AMAT NEWS SERVICE ANS-266
The AMSAT News Service bulletins are a free, weekly news and information 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://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 dot org.
In this edition:
* 2018 AMSAT Board of Directors Election Results * Help ARISS Raise Funds for Critical ISS Radio Upgrades * AMSAT President Upcoming Ham Nation Interview on September 26th * Reminder - Registration Deadlines for 2018 AMSAT Space Symposium * Reminder - October 15 Deadline for Space Symposium Papers * AMSAT Rover Awards Update * SiriusSat First Signals Competition Winners Announced * New Indonesian Cubesat to Include Amateur Radio APRS Transponder * LimeSDR Blogs About Open Satellite Project * The European Astro Pi Challenge is Back for 2018/2019 * Call for Volunteers: ANS Seeks Rotating Editors * Upcoming Satellite Operations * ARISS News * Satellite Shorts from All Over
SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-266.01 ANS-266 AMSAT News Service Weekly Bulletins
AMSAT News Service Bulletin 266.01
From AMSAT HQ KENSINGTON, MD
September 23, 2018 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-266.01
2018 AMSAT Board of Directors Election Results
As a result of the 2018 Board of Directors Election Tom Clark, K3IO; Mark Hammond, N8MH; and Bruce Paige, KK5DO; will serve on the board for two years.
The First Alternate is Peter Portanova, W2JV. The Second Alternate is Scott Harvey, KA7FVV. Both will serve for a term of one year.
The results of the voting with 698 ballots cast are as follows:
Tom Clark, K3IO............574 Mark Hammond, N8MH.........507 Scott Harvey, KA7FVV.......176 Bruce Paige, KK5DO.........402 Peter Portanova, W2JV......359
Submitted by: Martha Saragovitz, Manager Clayton Coleman W5PFG, Secretary
[ANS thanks Martha Saragovitz, Manager and Clayton Coleman, W5PFG, Secretary for the above information]
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Help ARISS Raise Funds for Critical ISS Radio Upgrades
AMSAT and ARISS are currently supporting a FundRazr campaign to raise $150,000 for critical radio infrastructure upgrades on ISS. The upgrades are necessary to enable students to continue to talk to astronauts in space via Amateur Radio.
Please help by donating today https://fundrazr.com/arissnextgen?ref=ab_e7Htwa_ab_47IcJ9
ARISS is in critical need of infrastructure upgrades to ensure that programs such as talking to astronauts in space using Amateur Radio can continue. Through your donations ARISS seeks the following upgrades:
+ Next Generation radio systems that will support easier transition to enable new, exciting radio modes and capabilities for hams, students and the general public including:
* New Amateur Radio communication and experiment capabilities including an enhanced voice repeater and updated digital Automatic Packet Reporting System (APRS), and * Slow Scan TV (picture up and downlinks) in both US and Russian segments of the ISS.
+ A new multi voltage power supply that will support present and future radio capabilities and allow wireless experiments to be conducted.
ARISS needs to build ten Next Generation radio systems to support the development of on-orbit operations, training and long term maintenance. This includes two units for on-orbit use (one unit each for the US and Russian segments), two units for flight spares, three units for training, one unit for testing, and two units for ground-based maintenance and troubleshooting.
AMSAT is a 501(c)(3) organization. Donations are tax deductible to the extent allowed by law.
[ANS thanks Frank, KA3HDO for the above information.]
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AMSAT President Upcoming Ham Nation Interview on September 26th
AMSAT President Joe Spier, K6WAO will be featured on Ham Nation's September 26th episode #369. Well known Amateur Radio journalist Gordon West, WB6NOA will interview Joe and discuss the latest news from AMSAT and ARISS.
Joe remarked, "The opportunity for this interview couldn't have come at a better time. With the launch of ARISS's Fundrazr drive to sustain Amateur Radio operations on the ISS and AMSAT's own development needs, this interview will help get the word out to segments of the Amateur Radio community that don't normally track the Amateur Radio satellite community.
"Ham Nation is promoted well throughout Amateur Radio social media so the potential audience is substantial. I hope everyone has a chance to watch the show and perhaps share it with your friends who might become interested in AMSAT and Amateur Radio in Space."
Ham Nation records live every Wednesday at 9:00pm Eastern / 6:00pm Pacific / 01:00 (Thu) UTC. See it at: https://twit.tv/shows/ham-nation
[ANS thanks AMSAT for the above information.]
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Reminder - Registration Deadlines for 2018 AMSAT Space Symposium
Make Your Hotel Reservations by October 10!
Hotel accommodations will be next door at the Marriott at the Space & Rocket Center, 5 Tranquility Base, Huntsville, Alabama USA. Hotel reservations for the Symposium may be made by individual attendees directly with Marriott reservations at: + 1-(800) 228-9290 or + (256) 830-2222 or + On-line at http://tinyurl.com/Marriott-2018-Symposium-Hotel.
Please mention the Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation (AMSAT) reference number M-BIHHXTA for the group rate of $104 per night. + The AMSAT group rate is available 10/31/18 to 11/04/18. + Book by 10/10/18. + Marriott perks include free parking for attendees and complimentary Wi-Fi.
Symposium Early Registration Rate Expires September 30!
Registration for the Symposium can be ordered on-line at: https://www.amsat.org/product-category/amsat-symposium/. + $60 Early Registration is through September 30, 2018. + $65 Registration is October 01, 2018 - October 26, 2018. + $70 Registration at the Door
AMSAT Annual Saturday Night Banquet Reservations Are Due October 20!
+ Dinner reservations are $50 per person and should be made by October 20th to ensure accommodation. + Register online at: https://www.amsat.org/product-category/amsat-symposium/.
[ANS thanks the 2018 Symposium Committee for the above information.]
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Reminder - October 15 Deadline for Space Symposium Papers
AMSAT has issued the second call for papers for the 2018 AMSAT-NA Annual Meeting and Space Symposium. The symposium will be held at the US Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, AL on the weekend of November 2-4. Proposals for papers, symposium presentations, and poster presentations are invited on any topic of interest to the amateur satellite community. Prospects should send a tentative title of their presentation as soon as possible. The final copy must be submitted by October 15th for inclusion in the printed proceedings. Abstracts and papers should be sent to Dan Schultz at n8fgv at amsat dot org.
[ANS thanks Dan Schultz, N8FGV for the above information.]
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AMSAT Rover Awards Update
The AMSAT Rover award is granted to stations who achieve a combined 25 points using any combination of the defined criteria posted at: https://www.amsat.org/amsat-rover-award.
Points can be earned for each grid square activated outside of your home grid square using the FM, linear, and digital satellites. While FM contacts count for 1 point each multiplier points are available for contacts via the linear and digital satellites.
Additional points are available for photographs, publicity, social media promotion, and AMSAT Journal articles. The options are numerous so please refer to the Rover Award Website for all of the details.
Since the last Rover Award announcement in ANS-210 the following stations have qualified for the award:
Number Callsign Award Date ------ -------- ---------- 028 K4FTP 30 Jul 2018 029 KB2YSI 15 Aug 2018 030 N3CRT 17 Aug 2018 031 N2WLS 19 Aug 2018 032 K2MTS 22 Aug 2018 033 AI6DO 23 Aug 2018 034 KD8RTT 18 Sep 2018
[ANS thanks AMSAT Director Contests and Awards, Bruce Paige, KK5DO, for the above information.]
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SiriusSat First Signals Competition Winners Announced
Russian cubesats, SiriusSat-1 and SiriusSat-2, were deployed during a spacewalk from the ISS in August. A QSL card is available for all Amateur Radio operators who send reception reports to: [email protected].
Include your callsign, name, mailing address, time of reception, the satellite (RS13S or RS14S), and receiver description. A QSL card will be sent to your address.
Winners have been announced of the first signals competition among Radio Amateurs for the reception of the first signals from the SiriusSat-1 and SiriusSat-2:
+ Rocco Valenzano (W2RTV, USA) + Anton Janovsky (ZR6AIC, South Africa) + Vladimir Chyorny (EU1SAT, Belarus) + Mike Rupprecht (DK3WN, Germany) + Dmitry Pashkov (R4UAB, Russia)
The winners will receive a QSL card, a copy of the checklist employed by the cosmonauts for activation of the spacecraft prior to release and also books on space. Vladimir Chyorny has already been given Chris Hadfield's book "An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth" personally in Minsk, Dmitry Pashkov will be sent Stephen Hawking's book "A Brief History of Time," and foreign amateurs will receive Pavlov Shubin's illustrated album "The Space Rocket System N1-L3."
SiriusSat noted that radio amateurs received the first signals and appreciated the dissemination of information about the reception of data and the establishment and activation of a specially developed software system for the reception of telemetry and decoding the data from the spacecraft.
The satellites operate at these frequencies and call signs: + SiriusSat-1 callsign RS13S frequency 435.570 MHz SSID 1; + SiriusSat-2 callsign RS14S frequency 435.670 MHz SSID 2 GMSK 4800 + modulation is used, protocol is standard AX.25 G3RUH sending beacons every 30 seconds.
Telemetry decoding/viewing software can be downloaded from: http://sputnix.ru/ru/nashi-sputniki/siriussat-2 This page includes configuration instructions and files with test signals.
[ANS thanks Sputnix.ru for the above information]
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New Indonesian Cubesat to Include Amateur Radio APRS Transponder
The United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) have selected a team from Surya University in Indonesia for the UNOOSA-JAXA KiboCUBE programme. The KiboCUBE programme was launched in 2015 by UNOOSA and JAXA to offer educational and research institutions from developing countries the opportunity to develop cube satellites (CubeSats) for deployment from the International Space Station (ISS).
Thanks to the KiboCUBE programme, Surya University's cube satellite, Surya Satellite 1 (SS-1), will be the first cube satellite developed by an Indonesian University to be launched into space. The cube satellite will be equipped with an Automatic Packet Reporting System (APRS) that works on amateur radio frequencies. This will enable the cube satellite to transmit APRS messages to ground stations. Furthermore, SS-1 will be designed for a two-way communication use for educational and disaster mitigation purposes, which can be carried out by anyone with a valid amateur radio callsign. Access the full United Nations press release at http://spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=53079.
[ANS thanks the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs and spaceref.com for the above information]
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LimeSDR Blogs About Open Satellite Project
Developer Lucas Teske has a very clear reason for having started the Open Satellite Project, an ongoing effort to develop open-source software for the receipt and decoding of satellite data using software-defined radio (SDR) hardware including the LimeSDR family.
"The final goal is to have a generic satellite receiver that is easy to configure to a new satellite or protocol," project originator Lucas Teske explains of the Open Satellite Project and its open-source weather satellite software.
With input from the community, Teske has a clear roadmap for the Open Satellite Project's future development. "The main goal now is to have a single application that does everything," he explains. "So far OSP has several parts, which makes it somewhat hard to set up. We're re- writing the main application - now called SatHelperApp - in Go which helps a lot in making it cross platform and easy to use. We also want to lower the costs of building a GOES Rebroadcast protocol (GRB) station, which provides the best images you can ever get from a satellite from the current generation - and also images from the Sun! The idea is to have a simple app that anyone could just download, follow some instructions for assembling the hardware, and get everything working, even if they don't have any technical skill for it."
To read more about the Open Satellite Project and find ways your station can help access the full article on-line at https://limemicro.com/community/open-satellite-project/.
[ANS thanks LimeSDR for the above information]
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The European Astro Pi Challenge is Back for 2018/2019
ESA Education, in collaboration with the Raspberry Pi Foundation, is pleased to announce the launch of the 2018/2019 European Astro Pi Challenge. Students and young people are offered the amazing opportunity to conduct scientific investigations in space by writing computer programs that run on Astro Pis - special Raspberry Pi computers aboard the International Space Station.
Youths 19 or younger and live in an ESA Member or Associate Member State invited to form a team with at least friend of and apply to the Astro Pi Challenge's Mission Space Lab by sending their experiment idea by the end of October.
There are two themes for experiments: The 'Life on Earth' theme will use the Astro Pi computer Izzy, fitted with a near-infrared camera facing out of an ISS window, to study the Earth. The 'Life in space theme will use the Astro Pi computer Ed, which is equipped with a camera for light sensing, and investigate life inside the Columbus module of the ISS.
The complete announcement, rules and regulations can be found at https://tinyurl.com/Astro-Pi-2018-2019.
[ANS thanks the ESA and the Raspberry Pi Foundation for the above information.]
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Call for Volunteers: ANS Seeks Rotating Editors
The AMSAT News Service (ANS) is seeking volunteers to serve as rotating editors for its weekly newsletter.
Editors work on a rotating schedule, each taking a different turn editing a specific week's newsletter as scheduled by the ANS Editor in Chief. Editors support each other by seeking and reporting to the Editor of the week, information and resources of interest to the AMSAT community.
The number of newsletters assigned will be dependent upon the number of available editors at any given time. The average editor can expect to spend, on average, 4-5 hours for each newsletter, dependent on available material. Prospective editors are required to be AMSAT members in good standing and have a genuine interest in satellite operation and an understanding of AMSAT's mission. Former editing experience is a plus but not required.
If interested, please submit an inquiry, including your contact information to ans-editor at amsat dot org.
[ANS thanks the ANS editors for the above information.]
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Upcoming Satellite Operations
Western Colorado (DM77, DM67, DM57, DM58, DM59 DN50, DN60) - September 28-30, 2018 Ron AD0DX will be back in Western Colorado Sept. 28/29/30. Plans are Friday DM77, DM67; Saturday DM57, DM58, DM59; Sunday DN50, DN60. Specific pass announces will be posted to his Twitter account. https://twitter.com/ad0dx
North to Alaska (CO28) - October 5-9, 2018 Tucker, W4FS, will be in Juneau, AK, October 5-9th, using the call sign W4FS/KL7. Weather permitting, he may slip up to Whitehorse to use his new Canadian call VE9FS. Watch his Twitter account for specific plans. https://twitter.com/Whiskey4FoSho
Kure Beach, NC (FM13) - October 13-19, 2018 (Originally 9/22-28. Rescheduled due to Hurricane Florence) Wayne, NM3B, will be operating holiday style from Kure Beach, NC, October 13-19. Send QSL for confirmation.
Bermuda (DXCC NA-005) - November 12-14, 2018 Tom, N2YTF, will be operating as N2YTF/VP9/P from Bermuda, NA- 005 vacation style Nov. 12, 13, 14; all FM passes (and perhaps a few transponder birds). Tom will also be working HF QRP portable from the beach. Tom is looking for a 2m ssb tropo path to some US super station(s). If interested, contact him directly.
Please submit any additions or corrections to ke4al at yahoo dot com Updated September 19, 2018
[ANS thanks Robert, KE4AL for the above information.]
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ARISS News
+ Updated Hosting Information Posted The information on how to apply for an ARISS event has been updated and posted at: http://www.ariss.org/hosting-an-ariss-contact-in-the-us.html.
[ANS thanks Ken Ransom for the above information.]
+ Upcoming Contacts Obie Elementary School, Kurashiki, Japan, direct via 8N4KLO The ISS callsign is scheduled to be NA1SS. The scheduled astronaut is Ricky Arnold KE5DAU. Contact is a go for: Wed 2018-09-26 08:47:27 UTC 53 deg.
Indian Trails Middle School, Winter Springs, FL, telebridge via VK4KHZ The ISS callsign is scheduled to be NA1SS. The scheduled astronaut is Serena Aunon-Chancellor KG5TMT. Contact is a go for: Thu 2018-09-27 17:52:47 UTC 74 deg.
+ Successful Contacts Otori Elementary School, Sakai City, Japan, direct via 8N3OH. The ISS callsign was NA1SS. The scheduled astronaut was Ricky Arnold KE5DAU. Contact: Mon 2018-09-17 11:45:55 UTC 74 deg.
The total number of ARISS ISS to earth school events is 1256. Each school counts as 1 event. Total number of ARISS ISS to earth school contacts is 1203. Each contact may have multiple schools sharing the same time slot. Total number of ARISS supported terrestrial contacts is 47.
The following US states and entities have never had an ARISS contact: Delaware, South Dakota, Wyoming, American Samoa, Guam, Northern Marianas Islands, and the Virgin Islands.
+ ARISS congratulates the following mentors who have now mentored over 100 schools: Satoshi 7M3TJZ with 134 Francesco IKØWGF with 132 Gaston ON4WF with 123 Sergey RV3DR with 107
[ANS thanks Charlie, AJ9N for the above information.]
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Satellite Shorts from All Over
+ EA4GPZ's IberRadio LO-94 (DSLWP-B) Talk Available On-line Daniel Estévez, EA4GPZ, gave a presentation about receiving the downlink from the Chinese lunar orbiting satellite LO-94 (DSLWP-B) on September 15 at the IberRadio Spanish Amateur Radio Fair. Daniel's presentation was in Spanish and he says he has finished adding English subtitles to the recording his talk. You can watch the video either with Spanish or English slides and either with Spanish or English subtitles. You may also download copies of the slides from this site. https://destevez.net/2018/09/dslwp-b-talk-in-iberradio/.
[ANS thanks Daniel Estévez, EA4GPZ for the above information.]
+ British Amateur Television Club CAT18 Videos on YouTube
The British Amateur Television Club has released all videos of the CAT18 talks on their BATConline YouTube channel. https://tinyurl.com/ans-batc-cat18
The talks include: ISS HAMTV Update - Ciaran, M0XTD & Phil Crump, M0DNY Es'hail-2 Update - Graham @G3VZV & Dave Crump, G8GKQ The Future - Charles Brain @G4GUO
[ANS thanks AMSAT-UK and the British Amateur Television Club for the above information.]
+ AMSAT-DL Launches Updated Website
AMSAT-DL has launched their modernized website. Visitors can select German, Spanish, French, and English versions. See it at: https://amsat-dl.org/
[ANS thanks AMSAT-DL 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.
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 student rate for a maximum of six post-secondary years in this status.
Contact Martha at the AMSAT office for additional student membership information.
73, This week's ANS Editor, Frank Karnauskas, N1UW n1uw at amsat dot org
Sent via [email protected]. AMSAT-NA makes this open forum available to all interested persons worldwide without requiring membership. Opinions expressed are solely those of the author and do not reflect the official views of AMSAT-NA.
Not an AMSAT member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program!
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