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Ansoft
by Robert McGwier 19 Dec '06

19 Dec '06

Ansoft has given us quite the lovely present for this time of year. A month ago I asked Ulrich Rohde for help in getting Ansoft to make us a university for the purposes of pricing their software. Ulrich was chairman of the board and I believe is still on the board of Ansoft. He put me in touch with the CEO! They chose to make us a university but their licensing terms were a little bothersome. Rick was able to negotiate these waters successfully. These programs are horrendously expensive and we got them very inexpensively. Designer will be helpful in the design and simulation of amplifiers and HFSS will be very helpful in our antenna work. My first attempt did not include information about our recent alliances. I was met with silence. My second attempt was entirely too long but it contained details of our affiliations and our project and why we would need HFSS, Designer, and why we are a suitable organization to be called a university. It is my opinion that this is our first serious success in using our new university affiliations. Thanks to Rick for his work with their education/university program director to seal the deal ( WA2LOO by the way). Season's greetings to all! Bob -- AMSAT Director and VP Engineering. Member: ARRL, AMSAT-DL, TAPR, Packrats, NJQRP, QRP ARCI, QCWA, FRC. ARRL SDR WG Chair "If you board the wrong train, it is no use running along the corridor in the other direction. " - Dietrich Bonhoffer

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[Fwd: VRS 2006 Hour spent on behalf of AMSAT]
by Jim Sanford 18 Dec '06

18 Dec '06

Team: Reminder, if you have not updated your VRS time, please do so. This is important to our fundraising efforts, when potential donors ask, "What have YOU contributed out of your own pocket?" Thanks & 73, Jim wb4gcs(a)amsat.org -------- Original Message -------- Subject: VRS 2006 Hour spent on behalf of AMSAT Date: Sun, 3 Dec 2006 09:32:08 -0500 From: Gunther Meisse <gmouse(a)neo.rr.com> To: <ans-editor(a)amsat.org>, <amsat-bb(a)amsat.org>, <officers(a)amsat.org>, <bod(a)amsat.org>, "'Jim Sanford'" <wb4gcs(a)amsat.org> Attention AMSAT Volunteers: It is that time of the year again. We need to be sure as many volunteer hours as possible have been reported to the VRS (Volunteer Reporting System) on the AMSAT web site. Over the last few years thousands of dollars of volunteer time have been reported and we are sure this year will be our largest given all the work that has done on Eagle. If you are already registered on the VRS site please take a few minutes and report these 2006 hours. If you have not reported before, please visit amsat.org, register, and help us keep track of this important aspect of the AMSAT mission. We'll keep the year open until the middle of January but hope you will take the time within the next couple weeks to update your report. You may combine your efforts for the entire year into one filing if that would make the process more convenient. Looking forward to your reports. Have a great holiday season. Regards, Gunther Meisse W8GSM AMSAT Treasurer

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How to post EaglePedia Content
by Dave hartzell 17 Dec '06

17 Dec '06

Hello all, Jim Sanford asked me to send a quick informational note on how to post to EaglePedia. EaglePedia is fairly easy to handle, and hopefully this brief introduction will help you get started. There is plenty of online help for the WikiMedia software, which Emily N1DID uses as the backbone of EaglePedia. The Wiki Help is available on the top of most pages or on the left side-bar. And you can always email me if you have questions, or need help... EaglePedia is available from the AMSAT homepage, or via this link: http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/eagle/EaglePedia/index.php/Main_Page NOTE: I use multiple browser tabs while editing, so I can flip back-and-forth to see my EaglePedia editing work and other web pages. I suggest you use Firefox's multiple tabs (shameless anti-Microsoft plug). This way you can pull up an EaglePedia Help page or Index page... A) Creating a NEW page Creating an EaglePedia page is straightforward. Simply use the "Create New Page" box at the top of the main EaglePedia page (see above link). 1. After enter the TITLE of your page in the dialog box, press create. Note that this actually creates an article, similar to an encyclopedia article. SPACES are allowed in page/title/article names and will be later referenced with the underscore (_) character in URLs. 2. Next you should see a large web-form. Type in this box! Put your info here. Note that this box accepts standard ASCII text, and also supports WikiMedia tags, for text formatting, linking, and tagging (e.g. classifying an article into a category, or marking it "Eagle Team Only"). You don't have to use fancy formatting, but bold, italics, etc., tables, and file links are possible. You can use the icon bar in the edit-box to implement fancy typesettings. For those of you using Word, a macro by Emily exists that will convert your word document to WikiMedia format, preserving the formatting. You can then simply copy and paste your text into the EaglePedia form. The macro is available here: http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/eagle/EaglePedia/index.php/Document_Converte… 3. Categorize your page. At the bottom of your text, create a category tag, using one of the pre-existing categories or sub-categories as listed on the main EaglePedia page (see link above). The syntax for creating a tag is as follows: [[Category:xxxxxxx]] where xxxxxx is the name of the category or sub-category. Be sure to double-bracket and accurately enter the name of the category as it exists on the main EaglePedia page, or the index page (see left side-bar). See the bottom of the "Eagle Project Index" for more information on creating categories and/or sub-categories (left side-bar). Please attempt to use existing categories first! 4. After entering your text, input a "Summary" statement regarding something like "created new page". ALWAYS CLICK PREVIEW PAGE and this will show you what others will see, and provide you with an edit box at the bottom for revision(s). 5. If you like what you see in the Preview, click save and you're done! Make sure you categorize correctly. Thats pretty much all there is to creating a new page. Often, we want to upload a file for others to access. This is easily done by embedding a Media tag into a page (see above if you don't have an article yet for your file). Simply uploading a file won't do, especially if you want others to see and access the file easily. EaglePedia doesn't use a file hierarchy, such as folders. EaglePedia (and WikiMedia) use a flat file format, and rely on the uploader to link the file to an article. It is also important to categorize your file. Here is a quick intro on EaglePedia that you should read. http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/eagle/EaglePedia/index.php/Help:Uploading_an… Below is a step-by-step process for uploading and linking to a file: B) Using Media Link tags. 1. Upload your file, by clicking on the "Upload New File" link on the left sidebar. Please fill out all the relevant information. Enter a category tag (or two) in the summary field: [[Category:Mechanical]] [[Category:Nutation Dampeners]] 2. Create a new page, or edit an existing one. 3. In the edit box, create a link to the newly uploaded file in the article where appropriate, like this: [[ Media:My_File.zip|Visible name as I want it to appear]] This link can appear by itself on a newline or in a paragraph of text. See the "Help Uploading and Linking Files" link above for information on uploading and displaying images in articles, and for a picture of Jim Sanford. ;-) Let me know if you have any questions, or find a bug in the above processes. 73, Dave NøTGD

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FW: Heat Sink Parts
by Dick Jansson-rr 15 Dec '06

15 Dec '06

-----Original Message----- From: Albert D. Helfrick [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Friday, 15 December, 2006 1037 To: rjansson(a)cfl.rr.com Subject: Re: Heat Sink Parts Goood Morning Dick, Just let us know what else we can do to help; both electrically and mechanically. Al -----Original Message----- From: "Dick Jansson-rr" <rjansson(a)cfl.rr.com> To: "AMSAT Eagle " <eagle(a)amsat.org> Date: Fri, 15 Dec 2006 00:35:31 -0000 Subject: Heat Sink Parts Greetings: AMSAT's Eagle Project has just today received a sample collection (4+) of E05 01 Heat Sinks fastidiously machined by our friends at Embry Riddle Aeronautic University, Daytona Beach, Florida. This is the culmination of discussions started over a year ago. These heat sinks are designed to be riveted into Eagle's high-power electronic modules so as to enable the dissipation from the power devices in those modules. Such a heat sink will help couple the dissipated power to the spacecraft for its ultimate rejection to the space heat sink (temperature: 4K). We are very much indebted to ERAU and Dr. Al Helfirck, K2BLA, a very long-time operator, for their participation in the Eagle Project. What makes these heat sinks very special is that they are machined from a high thermal conductivity, 99% pure, aluminum. This alloy is 33% higher conductivity than alloy aluminum, and as such it is quite soft and difficult to machine. In addition, the surface finish of these parts is also demanding and ERAU has presented us with a superb product. The need for this kind of finish is, again, a thermal issue. When experimenters are presented with these heat sink modules to work with their surfaces will be protected by a plastic film, of which we have a quantity. Such a protective film will be used on most all thermal conductive and radiative surfaces of importance, as they all are of delicate and soft alloys. A tip of the hat to Al and his gang. Dick Jansson --------------------------- <mailto:[email protected]> rjansson(a)cfl.rr.com ---------------------------

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Heat Sink Parts
by Dick Jansson-rr 14 Dec '06

14 Dec '06

Greetings: AMSAT's Eagle Project has just today received a sample collection (4+) of E05 01 Heat Sinks fastidiously machined by our friends at Embry Riddle Aeronautic University, Daytona Beach, Florida. This is the culmination of discussions started over a year ago. These heat sinks are designed to be riveted into Eagle's high-power electronic modules so as to enable the dissipation from the power devices in those modules. Such a heat sink will help couple the dissipated power to the spacecraft for its ultimate rejection to the space heat sink (temperature: 4K). We are very much indebted to ERAU and Dr. Al Helfirck, K2BLA, a very long-time operator, for their participation in the Eagle Project. What makes these heat sinks very special is that they are machined from a high thermal conductivity, 99% pure, aluminum. This alloy is 33% higher conductivity than alloy aluminum, and as such it is quite soft and difficult to machine. In addition, the surface finish of these parts is also demanding and ERAU has presented us with a superb product. The need for this kind of finish is, again, a thermal issue. When experimenters are presented with these heat sink modules to work with their surfaces will be protected by a plastic film, of which we have a quantity. Such a protective film will be used on most all thermal conductive and radiative surfaces of importance, as they all are of delicate and soft alloys. A tip of the hat to Al and his gang. Dick Jansson --------------------------- <mailto:[email protected]> rjansson(a)cfl.rr.com ---------------------------

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TeamSpeak conference for 12 December
by Jim Sanford 11 Dec '06

11 Dec '06

Team: Tomorrow is the 2nd Tuesday. I only have two topics: U-band receiver phase noise requirements (Bob McGwier, et al) Expense reporting Feel free to add. I have not published this on eaglePedia because I'm having difficulty editing the TS conference pages. Look for resolution later tonight or early tomorrow. Instructions on installing and configuring the TeamSpeak clientare on EaglePedia in the TeamSpeak conferences page. Thanks 7 73, Jim wb4gcs(a)amsat.org

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Eagle Project Charter
by Jim Sanford 08 Dec '06

08 Dec '06

Team: After the Pittsburgh Design Review, I drafted a /Project Charter/ which lays out objectives, constraints, and various other issues. It is on EaglePedia, but private, because I never considered it ready for prime time. In the ensuing 14 months many things have changed. As I read it tonight with that perspective, I see a few needed changes, but not many. What I wrote continues to guide how I do business. In the context of W9AE's question at /Symposium/, "It's nice you're building this neat satellite, but what are you clowns doing to make sure the thing, */just works?/*" I feel the need to open this up to the public. I heeby request your review and modification. Thee are obviously some things that need to be filled in. Each of you has edit permissions on that page. Please edit away, and tell me what you've changed. Please send me your comments. If you want to chat about it, let me know, and I'll get on skype or TeamSpeak with you. I'd like to open this up for public viewing before Christmas, it's way overdue, and I'm trying to atone for past sins. The current draft (in need of revision!) is at: http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/eagle/EaglePedia/index.php/The_Eagle_Charter Thanks & 73, Jim wb4gcs(a)amsat.org

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Congratulations
by Jim Sanford 06 Dec '06

06 Dec '06

Matt: I just saw in the December issue of /Spectrum/ a letter regarding your work on open-source PCB design work. Talk about value-added! Congratulations & thanks! 73, Jim wb4gcs(a)amsat.org

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Update on WYSIWYM editor
by Emily Clarke 30 Nov '06

30 Nov '06

You may have noticed that the WYSIWYM editor is not working properly. There is a dependency for the HTML to Wiki converter that hasn't yet been met. The problem appears that the converter will not build under FreeBSD, the OS on the AMSAT server. So although it works on my staging server (running Fedora Core) it will take some additional work to get it working in EaglePedia. 73, Emily --------------------------------- N1DID formerly W0EEC - CM87tm Support Project OSCAR - http://www.projectoscar.net

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Improving your ability to search in EaglePedia
by Emily Clarke 28 Nov '06

28 Nov '06

When you search inside EaglePedia you will generally find articles you are looking for. However, if you are looking for information about an EaglePedia user or a help topic you probably aren't getting the results you need. This is because by default EaglePedia searches for articles in the Main namespace. What is the Main namespace, you ask? The core structure of EaglePedia is organized into "super-categories" called Namespaces. You can find a list of these by clicking on "my preferences" in the TOP RIGHT links on every EaglePedia page, and then clicking on the "Search" tab. By default these will generally only have "(Main)" checked. I would recommend at a minimum you check the following Namespaces: Talk User Help Image Category 73, Emily --------------------------------- N1DID formerly W0EEC - CM87tm Support Project OSCAR - http://www.projectoscar.net

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