak on a variety of topics of interest to radio amateurs of all ages. The Youth Forum is open to all. AMSAT-NA will donate Gould Smith's just revised "Getting Started with Amateur Satellites" (book printed in color) to the Youth Forum presenters. Carole will also conduct her Hamvention Instructors' Forum on Friday, May 19, 10:30-11:30 AM, in Room 3. "Space Weather Woman" Dr. Tamitha Skov will speak on "Teaching Space Weather" and AMSAT-NA Vice President, Educational Relations, Joe Spier, K6WAO, will present "NxtGen Crystal Radio". Joe will have 10 kits consisting of RTL-SDRs, pre-amps, connectors, cables, 2M EZ-Lindenblad antennas, FoxTelem software, and instructions to create a FOX Telemetry Ground Station for educators at the Instructors' Forum on Friday. [ANS thanks the Hamvention 2017 Team, the ARRL Letter for May 4th, and Carole Perry, WB2MGP for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- 2017 AMSAT-NA Board of Directors Nominations Notice It's time to submit nominations for the upcoming AMSAT-NA Board of Directors election. Four directors' terms expire this year: Barry Baines, WD4ASW, Jerry Buxton, N0JY, Drew Glasbrenner, KO4MA, and Bob McGwier, N4HY. In addition, up to two Alternates may be elected for one year terms. A valid nomination requires either one Member Society or five current individual members in good standing to nominate an AMSAT-NA member for Director. Written nominations, consisting of the nominee's name and call, and the nominating individual's names, calls and individual signatures should be mailed to: AMSAT-NA, 10605 Concord St, #304 Kensington, MD 20895-2526. In addition to traditional submissions of written nominations, which is the preferred method, the intent to nominate someone may be made by electronic means. These include e-mail, fax, or electronic image of a petition. Electronic petitions should be sent to martha(a)amsat.org or faxed to (301)822-4371. No matter what means is used, petitions MUST arrive no later than June 15th at the AMSAT-NA office. If the nomination is a traditional written nomination, no other action is required. If it is other than this, i.e. electronic, a verifying traditional written petition MUST be received at the AMSAT-NA office at the above address within 7 days following the close of nominations on June 15th. ELECTRONIC SUBMISSIONS WITHOUT THIS SECOND, WRITTEN VERIFICATION ARE NOT VALID UNDER THE EXISTING AMSAT-NA BYLAWS. [ANS thanks Paul, N8HM, for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- RadFxSat/Fox-1B Launch Moves Left In the world of secondary payloads we're all used to launches moving to the right as issues with the primary payload and launch vehicles or their schedules often occur. But what is a move to the left? The RadFxSat/Fox-1B launch had been recently announced as NET September 23, 2017. Today, the primary payload JPSS-1 moved to the left and we can now announce a new launch date of NET September 21, 2017 for RadFxSat and all of the other ELaNa XIV mission payloads. That's "only" two whole days earlier, true, but with all of our Fox-1 launches having been on a steady march to the right since (and including, at the time) AO-85/Fox-1A was launched, we'll take what we can get! [ANS Jerry, N0JY, for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- UBSEDS24 Balloon with SSDV – 2nd Launch Attempt, 8 May Richard Meadows M0SBU reports there will be a second attempt to launch the Raspberry Pi Zero equipped 434 MHz balloon UBSEDS24 early Monday morning. On the UKHAS Google Group Richard writes: There’s going to be another attempt to launch this flight from Bristol this Monday, May 8 between 0500 and 0530 BST [0400-0430 GMT]. This is weather permitting, but the forecast looks okay at the moment. This launch is using a 1.9m envelope and longer payload train, and so there’s a NOTAM in place. This tracker has a Raspberry Pi Zero V1.3 attached, which transmits images when solar power is available. It’s a different design to our launch last August; in this case the tracker will continue to operate even if the pi fails. For the curious the ‘pi status’ telemetry values are: 0 = off, 1 = on, 2 = PITS started, 3 = SSDV started). There will hopefully be a cutdown mounted between the balloon and the tracker. We’ll be testing the 434 MHz uplink to this whilst it’s still in range of Bristol; if it returns over the UK at a convenient time and place we will attempt to trigger the cutdown. The tracker has several transmissions: – 434.635 MHz USB Telemetry – Contestia 16/1000 with pips and RSID, transmitting telemetry. Once per minute below 8km altitude and every two minutes otherwise. – 434.637.5 MHz SSDV – Two modes: (1) While balloon over UK and English channel GMSK at 12 ksymbol/s. 4×4 interleaved, R=1/2 convolutional K=5, HDLC framing, whitened etc. as per the AX5043 manual. Concatenated with RS(255,223) to mop up some burst errors. (2) Outside UK 300 baud RTTY, 850 Hz shift, 8N2. If you are listening to the RTTY, remember to turn off the ‘RxID’ button on the top right of dl-fldigi. Rather than the usual JPEG SSDV, this is transmitting Better Portable Graphics (BPG) images. This is experimental, and ssdv.habhub.org doesn’t support it just yet. Hence receivers should upload to http://ssdv.bristol-seds.co.uk instead, please read the instructions on this site. You’ll need dl-fldigi release 3.2, as explained on the site. James Coxon M6JCX has made the dl-fldigi release available at: https://github.com/jamescoxon/dl-fldigi/releases/tag/3.2 The flight is expected to head south towards France. Many thanks to everyone who attempts to track this. Track the balloon online at https://tracker.habhub.org/ Listen to the balloon online with the SUWS WebSDR link at https://amsat-uk.org/beginners/balloons/ UBSEDS http://www.bristol-seds.co.uk/ [ANS thanks AMSAT-UK for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- AMSAT Sweden Celebrates 35 Years AMSAT-SM (Sweden) has been active in 35 years 2017. AMSAT-SM was founded April 24:th 1982 by a group of swedish hams. The first AMSAT-SM president was SM5IXE Thomas Johansson. One AMSAT-SM's objectives is to inform Swedish hams about the fun with amateur satellites! Not many SM hams are active via satellite at the moment. With the help of their Swedish webpage and HF-net it is hoped that more Swedish hams should be using amateur satellites. The AMSAT-SM annual meeting is held every spring. Some weeks on Sundays we have a HF-net on 80 meters with lots of news about satellites and space. Today AMSAT-SM has aprox. 200 members and we have an active news feed via web, Twitter and Youtube. So, we are still alive and kicking! http://www.amsat.se/english-info/ https://twitter.com/amsat_sm https://www.youtube.com/AMSATSM [ANS thanks Lars, SM0TGU, for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- Ciaran Morgan, M0XTD, and ARISS-UK Team Awarded the Louis Varney Cup Ciaran Morgan, M0XTD, and the Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) UK Team were awarded the Louis Varney Cup on April 22 at the RSGB 90th Annual General Meeting in Cardiff, Wales. RSGB recognized Morgan and the ARISS- UK team for advances in space communications. Accepting the trophy were Graham Shirville, G3VZV; Noel Matthews, G8GTZ, and John Cariss, G7ACD. The award’s namesake, Louis Varney, G5RV, was the inventor of the world-famous G5RV antenna and an RSGB member for 74 years. Varney died in 2000. Morgan and the ARISS-UK team have also been fundraising on behalf of ARISS. [ANS thanks ARRL 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 May 2017