AMSAT NEWS SERVICE ANS-224

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: * 2007 AMSAT Space Symposium and Annual Meeting - Call for papers * FO-29 Power Status * AMSAT Awards * 100th Anniversary of Scouts Celebrated with ARISS Contact

SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-224.01 2007 AMSAT Space Symposium and Annual Meeting - Call for papers

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 224.01 From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. August 12, 2007 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-224.01

This is the third call for papers for the 2007 AMSAT Space Symposium and Annual Meeting to be held October 25-28, 2007 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The September 1, 2007 deadline for submitting electronic versions of papers for inclusion in the printed symposium proceedings to Dan Schultz is rapidly approaching.

Proposals for papers, symposium presentations, and poster presentations are invited on any topic of interest to the amateur satellite program. An emphasis for this year is an educational outreach to middle and high school students. In particular, papers on the following topics are solicited:

Students & Education, ARISS, AO-51, P3E, Eagle and other satellite-related topics.

Papers should be sent to: Daniel Schultz N8FGV by e-mail to: n8fgv@amsat.org.

[ANS thanks Dan, N8FGV, for the above information]

/EX

SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-224.02 FO-29 Power Status

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 224.02 From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. August 12, 2007 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-224.02

The internal impedance of the battery in FO-29 (Fuji-3) is now rising due to the deterioration caused by almost 12 years in orbit. According to the telemetry data a 25 minute eclipse duration is estimated as a limit as for the analog battery system use. Because the eclipse length of FO-29 (Fuji-3) is currently about 30% or almost 32 minutes, the power supply of the relay with the battery cannot serve a period of the eclipse.

A malfunction also occurs in part of the electricity control system. The malfunction is the UVC which is an automatic function for electricity management. When the satellite is in the eclipse, and the light of the sun is not the solar battery, the transmitter is turned OFF by the UVC. It is designed so that later an analog system transmitter becomes ON automatically when the terminal voltages of the battery exceed a set value after the power is available from the solar battery. However, it appears likely that a malfunction occurs for this function, and the terminal voltage cannot turn on a transmitter even if it exceeds the set value unless commanded from the ground.

The length of eclipses for FO-29 (Fuji-3) will rise in future and rises to 34% in March 2008 and comes over a peak of the eclipse duration. When it goes over this peak, the eclipses will decrease slowly, and drop to 20% in August 2009. By February 2010 it is all sunshine with no eclipses for about 8 months. It seems that we can apply the analog system relay consecutively for this period.

[ANS thanks Mineo Wakita, JE9PEL, for the above information]

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SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-224.03 AMSAT Awards

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 224.03 From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. August 12, 2007 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-224.03

We would like to welcome the following to the satellite community. They have made their first satellite contact and are now members of the AMSAT Satellite Communicators Club.

Jeffrey Thomas, K7WIN Robert Rousseau, KI4BKE

AMSAT Communication Achievement Award Michael, Shaffer, KB3P, #452 John Sagi, N3YZ, #453

South Africa AMSAT Communication Achievement Award Rafael Valdez, Jr, XE2RV, #US110 John Sagi, N3YZ, #US111

To see all the awards visit http://www.amsat.org or http://www.amsatnet.com

[ANS thanks Bruce, KK5DO, for the above information]

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SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-224.04 100th Anniversary of Scouts Celebrated with ARISS Contact

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 224.04 From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. August 12, 2007 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-224.04

On Saturday, August 4, an Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) contact took place between scouts attending the 21st World Scout Jamboree in Chelmsford, England and Clay Anderson, KD5PLA, aboard the ISS. Ten scouts were able to ask two questions each of the astronaut using the special event station, GB100J. Approximately 40,000 scouts from 200 countries attended the jamboree. Audio was broadcast on the jamboree FM radio station and was webcast on the radio station’s website. The audio was also fed into the EchoLink JK1ZRW (277 208) server and received 50 connections from stations in12 countries including 6 repeaters nodes. Video and audio may be found on this site: http://www.g6lvb.com/GB100JISS.wmv

[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, Lee McLamb, KU4OS ku4os at amsat dot org