AMSAT NEWS SERVICE ANS-154

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 Deadline * AMSAT Symposium, Conference, and Colloquium Opportunities * June AO-51 Schedule Includes Kid's Day, Field Day, and Mode V/S * RAFT Satellite Mission Ends * Satellite Shorts From All Over * ARISS Status Report for the Week of May 28, 2007

SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-154.01 AMSAT-NA Board of Directors Nomination Deadline

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 154.01

From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.

June 3, 2007 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-154.01

It is time to submit nominations for the upcoming open seats on the AMSAT-NA Board of Directors. A nomination requires either one Member Society or five current individual members to nominate an AMSAT member for the position. A director serves for a period of two years.

Four directors' terms expire this year: Barry Baines, WD4ASW; Emily Clarke, N1DID; Rick Hambly, W2GPS; and, Gunther Meisse, W8GSM.

Written nominations must be sent by regular mail and must be received at the AMSAT office no later than 12 June 2007.

Nominations MUST be in writing and mailed to: AMSAT 850 Sligo Ave #600 Silver Spring, MD 20901

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SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-154.02 AMSAT Symposium, Conference, and Colloquium Opportunities

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 154.02

From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.

June 3, 2007 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-154.02

The Wireless Association of South Hills Amateur Radio Club would like to announce that the 2007 AMSAT-NA Space Symposium will be held at the Pittsburgh Airport Marriott Hotel on Friday, October 26 through Sunday, October 28, 2007. The Symposium Committee requests a one-page abstract of proposed papers and presentations by early June. Abstracts and papers should be sent to: Daniel Schultz N8FGV by e-mail to: n8fgv@amsat.org. The Symposium web page will be up- dated as more information becomes available: http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/symposium/2007/index.php

The Southern Africa Amateur Radio Satellite Association will be holding its annual space communications conference in Gauteng on Saturday 23 June 2007. The theme of the conference is "Space: New Frontiers" The theme relates to South Africa's latest satellite project "SumbandilaSat. More information can be found at: http://www.amsatsa.org.za/

The dates for the 2007 AMSAT-UK Colloquium are 20 through 22 July 2007. It is being held a week earlier than normal to avoid clashing with the Central States VHF Event. Venue is to be the University of Surrey, as per previous years. Offers of talks should be submitted as soon as possible; the final date for full documents to be received is mid-June 2007. Submissions should be sent *ONLY* to G4DPZ, via "dave at g4dpz.me.uk".

[ANS thanks AMSAT-NA, AMSAT-SA, and AMSAT-UK for the above information]

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SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-154.03 June AO-51 Schedule Includes Kid's Day, Field Day, and Mode V/S

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 154.03

From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.

June 3, 2007 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-154.03

Drew, KO4MA AMSAT-NA VP Operations released the AO-51 Echo Satellite schedule for June 1 until June 30.

June 1 - June 15

FM Repeater, V/U Uplink: 145.920 MHz FM, NO PL Tone Downlink: 435.300 MHz FM 9k6 Digital, V/U, Telemetry Only Downlink: 435.150 Mhz FM, 9k6 Telemetry

June 16 ARRL Kid's Day (QSOs by or with Kid's Day stations ONLY please)

FM Repeater, V/U Uplink: 145.880 MHz FM, NO PL Tone Downlink: 435.300 MHz FM

June 17 - June 25 AMSAT/ARRL Field Day (June 23-24)

FM Repeater, V/U Uplink: 145.920 MHz FM, NO PL Tone Downlink: 435.300 MHz FM

FM Repeater, L/U Uplink: 1268.700 MHz FM, NO PL Tone Downlink: 435.150 MHz FM

June 26 - June 30

FM Repeater, V/S Uplink: 145.880 MHz FM, NO PL Tone Downlink: 2401.200 MHz FM

Full details are available on-line at: http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/echo/CTNews.php

[ANS thanks Drew, KO4MA for the above information]

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SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-154.04 RAFT Satellite Mission Ends

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 154.04

From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.

June 3, 2007 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-154.04

The US Naval Academy's RAFT Satellite reached the end of its orbital life this week. Data compiled from stations monitoring its 145.825 MHz downlink indicates that RAFT's de-orbit occurred between 0200-0300 UTC on MAY 30, 2007. Its final beacon was heard at 01:45 UTC that day.

Prior to de-orbit the University of California, Irvine satellite (UCISAT) team was able to activate the XP-217 transponder aboard the satellite and detected the NAVSPASUR radar net on 05/27/07 at 0602 UTC. The UCISAT team has a website with the audio recording files and audio spectrum analysis of the transponder tone from the successful pass. See: http://ucisat.eng.uci.edu/RAFT.php.

The US Naval Academy RAFT web page has a doppler plot of the radar fence signal and details of the final days in orbit. See: http://www.ew.usna.edu/~bruninga/craft/save-raft.html.

Henk, PA3GUO programmed a special goodbye voice-message from RAFT which can be heard at: http://home.vianetworks.nl/users/hamoen/pa3guo/raft_voice_goodbye.mp3

[ANS thanks the US Naval Academy Satellite Lab; Bob, WB4APR; Matt, KF6RTB; and Henk, PA3GUO for the above information.]

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SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-154.05 Satellite Shorts From All Over

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 154.05

From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.

June 3, 2007 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-154.05

+ AMSAT member Joe, K0NEB has produced videos of the Dayton Hamvention for several years. His work can be viewed on-line at YouTube.com. His releases for Dayton 2007 are:

"Radio Gaga": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1icBxSF-yV4

"You Might Think I'm Crazy": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SL1sB3fBGuQ

Search on YouTube.com with his callsign K0NEB to find a list of all of Joe's videos.

+ Congratulations to ARISS for reaching the milestone of 300 contacts. The first contact occurred on 12/21/2000 with much progress in the 6.5 years since then. Thank you all ham astronauts!

+ The AMSAT-UK webserver is being powered off around the weekend of June 2 for essential electrical maintenance to the building hosting the server. AMSAT-UK plans to restore service as soon as possible.

[ANS thanks everyone for the above information]

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SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-154.06 ARISS Status Report for the Week of May 28, 2007

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 154.06

From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.

June 3, 2007 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-154.06

1. Successful School Contacts

On Monday, May 21, Toyon Elementary School in San Jose, California, experienced an ARISS contact. Sunita Williams, KD5PLB, answered 13 questions put to her by 13 children. Approximately 470 students attend the school. Toyon Elementary is a 2004 NASA Explorer School with minorities making up 87% of the school population.

EFLS Sainte-Marie SUARLEE in Suarlee, Namur, Belgium had an ARISS contact on Tuesday, May 29 via the telebridge station W6SRJ in California. The Sainte Marie School is located in Suarlee, a village in Wallonia, the French speaking region of Belgium. Sixty-five children, ages 3 - 12 attend the school. There are nineteen 10 - 12 year olds in the class who will participate in the question and answer session with the ISS. The students were excited to be participating in this contact and have been studying the distances between the planets of the solar system. They have also been using the Internet and newspapers to gather information about recent space activities.

NASA Johnson Space Center (Gilruth) Teacher to Teacher Workshop had an ARISS contact on Thursday, May 31 via the telebridge station WH6PN in Hawaii. Approximately 250 K-12 teachers from across the country parti- cipated in many sessions throughout the two day workshop including Constructive Chaos, Correcting Misconceptions in Science, Engineering Your Way to the Moon, Mars, and Beyond-CEV, Hooked on Math, NASA STS-118 Engineering Challenge, NCLB: Past, Present, and Future, Analogical Reason- ing: Real-World Examples for Scientific Concepts, Engineering Design Challenges Program, NASA in Every Child's World, Robotics, and many more. The event is a partnership between NASA and the U.S. Dept. of Education.

2. ARRL Covers ARISS Activities

Published in the American Radio Relay League (ARRL) QST June issue (p. 24) is a letter to the editor about how John Spasojevich, K9COE, radio contact coordinator of the Boulder Hill Elementary School's ARISS contact, is still getting letters commending him on the event, from the school board, village officials, and parents. In addition, the children who participated in the contact are still wearing their ARISS t-shirts. The event took place on March 6, 2007.

ARRL's June QST (p. 78) also ran a column about space participant Charles Simonyi, KE7KDP, and his ARISS work. The article included a photo of him with cosmonauts Oleg Kotov and Fyodor Yurchikhin.

3. Kenwood Radio Status

On Monday, May 21, Sunita Williams, KD5PLB, was able to restore a few commonly used configurations in the Kenwood radio. One of the modes that was partially restored was the packet system, although the operations will be on 145.825 simplex. Configurations of general voice communications and those used to support school contacts were also saved. A full restoration of the radio is required for a fully functional radio system. This requires access to a computer system and certification of the required software.

[ANS thanks Carol, KB3LKI 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.

73, This week's ANS Editor, JoAnne Maenpaa, K9JKM K9JKM at amsat dot org