AMSAT NEWS SERVICE ANS-307
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:
* 31st Annual AMSAT Space Symposium and Annual Meeting Nov. 1-3, 2013 * AMSAT Board Elects Senior Officers for 2013-2014 * New Transpoder Satellites on the Horizon Within the Next 12 Months * November Deployment for ISS CubeSats * CubeSats Need Coordination Too * ARLS001 RS0ISS Active on SSTV from International Space Station * AMSAT VP Named to Top University Post * Another "Last Man Standing" Ham Episode * AMSAT Awards Update * Three Space Station Crews Get Ready for Relocation, Launch, Landing * ARISS News * Satellite Shorts From All Over
SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-307.01 ANS-307 AMSAT News Service Weekly Bulletins
AMSAT News Service Bulletin 307.01 From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. November 3, 2013 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-307.01
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31st Annual AMSAT Space Symposium and Annual Meeting Nov. 1-3, 2013
The 31st Annual AMSAT Space Symposium and Annual Meeting occurred this weekend, Nov. 1-3 2013 at the Houston Marriott South at Hobby Airport. Further details about the Symposium may be found on AMSAT website (www.amsat.org), and ANSAT's Facebook page. The special tour of Johnson Space Center scheduled for Monday, 4 NOV is booked and reservations are closed.
Attendees from all over ther the world were present, making this year's Symposium a truely international event. Global representation from South Africa, Ireland, Brazil, Britian, Cuba, Canada, United States, and the Republic of Tejas. There were also approximately 18 memebers who joined in over Echolink for the Annual Meeting.
The 30th anniversary of amateur radio involvement in human space flight and the evolution of amateur radio into a successful program on board the International Space Station, in which ARISS (Amateur Radio on the ISS) is an international program that supports educational outreach as well as provides an opportunity for informal contacts between astronauts/cosmonauts and amateur radio operators around the world panel presentation was hosted by AMSAT's Frank Bauer, KA3HDO and included indepth discussions with retired NASA Astronaut's Owen Garriott, W5LFL, & William "Bill" McArthur, KC5ACR, AMSAT's own Bill Tynan, W3XO, & Lou McFadin, W5DID, and one of the intial ARISS telebridge operators from Santa Rosa, W6SRJ, Tim Bosma, W6MU.
Astronaut Owen Garriott, W5LFL on STS-9 in November 1983 was the first astronaut to utilize amateur radio to communicate with personnel on the ground, allowing the general public to speak with US astronauts from space, outside the communication channels of NASA's Mission Control. This developed into 25 SAREX contacts from the Space Shuttle and finally into the ARISS program known today.
A great history was shared from the first amauter radio contact from space to current operations from ARISS platforms and how we got from there to now.
[ANS thanks E.Mike McCardel, KC8YLD, and Joe Spier, K6WAO for the above information]
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AMSAT Board Elects Senior Officers for 2013-2014
Election of AMSAT's Senior Officers was one of the first orders of business at the AMSAT Board of Directors meeting on October 31 in Houston, Texas.
The following positions were voted upon and filled:
Barry Baines, WD4ASW President Drew Glasbrenner, KO4MA Vice-President Operations Gould Smith, WA4SXM Vice President User Services Tony Monteiro, AA2TX Vice-President Engineering Frank Bauer, KA3HDO Vice-President Human Spaceflight EMike McCardel, KC8YLD Vice-President Educational Relations Alan Biddle, WA4SCA Secretary Keith Baker, KB1SF/VA3KSF Treasurer Martha Saragovitz Manager
The following Senior Officer positions remained open at this time awaiting appointments: Executive Vice President Vice-President Marketing
[ANS thanks AMSAT-NA, for the above announcement]
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New Transpoder Satellites on the Horizon Within the Next 12 Months
Here is the latest list of the transponders scheduled for launch in 2014.
FUNcube-1 AMSAT-UK and AMSAT-NL collaboration 1U cubesat Imminent launch on Dnepr booster (21NOV2013) 600-700 km sun-sync orbit Educational beacon, 1200 baud BPSK (daytime ops) 20 khz U/V transponder, 500 mW (nighttime ops)
Triton-1 ISIS-BV (Innovative Solutions In Space BV) 3U cubesat Imminent launch on Dnepr booster (21NOV2013) 600-700 km sun-sync orbit AIS (ship location service) radio science experiment Two U/V FM to DSB (“AO-16 mode”) repeaters activated after 3 months (possibly both at once
Delfi-N3xt Technical University of Delft 3U cubesat Imminent launch on Dnepr booster (21NOV2013) 600-700 km sun-sync orbit 40 khz U/V transponder (after experiments completed) High speed S-band downlink
CubeBug-2 Argentinian Ministry of Science, Technology and Productive Innovation, INVAP S.E., Satellogic S.A., and Radio Club Bariloche 2U cubesat Imminent launch on Dnepr booster (21NOV2013) 600-700 km sun-sync orbit Technology demonstration mission Digipeater and data downloads open after initial experiments
LituanicaSAT-1 Kaunas University of Technology 1U cubesat Antares 120/Cygnus NET 11DEC2013 400 km ISS orbit VGA camera, GPS, 9k6 AX25 beacon V/U FM repeater, 150 mW
UKube-1 w/ FUNCube-2 UK Space Agency (amateur payload: AMSAT-UK) 3U cubesat 10FEB2014 launch on Soyuz-2 ~600 km orbit Educational beacon, 1200 baud BPSK 20 khz U/V transponder, 500 mW
KiwiSat AMSAT-ZL Microsat Launch under negotiation (probably Dnepr) 30 khz LU/V transponder, 2W LU/V FM repeater, 1W VHF CW/9k6 data, UHF 9k6 data beacons
LAPAN ORARI AMSAT-Indonesia Microsat Launch unclear, maybe PSLV with Astrosat in 2014 (650km, low inclination) U/V FM repeater 5W 145.825 digipeater
CAMSAT_BUAASat-1 CAMSAT 35kg Microsat Launch late 2014 800km sun-sync U/V FM repeater 500 mW VHF AX25 beacon 500 mW
CAMSAT CAS-2A1 & 2A2 CAMSAT 25kg Microsats with cross-link capability 1000km, 99.5 degree sun-sync CAS-2A1 VHF CW, Voice and AX25 beacons 50 kHz U/V transponder, 500mW 200kHz L/S transponder, 320mW U/V digipeater CAS-2A2 UHF CW and AX25 beacons S CW beacon 10GHz CW beacon V/U transponder, 500mW
QB50 precursors(not yet named) SSB/CW, FM Voice Launch 1st half 2014 (600km orbit)
[ANS thanks Drew Glasbrenner, KO4MA for the above announcement]
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November Deployment for ISS CubeSats
Four CubeSats carrying amateur radio payloads are expected to be deployed from the International Space Station (ISS) by the JEM Small Satellite Orbital Deployer (J-SSOD) on November 25, 2013.
The CubeSats are: • Pico Dragon developed by the Viet Nam National Satellite Center (VNSC), University of Tokyo and IHI aerospace. 437.250 MHz CW beacon and 437.365 MHz 1200 bps AFSK AX.25 telemetry. • ArduSat-1 developed by NanoSatisfi. 437.325 MHz 9k6 MSK CCSDS downlink. • ArduSat-X developed by NanoSatisfi. 437.345 MHz 9k6 MSK CCSDS downlink . • TechEdSat-3 developed by interns at the NASA Ames Research Center. 437.465 MHz 1200 bps packet radio beacon transmitting 1 watt to 1/4 wave monopole. It plans to test an Iridium Satphone modem and has a deployment mechanism to de-orbit in 10 days.
They are 1U in size (10x10x10 cm) except for TechEdSat-3 which is 3U (30x10x10 cm).
IEEE – DIY Space Programs http://spectrum.ieee.org/aerospace/satellites/diy- space-programs
[ANS thanks AMSAT-UK, for the above announcement]
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CubeSats Need Coordination Too
Space News reminds readers to coordinate and register CubeSat frequencies.
The SpaceNews Editor writes:
In the midst of the cubesat revolution that is opening up a whole new world of space applications to people and organizations of ordinary means comes a reminder from the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), which is responsible for regulating and coordinating radiofrequency transmissions of all types: The existing rules requiring ITU member states to register their satellite systems do not discriminate based on size.
That means, in a nutshell, that cubesats and other nanosatellites, like their larger operational cousins, must be entered into the ITU-managed database of satellite frequencies and orbital slots. Speaking at the International Astronautical Congress in Beijing, officials with the United Nations-affiliated ITU noted that cubesats draw on finite spectrum — however marginally — and have the potential to interfere with one another and with other systems. These officials urged ITU members to register cubesats and other microsatellites at least two years before launch.
Not only are cubesats proliferating, their missions are becoming increasingly complex. Most cubesats today operate in a frequency band set aside for so- called amateur radio services, which can accommodate low-data-rate transmissions. But as applications become more bandwidth intensive, operators will increasingly be forced to seek out spectrum in other bands. Moreover, though cubesats today typically are allocated bandwidth on a secondary-user basis, meaning they have to work around primary users, there is no reason such missions could not be granted primary-user status.
For cubesats operating in the amateur bands, the FCC relies on the International Amateur Radio Union (IARU) for frequency coordination — typically the operator must submit a coordination letter from the group with its license application. But the flood of activity threatens to overwhelm the small, volunteer organization: Of the cubesats slated to deploy through the remainder of the year, 40 are being coordinated by the IARU.
Read the full Space News story at http://www.spacenews.com/article/opinion/37890editorial-cubesats-need- coordination-too
AMSAT-UK hosts the IARU Amateur Satellite Frequency Coordination pages at http://www.amsat.org.uk/iaru
Information on frequency coordination can be found at http://www.iaru.org/satellite.html
ITU Radio Regulations http://www.itu.int/pub/R-REG-RR/en Articles 9 and 11 cover coordination and notification. Resolution 757, is an effort to simplify the administrative procedure for small, short life projects, and Resolution 646 applies to some amateur-satellite service stations.
[ANS thanks the Spacenews.com and AMSAT-UK for the above information]
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ARLS001 RS0ISS Active on SSTV from International Space Station
Dmitry Pashkov, UB4UAD, reports that the Amateur Radio slow-scan television (SSTV) experiment onboard the International Space Station has been active for the past couple of days on 145.800 MHz FM, mainly while the ISS is above Moscow. UB4UAD says that on October 31, RS0ISS should have transmited SSTV images showing images from the life and work of the first cosmonaut, Yuri Gagarin.
Stations can view the SSTV pictures from the ISS by making a simple audio connection between the receiver output and the computer soundcard input and using one of the free SSTV programs, such as MMSSTV (for Windows systems) or the SSTV app (for Apple iOS devices). Details are on the AMSAT-UK website at,
http://amsat-uk.org/2011/08/01/1490/
Failing a hard-wired connection, just holding a microphone connected to the PC soundcard in front of the receiver's speaker should provide sufficient audio to decode the SSTV signal. SSTV images from the ISS typically are in Martin 1 format.
The ISS Fan Club website at
indicates when the ISS is within range. The Energia page at
http://www.energia.ru/eng/iss/researches/education-26.html
has more information on the SSTV experiment, which is designated MAI-75.
[ANS thanks the ARRL and AMSAT-UK for the above information]
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AMSAT VP Named to Top University Post
Mark Hammond, N8MH, AMSAT's Vice President of Educational Relations, has stepped down from the volunteer position after being named Vice President of Academic Affairs and Provost of Campbell University in Buis Creek, North Carolina. The AMSAT News Service reports that E. Michael McCardel, KC8YLD, has been appointed to complete Hammond's term in the AMSAT leadership. Posted by CQ Newsroom
http://cqnewsroom.blogspot.com/2013/10/amsat-vp-named-to-top-university- post.html
[ANS thanks the CQ Newsroom, for the above information]
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Another "Last Man Standing" Ham Episode
"Last Man Standing" producer John Amodeo, NN6JA, reports that lead character Mike Baxter (Tim Allen) finally gets on the ham bands during the program's Thanksgiving episode, which was shot in mid-October and scheduled to air on November 22 on ABC.
According to John, Mike heads to his basement ham shack to escape a house full of guests waiting for Thanksgiving dinner to be served.
This is the second "Last Man Standing" episode to include ham radio as a story element, and the first in which Allen's character is seen operating his ham station.
http://cqnewsroom.blogspot.com/2013/10/another-last-man-standing-ham- episode.html
[ANS thanks the CQ Newsroom, for the above information]
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AMSAT Awards Update
Here is our latest induction into some of the AMSAT awards community. There is a pretty good batch since my last report.
The following have entered into the Satellite Communicators Club for making their first satellite QSO.
Jim Whitfield, K5JAW Giancarlo Guenzi, IZ1JPS Roberto Rachelli, IZ1WIX Brad Smith, KC9UQR Paul Stoetzer, N8HM
The following have earned the AMSAT Communications Achievement Award.
Charles Allen, KM5LY, #556 Brad Smith, KC9UQR, #557 David Johnson, KC9GHA, #558 Rolf Krogstad, NR0T, #559 Randy Morden, VE6RGU, #560 Paul Stoetzer, N8HM, #561
The following have earned the South Africa Satellite Communications Achievement Award.
Charles Allen, KM5LY, #US186 David Johnson, KC9GHA, #US187 Randy Morden, VE6RGU, #US188 Paul Stoetzer, N8HM, #US189
To see all the awards visit http://www.amsat.org or http://www.amsatnet.com/awards.html
[ANS thanks Bruce Paige, KK5DO, for the above information]
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Three Space Station Crews Get Ready for Relocation, Launch, Landing
International Space Station crews commuting to and from their orbiting laboratory will be busy this November, and NASA Television will provide live coverage of their launches, landings and relocations.
Traffic starts to pick up Friday, Nov. 1. Expedition 37 Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) and Flight Engineers Karen Nyberg of NASA and Luca Parmitano of the European Space Agency will climb into their Soyuz spacecraft, back out of one Russian Earth-facing docking spot and fly a short distance to another one at the end of the station. NASA TV coverage starts at 4 a.m. EDT. The 24-minute maneuver begins with undocking at 4:34 a.m.
The Soyuz move opens up the Rassvet docking port for another Soyuz transporting Expedition 38/39 Flight Engineer Rick Mastracchio of NASA, Soyuz Commander Mikhail Tyurin of Roscosmos and Flight Engineer Koichi Wakata of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency to the station. Aboard their spacecraft is the Olympic torch, which is taking an out-of-this-world route -- as part of the torch relay -- to Fisht Stadium in Sochi, Russia. There, the torch will be used to light the Olympic flame at the stadium, marking the start of the 2014 winter games.
The trio is scheduled to launch at 11:14 p.m. EST Wednesday, Nov. 6 (10:14 a.m. Kazakh time on Nov. 7) from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. NASA TV launch coverage begins at 10:15 p.m. Docking to Rassvet is scheduled at 5:31 a.m. on Nov. 7, with NASA TV coverage beginning at 4:45 a.m. Hatches are scheduled to open at 7:40 a.m., with NASA TV coverage starting at 7:15 a.m.
Mastracchio, Tyurin and Wakata will join Yurchikhin, Nyberg and Parmitano, plus Oleg Kotov and Sergey Ryazanskiy of Roscosmos and Michael Hopkins of NASA. Their arrival will be the first time since May 2009 that nine people have served together aboard the space station without the presence of a space shuttle.
On Sunday, Nov. 10, after Yurchikhin has transferred command of the station to Kotov, the Soyuz carrying Yurchikhin, Nyberg and Parmitano will undock for a parachute-assisted landing on the steppe of Kazakhstan at 9:50 p.m. (8:50 a.m. Kazakh time on Nov. 11), wrapping up a 166-day mission. Hatch closure coverage begins at 2:30 p.m. Nov. 10 with a replay of the change of command ceremony. Undocking coverage begins at 6 p.m., and deorbit and landing coverage begins at 8:30 p.m.
Special video feeds of pre-launch activities by the crew will resume on Friday, Nov. 1, and continue through Wednesday, Nov. 6.
All the times of International Space Station programming, key Soyuz event coverage and other NASA Television programming can be found at:
http://www.nasa.gov/stationnews
For information about the International Space Station, research and its crews, visit:
[ANS thanks NASA, for the above information]
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ARISS News
Upcoming ARISS Contact Schedule as of 2013-10-28 20:00 UTC
Quick list of scheduled contacts and events:
Wallingford STEM Academy/Town of Wallingford, Wallingford, CT, direct via K1SEZ Contact is a go for: Thu 2013-10-31 15:45:11 UTC 46 deg
Kopernik Observatory & Science Center (KOSC), Vestal, NY, direct via K2ZRO Contact is a go for: Wed 2013-10-30 16:32:51 UTC 41 deg
Warren County Technical School, Washington, NJ, direct via KC2WT Contact is a go for: Mon 2013-11-04 14:08:48 UTC 50 deg (***)
Cradle of Aviation Museum, Garden City, NY, telebridge via IK1SLD Contact is a go for: Mon 2013-11-04 14:24:39 UTC 44 deg
For all of you Ice Pilots TV show fans, the first episode of season 5 is scheduled to have some of an ARISS contact that occurred a few months back. Depending on where you are located, the times and cable TV providers may change. History Channel is airing the show for the first time Wednesday October 23 at 22:00 EDT or Thursday October 24 at 02:00 UTC. Below are several on-line links to where you can watch it:
http://www.icepilots.com/episodes.php http://www.icepilots.com/episode5_1.php
If you are in Australia, apparently the History Channel is available via Pay-TV.
Below is word from Canadian ARISS mentor Steve McFarlane VE3TBD about this:
Wednesday Oct 23, 2013 – Season Premiere of Reality TV Show Ice Pilots will feature the ARISS program – Amateur Radio on The International Space Station. I/we do not know the full details of what will be included in this episode but we understand a Radio contact with Chris Hadfield will be shown that involves the Canadian mentors that undertake and support these events all across Canada. This team, are made up of Teacher Lori McFarlane, technical coordination Claude Lacasse and program mentor Steve McFarlane VE3TBD all located in Ottawa but were on site during this contact from Hay river. Remotely located but very much a part of this event include Teacher Mentor Brian Jackson VE6JBJ in Calgary and fellow Canadian mentor Wayne Harasimovitch VE1WPH located in Halifax.
As mentioned, exact content of the show is not known but we do know a production team from Omni productions recorded the entire presentation and event at the Hay River Public School near Yellowknife. As well, Omni productions did receive the entire video from the ISS showing Chris Hadfield an swering questions during the same event. Other video including setup, meeting the show “stars” etc., was recorded but again, we are not certain of the inclusions on the show.
All audio during the event was made available and Omni productions have a copy of that – this includes the Telebridge track.
All we can hope is that ARISS is well represented and the program receives some well-deserved recognition. I was alerted that this is a reality TV show and almost anything can be broadcast. We are at the mercy of the producers and editors of the show – as they indicated to us – this is about Buffalo Airlines. My final comment to the producer, this show and the space program are linked in ways that are sometimes difficult to understand but it is clear that early aviation pioneers from all over the world, which Buffalo epitomizes, led to what we know today as the Space Program – ARISS is about making our youth believe anything is possible so when they say this is about Buffalo Airlines what they are really saying, this is about how we started our journey to the stars.
History Channel is showing for the first time Wednesday October 23 at 22:00hrs. This is the 5th season of ice pilots and I understand some of you may only be on season 4 at this point. Within a few days, it might be available elsewhere.
ARISS is requesting listener reports for the above contacts. Due to issues with the Kenwood radio that are not fully understood at present, the Ericsson radio is going to be used for these contacts. ARISS thanks everyone in advance for their assistance. Feel free to send your reports to aj9n@amsat.org or aj9n@aol.com.
Looking for something new to do? How about receiving DATV from the ISS? If interested, then please review the document provided by Gaston Bertels ON4WF, the ARISS-Europe Chairman.
http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/HamTV.pdf
The webpages listed below were all reviewed for accuracy. Out of date webpages were removed and new ones have been added. If there are additional ARISS websites I need to know about, please let me know.
Note, all times are approximate. It is recommended that you do your own orbital prediction or start listening about 10 minutes before the listed time. All dates and times listed follow International Standard ISO 8061 date and time format YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS The complete schedule page has been updated as of 2013-10-28 20:00 UTC.
Here you will find a listing of all scheduled school contacts, and questions, other ISS related websites, IRLP and Echolink websites, and instructions for any contact that may be streamed live. http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/arissnews.rtf
Total number of ARISS ISS to earth school events is 865. Each school counts as 1 event. Total number of ARISS ISS to earth school contacts is 844. Each contact may have multiple schools sharing the same time slot. Total number of ARISS supported terrestrial contacts is 46.
A complete year by year breakdown of the contacts may be found in the file. http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/arissnews.rtf
Please feel free to contact me if more detailed statistics are needed.
US Hams, don’t forget that there is a new process for US school proposals. For US schools to have an ARISS contact, they must fill out a proposal, submit it to NASA, and see if they are approved or not. Once a school is approved and put on the list, an ARISS mentor will be assigned to assist the school.
NASA will have two open windows a year for schools to submit a proposal. The window for contacts during the second half of 2012 has already closed. Look for the window for first half 2013 contacts later this year. You must go through NASA to get the proposal material. Contact Teaching From Space, a NASA Education office, at JSC-TFS-ARISS@mail.nasa.gov or by calling them at (281) 244-2320.
The following US states and entities have never had an ARISS contact: Arkansas, Delaware, Kansas, North Dakota, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Vermont, West Virginia, Wyoming, American Samoa, Guam, Northern Marianas Islands, and the Virgin Islands.
IN LIGHT OF SOME COMMENTS THAT HAVE APPEARED RECENTLY ON THE VARIOUS BULLETIN BOARDS; THE COMMENTS BELOW STILL HOLD TRUE:
QSL information may be found at: http://www.arrl.org/ARISS/arissfaq.html http://www.rac.ca/ariss/oindex.htm#QSL%27s
ISS callsigns: DPØISS, NA1SS, OR4ISS, RSØISS
The successful school list has been updated as of 2013-10-27 06:00 UTC.
http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/Successful_ARISS_schools.rtf
Frequency chart for packet, voice, and crossband repeater modes showing Doppler correction as of 2005-07-29 04:00 UTC
http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/ISS_frequencies_and_Doppler_correction .rtf
Listing of ARISS related magazine articles as of 2006-07-10 03:30 UTC.
http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/ARISS_magazine_articles.rtf
Check out the Zoho reports of the ARISS contacts
ARISS School Contacts https://reports.zoho.com/ZDBDataSheetView.cc?DBID=412218000000020415
Successful ARISS contacts https://reports.zoho.com/ZDBDataSheetView.cc?OBJID=412218000000023448 Additional Zoho links may be found at http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/arissnews.rtf
Exp. 36/37 on orbit Fyodor Yurchikhin RN3FI Karen L. Nyberg Luca Parmitano KF5KDP
Exp. 37/38 now on orbit Oleg Kotov Sergey Ryazansky Michael S. Hopkins KF5LJG
[ANS thanks Charlie Sufana, AJ9N for the above information]
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Satelite Shorts From All Over
Southeastern VHF Society WAEM Award
The Southeastern VHF Society has an award for working all of the EM grids
http://www.svhfs.org/awards.html
scroll down to the bottom for the satellite award, and get active on the birds.
(ANS thanks Damon, WA4HFN, em55 for the above information)
ESA Mars Express Video
Enjoy a virtual fly-over of Mars from the highest volcano to the deepest canyon on Mars in this great new compilation video from images taken by ESA's Mars Express. The data shown in the video was gathered from the nearly 12,500 orbits by the Mars Express spacecraft since its arrival at the Red Planet in late 2003, and used to create digital topographic models of almost the entire surface of the planet:
http://tinyurl.com/ESA-Mars-Flyover
[ANS thanks Universetoday.com for the above information]
UT1FG Found on AO-7 Mode B
Frank Griffin, K4FEG reports he made a contact with Yuri, UT1FG/MM via AO7 mode B on the 2117 UTC pass on October 29. Yuri was in grid FG40.
Frank wrote, "We had about a 60 second footprint into EM55aj to him in FG40hb, a distance of over 7500km. As the satellite rose over EM55aj84ta, I heard Yuri calling CQ at 145.9579Mhz, he called only once and I called back once and we made a successful contact, according to SatPC32 we had 1.2 degrees shared between us on the satellite".
Yuri is reported to be traveling North after two more stops in Chile. He has not had access to Wifi, so there has been very little email contact with him so far on this trip.
[ANS thanks Frank Griffin, K4FEG for the above information]
UT1FG/MM Sailing North From Chile
Yuri, UT1FG/MM is reported to be heading north which will increase opportunity to make a contact with him. Frank, K4FEG and Rick, WA4NVM contacted Yuri when he was sailing in Grid FG43 during a 2 minute pass on AO7 Mode B at 1034 UTC. His next port will be Punta Patache, Chile in Grid FG49. UT1FG can be tracked on the web at marinetraffic.com. Use either the ship name(SILVER), port name (Coquimbo) or the ship's call(5BNC3). When he is getting prepared to leave port the ship's information will change to show his next destination.
[ANS thanks Frank, K4FEG for the above information]
Pirate Slow Scan TV 255.550MHZ
While dialing around in the millsat band I noticed what sounded like slow scan tv on 255.550MHZ. It looks like the Brazilian satellite pirates are experimenting with that mode. If anyone has decoding software it would be interesting to see what they are sending. ______________________________________________________________ HearSat mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/hearsat Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:HearSat@mailman.qth.net
This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
[ANS thanks Dave Marthouse & E.Mike McCardel,KC8YLD for the above announcement]
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/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 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