AMSAT NEWS SERVICE ANS-009
ANS is a free, weekly, news and information service of AMSAT North America, The Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation. ANS 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.
Please send any amateur satellite news or reports to:
In this edition: * OSCAR SKN Best Fist Nominations Are Due * AO-51 Power Management Update * SO-67 Repeater to Resume Operations * ARISSat-1/RadioSkaf-V Update * Satellite Meeting in South Africa * OSCAR-11 REPORT 31 December 2010 * Satellite Presentation at Murray State University, KY * ARISS School Contacts Resume for 2011 * AMSAT-UK's John Heaton, G1YYH Silent Key * Vietnam CubeSat to Launch in 2011
SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-009.01 OSCAR SKN Best Fist Nominations Are Due
AMSAT News Service Bulletin 009.01 From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. January 9, 2011 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-009.01
Ray, W2RS thanks all who participated in AMSAT's Straight Key Night on OSCAR 2011. Please remember to nominate someone you worked for 'Best Fist.' Your nominee need not have the best fist of those you heard, just of those you worked. Nominations should be sent to [email protected]. A list of those nominated will be published in ANS in early February, and in a forthcoming issue of The AMSAT Journal.
[ANS thanks Ray, W2RS, for the above information]
/EX
SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-009.02 AO-51 Power Management Update
AMSAT News Service Bulletin 009.02 From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. January 9, 2011 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-009.02
Mark Hammond, N8MH notes that AO-51's power management feature has been operational now that this satellite is entering eclipses and its batteries cannot maintain full power when the solar panels are not being illuminated.
Mark noted, "The good news is that eclipses are pretty short right now and are occurring at early local time in the Northern Hemisphere. So many aren't even awake yet. Looking longer term--by early March 2011 we will have a period of full sun again, that lasts a couple of months. Then we are back into eclipses for a long, long--and we'll have ecli- pses that will get up to 30 minutes in length! If that's over your QTH, that means you can't work AO-51 potentially for a whole pass. Final operating details remain to be determined to see exactly what the orbit and eclipses will look like at that time."
Mark has posted a file at: http://tinyurl.com/2358a3x (amsat.org) captured during the January 4 solar eclipse. You can see the normal eclipses of AO-51 every 100 mins (just over 14 times each day). Now, look right in the middle--see what is a double dip? That a normal eclipse AND an extra one from the partial solar eclipse.
The AO-51 Command Team requests that users continue to post their observations of AO-51's operating condition on the Live OSCAR Satel- lite Status Page: http://oscar.dcarr.org/index.php.
Keep up to date with the latest Command Team and Operations Group AO-51 News at: http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/echo/CTNews.php
[ANS thanks Mark, N8MH, for the above information]
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SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-009.03 SO-67 Repeater to Resume Operations
AMSAT News Service Bulletin 009.03 From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. January 9, 2011 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-009.03
With the troublesome controller reprogrammed it is hoped that Sumbandila will resume its repeater schedule next week.
Four passes over South Africa during the evening of 8 January will be scheduled as a test. Please report your observations at David Carr's live OSCAR status page: http://oscar.dcarr.org/
The weekly schedule will be published at http://amsatsa.org.za/ once full operations resume.
[ANS thanks Johann, ZR1CBC, for the above information]
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SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-009.04 ARISSat-1/RadioSkaf-V Update
AMSAT News Service Bulletin 009.04 From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. January 9, 2011 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-009.04
The ARISSat-1/RadioSkaf-V team has faced a number of challenges since the two amateur radio experiments were crated and shipped to NASA Johnson Center in early October.
However, Gould Smith, AMSAT's ARISSat-1 project manager recently told ANS that, "We are very pleased to report that the flight unit and backup arrived in Moscow on December 8th, 2010 and were delivered to RSC-Energia in Moscow on December 29th, 2010. We now understand that the Russian team is working on testing and integrating the Kursk Experiment and Silver-Zinc battery into the flight unit during their Russian Orthodox Christmas holidays." Gould went on to note that the flight unit is still scheduled to fly to the Baikonur Cosmodrome on January 11th, 2011 where it will be attached to Progress vehicle 41P. The Progress vehicle is scheduled to launch up to the ISS at the end of January.
Once ARISSat-1 is on board the ISS, crew members will re-attach the handles, install the battery, replace the dummy loads with the real antennas and perform a quick power-on test. The Extra Vehicular Activity (EVA) to deploy the satellite is still scheduled for the end of February 2011.
Needless to say, the ARISSat-1 team is excited about all the effort being made by RSC-Energia to complete integration, and remains cautiously optimistic that all will continue to go according to schedule.
[ANS thanks Gould, WA4SXM, for the above information]
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SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-009.05 Satellite Meeting in South Africa
AMSAT News Service Bulletin 009.05 From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. January 9, 2011 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-009.05
Eddie Leighton, ZS6BNS, will be anchoring a meeting on satellites on Saturday 15 January beginning at 10AM at South Africa's National Amateur Radio Centre.
Learn more about operating amateur radio satellites, how to build a simple satellite antenna, how to track and all the ins and outs of this fascinating part of Amateur Radio.
Find out how you can get involved in the SA AMSAT CubeSat project.
The NARC is situated at Sender Technology Park, Octave Road, Radiokop, Roodepoort.
[ANS thanks the SouthGateARC News Site for the above information]
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SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-009.06 OSCAR-11 REPORT 31 December 2010
AMSAT News Service Bulletin 009.06 From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. January 9, 2011 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-009.06
At the present time OSCAR-11 (AKA UO-11 or UoSAT-2) is now in a very stable and predictable mode of operation. Between the period of November 30 to December 31, 2010 the satellite has been heard from December 10-20 and again is on since December 31. It is ex- pected to switch-off on January 10, 2011 under control of its inter- nal timer.
Excellent signals have been reported from stations located around the world, and good copy obtained from decoded telemetry frames. The satellite is now transmitting during eclipses, although signals are weaker at those times. This indicates that there is still some capacity remaining in the battery.
The on-board clock is now very stable. It gained seven seconds during December.
The VHF beacon frequency is 145.826 MHz. AFSK FM ASCII Telemetry
Reception reports have been received from Horatio CX8AF, John KB2HSH, Francisco PY9FP and Mike DK3WN. Many thanks for those and to everyone who posted reports on the satellite status website.
If you hear UO-11 please post the information on the Live OSCAR Satellite Status Page: http://oscar.dcarr.org/index.php. Reports around the expected times of switch-on and switch-off are of special interest.
At the present time, while OSCAR-11 is operating in a predictable way Clive, G3CWV no longer needs direct reports or files by e-mail. Visit Clive's UO-11 web page http://www.g3cwv.co.uk/oscar11.htm for links to a full UO-11 status report, a short audio clip to help you identify the satellite and a file of the last telemetry received. The website also contains an archive of news & telemetry data which is updated from time to time, and details about using a sound card or hardware demodulators for data capture. There is also software for capturing data, and decoding ASCII telemetry.
[ANS thanks Clive, G3CWV, for the above information]
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SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-009.07 Satellite Presentation at Murray State University, KY
AMSAT News Service Bulletin 009.07 From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. January 9, 2011 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-009.07
AMSAT area coordinator Clint Bradford, K6LCS, will be presenting his "Working Amateur Satellites With Your HT" session at the February 1, 2011 meeting of the Murray State University Amateur Radio Club. ALL are welcome to attend.
"MSUARC has been serving their region for fifty years," writes Clint. "I am really looking forward to meeting the group!"
(Wait a sec - isn't Clint in California? What is he doing in Kentucky? Too many frequent flier miles?)
Clint's out in Southern California - but has prepared a custom slide show for MSUARC, which will be displayed as Skype handles the session's audio. "I'd much rather be there in person - but this arrangement has worked quite successfully in the past. We'll have a great time!"
Clint has full information on his web page: http://www.work-sat.com
[ANS thanks Clint, K6LCS, for the above information]
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SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-009.08 ARISS School Contacts Resume for 2011
AMSAT News Service Bulletin 009.08 From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. January 9, 2011 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-009.08
ARISS Operations Team Mentor Charlie Sufana, AJ9N noted that the school contact schedule is being resumed following the recent crew change on board the International Space Station. The Expedition 26 crew current on orbit includes Dmitry Kondratyev, Catherine G. Coleman, KC5ZTH and Paolo Nespoli, IZØJPA.
The first school contact occurred on Saturday, January 8 with the Uni- versità degli studi di Bari "Cittadella Mediterranea della Scienza", Bari, Ba, Italy, direct via IZ7EVR.
Additional school contacts continue with this planned schedule:
Wednesday January 12 08:08:20 UTC Tsutsujigaoka Minami Elementary School in Akishima City (Tokyo), Japan, direct via 8J1TME
Wednesday January 12 10:54:52 UTC Istituto Comprensivo Marco Polo-Viani Scuola Secondaria 1° Grado, Viareggio, Lucca, Italy, and Istituto Suore Mantellate, Viareggio, Lucca, Italy direct via IZ5PVC. Simulcast on: http://www.versiliawebtv.it/streaming/reteversilia.html
Saturday January 15 09:02:16 UTC Istituto Comprensivo Via Toscana 2 Civitavecchia, Roma, Italy, direct via IKØWGF. Simulcast on: http://www.livestream.com/AMSAT_Italia
The Total number of ARISS ISS to earth school contacts is 565.
ARISS has posted a frequency chart for packet, voice, and cross band repeater modes showing Doppler correction at: http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/ISS_frequencies_and_Doppler_ correction.rtf (careful with the line wrap).
Finally, astronauts Michael Fossum, KF5AQG, and Satoshi Furukawa, KE5DAW, are scheduled for ARISS prebrief sessions this month. Both are scheduled to fly with Expedition 28 in June 2011.
[ANS thanks ARISS Mentor Charlie, AJ9N, and Carol, KB3LKI, for the above information]
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SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-009.09 AMSAT-UK's John Heaton, G1YYH Silent Key
AMSAT News Service Bulletin 009.09 From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. January 9, 2011 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-009.09
AMSAT-UK Hon Sec Jim G3WGM wrote, "It is with a heavy heart that I have to report the death of AMSAT-UK committee member John Heaton, G1YYH. He died in hospital in Manchester UK on Christmas Eve, having been admitted two weeks earlier. He had not been well for several months prior to his death."
"John was the AMSAT-UK Webmaster for many years, and a regular attender at the annual AMSAT-UK Colloquium. He always gave his time and consid- erable expertise very generously. He will be terribly missed by his friends and colleagues. He was a real gentleman."
[ANS thanks AMSAT-UK and Jim, G3WGM, for the above information]
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SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-009.10 Vietnam CubeSat to Launch in 2011
AMSAT News Service Bulletin 009.10 From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. January 9, 2011 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-009.10
Satellite news carried on the SouthGateARC news site reported that a Vietnamese Amateur Radio CubeSat, F-1, is slated for launch towards the end of next year.
The F-1 CubeSat will carry 2 independent transceivers (Yaesu VX-3R & MHX L400) using amateur radio 145 and 437MHz bands. The transmission speed will be 1200bps and higher using FM AFSK & GMSK modulation, AX.25, KISS protocol. It will carry a low resolution C328 camera with 640x480 resolution.
The IARU satellite frequency coordination committee have agreed a down- link frequency of 437.485MHz and it is hoped to launch in the 4th quarter of 2011.
Vietnam F-1 CubeSat on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=116436068290
F-1 on IARU Satellite Frequency Coordination pages http://www.amsatuk.me.uk/iaru/ finished_detail.php?serialnum=150
[ANS thanks the SouthGateARC News site 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 additional benefits. Application forms are available from the AMSAT Office.
73, This week's ANS Editor, wishing everyone a happy new year, Lee McLamb, KU4OS ku4os at amsat dot org