AMSAT NEWS SERVICE ANS-135

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:

* Ready, Set, GO! AMSAT is Ready for Dayton Hamvention * AMSAT at Smithsonian Space Day 2011 * Second Call for Speakers for AMSAT UK Colloquium 2011 * 2011 AMSAT Field Day Competition * ISRO Request For VO-52 HAMSAT User Feedback and Comments * ARISSat-1 Update * Satellite Shorts From All Over * New High For Space Tourism: Lunar Tour

SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-135.01 Ready, Set, GO! AMSAT is Ready for Dayton Hamvention

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 135.01

From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.

May 15, 2011 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-135.01

The 2011 Dayton Hamvention will be held this year from May 20-22, 2011 and AMSAT will be there. The AMSAT theme for 2011 is "Providing Education Through Amateur Satellites". We will have multiple exhibits of the new AMSAT satellites on display.

You'll find AMSAT at the same spot (Booths 444-449) in the Ball Arena, right across from the ARRL area and just inside the door from the Sat- ellite Demonstration area. Plan to visit all of the AMSAT activities!

AMSAT has planned a number of great activities during the Hamvention. Here is a sample of the events and activities planned for the entire weekend. Links to all of these activities can be found on the AMSAT web page: http://www.amsat.org.

This list has been updated since last week's bulletin!

+ Meet astronaut Doug Wheelock, KF5BOC Friday 1:30-2:30, Saturday, 3:00-4:00 at the AMSAT booth.

+ ARISSat-1 operational prototype will be on display. o Tune your HT to 145.950 MHz to hear a preview of the FM downlink. o Watch the demonstration of the ARISSatTLM software receive and display the CW beacon and BPSK telemetry using G6LVB's FUNcube Dongle.

+ Howard Long, G6LVB will be at the AMSAT booth periodically to talk about his FUNcube Dongle (FCD) project. This small (1" x 3") USB software defined radio will receive from 64 - 1700 MHz.

+ CAMSAT delegates will be at AMSAT booth. The CAMSAT delegation con- sists of Alan, BA1DU; Ken, BH4REQ; Jin, BA4TA; and Michael, BD5RV/4.

+ The ARRL Expo, next door to AMSAT, will have the backup OSCAR-1 satellite on display, resurrected by W1AW Station Manager Joe Carcia, and ARRL Lab Test Engineer Bob Allison, WB1GCM. The CW transmitter is tuned to 145.080 MHz. It will transmit at Part 15 levels with only 10 microwatts of power across a 50 ohm dummy load. A satellite transceiver will be positioned next to the unit that will be used to receive the CW signal. You will hear it transmit "HI HI," just as it did 50 years ago.

+ The fifth annual AMSAT/TAPR Banquet will be Friday night May 20. Just a reminder that the cutoff date for the AMSAT-TAPR dinner at Dayton is Monday May 16th. You can register at the AMSAT Store web- site: http://www.amsat-na.com/store/item.php?id=100158 We will NOT be selling tickets at the booth. Our new Banquet speaker will be Bob Bruninga, WB4APR speaking on "Power from Space and in your Shack". David Rowe, VK5DGR is unable to attend. Read about Bob's presentation on the AMSAT at Dayton webpages at: http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/hamvention/2011/Banquet.php

+ AMSAT Thursday Night Get-together at Tickets Pub & Eatery.

+ Dave Jordan, AA4KN will speak about ARISS at the Teachers Forum at 1000 on Friday in Room 3. The title of his talk "Space Communi- cations from the Classroom-ARISS and AMSAT". Dave will describe as how to apply for an ARISS contact at your school and find out how amateur radio satellites can be accessed and used for class- room projects."

+ The AMSAT Forum will be on Saturday May 21 1115-1330 in Forum Room 5 on Saturday. Moderated by Alan Biddle, WA4SCA you will have a chance to hear and see the latest news of amateur radio in space.

o AMSAT President Barry Baines, WD4ASW will present an AMSAT Status Report o Alan Kung, BA1DU, CEO of AMSAT-China, will discuss the activities of AMSAT-China. o Project Manager for ARISSat-1, Gould Smith, WA4SXM, will talk about its operation aboard the ISS, and the planned deployment and opera- tions this summer. o Tony Monteiro, AA2TX, will discuss the design and status of Project-FOX. o Alex Harvilchuck, N3NP, will present NextGen CubeSat Program Update.

+ NASA Astronaut Doug Wheelock, KF5BOC is scheduled to speak from 1315-1415 on Saturday in Forum Room 3. Doug is attending Hamvention as guest of ARRL and AMSAT. According to the Forum listing, "Doug will share his experiences about space flight and using Amateur Radio in space."

+ Lou McFadin, W5DID is scheduled to speak at the "Introduction to Digital-ATV" Forum, scheduled on Saturday from 1530-1700 in Forum Room 2. The title of his talk is "DATV Space Station Project".

+ Satellite demonstrations will take place outside the Ball Arena entrance Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

Be sure and come by the booth and renew your membership and receive an AMSAT multiblade screwdriver as a premium!

The AMSAT leadership team will be at Hamvention and invite you to take advantage of this opportunity to interact with both board mem- bers and senior officers. If you have issues or concerns that you wish to express here is your chance to do so.

[ANS thanks AMSAT HQ for the above information]

/EX

SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-135.02 AMSAT at Smithsonian Space Day 2011

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 135.02

From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.

May 15, 2011 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-135.02

Dave Taylor, W8AAS reported a very successful AMSAT presence at Space Day 2011 held at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum on the Mall in Washington DC on May 7. According to the ARISS status report, the average crowd in the Museum on this Saturday in May is about 30,000.

Featured displays included prototype picosats, cubesats, space hard- ware including laser reflectors for the kids to try out. A crowd of 250 people watched the ARISS contact as six youngsters asked questions. Each one had three questions to ask and we got through all of them with time to thank Cady Coleman, KC5ZTH, give her a round of applause, and hear her response. Mark Steiner, K3MS handled the ARISS uplink/downlink from NASA Goddard amateur radio station K6DUE.

Prior to the contact, former Payload Specialist Greg Linteris spoke to the crowd. Greg had trained with Cady for one of his flights. He was also on one of the last SAREX missions (STS-94).

This year a group from Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology brought a working prototype of their Cubesat. They demon- strated with the prototype how one can uplink a text message and their Cubesat converts the text message to speech and transmits the speech on the downlink. They are manifested on a SpaceX Falcon 9 launch for early next year. Orbital Sciences has been providing them with assistance for the project.

At Space Day a new version of the AMSAT-OSCAR slide show was run. A link to a PDF version of the slide show has been added to the AMSAT web page. (see http://www.amsat.org).

Thanks to all who helped out: Dave Taylor, W8AAS Perry Klein, W3PK Dick Daniels, W4PUJ Mark Kanawati, N4TPY Samudra Haque, N3RDX Don Sylvain, WA3WOD from the Smithsonian Amateur Radio Club NN3SI Mark Steiner, K3MS from NASA Goddard K6DUE Bob McCown, N3IYI from NASA Goddard K6DUE

Photos will be published in the AMSAT Journal.

[ANS thanks Perry Klein, W3PK and Dave Taylor W8AAS for the above information]

/EX

SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-135.03 Second Call for Speakers for AMSAT UK Colloquium 2011

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 135.03

From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.

May 15, 2011 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-135.03

This is the second call for speakers for the AMSAT-UK Colloquium 2011 which will be held at the Holiday Inn, Guildford, UK (same venue as in 2010) from *Sat 30 Jul to Sun 31 July 2011*

AMSAT-UK invite speakers, about amateur radio, space and associated activities, for this event.

Offers of talks should be sent *ONLY* to G4DPZ, via the following routes:

e-mail: david.johnson AT blackpepper.co.uk

SnailMail: QTHR from http://www.QRZ.com

Likewise if anyone knows of a good speaker, please send contact and other information to G4DPZ.

[ANS thanks Dave, G4DPZ for the above information]

/EX

SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-135.04 2011 AMSAT Field Day Competition

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 135.04

From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.

May 15, 2011 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-135.04

AMSAT Director of Awards, Bruce Paige, KK5DO says, "It's that time of year again: Summer and Field Day!"

Each year the American Radio Relay League (ARRL) sponsors Field Day as an emergency preparedness exercise. The event takes place during a 24-hour period on the fourth weekend of June. For 2011 the event takes place during a 27-hour period from 1800 UTC on Saturday June 25, 2011 through 2100 UTC on Sunday June 26, 2011. Those who set up prior to 1800 UTC on June 25 can operate only 24 hours.

The Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation (AMSAT) promotes its own version of Field Day for operation via the amateur satellites, held concurrently with the ARRL event.

Bruce advises, "If you are considering ONLY the FM voice satellites like AMSAT-OSCAR 16, AMRAD-OSCAR-27, SaudiSat-Oscar-50, or AMSAT- OSCAR-51 for your AMSAT Field Day focus. Don't, unless you are simply hoping to make one contact for the ARRL rules bonus points."

The congestion on FM LEO satellites was so intense in prior years that we must continue to limit their use to one-QSO-per-FM-satel- lite. This includes the International Space Station. You will be allowed one QSO if the ISS is operating Voice. You will also be allowed one digital QSO with the ISS or any other digital, non- store-and-forward, packet satellite (if operational).

Please refer to these links for the full document of the AMSAT Field Day rules: http://www.amsat.org/ (link on AMSAT.org front page to PDF file) And, an alternative site is: http://www.amsatnet.com/2011fd.doc (MS-Word Doc File) http://www.amsatnet.com/2011fd.pdf (PDF File)

These documents also cover the message exchange format, scoring requirements, reporting requirements, station classes, etc.

[ANS thanks AMSAT Director of Awards, Bruce Paige, KK5DO for the above information]

/EX

SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-135.05 ISRO Request For VO-52 HAMSAT User Feedback and Comments

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 135.05

From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.

May 15, 2011 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-135.05

The VO-52 HAMSAT community has received a request from the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), in Bangalore for user reports on the satellite's performance. Shri. T. Parimalarangan, HAMSAT Operations Director, ISRO Tracking, Ranging and Command Centre (ISTRAC) asks that feedback be sent via e-mail directly to him at: tprangan@istrac.org. Mani, VU2WMY, Secretary & Station-In-Charge at the Upagrah Amateur Radio Club VU2URC at the ISRO Satellite Centre requests a copy to be sent to him at: wmy@isac.gov.in.

ISTRAC/ISRO is interested in gathering VO-52 data with responses to these questions:

1. Qualitative/quantitative performance report. (Signal strength telemetry observations, availability).

2. Observation on the quality of services from the launch to present (trend of the onboard behaviour as seen from the ground).

3. Comparison with other amateur radio satellites.

4. Positive/negative aspects of HAMSAT.

The data will be used to generate a HAMSAT Performance Report on the 6th anniversary since launch. ISRO values direct feedback from the user community.

[ANS thanks Mani, VU2WMY for the above information]

/EX

SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-135.06 ARISSat-1 Update

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 135.06

From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.

May 15, 2011 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-135.06

The ARISSat-1 satellite was intended to be activated in April as part of the 50th anniversary of Yuri Gagarin's famous flight. However, no ground stations reported hearing the satellite. To follow up, the ARISSat-1 team had a teleconference with represent- atives of RSC-Energia (Russia) and NASA to request a clarification of the events and discuss what happened.

According to RSC-Energia, the battery in ARISSat-1 was only charged once on the ground and was then used for a variety of tests and dur- ing the February activation event. It was not recharged prior to the April Yuri Gagarin activity since it can only be charged a limited number of times on the ISS.

The cosmonauts reported that they activated the satellite and con- firmed that they heard the signal on the ham radio equipment on board the ISS. Since the battery was nearly depleted of its original charge, they switched the satellite off after six hours of operation in order to prevent over-discharging the battery. The battery was then removed from the satellite and stored separately as per their normal battery handling procedures. For more information on this battery, please see the JAN/FEB 2011 AMSAT Journal.

RSC-Energia reported that their plan is to recharge the battery about three weeks prior to the EVA deployment. This will give the cosmonauts time to reinstall the battery and test the satellite to make sure it is working properly. The EVA deployment is planned for late July of this year.

[ANS thanks AMSAT Vice-President of Engineering, Tony Monteiro, AA2TX for the above information]

/EX

SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-135.07 Satellite Shorts From All Over

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 135.07

From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.

May 15, 2011 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-135.07

+ Congratulations to Paolo Nespoli IZØJPA! Paolo now has the record for the number of contacts during a single flight at 42. He is part of Expedition 26/27).

+ AMSAT-UK is now active on Twitter as @AMSAT_UK. Keep up to date with all the AMSAT-UK news and updates.

+ MILESTONE! On Saturday May 7, Bob Herrell, AJ5C, acheived his 5,000th amateur radio satellite contact when he worked Kerry, WC7V on the FO-29 satellite using SSB. Bob posted a video at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yt6gM7K7Kv0. The Southgate ARC news site also carried the story: http://www.southgatearc.org/news/may2011/5000_sat_qsos.htm Bob, congratulations on a remarkable acheivement.

+ SA AMSAT said that its Space Symposium 2011 will go full steam ahead on Saturday 21 May. The auditorium at Radiokop will be the venue and the SARL National Amateur Radio Centre being used for refreshment breaks and lunch. The new arrangement has substantially reduced the registration fee to R75 for SARL and SA AMSAT members if booked before 15 May 2011. Students and scholars will enter free if a student card or scholar ID is submitted at the time of Registration. The conference will be opened by the CEO of the South African National Space Agency, Sandile Malinga. John Willescroft, ZS6EF, will demonstrate the development of a totally new concept which allows a solar panel to be released from SAiSAT once in Space. For full details, registration forms and programme, visit: http://www.amsatsa.org.za

+ Spaceflightnow.com has posted a movie capturing the Atlas 5 rocket's launch over the weekend that successfully deployed the first in a new generation of missile warning satellites for the U.S. military. Watch on-line at: http://spaceflightnow.com/atlas/av022/video.html

+ OY, FAROE ISLANDS. Operators Hans/PA0VHA, Steef/PA2A and Wim/PA2AM will be active as OY/homecall from Skaelingur, Streymoy Island, in the Faroes (EU-018), between May 22nd and June 3rd. Activity will be on all bands using CW and RTTY. Also, look for activity on 6 and 4 meters, and PA2AM will also be on AO-51 satellite. Streymoy Island has a population of 11 and some sheep! QSL via their home callsigns. ADDED NOTE: This team also plans activity from Market Reef later this year. (Ohio/Penn DX Bulletin)

+ The next Hudson Valley Satcom Nets "HV Satcom" Net ia scheduled for May 26, at 8PM EDT (UTC-4) on the 146.970 MHz repeater, (Pl 100), and also on Echolink node N2EYH-L. More info: http://www.hvsatcom.org (Stu, WA2BSS)

+ Technical papers are solicited for presentation at the 30th Annual ARRL and TAPR Digital Communications Conference to be held September 16-18, 2011 in Baltimore, Maryland. These papers will also be pub- lished in the Conference Proceedings (you do NOT need to attend the conference to have your paper included in the Proceedings). The sub- mission deadline is July 31, 2011. Please send papers to: Maty Weinberg, ARRL, 225 Main St, Newington, CT 06111 or you can make your submission via e-mail to: maty@arrl.org.

+ Squrl may be a useful tool for storing your on-line videos. Its pri- mary function is to help visitors collect interesting videos online for later "consumption". First-time visitors will need to complete a short registration, and they can get started saving videos from a range of sources. Visitors can also organize playlists, and then email them to friends and colleagues. This version is compatible with all operating systems. See: http://www.squrl.com/

+ AMSAT's Keeper of the Keps, Ray Hoad, WA5QGD says he has updated the name designation in the AMSAT KEPs for FAST1 as FO-69 and FAST2 as FO-70. This matches the OSCAR desginators assigned to these satellites earlier this year.

[ANS thanks everyone for the above information]

/EX

SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-135.08 New High For Space Tourism: Lunar Tour

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 135.08

From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.

May 15, 2011 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-135.08

This week MoonDaily.com posted a story, "Space Adventures proposes modified Soyuz TMA for Lunar tourists" which follows below:

U.S. Space Adventures, the only company currently offering tourist orbital spaceflights, has offered to equip the Russian Soyuz TMA spaceship with additional living space for eight-day commercial flights around the moon, the company said late on Thursday.

The firm announced on April 28 that it would offer moon orbit tourist trips, albeit with a price tag of around $150 million per seat.

"After consultation with Rocket Space Corporation Energia (the Soyuz TMA design authority), modifications to the Soyuz TMA configuration have been agreed upon. The most important is the addition of a sec- ond habitation module to the Soyuz TMA lunar complex," Space Adven- tures said.

A moon tour mission would include separate launches of a Soyuz and the upper stage, their docking in a low Earth orbit, a flight to the moon with the upper stage engine, the separation of Soyuz from the upper stage rocket, an orbit around the moon, return to Earth and landing.

Space Adventures is currently selecting candidates for the next space tour together with the Russian Federal Space Agency.

The company quoted Vice Chairman Richard Garriott as saying it had sold one of the two seats for the flight and anticipated that the launch would occur in 2015.

The CEO of Russia's Gagarin Research and Test Cosmonaut Training Center Sergei Krikalyov has said the center was ready to train a professional cosmonaut and a space tourist for the future flight.

This story is on the MoonDaily.com web site, see: http://tinyurl.com/3zn8xhl

[ANS thanks MoonDaily.com 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. And with that, please keep in mind the ham who was a physics professor. His lectures could be quite animated and exciting. He would jump off of the desk or fling frisbees to illustrate his point. One day in class he was spinning on an office chair holding weights in each hand when he lost his balance and tumbled into the first row. He apologized to his class for going off on a tangent.

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