AMSAT NEWS SERVICE ANS-102
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.
[Ed. note - Apologies for the delay in the distribution of the ANS bulletins this week. Our regular editor is dealing with a family emergency.]
In this edition:
* TAPR/AMSAT Dinner Featured Speaker at Dayton * AMSAT Hotel Room Reservations for Dayton Hamvention * AMSAT at the Dayton Hamvention -- Call for volunteers * AMSAT Awards Update * Updates to Format in AMSAT Weekly Keplerian Elements Distribution * AMSAT on Newsline Video Update
SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-102.01 ANS-095 AMSAT News Service Weekly Bulletins
AMSAT News Service Bulletin 095.01
From AMSAT HQ KENSINGTON, MD.
DATE April 12, 2015 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-102.01
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TAPR/AMSAT Dinner Featured Speaker at Dayton
The ninth annual TAPR/AMSAT Banquet will be held on Friday night, May 15, at 1830 EDT. 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 Michael Ossmann, AD0NR, "Adventures of a Hacker Turned Ham". Michael Ossmann, AD0NR, grew up as a computer nerd embracing the hacker ethos. Eventually Michael became very interested in the security of wireless systems such as remote keyless entry, garage door openers, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth. He designed Ubertooth One, a Bluetooth sniffer that was successfully funded on Kickstarter. Not one to rest, Michael later designed and successfully funded HackRF One, an open source SDR platform that attracted the attention of the amateur radio community. Michael will talk about his unique perspective on the community as an outsider looking in, why he resisted getting a license for years, and why he finally decided to join. Michael will also share his thoughts on what it means to be a hacker, what it means to be a ham, and what amateur radio may look like in the decades to come.
Tickets ($35 each) must be purchased online in advance 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 open at 1830 EDT, with the dinner commencing around 1900 EDT.
[ANS thanks the AMSAT Hamvention Posse for the above information]
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AMSAT Hotel Room Reservations for Dayton Hamvention
Once again, this year, as in previous years AMSAT has reserved a block of rooms for the Dayton Hamvention at the Country Inn & Suites in Fairborn, Ohio. The cost is $109 per night. The cutoff date for reservations is April 12.
First priority will be given to AMSAT members assisting with the booth operations, satellite operating demonstrations, and the AMSAT Forum presentations. Call Martha at the AMSAT office at 301-822-4376 to give her your arrival/departure dates and your credit card information.
[ANS thanks Martha at the AMSAT Office for the above information]
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AMSAT at the Dayton Hamvention -- Call for volunteers
Last year, we had 52 people assist with the AMSAT booth at the Dayton. It was the efforts of those volunteers that made the 2014 Dayton Hamvention a success for AMSAT.
The interaction with AMSAT members, satellite operators, designers, and builders makes the whole experience a lot of fun.
The 2015 Hamvention is May 15-17. Would you consider helping AMSAT at Dayton this year?
Whether you're available for only a couple of hours or if you can spend the entire weekend with us, your help would be greatly appreciated.
Please send an e-mail to Steve, n9ip at amsat.org if you can help.
[ANS thanks AMSAT's Hamvention Chairman Steve Belter, N9IP for the above information]
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AMSAT Awards Update
Here are the awards that have been submitted thus far in 2015.
Here are our latest inductions into some of the AMSAT awards community.
The following have entered into the Satellite Communicators Club for making their first satellite QSO.
Nicolas Romero, KG5BON Steve Kristoff, AI9IN Hope Lea, KM4IPF Faith Hannah Lea, WA4BBC Zechariah Lea, WX4TVJ
To see all the awards visit http://www.amsat.org or http://www.amsatnet.com/awards.html
[ANS thanks Bruce Paige, KK5DO, AMSAT Director Contests and Awards, for the above information]
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Updates to Format in AMSAT Weekly Keplerian Elements Distribution
The AMSAT verbose format will no longer be distributed by AMSAT email. This is the element set that looks like the following:
Satellite: AO-07 Catalog number: 07530 Epoch time: 15021.49149419 Element set: 174 Inclination: 101.5028 deg RA of node: 001.3581 deg Eccentricity: 0.0011670 Arg of perigee: 228.2064 deg Mean anomaly: 245.5090 deg Mean motion: 12.53610988 rev/day Decay rate: -1.6e-07 rev/day^2 Epoch rev: 83887 Checksum: 279
Please note that the following NASA 2-line (TLE) format will continue to be sent. The NASA 2-line TLE) format looks like this:
AO-07 1 07530U 74089B 15021.49149419 -.00000016 00000-0 17235-3 0 1747 2 07530 101.5028 001.3581 0011670 228.2064 245.5090 12.53610988838873
On January 22, 2015 I requested comments on discontinuing the AMSAT verbose format and the comments that I have received to date indicate that very few people would be affected by this change. The AMSAT verbose format has out lived its usefulness. Those that are affected by this change are considering work-arounds to allow them to use the NASA 2-line (TLE) format. Note that most satellite tracking programs readily accept the NASA 2-line (TLE) format if the correct upload options are chosen.
The NASA 2-line elements will continue being sent each week as they are now. In effect, the weekly email that you now receive will consist only of one email entitled orbYYDDD.2l.amsat (for example). The YY in the email title is the year (15 for 2015) and DDD is the Julian day of the year (022 for January 22nd).
The email entitled orbYYDDD.amsat (for example) will NOT be sent.
One more time, the weekly NASA 2-line element (NASA TLE) format email will continue to be sent each week as usual.
Joe Fitzgerald notes that another source of current Keplerian 2-line data (TLE) is now available. The following URL has current data for the AMSAT satellite list including the ISS and is updated at least daily using the latest ISS elements from Johnson Spaceflight Center.
http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ftp/keps/current/nasabare.txt
New satellites are added as soon as possible - so there is no need to wait for the Thursday bulletin if you need an update right now.
[ANS thank Ray Hoad, WA5QGD, AMSAT Keeper of the Keps, for the above information]
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AMSAT on Newsline Video Update
AMSAT gets a nice mention in the Amateur Radio Newsline video report this week:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=HXBAsjdt0bA
At about the 3 minute point Newsline reports on our ANS bulletin about the new 2015 updated "Getting Started" book will be released at Dayton.
[ANS thanks the Amateur Radio Newsline for the above information
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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, JoAnne Maenpaa, K9JKM k9jkm@amsat.org