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ANS-180 AMSAT News Service Weekly Bulletins
by Lee McLamb 29 Jun '14

29 Jun '14

AMSAT NEWS SERVICE ANS-180 The AMSAT News Service bulletins are a free, weekly news and infor- mation service of AMSAT North America, The Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation. ANS publishes news related to Amateur Radio in Space including reports on the activities of a worldwide group of Amateur Radio operators who share an active interest in designing, building, launching and communicating through analog and digital Amateur Radio satellites. The news feed on http://www.amsat.org publishes news of Amateur Radio in Space as soon as our volunteers can post it. Please send any amateur satellite news or reports to: ans-editor at amsat.org. In this edition: * AMSAT Symposium Events and Tours * W5PFG/P Activating DL79/DL89 Grids * Send Your Name to the Asteroid Bennu! * ARISS News SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-180.01 ANS-159 AMSAT News Service Weekly Bulletins AMSAT News Service Bulletin 180.01 From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. June 30, 2014 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-180.01 AMSAT Symposium Events and Tours The AMSAT Symposium committee had a meeting this past weekend and made some decisions on tours that will be held in conjunction with the symposium. Note that we will have two events scheduled Sunday morning (October 12)--the Area Coordinators Breakfast and the ARISS Operations Team Meeting. Similar to last year’s symposium, two opportunities for tours are planned for the 2014 Space Symposium: 1) On Sunday October 12 (Afternoon), several Small Group/Light Rail tours are being planned. Symposium participants can choose one of the following tours: Baltimore Inner Harbor Tour (including the Aquarium), the B&O Railroad Museum, Edgar Allen Poe House or the National Electronics Museum 2) On Columbus Day, Monday October 13 we will take a bus to the Washington Dulles airport area to tour the Udvar Hazy Air and Space Museum. Udvar Hazy is a phenomenal museum with hundreds of aircraft and spacecraft, including the Space Shuttle Discovery, SR-71, Enola Gay, and many others. The plan is to leave the hotel at 9 am and return around 4 pm. In order to get maximum benefit from all the holiday weekend events, the symposium committee suggests that symposium participants consider scheduling their airline flights for no earlier than 6 pm on Monday October 13. [ANS thanks the AMSAT Symposium Committee, for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- W5PFG/P Activating DL79/DL89 Grids Clayton, W5PFG, has announced that he will be in the Big Bend area of Texas next week. He will operate satellite passes as his schedule allows. June 29 - Small potential for very late evening passes from DL89 June 30 thru July 1 - Random passes from DL79/89 July 2 - Potential morning passes from DL89, evening from DM80 July 3 - Morning passes from DM80, some evening passes from DM70 July 4 - Random passes from DM80 There will be no visit to DL88jx on this trip. [ANS thanks Clayton, W5PFG, for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- Send Your Name to the Asteroid Bennu! NASA is inviting people around the world to submit their names to be etched on a microchip aboard a spacecraft headed to the asteroid Bennu in 2016. The "Messages to Bennu!" microchip will travel to the asteroid aboard the Origins Spectral Interpretation Resource Identification Security Regolith Explorer, or OSIRIS-REx, spacecraft. The robotic mission will spend more than two years at the asteroid, which has a width of approximately 1,760 feet (500 meters). The spacecraft will collect a sample of Bennu's surface and return it to Earth in a sample return capsule. The deadline to submit names online is Sept. 30, 2014. Participants who submit their names to the "Messages to Bennu!" campaign will be able to print a certificate of appreciation to document their involvement. For more information and to submit your name, visit http://planetary.org/bennu. Participants who "follow" or "like" the mission on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/OSIRISREx) will receive updates on the location of their names in space from launch time until the asteroid samples return to Earth in 2023. Facebook fans also will receive mission progress and late-breaking news through regular status updates. For more information about the OSIRIS-REx mission, visit http://www.nasa.gov/osiris-rex and http://osiris-rex.lpl.arizona.edu. Questions about this opportunity should be directed to tps(a)planetary.org. [ANS thanks NASA Education Express Message -- June 12, 2014 for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- ARISS News Scheduled contacts and events: Ufa University, Ufa, Russia, direct via TBD Contact was successful Sat 2014-06-21 14:45 UTC (***) An ARISS contact is planned Wednesday July 2, 2014 at 12:05:13 UTC, which is 14:05:13 CEST. ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst KF5ONO will answer questions from students at DLR Project Lab, Neustrelitz, Germany. Signals from the ISS will be audible over Europe on 145.800 FM. The German Aerospace Center (DLR) is one of Europe's largest and most modern research institutions. Here is where the aircraft of the future are being developed and pilots trained, rocket engines tested and images of distant planets analyzed. In addition, over 7,700 DLR staff members are investigating next-generation high-speed trains, environmentally responsible methods of generating energy, and much more ... DLR_School_Lab Neustrelitz was opened in September 2011 at DLR in Neustrelitz in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. Here is where the data from various satellites are received by means of large antennas, and subsequently processed. The student lab is available for visits of one or several days by school classes from this most northerly German state and further afield. The contact will be conducted in German. ARISS is requesting listener reports for the above contact. Due to issues with the Kenwood radio that are not fully understood at present, the Ericsson radio is going to be used for these contacts. ARISS thanks everyone in advance for their assistance. Feel free to send your reports to aj9n at amsat.org or aj9n at aol.com. **************************************************************************** From 2014-11-10 to 2014-12-07, ARISS will be going into a period of no contacts as there will be no hams onboard. **************************************************************************** ARISS congratulations the following mentors who have now mentored over 100 schools: Gaston ON4WF with 117 Satoshi 7M3TJZ with 102 Francesco IKØWGF with 101 **************************************************************************** Expedition 39/40 on orbit Steve Swanson Aleksander Skvortsov Oleg Artemyev Expedition 40/41 on orbit Maxim Suraev Gregory Wiseman KF5LKT Alexander Gerst KF5ONO ARISS is an international educational outreach program partnering the participating space agencies, NASA, Russian Space Agency, ESA, CNES, JAXA, and CSA, with the AMSAT and IARU organizations from participating countries. ARISS offers an opportunity for students to experience the excitement of Amateur Radio by talking directly with crewmembers onboard the International Space Station. Teachers, parents and communities see, first hand, how Amateur Radio and crewmembers on ISS can energize youngsters' interest in science, technology and learning. [ANS thanks Charlie, AJ9N, for the above information] /EX In addition to regular membership, AMSAT offers membership in the President's Club. Members of the President's Club, as sustaining donors to AMSAT Project Funds, will be eligible to receive addi- tional benefits. Application forms are available from the AMSAT Office. Primary and secondary school students are eligible for membership at one-half the standard yearly rate. Post-secondary school students enrolled in at least half time status shall be eligible for the stu- dent rate for a maximum of 6 post-secondary years in this status. Contact Martha at the AMSAT Office for additional student membership information. 73, This week's ANS Editor, Lee McLamb, KU4OS ku4os at amsat dot org

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ANS-175 AMSAT News Service Special Bulletin - Field Day ISS Voice Contacts
by JoAnne Maenpaa 24 Jun '14

24 Jun '14

SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-175.01 ANS-175 AMSAT News Service Special Bulletin - Field Day ISS Voice Contacts AMSAT News Service Bulletin 175.01 >From AMSAT HQ KENSINGTON, MD. DATE June 24, 2014 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-175.01 Possible ISS Voice Contacts on Field Day David Jordan, AA4KN, ARISS Public Relations Current discussions between the ARISS team and NASA suggest the possibility of voice contacts with the International Space Station (ISS) during Saturday's ARRL Field Day activities this coming weekend. In a June 23 email, Kenneth Ransom, the ISS Ham Radio payload developer, stated "I have received a response from astronaut (Reid) Wiseman that he is willing to try and work some stations on Saturday. Pass times begin very soon after the start of Field day." Wiseman would operate under the call sign, NA1SS. Should Alex Gerst participate, he would use the call sign, DP0ISS. If voice operation does occur, It will likely take place from the Columbus (COL) module using the standard Region 2 uplink frequency of 144.49 MHz and 145.800 MHz for downlink. It's expected that the packet system will be operational on 145.825 MHz during periods when the crew is not available. It's not clear whether any of the Russian crew would participate from the Russian module, but if so, they would be directed to use 437.550 MHz for any contacts using the call sign RS0ISS. The COL would also be available to their crew using the VHF frequencies above, if Wiseman is not operating. Listed below are approximate pass times and a chart showing ISS passes for the Field Day weekend. The pass times shown are not definite, scheduled times with the crew. They may or may not be able to support these times. And, updates to this tentative plan will be released as they become available. Saturday, June 28: + N. America (18:11-18:33 UTC) + Hawaii (19:36 - 19:47 UTC) + N. America (19:48-20:10 UTC) This news release including a color map showing all ISS passes for Field Day weekend for North America can be viewed on-line at: http://www.amsat.org/?p=2860 [ANS thanks David Jordan, AA4KN, ARISS Public Relations for the above information] /EX

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ANS-166 AMSAT News Service Weekly Bulletins
by E.Mike McCardel 15 Jun '14

15 Jun '14

AMSAT NEWS SERVICE ANS-166 The AMSAT News Service bulletins are a free, weekly news and infor- mation service of AMSAT North America, The Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation. ANS publishes news related to Amateur Radio in Space including reports on the activities of a worldwide group of Amateur Radio operators who share an active interest in designing, building, launching and communicating through analog and digital Amateur Radio satellites. The news feed on http://www.amsat.org publishes news of Amateur Radio in Space as soon as our volunteers can post it. Please send any amateur satellite news or reports to: ans-editor at amsat.org. In this edition: * FOX-1 Featured in HamRadioNow Episode 151 * AMSAT Field Day Reminder - June 28-29 * NASA TV to air Russian spacewalk * ARTSAT1: INVADER Recovered * OSCAR Number for LituanicaSAT-1, LO-78 * 3rd Annual ISS Research and Development Conference * Send Your Name to the Asteroid Bennu! * ARISS News - Ian MacFarquhar, VE9IM appointed as ARISS Regional Representative * Satellite Shorts From All Over SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-166.01 ANS-166 AMSAT News Service Weekly Bulletins AMSAT News Service Bulletin 166.01 >From AMSAT HQ KENSINGTON, MD. DATE June 15, 2104 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-166.01 FOX-1 Featured in HamRadioNow Episode 151 HamRadioNow Episode 151 features Keith Baker KB1SF, VA3KSF and Burns Fisher W2BFJ talking about FOX-1. The duo are interviewed on FOX-1 during the Dayton Hamvention by Gary Pearce KN4AQ of HamRadioNow. Their interview begins at about the 19:27 into the 38 minute video. It begins with a short tribute to Tony Montiero AA2TX, then Keith and Burns talk about the the general construction of the FOX-1 satellite and its capabilities and functionality in space. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VrC_52JcdeU&feature=em-subs_digest [ANS Thanks HamRadioNow for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- AMSAT Field Day Reminder - June 28-29 Field Day is now just 2 weeks away! Each year the American Radio Relay League (ARRL) sponsors Field Day as a "picnic, a campout, practice for emergencies, an informal contest and, most of all, FUN!". The event takes place during a 24- hour period on the fourth weekend of June. For 2014 the event takes place during a 27-hour period from 1800 UTC on Saturday June 28, 2014 through 2100 UTC on Sunday June 29, 2014. Those who set up prior to 1800 UTC on June 29 can operate only 24 hours. The Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation (AMSAT) promotes its own version of Field Day for operation via the amateur satellites, held concurrently with the ARRL event. Your Field Day on-the-air exchange with other stations via satellite is the same as the ARRL exchange for all bands and modes. AMSAT Field Day Rules in PDF format can be found on the AMSAT web: http://www.amsat.org/?page_id=216 The rules document also includes a copy of the Field Day Satellite Summary Sheet which should be used for submission of the AMSAT Field Day competition when sending your report to Bruce, KK5DO, by e-mail or postal mail. Your Summary Sheet must be received by 11:59 P.M. CDT, Monday, July 14, 2014. The preferred method for submitting your log is via e-mail to kk5do at amsat dot org or kk5do at arrl dot net. You will receive an email back(within one or two days) from me when I receive your email submission. If you do not receive a confirmation message, then I have not received your submission. Try sending it again or send it to Bruce's other email address. You may also use the postal service but give plenty of time for your results to arrive by the submission date. If mailing your submission, the address is: Bruce Paige, KK5DO Director of Awards and Contests PO Box 310 Alief, TX 77411-0310 Please include photographs or other interesting information that can be used in an article or the AMSAT Journal. Remember, AMSAT rules limit the use of the FM single channel satellites(such as SO-50) to one-QSO-per-FM-satellite. This includes the International Space Station. You will be allowed one QSO if the ISS is operating Voice. You will also be allowed one digital QSO with the ISS or any other digital, non-store-and-forward, packet satellite (if operational). A lot of good contacts can be made on the linear transponder satellites including AO-73, VO-52, FO-29, and AO-7. During Field Day the transponders come alive like 20 meters on a weekend. The transponders on these satellites will support multiple simultaneous SSB or CW contacts. The AMSAT Field Day 2014 event is open to all Amateur Radio operators. The AMSAT competition is to encourage the use of all amateur satellites, both analog and digital. [ANS thanks AMSAT Director Contests and Awards, Bruce Paige, KK5DO for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- NASA TV to air Russian spacewalk NASA Television will air live coverage of a six-and-a-half hour spacewalk by two Russian International Space Station crew members beginning at 9:15 a.m. EDT Thursday, June 19. Expedition 40 Flight Engineers Alexander Skvortsov and Oleg Artemyev of the Russian Federal Space Agency will don their Orlan spacesuits and exit the Pirs airlock at 9:50 a.m. to install new communications equipment on the Zvezda service module. They also will reposition hardware. The spacewalk will be the 180th in support of space station assembly and maintenance and the first for both Skvortsov and Artemyev. Another spacewalk for the pair is planned for late August. Skvortsov will be designated as extravehicular crew member 1 (EV1) and will wear a spacesuit bearing red stripes. Artemyev will be designated as extravehicular crew member 2 (EV2) and will wear a suit with blue stripes. For NASA TV streaming video, schedule and downlink information, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/nasatv For more information about the International Space Station and its crew, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/station [ANS thanks Southgate ARN for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- ARTSAT1: INVADER Recovered The ARTSAT members have successfully recovered the ARTSAT1: INVADER. The reset command for the power OBC was sent. They are planning to work digi-talker again. Your reports are very helpful for the recover. Thank you very much for your cooperation. Please enjoy to litsen the satellite continuously. They predict it will be about one month before re-entry. [ANS thanks Masahiro JI1IZR for the above information via AMSAT-BB] --------------------------------------------------------------------- OSCAR Number for LituanicaSAT-1, LO-78 In a message to the LituanicaSAT-1 team, AMSAT-NA OSCAR Number Administrator Bill Tynan, W3XO announced, "LituanicaSAT-1 has met all of the requirements for an OSCAR number. My findings from information provided to AMSAT-NA and IARU officials confirm this to be true. Accordingly, under the authority vested in me by the AMSAT-NA President, I do hereby assign LituanicaSAT-1 the designation LituanicaSAT OSCAR-78, or LO-78. I, and all of the amateur radio satellite community, wish LituanicaSAT OSCAR-78 a long and successful mission." On behalf of the LituanicaSAT-1 team, Simon Kareiva, LY2EN replied, "It is my honor and pleasure to accept this assignation. Our team is focused to keep LO-78 operational for the benefit of amateur radio as long, as it is possible for a small cubesat. Thank you very much, Simon LY2EN." The LituanicaSAT-1 team has announced activation of the FM transponder. A general rule to find out if the transponder is working at the moment is to monitor the beacon frequency on 437.275 MHz. If you can hear CW FM beacon it means that transponder is off, if you cannot hear it - the transponder is on. The transponder frequencies are approximately 435.1755 MHz (+/- 10 kHz Doppler shift) for the downlink and 145.950 MHz for the uplink with 67 Hz CTCSS. In response to the news Simon Kareiva LY2EN responded, "It is my honor and pleasure to accept this assignation. Our team is focused to keep LO-78 operational for the benefit of amateur radio as long, as it is possible for a small cubesat." [ANS thanks Bill Tynan, W3XO, AMSAT-NA OSCAR Number Administrator for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- 3rd Annual ISS Research and Development Conference The 3rd Annual ISS Research and Development Conference will be held this week June 17-19, 2014 at the Hyatt Regency McCormick Place, Chicago. This conference focuses on ISS Research and Development -- Discoveries in Microgravity Science; Discoveries in Space Science, Earth Science, Engineering and Education; Applications Benefitting Earth; Applications Enabling Technology and Exploration; and Opportunities. This is the only annual gathering offering perspectives on the impressive breadth of research and technology development on the ISS - one stop for understanding the full suite of opportunities available now. The conference is organized by the American Astronautical Society in cooperation with the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space (CASIS) and NASA. AMSAT's V.P. Human Sapceflight, Frank Bauer KA3HDO will be lead presenter for a presentation compiled by members of the ARISS-US team, Bauer, Rosalie White K1STO, Debra Johnson K1DMJ and E. Mike McCardel KC8YLD. The Presentation "ARISS---Inspiring and Educating Youth through Direct Connections with the ISS Crew" focuses on Amateur Radio on the International Space station (ARISS). Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) represents the first and longest continuous operating educational outreach program to fly on the International Space Station (ISS). ARISS is sponsored by NASA, many international space agencies, and several international amateur radio societies. Its primary purpose is to allow students, engaged in a science and technology curriculum, to speak with an astronaut orbiting the Earth on the International Space Station. Using amateur (ham) radio, the students ask questions about life in space or other space-related topics. Students fully participate in the ARISS contact by helping set up an amateur radio ground station at the school and then using that station to talk directly with the on-board crew member for approximately ten minutes, the time of an ISS overhead pass. ARISS conducts about 100 school contacts per year with students in the US and around the world. Since its beginnings 14 years ago, ARISS has conducted nearly 900 school contacts, inspiring and engaging students, worldwide, to pursue STEM careers--as only NASA can! Preparation for the ARISS experience motivates both students and teachers to further their education. Through one of our US team partners, the American Radio Relay League, ARISS educators can learn about electronics and radio technology through a hands-on training program called the Teacher's Institute. Also, in preparation for their contact with the ISS crew, the children learn about radio waves, space technology, science experiments on ISS, geography and the space environment. In many cases, the students help write press releases and give presentations on the contact to their fellow students and to the local community. And on contact day, the entire local community shares in the ARISS experience. Through this hands- on, grass-roots experience, students are engaged and educated in STEM fields, and are inspired to pursue STEM-related careers choices. Approximately 15,000 students are touched directly by an ARISS contact each year and tens of millions from the general public witness the contact either directly or through the news media. Thei presentation will provide some historical background on the ARISS program, it will describe the international volunteer team that is responsible for making this low-cost, high payoff program such a huge success, and provide an overview of the proposal submittal, selection and contact preparation process. Most importantly, it will convey how the ARISS team, partnered with the NASA Education Teaching from Space program, engages the schools and students in educational opportunities. And it will describe some of the educational outcomes from ARISS, including data and feedback from schools, students, and organizations. [ANS thanks The American Astronautical Society for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- Send Your Name to the Asteroid Bennu! NASA is inviting people around the world to submit their names to be etched on a microchip aboard a spacecraft headed to the asteroid Bennu in 2016. The "Messages to Bennu!" microchip will travel to the asteroid aboard the Origins Spectral Interpretation Resource Identification Security Regolith Explorer, or OSIRIS-REx, spacecraft. The robotic mission will spend more than two years at the asteroid, which has a width of approximately 1,760 feet (500 meters). The spacecraft will collect a sample of Bennu's surface and return it to Earth in a sample return capsule. The deadline to submit names online is Sept. 30, 2014. Participants who submit their names to the "Messages to Bennu!" campaign will be able to print a certificate of appreciation to document their involvement. For more information and to submit your name, visit http://planetary.org/bennu. Participants who "follow" or "like" the mission on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/OSIRISREx) will receive updates on the location of their names in space from launch time until the asteroid samples return to Earth in 2023. Facebook fans also will receive mission progress and late-breaking news through regular status updates. For more information about the OSIRIS-REx mission, visit http://www.nasa.gov/osiris-rex and http://osiris-rex.lpl.arizona.edu. Questions about this opportunity should be directed to tps(a)planetary.org. [ANS thanks NASA Education Express Message -- June 12, 2014 for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- ARISS News Ian MacFarquhar, VE9IM appointed as ARISS Regional Representative The Radio Amateurs of Canada (RAC) has appointed Ian MacFarquhar, VE9IM to be the new ARISS Regional Representative. Ian replaces former representative, Daniel Lamoureux, VE2KA. Rosalie White K1STO, ARISS-ARRL Delegate and ARISS-International Secretary-Treasurer comments by saying . "Canadian ARISS representatives have always been a huge benefit to the ARISS team. Not only have the Canadians contributed a great deal of sound thinking and hard work, but many have been highly active with IARU long before getting involved in ARISS -- this was a huge benefit since ARISS is an international group. Also, because Canadians, generally, are talented in multiple languages, Canadian ARISS reps take on schools and education groups in Mexico, Central America, and South America (in addition to Canada) who send ARISS education proposals. Historically, Canadian ARISS reps have handled the election processes for ARISS international officers. We know Ian will add a lot to our team, as well." In a recent press release from RAC, Geoff Bawden VE4BAW, RAC President says ."Mr. MacFarquhar has been Vice President, supervised the successful insurance program and has been a pillar in RAC for longer than he cares to remember." sources: RAC web site: http://tinyurl.com/ANS-166-RAC [ANS thanks David Jordan, AA4KN and ARISS for the above information] Upcoming ARISS Contact Schedule Focus Camps - Sterrenlab, Italy and European Space Center, Transinne, Belgium telebridge via IK1SLD Contact is a go for: Fri 2014-06-20 18:36:47 UTC Ufa University, Ufa, Russia, direct via TBD Contact is a go for Sat 2014-06-21 14:45 UTC [ANS thanks ARISS and Charlie AJ9N for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- Satellite Shorts From All Over + The American Astronautical Society's "Space Times" Volume 53, Issue 2 (March/April 2014) is now online in PDF Format http://www.astronautical.org/spacetimes/53-2 + Visit with other Amateur Radio Space enthusiasts on the AMSAT North America Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/groups/7828379515/ + A wealth of information and updated and breaking news can be found on the AMSAT-NA Website http://www.amsat.org/ + Special event station GB1JSS will be active on the amateur radio satellites during the Summer Solstice on Saturday, June 21, the longest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere. The event is open to all radio amateurs and listeners. http://amsat-uk.org/2014/06/11/gb1jss-summer-solstice/ [ANS thanks AMSAT-UK for the above information] + 50th anniversary of historic Chelmsford EME contact http://tinyurl.com/ANS-166-50thAnniversary [ANS thanks AMSAT-UK for the above information] + For those who subscribe to AMSAT-UK's Oscar News, digitally, The next edition of Oscar News (Number 206 - June 2014) is now ready for download. It contains details of how to book the Colloquium. Please note that the hotel will only reserve our rooms until 24 June - so please make your booking for accomodation with the hotel before then. After that date its 'subject to availability', as the saying goes! The AMSAT-UK Oscar News web site is at http://www.amsatuk.me.uk/on You must be a member, with login, to acquire the newsletter this way. [ANS Thanks Jim G3WGM for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- /EX In addition to regular membership, AMSAT offers membership in the President's Club. Members of the President's Club, as sustaining donors to AMSAT Project Funds, will be eligible to receive addi- tional benefits. Application forms are available from the AMSAT Office. Primary and secondary school students are eligible for membership at one-half the standard yearly rate. Post-secondary school students enrolled in at least half time status shall be eligible for the stu -dent rate for a maximum of 6 post-secondary years in this status. Contact Martha at the AMSAT Office for additional student membership information. 73, This week's ANS Editor, EMike McCardel, KC8YLD kc8yld at amsat dot org

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AMSAT News Service Special Bulletin OSCAR Number for LituanicaSAT-1
by JoAnne Maenpaa 08 Jun '14

08 Jun '14

SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-159.02 AMSAT News Service Special Bulletin OSCAR Number for LituanicaSAT-1 AMSAT News Service Bulletin 159.02 >From AMSAT HQ KENSINGTON, MD. June 8, 2014 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-159.02 OSCAR Number for LituanicaSAT-1 In a message to the LituanicaSAT-1 team, AMSAT-NA OSCAR Number Administrator Bill Tynan, W3XO announced, "LituanicaSAT-1 has met all of the requirements for an OSCAR number. My findings from information provided to AMSAT-NA and IARU officials confirm this to be true. Accordingly, under the authority vested in me by the AMSAT-NA President, I do hereby assign LituanicaSAT-1 the designation LituanicaSAT OSCAR-78, or LO-78. I, and all of the amateur radio satellite community, wish LituanicaSAT OSCAR-78 a long and successful mission." On behalf of the LituanicaSAT-1 team, Simon Kareiva, LY2EN replied, "It is my honor and pleasure to accept this assignation. Our team is focused to keep LO-78 operational for the benefit of amateur radio as long, as it is possible for a small cubesat. Thank you very much, Simon LY2EN." The LituanicaSAT-1 team has announced activation of the FM transponder. A general rule to find out if the transponder is working at the moment is to monitor the beacon frequency on 437.275 MHz. If you can hear CW FM beacon it means that the transponder is off, if you cannot hear it - the transponder is on. The transponder frequencies are approximately 435.1755 MHz (+/- 10 kHz Doppler shift) for the downlink and 145.950 MHz for the uplink with 67 Hz CTCSS. [ANS thanks Bill Tynan, W3XO, AMSAT-NA OSCAR Number Administrator for the above information] /EX

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ANS-159 AMSAT News Service Weekly Bulletins
by Lee McLamb 08 Jun '14

08 Jun '14

AMSAT NEWS SERVICE ANS-159 The AMSAT News Service bulletins are a free, weekly news and infor- mation service of AMSAT North America, The Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation. ANS publishes news related to Amateur Radio in Space including reports on the activities of a worldwide group of Amateur Radio operators who share an active interest in designing, building, launching and communicating through analog and digital Amateur Radio satellites. The news feed on http://www.amsat.org publishes news of Amateur Radio in Space as soon as our volunteers can post it. Please send any amateur satellite news or reports to: ans-editor at amsat.org. In this edition: * Last Week to Submit AMSAT-NA Board of Directors Nominations * AMSAT Field Day Reminder - June 28-29 * ISEE-3 Spacecraft Reboot Project Update SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-159.01 ANS-159 AMSAT News Service Weekly Bulletins AMSAT News Service Bulletin 159.01 From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. June 8, 2014 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-159.01 Last Week to Submit AMSAT-NA Board of Directors Nominations It is time to submit nominations for the upcoming open seats on the AMSAT-NA Board of Directors. A nomination requires either one Member Society or five current individual members in good standing to nominate an AMSAT-NA member for Director. Three terms expire normally this year. In addition, a forth Director will be elected for one year to fill the remainder of an unexpired term. Up to two Alternates may be elected for one year terms. In addition to traditional submissions of written nominations, which remains unchanged and is the preferred method, nominations may be made by electronic means. These include e-mail, FAX, or electronic image of a petition. Electronic petitions should be sent to MARTHA(a)AMSAT.ORG or faxed to (301) 822-4371. Written nominations, consisting of names, calls and individual signatures should be mailed to: AMSAT-NA 10605 Concord St, #304 Kensington, MD 20895. No matter what means is used, petitions MUST arrive no later than June 15th at the AMSAT-NA office. If the nomination is a traditional written nomination, no other action is required. If it is other than this, i.e. electronic, a verifying traditional written petition MUST be received at the AMSAT-NA office at the above address within 7 days following the close of nominations on June 15th. ELECTRONIC SUBMISSIONS WITHOUT THIS SECOND, WRITTEN VERIFICATION ARE NOT VALID UNDER THE EXISTING AMSAT-NA BYLAWS. Please note the new mailing and FAX instructions. [ANS thanks Alan, WA4SCA, AMSAT Corporate Secretary, for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- AMSAT Field Day Reminder - June 28-29 It's that time of year again: Summer and Field Day! Each year the American Radio Relay League (ARRL) sponsors Field Day as a "picnic, a campout, practice for emergencies, an informal contest and, most of all, FUN!". The event takes place during a 24-hour period on the fourth weekend of June. For 2014 the event takes place during a 27-hour period from 1800 UTC on Saturday June 28, 2014 through 2100 UTC on Sunday June 29, 2014. Those who set up prior to 1800 UTC on June 29 can operate only 24 hours. The Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation (AMSAT) promotes its own version of Field Day for operation via the amateur satellites, held concurrently with the ARRL event. If you are considering ONLY the FM voice satellite SaudiSat-Oscar-50 for your AMSAT Field Day focus . don't . unless you are simply hoping to make one contact for the ARRL rules bonus points. The congestion on FM LEO satellites was so intense in prior years that we must continue to limit their use to one-QSO-per-FM-satellite. This includes the International Space Station. You will be allowed one QSO if the ISS is operating Voice. You will also be allowed one digital QSO with the ISS or any other digital, non-store-and-forward, packet satellite (if operational). A lot of good contacts can be made on the linear transponder satellites including AO-73, VO-52, FO-29, and AO-7. During Field Day the transponders come alive like 20 meters on a weekend. The transponders on these satellites will support multiple simultaneous SSB or CW contacts. The AMSAT Field Day 2014 event is open to all Amateur Radio operators. Amateurs are to use the exchange as specified in ARRL rules for Field Day. The AMSAT competition is to encourage the use of all amateur satellites, both analog and digital. For the complete listing of the AMSAT Field Day Rules please refer to the AMSAT web: http://www.amsat.org/?page_id=216 [ANS thanks AMSAT Director Contests and Awards, Bruce Paige, KK5DO for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- ISEE-3 Spacecraft Reboot Project Update Dennis Wingo KD4ETA has released an update on the attempts by volunteers, including radio amateurs, to gain control of the NASA ISEE-3 spacecraft. The International Sun-Earth Explorer (ISEE-3), a spacecraft that was launched in 1978 to study Earth?s magnetosphere and repurposed in 1983 to study two comets. Renamed the International Cometary Explorer (ICE), it has been in a heliocentric orbit since then, traveling just slightly faster than Earth. It's finally catching up to us from behind, and will be closest to Earth in August, 2014. In his report Dennis says that the spacecraft was successfully commanded into engineering telemetry mode and he mentions the work of radio amateurs Achim Vollhardt DH2VA (AMSAT-DL Bochum) and Phil Karn KA9Q. [Achim Vollhardt DH2VA and Mario Lorenz DL5MLO plan to attend the AMSAT-UK International Space Colloquium in Guildford July 26-27 to give a presentation of their work. The event is open to all] Regarding the possibility of Lunar impact Dennis says ?If we can maneuver the spacecraft by June 17th we get the very small delta V number for the maneuver above. However, this starts to climb rapidly as the spacecraft gets closer to the moon. Also we cannot at this time rule out a lunar impact. It is imperative that we get a ranging pass as soon as possible. We also need time to not only evaluate the health of the spacecraft, but to test the systems, the catalyst bed heaters for the propulsion system, the valve heaters, analyze the rest of the propulsion, power, and attitude control system as rapidly as possible. This will be a lot of commanding so we have to move into high gear next week. This is a very fluid situation and we have made amazing progress, thanks to the support of those who believed in us in our crowd funding and the support of our NASA sponsors at NASA Ames and NASA headquarters. More to come soon!!? Read the report at http://spacecollege.org/isee3/isee-3-reboot-project-update-bullseye-and-mor… Watch ISEE-3 Reboot Project ? Recovering a 30 year old space probe ISEE-3 / ICE Telecommunications Summary http://mdkenny.customer.netspace.net.au/ISEE-3.pdf Dennis Wingo KD4ETA blog http://denniswingo.wordpress.com/ Can radio amateurs command the ISEE-3 / ICE spacecraft ? http://amsat-uk.org/2014/03/19/can-radio-amateurs-command-the-isee-3-ice-sp… Radio amateurs receive NASA ISEE-3 / ICE Spacecraft http://amsat-uk.org/2014/03/09/radio-amateurs-receive-nasa-isee-3ice-spacec… Radio hams help attempts to command NASA spacecraft http://amsat-uk.org/2014/05/21/radio-hams-help-attempts-to-command-nasa-spa… ISEE-3/ICE on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/ISEE3returns [ANS thanks AMSAT-UK for the above information] /EX In addition to regular membership, AMSAT offers membership in the President's Club. Members of the President's Club, as sustaining donors to AMSAT Project Funds, will be eligible to receive addi- tional benefits. Application forms are available from the AMSAT Office. Primary and secondary school students are eligible for membership at one-half the standard yearly rate. Post-secondary school students enrolled in at least half time status shall be eligible for the stu- dent rate for a maximum of 6 post-secondary years in this status. Contact Martha at the AMSAT Office for additional student membership information. 73, This week's ANS Editor, Lee McLamb, KU4OS ku4os at amsat dot org

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ANS-152 AMSAT News Service Weekly Bulletins
by Joe Spier 01 Jun '14

01 Jun '14

AMSAT NEWS SERVICE ANS-152 The AMSAT News Service bulletins are a free, weekly news and infor- mation service of AMSAT North America, The Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation. ANS publishes news related to Amateur Radio in Space including reports on the activities of a worldwide group of Amateur Radio operators who share an active interest in designing, building, launching and communicating through analog and digital Amateur Radio satellites. The news feed on http://www.amsat.org publishes news of Amateur Radio in Space as soon as our volunteers can post it. Please send any amateur satellite news or reports to: ans-editor at amsat.org. In this edition: * AMSAT Prepares for ARRL Centennial Celebration * May/June 2014 AMSAT Journal is Ready * First Call for 2014 AMSAT Space Symposium Papers * AMSAT Forum and AMSAT/TAPR Banquet Videos from Dayton Hamvention * Soyuz-2 Launch June 28 Satellite List * Dnepr Launch June 19 Satellite List * LituanicaSAT-1 FM Transponder Active until June 4 * SPROUT Slow Scan TV and Digitalker Active * KLETSkous Linear Transponder Demonstration * TshepisoSAT / ZACUBE-1, Six Months on Orbit * 2014 FUNcube missions – May Update * Shin-En2 Satellite Linear Transponder Frequencies * Radio hams help attempts to command NASA spacecraft * Upcoming AMSAT Events * ARISS News * Satellite Shorts From All Over SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-152.01 ANS-152 AMSAT News Service Weekly Bulletins AMSAT News Service Bulletin 152.01 >From AMSAT HQ KENSINGTON, MD. DATE June 01, 2014 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-152.01 ----------------------------------------------------- ---------------- AMSAT Prepares for ARRL Centennial Celebration AMSAT is preparing for its participation at the ARRL Centennial Celebration and National Convention in Hartford Connecticut July 17 through 19. On Thursday an AMSAT team with present the all day Training Track, "An Introduction to Amateur Satellites", AMSAT President Barry Baines, WD4ASW will be the facilitator for the event which will begin at 8:30 am and run through 4:30pm. Baines explains, "The training session is to serve as a 'Soup to Nuts' approach to getting started with working Amateur Radio Satellites." Baines will lead the training with an Overview of the History of Amateur Radio in Space, including our future; Director of Educational Outreach Joe Spier K6WAO will cover Understanding Orbits, Kepler Elements, and Doppler Shift; V.P. for Educational Outreach E. Mike McCardel KC8YLD will discuss Satellite Tracking and Tracking Software with an emphasis on SATPC32; Director Field operations Patrick Stoddard WD9EWK/VA7EWK and Area Coordinator Peter Portanova W2JV will address Station Configuration and Satellite Operation including general operation, Easy Sats, FM Birds, CW and SSB Birds and telemetry; AMSAT Fox-1 Software Team Co-Leader Burns Fisher W2BFJ will present an overview and discuss the capabilities of AMSAT's Fox-1 Satellite due to launch in 2015. AMSAT will also host a Forum, "An Overview of AMSAT" Friday at 2pm in room 25. Immediately following the Forum Peter Portanova W2JV will present "Working the Amateur Radio FM Satellites with Your HT", in the same room. Throughout the weekend AMSAT will be staffing Booths 500 and 501. The booth will feature the legacy of Amateur Radio in Space with prototypes and models of OSCAR-1, AO-07, and Fox-1 on display. During the weekend an ARISS contact will be held nearby the convention venue at the Connecticut Science Center. Local students will be asking questions directly to an astronaut via Amateur Radio. The contact time has yet to be determined. For more information on the ARRL Centennial and National Convention visit http://www.ARRL2014.org [ANS thanks AMSAT for the above information] ---------------------------------------------------- ----------------- May/June 2014 AMSAT Journal is Ready The May/June 2014 AMSAT Journal is completed and is at the print shop. Look for it in your mailbox soon. In this issue you will find: + AMSAT Announcements 2014 Symposium First Call for Papers 2014 Board of Directors Election Reminder + Apogee View by Barry Baines, WD4ASW + AMSAT Office Moves to New Quarters + AMSAT at Ham Radio University by Peter Portanova, W2JV + AMSAT at the Greater Houston Hamfest by Allen Mattis, N5AFV and Andy MacAllister, W5ACM + Full Circle - 1983 to 2014 Inspiration of a Student by Dr. Michael Butler, G4OCR + The FUNcube Dongle and SDR Software School Experiments at UCF in Cuba by Hector Martinez, CO6CBF/KF5YXV + Insights Into Fox-1 Development - The IHU and Telemetry Simulator by Burns Fisher, W2BFJ + Stefan Wagener, VE4NSA Named ARISS Canadian Delegate + WRAPS Rotor Enhancements Add a Second Beam and Circular Polarization by Mark Spencer, WA8SME Our editors, JoAnne Maenpaa, K9JKM; Douglas Quagliana, KA2UPW/5; Bernhard Jatzeck, VA6BMJ; and James Howard, K3JPH look forward to receiving your articles, photos, and news. Please send your material to journal(a)amsat.org. There is an AMSAT Journal Author's Guide posted at: http://www.amsat.org/?page_id=1709 For circulation problems and address changes please contact Martha at the AMSAT Office (martha(a)amsat.org) for fastest service. You can also give Martha a call at: 301-822-4376. [ANS thanks the AMSAT Journal Editors for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------- ----- First Call for 2014 AMSAT Space Symposium Papers This is the first call for papers for the 2014 AMSAT Annual Meeting and Space Symposium to be held on the weekend of October 10-12, 2014, at the DoubleTree Hotel by Hilton, Baltimore-Washington International Airport (BWI), Baltimore, Maryland. Proposals for papers, symposium presentations and poster presentations are invited on any topic of interest to the amateur satellite community. We request a tentative title of your presentation as soon as possible, but no later than August 1. The final copy must be submitted by September 15 for inclusion in the printed proceedings. Abstracts and papers should be sent to Dan Schultz at n8fgv at amsat.org [ANS thanks the 2014 Baltimore Symposium Committee for the above information] ---------------------------------------------------------------- ----- AMSAT Forum and AMSAT/TAPR Banquet Videos from Dayton Hamvention Links to videos from Dayton Hamvention 2014 have been posted on the AMSAT NA webpage. The videos are from the AMSAT/TAPR Banquet and the AMSAT Forum by Steve Belter, N9IP. The videos included are presentations from: Tom Clark, K3IO - 60 Years a Slave to Amateur Radio Barry Baines,WD4ASW - AMSAT Update Jerry Buxton, N0JY - Fox Satellites Update Howard Long, G6LVB - FUNcube Satellite Update Drew Glasbrenner, K04MA - Satellites on the Horizon Frank Bauer, KA3HDO - Amateur Radio on the International Space Station EMike McCardel, KC8YLD - AMSAT Education Update http://www.amsat.org/?p=2766 [ANS thanks Steve Belter, N9IP and AMSAT-NA for the above information] ---------------------------------------------------- ----------------- Soyuz-2 Launch June 28 Satellite List Launch of Soyuz-2.1b, Fregat-M [28 Jun 2014, 15:58 UTC, Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan] Satellites Manifest AISSat-2, University of Toronto, Institute for Aerospace Studies, Norway Baumanets-2, Bauman Moscow State Technical University, Russia DX-1, Dauria Aerospace, Russia Meteor-M-N2, NPP VNIIEM, Russia M3MSat, CSA/COM DEV, Canada Relek (MKA-PN-2), Lavochkin, Russia SkySat-2, Skybox Imaging, USA TechDemoSat-1, SSTL, UK UKube-1, UK Space Agency, UK Venta-1, Ventspils University, Latvia UKube-1 Transponder uplink 435.040 - 435.020 MHz Transponder downlink 145.940 - 145.960 MHz (Inverting) Telemetry downlink 145.840 1200bps BPSK S Band downlink 2401.000 QPSK or OQPSK myPocketQub 437.425 - 427.525 MHz http://amsat-uk.org/2014/04/01/ukube-1-june-19-launch-date/ FU Ncube-2 boards subsystem Transponder uplink 435.080 - 435.060 MHz Transponder downlink 145.930 - 145.950 MHz (Inverting) Telemetry downlink 145.915 1200bps BPSK http://amsat-uk.org/2012/10/20/funcube-2-boards-delivered-to-clyde-< br>space/ DX-1 Uplink Command and Control 144.975 - 145.025 MHz Downlink Telemetry data 434.975 - 435.025 MHz Uplink AIS ship tracking RX 162.0125 - 162.0375 MHz Downlink data 2269.500 - 2270.500 MHz http://amsat-uk.org/2014/04/27/dx-1-microsatellite-baikonur/ < br>[ANS thanks Mineo Wakita, JE9PEL for the above information] ---------------------------------------------------------------- ----- Dnepr Launch June 19 Satellite List Launch of Dnepr [19 Jun 2014, 19:11 UTC, Dombarovsky SC, Russia] Satellite Manifest 1. AeroCube6 (non-amateur) The Aerospace Corporation, USA 2. ANTELSat Antel (the national telecom service provider) and FING (Facultad de Ingenieria de la Universidad de la Republica), Uruguay 437.575MHz 1200bps AFSK, 2403.000MHz 1Mbit GFSK/MSK, 437.280MHz CW 3. AprizeSat-9,10 (non-amateur) SpaceQuest, USA 4. BRITE-Toronto(CANX-3E) (non-amateur) UTIAS (University of Toronto, Institute for Aerospace Studies), Canada 5. BRITE-Montreal(CANX-3F) (non-amateur) UTIAS (University of Toronto, Institute for Aerospace Studies), Canada 6. BugSat-2,3 (unknown) Satellogic S.A., Argentina 7. Deimos-2 (non-amateur) Satrec Initiative (SATRECI), Spain 8. ESTELLE University of Tartu, Estonia UHF GMSK/BPSK downlinks up to 19k2 bps and a series of HDRT experiments including 2.4GHz downlink using GFSK/BPSK at up to 1Mbps, 5.8GHz downlink using GFSK and BPSK at up to 10Mbps and 10GHz downlink at up to 10Mbps 9. Hodoyoshi-3,4 (non-amateur) University of Tokyo, Japan 10.KazEOSat-1 (non-amateur) Kazakhstan Gharysh Sapary (KGS), Kazakhstan 11.Kompsat-3A(Arirang-3A) (non-amateur) Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI), South Korea 12.Lemur-1 (unknown) 13.NanosatC-Br1 Federal University of Santa Maria, Brazil Uplink UHF 1200bps FM, Downlink 145.865MHz 9600bps BPSK 14.QB50p1/FUNCube-3 The Von Karman Institute for Fluid Dynamics, Belgium 435.035-435.065MHz transponder uplink 145.935-145.965MHz transponder downlink 145.815MHz 1200bps BPSK packets 15.QB50p2 The Von Karman Institute for Fluid Dynamics, Belgium 145.880MHz 1200bps BPSK 145.840MHz 9600bps FSK 16.SaudiSat-4 Saudi National Satellite Technology Program (NSTP), Saudi Arabia Ka-Band Transponders 17.Serpens (unknown) 18.SkySat-3 (non-amateur) Skybox Imaging, USA 19.TigriSat (non-amateur) La Sapienza University of Rome, Italy 20.UniSat-6 GAUSS, La Sapienza University of Rome, Italy 437.425MHz 9600bps GMSK 21.UNSA-SAT1 QB50 & Instituto Astronomico y Aeroespacial Pedro Paulet, Peru Downlink 3.4GHz 230kbps BPSK [ANS thanks Mineo Wakita, JE9PEL for the above information] ---------------------------------------------------------------- ----- LituanicaSAT-1 FM Transponder Active until June 4 The LituanicaSAT-1 team have announced the FM transponder should be active until June 4, 2014. Dear radio amateurs, Due to favorable orbit conditions LituanicaSAT-1 is now operating under 100% sunlight until about 4th of June. Thus we have decided to turn the transponder on during this period. The CW fm beacon and packet telemetry are also on right now. 73, Laurynas Maciulis LY1LM, LY5N LituanicaSAT-1 FrequenciesFrequency are approximately 435.1755 MHz (+/- 10 kHz Doppler shift) for the downlink and 145.950 MHz for the uplink with 67 Hz CTCSS. The tiny satellite is just 10x10x10 cm with a mass of 1.090 kg yet it has a VGA camera and a 145/435 MHz FM voice transponder, designed and built by Lithuanian radio amateurs. The prototype of the FM repeater has been operating in the home of its designer Žilvinas Batisa LY3H in Elektre.nai, Lithuania. Further information at http://ly3h.epalete.com/?p=303 FM transponder operating techniques http://www.dk3wn.info/p/?p=44412 LituanicaSAT-1 CubeSat http://amsat-uk.org/2014/02/27/lituanicasat-1-cubesat/ Reports should be sent to: ly5n at qrz.lt [ANS thanks AMSAT-UK for the above information] ---------------------------------------------------- ----------------- SPROUT Slow Scan TV and Digitalker Active Slow Scan TV (SSTV) images in Scottie 1 format have been successfully received from the amateur radio satellite SPROUT on 437.600 MHz FM (+/- 9 kHz Doppler shift). The Digitalker has also been active. SPROUT, a 20 x 20 x 22 cm amateur radio nano-satellite with a mass of 7.1 kg, launched successfully with the L-band (1236.5 MHz/1257.5 MHz/1278.5 MHz) Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) satellite ALOS-2 on May 24, 2014 at 0305 UT. SPROUT is now in a 654 km, 97.9 degree inclination Sun Synchronous Orbit (SSO). SPROUT (Space Research On Unique Technology) was built by students from Nihon University and its objectives are: 1. Operation of satellite by radio amateurs. A FM Digitalker will enable the satellite to speak to amateurs around the world. The Voice Message Box will record transmissions from radio amateurs and play them back. Pre-loaded images from the Message Gallery can be transmitted using Slow Scan TV (SSTV). Pictures of the Earth can be transmitted by SSTV and radio amateurs can receive it using free software such as MMSSTV. As part of the Earth mapping project the team ask radio amateurs to contribute pictures they have received from the satellite for display on the SPROUT website. The satellite also has a packet radio Digipeater and Text Message Box function. Demonstration of the deployment of the combined membrane structure and verification of the design method of the structure SPROUT has a triangular membrane supported by two tubes like framework. They are folded and stored in the satellite before the launch. After the launch, the nitrogen gas is injected into the tubes in space, and they extend, so that the membrane deploys (called “combined membrane structure”). 3. Demonstration of attitude determination and control of a nanosatellite using the sun sensors, gyros, geomagnetic sensor and magnetic torquers. Callsign: JQ1ZJQ Size: 214x210x220 mm Weight: 7.1 kg Mode: 1200bps AFSK, 9600bps GMSK CW downlink 437.525 MHz FM packet downlink 437.525 MHz Digipeater uplink 437.600 MHz Digitalker downlink 437.600 MHz SSTV downlink 437.600 MHz SPROUT English website http://sat.aero.cst.nihon-u.ac.jp/sprout-e/ SPROUT Japanese website http://sat.aero.cst.nihon-u.ac.jp/sprout/ Nihon-Univ. Miyazaki Laboratory on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/pages/Nihon-Univ-Miyazaki-Laboratory/4065666428188… Telemetry Software http://sat.aero.cst.nihon-u.ac.jp/sprout-e /2-Software-e.html Tele metry format http://sat.aero.cst.nihon-u.ac.jp/sprout-e/2-Formats%20of%20 telemetr y-e.html SPROUT launch data page http://sat.aero.cst.nihon-u.ac.jp/sprout-e/2-Launch%20data-e.html TLE’s from the North American Aerospace Defence Command (NORAD) are also available at http://celestrak.com/NORAD/elements/tle-new.txt Adding new satellites to SatPC32, Gpredict and Nova http://amsat-uk.org/2013/11/23/adding-new-satellites-to-satpc32/ Free Slow Scan TV (SSTV) software MMSSTV http://hamsoft.ca/pages/mmsstv.php The JE9PEL website has information on other satellites on this launch http://www.ne.jp/asahi/hamradio/je9pel/jaxalos2.htm [AN S thanks AMSAT-UK for the above information] ---------------------------------------------------- ----------------- KLETSkous Linear Transponder Demonstration A video shows a demonstration, given on May 24, 2014, of the KLETSkous 1U Cubesat amateur radio transponder. A 435/145 Linear transponder is planned with a bandwidth of 20 kHz. Currently the team are considering frequencies in the 435.100 to 435.140 MHz range for the uplink and 145.860 to 145.980 MHz for the downlink. The scientific payload will be an experiment analysing “Worm Holes”. This experiment will try and find the portholes between Sun and Earth. Further information at http://zr6aic.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/KLETSkous and at http://www.amsatsa.org.za/ [ANS thanks AMSAT-UK for the above information] ---------------------------------------------------- ----------------- TshepisoSAT / ZACUBE-1, Six Months on Orbit The South African CPUT TshepisoSAT team were invited to give a mission update at the SA AMSAT‘s Space Symposium on Saturday, May 24, 2014 at the Innovation Hub in Pretoria. The event was well attended and even had representatives from SANSA in attendance. Presentations on other CubeSats included Denel Dynamics’ DynaCube, FUNcube-1 and SA AMSAT’s own KLETSkous project. This paper gives a brief introduction to the F’SATI programme, the constructed CubeSat and mission. An outline of the milestones reached thus far with the Tshepiso nano-satellite are given, the outstanding activities that must still be completed and challenges faced. Some of the images captured by the satellite are also presented. Read TshepisoSAT, six months on orbit. http://www.cput.ac.za/blogs/fsati/files/2014/05/Paper-SA-AMSAT-Spa ce- Symposium-Pretoria-2014.pdf CPUT F’SATI News http://www.cput.ac.za/blogs/fsati/blog/ Southern African Amateur Radio Satellite Association (SA AMSAT) http://www.amsatsa.org.za/ [ANS thanks AMSAT-UK for the above information] ---------------------------------------------------- ----------------- 2014 FUNcube missions – May Update The FUNcube team have received confirmation that UKube-1, which is hosting the FUNcube-2 payload, is now scheduled for a Soyuz-2-1b Fregat-M launch from Baikonur in Kazakhstan on Saturday, June 28 with the following day as a back-up. The launch time has been quoted as 15:58:28 UT with separation some 9253 seconds later. The team still understand that, immediately after deployment and activation, UKube-1 will commence transmitting a CW beacon and that this will be later followed by an AX25, 1200 bps BPSK beacon. Both beacons will be on 145.840 MHz. The FUNcube-2 payload, with its telemetry downlink for educational outreach, is expected to be tested later. FUNcube-3 is the transponder only payload on the QB50 precursor CubeSat “QB50P1". This mission is now scheduled to launch on June 19 on a Dnepr launch vehicle from Dombarovsky near Yasny. The launch time has been quoted as 19:11:11 UT but this has not yet been confirmed. The initial beacon signals, from the main transceiver, are also expected to be AX.25, 1200 bps BPSK packets on 145.815 MHz. Again more information will be provided as soon as it becomes available! UKube-1 communications subsystem: • 145.840 MHz Telemetry, CW, 1k2 BPSK • 2401.0 MHz S Band Downlink • 437.425-437.525 MHz UKSEDS myPocketQub Downlink • 145.915 MHz FUNcube beacon • FUNcube 400 mW inverting SSB/CW transponder - 435.080-435.060 MHz Uplink LSB - 145.930-145.950 MHz Downlink USB QB50p1 communications subsystem: • 145.815 MHz 1200 bps BPSK telemetry • FUNcube inverting 400 mW SSB/CW transponder - 435.035-435.065 MHz Uplink LSB - 145.935-145.965 MHz Downlink USB FUNcube website http://www.funcube.org.uk/ FUNcube Yahoo Group http://amsat-uk.org/funcube/yahoo-group/ FUNcube Forum http://forum.funcube.org.uk/ [ANS thanks AMSAT-UK for the above information] ---------------------------------------------------- ----------------- Shin-En2 Satellite Linear Transponder Frequencies The IARU Amateur Satellite Frequency Coordination Panel has announced frequencies for the Shin-En2 linear transponder. Shin-En2 is a 2.85 kg satellite measuring 490×490×475 mm built by students at Kagoshima University in Japan which will carry a 145 to 435 MHz linear transponder into a deep space orbit. The aims of the mission are: • To establish communication technologies with a long range as far as the moon. • To establish a new technology of the ultra-light-weight satellite. Proposing a WSJT 29dBm UHF downlink and a 29dBm 20 kHz linear transponder and a CW beacon all on UHF with a VHF uplink for the transponder. The orbit will be quite different from the previous satellites. Shin-En2 will have an elliptic orbit around the Sun and travel to a deep space orbit between Venus and Mars. Its inclination will be almost zero, which means Shin-En2 will stay in the Earth’s equatorial plane. The distance from the Sun will be between 0.7 and 1.3 AU. An Astronomical Unit (AU) is 149,597,871 km. Shin-En2 IARU coordinated frequencies: • 437.505 MHz CW beacon • 437.385 MHz WSJT telemetry • Inverting SSB/CW transponder - 145.940-145.960 MHz uplink LSB - 435.280-435.260 MHz downlink USB Shin-En2 is expected to launch in the 4th quarter of 2014 with another amateur radio satellite ARTSAT2:DESPATCH on a H-IIA rocket with the asteroid explorer Hayabusa 2 as the main payload. Kagoshima University satellite development team http://tinyurl.com/Kagoshima-Satellite Shin-En2 English Website http://www.eee.kagoshima-u.ac.jp/~fuku-lab/sinen,english.html ARTSAT2:DESPATCH – Art and Ham Radio in Deep Space http://amsat-uk.org/2013/11/03/art-and-ham-radio-in-deep-space/ [ANS thanks AMSAT-UK for the above information] ---------------------------------------------------- ----------------- Radio hams help attempts to command NASA spacecraft An IEEE article describes how volunteers, including many radio amateurs, are attempting command a 35-year-old NASA spacecraft, the International Sun-Earth Explorer 3 (ISEE-3). Rachel Courtland interviews Dennis Wingo KD4ETA about the project and mentions the Bochum facility where AMSAT-DL members will be using their 20 metre dish antenna to help establish communications. Software-defined radio peripherals built by Ettus Research (founded by Matt Ettus N2MJI) have been purchased, which can be used to implement modulator and demodulator programs that would once have had to be built in hardware. Read the IEEE article at http://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/aerospace/satellites/space-hackers- prepare-to-reboot-35-year-old-spacecraft The Watts Up With That website has a more detailed article on the project. The section about the AMSAT-DL Bochum facility mentions two of the team, Achim Vollhardt DH2VA and Mario Lorenz DL5MLO. The problems caused by ITAR are noted. Read the Watts Up With That article ISEE-3 Reboot Project: Aiming for First Contact at http://wattsupwiththat.com/2014/05/15/update-isee-3-reboot-project- aiming-for-first-contact/ ISEE-3 / ICE Telecommunications Summary http://mdkenny.customer.netspace.net.au/ISEE-3.pdf Dennis Wingo KD4ETA blog http://denniswingo.wordpress.com/ Can radio amateurs command the ISEE-3 / ICE spacecraft ? http://amsat-uk.org/2014/03/19/can-radio-amateurs-command-the-isee-3-ice-sp… Radio amateurs receive NASA ISEE-3 / ICE Spacecraft http://amsat-uk.org/2014/03/09/radio-amateurs-receive-nasa-ise e-3ice- spacecraft/ ITAR restrictions on US radio amateurs to be eased http://amsat-uk.org/2014/05/19/itar-restrictions-to-be-eased/ ISEE-3/ICE on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/ISEE3returns [ANS thanks IEEE & AMSAT-UK for the above information] ---------------------------------------------------- ----------------- Upcoming AMSAT Events Information about AMSAT activities at other important events around the country. Examples of these events are radio club meetings where AMSAT Area Coordinators give presentations, demonstrations of working amateur satellites, and hamfests with an AMSAT presence (a table with AMSAT literature and merchandise, sometimes also with presentations, forums, and/or demonstrations). Saturday, 7 June 2014 – Kachina Amateur Radio Club‘s White Mountain Hamfest in Show Low AZ (eastern Arizona, south of US-60/AZ-77/AZ-260) – AMSAT will have a table at this hamfest, and satellite demonstrations are planned. Friday and Saturday, 13-14 June 2014 – Ham-Com in Plano TX (north of Dallas) Thursday through Sunday, 17-20 July 2014 – ARRL Centennial Convention in Hartford CT. AMSAT will host a day-long Satellite Workshop on Thursday, and have a booth at the convention along with an AMSAT Forum and demonstrations throughout the convention. Friday through Sunday, 12-14 September 2014 – ARRL Southwestern Division Convention 2014 in San Diego CA (north of the city center, near Montgomery Field airport & I-805/CA-163 interchange) – AMSAT will have a booth at this convention, there will be on-air demonstrations using satellites throughout the convention, and a presentation on amateur satellites and AMSAT [ANS thanks AMSAT-NA for the above information] ---------------------------------------------------- ----------------- ARISS News Upcoming Contacts There will be a lapse in contacts during the period from 2014-05-12 to 2014-06-15. Licensed crew members will join crew on board the ISS and contacts are expected to resume in late June. [ANS thanks ARISS for the above information] ---------------------------------------------------- ----------------- Satellite Shorts from All Over Canadian Hams Attempt to Cross the Pond on Two Meters A group of Amateur Radio operators from Atlantic Canada will operate from Pouch Cove, Newfoundland, from 4-12 July 2014 in a bid to complete a 2 meter Trans-Atlantic QSO and claim the Brendan Trophy. The expedition will operate from Maidenhead Grid GN37os on 144.155 MHz. It will run 750 watts into a 30 meter long rope yagi with a gain of more than 23 dB over a dipole. The group will concentrate its efforts on JT65B, a digital mode that offers greatly enhanced performance over more conventional modes. It will have the capability to use other modes including CW and SSB if conditions warrant however. The callsign used will be VC1T. Members of the expedition include Fred Archibald, VE1FA, Roger Sturtevant, VE1SKY, Helen Archibald VA1YL, Rich Pieniaszek, VA1CHP, and Al Penney, VO1NO. The Brendan Trophy is a series of awards offered by the Irish Radio Transmitters Society to the first Amateur Radio operators to complete a 2 meter Trans-Atlantic QSO. Details on the expedition can be found on the team's website www.brendanquest.org. Real time information on operating modes and schedules will be posted during the expedition on the team's web site, the ON4KST site and the G4CQM Shoutbox. Facebook users are also welcome to join the group's page "Brendan Quest 2M meterTrans-Atlantic Attempt 2014. Background Information: 2014 Transatlantic Two Meter "Brendan Quest" Objectives: 1. Complete one or more legal, confirmed, two-way QSOs between North America and Europe on the Amateur Radio 2 meter band using terrestrial propagation modes; 2. Complete such contacts using both "traditional" (CW or SSB) and "non traditional" (JT65B or ISCAT) modes; and; 3. Failing the above, to be heard in Europe. Operators (North America): Fred Archibald VE1FA; Helen Archibald VA1YL; Al Penney VO1NO; Rich Pieniaczek VA1CHP; Roger Sturtevant VE1SKY. Operation: 4 to 12 July 2014. Call: A special event callsign will be used - VC1T. Frequency and Modes: 144.155 MHz +/- 20 Hz operating 24 hours a day for the entire period, transmitting full legal power on even minutes and receiving on odd minutes using JT65B. Other modes may be attempted as required. Audible transatlantic JT65B reception and QSO will be followed by a CW attempt. North America QTH: Pouch Cove, Newfoundland, Canada. Latitude 47.76942 North, Longitude 52.76384 West Elevation: 65 feet (20 meters) above sea level. Grid Square: GN37os. IOTA island NA-027. Antenna height is 85 feet (26 meters) above sea level on a bluff on the edge of the Atlantic. There is no land between the transmit location and Europe through bearing range of 013 to 108 degrees True. The transmit location is 3040 km from Irish coast, 3400 km from Poldhu, and 23 km from Marconi's 1901 reception site. Antenna: Horizontally polarized "rope ladder" Yagi, with 43 elements consisting of 1 reflector, 1 driven element and 41 directors, suspended and aligned on 2 strands of Kevlar rope 65 cm apart. Its overall length is 30 meters. Because the ground slopes towards the ocean, the height of the antenna varies from 6 meters above ground at the reflector, to 8.5 meters at the opposite end. Its feedpoint impedance is 50 ohms, and it will employ a ferrite choke balun. The SWR is 1.1 to 1.2. Forward gain is 23.9 dB over a dipole. The front to back ratio is 32 db, while the front to side ratio is greater than 25 db (270 degrees). The take off angle of the main lobe is 4.5 degrees. The beamwidth is 15.6 degrees at the -3db points, and beam thickness is 4.7 degrees at the -3db points. When driven with 750W, the Effective Radiated Power in the center of the major lobe should be about 150kW. Antenna coverage in Europe at -3db points: Based on an antenna azimuth of 062 degrees True and a beamwidth of 15.8 degrees at the -3db points, the antenna beam width will be 069 degrees to 054 degrees True, so straight line propagation will cover all Ireland, UK, and parts of Norway, France, and Holland. Of course propagation paths may be skewed. [ANS thanks the Make More Miles on VHF Newsletter for the above information] ---------------------------------------------------------------- ----- /EX In addition to regular membership, AMSAT offers membership in the President's Club. Members of the President's Club, as sustaining donors to AMSAT Project Funds, will be eligible to receive addi- tional benefits. Application forms are available from the AMSAT Office. Primary and secondary school students are eligible for membership at one-half the standard yearly rate. Post-secondary school students enrolled in at least half time status shall be eligible for the stu- dent rate for a maximum of 6 post-secondary years in this status. Contact Martha at the AMSAT Office for additional student membership information. 73, This week's ANS Editor, Joe Spier, K6WAO k6wao at amsat dot org

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ANS-145 AMSAT News Service Weekly Bulletins
by Lee McLamb 25 May '14

25 May '14

AMSAT NEWS SERVICE ANS-145 The AMSAT News Service bulletins are a free, weekly news and infor- mation service of AMSAT North America, The Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation. ANS publishes news related to Amateur Radio in Space including reports on the activities of a worldwide group of Amateur Radio operators who share an active interest in designing, building, launching and communicating through analog and digital Amateur Radio satellites. The news feed on http://www.amsat.org publishes news of Amateur Radio in Space as soon as our volunteers can post it. Please send any amateur satellite news or reports to: ans-editor at amsat.org. In this edition: * SPROUT microsatellite launched with SSTV and digitalker * 2014 AMSAT-NA Board of Directors Nominations Deadline Approaching * New launch date for UKube-1 * Dayton Satellite Demonstrations Videos * 2015 NASA Aeronautics Scholarships * NASA History Program Office Fall 2014 Internships SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-145.01 ANS-145 AMSAT News Service Weekly Bulletins AMSAT News Service Bulletin 145.01 From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. May 25, 2014 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-145.01 SPROUT microsatellite launched with SSTV and digitalker SPROUT is a 7.1 kg microsatellite launched on the JAXA ALOS-2 mission on May 24th from Tanegashima Space Center, Japan to a 654km sun synchronous orbit. This satellite is a project of Nihon University and includes some interesting amateur radio payloads and experiments, including CW telemetry, an FM digipeater, digitalker and message box, and live and preloaded SSTV pictures! Nihon University enjoyed previous success with SEEDS-II, aka CO-66. SPROUT Preliminary TLE 1 00000U 14001A 14144.15426352 .00000000 00000-0 00000-0 0 10 2 00000 097.8740 241.6133 0035980 058.6810 194.6458 14.85960816 15 Callsign: JQ1ZJQ Size: 214x210x220 mm Weight: 7.1 kg Mode: 1200bps AFSK, 9600bps GMSK CW downlink 437.525 MHz FM packet downlink 437.525 MHz Digi-peater uplink 437.600 MHz Digi-talker downlink 437.600 MHz SSTV downlink 437.600 MHz Telemetry software can be found at http://sat.aero.cst.nihon-u.ac.jp/sprout-e/2-Software-e.html [ANS thanks Mineo, JE9PEL, for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- 2014 AMSAT-NA Board of Directors Nominations Deadline Approaching It is time to submit nominations for the upcoming open seats on the AMSAT-NA Board of Directors. A nomination requires either one Member Society or five current individual members in good standing to nominate an AMSAT-NA member for Director. Three terms expire normally this year. In addition, a forth Director will be elected for one year to fill the remainder of an unexpired term. Up to two Alternates may be elected for one year terms. In addition to traditional submissions of written nominations, which remains unchanged and is the preferred method, nominations may be made by electronic means. These include e-mail, FAX, or electronic image of a petition. Electronic petitions should be sent to MARTHA(a)AMSAT.ORG or faxed to (301) 822-4371. Written nominations, consisting of names, calls and individual signatures should be mailed to: AMSAT-NA 10605 Concord St, #304 Kensington, MD 20895. No matter what means is used, petitions MUST arrive no later than June 15th at the AMSAT-NA office. If the nomination is a traditional written nomination, no other action is required. If it is other than this, i.e. electronic, a verifying traditional written petition MUST be received at the AMSAT-NA office at the above address within 7 days following the close of nominations on June 15th. ELECTRONIC SUBMISSIONS WITHOUT THIS SECOND, WRITTEN VERIFICATION ARE NOT VALID UNDER THE EXISTING AMSAT-NA BYLAWS. Please note the new mailing and FAX instructions. [ANS thanks Alan, WA4SCA, AMSAT Corporate Secretary, for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- New launch date for UKube-1 The CubeSat UKube-1 will be launched from Baikonur in Kazakhstan on a Russian Soyuz-2-1b Fregat-M rocket which has Meteor-M 2 as the primary payload. The new planned launch date for UKube-1 is June 28, 2014 at 15:58:28 UT with separation +9253 s Greenwich inertial (-1859.49, -3817.49, -5581.72) km (912.1, 6027.9, -4426.4) m.s-1 (TBC). UKube-1 carries a set of AMSAT-UK FUNcube boards (FUNcube-2) providing a 435/145 MHz linear transponder and educational telemetry beacon. Description of UKube-1 from Clyde Space: UKube-1 is a 3U CubeSat has been designed and manufactured by Clyde Space at their high-tech facility on the West of Scotland Science Park in Glasgow. This CubeSat is one of the most advanced of its kind, the complexity of the spacecraft highlighted by the nature of the 6 independent, advanced payloads being flown by the mission. The UKube-1 mission is the pilot for a collaborative, national CubeSat programme bringing together UK industry and academia to fly educational packages, test new technologies and carry out new space research quickly and efficiently. Payloads on UKube-1 include: the first GPS device aimed at measuring plasmaspheric space weather; a camera that will take images of the Earth, and test the effect of radiation on space hardware, using a new generation of imaging sensor; an experiment to demonstrate the feasibility of using cosmic radiation to improve the security of communications satellites and to flight test lower cost electronic systems; an advanced mission interface computer to enable serious number crunching on tiny spacecraft; a high rate S-Band transmitter and patch antenna; an outreach payload that allows school children to interact with the spacecraft. UKube-1 communications subsystem: Telemetry downlink 145.840 MHz FUNcube subsystem beacon 145.915 MHz 400 mW inverting linear transponder for SSB and CW - 435.080 -435.060 MHz Uplink - 145.930 -145.950 MHz Downlink 2401.0 MHz S Band Downlink 437.425-437.525 MHz UKSEDS myPocketQub Downlink Other satellites on the Soyuz-2-1b Fregat-M launch are: Meteor-M 2, SkySat 2, TechDemoSat 1 (TDS 1), AISSat 2, Baumanets 2, Relek, DX 1, Venta 1, UKube 1. [ANS thanks AMSAT-UK for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- Dayton Satellite Demonstrations Videos After a very successful set of demonstrations at the Dayton Hamvention, several videos have been posted to YouTube by some of the operators. We've gathered some of them together with links from the AMSAT website for your viewing pleasure. http://www.amsat.org/?p=2741 [ANS thanks Drew, KO4MA, for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- 2015 NASA Aeronautics Scholarships Applications are now being accepted for 2015 NASA Aeronautics Scholarships. The program awards scholarships focused on aeronautical research and related degree programs at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. NASA's Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate sponsors the program. Undergraduate students with at least two years of study remaining will receive up to $15,000 per year for two years and the opportunity to receive a $10,000 stipend by interning at a NASA research center during the summer. Graduate students receive up to $46,000 per year for up to three years, with an opportunity to receive a $10,000 stipend interning at a NASA research center for up to two consecutive summers. Applicants must be citizens or nationals of the United States. Due to the One Stop Shopping Initiative maintenance, the scholarship application deadline has been extended to June 2, 2014. Applications should be submitted through the NASA One Stop Shopping Initiative at https://intern.nasa.gov/. Applicants should be sure to select "scholarships" for the type of application. [ANS thanks the NASA Education Express Message for May 15, 2014 for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- NASA History Program Office Fall 2014 Internships The NASA History Program Office is seeking undergraduate and graduate students for fall 2014 internships. The History Program Office maintains archival materials to answer research questions from NASA personnel, journalists, scholars, students at all levels and others from around the world. The division also edits and publishes several books and monographs each year. It maintains a large number of websites on NASA history. Students of all majors are welcome to apply. While detailed prior knowledge of the aeronautics and space fields is not necessary, a keen interest and some basic familiarity with these topics are needed. Strong research, writing and editing skills are essential. Experience with social media is a plus. Intern projects are flexible. Typical projects include handling a variety of information requests, writing posts for the NASA history twitter and Facebook pages, editing historical manuscripts, doing research and writing biographical sketches, and identifying and captioning photos. Fall 2014 internship applications are due June 1, 2014. For more information, visit http://history.nasa.gov/interncall.htm. If you have questions about this opportunity, please contact Bill Barry at bill.barry(a)nasa.gov. [ANS thanks the NASA Education Express Message for May 15, 2014] /EX In addition to regular membership, AMSAT offers membership in the President's Club. Members of the President's Club, as sustaining donors to AMSAT Project Funds, will be eligible to receive addi- tional benefits. Application forms are available from the AMSAT Office. Primary and secondary school students are eligible for membership at one-half the standard yearly rate. Post-secondary school students enrolled in at least half time status shall be eligible for the stu- dent rate for a maximum of 6 post-secondary years in this status. Contact Martha at the AMSAT Office for additional student membership information. 73, This week's ANS Editor, Lee McLamb, KU4OS ku4os at amsat dot org

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ANS-124 AMSAT News Service Weekly Bulletins
by E.Mike McCardel 04 May '14

04 May '14

AMSAT NEWS SERVICE ANS-124 The AMSAT News Service bulletins are a free, weekly news and infor- mation service of AMSAT North America, The Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation. ANS publishes news related to Amateur Radio in Space including reports on the activities of a worldwide group of Amateur Radio operators who share an active interest in designing, building, launching and communicating through analog and digital Amateur Radio satellites. The news feed on http://www.amsat.org publishes news of Amateur Radio in Space as soon as our volunteers can post it. Please send any amateur satellite news or reports to: ans-editor at amsat.org. In this edition: * LituanicaSAT-1 FM Transponder Operation Feedback * BOOK NOW FOR THE SA AMSAT SPACE SYMPOSIUM ON 24 MAY * Eighth Annual AMSAT/TAPR Banquet Reservations Close May 13th * UK CubeSat Workshop: Student Research Pitches * Ham Radio Earth-Moon-Earth Art Event on Google+ Hangout * HAMSAT - VO-52 Completes 9 Years in Space * Commercial HDTV Streaming Live from ISS * AMSAT Office Relocated; Reopens * AMSAT at the Dayton Hamvention -- Last call for volunteers * ARISS News * Satellite Shorts From All Over SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-124.01 ANS-124 AMSAT News Service Weekly Bulletins AMSAT News Service Bulletin 124.01 >From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. DATE MMMM DDDD, YYYY To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-124.01 LituanicaSAT-1 FM Transponder Operation Feedback With the LituanicaSAT-1 FM transponder being operative on May 1 many members of the AMSAT-BB shared their experiences. Thursday Morning May 1 Pete W2JV reported "The downlink was strong at 16 degrees at 13:39 U, I heard CO6CBF, well done to the team." Hector CO8CBF/KF5YXV posted "LituanicaSat-1 was sounding very good over the Caribbean (Cienfuegos EL92sd, Cuba). Nice signal for just 150mw! I heard Pete, W2JV and worked Frank, K4FEG. I was running just 5W into an ARROW antenna. Congratulations to the LituanicaSAT-1 team!" Thursday evening May 1 Paul N8HM reported "The transponder was indeed on for the 2140Z pass over North America. I heard a station in DN45 (I guess it was WC7V) right as the satellite came up above about 10 degrees (lots of buildings and trees in the way), worked AC0RA, but there was some difficulty getting into the satellite with just 5 watts and an Elk antenna, and then I heard and half-worked WB3CSY (probably not a valid QSO) before I lost the bird at about 12 degrees. I also heard the ID and greeting about halfway through the pass. "The signal is a few dB down from SO-50 and the uplink receiver is definitely less tolerant of being off frequency. My best signal into the bird was in narrow FM while tuning for Doppler on the uplink. At TCA, an elevation of about 55 degrees, the downlink signal was S9 on my FT-817s meter. SO-50 is usually S+ above 35 degrees here. "My station here is two FT-817s, an Elk Antenna, and a High Sierra Microwave LNAA432 preamp. I was having some desense issues and further inspection revealed a nick in my feedline as the probable cause." Roland PY4ZBZ posted the posted this report as the satellite passed over Brazil. FM repeater on at 23:15 UTC ! orbit #976 http://www.qsl.net/py4zbz/lituanicasat1a.wav The LituanicaSAT-1 team announced early in the week that the saltellite scheduled would be operative again on May 1, from 9:30 UT to 14:00 UT, and Satellite's ground control station in Vilnius would be standing by monitoring the transponder's frequency and attempt to call CQ with the amateur call sign LY5N (LituanicaSAT-1 callsign) when the satellite will be in sight of the ground station. The expected time windows were: * 2014/05/01 10:46:22 UT - 2014/05/01 10:56:24 UT * 2014/05/01 12:21:48 UT - 2014/05/01 12:31:47 UT All QSO's with the call LY5N will be granted special QSL cards, signed by the LituanicaSAT-1 core team members and sent out via bureau (no directs). Every amateur working the FM repeater is encouraged (but not obligated) to RX and answer only the LY5N CQ call during the above time windows. Frequency are approximately 435.1755 MHz for the downlink and 145.950 MHz for the uplink (+/- Doppler Shift). FM transponder operating techniques http://www.dk3wn.info/p/?p=44412 Lithuanian CubeSat LituanicaSAT-1 http://amsat-uk.org/2014/02/27/lituanicasat-1-cubesat/ [ANS thanks LituanicaSAT-1 team and AMSAT-BB for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- BOOK NOW FOR THE SA AMSAT SPACE SYMPOSIUM ON 24 MAY Discounted rates are available to SARL and SA AMSAT members who book for the SA AMSAT Space Symposium before 5 May. SARL members pay 50% less than non-members. The early bird rate is R150 which includes a copy of the papers on DVD. The symposium will be held at the Innovation Hub in Pretoria which is situated opposite the CSIR with a quick access via the Lynwood off ramp on the N1. The date is 24 May. Some of the highlights include a demonstration of the KLETSkous hardware, presentations on FunCube, DynaCube and an innovative propulsion system that can be used to alter the obit of a CubeSat once launched in Space. For smartphone users apps to predict satellites passes and telemetry downloads will be demonstrated. The full programme is available on www.amsatsa.org. Get with it now. [ANS thanks SARL News 4/26/14 for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- Eighth Annual AMSAT/TAPR Banquet Reservations Close May 13th The eighth annual AMSAT/TAPR Banquet will be held on Friday night, May 16. This dinner is always a highlight of the AMSAT (Radio Amateur Satellite Corp.) and TAPR (Tucson Amateur Packet Radio) activities during the Dayton Hamvention. This year's speaker will be Dr. Tom Clark, K3IO, speaking on his "Sixty Years a Slave (to Amateur Radio)." Tom has been a lifetime contributor to both AMSAT and TAPR, and has a fascinating professional career. Tickets ($30 each) must be purchased online by May 13th on the AMSAT website at www.amsat.org through the AMSAT Store tab. Tickets will not be sold at the Hamvention or at the door. Tickets purchased online may be collected at the AMSAT booth (433- 435, 444-446). The Banquet will take place at the Kohler Presidential Banquet Center, 4572 Presidential Way, Kettering, OH 45429 (just south of Dayton). The cash bar will openat 1830 EDT, with the dinner commencing around 1900 EDT. [ANS thanks AMSAT for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- UK CubeSat Workshop: Student Research Pitches AMSAT-UK have donated a FUNcube Dongle SDR to be awarded to the best student research pitch at the UK CubeSat workshop to be held in Harwell on May 13. Please send your 5 minute research pitches along with the following details to send to Chris Bridges M0GKK email: c.p.bridges(a)surrey.ac.uk There will be a prize for best presentations on the day! The prize includes a UK Space Agency goody-bag including a mug, t-shirt, badges, and more. Plus a FUNcube Dongle, kindly donated from AMSAT-UK. Please include the following to your submission: * Presentation Title * Author/ Supervisor * Affiliation * 5 Bullet Points on the Presentation Content (what, why, who cares?). Presenters will be notified on 10th May 2014. Source: http://tinyurl.com/ANS124-ResearchPitches 2014 UK CubeSat Workshop - Free Registration http://www.cubesatforum.org.uk/wordpress/2014-uk-cubesat-workshop/ FUNcube Yahoo Group http://amsat-uk.org/funcube/yahoo-group/ FUNcube Dongle Pro+ SDR Yahoo Group http://amsat-uk.org/funcube/funcube-dongle-sdr/ [ANS thanks AMSAT-UK for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- Ham Radio Earth-Moon-Earth Art Event on Google+ Hangout OPTICKS is a live radio transmission performance between the Earth and the Moon during which images are sent to the Moon and back as radio signals using the MMSSTV Slow San TV software developed by Makoto Mori JE3HHT A live Google+ hangout is taking place on May 1 at 2000 UT. A Reddit AMA will precede the Hangout at 1500 UT. The project has been realized by visual artist Daniela de Paulis (IT/NL) in collaboration with Jan van Muijlwijk PA3FXB and the CAMRAS radio amateurs association based at Dwingeloo radio telescope (NL). Each live performance is made possible thanks to the collaboration of radio amateurs Howard Ling G4CCH (UK), Bruce Halász PY2BS (Brazil) and Daniel Gautschi HB9CRQ (CH). The live hangout will feature a "touch" and bounce of Humans in Space Youth Art Competition artwork off the Moon using OPTICKS radio wave technology. Guests and remote participants will discuss the significance of the artwork and the performance and explore the impact of past, present, and future human presence on the Moon. Guests - Andrew Chaikin is the author of Man on the Moon and From Earth to the Moon. - Wendell Mendell is a retired NASA lunar and planetary exploration scientist. - Sarah Nobel is a current NASA lunar scientist and artist. - Frank Shiner is a winner of both the 2010 and 2012 Humans in Space Youth Art Competitions. - Jan van Muijlwijk PA3FXB, OPTICKS collaborator, radio operator, CAMRAS/Dwingeloo radio telescope. - Daniela De Paulis is the visual artist and researcher who developed the OPTICKS live performance technology in collaboration with the Dwingeloo radio telescope. - Jancy McPhee is the director of the Humans in Space Art Program, which includes the Youth Art Competition Project in its portfolio. Learn more at http://www.Opticks.info/ and http://www.HumansInSpaceArt.org/ OPTICKS employes a technology used by radio amateurs called Earth- Moon-Earth or Moonbounce in which the Moon is used as a natural reflector for radio signals. In October 2009 Daniela de Paulis and Jan van Muijlwijk PA3FXB started pioneering a new application of Moonbounce technology, called Visual Moonbounce, which allows sending images to the Moon and back, combining Radio Astronomy with amateur radio technologies. The title OPTICKS is inspired by Newton's discoveries of the light spectrum, reflection and refraction. Similarly, the colours composing an image - converted into radio signals - are bounced off the Moon (reflected and refracted) by its surface during each live performance. The performance is introduced by live sounds of amateurs radio signals captured by the Dwingeloo antenna tracking the moon. Watch a recording of the performance for the radio programme RaiTunes You can support the project by purchasing a limited edition t-shirt from this link https://fabrily.com/EarthAndMoon2 Google+ Hangout GAM AstroArt: Touching the Moon with Art & Footsteps https://plus.google.com/events/ckm4364t5f7fcg0m42rgb7br2lc Daniela de Paulis http://www.danieladepaulis.com/ Story source http://www.opticks.info/ [ANS thanks Southgate ARN for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- HAMSAT - VO-52 Completes 9 Years in Space It gives us great pleasure to inform that 'HAMSAT - VO-52' is successfully completing 9 years of fruitful services on 4th May 2014 and entering into her 10th year of services on 5th May. HAMSAT was launched as a piggy back aboard PSLV-C6 on 5th May 2005 (5-5-5). We do hope that the contribution of 'HAMSAT' by India/ISRO to the 'Global Amateur Radio Fraternity' has served its purpose. It gives us great pleasure and satisfaction to note that 'HAMSAT VO-52' has remained as one of the most sought after and favorite 'Linear Birds' among the radio amateurs for her sensitivity, strong down link signals, stability and the ease to work. Though expected to work for two years (mainly, considering the battery), HAMSAT VO-52 has really out lived and still doing strong. Latest telemetry indicates all the parameters and systems to be normal and satisfactory. We do hope that 'HAMSAT' would continue to provide her good services to 'Amateur Radio fraternity' for many more years. On this happy occasion, we place on records our sincere thanks and appreciations to, Chairman ISRO, Scientific Secretary ISRO, Director ISRO Satellite, Mission Director, Operations Director, 'HAMSAT' project team at various ISRO centres, AMSAT-India and Williams Leijenaar PE1RAH for their contribution in achieving this this milestone. [ANS thanks Mani VU2WMY/KJ6LRS for the above information --------------------------------------------------------------------- Commercial HDTV Streaming Live from ISS Now, live from space, it's Earth all the time! A new experiment called the High Definition Earth Viewing (HDEV) was launched on April 18, 2014 in the "trunk" on the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft and has been set up outside the International Space Station. The set of four commercial HD video cameras and is now operational, after being installed on the External Payload Facility of the ESA Columbus module this week. The cameras and electronics are enclosed in a pressurized box to provide protection to the equipment from the harsh environment of space. Watch the view from the ISS live on-line at: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/iss-hdev-payload Please note that the screen will appear black when the ISS is in orbital night. There also has been some downtime off and on that I've noted while watching this morning. This may be due to some initial setup/operation issues, or some occurrences of loss of signal. (Editor Note: This is not the HAMTV experiment.) [ANS thanks UniverseToday.com for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- AMSAT Office Relocated; Reopens Following 33 years of having an office in the same building in Silver Spring. MD the AMSAT office reopened on Friday, 2 MAY at a new address in Kensington, MD. With a new address there are also new numbers: Radio Amateur Satellite Corp. (AMSAT) 10605 Concord Ave. Suite 304 Kensington MD 20895-2526 Tel. (301) 822-4376 Fax. (301) 822-4371 WATS: (888) 322-6728 Individuals who call the old Silver Spring phone number will hear a message notifying them of the new number. The WATS number remains unchanged, but will not be redirected to the new location until Monday, 5 MAY. Martha's e-mail address remains unchanged. The AMSAT office was closed 25 APR - 1 MAY in order to provide focused attention on the relocation, packing and final preparations. The actual move took place on Tuesday afternoon, 29 APR and timed so that movers could unload at the new location after 1700 EDT so as to not interfere with normal business activity at the new location. Wednesday, 30 APR and Thursday, 1 MAY were spent finalizing the furniture arrangement, unpacking, and setting up the office electronics (phones/ computers/ fax machine). Many thanks to Perry Klein, W3PK; Bob Carpenter, W3OTC; Barbara Saragovitz (Martha's sister), and Barry Baines, WD4ASW for their "sweat equity" this week in helping Martha with the logistics of preparation and unpacking/setup as part of the actual execution of the relocation. Expect an article on the story behind the AMSAT office relocation to be published in the May/June 2014 issue of AMSAT JOURNAL. [ANS thanks AMSAT for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- AMSAT at the Dayton Hamvention -- Last call for volunteers The Dayton Hamvention is less than two weeks away! The 2014 Hamvention is May 16-18. We're excited about the plans for the AMSAT booth, with five areas covering multiple topics: (1) Beginner's Corner staffed by veteran operators; (2) Engineering & Education with a working prototype of Fox-1; (3) Satellite tracking software demos with SatPC32 and MacDoppler, and Yaesu, Alpha-Spid, and WRAPS rotors; (4) Live satellite QSO demonstrations; and (5) New and renewing membership specials, updated publications, and new shirts and hats. The annual AMSAT/TAPR dinner is Friday night with speaker Tom Clark, W3IO. On Saturday, there is a great line-up of speakers and topics at the AMSAT Forum. See the "Events" tab on www.amsat.org for the details. We've had a good response from our call for volunteers, but we could really use another 5-6 people. The interaction with AMSAT members, satellite operators, designers, and builders makes the whole experience a lot of fun. Meet or renew acquaintances, exchange operating tips, and find out what antennas, software and equipment other AMSAT members use. We currently expect all of the AMSAT senior officers and 6 of the 7 board members to be there too. Whether you're available for only a couple of hours or if you can spend the entire weekend with us, your help would be greatly appreciated. Please send an e-mail to Steve, n9ip(a)amsat.org if you can help. If you sent an e-mail, but didn't get a response, please try again. [ANS thanks Steve N9IP for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- ARISS News + A Successful contact was made between Dixon Elementary School Holly Ridge, Norh Carolina USA and Astronaut Koichi Wakata KC5ZTA using callsign NA1SS. The contact began 2014-04-21 18:05 UTC and lasted about nine and a half minutes. Contact was direct via NC4OC. ARISS Mentor was K4SQC. + A Successful contact was made between Aboshinishi Elementary School Himeji-City Japan and Astronaut Koichi Wakata KC5ZTA using callsign NA1SS. The contact began 2014-04-29 09:05 UTC and lasted about nine and a half minutes. Contact was direct via 8N3AB. ARISS Mentor was 7M3TJZ. + A Successful contact was made between Hidden Oaks Middle School Prior Lake, Minnesota USA and Astronaut Koichi Wakata KC5ZTA using callsign NA1SS. The contact began 2014-05-01 16:28 UTC and lasted about nine and a half minutes. Contact was direct via NR0T. ARISS Mentor was AG9D. Upcoming ARISS Contact Schedule >From 2014-05-12 to 2014-06-15, ARISS will be going into a period of no contacts as there will be no hams onboard. Due to Koichi Wakata's, KC5ZTA, increased work load beginning 2014- 03-11, ARISS has had to move 3 schools back to our long term waiting list. We hope to get to them in the fall of 2014. There are also several other schools that are on the list for possible postponement to the fall. [ANS thanks ARISS, and Charlie AJ9N for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- Satellite Shorts From All Over + Radio ham launches Spud into Space for TV show http://tinyurl.com/ANS124-Spud [ANS thanks AMSAT-UK for the above information] + KickSat Sprite deployment may not happen http://tinyurl.com/ANS124-SpriteNoGo [ANS thanks AMSAT-UK for the above information] + Members of Radioclub Cancun will be QRV with the special callsign XE3RALLY from May 7 to 12 during the Rally Maya Mexico car race. Activity will be on 40 to 10 meters. This includes activity on satellite FO-29 from the Yucatan Peninsula, and some rare grids as well. QSL via XE3RCC. [ANS thanks ARRL DX Bulletin for the above information] + Paul Stoetzer reports "It looks like eclipse season has started for AO-7 as it was reported to still be in Mode B this morning over Europe and South America. This means it should be in Mode B daily for the next 16 weeks or so. Frank k4feg explains, Typically what this means is that the satellite will lose all power and by default go into "Start-Up" mode every time it comes back into the sunlight. Typically Mode B or C are the 1st mode of operations and the loss of sunlight prevents mode switches to A. Predictions had shown that the eclipse would occur either May 1 or May 2, depending on the orbital model you used, and May 2nd over the USA, AO-7 was in mode B. I have calculated the end of the eclipse cycle but I will update satellite information to assure a more definite date for AO-7 to go back into full sunlight. [ANS thanks Paul N8HM, Frank K4FEG and AMSAT-BB for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- /EX In addition to regular membership, AMSAT offers membership in the President's Club. Members of the President's Club, as sustaining donors to AMSAT Project Funds, will be eligible to receive addi- tional benefits. Application forms are available from the AMSAT Office. Primary and secondary school students are eligible for membership at one-half the standard yearly rate. Post-secondary school students enrolled in at least half time status shall be eligible for the stu- dent rate for a maximum of 6 post-secondary years in this status. Contact Martha at the AMSAT Office for additional student membership information. 73, This week's ANS Editor, EMike McCardel, KC8YLD kc8yld at amsat dot org

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ANS-114 AMSAT News Service Special Bulletin - AMSAT-NA Is Moving!
by JoAnne Maenpaa 25 Apr '14

25 Apr '14

SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-114.01 ANS-114 AMSAT News Service Special Bulletin - AMSAT-NA Is Moving! AMSAT News Service Bulletin 114.01 >From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. April 24, 2014 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-114.01 After 30 years in the same location, AMSAT-NA is moving to a new office. The office will be closed Friday, 25 April, and will reopen Friday, 2 May. During the move, our e-mail will be operational, however responses will be delayed. Purchases through the AMSAT Store may be made normally, but they will not be processed until the move is completed. Our new street address will be: Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation (AMSAT-NA) 10605 Concord St, #304 Kensington, MD 20895 For those visiting, we are about 5 miles north of the old office, outside I-495, the Capital Beltway. During the move, we are changing some phone numbers. After the new office opens, the new numbers will be: >From the US call toll free: (888) 322-6728 (Unchanged) >From all other locations call: (301) 822-4376 FAX: (301) 822-4371 The deterioration of the current building has been discussed in the AMSAT Journal Apogee View. Martha Saragovitz and the rest of the office team have gone to great lengths to minimize disruptions under very trying, uncomfortable, and sometimes unsafe circumstances in the old office. Finally, the county authorities ordered the building closed. It will take some time to get the new office fully up and running. However, the improvements in building facilities and especially safety will be worth it. If you are in the area after the move, give us a call, and come by and visit. [ANS thanks AMSAT President Barry Baines, WD4ASW for the above information] /EX --- This email is free from viruses and malware because avast! Antivirus protection is active. http://www.avast.com

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ANS-005
by Joe Spier 20 Apr '14

20 Apr '14

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

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