AMSAT NEWS SERVICE ANS-116
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: [email protected]
In this edition:
* Two Weeks and Counting for AMSAT at Dayton * Maurice-André Vigneault, VA2MA Appointed as Canadian AMSAT Delegate to the ARISS International Working Group * Satellite News From India * APRS Satellite Fleet Expansion Planned * UT1FG/MM Wet Grids DXpedition in Range of Americas Now * Satellite Shorts From All Over
SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-116.01 Two Weeks and Counting for AMSAT at Dayton
AMSAT News Service Bulletin 116.01
From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.
April 26, 2009 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-116.01
A little over two weeks remain before AMSAT opens its 40 Years of Amateur Radio in Space display at the Dayton Hamvention held on May 15-17.
AMSAT's activities begin on Thursday, May 14 with setting up the booth display. The traditional Thursday Night get-together will be held in a new location, the 'Tickets Pub' in suburban Fairborn, Ohio.
The AMSAT Forum will be held on Saturday, May 16 in Meeting Room 5 from 11:15 to 13:30. The schedule includes:
+ AMSAT VP-Member & User Services and SuitSat-2 Systems Engineer Gould Smith, WA4SXM will give a talk on "SuitSat-2 Status Report." Members of the SuitSat-2 team will have a complete operational SuitSat prototype with an experiment at the AMSAT Booth.
+ AMSAT VP-Human Space Flight Will Marchant, KC6ROL, will give a status on the ARISS program.
+ ARISS Hardware Manager Lou McFadin, W5DID, will give a talk on "Antennas for the Columbus Module."
+ Richard Garriott, W5WKQ, will speak at the AMSAT Forum about his ARISS activities while onboard the ISS. He will talk about his training, flight, and ham radio operations during the AMSAT Banquet.
Richard will also be at the AMSAT booth to meet members on Friday and Saturday. Specific times will be announced soon.
The outdoor satellite demonstration area will be managed by Drew, KO4MA and Keith, W5IU. It will feature two types of operational stations. One will be the basic handheld station and the second will feature full computer control.
Since this is the 40th Anniversary of AMSAT, we have a great new tee shirt design by Steve Kenwolf to celebrate the event. Forty years of AMSAT memorabilia will be on display. As always there will be new pub- lications, frequency chart, LVB Trackers and premiums for membership renewal.
Check out all the details, including making your AMSAT Banquet reser- vations on the web pages: http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/hamvention/2009/Dayton.php
[ANS thanks Gould, WA4SXM for the above information]
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SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-116.02 Maurice-André Vigneault, VA2MA Appointed as Canadian AMSAT Delegate to the ARISS International Working Group
AMSAT News Service Bulletin 116.02
From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.
April 26, 2009 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-116.02
AMSAT President Barry Baines, WD4ASW has appointed Maurice-André Vignault, VA2MA/VE3VIG, as the Canadian AMSAT delegate to the ARISS International Working Group. He replaces Stefan Wagener, VE4NSA who resigned due to personal reasons.
Maurice-André was first licensed in 1990. He served 38 years in the Canadian Air Force, Communications and Electronics Branch. He is an active amateur radio operator with satellite experience dating to 2001. He has been conducting an ongoing satellite com- munications course starting in 2006. He conducted an ARISS School contact in January 2007. He is active in demonstrating satellite communications at the Canada Science and Technology Museum.
He is a member of the Radio Amateurs of Canada and AMSAT. As a member of the AMSAT Field Operations Team, he serves as an Area Coordinator for Ottawa, representing AMSAT in his local community and serving as a mentor to hams wishing to learn about the satellite communications.
Barry noted in an e-mail to ARISS International Working Group Chair- man Gaston Bertels, ON4WF, "AMSAT is proud to be able to send such a qualified member to serve with the ARISS Working Group. AMSAT looks forward to many years of continued cooperative activities with ARISS in human space flight."
The ARISS International Working Group includes two delegates appointed by AMSAT. Previously, AMSAT VP-Human Space Flight Will Marchant, KC6ROL was appointed the US AMSAT delegate to the ARISS International Working Group replacing Frank Bauer, KA3HDO. Both Maurice-André Vignault and Will Marchant will be attending the upcoming ARISS International Working Group meeting taking place in June 2009 at ESA/ESTEC in the Netherlands.
[ANS thanks AMSAT President Barry, WD4ASW for the above information]
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SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-116.03 Satellite News From India
AMSAT News Service Bulletin 116.03
From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.
April 26, 2009 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-116.03
This week India's ISRO Space Agency successfully launched RISAT-2 and ANUSAT from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre SHAR in Sriharikota. RISAT-2 is a Radar Imaging Satellite with the capability to take images of the earth during day and night as well as cloudy conditions to enhance capability for earth observation, especially during floods, cyclones, landslides and in disaster management.
ANUSAT is the first experimental communication satellite built by an Indian University under the over all guidance of ISRO and will demon- strate the technologies related to message store and forward operations. ANUSAT specifications have mentioned amateur radio uplink and downlink frequencies will be used but no user information has been released at this time. The satellite is designed for digital store-and-forward operation.
ANUSAT has a telemetry beacon on 137.400 MHz. David, VK5DG reported, "I just heard AnuSat go over with a loud carrier on 137.400 MHz but no modulation detected. I am using keps for space track object 34808." Additionally, Rodney, KC0ZHF reported, "I also monitored the frequency on orbits 48 and 49 of the satellite and heard a very strong carrier. I scanned UHF frequencies but did not hear any additional downlinks."
In other Amateur Radio news from AMSAT-India Nitin, VU3TYG says the April 2009 newsletter is available at: http://www.amsatindia.org/Newsletter
AMSAT-India Secretary, Pop, VU2POP says, "We have received many appli- cations for the VO-52 operating award from several different countries. Certificates will be posted by end of May 2009." The certificate is available to Amateur Radio operators who establish two way contact through VO-52 between January 26, 2009 until May 10, 2009.
If you find yourself in India remember to attend the AMSAT-India Workshop on 10 May 09 at the Little Lilly English School, Vidyar- anyapura, Bangalore.
[ANS thanks Space Daily Express, Pop VU2POP, and Nitin VU3TYG for the above information]
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SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-116.04 APRS Satellite Fleet Expansion Planned
AMSAT News Service Bulletin 116.04
From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.
April 26, 2009 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-116.04
Writing from the US Naval Academy Satellite Development Lab this week Bob, WB4APR reported on new satellites with the same APRS packet relay as PCSAT and the ISS that are in the works.
Bob said their design will use the new Byonics all-on-a-board Packet TNC/Radio/Telemetry system. This makes it possible to build a packet satellite out of a single 3.4" square board and 5 NiCd batteries and that is all you need for a tiny APRS satellite.
Bob said, "We are ordering a bunch of them on the APRS Space Channel of 145.825 MHz and hope to encourage other schools and universities to consider including one of these packet transponders in their missions. If we can get up to a dozen of these in space, we will have almost global coverage 24 hours a day from anywhere on the planet!"
These systems are still under development. No launch dates have been announced at this time.
[ANS thanks Bob, WB4APR for the above information]
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SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-116.05 UT1FG/MM Wet Grids DXpedition in Range of Americas Now
AMSAT News Service Bulletin 116.05
From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.
April 26, 2009 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-116.05
Captain Yuri of the MV Bluebill is now operating as UT1FG/MM from his ship through June, 2009. His sea voyage will take him from Northern Europe, across the Atlantic Ocean, the Gulf of Mexico up to the Miss- issippi River, then southward toward Mexico and Central America.
Yuri says his current plans are to operate on AO-27, AO-51, SO-50, VO-52, FO-29, and AO-7. Over the past two years he already has logged many North American stations from his ship operations in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. QSL via home call UT1FG.
This week Angelo, N5UXT reported working UT1FG/MM in GM24 via FO29.
[ANS thanks Yuri, UT1FG/MM and Angelo, N5UXT for the above information]
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SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-116.06 Satellite Shorts From All Over
AMSAT News Service Bulletin 116.06
From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.
April 26, 2009 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-116.06
+ Check out William's, PE1RAH design for an ultra-small linear satellite Mode-UV transponder with 23dBm PEP output on 2 meters. He made a video which can be seen at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5j60SJroodg
+ The PS8DX Teresina DX Group is on the air this week from Brazil's Canary Island GI97bf on AO-7, FO-29, AO-51, VO-52, SO-50, and ISS (if available).
+ Remember the Hudson Valley Satcom group Net 8 PM EST on Thursday evenings on Echolink node n2eyh-l.
+ Insight as to future amateur satellites in planning can be gleaned from the IARU coordination data available at: http://www.amsat.org.uk/iaru/
+ The ISS will be on the air with an ARISS contact with the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. on Space Day, May 2 at 15:23 UTC. This will be a telebridge contact via station W6SRJ in California. Stu- dents will be pre-recruited, but Space Day participants will also be invited to ask questions. Visitors will participate in hands-on activ- ities, meet astronauts and learn about space from experts and museum displays.
[ANS thanks everyone 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. With that recall the incident of the bicycle that could not stand up because it was two tired.
73, This week's ANS Editor, JoAnne Maenpaa, K9JKM K9JKM at amsat dot org