AMSAT NEWS SERVICE ANS-159

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: ans-editor@amsat.org

In this edition:

* AMSAT-NA Board of Directors Nomination Announcement * 9 Cubesats offered free launch with ESA * News from the 6/3/08 Executive Teleconference * Satellite Shorts From All Over * Direct Shorts * ARISS Status Report for the Week of May 26, 2008

SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-159.01 AMSAT-NA Board of Directors Nomination Announcement

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 159.01

From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.

June 8, 2008 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-159.01

Nominations are open for the AMSAT-NA Board of Directors (BOD). The nominations must be in writing and received at the AMSAT office by end of business June 15, 2008.

AMSAT-NA member societies or five current individual members may make nominations of fellow members to serve a 2-year term. Three of the seven seats must be filled this year.

The board members whose terms are expiring are:

Tom Clark, K3IO Lou McFadin, W5DID Bob McGwier, N4HY

Prospective AMSAT-NA BOD members generally attend two meetings each year, usually during the first and third quarters of the year. Attendance at the meetings is mandatory. Travel expenses for BOD meetings are paid for by AMSAT-NA.

Nominations must be in writing and mailed to:

AMSAT-NA Board of Director Nomination 850 Sligo Ave #600 Silver Spring, MD 20910

The nominations with descriptive information about each candidate will be mailed out July 15, 2008. Ballots must be received in Silver Spring,MD by September 15, 2008. Only active members as of July 24, 2008 are eligible to vote.

[ANS thanks AMSAT HQ for the above information]

/EX

SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-159.02 9 Cubesats offered free launch with ESA

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 159.02

From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.

June 8, 2008 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-159.02

Cubesats built by students from universities in Poland Spain Italy Switzerland Romania France and Belgium have been selected for a free ride to low earth orbit. The launch is scheduled on the Vega maiden flight from Kourou at the end 2008 / early 2009 TBC. One Belgium cubesat proposes to use D-Star as a communications protocol

http://www.esa.int/esaED/SEM2BPUG3HF_index_0.html

[ANS thanks David, G0MRF, for the above information]

/EX

SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-159.03 News from the 6/3/08 Executive Teleconference

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 159.03

From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.

June 8, 2008 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-159.03

The AMSAT Store will be re-opening soon. It has been moved to the new AMSAT server.

There will be a series of ARISS/NASA technical meetings in Russia during much of the month of July this year.

There will be a technical meeting in Phoenix about SuitSat-2 hardware the weekend of 14 June. We will be updating the specification and determining what hardware can be developed, tested and delivered to Russia by the end of the year.

[ANS thanks Gould, WA4SXM for the above information]

/EX

SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-159.04 Satellite Shorts From All Over

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 159.04

From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.

June 8, 2008 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-159.04

The 2008 Dayton Forum presentation of Rick Hambly, W2GPS AMSAT President is now available for viewing online at mms://media.wmfd.com/amsat/W2GPS_2008_forum.wmv

Also available is Bob McGwier's 2008 AMSAT Engineering update mms://media.wmfd.com/amsat/EngMovie08.wmv

The other 2008 Forum presentations will also be available soon. There will be an ANS announcement. Thanks to Rob and Gunther Meisse and WMFD for hosting the video.

Note: The following satellites have been dropped from the AMSAT Keplerian Data List:

UARS Cat # 21701 OO-38 Cat # 26063 MO-46 Cat # 26548 UWE-1 Cat # 28892 LIBERTAD-1 Cat # 31129

[ANS thanks everyone for the above information]

/EX

SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-159.05 Direct Shorts

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 159.05

From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.

June 8, 2008 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-159.05

+ Technical papers are solicited for presentation at the 27th Annual ARRL and TAPR Digital Communications Conference to be held Septem- ber 26-28, 2008 in Chicago, Illinois. The submission deadline is July 31, 2008. Please send papers to: Maty Weinberg, ARRL, 225 Main Street, Newington, CT 06111.

+ Stefan, VE4NSA says his 1:1 scale model kit of the Delfi-C3 satel- lite is in the prototype stage. A photo of the project can be found at http://www.wincube.ca/Delfi.html. This model will be available as pdf files for you to print (and cut and glue) in the next few weeks from the Delfi-C3 website. Stefan invites radio amateurs to also see his released AO-51 scale model at http://www.msig.ca/AO-51.html.

+ This past week the Cute-1.7 + APD II cubesat team ran a 24hour test of the APD sensor. FM telemetry packets were transmitted on 437.475 MHz. Please forward any received telemetry to Hiroki Ashida via email to hiroki@lss.mes.titech.ac.jp.

+ Yuta Araki, JQ1YGV wrote from Nihon University to inform you of the update of the analysis software for the SEEDS cubesat. The new ver- sion of the analysis software is "Downlink Code for Distribution Ver.2.0.3" at: http://cubesat.aero.cst.nihon-u.ac.jp/english/download_e.html

[ANS thanks for the above information]

/EX

SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-159.06 ARISS Status Report for the Week of June 2nd, 2008

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 159.06

From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.

June 8, 2008 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-159.06

Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) Status Report June 2, 2008

1. School Contact Status

Planning continues for Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) contacts; however, the level of school contacts will drop temporarily due to crew time constraints.

2. NASM Space Day Article

Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation (AMSAT) and Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) members participated in the National Air and Space Museum celebration on Space Day. The event was covered in a local paper. To view the article in the Southwester (page 11), go to: http://swdc.org/news/Southwester_JUNE_2008.pdf

3. Terrestrial School Contact Successful

On Tuesday, May 27, European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Roberto Vittori, IZ6ERU, spoke by telephone with students from primary schools San Giuseppe and De Gasperi in Italy. He answered 20 questions posed to him by the students. Approximately 400 people were present during the hour long question and answer session. Newspapers covered the event. These schools plan to participate in an Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) contact in the fall. Photos and detailed information on this activity have been posted to the ARISS-Europe Web site. See: http://www.ariss-eu.org/2008_05_27.htm

4. ESA Article on DRS Contact

An Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) contact took place with Delta Researcher Schools (DRS) on Friday, May 23 at Space Expo, Noordwijk, the Netherlands. The European Space Agency (ESA) posted a write-up on this educational event to its Web site. See: http://www.esa.int/esaHS/SEMEZ8NKRGF_education_0.html

5. Astronaut Training Status

Mike Fincke, KE5AIT, participated in an Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) training session on Tuesday, May 27. Fincke is scheduled to fly in October 2008 as the commander of Expedition 18.

[ANS thanks Carol, KB3LKI for the above information]

/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 additional benefits. Application forms are available from the AMSAT Office.

73, This week's ANS Editor, Dee Interdonato, NB2F nb2f at amsat dot org