SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-289.01 ANS Special Bulletin - AO-51 Configuration to Support Scouting JOTA

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 289.01

From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.

October 16, 2009 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-289.01

AMSAT-NA is supporting the 52nd Jamboree on the Air (JOTA) Scouting event by dedicating AO-51 operation to the Scouts.

AMSAT-NA VP Operations, Drew Glasbrenner, KO4MA said, "For October 17th and 18th, the AO-51 QRP repeater will be allocated for JOTA use. All users are requested to give way to JOTA stations or QSOs with JOTA stations."

The frequencies used for this weekend will be 145.880 FM uplink, and 435.150 FM downlink, no PL tone required. The mode change should occur at ~00:00 UTC on the 17th (Friday evening in the US) and run for approximately 48 hours.

AMSAT wishes the Scouts good luck operating via the AO-51 satellite for the event.

Reports of your JOTA operations should be sent to the AMSAT-BB or directly to ko4ma@amsat.org.

Photo files up to 5 Mb total are also welcome for possible inclusion in an upcoming AMSAT Journal article.

Keith Pugh, W5IU, reports from Texas, "K2BSA will be operating on the Amateur Radio Satellites from the National Scouting Museum in Irving, TX, from 14:00 to 22:00 UTC on Saturday, 17 Oct. 2009. We will be on as many of the passes listed below as possible. We will be operating as a portable, hand-held station. Bring your Scouts and join us on the Birds."

Here are the predicted passes for K2BSA:

WinAos QTH: -97.0/32.9 T#: 11612 Sat.: 6 [Standard] ---------------------------------------------------------- Day Object AOS (U) LOS Period maxEl AZ ---------------------------------------------------------- 17.10.2009 SO-50 14:41 14:50 09 10 356 - 098 17.10.2009 AO-07 14:47 15:06 19 37 005 - 225 17.10.2009 VO-52 15:35 15:48 13 35 023 - 176 17.10.2009 SO-50 16:20 16:33 13 76 330 - 155 17.10.2009 VO-52 17:12 17:23 11 16 348 - 228 17.10.2009 AO-27 19:10 19:23 13 20 129 - 003 17.10.2009 AO-27 20:48 21:03 15 39 185 - 340

There will also be an ARISS Contact with Scouts at the museum that will take place starting at 21:53 UTC. This will be a Telebridge contact via WH6PN in Hawaii. The contact will be on the EchoLink AMSAT Conference and on a wide area, 442.400 MHz repeater in the Dallas/Fort Worth area.

[ANS thanks Keith, W5IU, and Drew, KO4MA for the above information]

/EX