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ANS-012 AMSAT News Service Weekly Bulletins for January 12
by JoAnne K9JKM 12 Jan '20

12 Jan '20

AMSAT NEWS SERVICE ANS-012 The AMSAT News Service bulletins are a free, weekly news and infor- mation service of AMSAT, 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 commun- icating 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. You can sign up for free e-mail delivery of the AMSAT News Service Bulletins via the ANS List; to join this list see: http://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/ans In this edition: * Virgin Orbit Plans Flight Test of LauncherOne Rocket in February * AMSAT Awards Update * AMSAT at Cowtown Hamfest - Ft. Worth - January 17-18 * JARL Announces FO-29 Activation Schedule * CAMSAT Says CAS-6 Activation for Amateur Use has been Delayed * Telemetry Dashboard Available for SMOG-P and ATL PocketQubes * MIT Radio Society W1MX January Lecture Series on “Everything Radio” * AMSAT-DL Announces a New QO-100 DownConverter V3d * AMSAT South Africa Space Symposium 2020 First Call for Papers * Upcoming ARISS Contact Schedule * Upcoming Satellite Operations * Satellite Shorts From All Over SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-012.01 ANS-012 AMSAT News Service Weekly Bulletins AMSAT News Service Bulletin 012.01 From AMSAT HQ KENSINGTON, MD. DATE January 12, 2020 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-012.01 +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+ If you missed the live HamTalkLive podcast featuring Paul Stoetzer, N8HM, AMSAT Executive VP on January 9 you can listen on demand any- time at hamtalklive.com; or a podcast version on nearly all podcast sites a few minutes after the live show is over including Apple Pod- casts, Stitcher, Google Play, SoundCloud, and iHeart Podcasts; and it's also available on YouTube. A replay is also broadcast on WTWW 5085 AM on Saturday nights at approximately 6:30 pm Eastern. Look for Episode 195 - AMSAT 50th Anniversary Recap 09 Jan +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+ Virgin Orbit Plans Flight Test of LauncherOne Rocket in February Virgin Orbit, AMSAT's launch for RadFxSat-2/Fox-1E, has announced they expect to have their first test launch of LauncherOne, their airborne-launched rocket, sometime in the second half of February. The LauncherOne rocket is carried on the VO 747 Cosmic Girl aircraft. If this first test flight is successful RadFxSat-2/Fox-1E is planned for launch on the second flight of LauncherOne during 1Q 2020 on the ELaNa XX mission. RadFxSat-2/Fox-1E ----------------- Uplink: 145.860 MHz - 145.890 MHz LSB/CW Downlink: 435.790 MHz - 435.760 MHz USB/CW (inverting) Telemetry: 435.750 MHz 1K2 bps BPSK Investigate the excitement at: https://virginorbit.com/ - and - https://twitter.com/Virgin_Orbit/status/1214605925228482560 [ANS thanks Virgin Orbit for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- AMSAT Awards Update Bruce Paige, KK5DO, AMSAT Director Contests and Awards, reported, "Now that 2019 is behind us, I thought I would catch up with the awards issued the last half of the year." AMSAT Satellite Communicators Award for making their first satellite QSO + Daniel Rahn, K8EC + Bernd Peters, KB7AK + Shane Hale, KE5HSS + Benny Chandra, YD0SPU + Martin Lipert, OK1UM + Helene Charbonneau, VE2AQM + Spiro Andy Loizos, VE2LZS + Stelios Alex Loizos, VA2LZS + Souly Loizos, VE2FFS + Adam Warrix, KD9NRT + Steffen Gross, DM3CW ---------- AMSAT Communications Achievement Award + Jonathan Zylstra, KL2DN #620 + Robert Bankston, KE4AL #621 + Sloan Davis, KN4GQB #622 + Walter Mercado Vazquez, KP4T #623 ---------- AMSAT Sexagesimal Satellite Communications Achievement Award + Robert Bankston, KE4AL #184 ---------- AMSAT Century Club Award + Robert Bankston, KE4AL #54 ---------- AMSAT South Africa Satellite Communications Achievement Award + Jonathan Zylstra, KL2DN #US222 + Robert Bankston, KE4AL #US223 + Sloan Davis, KN4GQB #US224 ---------- AMSAT Robert W. Barbee Jr., W4AMI Award (1,000-4,000) + Ron Parsons, W5RKN upgrade to 4000 ---------- AMSAT Robert W. Barbee Jr., W4AMI Award 5,000 + Adrian Liggins, VA3NNA #35 + Ron Parsons, W5RKN #36 ---------- AMSAT Rover Award + #043 N7EGY + #044 CU2ZG + #045 K9EI + #046 KR5Z + #047 N4DCW + #048 KC9VGG + #049 W3ZM/9 (OP KC9VGG) + #050 W5PFG ---------- The next batch of AMSAT 50th Anniversary Satellite Friends of 50 awards are hot off the presses. Congratulations to: + BH4IWK + F4HVO + K0CFI + KC9VGG + VE2FFS + WP4T Visit https://www.amsat.org/amsat-50th-anniversary-awards-program/ To see all the awards visit http://www.amsat.org and click on Services then Awards. [ANS thanks Bruce Paige, KK5DO, AMSAT Director Contests and Awards, for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- AMSAT at Cowtown Hamfest - Ft. Worth - January 17-18 AMSAT will be represented at the 2020 Cowtown Hamfest in Fort Worth, TX on January 17 and 18 with a table, demos and presentations. If you live in the North Texas area, this is a great event, well attended and lots of vendors. Please put it on your calendar. Info posted at http://www.cowtownhamfest.com/ AMSAT Ambassador Tom Schuessler, N5HYP, says he has openings to staff the table, do the demos and assist with the presentations. The Cowtown amateur Radio Club was a home for our dearly beloved and SK, Keith Pugh, W5IU. The organizers offered AMSAT a no charge table space in the market area so a big thank you to them is in order. Tom hopes you can plan to be a part of this fine event. If you can assist in any way for AMSAT, please drop Tom an email at: N5HYP(a)arrl.net Keep an eye on https://www.amsat.org/other-events/ for updates on coming AMSAT events. [ANS thanks AMSAT Ambassador Tom Schuessler, N5HYP, for the above information] +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+ Need new satellite antennas? Purchase Arrows, Alaskan Arrows, and M2 LEO-Packs from the AMSAT Store. When you purchase through AMSAT, a portion of the proceeds goes towards Keeping Amateur Radio in Space. https://amsat.org/product-category/hardware/ +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+ JARL Announces FO-29 Activation Schedule Due to battery problems FO-29 has been largely inactive - usually activated over Japan while in range of the command station. Akira Kaneko, JA1OGZ, FO-29 Command Station has posted an activation schedule for additional access: FO-29 Transponder Active (UTC) ------------------------------ 1/12 05:05- 17:00 1/13 04:10- 05:55 1/18 04:50- 06:35 1/19 03:55- 05:40 1/26 04:30- 06:15 2/1 06:00- 2/2 06:50- 2/8 04:50-15:00 2/9 03:55-15:50 2/11 03:50-05:35 2/23 03:20-05:05 2/24 04:10-5:55-14:20 3/1 04:00-05:40-15:55 3/2 04:45-14:55 FO-29 ----- Uplink: 145.900 - 146.000 MHz LSB/CW Downlink: 435.900 - 435.800 MHz USB/CW (inverting) Beacon: 435.795 MHz [ANS thanks Akira Kaneko, JA1OGZ, FO-29 Command Station for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- CAMSAT Says CAS-6 Activation for Amateur Use has been Delayed 01/07/2020 - via ARRL Chinese Amateur Satellite Group (CAMSAT) CEO Alan Kung, BA1DU, tells ARRL that some problems with the precise attitude determination of the newly launched CAS-6 amateur radio satellite have delayed deploy- ment of the antennas. The satellite was to have been put into service within 3 days. “If the V/UHF antennas are deployed now, additional torque may affect determination of the satellite attitude,” Kung said. “Engineers need to modify and upload the software, which will take some time.” He said that taking into consideration the upcoming long Chinese New Year holiday, the test work is planned to be completed sometime in late February or early March. At that time, VHF/UHF antennas will be deployed, and the amateur radio payload will be available for use. Kung points out that the satellite’s CW beacon has been turned on, although the antenna has not yet been deployed. “If you have a ‘big ear,’ you may be able to receive weak signal leaked from an undeploy- ed antenna on 145.910 MHz,” he said. “A polyimide cover on the anten- na chassis can help to leak some RF signal.” CAS-6 launched successfully on December 20, piggybacked on a TIANQIN-1 technology test satellite. The microsatellite will be known as CAS-6/TIANQIN-1, and the call sign is BJ1SO. The primary launch pay- load was the China-Brazil Earth Resources Satellite, CBERS-4A. CAS-6 is in a sun-synchronous orbit with an apogee of 390 miles. It carries a U/V linear transponder, with a downlink of 145.925, 20 kHz passband (inverted) and an uplink of 435.28 MHz. The CW telemetry beacon is on 145.910 MHz, while 4k9 baud GMSK telemetry will be trans- mitted on 145.890 MHz. [ANS thanks CAMSAT and the ARRL for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- Telemetry Dashboard Available for SMOG-P and ATL PocketQubes The SMOG-P and ATL PocketQube team at the Budapest University of Tech- nology and Economics has released additional information about their satellites recently launched by RocketLab from New Zealand. SMOG-P digital downlink: 437.150 MHz ATL digital downlink: 437.175 MHz More information on both satellites is posted at: http://gnd.bme.hu SMOG-P (MO-105) is a 1p PocketQube (5x5x5 cm, 250 grams), a fully re- dundant tiny satellite with an actual scientific payload: a flying spectrum analyzer. It measures the scattered RF energy over the UHF band (specifically, in the digital terrestrial TV band) that can be detected in space. ATL-1 (MO-106) is a larger 2p PocketQube featuring the same spectrum analyzer experiment. Both satellites transmit almost identical telemetry data. In addition to basic CW telemetry carrying callsign, battery voltage and tempera- ture, there is digital telemetry with variable data rate and coding scheme. Most frequently, modulation is 1250 or 5000 bps GMSK. The data is encoded either by the well-known "AO-40" FEC, or a shorter, pro- prietary variant of it, but they can also use a more powerful, state- of-art repeat-accumulate (RA) coding scheme. Some practical information about receiving the telemetry: A GUI telemetry receiver is available for Windows and Linux (soon for OS X as well), and a command line receiver can also be used (Linux only). Both can be downloaded from: https://gnd.bme.hu:8080/index The programs are able to submit the received packets to the central telemetry data base. This requires a quick registration, the login credentials can be used with either of the decoders. There are some issues with the GUI software that hopefully will be resolved within a few days. These decoders assume either a USB receiver connected through the sound card or an rtl-sdr receiver. Thanks to Daniel Estevez, EA4GPZ, a high quality, full decoder and packet uploader is also available for GNU Radio 3.8 within the out- of-tree module gr-satellites. For uploading to the received packets, it uses the same login as the "official" programs do: https://github.com/daniestevez/gr-satellites/tree/maint-3.8 This decoder can unleash the full potential of the RA FEC. You'll need to put an FM demodulator in front of the flowgraph. The team is looking forward to seeing many submissions on the "Leader- board" from around the world: https://gnd.bme.hu:8080/leaderboard Having many receiving stations around the globe could greatly improve the global picture the spectrum analyzer payload can offer. [ANS thanks the PocketQube team at the Budapest University of Tech- nology and Economics for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- MIT Radio Society W1MX January Lecture Series on “Everything Radio” The Massachusetts Institute of Technology Radio Society (W1MX) and the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science are hosting a lecture series in January that may answer some of your questions about such topics as radar techniques, interferometry, imaging, and radio astronomy, to antenna design and modern chip- scale RF devices. No prior experience with radio is necessary, and all are welcome. All lectures will take place in the Green Building — MIT’s tallest academic building. Sessions will be live streamed and archived for later viewing. The lectures have already kicked off on January 10 with “The Next Generation of Weather Radar.” Other topics include “Lightning Interferometry” (January 13); “Radio Noises from the Sky” (January 15); “EDGES: Measuring the Early Universe” (January 22); “Antennas” (January 24), and “Chip-Scale THz Circuits and Sensors” (January 29). Lectures begin at 5 PM ET and conclude at 7 PM. MIT has posted details at: http://w1mx.mit.edu/iap/2020/ [ANS thanks the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- AMSAT-DL Announces a New QO-100 DownConverter V3d The first version of the AMSAT-DL down converter was built in early 2019, enabling many stations to become active on QO-100 for the first time. Since then, a lot of operating experience and new insights have been gained, which have flowed into the new board V3d. The AMSAT-DL DownConverter V3d is a completely new development. It offers important functions for all QO-100 stations, no matter if you work with VHF/UHF, HF transceiver, or an SDR. This new board can be used as a central frequency converter assembly for your QO-100 sta- tion providing stable clocks for all components meaning that addi- tional external GPS modules are not required. The specification for the AMSAT-DL DownConverter V3d includes: + Centralized clock generation with GPS or OCXO + Reference clock for the PLL in the LNB + Reference clock for a transmit mixer + Reference clock for an SDR + Short-circuit proof LNB phantom power + Connection for a dual LNB (for simultaneous NB and WB reception) + Downward mixing of the NB transponder into an amateur band (UHF/VHF or HF) + OLED display for displaying the operating status and the station coordinates The full specification and list of features is posted at: https://amsat-dl.org/der-neue-amsat-dl-qo-100-downconverter-v3d and you can order your unit at: https://shop.amsat-dl.org/ [ANS thanks AMSAT-DL for the above information] +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+ The digital download version of the 2019 edition of Getting Started with Amateur Satellites is now available as a DRM-free PDF from the AMSAT Store. Get yours today! https://tinyurl.com/ANS-237-Getting-Started +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+ AMSAT South Africa Space Symposium 2020 First Call for Papers Papers are invited for presentation at the conference and publi- cation on the web. Please send your synopsis by 28 February 2020 in a word document of no more than 300 words to: admin(a)amsatsa.org.za. Please tell us if you will be available to present your paper at the conference ... speakers attend free. The Symposium date is July 18, 2020 at the Premier Hotel Midrand. The theme this year is "Amateur Radio in Space – exploring VHF, UHF and Microwaves". Watch http://www.amsatsa.org.za/ for the latest information. [ANS thanks AMSAT SA for the above information] +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+ AMSAT, along with our ARISS partners, is developing an amateur radio package, including two-way communication capability, to be carried on-board Gateway in lunar orbit. Support AMSAT's projects today at https://www.amsat.org/donate/ +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+ Upcoming ARISS Contact Schedule Quick list of scheduled contacts and events: + Sayama Mizutomi Community Center, Sayama, Japan, direct via 8J1SS The ISS callsign is presently scheduled to be NA1SS The scheduled astronaut is Luca Parmitano KF5KDP Contact is go: Mon 2020-01-13 11:58:07 [ANS thanks Charlie Sufana, AJ9N, and David Jordan, AA4KN, ARISS opera- tion team members, for the above information] +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+ Purchase AMSAT Gear on our Zazzle storefront. 25% of the purchase price of each product goes towards Keeping Amateur Radio in Space https://www.zazzle.com/amsat_gear +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+ Upcoming Satellite Operations Satellite Shorts + January 17-19 EM17 KN6DBC AO-91 & AO-92 night passes (@KN6DBC) New Orleans, LA (EL49, EL58, EM59, EM40, EM50, EM60) January 14 – February 1, 2020. Adam, KC3OBS, will be roving EM40, EM50, EL49, EL59, January 14th – Feb 1. In between, Adam will be EL58, January 18th or 19th depending on weather, and in EM60 January 29. Adam will announce passes and updates on Twitter: https://twitter.com/sparky_husky Lucas Gusher Special Event (EM20) January 11-12, 2020 The Beaumont Amateur Radio Club will be operating using the call- sign K5S on various HF bands including as many CAS-4A, CAS-4B, AO-91, AO-92 passes that we can. SO-50 and XW-2A also possible. More information about K5S can be found on qrz.com. Labrador (GO11 +) January 19-27, 2020 Chris VE3FU, Dave VE9CB, and Frank VO1HP will be active as VO2AC in the 2020 CQ160 CW contest, January 24-26, from Point Armour Lighthouse, in Labrador. If time permits before the contest, they may be active on FM satellites from GO11 as VO2AC or VO2AAA. Depending on weather and timing of passes, you might catch them on FM satellites as they make their way from FO93 to GO-11, passing through FO92, GO02, GO13, GO12, and GO22 along the way, but no promises. They will also make the reverse trek on January 27. Brennan Price, M/N4QX, will be active from grid square IO91 *as work permits* January 20-24. QSL *exclusively* via Logbook of the World. Montserrat, January 26 to February 2 Mel, W8MV, will be working the FM satellites using the callsign VP2MCV. He will then be operating from Antigua from February 2 to February 9. Mel is still waiting for the license so it is not yet known what the callsign will be from Antigua. QSL via LoTW. Isla Perez, Mexico - EL52dj February 11-17 Members of Radio Club Puebla DX will be active as 6F3A from Isla Perez (grid EL52dj), Mexico, between February 11-17. The operators mentioned are Patricia/XE1SPM (Team Leader), Ismael/XE1AY, Rey/ XE1SRD and Ricardo/XE1SY. Activity will be on 80/40/20/17/15/12/ 10/6 meters, and include the ARRL DX CW Contest (February 15-16). QSL via XE1SY. ADDED NOTE: Ismael, XE1AY, reports that he doing CW and the satellites, and will also TX from EL50 and XE1AY/mm from EL51. (Ohio/Penn DX Bulletin #1446) Big Bend National Park (DL88) March 16-17, 2020 Ron AD0DX, Doug N6UA, and Josh W3ARD will operate from Big Bend National Park to put grid DL88 on the air. Details will be added here, as they come available, but you are more than welcome to keep an eye on their individual Twitter feeds: https://twitter.com/ad0dx, https://twitter.com/dtabor, and https://twitter.com/W3ARDstroke5 Please submit any additions or corrections to ke4al (at) amsat.org [ANS thanks Robert Bankston, KE4AL, AMSAT VP User Services for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- Satellite Shorts From All Over + Need help getting your Icom IC-9700 working with SatPC32? Check out this guide written by Stefan Wagener, VE4SW posted on at: http://www.amsat.org --> Satellite Info --> Station and Operating Hints --> "The new Icom IC-9700 is a great satellite radio ..." document is at the bottom of the page. The direct URL to the PDF document is: https://tinyurl.com/ANS-012-IC9700-SatPC32 + NASA's Texas Space Grant Consortium announced the summer program for STEM Educators (grades 5-12), LiftOff 2020: Moon to Mars, a weeklong professional development training for teachers, June 21-26, 2020. The application deadline is March 2, 2020. Workshops include learning experiences by incorporating a space science theme support- ed by NASA missions. Teacher participants are provided with infor- mation and experiences through speakers, hands-on activities and field investigations that promote space science and enrichment activities for themselves and others. Visit the program website at: http://www.tsgc.utexas.edu/liftoff/ + A new distance record has been set on the PO-101 (Diwata2H) FM transponder. F4DXV worked R9LR on 08-Jan-2020 at 22:57 UTC for a distance of 4,542 km. More posted at: https://twitter.com/PRStoetzer/status/1215441267976523777 https://www.amsat.org/satellite-distance-records/ + The AMSAT-DL radome to house their QO-100 antenna made it to Ant- arctica and is installed on top of Neumayer-Station III. Further work will be needed to be install it permanently. The station is also waiting for the AMSAT-UK FUNcube relay to arrive, pending wea- ther conditions for flying there. See the photo posted by HB9HCF: https://twitter.com/pa3weg/status/1215642731336404995 + A tweet from @AlbaOrbital reports that AMSAT Spain is signed up to fly on Alba Cluster 3. The Spanish satellite is a 1.5p PocketQube called Hades which is a satellite for amateur communications imple- menting a Bent-Pipe type repeater and with Store & Forward capabil- ities. See: https://twitter.com/AlbaOrbital/status/1214932730045194240 + AMSAT-EA (Vocalía de Satellites de URE) has registered with IARU and the Spanish administration their GÉNESIS-L and GÉNESIS-N sat- ellites for launch in mid-2020. An introduction to the project: https://www.ure.es/satelites-genesis-de-amsat-ea/ - and - https://twitter.com/ure_es/status/1214911584927133701 http://www.amsatuk.me.uk/iaru/finished_detail.php?serialnum=698 http://www.amsatuk.me.uk/iaru/finished_detail.php?serialnum=699 + A 3-axis rotor based on the Celestron NexStar telescope mount with hamlib and rotctl drivers is demonstrated at: https://youtu.be/Avp1ROEkgeA -and- https://youtu.be/BDTjnJm41mc + Stuart Thomas, KB1HQS, author of the ARRL book, "Portable Operating for Amateur Radio", describes construction of a Hiking Pole Yagi Antenna for Extreme Environments" on his web page: https://kb1hqs.com/2019/12/26/ultralight-hiking-pole-yagi-antenna/ + Amateur radio talks featured at the popular DEF CON 27 event in Las Vegas during August 8-11, 2019. Watch Mark KR6ZY - Hunting tape measure yagis and offset attenuators - DEF CON 27 Ham Radio Village: https://youtu.be/KGQDQZT9lRQ - and - feast on the videos of hundreds of additional DEF CON talks posted at: https://www.youtube.com/user/DEFCONConference/videos (via Southgate) + In April 2020, the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope will celebrate 30 years since its launch. ESA/Hubble has produced a commemorative calendar of the telescope’s Hidden Gems that is now available for everyone to use and enjoy. See: https://www.spacetelescope.org/news/heic2001/ + Opensource.com has published 12 open source resources for kids and young adults to learn from open source technology: https://opensource.com/article/19/12/kids-students-education + Did you ever dream of being a NASA astronaut? This spring, NASA once again will be accepting applications for New Astronauts! Stay tuned to http://nasa.gov/astronauts for upcoming information on how you can explore places like the Moon and Mars. + The Signal Path presents, "Tutorial on Theory, Characterization & Measurement Techniques of Phase Noise" in a video posted at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SOHjFtw0sgo&feature=youtu.be + If phase noise doesn't keep you up at night you've probably found yourself wondering why do mirrors flip left & right but not up and down? A video giving you the answer that this has to do with specu- lar reflection, mirrors being like windows into another world like alternate universes, just with in and out flipped! There's your answer! Have a good night after you watch at: https://youtu.be/1t4dOPxKgrY --------------------------------------------------------------------- /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 and remember to behave and to help keep amateur radio in space, This week's ANS Editor, JoAnne Maenpaa, K9JKM k9jkm at amsat dot org

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ANS-005 AMSAT News Service Weekly Bulletins
by Mark D. Johns 05 Jan '20

05 Jan '20

AMSAT NEWS SERVICE ANS-005 The AMSAT News Service bulletins are a free, weekly news and infor- mation service of AMSAT, 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 commun- icating 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. You can sign up for free e-mail delivery of the AMSAT News Service Bulletins via the ANS List; to join this list see: http://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/ans In this edition: * AMSAT Member KC9ZJX Receives 2020 Martin Luther King Jr. Award * Changes to AMSAT-NA TLE Distribution for January 2, 2020 * Space Fence nearing operational acceptance by U.S. Air Force * VUCC Awards-Endorsements for January 2020 * Winter Field Day to Include Limited Satellite Operations * Hamfests, Conventions, Maker Faires, and Other Events * Upcoming Satellite Operations * Satellite Shorts From All Over SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-005.01 ANS-005 AMSAT News Service Weekly Bulletins AMSAT News Service Bulletin 005.01 >From AMSAT HQ KENSINGTON, MD. DATE 2020 Jan 05 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-005.01 AMSAT Member KC9ZJX Receives 2020 Martin Luther King Jr. Award Congratulations to AMSAT member Dhruv Rebba, KC9ZJX, winner of the Bloomington and Normal (Illinois) Human Relations Commissions 2020 Martin Luther King Jr. award. The commission chooses people who re- flect the ideology of the late Dr. King. Rebba is a sophomore at Normal Community High School. He is a volun- teer and/or member of YMCA/YWCA, Illinois 4-H, Multicultural Leader- ship Program (MCLP), National Computer Science Honor Society, and First Robotics. He is also Amateur Radio Newsline's 2019 Young Ham Of The Year. Rebba gave the youth presentation at AMSAT 36th Annual Symposium Huntsville, Alabama in 2018 where is also received AMSAT's Presidential Award. The announcement is posted on-line at: https://www.wglt.org/post/bloomington-normal-mlk-awards-announced [ANS thanks WGLT.org, NPR Radio from Illinois State University, for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- Changes to AMSAT-NA TLE Distribution for January 2, 2020 Correction to the addition of FloripaSat 1 to last week's TLE distri- bution: FloripaSat 1 is NORAD CAT ID 44885. Also the first part of the TLE distribution was left off the orb19360.2l.amsat file sent last week. The second file sent orb19361.2l.amsat contained the full list of satellites. We are still awaiting the identification of CAS-6. Or... Use the keps for FloripaSat 1 (NORAD CAT ID 44885) for CAS-6 per suggestion of Joe Fitzgerald, KM1P. This, of course, assumes that CAS-6 is in fact transmitting??? [ANS thanks Ray Hoad, WA5QGD, AMSAT Orbital Elements Manager, for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- Space Fence nearing operational acceptance by U.S. Air Force According to NASA’s most recent Orbital Debris Quarterly News, NASA calculates about 17.6 million pounds of objects are in earth orbit. That number will only grow as more commercial space projects launch massive constellations with thousands of smallsats, presenting a huge problem for both U.S. government and commercial organizations. That’s where the U.S. Air Force’s Space Fence will play a crucial role. Using advanced solid-state S-band radar technology, the Space Fence radar located on Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands, it will play a critical role in the everyday lives of Americans who are becoming more dependent on space-based technologies for everything from weather forecasting, banking, global communications to GPS navigation. Today, these critical services are being threatened by hundreds of thousands of objects and space debris orbiting the Earth. Frequent col- lisions and deterioration of assets, such as defunct satellites and rocket boosters, have increased the amount of space debris and raised the risk of future collisions in space. The Air Force Space Surveillance Network currently tracks about 25,000 objects. When Space Fence comes online, the catalog will experience significant growth and when fully operational, Space Fence will be the world’s largest and most advanced radar system, providing unprecedented space situational awareness. Beyond cataloging objects, Space Fence will detect closely-spaced ob- jects, breakups, maneuvers, launches and conjunction assessments from LEO through GEO. Space Fence is currently in a trial period and expected to become fully operational in 2020. [ANS thanks Milsat Magazine for the above information] +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+ Purchase AMSAT Gear on our Zazzle storefront. 25% of the purchase price of each product goes towards Keeping Amateur Radio in Space https://www.zazzle.com/amsat_gear +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+ VUCC Awards-Endorsements for January 2020 Here are the endorsements and new VUCC Satellite Awards issued by the ARRL for the period December 3, 2019 through January 1, 2020. Congratulations to all those who made the list this month! DEC JAN AA5PK 1064 1074 AA8CH 620 641 N3GS 601 624 WD9EWK(DM43)585 597 NS3L 526 551 W5CBF 179 533 K9UO 500 528 AA9LC 416 514 W7QL 451 478 PS8ET 303 326 G0ABI 306 320 WB7VUF 206 319 AA4QE 204 305 KC9VGG 200 228 KC9UQR 172 196 N9FN 103 194 W4AQT 153 179 W5CBF(EM21) New 179 W0NBC 152 176 KJ4M 102 170 W9VNE New 169 VE1VOX 126 155 W4DFU 116 151 AI9IN 125 150 WD9EWK(DM41)127 148 WD9EWK(DM23)104 137 N7AME 127 128 WA9JBQ 104 125 VU2LBW 100 114 KC8AMH New 101 N3CAL New 100 YO2CMI New 100 If you find errors or omissions, please contact W5RKN at w5krn.com. This list was developed by comparing the ARRL .pdf listings for the two months. It's a visual comparison so omissions are possible. Apolo- gies if your call was not mentioned. Thanks to all those who are rov- ing to grids that are rarely on the birds. They are doing most of the work! [ANS thanks Ron Parsons, W5RKN, for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- Winter Field Day to Include Limited Satellite Operations Winter Field Day runs for 24 hours during the last full weekend in Jan- uary each year from 1900 UTC (2pm EST) Saturday to 1900 UTC (2pm EST) Sunday. For 2020 the dates are January 25th and 26th. Station set-up may commence no earlier than 1900 UTC (2pm EST) on the Friday before. Station setup may consume no more than 12 hours total. All Amateur bands, HF, VHF, & UHF except 12, 17, 30 and 60 meters. Any mode that can faithfully transmit the exchange intact without a conver- sion table... CW, SSB, AM, FM, DStar, C4FM, DMR, Packet, PSK, SSTV, RTTY, Olivia, Satellite, etc... (note FT8 is excluded). Satellite contacts do not count as a new mode/band multiplier. Satel- lite contacts are limited to ONE ONLY per entry so as to not tie up satellite frequencies with stations calling CQ WFD. Three operating categories are available: Indoor: Operation from inside a remote, insulated, heated, and weather- protected structure where an Amateur station is normally not available. Outdoor: Operation from a location partly or fully exposed to the ele- ments and at least 30 feet away from your normal station location and not using any part of a previously erected antenna system or station. Home: Operation from inside a home or inside another structure attach- ed to a home that could or would be the usual location of an Amateur station. For additional information, see: https://www.winterfieldday.com/ [ANS thanks the Winter Field Day Association for the above information] +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+ Need new satellite antennas? Purchase Arrows, Alaskan Arrows, and M2 LEO-Packs from the AMSAT Store. When you purchase through AMSAT, a portion of the proceeds goes towards Keeping Amateur Radio in Space. https://amsat.org/product-category/hardware/ +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+ Hamfests, Conventions, Maker Faires, and Other Events Want to see AMSAT in action or learn more about amateur radio in space? AMSAT Ambassadors provide presentations, demonstrate communicating through amateur satellites, and host information tables at club meet- ings, hamfests, conventions, maker faires, and other events. Current schedule: January 6, 2020 West Valley Amateur Radio Club, Sun City, AZ January 11, 2020 Thunderbird ARC Hamfest, Glendale, AZ January 17-18, 2020 Cowtown Hamfest, Fort Worth, TX February 7-9, 2020 Hamcation, Orlando, FL March 6, 2020 Irving Hamfest, Irving, TX May 15-17, 2020 Hamvention, Xenia, OH June 12-13, 2020 Ham-Con, Plano, TX A copy of the AMSAT hamfest brochure is available for download at: https://tinyurl.com/yx7lc7m8 This color brochure is designed to be printed double-sided and folded into a tri-fold handout. To include your upcoming AMSAT presentation and/or demonstration, please send an email to ambassadors (at) amsat (dot) org. For additional information on the AMSAT Ambassador Program, see: https://www.amsat.org/ambassador/ [ANS thanks Robert Bankston, KE4AL, Director, AMSAT Ambassadors for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- Upcoming Satellite Operations Due to weather concerns, the W5M/MM satellite expedition to EL58 is being postponed to Sunday Jan 5th. For updates, follow on Twitter at https://twitter.com/ad0dx Lucas Gusher Special Event (EM20) January 11-12, 2020 The Beaumont Amateur Radio Club will be operating using the call- sign K5S on various HF bands including as many CAS-4A, CAS-4B, AO-91, AO-92 passes that we can. SO-50 and XW-2A also possible. More information about K5S can be found on qrz.com. Labrador (GO11 +) January 19-27, 2020 Chris VE3FU, Dave VE9CB, and Frank VO1HP will be active as VO2AC in the 2020 CQ160 CW contest, January 24-26, from Point Armour Lighthouse, in Labrador. If time permits before the contest, they may be active on FM satellites from GO11 as VO2AC or VO2AAA. Depending on weather and timing of passes, you might catch them on FM satellites as they make their way from FO93 to GO-11, passing through FO92, GO02, GO13, GO12, and GO22 along the way, but no promises. They will also make the reverse trek on January 27. Big Bend National Park (DL88) March 16-17, 2020 Ron AD0DX, Doug N6UA, and Josh W3ARD will operate from Big Bend National Park to put grid DL88 on the air. Details will be added here, as they come available, but you are more than welcome to keep an eye on their individual Twitter feeds: https://twitter.com/ad0dx, https://twitter.com/dtabor, and https://twitter.com/W3ARDstroke5 Please submit any additions or corrections to ke4al (at) amsat.org [ANS thanks Robert Bankston, KE4AL, AMSAT VP User Services for the above information] +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+ AMSAT, along with our ARISS partners, is developing an amateur radio package, including two-way communication capability, to be carried on-board Gateway in lunar orbit. Support AMSAT's projects today at https://www.amsat.org/donate/ +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+ Satellite Shorts From All Over + TAPR PSR Digital Journal Winter 2020 Edition Available at: http://tapr.org/psr/psr143.pdf (ANS thanks TAPR for the above information) + The January/February 2020 SARC Communicator newsletter is available at: http://bit.ly/SARC20JanFeb This edition has 75 pages of projects, news, views, and reviews from the SW corner of Canada. Find out about the northernmost amateur radio station: "VY0ERC: What is life like at the farthest north Amateur Radio Club in Canada?" starting on page 14. (ANS thanks Surrey Amateur Radio Communications for the above info) + A CBC Hamilton news feature on John David, VA3JHD, and his work with the Canadian Forces Affiliate Radio Systems (CFARS), briefly mentions amateur satellites. See the article at: https://tinyurl.com/rmbpfxa (ANS thanks CBC Hamilton for the above information) + Work is going "smoothly" on the Chandrayaan-3 mission to put a rover probe on the moon's surface, Indian Space Research Organisation chairman K. Sivan told a press conference. India is seeking to become only the fourth nation after Russia, the United States and China to put a mission on the moon's surface and boost its credentials as a low-cost space power. The country's Chandrayaan-2 module crashed on the moon's surface in September. (ANS thanks spacedaily.com for the above information) + China has just released the first batch of #ChangE4 science data! The first ever mission to land on the the far side of the Moon. This is actually a really cool and user friendly website. To access in En- glish visit: http://moon.bao.ac.cn/index_en.jsp + E-members of AMSAT-UK can now download the December 2019 edition of OSCAR News, issue 228. For details, see: https://amsat-uk.org/2019/12/31/december-2019-oscar-news/ Also, a video on a recent moonbounce and satellite expedition to Botswana may be found on the AMSAT-UK website: https://amsat-uk.org/2019/12/27/a21eme-moonbounce-qo100/ (ANS thank AMSAT-UK and Trevor Essex, M5AKA, for the above informa- tion) + Congratulations to Chris Taron, NK1K, on the achievement of DXCC via LEO satellite! This is a remarkable achievement matched by few. (ANS thanks Twitter @NK1K for the above information) + Congratulations to WA7FWF on uploading 1 million Fox Telemetry frames to the server. For more information on capturing telemetry from the Fox satellites, see: https://www.amsat.org/foxtelem-software-for-windows-mac-linux/ (ANS thanks Mark Hammond, N8MH, AMSAT Board Member, 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 and Remember to help keep amateur radio in space, This week's ANS Editor, K0JM at amsat dot org

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ANS-363 AMSAT News Service Weekly Bulletins
by Paul Stoetzer 29 Dec '19

29 Dec '19

AMSAT NEWS SERVICE ANS-363 The AMSAT News Service bulletins are a free, weekly news and infor- mation service of AMSAT, 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 commun- icating 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. You can sign up for free e-mail delivery of the AMSAT News Service Bulletins via the ANS List; to join this list see: http://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/ans In this edition: * First Element of ARISS Next Generation Radio System Readied for Launch on SpaceX CRS-20 * ARISS SSTV Event Planned for December 28 - January 1 * Reminder: AMSAT CW Day on January 1 * Changes to AMSAT TLE Distribution for December 26 * Upcoming Satellite Operations * Satellite Shorts From All Over SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-363.01 ANS-363 AMSAT News Service Weekly Bulletins AMSAT News Service Bulletin 363.01 From AMSAT HQ KENSINGTON, MD. DATE December 29, 2019 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-363.01 First Element of ARISS Next Generation Radio System Readied for Launch on SpaceX CRS-20 During this Holiday Season, when the spirit of giving and receiving gifts reigns high, ARISS received a special gift and delivered a phenomenal gift to the international community. This occurred on Thursday December 19, 2019. Our international gift to all—students, STEM education, the public and the amateur radio community—was the historic transfer of the first Interoperable Radio System (IORS) flight unit, serial number 1001, to NASA Johnson Space Center for launch on SpaceX CRS-20. The special gift received by ARISS was the approval from NASA Safety to launch the IORS on SpaceX CRS-20 and stow the radio system on the International Space Station. December 19, 2019 was truly a banner day for ARISS! The IORS is a foundational element of the ARISS next generation radio system and is an incredible engineering achievement by the ARISS hardware team. This first element delivery will support easier radio mode transitions and enable new, exciting capabilities for hams, students and the general public. The IORS will include a higher power radio, an enhanced voice repeater, updated digital packet radio (APRS) capabilities and slow scan television (SSTV) capabilities for both the US and Russian segments. The IORS consists of a special, modified JVCKenwood TM-D710GA transceiver, an AMSAT-developed multi voltage power supply and interconnecting cables. This first flight IORS will be installed in the ISS Columbus module. A second flight unit is expected to be launched sometime in 2020 for installation in the Russian Service module. A total of 4 flight units and 10 total units will be built by the ARISS hardware team to support on-board flight operations, training, operations planning and hardware testing. Future upgrades and enhancements to the next generation system are in various stages of design & development. These include a repaired Ham Video system (currently planned for launch in mid-to-late 2020), L-band (uplink) repeater, ground command operations capability, LimeSDR signal reception, a microwave “Ham Communicator” and Lunar Gateway prototype experiment. While yesterday was truly an historic milestone, it should be noted that there is still much “heavy lifting” work to be done to prepare the IORS for Operations on ISS. ARISS has 92 engineering requirements and our operations Phase III safety review to complete. The space agencies take a position of “Trust but Verify.” Thus, these engineering and safety “verifications” all need to be closed out before the IORS can be unstowed and turned on. This will be the ARISS hardware team’s focus over the next few months. Also, please remember that ARISS is almost entirely run by volunteers. So donations to the ARISS program for next generation hardware devel- opments, operations, education and administrative functions are always welcome. Please go to https://www.ariss.org/donate.html if you want to contribute to our efforts! In closing, ARISS would like to thank the outstanding contributions of the IORS hardware development team on an incredible radio system. ARISS would like to thank our sponsors and donors for helping us realize the IORS hardware systems. On behalf of the ARISS team, we would like to wish you all a joyful and prosperous Holiday Season — Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, and Happy New Year!! Ad Astra! To the Stars! 73, Frank Bauer, KA3HDO ARISS International Chair AMSAT V.P. for Human Spaceflight Programs [ANS thanks Frank Bauer, KA3HDO, AMSAT Vice President - Human Space- flight and ARISS International Chair for the above information] +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+ Purchase AMSAT Gear on our Zazzle storefront. 25% of the purchase price of each product goes towards Keeping Amateur Radio in Space https://www.zazzle.com/amsat_gear +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+ ARISS SSTV Event Planned for December 28 - January 1 ARISS is planning an SSTV event featuring commemorative images. This event is currently scheduled to begin on December 28, 2019 at 11:00 UTC and ends at 18:20 UTC on January 1, 2020. Please make note that sometimes changes may occur in the crew work schedule that could affect our SSTV transmission dates and times, so frequently check our ARISS Facebook and Twitter accounts shown below for any updates before and throughout the event. Transmissions will be sent at 145.800 MHz FM in the SSTV mode PD-120. Once received, images can be posted and viewed by the public at http://www.spaceflightsoftware.com/ARISS_SSTV/index.php and you can receive a special SSTV ARISS Award for posting your image. See https://ariss.pzk.org.pl/sstv/ for details. Also for simplicity, we have added a new information tab for SSTV events, under the General Contacts pulldown menu at www.ariss.org . [ANS thanks Dave Jordan, AA4KN, ARISS Public Relations for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- Reminder: AMSAT CW Day on January 1 You are cordially invited to take part in AMSAT CW Activity Day 2020 sponsored by AMSAT for all radio amateurs throughout the world. The 2020 event will be held in memory of Larry Brown, W7LB, and Keith Pugh, W5IU. Among their many contributions to AMSAT, they were the AMSAT 20-meter net for many years. Participation is easy. Just operate CW through any Amateur Radio satellite on 1 January 2020. Use of straight keys or bugs is encouraged but not required. If you use AO-7, please observe the QRP rules currently in effect for that 45-year-old satellite. May it be with us for many years to come! [ANS thanks Raphael Soifer, W2RS, AMSAT Senior Advisor for the above information.] +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+ The digital download version of the 2019 edition of Getting Started with Amateur Satellites is now available as a DRM-free PDF from the AMSAT Store. Get yours today! https://tinyurl.com/ANS-237-Getting-Started +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+ Changes to AMSAT TLE Distribution for December 26 This week's AMSAT TLE distribution reflects the following two satellite name changes per ANS Bulletin 356.01 dated December 22, 2019: SMOG-P (Cat. ID 44832) is now MO-105 (Magyar-OSCAR 105) and ATL-1 (Cat. ID 44830) is now MO-106 (Magyar-OSCAR 106). (Per Drew Glasbrenner, KO4MA AMSAT VP Operations / OSCAR Number Administrator) The following Amateur Radio satellite has been added to this week's TLE distribution: FloripaSat 1 - NORAD CAT ID 44830 (Taiyuan Space Center launch, 12/20/2019). (Thanks to Nico Janseen, PA0DLO, for satellite identification.) CAS-6 was launched as a piggyback satellite on TIANQIN-1 on December 20, 2019 via a CZ-4B launch vehicle from Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center. Still awaiting a satellite signal, thus the CAT ID has not been positively identified as yet. More later. [ANS thanks Ray Hoad, WA5QGD, AMSAT Orbital Elements Manager for the above information] +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+ Need new satellite antennas? Purchase Arrows, Alaskan Arrows, and M2 LEO-Packs from the AMSAT Store. When you purchase through AMSAT, a portion of the proceeds goes towards Keeping Amateur Radio in Space. https://amsat.org/product-category/hardware/ +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+ Donate to AMSAT Tax-Free From Your IRA Are you over 70-1/2 years of age and need to meet your IRA's Required Minimum Distribution for 2019? Consider making a donation to AMSAT! Under the Protecting Americans from Tax Hikes Act of 2015, individuals over 70-1/2 years of age may make direct transfers of up to $100,000 per year from a traditional IRA to an eligible charity without increasing their taxable income. Consult your tax advisor or accountant to make certain you are eligible. AMSAT is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit educational and scientific organization whose purpose is to design, construct, launch, and operate satellites in space and to provide the support needed to encourage amateurs to utilize these resources. AMSAT's federal tax ID is 52-0888529. +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+ Upcoming Satellite Operations Satellite Shorts: Dec 27-30 EM90 N4DCW – vacation style (Twitter: @MWimages) Dec 27-30 EL86 K4WPX FM Dec 30 EM94 (overnight) – vacation style (Twitter: @MWimages) Dec 30-Jan 01 EL87/88 K4WPX FM Jan 02 EM58/68 WB9VPG Midday passes on AO-91/92 Wyoming (DN71,DN72,DN81,DN82) December 31, 2019 Doug, N6UA, and RJ, WY7AA are teaming up with special guest operator Ron, AD0DX, to activate the DN71, DN72, DN81, DN82 grid corner on December 31st. Plan is to be there for the morning FM passes and stay until they get bored. FM and SSB. Mississippi River Delta (EL58) January 4, 2019. Ron AD0DX, Brian KG5GJT, and Robert KE4AL will operate as W5M/mm from the mouth of the Mississippi River (EL58) on January 4th. This will be a 6-hour activation from approximately 1430z to 2030z, on FM and linear satellites. Further information will be posted as it comes available. Labrador (GO11 +) January 19-27, 2019 Chris VE3FU, Dave VE9CB, and Frank VO1HP will be active as VO2AC in the 2020 CQ160 CW contest, January 24-26, from Point Armour Lighthouse, in Labrador. If time permits before the contest, they may be active on FM satellites from GO11 as VO2AC or VO2AAA. Depending on weather and timing of passes, you might catch them on FM satellites as they make their way from FO93 to GO-11, passing through FO92, GO02, GO13, GO12, and GO22 along the way, but no promises. They will also make the reverse trek on January 27. Big Bend National Park (DL88) March 16-17, 2020 Ron AD0DX, Doug N6UA, and Josh W3ARD will operate from Big Bend National Park to put grid DL88 on the air. Details will be added here as they come available, but you are more than welcome to keep an eye on their individual Twitter feeds: https://twitter.com/ad0dx, https://twitter.com/dtabor, and https://twitter.com/W3ARDstroke5 Please submit any additions or corrections to ke4al (at) amsat.org [ANS thanks Robert Bankston, KE4AL, AMSAT VP - User Services, for the above information] +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+ AMSAT, along with our ARISS partners, is developing an amateur radio package, including two-way communication capability, to be carried on-board Gateway in lunar orbit. Support AMSAT's projects today at https://www.amsat.org/donate/ +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+ Satellite Shorts From All Over + www.zarya.info (@Zarya_Info) reports that on Dec 18 at ~01:00 UTC, the Meteor M2-2 meteorological satellite collided with an item of space debris and entered a tumble. This event reduced orbit SMA by 1 km and height from 813 x 815 km to 811 x 814 km. The satellite is now stabilized and communicating. Damage is being assessed. + Mike Thomas, KB8BMY, has made a video for those of you wanting to take the next step to Linear Ham Radio Satellites. He shows how he put his station together: My Linear Satellite Setup / KB8BMY / How to Set Up a Portable Linear Station: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BrQ14Cs9ia4&feature=youtu.be + Satellite antennas don't need to be very high, but tower safety is always a good topic for amateurs: https://zerofalls.org/ + Ohio/Penn DX Bulletin #1445 listed these two satellite activations: 7X, ALGERIA. Members of the "Association des Radio Amateurs Tunisiens" (ARAT) are traveling to Algeria to conduct a joint Low Bands DX- pedition with five members of the "Amateurs Radio Algeriens" (ARA) between December 28th and January 2nd (2020). The team is led by Afif/ 7X2RO and Ash/3V8SS/KF5EYY, and will also includes Ahmed/3V1B/KG5OUE (22 years), Marwa/3V8CB (24 years, YL), Mohamed/7X3TL (27 years), Mohamed/7X5FG, Redha/7X5QB and Abdelghani/7X2TT/M0NPT. The operators will be focusing on working as many stations as possible on 160 and 80 meters as well as the other HF bands and Satellites. Modes will be CW/ SSB/FT8. QSL via 7X2RO and LoTW. There will be ClubLog Live Streaming. For more details on how to help and/or LF skeds, E-mail Ash at: ash.kf5eyy at gmail.com Your financial support will be used to cover youngsters' costs. VO2, CANADA (Zone 2). Operators Chris/VE3FU (VO2AC), Frank/VO1HP and Dave/VE9CB (VO2AAA) will be active as VO2AC during the 2020 CQWW 160M CW Contest (January 24-26th) from the Point Amour Lighthouse, the tallest lighthouse in Atlantic Canada, on the south coast of the rare Labrador (LB) multiplier. Point Amour is located in the southeast part of CQ Zone 2, and has a salt water path from NE clockwise through SW. The team will be putting in a serious Multi-Op/High-Power effort as VO2AC. Expect some pre contest activity as VO2AC, VO1HP/VO2 and VO2AAA on 160m as they get their wire vertical array and beverage working; they will especially be looking for JA/Asia on CW and FT8. If time permits, they may also be active before the contest on 80m, 60m, 40m and the FM satellites (AO-85, AO-91 and AO-92) from Grid GO11. --------------------------------------------------------------------- /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 and remember to help Keep Amateur Radio In Space, This week's ANS Editor, Paul Stoetzer, N8HM n8hm at amsat dot org

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ANS-353 AMSAT News Service Special Bulletin - SMOG-P and ATL-1 Designated Magyar-OSCAR 105 (MO-105) and Magyar- OSCAR 106 (MO-106)
by Paul Stoetzer 19 Dec '19

19 Dec '19

AMSAT NEWS SERVICE SPECIAL BULLETIN ANS-353 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. You can sign up for free e-mail delivery of the AMSAT News Service Bulletins via the ANS List; to join this list see: http://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/ans In this edition: * SMOG-P and ATL-1 Designated Magyar-OSCAR 105 (MO-105) and Magyar- OSCAR 106 (MO-106) SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-353.01 ANS-353 AMSAT News Service Special Bulletin AMSAT News Service Bulletin 353.01 From AMSAT HQ KENSINGTON, MD. DATE December 19, 2019 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-353.01 SMOG-P and ATL-1 Designated Magyar-OSCAR 105 (MO-105) and Magyar- OSCAR 106 (MO-106) On December 6, 2019, the Technical University of Budapest SMOG-P and ATL-1 PocketQubes were launched on an Electron launch vehicle from the Mahia Launch Complex in New Zealand. SMOG-P and ATL-1 were developed as part of the university curriculum and operated in cooperation with the HA5MRC Technical University amateur radio club. The satellites carry spectrum monitoring payloads and are currently active. At the request of the Technical University of Budapest, AMSAT hereby designates SMOG-P as Magyar-OSCAR 105 (MO-105), and ATL-1 as Magyar- OSCAR 106 (MO-106). We congratulate the owners and operators, thank them for their contribution to the amateur satellite community, and wish them a long mission and continued success on this and future projects. 73, Drew Glasbrenner, KO4MA AMSAT VP Operations / OSCAR Number Administrator [ANS thanks AMSAT VP Operations / OSCAR Number Administrator Drew Glasbrenner, KO4MA, 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. 73 and Remember to help Keep Amateur Radio in Space, This week's ANS Contributing Editor, Paul Stoetzer, N8HM n8hm at amsat dot org

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ANS-359 AMSAT News Service Weekly Bulletins
by Mark D. Johns 15 Dec '19

15 Dec '19

AMSAT NEWS SERVICE ANS-359 The AMSAT News Service bulletins are a free, weekly news and infor- mation service of AMSAT, 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 commun- icating 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. You can sign up for free e-mail delivery of the AMSAT News Service Bulletins via the ANS List; to join this list see: http://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/ans In this edition: * Calling All Radio Amateurs: Help Find OPS-SAT! * FCC Moves to Remove 3.4 GHz Amateur Satellite Allocation * Changes to AMSAT-NA TLE Distribution * FoxTelem version 1.08w Released * AMSAT-EA works against the clock on GÉNESIS satellites * New NASA eBook Reveals Insights of Earth Seen at Night from Space * Israel Applauds Successful Launch of Duchifat3 * Ham Radio University Satellite Operations Forum on January 4 * Possible ARISS SSTV Operation Before Year's End * Recent ARISS Contacts * Upcoming Satellite Operations * Satellite Shorts From All Over SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-359.01 ANS-359 AMSAT News Service Weekly Bulletins AMSAT News Service Bulletin 359.01 >From AMSAT HQ KENSINGTON, MD. DATE 2019 Dec 15 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-359.01 Calling All Radio Amateurs: Help Find OPS-SAT! Calling all radio amateurs! The European Space Agency (ESA) is chal- lenging anyone with amateur radio equipment to catch the first signals from OPS-SAT, ESA’s brand new space software laboratory. On 17 December, OPS-SAT will be launched into low-Earth orbit on a Soyuz rocket from Kourou, French Guiana, together with ESA’s Cheops exoplanet-tracker. Once launched, the satellite will deploy its solar panels and ultra- high frequency antenna, and then start to send signals back home. Could you be the first on Earth to catch them? ESA’s mission control team in Darmstadt are asking for your help to find the fledgling Cube- Sat. OPS-SAT is a first-of-its-kind CubeSat dedicated purely to experimen- tation. It carries a wide variety of advanced payloads allowing ‘Ex- perimenters’ to deploy and test their software and apps in space. Anyone can apply to be an Experimenter! Find out more about the mis- sion, and how to apply, here: https://tinyurl.com/ul8327f Lift-off is scheduled for 08:54:20 UTC on 17 December. Deployment will begin 15044.6 seconds later (T+15044.6 seconds), expected to be at 13:05:04 UTC. OPS-SAT will begin transmitting 15 minutes after satel- lite deployment and after ultra-high frequency (UHF) antenna and solar array deployment have been confirmed. The first two passes over Europe are expected on the same evening. To track OPS-SAT, a preliminary launch TLE is available here, and will be updated as soon as new orbital information is available. Main downlink characteristics: Space segment transceiver GomSpace NanoCOM AX100 Frequency UHF – 437.2 MHz Modulation GMSK Occupied Bandwidth 25 kHz Baudrate 9k6 Modulation Index 0.5 More information can be found at: https://github.com/esa/gr-opssat/blob/master/docs/os-uhf-specs.pdf [ANS thanks ESA for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+ Need new satellite antennas? Purchase Arrows, Alaskan Arrows, and M2 LEO-Packs from the AMSAT Store. When you purchase through AMSAT, a portion of the proceeds goes towards Keeping Amateur Radio in Space. https://amsat.org/product-category/hardware/ +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+ --------------------------------------------------------------------- Donate to AMSAT Tax-Free From Your IRA Are you over 70-1/2 years of age and need to meet your IRA's Required Minimum Distribution for 2019? Consider making a donation to AMSAT! Under the Protecting Americans from Tax Hikes Act of 2015, individuals over 70-1/2 years of age may make direct transfers of up to $100,000 per year from a traditional IRA to an eligible charity without increasing their taxable income. Consult your tax advisor or accountant to make certain you are eligible. AMSAT is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit educational and scientific organization whose purpose is to design, construct, launch, and operate satellites in space and to provide the support needed to encourage amateurs to utilize these resources. AMSAT's federal tax ID is 52-0888529. +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+ --------------------------------------------------------------------- FCC Moves to Remove 3.4 GHz Amateur Satellite Allocation AMSAT (@AMSAT) tweeted at 11:51 AM on Thu, Dec 12, 2019: "At today's Open Meeting, the Federal Communications Commission passed a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking proposing to delete the amateur allocation at 3.3-3.5 GHz, including the amateur satellite service allocation at 3.4-3.41 GHz." Later, @AMSAT tweeted: "Noting the importance of microwave spectrum for future amateur satel- lites in HEO and/or GEO orbits and beyond, AMSAT will file comments in this proceeding opposing the deletion of this amateur satellite service allocation." Watch ANS bulletins for future developments. [ANS thanks @AMSAT for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- Changes to AMSAT-NA TLE Distribution The following Amateur Radio satellite has been added to this week's TLE distribution: SMOG-P - NORAD CAT ID 44832 (per Nico Janssen, PA0DLO). 1 44832U 19084J 19346.85910300 .00001000 00000-0 50000-4 0 05 2 44832 97.0009 211.0657 0089111 218.3064 289.3286 15.64885322 06 Frequency: 437.1497 MHz. The Israeli student satellite Duchifat3 was successfully placed in or- bit by ISRO (India) on December 11, 2019 along with several other sat- ellites. Therefore, it will take a while for those objects to separate enough to accurately identify Duchifat3. The following is a set of preliminary TLEs supplied by Nicholas Mahr, KE8AKW (via AMSAT-BB) on December 12, 2019 for your use: Duchifat3 1 84101U 19345.41319444 .00000000 00000-0 50000-4 0 08 2 84101 37.0000 148.0000 0001442 0.0000 140.0000 15.02563222 03 On Dec. 13, Nico Janssen, PA0DLO, verified Doppler measurements show- ing that Duchifat 3 is object 44854 (2019-089C). The telemetry down- link frequency is 436.400 MHz. AMSAT Another PocketQube on this launch (only 5 cm on a side!0 has been iden- tified as ATL 1 1 44830U 19084G 19346.85945000 .00001000 00000-0 50000-4 0 08 2 44830 96.9998 211.0781 0044791 228.7076 277.5196 15.64736264 09 Frequency: 437.1741 MHz. [ANS thanks Ray Hoad, WA5QGD, Orbital Elements Manager, and Nico Janssen, PA0DLO, for the above information.] --------------------------------------------------------------------- FoxTelem version 1.08w Released Chris Thompson, AC2CZ/G0KLA, has announced the release of version 1.08w of the FoxTelem software. This is a bug fix release to FoxTelem. If you have been seeing issues then you should upgrade to this new version. Primarily it addresses the following: * Crashes seen at run time * Issue with DDE transmission to SatPC32 which can hang FoxTelem or another program using DDE * Some minor issues with HuskySat graphs and display It is available as usual here: http://amsat.us/FoxTelem/windows/ http://amsat.us/FoxTelem/linux/ http://amsat.us/FoxTelem/mac/ Thanks to all who reported bugs and issues. Keep them coming. Please advise Chris if you see any other issues via g0kla <at> arrl.net Fox-in-a-box orders from the AMSAT Store after December 13, 12:01 UTC (that is, by the time you see this) will also ship with FoxTelem V1.08w. The FIAB download directory has not yet been upgrad- ed, but a downloaded SD card as well as existing cards are very easy to upgrade. Please see previous articles here and in the ANS for how to do it. [ANS thanks Chris Thompson, AC2CZ/G0KLA, and Burns Fisher, WB1FJ for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- AMSAT-EA works against the clock on GÉNESIS satellites AMSAT EA is workin against the clock, together with students from the European university, in the development of the GENESIS satellites. The 1.5 P pico sats, measuring 7.5x5x5cm are expected to be launched from the United States in February 2020. These satellites are based on the designs of EASAT-2 engineering and will allow testings of the EASAT-2 subsytems. The estimated time in orbit of the GENESIS is estimated at around a month. They incorporate the linear transponder receiver module design- ed for EASAT-2 and an Amplitude Shift Keying (ASK) transmitter. They will offer functionality of a regenerative repeater in ASK and CW and also incorporate the ionic motor experimental for pocketqubes devel- oped by Applied Ion Systems. [ANS thanks AMSAT-EA for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- New NASA eBook Reveals Insights of Earth Seen at Night from Space Earth has many stories to tell, even in the dark of night. Earth at Night, NASA’s new 200-page ebook, is now available online and includes more than 150 images of our planet in darkness as captured from space by Earth-observing satellites and astronauts on the International Space Station over the past 25 years. The book is free for download in Kindle, ePub, and PDF formats at https://www.nasa.gov/connect/ebooks/earthatnight_detail.html “Earth at Night” shows how scientists use images such as this astronaut photo of the Gulf of Mexico taken from the International Space Station over the southern United States to study our changing planet. The images reveal how human activity and natural phenomena light up the darkness around the world, depicting the intricate structure of cities, wildfires and volcanoes raging, auroras dancing across the polar skies, moonlight reflecting off snow and deserts, and other dramatic earthly scenes. “Earth at Night explores the brilliance of our planet when it is in darkness,” wrote Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, in the book’s foreword. “The book is a compilation of stories depicting the interactions between science and wonder. I am pleased to share this visually stunning and captivating exploration of our home planet.” In addition to the images, the book tells how scientists use these observations to study our changing planet and aid decision makers in such areas as sustainable energy use and disaster response. NASA brings together technology, science, and unique global Earth ob- servations to provide societal benefits and strengthen our nation. The agency makes its Earth observations freely and openly available to everyone for use in developing solutions to important global issues such as changing freshwater availability, food security and human health. [ANS thanks NASA for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- Israel Applauds Successful Launch of Duchifat3 Israel has applauded the successful launch of Isro’s PSLV-C48 rocket that put an experimental satellite built by students of its country into orbit on Wednesday, Dec. 11. The Cuchifat-3 Israeli satellite was among nine foreign customer satellites piggybacking on India's primary payload Risat-2BR1, a military radar imaging satellite. The launch oc- curred at 09:55 UTC. Full article at https://tinyurl.com/uz7p35u Duchifat3 was built by high school students supported by Herzliya Science Center in Israel and carries an on-board camera for earth imaging. The V/u FM transponder has an uplink of 145.970 MHz and a downlink of 436.400 MHz -- however some reports indicate that the FM repeater downlink may actually be at 436.420 MHz. [ANS thanks The Times of India and AMSAT-UK for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- Ham Radio University Satellite Operations Forum on January 4 The 21st annual Ham Radio University, on Saturday, January 4, 2020 is a "A day of education to share ideas, experiences, knowledge and fellowship among Amateur Radio operators." The event will be held at: LIU / Post Hillwood Commons Student Center 720 Northern Boulevard Brookville, NY 11548 Web: http://hamradiouniversity.org/ The suggested donation $5 - no preregistration is required! Doors open at 7:30 AM with first forums at 8:30 AM. Satellite operation is a part of the learning experience: 11:00 a.m. Satellite Operations for Beginners by Frank Garofalo WA2NDV [ANS thanks the Ham Radio University for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+ AMSAT, along with our ARISS partners, is developing an amateur radio package, including two-way communication capability, to be carried on-board Gateway in lunar orbit. Support AMSAT's projects today at https://www.amsat.org/donate/ +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+ --------------------------------------------------------------------- Possible ARISS SSTV Operation Before Year's End ARISS reports the possibility of a worldwide commemorative SSTV opera- tion from the International Space Station on Friday, Dec. 27 or Satur- day, Dec. 28 and following days. The SSTV downlink frequency is 145.800 MHz. ARISS will provide more information as it becomes avail- able. Watch the amsat-bb and follow @ARISS_status on Twitter for up- dates. An SSTV system is an integral part of one of the ARISS ham radio sta- tions, NA1SS/ RS0ISS in the Service Module. It transmits and receives JPEG still images.This system utilizes the Kenwood D700 and D710 ra- dios and the ARISS antennas mounted on the Service Module. The SSTV equipment also includes SpaceCam and MMSSTV software, a radio/computer interface module and data cables. A Kenwood VC-H1 is also used to pro- vide near real-time automatically transmitted images once every 3 min- utes, when active. A Kenwood D710 radio located in the Service Module was deployed by the Russian Space Agency, Energia to provide extended support of imaging experiments using various SSTV formats. It employs SpaceCam and MMSSTV software to transmit stored images. The current Expedition 61 crew aboard the ISS includes Dr. Andrew “Drew” Morgan, KI5AAA, an emergency physician in the U.S. Army; veter- an pilot Cosmonaut Alexander Skvortsov, RK6ATR; Luca Parmitano, KF5KDP, an Italian Air Force officer, pilot, and engineer; pilot Cosmonaut Oleg Skripochka; biologist Dr. Jessica Meir; and electrical engineer Christina Koch. [ANS thanks ARISS and NASA for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- Upcoming and Recent ARISS Contacts Istituto Comprensivo “Japigia 1 – Verga”, Bari, Italy, direct via IZ7RTN and Istituto Comprensivo “Caporizzi – Lucarelli”, Bari, Italy, direct via IZ7RTN. The ISS callsign is presently scheduled to be RØISS, The scheduled astronaut is Luca Parmitano, KF5KDP. Contact is go: Fri 2019-12-20 12:35:30 UTC 77 deg There are few upcoming ARISS school contacts due to school holiday vacations around the world. Recent contacts were: A contact with About Gagarin From Cosmos, City of Kursk, Russia and City of Ufa, Russia, direct via RZ9WWB was scheduled for Wednesday, Dec. 11. The ISS callsign was scheduled to be RSØISS, and the sched- uled astronaut was Alexander Skvortsov, RK6ATR. A contact with Woodridge Middle School, High Ridge, MO, direct via NØKBA was scheduled for Thursday, Dec. 12. The ISS callsign was scheduled to be NA1SS, and the scheduled astronaut was to be Luca Parmitano, KF5KDP. ANS has verified that these contacts took place as scheduled. The ARISS contact with Council Rock High School South students at the Northampton, Pennsylvania school on Thursday, December 5 rece- ived local press coverage in the Bucks County Courier Times news- paper: https://tinyurl.com/ANS-349-ARISS-CouncilRock [ANS thanks ARISS for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+ Purchase AMSAT Gear on our Zazzle storefront. 25% of the purchase price of each product goes towards Keeping Amateur Radio in Space https://www.zazzle.com/amsat_gear +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+ --------------------------------------------------------------------- Upcoming Satellite Operations For "Ham Radio Day Aboard the Queen Mary" on Saturday, 14 December 2019. Endaf Buckley, N6UTC, and Patrick Stoddard, WD9EWK, will work passes as W6RO between 1700 UTC and 0100 UTC (9am-5pm Pacific time) from the Sports Deck on the RMS Queen Mary, next to the W6RO Wireless Room. More information about this event is available at: https://amsat.org/pipermail/amsat-bb/2019-November/075512.html and at https://www.queenmary.com/calendar-of-events/ham-radio-day/home/ On Sunday, 15 December 2019, N6UTC and WD9EWK will go north of the Los Angeles area to the DM04/DM05/DM14/DM15 (35.0 N 118.0 W) grid intersection. They plan on working passes for a few hours there, starting with an AO-92 pass around 1740 UTC. [ANS thanks AMSAT Board member Patrick Stoddard, WD9EWK, for the above information] South Florida (EL95, EL96) December 11-15, 2019 James, K4WPX, will be in EL96/95 December 11th-15th, vacation style, mostly evening passes, FM only. James will be staying in EM96 but ~1mile from the EM95 line, so he can skip over there for some passes, too. Pass announcements via Twitter: https://twitter.com/k4wpx Hawaii (BK19, BK28, BK29, BL20) December 21-28, 2019 Alex, N7AGF, is heading back to Hawaii over Christmas. This will be a holiday-style activation, with special empahasis on the grid that got away – BK28. Keep an eye on Alex’s Twitter feed for further announce- ments: https://twitter.com/N7AGF Big Bend National Park (DL88) March 16-17, 2020 Ron AD0DX, Doug N6UA, and Josh W3ARD will operate from Big Bend Nation- al Park to put grid DL88 on the air. Details will be added here, as they come available, but you are more than welcome to keep an eye on their individual Twitter feeds: https://twitter.com/ad0dx, https://twitter.com/dtabor, and https://twitter.com/W3ARDstroke5 [ANS thanks Robert Bankston, KE4AL, AMSAT VP-User Services, for the above information] XT2, BURKINA FASO (Reminder). Harald, DF2WO, is once again active as XT2AW from Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, until December 20th. Activity is usually holiday style on 160-10 meters using CW, SSB and the Digital modes. He states that he works mostly on the Digital modes (FT8, PSK31, JT65 and RTTY) and slow CW. He will concentrate on 160/80/60 meters. "PLS Skeds for 80 and 160." He will also be active on the Satellites (including 3W into 85cm dish for QO-100) See QRZ.com more details. QSL via M0OXO, direct or by M0OXO's OQRS (www.m0oxo.com/oqrs/). ZZ, BRAZIL (WFF Op). Operators Joao Carlos/PU4GOD, Leo/PY1CC, Aldir, PY1SAD and Eduardo/PU1REC will be active from the headquarters of the Restinga de Jurubatiba National Park (PYFF0226) with special callsign ZZ1F between December 12-15th. This is during the first weekend of the Brazilian Parks event, under the coordination of Ronaldo (PS8RV). Activity will be on 80/40/20/17/15/12/10/6 meters including VHF using CW, SSB, Satellites and the Digital modes. QSL via LoTW or QRZ.com. [ANS thanks Ohio/Penn DX Bulletin No. 1443 for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- Satellite Shorts From All Over + Some observers have reported that satellite JY1 is, at least occa- sionally, transmitting image data from its on-board camera. (ANS thanks Hasan Schiers, N0AN, for the above information) + Want to build a satellite? A scholarly book, "Low Earth Orbit Satel- lite Design" by Dr. George Sebestyen, Steve Fujikawa, Alex Chuchra, and Nick Galassi, was recently published by Springer, Inc. This book offers an in-depth guide to engineers and professionals seeking to understand the technologies behind Low Earth Orbit satellites. At $139.99 for the hardcover edition, it might be a pricey stocking- stuffer, but paperback and ebook editions are cheaper, and Springer is running a holiday book special: https://www.springer.com/us/book/9783319683140#aboutBook (ANS thanks The Orbital Index for the above information) + ESA’s short film, The Burn, takes us into the heart of Europe’s mis- sion control during a critical moment in the life of a future mis- sion. Filmed on site in Darmstadt, Germany, with the help of volun- teers (many of whom are real-life spacecraft controllers), The Burn illustrates the critical importance of decades of investment in state-of-the-art mission operations infrastructure and highly train- ed teams to flying Europe’s most daring space missions. View the film at: https://tinyurl.com/yxxewnjt (ANS thanks ESA for the above information) + NASA's Space Launch System, or SLS, aims to carry astronauts to the moon in 2024 as part of the Artemis project, and has been described as "the most powerful rocket ever built." The SLS has just completed its latest round of testing: a "test to failure" pressure test of the main liquid hydrogen tank. The tank withstood more than 260% of expected flight loads before buckling and rupturing! The tank was pushed to its limit and failed at the point predicted by the ana- lysts, which is good news for the models used by NASA. (ANS thanks engadget.com and NASA for the above information) + Meade Instruments, a company familiar to backyard astronomers, has filed for bankruptcy. The company has fallen on hard times in recent years, as they’ve faced increasing competition. Meade also recently lost a lawsuit, which pushed them over the edge into bankruptcy. The company is based in Irvine, California, and was founded in 1972. They started out selling small refracting telescopes. They expanded and now sell telescope models worth up to $10,000. (ANS thanks Universe Today for the above information) + The Orbital Index blog (orbitalindex.com) maintains a directory of free space-related software resources for space hobbiests at: https://github.com/orbitalindex/awesome-space (ANS thanks The Orbital Index for the above information) + The Orbital Flight Test of Boeing's CST-100 Starliner spacecraft is scheduled for Dec. 20 at 6:36 a.m. EST. The uncrewed flight test will be Starliner’s maiden mission to the International Space Sta- tion for NASA’s Commercial Crew Program. (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 and Remember to help keep amateur radio in space, This week's ANS Editor, K0JM at amsat dot org

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ANS-335 AMSAT News Service Weekly Bulletins
by Mark D. Johns 01 Dec '19

01 Dec '19

AMSAT NEWS SERVICE ANS-335 The AMSAT News Service bulletins are a free, weekly news and infor- mation service of AMSAT, 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 commun- icating 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. You can sign up for free e-mail delivery of the AMSAT News Service Bulletins via the ANS List; to join this list see: http://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/ans In this edition: * AMSAT Fox Leaderboard Will Show Monthly Leaders * AMSAT Will Be at Superstition Superfest Hamfest * Electron Booster on the Pad for Rocket Lab’s 10th Mission * FCC Seeks to Clear Radio Amateurs Out of 3.4 GHz * WRC-19 Final Report: Small Satellites and the 1240-1300 MHz Band * AMSAT Auction Celebrating 45th Birthday of AO-7 Raises $480 * Upcoming ARISS Contact Schedule * Upcoming Satellite Operations * Satellite Shorts From All Over SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-335.01 ANS-335 AMSAT News Service Weekly Bulletins AMSAT News Service Bulletin 335.01 >From AMSAT HQ KENSINGTON, MD. DATE 2019 Dec 01 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-335.01 AMSAT Fox Leaderboard Will Show Monthly Leaders Starting from Nov. 26, the AMSAT Fox Telemetry leaderboard will now show MONTHLY totals. The top stations will be those that have submit- ted the most telemetry in the last 30 days. The old style leaderboard can be accessed by clicking "All-time Leaderboard" to see totals since the launch of Fox-1A. To see more than the top 10 stations, click on "Show all ground stations" to see everyone. The leaderboard has also been updated to show PSK frames decoded along- side FSK frames. DUV and Highspeed are both counted but are not shown separately on the totals page. HuskySat-1 is now at the ISS on the Cygnus. We expect it to be boosted to its target orbit in the new year. It will transmit BPSK telemetry continuously on 70cm, so dig out that 435Mhz antenna and make sure it works! Fox-1E will follow in the (hopefully near) future and will also transmit PSK on 70cm. As with previous spacecraft, the telemetry collected is sent to our University Partners who fly experiments and help make these missions possible. Please collect and forward telemetry if you can. The link to the leaderboard is: https://www.amsat.org/tlm/ If there are questions, contact Chris Thompson, G0KLA/AC2CZ via email: g0kla <at> arrl.net (ANS thanks Chris Thompson, G0KLA/AC2CZ for the above information) --------------------------------------------------------------------- +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+ The digital download version of the 2019 edition of Getting Started with Amateur Satellites is now available as a DRM-free PDF from the AMSAT Store. Get yours today! https://tinyurl.com/ANS-237-Getting-Started +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+ --------------------------------------------------------------------- AMSAT Will Be at Superstition Superfest Hamfest AMSAT will be at the Superstition Amateur Radio Club's "Superstition Superfest" hamfest on the morning of Saturday, December 7, 2019. The hamfest will be in the southwest parking lot of Mesa Community College, located on the east side of Dobson Road between Southern Avenue and US-60 exit 177 in Mesa, Arizona. More information about the hamfest is available at: http://superstitionsuperfest.org/ WD9EWK will be on the satellites during the hamfest, demonstrating satellite operating. If you hear WD9EWK on a pass that morning, please call and be a part of a demonstration. The hamfest site is in grid DM43, in Arizona's Maricopa County. QSOs made during the hamfest will be uploaded to Logbook of the World, and QSL cards are available on request (please e-mail WD9EWK directly at patrick <at> wd9ewk.net with the QSO details). [ANS thanks Patrick Stoddard, WD9EWK/VA7EWK, for the above information] +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+ Donate to AMSAT Tax-Free From Your IRA Are you over 70-1/2 years of age and need to meet your IRA's Required Minimum Distribution for 2019? Consider making a donation to AMSAT! Under the Protecting Americans from Tax Hikes Act of 2015, individuals over 70-1/2 years of age may make direct transfers of up to $100,000 per year from a traditional IRA to an eligible charity without increasing their taxable income. Consult your tax advisor or accountant to make certain you are eligible. AMSAT is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit educational and scientific organization whose purpose is to design, construct, launch, and operate satellites in space and to provide the support needed to encourage amateurs to utilize these resources. AMSAT's federal tax ID is 52-0888529. +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+ Electron Booster on the Pad for Rocket Lab’s 10th Mission Rocket Lab has announced that its next mission will launch multiple microsatellites in a rideshare mission representing five different countries. The launch window for Rocket Lab’s tenth flight, will open November 25, New Zealand time, and take place from Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1 on New Zealand’s Mahia Peninsula. Onboard this rideshare mission are six spacecraft comprised of 5cm PocketQube microsatellites from satellite manufacturer and mission management provider Alba Orbital. Two of these satellites include downlinks in the UHF amateur radio band. TRSI is a PocketQube for technology demostration. Its main objective is to show which functionality can be achieved with dimensions of 5cm x 5cm x 5cm. It carries two experiments that are connected to the amateur-satellite service. + First is a waterfall experiment which will show an image in the waterfall diagram by hopping the frequency within its transmission band (image-type beacon). + The second experiment is to analyze RF reception capabilities from LEO with a novel detector receiver and a small patch antenna. It was designed to test if small satellite receivers which don´t need deployable antennas are feasible. The received signal´s envelope will be sampled and forwarded using UHF in MFSK for signal ana- lysis. During the experiment phase the satellite will also perform as an amateur CW repeater, providing additional RX strength indi- cation; eg. CW morse signals will be re-sent in MFSK, showing the RX amplitude in dBm. A downlink on 437.075 MHz has been coordinated. IARU Frequency Coordination information has been posted at: http://www.amsatuk.me.uk/iaru/finished_detail.php?serialnum=649 FossaSat-1 PocketQube by AMSAT-EA which has a 5x5x5cm structure and a total mass of 250 grams. Radio link testing features a new experi- mental RF chirp modulation called LoRa which greatly improves the link budget reducing the power consumed and reduces the cost of receivers. The output power from the transmitter required for the correct recep- tion during a pass is also very low at well under 100mW, being spread spectrum at such low power it poses no interference risk. It operates at a considerable level below the noise level of other systems and would cause no interference to weak narrowband signals. Students & amateurs will be able to receive telemetry from the satel- lite with inexpensive hardware, expanding & promoting the amateur sat- ellite community with youth. Uplink challenges will also be carried out with rewards for amateurs. The mission is completely open source with all information regarding the design of the satellite & how to decode its information clearly laid out & hosted by AMSAT-EA. The site will provide decoding soft- ware for SDR use in order to allow anyone to decode LoRa using common existing hardware & host software for users to submit telemetry data, making all data public and rewarding users with certificates & awards. The UHF downlink plans on using FSK RTTY 45 BAUD ITA2, 100mW 183hz Shift and LoRa 125kHz, Chirp Spread Spectrum Modulation, 180 bps, 100mW. A downlink on 436.700 MHz has been coordinated. IARU Frequency Coordination information has been posted at: http://www.amsatuk.me.uk/iaru/finished_detail.php?serialnum=652 A commercial payload on board is ALE-2 from a Tokyo-based company creating microsatellites that simulate meteor particles. See http://star-ale.com/en/news/317/2019/01/04/ for more information. Rocket Labs mission web page can be found at: https://tinyurl.com/y672rjj5 [ANS thanks Rocket Labs, IARU, AMSAT-EA, TRSI, and Alba Orbital for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+ Purchase AMSAT Gear on our Zazzle storefront. 25% of the purchase price of each product goes towards Keeping Amateur Radio in Space https://www.zazzle.com/amsat_gear +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+ --------------------------------------------------------------------- FCC Seeks to Clear Radio Amateurs Out of 3.4 GHz At its December 12 open meeting, the FCC will consider adopting a No- tice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) that proposes to remove the amateur radio 9-centimeter allocation at 3.3 – 3.5 GHz. ARRL plans to comment in opposition to the proposed action. According to an FCC “Fact Sheet,” the proceeding WT Docket 19-348, “Facilitating Shared Use in the 3.1 – 3.55 GHz Band,” is a follow-on from the MOBILE NOW Act, approved by the 115th Congress, which requires the FCC and the US Department of Comm- erce to make available new spectrum for mobile and fixed wireless broad- band use. It also requires the FCC to work with the National Telecom- munications and Information Administration (NTIA) to evaluate whether commercial wireless services and federal incumbents could share spec- trum between 3.1 and 3.55 GHz. NTIA manages spectrum allocated to fed- eral government users. “This Notice of Proposed Rulemaking would propose to remove the exist- ing non-federal allocations in the 3.3 – 3.55 GHz band as a step to- wards potential future shared use between federal incumbents and com- mercial users,” the FCC Fact Sheet explains. “By taking the initial step needed to clear the band of allocations for non-federal incum- bents, the Commission furthers its continued efforts to make more mid- band spectrum potentially available to support next generation wireless networks — consistent with the mandate of the MOBILE NOW [Making Oppor- tunities for Broadband Investment and Limiting Excessive and Needless Obstacles to Wireless] Act.” The NPRM proposes to clear the 3.3 – 3.55 GHz band of existing non-fed- eral users by removing non-federal secondary radiolocation and amateur allocations [emphasis added] in the 3.3 – 3.55 GHz band and to relocate incumbent non-federal users out of the band. The FCC would seek comment on relocation options and “transition mechanisms” for incumbent non- federal users, either to the 3.1 – 3.3 GHz band or to other frequencies, and on how to ensure that non-federal secondary operations in the 3.1– 3.3 GHz band will continue to protect federal radar systems. Regarding the Amateur and Amateur-Satellite Service allocations, the FCC NPRM asks whether existing amateur spectrum in other bands might support operations currently conducted in the 3.3 – 3.5 GHz band. The 3.40 – 3.41 GHz segment is designated for amateur satellite communica- tion. “We seek comment on the extent to which the band is used for this purpose, whether existing satellites can operate on other amateur satellite bands, and on an appropriate timeframe for terminating these operations in this band,” the FCC NPRM says. Also at its December 12 meeting, the FCC will consider another NPRM in WT Docket 19-138 that would “take a fresh and comprehensive look” at the rules for the 5.9 GHz band and propose, among other things, to make the lower 45 MHz of the band available for unlicensed operations and to permit “Cellular Vehicle-to-Everything” (C-V2X) operations in the upper 20 MHz of the band. The FCC is not proposing to delete or other- wise amend the amateur allocation, and it would continue as a secon- dary allocation, but the primary allocation for 5.850 – 5.925 GHz would change. The amateur radio 5-centimeter allocation is 5650.0 – 5925.0 MHz, and the NPRM, if approved, would address the top 75 MHz of that amateur secondary band. While no changes are proposed to the amateur alloca- tion, anticipated more intensive use by primary users could restrict secondary amateur use. The band 5.850–5.925 GHz has been reserved for use by dedicated short- range communications (DSRC), a service in the intelligent transporta- tion system (ITS) designed to enable vehicle-related communications, the FCC said in a Fact Sheet in WT Docket 19-138. “The Commission ini- tiates this Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to take a fresh and compre- hensive look at the 5.9 GHz band rules and propose appropriate changes to ensure the spectrum supports its highest and best use.” ARRL also will file comments opposing any changes affecting the 5-centimeter amateur allocation. Both draft FCC proposals are subject to change prior to a vote at the December 12 FCC meeting, and there will be opportunity to file com- ments and reply comments on the final proposals after they are re- leased. [ANS thanks ARRL for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- WRC-19 Final Report: Small Satellites and the 1240-1300 MHz Band In the final week, the meetings at WRC-19 have been running until 3 in the morning in an attempt to get the work completed. The RSGB have released their WRC-19 report covering small satellites and also the Amateur 1240-1300 MHz band. The report notes “A lesson from the process indicates how difficult it may be in future to achieve any upgrade to other amateur allocations.” Read the RSGB Small Satellites and 23cm report at https://tinyurl.com/vjfho66 Friday, November 22 saw WRC-19 conclude its month long biggest ever conference. Many of the 3,300 delegates had started to travel home even before the release of the ‘Provisional Final Acts’ and closing ceremony. The ITU website has released the provisional acts as a huge 567-page PDF document—a tribute to the the hardworking editorial and transla- tion teams at the conference. These provisional acts are due to come into force on January 1, 2021, so no early changes are currently ex- pected in practice. Read the RSGB WRC-19 Final report at https://tinyurl.com/qjw9kvd WRC-19 Provisional Final Acts – a 567 page document - is available at https://tinyurl.com/tyzfvl3 [ANS thanks AMSAT-UK for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ Need new satellite antennas? Purchase Arrows, Alaskan Arrows, and M2 LEO-Packs from the AMSAT Store. When you purchase through AMSAT, a portion of the proceeds goes towards Keeping Amateur Radio in Space. https://amsat.org/product-category/hardware/ +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ --------------------------------------------------------------------- AMSAT Auction Celebrating 45th Birthday of AO-7 Raises $480 The auctions for a set of gold-plated AO-7 cufflinks and a 50th Anniversary AMSAT lab coat recently concluded and raised $480 to help Keep Amateur Radio in Space. Thank you to all of the bidders for participating in the auctions! If you missed out on the auctions, but still want to help out, please consider donating or purchasing items from the AMSAT store at www.amsat.org today! [ANS thanks Executive Vice President Paul Stoetzer, N8HM, for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- Upcoming ARISS Contact Schedule MAOU Lyceum No. 39, Nizhny Tagil, Russia, direct via TBD The ISS callsign is presently scheduled to be RSØISS The scheduled astronaut is Alexander Skvortsov Contact is go for: 2011-11-30 14:15 UTC Council Rock High School South, Holland, Pa., direct via KC3NGG The ISS callsign is presently scheduled to be NA1SS The scheduled astronaut is Drew Morgan KI5AAA Contact is go for: Thu 2019-12-05 17:56:31 UTC 71 deg B. Pascal Institute - Public School, Rome, Italy, direct via IKØMGA and Istituto Comprensivo Lipari “S. Lucia”, Lipari, Italy, direct via ID9GKS. The ISS callsign is presently scheduled to be IRØISS The scheduled astronaut is Luca Parmitano KF5KDP Contact is go for: Sat 2019-12-07 11:44:00 UTC 45 deg For more information, the ARISS webpage is at https://www.ariss.org/ [ANS thanks Charlie Sufana, AJ9N, ARISS operation team, for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ AMSAT, along with our ARISS partners, is developing an amateur radio package, including two-way communication capability, to be carried on-board Gateway in lunar orbit. Support AMSAT's projects today at https://www.amsat.org/donate/ +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ --------------------------------------------------------------------- Upcoming Satellite Operations Nunavut, Canada (ER60) November 11 - December 6, 2019 The Eureka Amateur Radio Club, VY0ERC, will be on station, the Polar Environment Atmospheric Research Laboratory, November 6th through Dec- ember 11th. They have some house keeping duties to perform on arrival and just before they leave, not to mention that it's wicked cold up there (-25 to -35C not counting windchill), so keep an eye on the VY0ERC twitter feed for announcements on when they plan to step out- side: https://twitter.com/vy0erc Key West (EL94) December 3-6, 2019 Tanner, W9TWJ, will be vacationing in Key West December 3rd - 6th. Key word is vacation, but he will jump on some FM satellite passes to act- ivate EL94 for those that need it or just want to chat. Watch Tanner's Twitter feed for further announcements: https://twitter.com/twjones85 Key West (EL94) December 3-6, 2019 Tanner, W9TWJ, will be vacationing in Key West December 3rd – 6th. Key word is vacation, but he will jump on some FM satellite passes to ac- tivate EL94 for those that need it or just want to chat. Watch Tanner’s Twitter feed for further announcements: https://twitter.com/twjones85 Hawaii (BK19, BK28, BK29, BL20) December 21-28, 2019 Alex, N7AGF, is heading back to Hawaii over Christmas. This will be a holiday-style activation, with special empahasis on the grid that got away - BK28. Keep an eye on Alex's Twitter feed for further announce- ments: https://twitter.com/N7AGF Please submit any additions or corrections to ke4al (at) amsat.org [ANS thanks Robert Bankston, KE4AL, AMSAT VP - User Services, for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- Satellite Shorts From All Over + NASA's "Ride to Station" App and Educator Guide equips educators with simple tools and knowledge to take a fun, interactive app and turn it into a powerful, educational tool for students of all ages! The in- teractive app gives an overview of the complexities involved in get- ting to and conducting research aboard the International Space Sta- tion. The app is also challenging and fun! The Commercial Crew Pro- gram focuses on working with NASA’s two partners Boeing and SpaceX to create American commercial capabilities to safely send humans to and from the International Space Station. For more information see: https://tinyurl.com/vj9gyfr (ANS thanks NASA for the above information) + Rovers and some multiop VHF/UHF contest stations will be interested in the future Down East Microwave DEM V/U Xverter. This device covers ALL 5 OF THE AMATEUR BANDS between 144 MHz and 1.2 GHz. According to the preliminary information from the manufacturer: "All frequencies convert to/from 28 MHz. The transmit output level is approximately 1 watt and will exhibit a 2 dB noise figure with greater than 15 dB gain on all bands. The Transverter will also contain an AUX RF port that will be configured as an additional 2M port for connection to a higher frequency transverter such as our future DEM MICRO-VERTER con- taining 4 additional higher bands of operation." (ANS thanks Pete Heins, N6ZE, the Pacific NorthWest VHF Society, and www.downeastmicrowave.com for the above information) + Rocket Lab has partnered with Kongsberg Satellite Services (KSAT) to be the sole provider of ground station services for the Electron launch vehicle and Photon satellite bus customers. KSAT’s KSATlite ground network is designed and optimized for small satellite systems, providing Photon customers with downlink and uplink capabilities in UHF, S-band, X-band, and Ka-band across a global ground station net- work of over 200 antennas that supports 50,000 contacts per month. (ANS thanks SatMagazine.com for the above information) + NASA Kennedy Space Center (KSC) will be testing an improved waveform on the 48-MHz Tropospheric Doppler Radar Wind Profiler (TDRWP) from Monday, November 25 through Sunday, December 2. The purpose of the test is to improve the instrument’s resolution and still operate with- in the assigned bandwidth. NASA is requesting the amateur radio com- munity to report via email to ksc-tdrwptest(a)mail.nasa.gov any detect- ed emissions in the 50 – 54 MHz band dur ing that period. Include the date, time, location, frequency, and any other pertinent informa- tion (such as IQ files of the signal for evaluation) that might as- sist NASA in assessing potential impacts to the amateur radio comm- unity. (ANS thanks ARRL for the above information) + NASA commercial cargo provider SpaceX is targeting 12:51 p.m. EST Wednesday, Dec. 4, for the launch of its 19th resupply mission to the International Space Station under contract with the agency. Live coverage will begin on NASA Television and the agency’s website Tues- day, Dec. 3, with prelaunch events. The Dragon spacecraft, which will launch from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Sta- tion in Florida, will be filled with supplies and payloads, includ- ing critical materials to directly support dozens of the more than 250 science investigations and technology demonstrations that will occur during Expeditions 61 and 62. (ANS thanks NASA for the above information) + Jerri Ellsworth, AI6TK, who was the AMSAT/TAPR guest speaker at Day- ton in 2018, was featured as a "technology visionary" by the New York Times in an article first published in October, but highlighted once again in a series wrap-up on Nov. 26. Those who have a N.Y. Times online account can access the story at https://tinyurl.com/tmkhqaq + ANS wishes a happy Thanksgiving holiday weekend (or what remains of it) to all U.S. satellite operators! --------------------------------------------------------------------- /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 and Remember to help keep amateur radio in space, This week's ANS Editor, K0JM at amsat dot org

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ANS-328 AMSAT News Service Weekly Bulletins
by JoAnne K9JKM 24 Nov '19

24 Nov '19

AMSAT NEWS SERVICE ANS-328 The AMSAT News Service bulletins are a free, weekly news and infor- mation service of AMSAT, 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 commun- icating 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. You can sign up for free e-mail delivery of the AMSAT News Service Bulletins via the ANS List; to join this list see: http://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/ans In this edition: * AMSAT Auction Celebrating the 45th Birthday of AO-7 Now Live * November 18 Marked 2nd Anniversary On Orbit for AMSAT-OSCAR 91 * November 21 Marked 6th Anniverary of AMSAT-UK's AO-73 FUNcube-1 * Proposed FCC Auction of C-Band Increases Competition for Allocations * Satellite Operations From the Queen Mary on December 14 * Donate to AMSAT Tax-Free From Your IRA * Open Source 'APRS to Discord' Bridge Project Begins Testing * ARISS Activities * Upcoming Satellite Operations * The Voyage Home: Japan's Hayabusa-2 Probe Heads Back to Earth * Satellite Shorts From All Over SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-328.01 ANS-328 AMSAT News Service Weekly Bulletins AMSAT News Service Bulletin 328.01 From AMSAT HQ KENSINGTON, MD. DATE 2019-Nov-24 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-328.01 AMSAT Auction Celebrating the 45th Birthday of AO-7 Now Live As announced in ANS-321, AMSAT is auctioning off a set of gold-plated AO-7 cufflinks and a 50th Anniversary AMSAT lab coat (size 42R). The auctions are now live on eBay and will conclude shortly after 02:00 UTC on November 26, 2019. Please bid today at https://www.ebay.com/usr/amsat-na 100% of the proceeds of this auction will go towards Keeping Amateur Radio in Space. Looking ahead to the future AMSAT tweeted a quick summary of projects at: https://twitter.com/AMSAT/status/1197528119806169091 1. The University of Washington's HuskySat-1 carrying an AMSAT VHF/ UHF linear transponder was launched to the ISS on Cygnus on Nov 2. After leaving the ISS, Cygnus is expected to deploy HuskySat-1 on or about Jan 13. 2. After completing its science mission, HuskySat-1 will be turned over to AMSAT and the transponder will be made available for ama- teur use. AMSAT is also working with other CubeSat builders on similar arrangements. 3. RadFxSat-2 (Fox-1E), carrying a VHF/UHF linear transponder and radiation experiments for Vanderbilt University, is complete and awaiting launch on the first commercial flight of Virgin Orbit's LauncherOne no earlier than 1Q 2020. 4. The GOLF program is progressing nicely. The target delivery/inte- gration date of GOLF-TEE is 3Q 2020. More details about the GOLF program are available in the AMSAT Engineering Report from the 2019 Space Symposium. https://youtube.com/watch?v=WWwvhuIaiBA 5. The ARISS next generation InterOperable Radio System is planned for launch to the ISS on the SpaceX CRS-20 mission, scheduled for March 2020. 6. The AMSAT CubeSat Simulator project led by Alan Johnston, KU2Y and Pat Kilroy, N8PK, is generating much interest. Simulators are avail- able for loan for classrooms or events and work is underway to dev- elop CubeSat Simulator kits. http://cubesatsim.com 7. How can you help these projects succeed? Please consider volunteer- ing, joining, donating, and/or purchasing items from the AMSAT store today. [ANS thanks Paul Stoetzer, N8HM, for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- November 18 Marked 2nd Anniversary On Orbit for AMSAT-OSCAR 91 Happy 2nd Anniversary, AMSAT-OSCAR 91! At 09:47:36 UTC on Novem- ber 18, 2017, RadFxSat (Fox-1B) launched on a Delta II rocket from SLC-2W at Vandenberg Air Force Base and became AMSAT-OSCAR 91. RadFxSat (Fox-1B), a 1U CubeSat, is a joint mission of AMSAT and the Institute for Space and Defense Electronics at Vanderbilt Uni- versity. The Vanderbilt package is intended to measure the effects of radiation on electronic components, including demonstration of an on-orbit platform for space qualification of components as well as to validate and improve computer models for predicting radiation tolerance of semiconductors. AMSAT constructed the remainder of the satellite including the space frame, on-board computer and power system. The amateur radio package is similar to that currently on orbit on AO-85. RadFxSat (Fox-1B) was sent aloft as a secondary payload on the Unit- ed Launch Alliance (ULA) Delta II rocket with the Joint Polar Satel- lite System (JPSS)-1 satellite. RadFxSat (Fox-1B) is one of five CubeSats making up this NASA Educational Launch of Nanosatellites (ELaNa) XIV mission, riding as secondary payloads aboard the JPSS-1 mission. Uplink: 435.250 MHz FM (67.0 Hz CTCSS) Downlink: 145.960 MHz FM Satellite health and experiment telemetry are downlinked via the Data-Under-Voice (DUV) subaudible telemetry stream, which can be de- coded using the FoxTelem software. Visit the AMSAT-OSCAR 91 web page at: https://tinyurl.com/ANS-328-AO-91 Make sure you have the latest AMSAT frequencies using the page at: https://www.amsat.org/two-way-satellites/ [ANS thanks AMSAT for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- November 21 Marked 6th Anniverary of AMSAT-UK's AO-73 FUNcube-1 This week AMSAT-UK and the FUNcube team recalled the events on launch day. A very short time after the launch from Yasny in Russia and with- in a few minutes from deployment, the very first frame of data from the low power transmitter on board, was detected and decoded by ZS1LS in South Africa. He was able to relay the data over the internet from his Dashboard to the Data Warehouse and the numbers, appeared, as if by magic, at the launch party being held at the RSGB National Radio Centre at Bletchley Park. After a very brief check out, the FUNcube team were able to switch the transmitter to full power, again at the very first attempt, and were quite amazed at the strength of the signal from the 300mW trans- mitter on 145.935 MHz. The transponder was then switched on and suc- cessfully tested. The team finished the day with a request to AMSAT-NA for an Oscar number and were delighted to receive the AO73 Oscar 73 designation! Since then, FUNcube-1, with a launch mass of less than 1kg, has oper- ated continuously with only a very few interruptions. In excess of 32000 orbits, 750 million miles travelled, and with more than 7 mil- lion data packets downloaded and stored in the Data Warehouse. The spacecraft is presently in continuous sunlight and to convert as much of the sun’s thermal energy into RF (to help keep it cool), it remains in continuous high power telemetry mode. We anticipate this situation will continue until early May next after which the team expect to have 3 months with some eclipse periods. Of course, EO88 – Nayif 1 continues to operate autonomously with the transponder active when in eclipse and JO99 – JY1Sat, which includes image downloads, and which was launched just under a year ago, also remain active on a 24/7 basis. The FUNcube team still receive many requests for Fitter message up- loads for school events…please contact us by email to operations(a)funcube.org.uk giving us at least two weeks notice. The FUNcube team continue to be very grateful to all the many stations around the world that continue to upload the telemetry that they re- ceive to our Data Warehouse. They really need this data to provide a continuous resource for educational outreach. Dave Johnson, G4DPZ, network administrator for the FUNcube Data Ware- house provided this update for users of the FUNcube Dashboard Soft- ware, "The server addresses warehouse.funcube.org.uk and data.funcube.org.uk are no longer operational. If you have FUNcube Dashboard(s) using the URL data.funcube.org.uk, please change it to data.amsat-uk.org as forwarding will no longer take place." + FUNcube email group https://groups.io/g/FUNcube + FUNcube Forum http://forum.funcube.org.uk/ + FUNcube Website http://www.funcube.org.uk/ [ANS thanks AMSAT-UK for the above information] +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+ The digital download version of the 2019 edition of Getting Started with Amateur Satellites is now available as a DRM-free PDF from the AMSAT Store. Get yours today! https://tinyurl.com/ANS-237-Getting-Started +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+ Proposed FCC Auction of C-Band Increases Competition for Allocations In an IARU News Release by Dave Sumner, K1ZZ and posted by Rick Lind- quist, WW1ME on November 18 via the ARRL-IARU(a)groups.arrl.org list he reports that the Plenary session to approve texts to be included in the Final Acts was scheduled to end at noon Thursday, November 21 and delegates at WRC-19 faced a daunting workload as the conferees try to reach consensus on several remaining issues including the agenda for the next WRC. Small Satellites which are increasingly commercial have been granted access to the space operations bands at 137/149MHz away from amateur allocations. The amateur secondary allocation at 5725-5850 MHz, which includes an amateur-satellite C-band downlink at 5830-5850 MHz, is the subject of an unresolved conflict over parameters for wireless access systems including radio local area networks. 5 GHz Wi-Fi will see most expan- sion below amateur radio in the 5150-5250 band reducing it impact on our 5725-5850 range. An article published by CNBC, also on November 18, a news item by Michael Sheetz, "Satellite stock Intelsat drops 40% after FCC 5G dec- ision", discusses increasing pressure in the United States due to a proposed public auction of 280 megahertz of the C-band spectrum. This article can be accessed in entirety at: https://tinyurl.com/ANS-328-CNBC-5G-Article Sheetz reports that FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said in a tweet that his agency “must free up significant spectrum” for 5G telecommunications. The FCC said it expects to begin a public auction of C-band to happen before the end of 2020, a blow to satellite operators using the valu- able spectrum. The FCC Chairman's tweet on the subject can be accessed at: https://twitter.com/AjitPaiFCC/status/1196468857025835009 Four commercial satellite operators, including Intelsat, provide C-band services in the U.S. to about 120 million households. The FCC wants to repurpose the C-band spectrum for 5G and an auction is ex- pected to raise tens of billions of dollars. But a public auction would see the proceeds go to the government. The commercial C-band satellite operators have organized as the 'C-Band Alliance' to oppose a public auction of these frequencies. The C-Band Alliance has been pushing for a private auction. The group has given a proposal to the FCC where the satellite operators would keep some of the proceeds while paying taxes on the sale, as well as contributing at least $8 billion to the U.S. Treasury and possible helping fund a rural 5G network. [ANS thanks Dave Sumner, K1ZZ, Rick Lindquist, WW1ME, the IARU and CNBC for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- Satellite Operations From the Queen Mary on December 14 AMSAT will be supporting the "Ham Radio Day Aboard the Queen Mary", an on-air event which will include satellite operations from the RMS Queen Mary, on Saturday, 14 December 2019. The Queen Mary is at the Port of Long Beach in California, grid DM03vs. The satellite opera- tions will take place from the Queen Mary's Sports Deck, next to the W6RO Wireless Room. Visitors are welcome, and hams with a copy of their valid amateur license can board the ship for free on 14 December - a $40 value! QSL cards will be available from the Associated Radio Amateurs of Long Beach (ARALB), using the process detailed at: http://www.qrz.com/db/W6RO Satellite contacts do not require the QSO number mentioned on this page. W6RO does not use Logbook of the World. Additional information about the event posted by The Associated Radio Amateurs of Long Beach and the Queen Mary: The Associated Radio Amateurs of Long Beach and the Queen Mary invite you aboard the legendary ocean liner for Ham Radio Day Aboard the Queen Mary on Saturday December 14th. Our world-famous station W6RO will be fully staffed all day. Come visit the station, take a turn as a guest operator, or work us on the air and earn our special 40th Anniversary QSL card. In addition, we will have the following special activities: + Static displays of the Queen Mary's vintage maritime radio equipment. + On-air demonstrations of ham radio 'go-kits' at locations around the ship. + Demonstrations of 'eclectic communications gear', including an Aldis lamp and semaphore flags. + Demonstrations of satellite ham radio, with actual contacts being made through satellites in orbit. Basic admission to board the ship is FREE for licensed radio amateurs this day. Simply show your current amateur radio license at the Hotel entrance and come aboard! The free boarding offer is subject to the following restrictions: + A valid FCC license document must be presented. (QM personnel will not look you up in the FCC database, QRZ, etc.) + Non-licensed friends and family members are not included. + Free boarding of the ship does not include admission to the Queen Mary Christmas event. + Free boarding does not include parking. Normal parking rates apply. For an alternative, ride the free Long Beach Transit Passport bus,or try LBT's AquaBus or AquaLink boat shuttles to get to the Queen Mary. We're looking forward to seeing YOU on board! 73 [ANS thanks Patrick Stoddard, WD9EWK/VA7EWK, and the Associated Radio Amateurs of Long Beach and the Queen Mary] +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+ Need new satellite antennas? Purchase Arrows, Alaskan Arrows, and M2 LEO-Packs from the AMSAT Store. When you purchase through AMSAT, a portion of the proceeds goes towards Keeping Amateur Radio in Space. https://amsat.org/product-category/hardware/ +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+ Donate to AMSAT Tax-Free From Your IRA Are you over 70-1/2 years of age and need to meet your IRA's Required Minimum Distribution for 2019? Consider making a donation to AMSAT! Under the Protecting Americans from Tax Hikes Act of 2015, individuals over 70-1/2 years of age may make direct transfers of up to $100,000 per year from a traditional IRA to an eligible charity without increasing their taxable income. Consult your tax advisor or accountant to make certain you are eligible. AMSAT is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit educational and scientific organization whose purpose is to design, construct, launch, and operate satellites in space and to provide the support needed to encourage amateurs to utilize these resources. AMSAT's federal tax ID is 52-0888529. +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+ Open Source 'APRS to Discord' Bridge Project Begins Testing Harold Giddings, KR0SIV, reports on an on-going open source project called the 'APRS to Discord bridge'. The Discord network supports text and voice chat, project documentation and source code for dev- elopers, gamers, and makers in an open source environment. For more information about the Discord network see https://discordapp.com/ The APRS to Discord bridge, by Alexandre Rouma (@WhatsTheGeekYT on twitter), is designed to connect APRS traffic from terrestrial and spacecraft sources with user's servers on the Discord network. The software, still under development, is pretty simple at the moment but will be open source (Node.js). The design will allow amateur radio groups to set up their own node for bridging an APRS callsign/message to their discord server. It is written in a way that requires the bot operator to validate amateur operators with a special role in Discord preventing illicit use by non-licensed operators. Source code can be found here: https://github.com/AlexandreRouma/aprs_bridge https://github.com/AlexandreRouma/npm-aprs-parser Harold also hosts the SDR-centric 'Signals Everywhere' channel on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/signalseverywhere [ANS thanks Harold Giddings, KR0SIV, for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- ARISS Activities + Lakeside Elementary School, West Point, UT, telebridge via IK1SLD Contact was successful: Mon 2019-11-18 + Istituto San Paolo delle Suore Angeliche, Milano, Italy and Istituto Comprensivo Di Merone – Mons. A. Pirovano, Merone, Italy, telebridge via W6SRJ Contact was successful: Thu 2019-11-21 + MAOU Lyceum No. 39, Nizhny Tagil, Russia, direct via TBD The ISS callsign is presently scheduled to be RSØISS The scheduled astronaut is Alexander Skvortsov Contact is go for 2011-11-30 14:15 UTC A reminder that the deadline to submit proposals for ARISS contacts to be scheduled between July 1, 2020 and December 31, 2020 is coming up on November 30, 2019. For more information visit https://www.ariss.org/ Possible RSØISS - Inter MAI-75 SSTV activity is tentatively planned for Dec 14 – 15, 2019. Details will follow later, the organization of this SSTV event depends on the necessary EVA activities. No SSTV can take place during EVA activities. [ANS thanks Charlie Sufana, AJ9N, and David Jordan, AA4KN, ARISS opera- tion team members, for the above information] +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+ Purchase AMSAT Gear on our Zazzle storefront. 25% of the purchase price of each product goes towards Keeping Amateur Radio in Space https://www.zazzle.com/amsat_gear +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+ Upcoming Satellite Operations Nunavut, Canada (ER60) November 11 - December 6, 2019 The Eureka Amateur Radio Club, VY0ERC, will be on station, the Polar Environment Atmospheric Research Laboratory, November 6th through Dec- ember 11th. They have some house keeping duties to perform on arrival and just before they leave, not to mention that it's wicked cold up there (-25 to -35C not counting windchill), so keep an eye on the VY0ERC twitter feed for announcements on when they plan to step out- side: https://twitter.com/vy0erc Key West (EL94) December 3-6, 2019 Tanner, W9TWJ, will be vacationing in Key West December 3rd - 6th. Key word is vacation, but he will jump on some FM satellite passes to act- ivate EL94 for those that need it or just want to chat. Watch Tanner's Twitter feed for further announcements: https://twitter.com/twjones85 Hawaii (BK19, BK28, BK29, BL20) December 21-28, 2019 Alex, N7AGF, is heading back to Hawaii over Christmas. This will be a holiday-style activation, with special empahasis on the grid that got away - BK28. Keep an eye on Alex's Twitter feed for further announce- ments: https://twitter.com/N7AGF Please submit any additions or corrections to ke4al (at) amsat.org [ANS thanks Robert Bankston, KE4AL, AMSAT VP - User Services, for the above information] +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+ AMSAT, along with our ARISS partners, is developing an amateur radio package, including two-way communication capability, to be carried on-board Gateway in lunar orbit. Support AMSAT's projects today at https://www.amsat.org/donate/ +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+ The Voyage Home: Japan's Hayabusa-2 Probe Heads Back to Earth By Kyoko Hasegawa - Tokyo Japan's Hayabusa-2 mission to the asteroid Ryugu received its orders to head for home on Wednesday, November 13. Next, on November 18 it broke free of the asteroid's gravity. It will fire its main engines early next month en route to Earth, JAXA said. Hayabusa-2 is carrying samples that could shed light on the origins of the Solar System. It took the probe three-and-a-half years to get to the asteroid but the return journey should be significantly short- er because Earth and Ryugu will be much closer due to their current positions. Ryugu's orbit ranges from .96 AU to 1.41 AU with a period of 474 days, coming within just 95,400 km of Earth at its closest (just 1/4 LD), but is currently 1.7 AU away. Hayabusa will spend the next year clos- ing that distance to Earth and will eject its sample capsule into the atmosphere in December 2020. After the departure burn Hayabusa-2 had changed it's orbit to a 0.96 x 1.41 AU x 5.9 deg heliocentric orbit. Hayabusa-2 is expected to drop the samples off in the South Austral- ian desert. Under the current plan, Hayabusa-2 will boldly continue its journey in space after dropping off its capsule to Earth, and might "carry out another asteroid exploration," according to JAXA. Access the full article (and photo) at: https://tinyurl.com/ANS-328-Hyabusa-Coming-Home [ANS thanks SpaceDaily.com for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- Satellite Shorts From All Over + AMSAT has received the sad news on the passing of Brian Kantor, WB6CYT (SK). Brian was one of the co-founders (with Phil Karn, KA9Q) of AMPRnet, the TCP/IP over amateur radio network. Brian continued to manage it until his passing. Brian recently creat- ed and served as chair and CEO of Amateur Radio Digital Commun- ications (ARDC), a charitable foundation funded by the sale of unused AMPRnet IPv4 addresses. ARDC promotes STEM education and amateur radio digital development through scholarships and by funding the development of open source hardware and software. Brian will be sorely missed and impossible to replace. Memorial arrangements will be announced when known. via Phil Karn, KA9Q) + UniverseToday.com notes the contribution of Daniel Estévez, EA4GPZ, with the location of the impact site of China's Longjiang-2 satel- lite on the moon: https://tinyurl.com/ANS-328-EA4GPZ-LunarImpact The article notes, "Among amateur astronomists and citizen scient- ists, Daniel Estévez is a well-known figure. In addition to being an amateur radio operator with a PhD in Mathematics and a BSc in Computer Science, Estévez is also an amateur spacecraft tracker." (via UniverseToday.com) + Roland Hesmondhalg spoke on public radio station WFIT with FL Tech Professor Ken Ernandes, N2WWD, and two senior students Luiz Fernando Leal and Antonio Masturzo about the amateur radio project on the ISS. Did you know you can use amateur radio to talk to astronauts in space? Ken Ernandes is part of the team building the next upgraded communi- cation station to be flown on the ISS this coming year. The program is primarily intended by NASA to promote STEAM in schools. There is an application process to get a scheduled school contact and he would be happy to work with any body on the application process. Listen on the link at: https://tinyurl.com/ANS-328-WFIT-Interview + NASA released their latest software catalog offering FREE NASA Technology software packages that are applicable to academic research, engineering development, business applications & more! NASA Press Release: https://tinyurl.com/ANS-328-NASA-Software-Press Access the software at: http://software.nasa.gov + Explore student STEM opportunities, downloads, mission information and Artemis Student Challenges on NASA's STEM Engagement pages at: https://www.nasa.gov/stem/artemis.html - then - try your hand at driving a Mars rover: https://spaceplace.nasa.gov/explore-mars/en/ + John Brier, KG4AKV, wrote, "A woman in Israel recently contacted me about including some of my videos in a video she was going to make about how to view the ISS. Well, she just uploaded that video and I have to say, it is pretty good: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=laQ9VEJJmpU (To turn on English subtitles while viewing YouTube on the web/ desktop, click the CC button in the bottom right corner of the video. On mobile, tap the three dots in the top right and then tap captions) - via John Brier, KG4AKV + Paul Wade, W1GHZ, author of the W1GHZ Microwave Antenna Book says he has added an update of Chapter 7, Slot Antennas, and included an improved 32-bit version of the HDL_ANT program for Windows 7 and 10. Access the book at: http://w1ghz.org/antbook/preface.htm Click on the 'Table of Contents' link to continue. (Paul Wade, W1GHZ via the microwave list) + Scott Manley posted a video showing the effect if all satellites in orbit were visible. There are over ten thousand satellites in orbit, but only the largest ones in low earth orbit are visible in the hours just after sunset and before sunrise. What would the sky look like if you could see everything in space? He took satel- lite data and rendered a view of the night sky for an 'average' viewer in North America. View the satellites at: https://youtu.be/dJNGi-bt9NM (via Scott Manley's YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxzC4EngIsMrPmbm6Nxvb-A ) + Voyager's transmitters use just 23 watts, roughly the same as an incandescent refrigerator bulb, yet we are able to interpret the 0.1 billion-billionth of a Watt that makes it to earth from 11 billion kilometers away. An article at wired.com explains: https://www.wired.com/2013/09/vintage-voyager-probes/ + AMSAT-LU (Argentina) plans to operate their WSPR buoy when it is deployed between November 25 through December 12, weather condi- tion permitting. The WSPR beacon will transmit on 14.095,6 MHz with 900 mW, callsign LU7AA. The beacon will be active for 2 min- utes ON followed with 8 minutes of standby. They appreciate WSPR reception reports to wsprnet.org which will qualify you for an award certificate: http://lu7aa.org.ar/wspr.asp AMSAT-LU Buoy Project page can be found at: http://amsat.org.ar/?f=boya APRS tracking can be found at: http://aprs.fi?call=lu7aa-8 + Versions 1.46 and 1.47 (to address a bug fix) of the Magic-Eye Plugin for SDRSharp has been released: https://github.com/BlackApple62/SDRSharp-Magic-Eye-Plugin/releases This plug-in adds an old-style "Magic Eye", or "Cat's Eye" to SDR# software (available via www.airspy.com) This release adds an analog- style SNR Meter. This Plugin, is compiled for 32bit platform, with .NET Framework version 4.6. It may not run on SDR# versions older than r1362 (14 Sept 2015) - via airspy.com and GitHub + If you've been kept up at night trying to find a solution to the chaotic three-body problem access a paper, "Newton vs the machine: solving the chaotic three-body problem using deep neural networks" from: https://arxiv.org/abs/1910.07291 - and if you're not sure what is the significance of this check out an explanation posted at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three-body_problem --------------------------------------------------------------------- /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 and remember to behave and to help keep amateur radio in space, This week's ANS Editor, JoAnne Maenpaa, K9JKM k9jkm at amsat dot org

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ANS-324 AMSAT News Service Special Bulletin - AMSAT Auction Celebrating the 45th Birthday of AO-7 Now Live
by Paul Stoetzer 20 Nov '19

20 Nov '19

AMSAT NEWS SERVICE SPECIAL BULLETIN ANS-324 In this edition: * AMSAT Auction Celebrating the 45th Birthday of AO-7 Now Live SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-324 ANS-324 AMSAT News Service Special Bulletin AMSAT News Service Bulletin 324 From AMSAT HQ KENSINGTON, MD. DATE November 20, 2019 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-324.01 AMSAT Auction Celebrating the 45th Birthday of AO-7 Now Live As announced in ANS-321, AMSAT is auctioning off a set of gold-plated AO-7 cufflinks and a 50th Anniversary AMSAT lab coat (size 42R). The auctions are now live on eBay and will conclude shortly after 02:00 UTC on November 26, 2019. Please bid today at https://www.ebay.com/usr/amsat-na 100% of the proceeds of this auction will go towards Keeping Amateur Radio in Space. [ANS thanks Paul Stoetzer, N8HM, for the above information] /EX

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ANS-321 AMSAT News Service Weekly Bulletins
by Paul Stoetzer 17 Nov '19

17 Nov '19

AMSAT NEWS SERVICE ANS-321 The AMSAT News Service bulletins are a free, weekly news and infor- mation service of AMSAT, 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 commun- icating 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. You can sign up for free e-mail delivery of the AMSAT News Service Bulletins via the ANS List; to join this list see: http://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/ans In this edition: * Happy 45th Birthday AMSAT-OSCAR 7! * 19th Anniversary of ARISS Operations * PO-101 (Diwata-2) QSLs Available * IARU Update Regarding Amateur Satellite Allocations * AMSAT Member Dhruv Rebba, KC9ZJX, Youth Excellence Award * G4BAO 23cm-45 W-PA Available as Public Domain * Changes to AMSAT TLE Distribution for November 14, 2019 * Upcoming ARISS Contact Schedule * Upcoming Satellite Operations * Satellite Shorts From All Over SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-321.01 ANS-321 AMSAT News Service Weekly Bulletins AMSAT News Service Bulletin 321.01 >From AMSAT HQ KENSINGTON, MD. DATE 2019-Nov-17 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-321.01 Happy 45th Birthday AMSAT-OSCAR 7! At 17:11 UTC on November 15, 1974 a Delta-2310 rocket lifted off from SLC-2W at Vandenberg Air Force Base, sending AO-7 into orbit along with NOAA-4 and Intasat. Details about the launch and initial tele- metry reception can be found at https://tinyurl.com/ANS-321-AO7Launch After nearly 7 years of service, AO-7 was thought to have reached the end of its life in June 1981 due to battery failure. A retrospective detailing its exemplary record was published in the AMSAT Satellite Report, available at https://tinyurl.com/ANS-321-AO7Record Though it was thought to be lost in 1981, there are reports that the Polish Solidarity movement used AO-7 to pass messages in 1982 while Poland was under martial law. An article, in Polish, with the details is available at https://tinyurl.com/AO-7-Poland Twenty years later, on June 21, 2002, G3IOR reported that he heard an old-style CW beacon from an unknown OSCAR satellite near 145.970 MHz. This was soon identified as AMSAT-OSCAR 7. The original AMSAT-BB post with news of the discovery is archived at https://tinyurl.com/ANS-321-AO7BB Despite some pre-launch predictions that the CMOS logic circuits on- board "wouldn't last 3 weeks," AO-7 remains operational and well-used while in sunlight. It is the oldest operational satellite, in any service, in orbit. https://www.amsat.org/two-way-satellites/ao-7/ To celebrate AO-7's 45th birthday, AMSAT will auction off a set of gold-plated AO-7 cufflinks and a 50th Anniversary AMSAT lab coat (size 42R) next week. Check AMSAT-BB or AMSAT's social media pages for details on Monday morning. [ANS thanks AMSAT for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- 19th Anniversary of ARISS Operations On November 13, 2000, the ARISS amateur radio payload was turned on and the first operations occurred over Russia and the United States. Our ARISS team is working feverishly on the final certification of our nextgeneration radio system: the Interoperable Radio System. We thank all those that have supported this development effort through team support as well as donations!! We continue to move closer to a planned March 2020 launch of the hardware on SpaceX CRS-20. [ANS thanks Frank Bauer, KA3HDO, AMSAT Vice President for Human Space- flight and ARISS International Chair for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- PO-101 (Diwata-2 QSLs) Available The PHL Microsatellite Program, Electrical and Electronics Engineering Institute, University of the Philippines operates PO-101. The FM transponder is available on a schedule published by the team on the PO-101 Users Group on Twitter (@Diwata2PH) and the PO-101 Users Group on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/groups/880769575655081 PO-101 Operations (FM) Uplink: 437.500 MHz - 141.3 Hz PL Tone Downlink: 145.900 MHz QSL Cards will be provided through email every month to users who sub- mit their QSO information via PO-101 using the Google form posted at: https://forms.gle/XZnjRGNSC2jSF51j6 Users may also upload your contact recordings or videos with PO-101 here: https://forms.gle/pV5DgBQeWf1fjqmu9 [ANS thanks the PO-101 Diwata2-PH team for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+ The digital download version of the 2019 edition of Getting Started with Amateur Satellites is now available as a DRM-free PDF from the AMSAT Store. Get yours today! https://tinyurl.com/ANS-237-Getting-Started +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+ --------------------------------------------------------------------- IARU Update Regarding Amateur Satellite Allocations The second week of the World Radiocommunication Conference reports on the status of two issues affecting the amateur satellite service. In a report written by Dave Sumner, K1ZZ, first is an agenda item currently under review during this WRC-19 session; second is planning for future pressure on frequencies for the amateur satellite service. Current WRC-19 -------------- While it does not directly affect us - work at WRC-15 saw to that - we are following an agenda item that seeks spectrum for telemetry, tracking and command in the space operation service for non-GSO satellites with short duration missions (Cubesats, among others). We would like a solution to be found to cut down on the misuse of the very limited amateur-satellite spectrum for commercial applica- tions. Discussions are focusing on spectrum near 137 MHz (down)/149MHz (up) but reaching agreement is proving to be very difficult. Future - WRC-23 --------------- With the spectrum from 8.3 kHz to 275 GHz fully allocated and some bands above 275 GHz already identified for particular uses, any pro- posal for new allocations involves sharing with one or more incumbent services. The pressures for spectrum access to accommodate new uses for commercial purposes are intense; for an established service such as ours, any WRC that does not reduce our own useful spectrum access is a success. The idea of including the amateur two meter band in a study of non- safety aeronautical mobile service applications has not resurfaced. However, the IARU is concerned with a proposed item for WRC-23 entit- led: "Review of the amateur service and the amateur-satellite service allocations to ensure the protection of the radionavigation-satellite service (space-to-Earth) in the frequency band 1240-1300 MHz." Our regulatory status is already clear. The amateur service is secon- dary in this band and the amateur-satellite service is permitted to operate in the Earth-to-space direction on a non-interference basis in the band 1260-1270 MHz. In the international Radio Regulations this is all the protection a primary service such as radionavigation-satellite requires; implementation is up to individual administrations. The one well-documented case of interference to a Galileo receiver that prompted this proposed agenda item occurred more than five years ago and was quickly resolved by the administration concerned. There have been no known interference cases to user terminals. An amateur service allocation of 1215-1300 MHz was made on a primary, exclusive basis in 1947, later downgraded to secondary to accommodate radiolocation (radar) and narrowed to 1240-1300 MHz. The radionaviga- tion-satellite service was added in 2000. As a secondary service ama- teur radio has operated successfully in the band for many years. Given the relatively modest density and numbers of amateur transmis- sions in the band, we view the Galileo-oriented proposal for an agen- da item as disproportionate. The IARU recognizes the concern and does not want the amateur service to affect the operation of the Galileo system in any way. It has al- ready updated its operational recommendations for amateur stations in Region 1. If necessary, further recommendations may be developed and rolled out globally. In CEPT, two preliminary measurement studies of Galileo receiver performance/vulnerability (from 2015 and 2019) are currently being evaluated. Discussions can be more timely and focused within CEPT. The IARU believes that this process already offers the potential for a satisfactory solution and thus the issue does not warrant WRC action and the commitment of ITU resources. Posted on: http://www.iaru.org/news--events [ANS thanks Dave Sumner, K1ZZ and the IARU for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ Need new satellite antennas? Purchase Arrows, Alaskan Arrows, and M2 LEO-Packs from the AMSAT Store. When you purchase through AMSAT, a portion of the proceeds goes towards Keeping Amateur Radio in Space. https://amsat.org/product-category/hardware/ +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ --------------------------------------------------------------------- AMSAT Member Dhruv Rebba, KC9ZJX, Youth Excellence Award Congratulations to AMSAT member Dhruv Rebba, KC9ZJX, Newsline Young Ham of the Year on his award as the first ever Youth Excellence Award in collaboration with McLean County (Bloomington-Normal, IL) Indian Association (MCIA) for the year 2019. The MCIA invited nominations for individuals from Asian Indian youth in Bloomington-Normal who have gone above and beyond in community ser- vice and individual attainment. Dhruv's award was based on attaining the goals of the Youth Excellence Award: 1. To celebrate exemplary behavior among young people in Blo-No's Asian Indian Community 2. To encourage and motivate young people in the pursuit of Excellence & Creativity in the Performing Arts, Community Leadership, Sports, Academics, Innovation etc. to name a few 3. To push one's own self-imposed boundaries and become better ver- sions of oneself 4. To encourage young people to be positive role models/ambassadors and mentors in their communities 5. To foster a spirit of volunteerism and public service among youth Dhruv received his award during the MCIA Diwali Dinner 2019 in Bloomington-Normal, Illinois. [ANS thanks and congratulates Dhruv's and his father, Hari Rebba and the McLean County Indian Association for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- Changes to AMSAT TLE Distribution for November 14, 2019 The following Amateur Radio satellite has decayed from orbit and has been removed from this week's TLE distribution: NO-83(BRICSAT-P) - NORAD CAT ID 40655 - Decayed 11/07/2019 at approx. 19:49 UTC Thanks to Alan Biddle, WA4SCA for decay date estimate. [ANS thanks Ray Hoad, WA5QGD, AMSAT Orbital Elements Manager, for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- G4BAO 23cm-45 W-PA Available as Public Domain This repository contains details of the G4BAO 45 Watt 23cm Power Amplifier published in RSGB RadCom Magazine in June 2009 and later in the book " Microwave Know How for the Radio Amateur" by Andy Barter, G8ATD. This PA was sold for many years as a kit by the designer. The decision has been made to not sell any further kits so the designs are now made available here under the terms of an MIT license. It includes a copy of the original article, Eagle board and schematic files, plus Gerber files for the PCB, which must be made from Taconic 0.7mm RF35 sub- strate. The design can be accessed at: https://github.com/g4bao/23cm-45W-PA [ANS thanks AMSAT-UK for the above information] +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+ Donate to AMSAT Tax-Free From Your IRA Are you over 70-1/2 years of age and need to meet your IRA’s Required Minimum Distribution for 2019? Consider making a donation to AMSAT! Under the Protecting Americans from Tax Hikes Act of 2015, individuals over 70-1/2 years of age may make direct transfers of up to $100,000 per year from a traditional IRA to an eligible charity without increasing their taxable income. Consult your tax advisor or accountant to make certain you are eligible. AMSAT is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit educational and scientific organization whose purpose is to design, construct, launch, and operate satellites in space and to provide the support needed to encourage amateurs to utilize these resources. AMSAT’s federal tax ID is 52-0888529. +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+ --------------------------------------------------------------------- Upcoming ARISS Contact Schedule Quick list of scheduled contacts and events as of 2019-11-15 02:00 UTC + Lakeside Elementary School, West Point, UT, telebridge via IK1SLD The ISS callsign is presently scheduled to be OR4ISS The scheduled astronaut is Drew Morgan KI5AAA Contact is go for: Mon 2019-11-18 19:01:06 UTC 30 deg Watch for live streaming at www.ariotti.com starting about 15 minutes before AOS + Istituto San Paolo delle Suore Angeliche, Milano, Italy and Istituto Comprensivo Di Merone – Mons. A. Pirovano, Merone, Italy, telebridge via W6SRJ The ISS callsign is presently scheduled to be NA1SS The scheduled astronaut is Luca Parmitano KF5KDP Contact is go for: Thu 2019-11-21 09:12:07 UTC 50 deg + MAOU Lyceum No. 39, Nizhny Tagil, Russia, direct via TBD The ISS callsign is presently scheduled to be RSØISS The scheduled astronaut is Alexander Skvortsov Contact is go for 2011-11-30 14:15 UTC A reminder that the deadline to submit proposals for ARISS contacts to be scheduled between July 1, 2020 and December 31, 2020 is coming up on November 30, 2019. For more information visit https://www.ariss.org/ [ANS thanks Charlie Sufana, AJ9N, and David Jordan, AA4KN, ARISS opera- tion team members, for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+ Purchase AMSAT Gear on our Zazzle storefront. 25% of the purchase price of each product goes towards Keeping Amateur Radio in Space https://www.zazzle.com/amsat_gear +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+ --------------------------------------------------------------------- Upcoming Satellite Operations Nunavut, Canada (ER60) November 11 – December 6, 2019 The Eureka Amateur Radio Club, VY0ERC, will be on station, the Polar Environment Atmospheric Research Laboratory, November 6th through Dec- ember 11th. They have some house keeping duties to perform on arrival and just before they leave, not to mention that it’s wicked cold up there (-25 to -35C not counting windchill), so keep an eye on the VY0ERC twitter feed for announcements on when they plan to step out- side: https://twitter.com/vy0erc EA9 Melilla (IM85) November 18-21, 2019 Philippe, EA4NF, will be operating from MELILLA as EA9/EA4NF from Nov- ember 18 to 21, 2019. This very small Spanish territory located in Northern Africa, which is a very rare GRID and is listed as one of the Most Wanted SAT DXCC. Updates and passes on Philippe’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/EA4NF_SAT New River Gorge National River, WV (EM98) November 21-24, 2019 Michael, N4DCW, is visiting New River Gorge National River (with sat gear) and a swing through EM97 on his way home. Watch for further an- nouncements on Michael’s Twitter feed: https://twitter.com/MWimages Key West (EL94) December 3-6, 2019 Tanner, W9TWJ, will be vacationing in Key West December 3rd – 6th. Key word is vacation, but he will jump on some FM satellite passes to act- ivate EL94 for those that need it or just want to chat. Watch Tanner’s Twitter feed for further announcements: https://twitter.com/twjones85 Hawaii (BK19, BK28, BK29, BL20) December 21-28, 2019 Alex, N7AGF, is heading back to Hawaii over Christmas. This will be a holiday-style activation, with special empahasis on the grid that got away – BK28. Keep an eye on Alex’s Twitter feed for further announce- ments: https://twitter.com/N7AGF Please submit any additions or corrections to ke4al (at) amsat.org [ANS thanks Robert Bankston, KE4AL, AMSAT VP - User Services, for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ AMSAT, along with our ARISS partners, is developing an amateur radio package, including two-way communication capability, to be carried on-board Gateway in lunar orbit. Support AMSAT's projects today at https://www.amsat.org/donate/ +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ --------------------------------------------------------------------- Satellite Shorts From All Over + Dr. Alan Johnston, KU2Y, AMSAT VP Educational Relations will be giving a presentation at the 110th Radio Club of America Awards Banquet and Technical Symposium, held this year at the Westin Times Square, New York City on November 23. The topic is “Designing the AMSAT CubeSat Simulator: A Functional Satellite Model for the Class- room”. For more information see: https://tinyurl.com/ANS-321-RCA + The Seattle Times featured an article about the University of Washington's HuskySat-1 satellite. HuskySat-1 carries an AMSAT- provided linear transponder. https://tinyurl.com/ANS-321-UW + At 01:07 UTC on November 16, 2000, Phase 3D launched on an Ariane V rocket from Kourou, French Guiana and became AMSAT-OSCAR 40. Likely the most ambitious project ever completed by radio amateurs, the sat- ellite unfortunately suffered an explosion in its propulsion system during a burn of its primary motor on December 13, 2000. Though damaged by the explosion, the satellite went on to provide worldwide amateur radio communications until the main battery suddenly failed on January 25, 2004. Though its life was unfortunately shortened, the satellite did conduct a successful experiment that helped to validate above-the-constellation use of GPS and influenced the design of the current Block III GPS series of satellites. See https://tinyurl.com/ANS-321-AO-40 for details on the experiment. + Proceedings of the Microwave Update 2019, held in Dallas, Texas October 3-5, have been published as a PDF which includes a couple of satellite related presentations. It is now available for free download at http://ntms.org/files/MUD2019/MUD_Proceedings_2019.pdf (via North Texas Microwave Society) + All the photos in the MUD Proceedings are in black and white. The MUD GNR file is in color at http://www.ntms.org/ (via Zack W9SZ on the Microwave list) + All videos from the AMSAT-DL symposium Bochum are online. Recorded from the wideband transponder by DB8TF A playlist includes all videos from Saturday and Sunday: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1Gtsa1KaEAgRc-dvWo44QQ If you can, please translate Screen texts to other languages and add to the video. (Via AMSAT-DL) + On October 7, 8 and 9, 2019, the University of New Brunswick’s (UNB) Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and CubeSat NB hosted the first of three Preliminary Design Review (PDR) meetings for the Canadian CubeSat Project initiated by the Canadian Space Agency (CSA). Radio Amateurs of Canada was present for the meeting. More details at https://tinyurl.com/ANS-321-RAC (Via RAC) + This page gives a statistical plot showing groups of satellites as a plot of the semi-major axis of the orbit against orbital inclination resulting in "families" and "clusters" in orbit. https://tinyurl.com/ANS-321-Orbits --------------------------------------------------------------------- /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 and remember to help Keep Amateur Radio in Space, This week's ANS Editor, Paul Stoetzer, N8HM N8HM at amsat dot org

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ANS-314 AMSAT News Service Weekly Bulletins
by Mark D. Johns 10 Nov '19

10 Nov '19

AMSAT NEWS SERVICE ANS-314 The AMSAT News Service bulletins are a free, weekly news and infor- mation service of AMSAT, 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 commun- icating 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. You can sign up for free e-mail delivery of the AMSAT News Service Bulletins via the ANS List; to join this list see: http://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/ans In this edition: * HuskySat Paving the Way for Cooperation * WRC-19 Debates Satellite Allocations * Electron Booster on the Pad for Rocket Lab’s 10th Mission * 2020 Cubesat Developers Workshop Call for Papers * Second Batch of 50th Anniversary "Friends of 50" Certificates Sent * AMSAT Seeks Digital Communications Team Members * NO-83 (BRICSAT-P) Nears Re-Entry * Upcoming ARISS Contact Schedule * Upcoming Satellite Operations * Satellite Shorts From All Over SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-314.01 ANS-314 AMSAT News Service Weekly Bulletins AMSAT News Service Bulletin 314.01 >From AMSAT HQ KENSINGTON, MD. DATE 2019-Nov-11 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-314.01 HuskySat Paving the Way for Cooperation As previously reported by ANS, HuskySat-1 achieved orbit last week aboard the Cygnus cargo vessel, which docked to the International Space Station on Nov. 4. The satellite is scheduled for a boost to higher orbit and deployment in January. Following completion of its primary mission, it will be turned over to AMSAT for operation of its linear transponder sometime in the second quarter of 2020. Jerry Buxton, NØJY, AMSAT VP - Engineering, explains that this partner- ship presented some regulatory challenges, but has paved the way for similar partnerships in the future: "The Part 97 license that AMSAT will operate under does not include or allow the use of any of the experiments on board. As those experiments were not able to conform to the Part 97 so called 'educational exemption', including the K-band radio, that is ultimately why two licenses were required. Part 5 Experimental is operated by UW for everything including the telemetry downlink of the AMSAT transponder module, and the transponder must remain off during that operation. Part 97 operation by AMSAT will solely be the AMSAT transponder module. "This was the first partnership with an educational institution where an AMSAT radio was flown on a non-AMSAT (UW in this case) CubeSat. In the process of working with the FCC and NASA to obtain a single Part 97 license that was not complicated or restricted by "pecuniary interest", the experience developed an understanding with FCC as to how a mission such as HuskySat-1 could be fully licensed under Part 97. There were delays and difficulties in executing all of the requirements to qualify Part 97 and that ultimately carried on up to the mission deadline requirement for having a license in hand in order for HuskySat-1 to be integrated on the LV. The only way forward at that time, in order for UW to make the launch, was to do the separate licensing. "It was lots of work and some good frustration along the way. I thank and commend our partners at University of Washington as well as the FCC for their work to make it happen, and our friends at NASA for giving us the opportunity to push for a path to amateur radio licensing for more of the CubeSat launches they sponsor. I believe that it has resulted in a known path toward fully Part 97 licensed educational(e.g. university) CubeSats. That should in turn offer more opportunities for AMSAT radios to fly as the communications package for a mission as well as an operating amateur radio satellite, in the same way as the CubeSats we produce." (ANS thanks Jerry Buxton, NØJY, AMSAT VP - Engineering for the above information) --------------------------------------------------------------------- +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+ The digital download version of the 2019 edition of Getting Started with Amateur Satellites is now available as a DRM-free PDF from the AMSAT Store. Get yours today! https://tinyurl.com/ANS-237-Getting-Started +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+ --------------------------------------------------------------------- WRC-19 Debates Satellite Allocations The Radio Society of Great Britain (RSGB), International Amateur Radio Union (IARU), and ARRL have posted updates on activities at the 2019 World Radiocommunication Conference currently taking place in Sharm El- Sheikh, Egypt. One early agreement was to turn down requested changes to one of the amateur satellite allocations. The band 47.0 - 47.2 GHz was allocated solely to the Amateur and Amateur Satellite Services by the 1979 World Administrative Radio Conference (WARC-79). Commercial wireless broad- band industries had expressed interest in the band being designated for International Mobile Telecommunications (IMT), and there was some concern that such a proposal might be made at WRC-19. The fact that none was forthcoming was due in part to the work of the IARU at the Conference Preparatory Meeting earlier this year and in the six re- gional telecommunications organizations. The WRC has agreed to "no change" at 47.0 - 47.2 GHz. One of the most difficult issues facing WRC-19 is to develop an agenda for WRC-23. Dozens of proposals for agenda items have been suggested, and they cannot all be accommodated. One proposal being introduced for the next World Radio Conference in 2023 is protecting the Radio Navi- gation Satellite Service (Galileo, etc.) from secondary amateur usage in the 23cm band (1.2 GHz -- the amateur satellite band is between 1260 MHz and 1270 MHz for up-links only). Future mobile/IMT (cell phone) allocations were also being discussed in the 3-18 GHz range (including our 10 GHz satellite band). Another item may even affect 241 – 700 GHz. However, it will be a while before the WRC-23 agenda gets agreed at this conference, and these items may or may not be up for debate at the next conference. Daily bulletins on the progress of WRC-19 are being posted at: https://rsgb.org/main/blog/category/news/special-focus/wrc-19/ During this period of World Radio Conference, one place to follow the events and issues is on The ARRL discussion group for the Interna- tional Amateur Radio Union. The group provides a forum for anyone in- terested in the work of the IARU. It is open to participants anywhere, whether or not they are members of an IARU member-society. Additional information and a link to join the group can be found at https://groups.arrl.org/g/ARRL-IARU [ANS thanks Trevor Essex, M5AKA, AMSAT-UK, and ARRL for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- Electron Booster on the Pad for Rocket Lab’s 10th Mission Rocket Lab has announced that its next mission will launch multiple microsatellites in a rideshare mission representing five different countries. The launch window for Rocket Lab’s tenth flight, will open November 25, New Zealand time, and take place from Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1 on New Zealand’s Mahia Peninsula. Onboard this rideshare mission are six spacecraft comprised of 5cm PocketQube microsatellites from satellite manufacturer and mission management provider Alba Orbital. Two of these satellites include downlinks in the UHF amateur radio band. TRSI is a PocketQube for technology demostration. Its main objective is to show which functionality can be achieved with dimensions of 5cm x 5cm x 5cm. It carries two experiments that are connected to the amateur-satellite service. + First is a waterfall experiment which will show an image in the waterfall diagram by hopping the frequency within its transmission band (image-type beacon). + The second experiment is to analyze RF reception capabilities from LEO with a novel detector receiver and a small patch antenna. It was designed to test if small satellite receivers which don´t need deployable antennas are feasible. The received signal´s envelope will be sampled and forwarded using UHF in MFSK for signal ana- lysis. During the experiment phase the satellite will also perform as an amateur CW repeater, providing additional RX strength indi- cation; eg. CW morse signals will be re-sent in MFSK, showing the RX amplitude in dBm. A downlink on 437.075 MHz has been coordinated. IARU Frequency Coordination information has been posted at: http://www.amsatuk.me.uk/iaru/finished_detail.php?serialnum=649 FossaSat-1 PocketQube by AMSAT-EA which has a 5x5x5cm structure and a total mass of 250 grams. Radio link testing features a new experi- mental RF chirp modulation called LoRa which greatly improves the link budget reducing the power consumed and reduces the cost of receivers. The output power from the transmitter required for the correct recep- tion during a pass is also very low at well under 100mW, being spread spectrum at such low power it poses no interference risk. It operates at a considerable level below the noise level of other systems and would cause no interference to weak narrowband signals. Students & amateurs will be able to receive telemetry from the satel- lite with inexpensive hardware, expanding & promoting the amateur sat- ellite community with youth. Uplink challenges will also be carried out with rewards for amateurs. The mission is completely open source with all information regarding the design of the satellite & how to decode its information clearly laid out & hosted by AMSAT-EA. The site will provide decoding soft- ware for SDR use in order to allow anyone to decode LoRa using common existing hardware & host software for users to submit telemetry data, making all data public and rewarding users with certificates & awards. The UHF downlink plans on using FSK RTTY 45 BAUD ITA2, 100mW 183hz Shift and LoRa 125kHz, Chirp Spread Spectrum Modulation, 180 bps, 100mW. A downlink on 436.700 MHz has been coordinated. IARU Frequency Coordination information has been posted at: http://www.amsatuk.me.uk/iaru/finished_detail.php?serialnum=652 A commercial payload on board is ALE-2 from a Tokyo-based company creating microsatellites that simulate meteor particles. See http://star-ale.com/en/news/317/2019/01/04/ for more information. Rocket Labs mission web page can be found at: https://tinyurl.com/y672rjj5 [ANS thanks Rocket Labs, IARU, AMSAT-EA, TRSI, and Alba Orbital for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- 2020 Cubesat Developers Workshop Call for Papers The Cubesat Developers Workshop for 2020 will be held May 4-6 at the Cal Poly Performing Arts Center in San Luis Obispo, Calif. The planning team has announced a call for abstracts. All abstract and poster appli- cations will need to be submitted using the online submission form by Friday, January 10, 2020. For more information, visit http://www.cubesat.org/workshop-information [ANS thanks The CubeSat Workshop Team for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+ Donate to AMSAT Tax-Free From Your IRA Are you over 70-1/2 years of age and need to meet your IRA’s Required Minimum Distribution for 2019? Consider making a donation to AMSAT! Under the Protecting Americans from Tax Hikes Act of 2015, individuals over 70-1/2 years of age may make direct transfers of up to $100,000 per year from a traditional IRA to an eligible charity without increasing their taxable income. Consult your tax advisor or accountant to make certain you are eligible. AMSAT is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit educational and scientific organization whose purpose is to design, construct, launch, and operate satellites in space and to provide the support needed to encourage amateurs to utilize these resources. AMSAT’s federal tax ID is 52-0888529. +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+ --------------------------------------------------------------------- Second Batch of 50th Anniversary "Friends of 50" Certificates Sent A second batch of 50th Anniversary AMSAT "Satellite Friends of 50 A- ward" certificates went out in the mail on Wednesday, November 6. Chances are you may have already qualified for this award! The require- ment is to make satellite contacts with 50 amateur radio operators on 50 differenton days during the anniversary year of 2019.(limit of 1 contact per day counted toward the award). For details, see: https://amsat.org/amsat-50th-anniversary-awards-program/ [ANS thanks Robert Bankston, KE4AL for the above information.] --------------------------------------------------------------------- +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ Need new satellite antennas? Purchase Arrows, Alaskan Arrows, and M2 LEO-Packs from the AMSAT Store. When you purchase through AMSAT, a portion of the proceeds goes towards Keeping Amateur Radio in Space. https://amsat.org/product-category/hardware/ +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ --------------------------------------------------------------------- AMSAT Seeks Digital Communications Team Members AMSAT is in the process of redesigning its website and is looking to immediately fill key volunteer member additions to its digital communications team. Available positions include a Webmaster, Content Managers, and an Online Store Co-Manager. Candidates must have experience with Word press and be a current AMSAT member. Webmaster: The Webmaster works as an integral member of the AMSAT Digital Communications Team in planning, organizing, implementing, and supporting strategic web technologies. Under minimal supervision, the Webmaster collaborates with the Digital Communications team and AMSAT Development to facilitate ongoing content creation, development of standards, and overall management of AMSAT's website and member portal. The primary objectives of the Webmaster are to ensure that AMSAT's digital presence accurately portrays the character, quality and heritage of AMSAT, provide an efficient user experience, and serve to increase recruitment and financial contributions. Web Content Managers: Web Content Managers ensure AMSAT's website and webpages follow best content practices and meet the diverse needs of internal and external customers. As part of the AMSAT Digital Communications Team, Website Content Managers must understand the organizational needs, map them to the end-user needs and work with applicable AMSAT departments to create content strategy and plan for individual webpages. Online Store Co-Manager: The Online Store Co-Manager updates and refreshes the AMSAT Store when new merchandise becomes available, deletes merchandise when no longer available, and updates pricing and shipping information when necessary. Experience in WooCommerce is required. If you want to be a part of the solution in delivering the quality web services AMSAT members deserve, we could sure use your help. Please contact the AMSAT VP of User Services at ke4al (at) yahoo (dot) com. [ANS thanks Robert Bankston, KE4AL for the above information.] --------------------------------------------------------------------- +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+ Purchase AMSAT Gear on our Zazzle storefront. 25% of the purchase price of each product goes towards Keeping Amateur Radio in Space https://www.zazzle.com/amsat_gear +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+ --------------------------------------------------------------------- NO-83 (BRICSAT-P) Nears Re-Entry NO-83 (BRICSAT-P, CAT ID 40655) is nearing decay from orbit. Alan Biddle, WA4SCA, has run the TLEs through the SATEVO software and a re-entry is possible on November 9, 2019. TLEs for NO-83 remain in this week's TLE distribution. [ANS thanks Ray Hoad, WA5QGD, for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- Upcoming ARISS Contact Schedule An International Space Station school contact has been planned with participants at "Alcide De Gasperi" Secondary School: Part Of The Istituto Comprensivo Statale "E. L. Corner", Vigonovo, Italy and Istituto Comprensivo Di Pederobba, Onigo Di Pederobba, Italy on 11 Nov- ember. The event is scheduled to begin at approximately 10:10 UTC. It is recommended that you start listening approximately 10 minutes before this time. The duration of the contact is approximately 9 minutes and 30 seconds. The contact will be a telebridge between NA1SS and VK6MJ. The contact should be audible over Australia and adjacent areas. Inter- ested parties are invited to listen in on the 145.80 MHz downlink. The contact is expected to be conducted in Italian. Watch for live stream from Vigonovo at https://tinyurl.com/y2n3eojw and from Pederobba at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLRZahLgMma_2ngllrj9iVg . An International Space Station school contact has been planned with participants at European High School - Brindisi, Brindisi, Italy and I.I.S.S. "Majorana - Laterza", Putignano, Italy on 13 Nov. The event is scheduled to begin at approximately 09:18 UTC. It is recommended that you start listening approximately 10 minutes before this time. The duration of the contact is approximately 9 minutes and 30 seconds. The contact will be a telebridge between NA1SS and K6DUE. The contact should be audible over the east coast of the U.S. Interested parties are invited to listen in on the 145.80 MHz downlink. The contact is expected to be conducted in Italian. A reminder that the deadline to submit proposals for ARISS contacts to be scheduled between July 1, 2020 and December 31, 2020 is coming up on November 30, 2019. For more information visit https://www.ariss.org/ [ANS thanks Charlie Sufana, AJ9N, and David Jordan, AA4KN, ARISS opera- tion team members, for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ AMSAT, along with our ARISS partners, is developing an amateur radio package, including two-way communication capability, to be carried on-board Gateway in lunar orbit. Support AMSAT's projects today at https://www.amsat.org/donate/ +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ --------------------------------------------------------------------- Upcoming Satellite Operations Big Bend National Park, TX (DL89) November 10-11, 2019 Glenn, AA5PK, is taking a trip down to Big Bend National Park in South Texas and will operate from DL89 on Monday November 11th. In addition, Glenn will be transitioning through DM81 (a few good morning passes) on the way there and staying in DM80 Sunday night. Watch Glenn’s Twitter feed for any pass announcements: https://twitter.com/AA5PK. Nunavut, Canada (ER60) November 11 – December 6, 2019 The Eureka Amateur Radio Club, VY0ERC, will be on station, the Polar Environment Atmospheric Research Laboratory, November 6th through Dec- ember 11th. They have some house keeping duties to perform on arrival and just before they leave, not to mention that it’s wicked cold up there (-25 to -35C not counting windchill), so keep an eye on the VY0ERC twitter feed for announcements on when they plan to step out- side: https://twitter.com/vy0erc EA9 Melilla (IM85) NOVEMBER 18-21, 2019 Philippe, EA4NF, will be operating from MELILLA as EA9/EA4NF from Nov- ember 18 to 21, 2019. This very small Spanish territory located in Northern Africa, which is a very rare GRID and is listed as one of the Most Wanted SAT DXCC. Updates and passes on Philippe’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/EA4NF_SAT New River Gorge National River, WV (EM98) November 21-24, 2019 Michael, N4DCW, is visiting New River Gorge National River (with sat gear) and a swing through EM97 on his way home. Watch for further an- nouncements on Michael’s Twitter feed: https://twitter.com/MWimages Key West (EL94) December 3-6, 2019 Tanner, W9TWJ, will be vacationing in Key West December 3rd – 6th. Key word is vacation, but he will jump on some FM satellite passes to act- ivate EL94 for those that need it or just want to chat. Watch Tanner’s Twitter feed for further announcements: https://twitter.com/twjones85 Hawaii (BK19, BK28, BK29, BL20) December 21-28, 2019 Alex, N7AGF, is heading back to Hawaii over Christmas. This will be a holiday-style activation, with special empahasis on the grid that got away – BK28. Keep an eye on Alex’s Twitter feed for further announce- ments: https://twitter.com/N7AGF Please submit any additions or corrections to ke4al (at) amsat.org [ANS thanks Robert Bankston, KE4AL, AMSAT VP - User Services, for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- Satellite Shorts From All Over + This week begins the 20th year of continuous human presence living off-planet aboard the International Space Station. NASA and its part- ners have successfully supported humans living in space since the Ex- pedition 1 crew arrived Nov. 2, 2000. A truly global endeavor, the unique microgravity laboratory has hosted 239 people from 19 coun- tries, more than 2,600 experiments from 3,900 researchers in 107 countries, and a variety of international and commercial spacecraft. (ANS thanks NASA for the above information) + Talks from this year's PocketQube Workshop are now available at: https://tinyurl.com/y2fmszbl Some slides are available here: http://www.albaorbital.com/3rd-pocketqube-workshop (ANS thanks AMSAT-UK for the above information) + 27 videos from the Open Source Cubesat Workshop 2019 held in Athens Conservatoire in Athens, Greece are available for viewing: https://tinyurl.com/y6rd5pzn The third edition of the workshop was hosted by Libre Space Foundation. (ANS thanks https://libre.space for the above information) + Radio amateurs in Sweden are limited to just 100 mW on 2.4 GHz. Yet an article by Christer, SM0NCL, shows how they can still send CW and SSB signals via the QO-100 / Es'hail-2 narrowband transponder! Read the article in Google English at https://tinyurl.com/AMSAT-SM (ANS thanks Southgatearc.org for the above information) + Wonder why that downlink signal suddenly fades? Since launch of the amateur radio FUNcube-1 (AO-73) CubeSat in 2013 the team have ob- served the spin of the satellite based on the panel temperatures. The FUNcube team have speculated why the satellite spins up and down and occasionally flips the direction of spin. A fascinating explan- ation (without math!) of why satellites can flip as they spin can be found in a YouTube video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1VPfZ_XzisU&feature=emb_title (ANS thanks R.L. Brunton, G4TUT, for the above information) + Hams like free stuff! So here's a free PDF download of issue #87 of the MagPi magazine is available at: Raspberry Pi Weekly Issue #307 https://magpi.raspberrypi.org/issues/87 + Celebrate #NationalSTEMDay with a @Virgin_Orbit community grant! Fall applications close on November 20, which means if you reach out now, you still have a chance to secure up to $2,500 cash for your local STEM education program. Apply at: https://t.co/FySZrXmrKe + Instead of searching many manufacturer sites or calling on companies to find and compare designs, now you can search for designs based on the circuit's performance using Digi-Key's Reference Design Library. New designs are being added weekly and improvements will be made based on user feedback: https://www.digikey.com/reference-designs/en (ANS thanks JoAnne Maenpaa, K9JKM, for the above information) + The 2019 AMSAT Symposium Proceedings USB flash drives, including the 2019 Proceedings and all previously published Proceedings dating back to 1986 are back in stock. Backorders will go out soon and more are available. To order, visit https://tinyurl.com/yxmnqxew + The AMSAT Symposium Engineering Update video is now available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWwvhuIaiBA&t=50s (ANS thanks Paul Stoetzer, N8HM, AMSAT Executive VP, 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 and Remember to help keep amateur radio in space, This week's ANS Editor, K0JM at amsat dot org

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