AMSAT NEWS SERVICE ANS-035
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:
* AO-92 to Initiate Operational Scheduling * Soyuz Rocket Launches 11 Satellites Including D-Star One Phoenix * Upcoming ARISS contact with Moore Square AIG/GT Magnet School, Raleigh, NC * VUCC Awards-Endorsements for January 2018 * AMSATDroidFree Source Code Released on GitHub
SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-035.01 ANS-035 AMSAT News Service Weekly Bulletins
AMSAT News Service Bulletin 035.01 From AMSAT HQ KENSINGTON, MD. DATE FEBRUARY 4, 2018 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-035.01
AO-92 to Initiate Operational Scheduling
Since its commissioning the AO-92 U/v FM repeater has been open continuously. Beginning the first full week of February operations will be scheduled among the U/v FM repeater, L-Band Downshifter, Virginia Tech Camera, and the University of Iowa’s High Energy Radiation CubeSat Instrument (HERCI).
For the week of 4-10 Feb 2018, the following mode changes are scheduled:
Approximately 1510 UTC 4 Feb the L band uplink will be activated for approximately 24 hours.
Approximately 0250 UTC 6 Feb the high speed data will be activated for 40 minutes to enable data download from the HERCI experiment.
Approximately 1520 UTC 8 Feb the high speed data will be activated for 40 minutes to enable data download from the HERCI experiment.
The U/v repeater will be open continuously at all other times outside those listed above.
[ANS thank Drew, KO4MA, for the above information]
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Soyuz Rocket Launches 11 Satellites Including D-Star One Phoenix
A Soyuz rocket crowned by a Fregat upper stage carrying 11 Russian, German and U.S. satellites into orbit lifted off Thursday from the Vostochny Cosmodrome in Russia’s Far East, the first flight from the country’s newest spaceport since a failure in November.
The Soyuz-2.1a rocket lifted off at 0207:18 GMT Thursday (9:07:18 p.m. EST Wednesday) from Vostochny, a cosmodrome carved from the forests of Russia’s Amur region near the country’s border with China.
A CubeSat with an amateur radio relay payload named D-Star One Phoenix, developed by German Orbital Systems in Berlin in cooperation with the Czech company iSky Technology, was also launched Thursday. It replaces the D-Star One nanosatellite lost on the last launch from Vostochny on Nov. 28.
Downlink frequencies are 435.700 MHz for telemetry and 435.525 MHz for D-Star. The uplink for D-STAR will be 437.325 MHz.
[ANS thanks SpaceFlightNow and IARU for the above information]
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Upcoming ARISS contact with Moore Square AIG/GT Magnet School, Raleigh, NC
An International Space Station school contact has been planned with participants at Moore Square AIG/GT Magnet School, Raleigh, NC on 05 Feb. The event is scheduled to begin at approximately 18:32 UTC. The duration of the contact is approximately 9 minutes and 30 seconds. The contact will be direct between NA1SS and KG4AKV. The contact should be audible over the U.S. state of North Carolina and portions of the eastern U.S. Interested parties are invited to listen in on the 145.80 MHz downlink. The contact is expected to be conducted in English.
Students have also participated in a mock astronaut training session at Marbles Kids Museum after viewing the Hubble 3D IMAX movie. Students conducted research and composed questions based on the research they conducted. The school voted on the best 20 questions.
John Brier, KG4AKV, and Jim Scarborough, KE4ROH, have worked closely by providing our students with background information and serving as guest speakers and facilitators for the event. Joshua Tate, KF4EAG, and Mark Hammond, N8MH, have also been integral to helping our school with the contact.
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
[ANS thanks David, AA4KN, for the above information]
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VUCC Awards-Endorsements for January 2018
Here are the changed endorsements and new VUCC Satellite Awards issued by the ARRL for the period January 1, 2018 through January 31, 2018.
Congratulations to all those who made the list this month!
CALL 1Jan18 1Feb18
N8RO 1020 1030 N8HM 1005 1025 WN9Q 416 710 K5ND 439 502 WD9EWK 384 400 N9EAT 336 410 NS3L 251 275 KE4AL 177 252 VE7CEW 200 251 PT9BM 126 151 PS8ET 101 127 WB7VUF 107 (NEW VUCC) AA8CH 104 (NEW VUCC) AL6D/W4 101 (NEW VUCC) N3GS 101 (NEW VUCC) NK1N 101 (NEW VUCC) KE8FZT 100 (NEW VUCC) W5PFG (DM95) 100 (NEW VUCC) W5PFG (EM12) 100 (NEW VUCC)
This is my first month creating this list. If you find errors or omissions. please contact me off-list at <mycall>@<mycall>.com and I'll revise the announcement.
This list was developed by comparing the ARRL .pdf listings for January 1, 2018. and February 1, 2018. It's a visual comparison so omissions are possible. Apologies if your call was not mentioned. Thanks to all those who are roving to grids that are rarely on the birds. They are doing most of the work!
[ANS thanks Ron, W5RKN for the above information]
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AMSATDroidFree Source Code Released on GitHub
Dave Johnson, G4DPZ, author of the AMSATDroidFree app, has made the source code to AMSATDroidFree available on a public repository on GitHub for those of you who like to tinker: https://github.com/g4dpz/AmsatDroidFree
Dave thanks all the people who have given him suggestions and have downloaded it over the years and are still using the application.
[ANS thanks Dave, G4DPZ 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, KT4TZ kt4tz at amsat dot org