AMSAT NEWS SERVICE ANS-076
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: * AMSAT Store Upgrade * MIR +10 * AO-16 Report * Satellite Shorts * AMSAT-UK Colloquium - Call for Papers * Satellite articles * ARISS Status - 10 March 2008
SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-076.01 AMSAT Store Upgrade
AMSAT News Service Bulletin 076.01 From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. March 16, 2008 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-076.01
The AMSAT store on the website is obtaining a long required upgrade for many reasons. During this period, you could normaly call Martha at HQ in Silver Spring, MD. Unfortunately, Martha is going on a vacation taking her away from duties until the 25th. Be patient until she returns or the Store re-opens for business as usual.
[ANS thanks Gould, WA4SXM, for the above information]
/EX
SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-076.02 MIR +10
AMSAT News Service Bulletin 076.02 From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. March 16, 2008 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-076.02
ISS Amateur Radio Status: March 11, 2008 By Miles Mann WF1F, Slow Scan TV from Space Station Mir, 10 years later. On December 12, 1998 the crew members of the Russian Space station Mir activated the Marex SSTV system. Over the next two years the system broadcasted over 20,000 SSTV images back to earth via Amateur Radio. te the 10 year anniversary of the successful imaging project, the Marx team is planning on upgrading our web page system to accommodate the many images that were transmitted during the projects 2 year run. In 1998 we just did not have the resources in place to handle the hundreds of images coming in every day. As a result only a small select on of the images were ever posted for public enjoyment.
73 Miles WF1F MAREX-MG
[ANS thanks Miles, WF1F, for the above information]
/EX
SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-076.03 AO-16 Report
AMSAT News Service Bulletin 076.03 From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. March 16, 2008 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-076.03
The AO-16 Command Team invites radio amateurs to continue to use the voice mode of operations. Mark, N8MH says, "The plan is to continue this mode of voice operations until further notice."
AO-16 has been in full sunlight (no eclipse periods at all) for several months. That is about to change later this month! Short eclipse periods will begin at the end of March and will increase steadily until early July--at which point the eclipse periods will increase to about 26 minutes each orbit. We'll have to watch this old bird and its batteries as the eclipse periods increase.
The S-band beacon is not operational at this time. The exact status of the S-band transmitter remains unknown.
The AO-16 Command Team has updated the weekly satellite report entry for this satellite:
AO-16 PACSAT Catalog number: 20439 Launch Date: January 22, 1990
Status: TESTING - VOICE Current Mode: V/U
Uplink: 145.900 MHz RESERVED 145.920 MHz FM VOICE 145.940 MHz RESERVED 145.960 MHz RESERVED
Downlink: 437.026 MHz USB VOICE
[1200-baud PSK-MBL Telemetry Only]
Mode-S Beacon: 2401.1428 MHz [No Future Operations Planed]
Mode and Antenna Polarization: U: RC 437.050 MHz RHCP PSK 437.026 MHz LHCP V: Linear
[ANS thanks Mark, N8MH, for the above information]
/EX
SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-076.04 Satellite Shorts
AMSAT News Service Bulletin 076.04 From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. March 16, 2008 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-076.04
#1. AMSAT and TAPR will again have a combined Banquet during the 2008 Dayton Hamvention. Unfortunately the Air Force is no longer offering the museum for non-military events. The 2008 AMSAT/TAPR Banquet will be Friday night, May 16 at the Kohler Presidential Banquet Center in Kettering, OH. Banquet times, the menu and the cost will be announced shortly, but all are expected to be similar to past banquets. Mark you calendar for Friday, May 16 and join your AMSAT and TAPR friends for an enjoyable evening.
#2. The AMSAT Engineering video featuring Bob McGwier had to be moved. The new URL is mms://media.wmfd.com/amsat/EngMovie08.wmv Bob discusses the engineering team plans for the next year. They have a number of things on their plate and it looks like a productive year for AMSAT Engineering. Thanks to Rob and Gunther Meisse and WMFD for hosting the video. We have a number of other amateur videos in production.
#3. We are evaluating placing the current AO-51 mode on the front page of the AMSAT web site for a few weeks. We will change the display as the mode changes. You can see the entire month's schedule at http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/echo/CTNews.php.
Thanks, Gould
[ANS thanks Gould, WA4SXM, for the above information]
/EX
SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-076.05 AMSAT-UK Colloquium - Call for Papers
AMSAT News Service Bulletin 076.05 From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. March 16, 2008 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-076.05
AMSAT-UK Colloquium - Call for Papers
This is the first call for speakers for the 22nd Amsat-UK Colloquium which will be held at Surrey University, Guildford, Surrey, U.K., from Friday 25th July to Sunday 27th July 2007.
Details of this and previous events can be found at: http://www.uk.amsat.org/content/view/32/42/
Amsat-UK invite speakers, about amateur radio space and associated activities, for this event. They are also invited to submit papers for the "Proceedings" document which will be published at the same time but printed papers are not mandatory. We normally prefer authors to present talks themselves rather than having someone else give them in the authors' absence. We also welcome "unpresented" papers for the Proceedings document.
Offers of talks should be submitted as soon as possible; the final date for full documents to be received is late-June 2007 in order that the "Proceedings" document be available to participants.
Submissions should be sent *ONLY* to G4DPZ, via the following routes:
Internet e-mail: dave @ g4dpz dot me dot uk
SnailMail: QTHR from http://www.qrz.com
AMSAT-UK also invite anyone with requests for Program Topics to submit them as soon as possible to G4DPZ. Invitations for any papers on specific subjects will be included in the future call. Likewise if anyone knows of a good speaker, please send contact and other information to G4DPZ.
73
Dave G4DPZ
[ANS thanks Dave, G4DPZ, for the above information]
/EX
SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-076.06 Satellite articles
AMSAT News Service Bulletin 076.06 From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. March 16, 2008 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-076.06
Hi all,
I have published several articles in relation to ham satellites in AMSAT and other magazines such as URE, CQ-DL, Megahertz Magazine and several Webs. But most of them were in Spanish. I have translated them into English, you can find the following issues:
- The CJU antenna. It was designed by EB4DKA and EA4CYQ to improve the UHF reception with your HT, it is thought to uplink with your VHF mobile station. You will receive the UHF downlink in the same way a fix satellite station.
- The IOio antenna. It was designed by EA4CYQ to work V/U and U/V amateur satellites with an HT. It has an amazing performance, it is even better than the Arrow antenna in some features.
- A dual band portable yagui antenna. This is a very well known antenna into the amateur satellites world. Here you can find how to build it with normal stuff and an impressive performance.
- The EGGBEATER II and TPM II antennas. They were designed by Jerry K5OE. In this article I tell my experience at the beginning in the amateur satellites world and all the vicissitudes to work amateur satellites from my shack with the minimal equipment. Here you will find all the details to build these fantastic antennas.
- The 2.4GHz DISH ANTENNA. Taking advantage of my AO-40 experience I could go more deeply into the microwaves world. Here you can find all the details to build two different 2.4GHz dish feed systems, which you will be able to use in wireless terrestrial communications.
- The LINEAR TRANSPONDERS. A lot of amateur satellites use this system. This article will help you to understand how they work.
- HF or SATELLITES?. I try to demonstrate with this article that a satellite fix station is at least as good as an HF station. You will get the same performance with small antennas and low power out.
- The DATA CONNECTOR. This connector has much more possibilities than to be hooked to a TNC. In this article I study its features and I propose to use it with a PC soundcard, to receive meteorological satellites and I even propose to build a cross band repeater. You will be surprised about its possibilities.
- CIRCULAR POLARIZATION. If you want to know more about this kind of polarization and you want to see a comparative of VHF and UHF circular polarized commercial antennas, you should read this article.
- TRANSCEIVERS TO WORK SATELLITES. If you are thinking about setting up a fix satellite station, here you can find all the transceivers in the market and combinations between them to be successful.
- THE EA4CYQ SHACK. Here I describe my shack, perhaps it could be useful as a reference if you are thinking about setting up one.
- THE EA4CYQ LOG. If you have contacted with my station between June 1.996 and March 2.008, here you can find it. It is in call sign alphabetical order. We will upload it in the near future.
You can find them at the following Webs due to the generosity of Pedro EB4DKA and Rodolfo EA4CAX:
http://eb4dka.laserenadigital.com (also www.eb4dka.tk ). This Web is devoted to ham satellites and Pedro has an impressive collection of photos, videos and interesting articles. He is an authority working in portable conditions.
http://personales.ya.com/ea4cax/ Rodolfo is specialized in LEO and Geostationary meteorological satellites.
O hope you enjoy this articles devoted to promote the amateur satellites.
Juan Antonio [email protected] 73s ---------- Best 73 from Spain Pedro EB4DKA [email protected]
[ANS thanks Pedro, EB4DKA, for the above information]
/EX
SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-076.07 ARISS Status - 10 March 2008
AMSAT News Service Bulletin 076.07 From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. March 10, 2008 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-076.07
1. Lycée de la Borde Basse Contact Successful
An Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) contact with Lycée de la Borde Basse in Castres, France took place on Wednesday, March 5. ESA astronaut Léopold Eyharts, FX0STD/KE5FNO, answered 10 questions posed to him by as many students. A representative from the ESA Education Office gave a presentation to the school and a photographer was present to cover this event. The contact audio was fed into the EchoLink AMSAT (101 377) and JK1ZRW (277 208) servers, receiving 7 connections from 6 countries. La Depeche du Midi ran a Web story on the event. The article is written in French. See: http://www.ladepeche.fr/article/2008/03/06/440113-Castres-Les-lyceens-en-dir...
2. ARISS Face to Face Meeting to be Held in Moscow
The Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) team will meet in Moscow, Russia this summer for its annual Face to Face Meeting. Delegates will arrive on July 15 for the July 17 -18 meeting. Plans are ongoing.
3. ARISS Crew Debrief Session
On Friday, March 7, a crew debrief was held with astronaut Dan Tani, KD5DXE. The Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) team received feedback on the ARISS radio system onboard the ISS.
4. Astronaut Training Status
Two Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) training sessions are planned for astronauts Nicole Stott, KE5GJN, and Sandy Magnus, KE5FYE, with Houston area school, Westbrook Intermediate. The training sessions, which are terrestrial-based amateur radio contacts using ARISS-equivalent equipment, are planned for Thursday, March 13 at approximately 14:50 and 15:15 UTC. Audio is expected to be fed into IRLP and EchoLink servers. Magnus is slated to be a crewmember of Expedition 17/18, flying to the ISS on STS-126 in September 2008. Stott, a member of the Expedition 19 crew, will fly on STS-128 in May 2009.
5. ARRL Article on AMSAT, ARISS
The American Radio Relay League (ARRL) ran a Web story covering the 2008 plans of the Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation (AMSAT). The Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) educational outreach program and SuitSat-2 are included in this web story. See: http://www.arrl.org/news/features/2008/03/05/10005?nc=1
[ANS thanks Carol, KB3LKI, 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 additional benefits. Application forms are available from the AMSAT Office.
73, This week's ANS Editor, Dee Interdonato, NB2F nb2f at amsat dot org