AMSAT NEWS SERVICE ANS-336

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: * 2008 Straight Key Night on OSCAR in Memory of ex-JA1ANG * ANDE Re-Entry Campaign: * AMSAT AWARDS * ARISS Status Report for the Week of November 26, 2007 * Satellite Shorts From All Over

SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-336.01 2008 Straight Key Night on OSCAR in Memory of ex-JA1ANG

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 336.01 From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. December 2, 2007 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-336.01

You are cordially invited to take part in Straight Key Night on OSCAR 2008, sponsored by AMSAT for all radio amateurs throughout the world. This year's event will be held in memory of Haruo (Harry) Yoneda, ex-JA1ANG, a past AMSAT Director and co-founder of JAMSAT. Harry was also a keen CW operator and a past member of the First Class CW Operators Club (FOC).

Participating in OSCAR SKN is fun and simple. No scoring and no need to send in a log. Just operate CW through any OSCAR, using a straight hand key, at any time between 0000 and 2400 UTC on January 1, 2008.

In keeping with the friendly nature of this event, all participants are encouraged to nominate someone they worked for Best Fist. Your nominee need not have the best fist you heard, just the best of those you worked. Please send your nomination to W2RS at w2rs@amsat.org. Those nominated will be recognized in an AMSAT News Service bulletin, and in The AMSAT Journal.

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

/EX

SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-336.02 ANDE Re-Entry Campaign:

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 336.02 From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. December 2, 2007 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-336.02

The ANDE-MAA satellite (Nav Oscar - 61) will de-orbit in the next few weeks but is fully operational. We encourage activity, because while it is in use (2m packet up/down), then it is awake and sending telemetry. We want to capture the most telemetry to see if we can catch the thermal changes as re-entry approaches.

Who can capture the last telemetry frame?

The most important telemetry is that which is fed live by IGate into the APRS-IS system. Because that is automatically logged and time stamped. You can verify your data got in by looking at the http://pcsat.aprs.org web page after each pass.

If you manually capture any packets, Please take special care to accurately LOG the TIME of any packets received especially in the final day prior to re-entry. See the contest page below for how to submit entries:

Here is the ANDE Operations web page. It has links to live telemetry too: http://www.ew.usna.edu/~bruninga/ande-ops.html

And this one is the CONTEST for data collection and operations sponsored by PA3GUO and DK3WN: http://www.ande-deorbit.com

Any APRS station that is also on the internet can contribute telemetry by simply QSY'ing their normal APRS rig receiver to 145.825 on that final day.

If you do not normally run APRS or an IGate, then you can simply download ALOGGER.EXE which is a full up IGate designed just for satelite gating without having to learn APRS. See Bill's web page: http://www.billdiaz.dynip.com/ASatLogger.htm

ANDE is coming over the northern latitudes in the afternoons and evenings local sun time, but this pattern moves earlier by 14 minutes per day. Just monitor 145.825 MHz.

[ANS thanks Bob, WB4APR for the above information]

/EX

SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-336.03 AMSAT Awards

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 336.03 From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. December 2, 2007 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-336.03

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. Richard Silva, WA6ES

AMSAT Sexagesimal Award Juergen Pape, DF7WIN, #145

AMSAT W4AMI Satellite Operator Achievement Award Basic Chris Martin, KG7EZ, 2K, 3K, 4K endorsements

AMSAT W4AMI Satellite Operator Achievement Award 5,000 Chris Martin, KG7EZ, #20

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

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

/EX

SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-336.04 ARISS Status - 26 November 2007

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 336.04 From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. December 2, 2007 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-336.04

1. ARISS School Contacts Status

Due to the very demanding schedules of the crew onboard the ISS, no ARISS contacts have been planned at this time. The ARISS team expects contacts to resume once STS-122 launches in December.

2. ARISS International Team Meeting Held

The monthly meeting of ARISS International Team was held on Tuesday, November 20. Topics of discussion included the next face to face meeting and SuitSat-2 status. The minutes have been posted to the ARISS Web site. See: http://www.rac.ca/ARISS/ARISS tel2007-11-20.htm

3. ARISS Radio Running Packet Operations

The Kenwood radio was turned off for EVAs. It is on again and configured to run packet operations.

4. ARISS Crew Debriefs

A crew debrief has been tentatively scheduled with Clay Anderson, KD5PLA, on December 11. Another debrief is planned for spaceflight participant Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor for early December.

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

/EX

SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-336.05 Satellite Shorts From All Over

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 336.05 From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. December 2, 2007 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-336.05

+ AMSAT's spacecraft power development had caught the attention of the professional electronic media. The November 15, 2007 edition of Electronic Design Magazine mentions the SuitSat-2 and Eagle satellite's development of a power system that combines solar panels, lithium-ion batteries, and ultracaps. The article is available on line at: http://electronicdesign.com/Articles/ArticleID/17465/17465.html

+ The total number of ARISS ISS to earth school contacts is now up to 333. ARISS expects no school contacts until late December due to the crew work schedule. The complete schedule page has been updated. Here you will find a listing of all scheduled school contacts, and questions, other ISS related websites, IRLP and Echolink websites, and instructions for any contact that may be streamed live. See: http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/arissnews.txt

+ Auke, VE6PWN reports receiving the AO-7 beacon on 435.1 MHz. He used a 7 el beam antenna and also switched over to his horizontally polarized omni 0dB antenna, and then observed, for a few minutes. He detected a doppler-shift-curve of a definite beacon from space. A screen-capture showing the signal can be seen at: http://members.shaw.ca/sparkycivic/HAM/ao-7%20uhf%20beacon.JPG

[ANS thanks everyone 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