AMSAT NEWS SERVICE ANS-151
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:
* 2015 AMSAT-NA Board of Directors Nomination Deadline Approaching * Nick Lance, KC5KBO, SK * Update - VP2MKV Satellite Operation June 11-20 * Planetary Society's LighSail Satellite Stops Transmitting * 29 MHz – the forgotten frequency for amateur radio satellites
SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-151.01 ANS-151 AMSAT News Service Weekly Bulletins
AMSAT News Service Bulletin 151.01 From AMSAT HQ Kensington, MD. May 31, 2015 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-151.01
2015 AMSAT-NA Board of Directors Nomination Deadline Approaching
It is time to submit nominations for the upcoming AMSAT-NA Board of Directors election. Four director's terms expire this year: Barry Baines, WD4ASW, Alan Biddle, WA4SCA, Mark Hammond, N8MH, and Jerry Buxton, N0JY. In addition, up to two Alternates may be elected for one year terms.
A valid nomination requires either one Member Society or five current individual members in good standing to nominate an AMSAT-NA member for Director. Written nominations, consisting of the nominee's name and call, and the nominating individual's names, calls and individual signatures should be mailed to: AMSAT-NA, 10605 Concord St, #304 Kensington, MD 20895-2526. In addition to traditional submissions of written nominations, which is the preferred method, the intent to nominate someone may be made by electronic means. These include e- mail, Fax, or electronic image of a petition. Electronic petitions should be sent to [email protected] or Faxed to (301) 822-4371. No matter what means is used, petitions MUST arrive no later than June 15th at the AMSAT-NA office. If the nomination is a traditional written nomination, no other action is required. If it is other than this, i.e. electronic, a verifying traditional written petition MUST be received at the AMSAT-NA office at the above address within 7 days following the close of nominations on June 15th.
ELECTRONIC SUBMISSIONS WITHOUT THIS SECOND, WRITTEN VERIFICATION ARE NOT VALID UNDER THE EXISTING AMSAT-NA BYLAWS.
[ANS thanks Alan, WA4SCA, for the above information]
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Nick Lance, KC5KBO, SK
On behalf of the ARISS-International team, it is with great sadness that we announce the passing of long-time ARISS team member Nick Lance, KC5KBO, SK. Nick passed away on May 24 from an aneurism of the aorta. Nick was a smart, caring, considerate and helpful person that loved the amateur radio hobby. As the primary amateur radio license trainer for the ISS astronauts, Nick played an integral role in encouraging and training countless astronauts (US, Canada, Japan and Europe) to pursue their amateur radio license and become active on ARISS. He inspired and trained dozens of NASA's aerospace education specialists (who talk to schoolteachers nationwide) to get their ham tickets. He also taught a "Hamster" course to middle schoolers, inspiring them to pursue careers in technology through Amateur Radio and ARISS activities.
Personally, I enjoyed working with Nick both as a NASA engineer and an amateur radio operator. I will miss his quick wit and sense of humor. Nick will be deeply missed by many.
A Celebration of Life for Nick Lance will be held Sunday, June 14, 2015, 2 p.m. at the Gilruth Center. A map to the public entrance of the Gilruth Recreation Center, Building 207 http://ewh.ieee.org/r5/galveston_bay/events/GilruthCenterMapandDirections.pd...
A flag will be flown over Mission Control and presented to Renee and the family.
Our deepest sympathy goes out to all that knew Nick, especially Renee, his wife, and all his family members.
Frank H. Bauer, KA3HDO ARISS International Chairman
[ANS thanks Frank, KA3HDO, for the above information]
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Update - VP2MKV Satellite Operation June 11-20
Operators Barry/N0KV, Ken/W0ETT, Greg/W0ZA and Jim/WD0E will be active as VP2MKV from Gingerbread Hill, St. Peters (grid square FK86), between June 10-18th. Activity will be on 80-2 meters using CW, SSB and RTTY. They will also participate in the ARRL VHF Contest and some satellite operations (FO-29 only on selected passes). The two primary radios will be Elecraft K3's with 500 watt amplifiers. Antennas include a Mosley Classic 33 on 10/15/20, a folding hexbeam by Folding Antennas (Germany) on 20-10 meters, verticals on 30 and 40 meters, a dipole on 75-80 meters, and an M2 5 element 6 meter beam. They will run 500 watts on 6m SSB/CW and FSK441. A 6 meter beacon is planned and will be on 50.102 MHz when the station is not manned, and the receiver will be active between beacon transmissions to listen for calls. The primary callsign for the operation will be VP2MKV, and VP2MTT will probably be used on 6 meters. Near 24 hour operation is planned.
Tentative satellite pass plan for VP2MKV operation: They will attempt to be on the first two FO-29 ascending node passes June 11th through 20th. If time allows they may be on the third ascending node those days. Those passes happen in late morning to mid afternoon Montserrat time. On those passes they will look first for South America when the satellite is south of them, then North America, then Europe during the short mutual window. If there are 2 meter or 6 meter terrestrial openings during the VHF contest June 13th and 14th, they will not be on satellite at those times.
Logs will be uploaded to LoTW soon after the group returns to the US. Paper QSLs via N0KV, direct or via the bureau. US addressees send SASE; addressees outside the US send SASE plus 2 USDs for return postage. Use of ClubLog has not been finalized at this time. Additional information will be posted under VP2MKV on QRZ.com.
[ANS thanks Ohio/Penn DX Bulletin No. 1215 for the above information]
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Planetary Society's LighSail Satellite Stops Transmitting
Excerpt from the Planetary Society's page http://planet.ly/0gVop As of late Friday afternoon, LightSail was continuing to operate normally. The spacecraft’s ground stations at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and Georgia Tech were receiving data on each pass. Power and temperature readings were trending stably, and the spacecraft was in good health.
But inside the spacecraft’s Linux-based flight software, a problem was brewing. Every 15 seconds, LightSail transmits a telemetry beacon packet. The software controlling the main system board writes corresponding information to a file called beacon.csv. If you’re not familiar with CSV files, you can think of them as simplified spreadsheets-in fact, most can be opened with Microsoft Excel.
As more beacons are transmitted, the file grows in size. When it reaches 32 megabytes-roughly the size of ten compressed music files-it can crash the flight system. The manufacturer of the avionics board corrected this glitch in later software revisions. But alas, LightSail’s software version doesn’t include the update.
Late Friday, the LightSail team received a heads-up warning them of the vulnerability. A fix was quickly devised to prevent the spacecraft from crashing, and it was scheduled to be uploaded during the next ground station pass. But before that happened, LightSail’s automated chirps fell silent. The telemetry data is sent on a downlink of 437.435 MHz, AX.25, 9600 bps FSK. The last data packet received from the spacecraft was May 22 at 21:31 UTC (5:31 p.m. EDT).
A LightSail map tracking application is at http://sail.planetary.org/missioncontrol/
[ANS thanks JoAnne, K9JKM, for the above information]
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29 MHz – the forgotten frequency for amateur radio satellites
Hans van de Groenendaaal ZS6AKV writes in the EngineerIT magazine about the potential for 29 MHz as a satellite uplink band.
Universities and other scientific research institutions are using portions of the amateur spectrum for their CubeSat’s which has caused the 145 and 435 MHz amateur-satellite band segments to be very crowded, leading to an increasing number of satellite builders to explore alternatives.
For many, such as those requiring single-channel bandwidth greater than approximately 12.5 kHz, the best answer will be found in the microwave bands. However, for those who can use it, the International Amateur Radio Union (IARU) satellite frequency coordination process has now opened another alternative: 29 MHz uplinks.
Read the EngineerIT article at http://www.ee.co.za/article/29-mhz-forgotten-frequency-amateur-radio- satellites.html
IARU Satellite Frequency Coordination http://www.iaru.org/satellite.html
[ANS thanks AMSAT-UK 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, Lee McLamb, KU4OS ku4os at amsat dot org