AMSAT NEWS SERVICE ANS-256

The AMSAT News Service bulletins are a free, weekly news and infor- mation service of AMSAT North America, The Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation. ANS publishes news related to Amateur Radio in Space including 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.

The news feed on http://www.amsat.org publishes news of Amateur Radio in Space as soon as our volunteers can post it.

Please send any amateur satellite news or reports to: ans-editor at amsat.org.

In this edition:

* Fox-1D To Share Falcon 9 Launch With Fox-1Cliff * Deadline Approaching For AMSAT Symposium Group Rate Rooms * On-line Information Sessions Aid ARISS Contact Proposal Preparation * V7 - Marshall Islands Satellite Activation * Pope's visit- 9-22-27 Special Event Operators needed * SAREX Reflector to be Closed 1 November 2015 * QB50 CubeSats to be deployed from ISS * New AO-7 Distance Record

SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-256.01 ANS-256 AMSAT News Service Weekly Bulletins

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 256.01 From AMSAT HQ Kensington, MD. September 13, 2015 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-256.01

Fox-1D To Share Falcon 9 Launch With Fox-1Cliff

In response to a breaking opportunity, AMSAT and Spaceflight, Inc. have arranged for Fox-1D to accompany Fox-1Cliff on the maiden flight of the SHERPA system on a SpaceX Falcon 9. Fox-1C was renamed Fox-1Cliff in honor of Cliff Buttschardt, K7RR, who was a benefactor and long time supporter for AMSAT as well as an adviser/mentor for students building cubesats at Cal Poly.

As a Fox-1 series, Fox-1D is identical to Fox-1Cliff, but with different frequencies and carrying the University of Iowa HERCI (High Energy Radiation CubeSat Instrument) radiation mapping experiment as a hosted payload. Fox-1D will provide additional selectable U/V or L/V repeater capabilities once in orbit, and will be capable of downlinking Earth images from the Virginia Tech camera experiment. Launch is currently planned for the first quarter of 2016. Additional donor support is needed to offset the costs associated with the launch of Fox-1D in addition to Fox-1Cliff. Please visit www.amsat.org to donate support this launch, and help keep amateur radio in space. http://www.amsat.org/?p=4478

[ANS thanks Drew, KO4MA, for the above information]

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Deadline Approaching For AMSAT Symposium Group Rate Rooms

AMSAT office manager Martha reports that she has spoken with the Sales Manager at the Crowne Plaza in Dayton. As of September 9th there were 19 rooms left on Friday, October 16th and 20 on Saturday, October 17th.

They cannot extend the cutoff date (Sept 17th at 3:00 PM) so hurry and make your reservations. Time is running out!!!

[ANS thanks Martha for the above information]

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On-line Information Sessions Aid ARISS Contact Proposal Preparation

ARISS-US is now accepting proposals from U.S. schools, museums, science centers and community youth organizations to host an Amateur Radio on the International Space Station, or ARISS, contact between July 1 - Dec. 31, 2016. Proposals are due Nov. 1, 2015.

Informational sessions about ARISS and to help organizations in preparing their proposals, the ARISS program coordinator will offer hour-long online information sessions. These are designed to provide more information regarding U.S. ARISS contacts and the proposal process, and offer an opportunity to ask questions. While attending an online information session is not required, it is strongly encouraged.

Informational sessions will be offered Sept. 17, 2015, at 4 p.m. EDT; Sept. 22, 2015, at 4 p.m. EDT, and Sept. 30, 2015, at 7 p.m. EDT.

Advance registration is necessary. Email ARISS (ariss@arrl.org) to sign up for an information session.

For proposal information and more details such as expectations, proposal guidelines and proposal form, visit http://www.arrl.org/hosting-an-ariss-contact.

ARISS-US is offered through a partnership between NASA; the American Radio Relay League, or ARRL; and the Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation, or AMSAT. ARISS was created and is managed by an international working group, including several countries in Europe as well as Japan, Russia, Canada, and the USA.

[ANS thanks NASA Education Express Message -- Sept. 10, 2015 for the above information]

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V7 - Marshall Islands Satellite Activation

V7, MARSHALL ISLANDS (Update). A group of JA operators will be active from Majuro Island (OC-029) between September 24-28th. Operators are YL Mami/JP3AYQ (V73YL) and her husband Sanny/JJ3CIG (V73H), Team Leader Takio/JH3QFL (V73A) and Co-Leader Keizo "Kay"/JH3AZC (V7EME). Activity will be holiday style on 40-6 meters, satellite, EME, CW, SSB, RTTY and JT65A. Radios are a FT857 and FT847. Their antennas will be a homebrew 3 element full size beam (3 bands) and a SpiderBeam antenna (5 band). They will also have two Elecraft 500w amp for HF to use and 800w out station for EME. QSL all operators via their home callsigns, by the Bureau or direct (see QRZ.com for addresses). ADDED NOTES: * YL Mami, JP3AYQ, states (on QRZ.com), that her activity will be holiday style (she likes to scuba dive) on the HF bands using CW (be patient), SSB and the Digital mode (RTTY). Suggested frequencies are the IOTA frequencies, such as 14260, 14040, 21260 and 21040 kHz. QSL via JP3AYQ, direct, by the Bureau or LoTW. Log will be uploaded to LoTW and ClubLog. She does have a Blog page at: http://jp3ayq.269g.net * Hiro, JJ3CIG/KH0YA, states (on QRZ.com), that he plans to operate on the JT65 mode. QSL via his home callsign, direct or by eQSL. * Kay, JH3AZC/W2AZ, informs OPDX that V73EME will try to operate on 2m EME (JT65B only) and V7A is now preparing to QRV on Satellite(FO29). He states, "It may be the first time operation for EME from V7 land (also Satellite? not sure).

[ANS thanks Ohio/Penn DX Bulletin #1230 for the above information]

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Pope's visit- 9-22-27 Special Event Operators needed

Pope Francis will be visiting the US from September 22-27, operations will include all bands and modes. Four unique QSL cards will be available along with a certificate to mark this special and historic event, you can read more about this event on QRZ.com, WM3PEN.

Satellite operators are being sought that might be available on some passes throughout the event that are based in NY/NJ, DC/Virginia and Philadelphia. If you are interested contact Peter, W2JV,PeteW2JV@verizon.net for additional information.

At this point Paul, N8HM has signed on as one operator in DC, the call sign will be K3P, Peter, W2JV, will be one NY operator as K2P, and it is hoped that we can add many more operators in the locations mentioned to have as many voices in space as we can.

[ANS thanks Peter, W2JV, for the above information]

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SAREX Reflector to be Closed 1 November 2015

At the request of the ARISS US Team, AMSAT-NA Vice President for Human Spaceflight Frank Bauer, KA3HDO has announced that the SAREX reflector will be closed 1 November 2015, and its functions folded into the AMSAT-BB list. Frank explained that at one time operations from the Space Shuttle and the ISS were considered as sufficiently different from other satellite operations as to need separate forums for their respective interest communities.

More recently, changes in the human spaceflight operations, the new generation of satellites, and the interests of the general AMSAT community have removed the reasons for this distinction. Frank explained that "The AMSAT membership, in general, has embraced all vehicles with amateur radio on-board that are operating in space on equal ground. They enjoy the SSTV events on ISS as well as a quick QSO on AO-7". He went on to note that "This past year my team has noticed that those on AMSAT-BB have missed out on some ARISS significant events. These include school contacts in their area that were only posted on SAREX." Moving all discussions to a common list will insure that ISS announcements as well as operational information will be available in one place.

What does this mean to the current subscribers? If you are subscribed to both SAREX and AMSAT-BB, there is no need to take any action. You will cease to receive new postings on the SAREX list 1 November 2015. The SAREX archives will continue to be available for historical purposes. If you are not subscribed to AMSAT-BB and wish to continue to receive human spaceflight announcements, please go to http://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo and subscribe to AMSAT-BB. Your existing SAREX subscription will not be automatically carried over since not everyone will wish to do so.

[ANS thanks ARISS for the above information]

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QB50 CubeSats to be deployed from ISS

It has been announced that the fifty CubeSat QB50 constellation should be shipped to the International Space Station (ISS) in July 2016 for subsequent deployment. It had been planned for them to be launched by Alcantara Cyclone Space, a joint venture between the governments of Ukraine and Brazil, but that option is not longer available.

The AlbertaSat website reports on the 9th QB50 Workshop, held September 8, 2015 in Liège, Belgium. The CubeSats are now planned to be deployed from the ISS using the Japanese Experiment Module (JEM) and the Nanoracks CubeSat Deployers.

Eight NanoRacks deployers are installed on the Multi-Purpose Experiment Platform (MPEP). Each deployer has a capacity of 6U and so can hold up to six 1U, three 2U or two 3U CubeSats. They are carried by Japanese Experiment Module-Remote Manipulator System (JEM-RMS).

AlbertaSat provide an update on the QB50 precursor CubeSats P1/P2 which were launched in 2014. The first payload is working, and while it has been resetting, no damage appears to have occurred. It is possible that the second payload is damaged, but it is still functioning.

Representatives from QB50 also took the time to clearly define their goals and specify the details of the project. The project aims to probe probe thermosphere with about 40 sensors which study atmospheric science. These sensors include the Langmuir Probes that will be on Ex Alta-1. 40 CubeSats will be fitted with one of these sensors. The other 10 CubeSats will have in-orbit demonstrations.

QB50 project https://www.qb50.eu/

[ANS thanks AMSAT-UK for the above information]

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New AO-7 Distance Record

On September 5, 2015 Dave Swanson KG5CCI completed a contact with Manuel EA5TT over a record breaking distance of 7947 km via the OSCAR 7 satellite operating in mode B (432/145 MHz).

Dave, KG5CCI, reports:

On Saturday, September 5, 2015 at 1812 UTC I made a scheduled contact with Manuel, EA5TT, using AO-7 Mode B, from the old US Forest Service Fire Tower on top of ‘Rich Mountain’ here in extreme western Arkansas. My 10 digit grid locator was EM24UQ01MU while Manuel is located in IM99SL48CX, in Valencia, Spain. This equates to 7947.381 km which we believe to be a new record for AO-7 Mode B.

I fully plan on writing a more extensive post when I return from the holiday weekend, and I will likely make a proper video with commentary and data as well. I’ve made some really interesting observations when it comes to Satellite operating from places with great ‘Height Above Average Terrain’ and look forward to sharing this analysis with everyone.

[ANS thanks Dave, KG5CCI, 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 addi- tional benefits. Application forms are available from the AMSAT Office.

Primary and secondary school students are eligible for membership at one-half the standard yearly rate. Post-secondary school students enrolled in at least half time status shall be eligible for the stu- dent rate for a maximum of 6 post-secondary years in this status. Contact Martha at the AMSAT Office for additional student membership information.

73, This week's ANS Editor, Lee McLamb, KU4OS ku4os at amsat dot org