AMSAT NEWS SERVICE ANS-347

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: * Faraday Medal for Professor Sir Martin Sweeting, G3YJO * Satellite Shorts * OSCAR 11 Notes * ARISS Status - 7 December 2009

SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-347.01 Faraday Medal for Professor Sir Martin Sweeting, G3YJO

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 347.01 From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. December 13, 2009 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-347.01

Faraday Medal for Professor Sir Martin Sweeting, G3YJO

Professor Sir Martin Sweeting OBE FRS, G3YJO has been awarded the Faraday Medal by the Institute of Engineering and Technology, IET. The medal is awarded for notable scientific or industrial achievement in engineering or for conspicuous service rendered to the advancement of science, engineering and technology. The citation said that Sweeting was awarded the Medal for "his visionary leadership, satellite expertise, ambition and drive, which among other things, brought the overheads involved in space exploration, down to earth. Sir Martin's work includes establishing the viability of the use of small satellites for earth observation, communication and navigation purposes and his founding of a company to design and supply small satellites to organisations throughout the world". G3YJO will be giving the 45th Appleton Lecture, entitled Small Satellites - Big Future, on Tuesday 19 January at the IET's headquarters in London.

[ANS thanks Ray, W2RS, for the above information]

/EX

SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-347.02 Satellite Shorts

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 347.02 From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. December 13, 2009 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-347.02

ARISS Activity Reports

There has been confirmed reports of Packet activity on the ISS. Monitor for it If you can and would like to perform packet ops with the ISS.

SSTV signals are also planned for activity from the MAI-75 experiment. Most Signals will be near Moscow coverage area, however, other coverage areas could be activated as well. 145.800 downlink should be monitored.

ISS SSTV Images Available On-Line

Cor PD0RKC has archived several ISS SSTV images from the December 10 operation in the ARISS SSTV gallery: http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/SSTV/

[ANS thanks,Tony, VK5ZAI & Ken, N5VHO, for this information]

/EX

Hudson Valley SatCom Net

Stu WA2BSS invites all amateur radio operators to join the next Hudson Valley SatCom net on Wednesday December 23 at 8PM EST (or 0100 UTC 12/24). The on-air portion of the meets on the 146.97 Mt.Beacon Repeater. Hams worldwide can "tune in" via EchoLink node N2EYH-L. More info: http://www.wr2abb.org This is a special time since the normal net meets every other Thursday and Conflicts with Christmas Eve.

{Thanks to Stu, WA2BSS, for the above info]

RADIO POLITICS: IARU SAYS TO GET READY FOR WRC-12

The next World Radiocommunications Conference takes place in January of 2012 and ham radio is making ready to face any challenges that it might bring to the service.

The International Amateur Radio Union's Secretary is Rod Stafford, W6ROD. He says that every IARU member society capable of doing so, should take the initiative to be in contact with their own telecommunications administration and let the it know what the Union's position is on those agenda items that influence the amateur radio service.

The most significant of these so far are the implementation of the radiolocation service in the range 30 to 300 MHz; the possible allocations in the range 3 to 50 MHz to the radiolocation service for oceanographic radar applications and the effect of emissions from short-range devices.

Also likely to be discussed is a ham radio allocation of about 15 kHz in parts of the band from 415 to 526.5 kHz. This, on a secondary basis and taking into account the need to protect existing services. (Southgate)

[ANS thanks Southgate for the above information]

/EX

STRAIGHT KET NIGHT ON OSCAR 2010

AMSAT is inviting hams worldwide to participate in Straight Key Night on OSCAR 2010. Taking part in this event is both fun and quite easy. Just operate CW through any OSCAR satellite between 0000 and 2400 UTC on January 1st 2010, using a straight hand key. There are no other rules, no scoring and no need to send in a log.

In keeping with the friendly nature of this event, all participants are encouraged to nominate someone they worked for "Best Fist" of those you worked. Please send your nomination to w2rs@amsat.org. A list of those nominated will appear in the Amsat News Service and will also be published in the AMSAT Journal.

[ANS thanks Ray, W2RS for this info and for coordinating the SKN]

/EX

SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-347.03 OSCAR 11 Notes

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 347.03 From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. December 13, 2009 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-347.03

OSCAR-11 Makes Another Appearance

Clive G3CWV noted that UO-11 switched on again on December 10 after about 15 days of silence. Heard in early December, UO-11 had been silent for over a year. Good signals were received during daylight passes for two days.

Clive would be interested in knowing whether anyone heard it, or listened and did not hear it, between 11:25 UTC 11 December and 08:26 UTC 12 December.

Based on previous observations, it's probably worth listening for it again in 10 to 20 days time, between 22 December and 01 January.

[ANS Thanks Clive, G3CWV, For this information.]

/EX

SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-347.04 OSCAR 11 Notes

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 347.04 From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. December 13, 2009 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-347.04

Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) Status Report December 7, 2009

1. Upcoming School Contact

An Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) contact was scheduled with Scuola Primaria De Gasperi in Noicattaro, Bari, Italy on Saturday, December 12 at 09:11 UTC. Lesson plans have covered amateur radio communications and space missions. Newspapers, radio and television, both local and regional, will report on the event.

2. Astronaut Training Status - Simulated Contact Scheduled

A simulated Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) contact was planned for Tuesday, December 8 at approximately 14:45 UTC. The contact took place between Deer Creek Elementary School in Bailey, Colorado and astronaut Tracy Caldwell, KF5DBF. Audio was available on IRLP (Internet Radio Linking Project). The training session is a terrestrial- based amateur radio contact using ARISS equivalent equipment.

3. Successful ARISS Contact with Utah School

On Wednesday, December 2, students from Midvalley Elementary School in Midvale, Utah participated in an Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) contact with Jeffrey Williams, KD5TVQ. The school prepared for the contact using NASA lesson plan resources and integrated the ARISS activity into the school curriculum at many grade levels. Children learned about amateur radio, electromagnetic waves and the ISS and even viewed IMAX Space Station video. Nineteen questions were answered during the nine minute pass. Approximately 200 students were present for the contact and others listened in from their classrooms. Dr. David Doty (the school district superintendent), school board members and district directors were also present. Two major Salt Lake City newspapers, the Salt Lake Tribune and the Deseret Morning News as well as Channel 4 (ABC) television, Fox 13 and the local community newspaper all covered the event. This was the first ARISS contact for Utah.

4. ARISS-Brazil on Twitter

ARISS-Brazil is promoting ARISS events on its new Twitter site. It provides an excellent opportunity to better understand what the ARISS education program is. The site is in Portuguese: http://twitter.com/arissbrazil

An ARISS-US member has also been posting ISS amateur radio related items to a Twitter site. See: http://twitter.com/RF2Space

[ANS thanks Carol, KB3LKI, for the above information]

/EX

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