AMSAT NEWS SERVICE ANS-223
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:
* Fox-1 Z Axis Solar Panels Approved * Second call for papers for 2013 AMSAT Annual Meeting and Space Symposium * AMSATDroid Free smartphone satellite tracking App * Open Source Development for MMTTY, MMVARI, and MMSSTV * NASA Interns Build CubeSat * Cal Poly and SmallSat 2013 Summer CubeSat Developers' Workshop video stream * Satellite Shorts From All Over
SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-223.01 ANS-223 AMSAT News Service Weekly Bulletins
AMSAT News Service Bulletin 223.01 From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. August 21, 2013 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-223.01
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Fox-1 Z Axis Solar Panels Approved
The AMSAT Fox engineering team has completed the design of the printed circuit boards for the satellite's "Z" axis solar panels. Each of these printed circuit boards (PCBs) will accommodate two Boeing/Spectrolab UTJ solar cells. There is a hole in the panel for the lens of the Camera module that is being developed by Virginia Tech. A sample PCB was fabricated and sent to our partner SpaceQuest who approved it for manufacturing into our solar panels.
[ANS thanks Tony Monteiro, AA2TX, VP for Engineering for the above information]
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Second call for papers for 2013 AMSAT Annual Meeting and Space Symposium
This is the second call for papers for the 2013 AMSAT Annual Meeting and Space Symposium to be held on the weekend of November 1 - 3, 2013, at the Marriott Hobby Airport Hotel, Houston, Texas. Proposals for papers, symposium presentations and poster presentations are invited on any topic of interest to the amateur satellite community. We request a tentative title of your presentation as soon as possible, with final copy to be submitted by October 1 for inclusion in the printed proceedings. Abstracts and papers should be sent to Dan Schultz at [email protected]
[ANS thanks Dan Schultz N8FGV, for the update]
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AMSATDroid Free smartphone satellite tracking App
App for Android smartphones predicts future passes for amateur radio satellites for a specified location and period of time.
Basic features:
• Calculate passes for up to the next 24 hours • Graphical pass display • Map view showing current satellite position and next two orbits • Update keps directly from the web or from a file on SD card • Set home coordinates from User Input (Lat, Long or IARU Locator), Network or GPS
AMSATDroid Free can be downloaded from Google at https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=uk.me.g4dpz.HamSatDroid Amazon at http://www.amazon.com/G4DPZ-AmsatDroid-Free/dp/B00DK7XXYK/
For those with Apple or Windows mobile devices see http://amsat-uk.org/2013/07/24/free-ham-radio-satellite-tracking-app-for-ios...
http://amsat-uk.org/2013/08/06/amsatdroid-free-smartphone-satellite-tracking...
[ANS thanks AMSAT-UK, for the above information]
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Open Source Development for MMTTY, MMVARI, and MMSSTV
Mako JE3HHT, the author of MMTTY, MMVARI, and MMSSTV, has released these applications to open source development under the LGPL license. This license enables developers and companies to use and integrate MMTTY, MMSSTV, and MMVARI, while ensuring that all improvements to source code are made publicly available.
MMSSTV has been a very useful program for receiving SSTV pictures from ARISSat-1 and the ISS.
The MM-Open organization has been established to encourage and facilitate open source development. Anyone may create public or private branches of these applications. A set of Committers will maintain a master branch for each application; the initial Committers are Bob N4HY, Eric KE5DTO, Oba JA7UDE, and Steve N5AC. Packaged versions of MMTTY, MMVARI, and MMSSTV assembled from the master branches will continue to be available via web pages administered by Ken VE5KC:
http://hamsoft.ca/pages/mmtty.php
http://hamsoft.ca/pages/mmvari.php
http://hamsoft.ca/pages/mmsstv.php
Source code for these applications is available via GitHub, courtesy of FlexRadio. Existing Yahoo Groups will continue to be used to convey defect reports and enhancement requests.
For additional information about the LGPL license, MM-Open governance model, and development process, see http://mm-open.org/
[ANS thanks Dave, AA6YQ, Secretary, MM-Open for the above information]
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NASA Interns Build CubeSat
A group of interns were recruited to work at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center to conceptualize and design a small CubeSat within 10 weeks as part of the Applied Engineering and Technology Directorate.
Interns: Anthony Yee, Christopher Erb, Jeffrey Sherwood, Tanzim Imam, Clayton Jacobs, Tiara Johnson, Liz Sauerbrunn, Alex Petrov, Marvin Cosare, Matthew Davis, Megan Robbett
Co-mentors: Pat Kilroy, Joe Howard, Gary Crum, David Kim, Anisa Jamil, Eric Young, Pete Rossoni, Peter Ancosta, Victor Sank, Mark Steiner, Frank Kirchman, Jeff Didion, Franklin L. Robinson, Kenneth E. Li, Porfy Beltran, Dan Solomon, Leigh Janes, Gerardo Cruz-Ortiz
Pat Kilroy and Mark Steiner are both AMSAT members.
Please see:
http://spaceref.com/nasa-hack-space/interns-build-cubesat.html
[ANS thanks Space-Ref.com for the above information]
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Cal Poly and SmallSat 2013 Summer CubeSat Developers' Workshop video stream
Link for live video stream of the Summer CubeSat Developers' Workshop @USU.
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/cubesat-summer-workshop- 2013?utm_campaign=www.cubesat.org&utm_source=15530551&utm_medium=social
[ANS thanks Samudra Haque, PhD Student at George Washington University, who posted on the AMSAT-BB for the above link]
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Satelite Shorts From All Over
Scotland Grid Squares Anyone?
Paul, 2E1EUB, plans to activate a number of squares in Scotland for 2 weeks, beginning on the 5th of August as 2M1EUB. QRV on 160m and 80m, via satellites (mainly AO-7 B/A mode), and 2m in SSB. Skeds can be arranged via email [email protected], for updates see qrz.com. QSL via home call.
(ANS thanks JoAnne Maenpaa, K9JKM for the above update)
Luca Parmitano making random ISS voice contacts.
Luca Parmitano was active on the ISS voice channel 145.800Mhz (145.200 uplink). On Monday, 8/05/2013, I had a short contact with Luca anyone made an audio recording? Please send it to my e-mail address see QRZ.com. Thanks in advance!
73s Cor PD0RKC
[ANS thanks the ISS Fan Club and Cor, PD0RKC for the above information]
AO-7 makes ARRL Letter
AO-7 "Zombie" Satellite AMSAT Article picked up by the ARRL Letter
http://www.arrl.org/arrlletter?issue=2013-08-08
[ANS thanks the ARRL Letter 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, Joe Spier, K6WAO k6wao at amsat dot org