[jamsat-news:1846] ANS-269 AMSAT Weekly Bulletins

AMSAT NEWS SERVICE

ANS-269

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.

In this edition:
*  AMSAT-NA September President's Letter
*  AMSAT-NA BoD Election Results
*  Member contest prize confirmed
*  VUSat pre-launch element set
*  AO-40 Birthday Bash gets underway
*  Upcoming ARISS Contact Schedule
*  This Week's News in Brief


SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-269.01
AMSAT-NA September President's Letter

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 269.01 From AMSAT HQ
SILVER SPRING, MD.  September 21, 2003
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-269.01

It seems only a few days ago since we were all welcoming Summer after a good
"AMSAT Dayton".  Now in just over a week we will be in the Fall season, and
getting ready to attend the AMSAT Space Symposium and Annual meeting which
is in Toronto, Canada.  Full details of the Hotel, Registration forms and a
detailed preliminary agenda are available from our Web Page (www.amsat.org).
Many of you who have been to these annual events will recall that on the
Saturday Evening we have a banquet and a draw for Major Prizes.  Well this
year will be no exception as our Prizes are truly Major ones, supplied by
some of the BIG Names in Amateur Radio such as BIRD, ICOM,  and YAESU
(Vertex Standard). At  Least 2 major satellite Radios are waiting for you to
win them together with many other very acceptable prizes, a full list will
appear on our web site in a few days time. Your chances of taking home a
substantial prize will probably be around 1 in 20 if you register and
attend, of course if you don't register and attend then the
chance drops down substantially to Zero.

As I write this I am awaiting the confirmation of our Guest Speaker, not
wishing to "Count my chickens before they Hatch" I will await the
confirmation before I announce the name, but I can assure you of a very
interesting evening.  This year we will not be giving the Traditional
Plaques away, but will be providing our hard working volunteers with a
different but permanent form of recognition.

I realize that many of you may be worried by the publicity that Toronto
received earlier in the Year concerning the SARS  outbreak, let me assure
you "That episode is entirely over"  and was overstated by the Press and
Media, ( particularly in the USA), accordingly I look forward to welcoming
our many AMSAT friends particularly from around the Great Lakes Area, as
this will probably be the last  AMSAT  meeting in this area for  10 (or
more)  years.  Several people have expressed  the thought that they don't
want to travel because of the possibility of terrorists!  Well as I said
just after 911, the only way to beat the terrorists  is to ignore them,
otherwise  we are giving in to their wishes of crippling the World economy.
Just to prove that I have the courage of my convictions in this matter, I am
flying across the Atlantic today, 9-11-2003, so please join me in showing
Bin-What's-his- name and the rest of them what you think

We have  17 excellent papers which will be read on the Friday and the
Saturday, dealing with a variety of  technical  and operating subjects, I
feel sure that the program , will meet everyone's requirements.

I look forward to seeing you and the XYL ( same price room for 2), and yes,
there is a Spouses Program.

73,
Robin Haighton VE3FRH
President AMSAT

[ANS thanks Robin, VE3FRH, for the above information]

/EX


SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-269.02
AMSAT-NA BoD Election Results

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 269.02 From AMSAT HQ
SILVER SPRING, MD.  September 21, 2003
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-269.02

A total of 1062 were cast in the AMSAT BoD Election with the following
results:

Rick Hambly, W2GPS - 724*
Robin Haighton, VE3FRH - 703*
Barry Baines, WD4ASW - 641*
Gunter Meisse, W8GSM - 579*
Lou McFadin, W5DID - 530**
Lee McLamb, KU4OS - 331***
Steve Diggs, W4EPI - 329
Ken Chaffee, WA1QXR -283

*     Elected to a two year term as a Director
**   Due to the resignation of Keith Baker KB1SF, Lou is now a Director
       serving a one-year term
*** First Alternate

Martha Saragovitz - Corporate Secretary

[ANS thanks Martha for the above information]

/EX


SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-269.03
Member contest prize confirmed

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 269.03 From AMSAT HQ
SILVER SPRING, MD.  September 21, 2003
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-269.03

Confirmation has been received from Vertex-Standard (Yaesu) that they are
donating a VX-7 as the Prize for the person who brings in  most
NEW AMSAT MEMBERS.  The announcement  of the winner and the awarding of the
Prize will take place at the Annual Banquet on Saturday October 18 at the
Airport Marriott Hotel - Toronto.

The VX-7R covers  50/144/222/430 MHz  and will be a great unit to work
our new Satellite  AO-E  to be launched next March/April.

Many thanks to our friends at Vertex-Standard.

[ANS thanks Robin, VE3FRH, for the above information]/EX


SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-269.04
VUSat pre-launch element set

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 269.04
From AMSAT HQSILVER SPRING, MD. September 21, 2003
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-269.04

Below are the initial pre-launch NASA 2-Line Keplarian elements (TLE) of
VUSat.

HAMSAT
1 02658U  3534A   03283.21586782 .000000674  00000-0  30629-4 0  5684
2 02658  98.7242 264.8822 0009573 271.0455 301.2499 14.21854472  5893

Please note that the fields for NORAD number, class, international
designator for number of launches since start of
the year and code for specified  launch, checksum no. etc., are place
holders and will be updated with proper information in due course.  The
launch window opens on 10 October 2003.  In case of launch delays, changed
parameters will be posted on the home pages of sites www.amsatindia.org and
www.amsat-india.org

[ANS thanks Nagesh, VU2NUD, for the above information]

/EX


SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-269.05
AO-40 Birthday Bash gets underway

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 269.05 From AMSAT HQ
SILVER SPRING, MD.  September 21, 2003
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-269.05

The AMSAT sponsored AO-40 Birthday Bash got underway at 0000 UTC on 16
September 2003 to celebrate AO-40's 3rd Birthday.  The Birthday Bash will
run through 0000 UTC on 17 November 2003.  SSB, CW and digital operations
are acceptable for this bash.  The AO-40 command team requests that
operations be performed with minimal power (QRP suggested) to keep the AGC
down.

All hams worldwide are welcome to participate.  Awards will be given out for
Top Scores Worldwide, Stateside, Non-Stateside, and AMSAT-NA Member (with
paid up dues).  Runners up in each of the above categories will also receive
an award.  It is possible for one person to get one or more of the awards
due to his particular location and score.

The exchange for the bash is Call sign, Grid Square, AMSAT-NA membership
number (for AMSAT-NA members), for non-AMSAT-NA members your year and month
of birth (YYMM).

Example:
K5OE de KK5DO
KK5DO de K5OE EL29 12345
K5OE de KK5DO EL29 L34567 (L is used to indicate Life Member)
Or if K5OE were not a member, K5OE EL29 5511

Scoring

Contact with an AMSAT-NA Life Member SSB = 3 points, CW/Digital = 6 points
Contact with an AMSAT-NA Member SSB = 2 points, CW/Digital = 4 points
Contact with a non AMSAT-NA ham SSB = 1 point, CW/Digital = 2 points

As the purpose of this Birthday Bash is to work unique call signs and
membership numbers, dupes will not be allowed for the same mode. Thus, you
can work a station SSB and Digital, one time per mode. You may choose the
type of digital mode you would prefer with the station, i.e. CW, SSTV, RTTY.

Those participating in the bash are encouraged to submit a weekly total by
category so that we can have a running history of activity. These scores
will be posted without call signs so as not to give away who has what score.
Please submit the weekly score to kk5do@amsat.org.

Additional details are available on the AMSAT web site:
http://www.amsat.org/amsat/activities/ao40bash.html

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

/EX


SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-269.06
Upcoming ARISS Contact Schedule

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 269.06 From AMSAT HQ
SILVER SPRING, MD.  September 21, 2003
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-269.06

Upcoming ARISS Contact Schedule as of 2003-09-16 05:00 UTC

The ARISS (a joint effort of AMSAT, the ARRL, NASA, the ARISS international
partners including Canada, Russia, the European Partners, and Japan)
operations team wishes to announce the following very tentative schedule for
ARISS school contacts.  This schedule is very fluid and may change at the
last minute.

Remember that amateur radio use on the ISS is considered secondary.  Please
check the various AMSAT and ARISS webpages for the latest announcements.
Changes from the last announcement are noted with (***).  Also, please check
MSNBC.com for possible live retransmissions
(http://www.msnbc.com/m/lv/default.asp).  Listen for the ISS on the downlink
of 145.80 MHz.

ISS Expedition 7 crew:
Ed Lu KC5WKJ
Yuri Malenchenko RK3DUP

Tentative cutoff day for ARISS contacts with Expedition 7 is 2003-09-20

Next up Expedition 8 crew:
Mike Foale KB5UAC
Alexander Kaleri U8MIR

Tentative schedule:
2003-10-18 Soyuz launch
2003-10-20 dock
2003-10-28 undock

Punahou School, Honolulu, Hawaii
Mon 2003-09-15 16:57 UTC via WH6PN
Contact was successful!  (***)
Congrats to Ed and Punahou! (***)

Kagawa Junior High School, Ube City, Japan
Contact is a go Sat 2003-09-20 10:03 UTC direct via 8N4ISS (***)

The latest ARISS announcement and successful school list is now available on
the
ARISS web site.  Several ways to get there.

Latest ARISS announcements and news
http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/arissnews.txt

Successful school list
http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/Successful_ARISS_schools.rtf

or
http://ariss.gsfc.nasa.gov

If you can not get into the GSFC site, then go directly to the RAC site.
(***)

click on English (sorry I don't know French)
you are now at http://www.rac.ca/ariss/
click on News

Currently the ARISS operations team has a list of over 60 schools that we
hope will be able to have a contact during 2003.   As the schedule becomes
more solidified, we will be letting everyone know.  Current plans call for
an average of one scheduled school contact per week.

[ANS thanks Charlie, AJ9N, for the above information]

/EX


SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-269.07
This Week's News in Brief

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 269.07 From AMSAT HQ
SILVER SPRING, MD.  September 21, 2003
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-269.07

**    China is set to send its yuhangyuan ("astronaut") into space in
October with the liftoff to occur by the middle of the month, Wen Wei Po in
Hong Kong reports.  Chinese space officials have decided that the launch
would happen after the week long celebration of the National Day on Oct. 1.
However, no specific launch date will be chosen until after the
holiday.  --SpaceDaily

**    Following eight years of capturing dramatic images and surprising
science from Jupiter and its moons, NASA's Galileo mission draws to a close
September 21 with a plunge into Jupiter's atmosphere.  The spacecraft was
put on a collision course with Jupiter's atmosphere to eliminate any chance
of impact of the moon Europa, which Galileo discovered is likely to have a
subsurface ocean. The team expects the spacecraft to transmit a few hours of
science measurements in real time, leading up to impact on Sunday, September
21.  The maneuver is necessary, since onboard propellant is nearly depleted.
Without propellant, the spacecraft would not be able to point its antenna
toward Earth nor adjust its flight path, so controlling the spacecraft would
no longer be possible..  --SpaceDaily

**    Surrey Satellite Ready To Launch Disaster Monitoring Constellation.
SSTL are preparing for the launch of three more spacecraft in the
international Disaster Monitoring Constellation - the first cluster of
satellites dedicated to monitoring disasters from space.  The upcoming
launch is scheduled for 06:09 GMT on Friday, 26 September 03.
--SpaceDaily

**   Maxwell Technologies, Inc. announced Tuesday that its BOOSTCAP
ultracapacitors showed no significant effects from either gamma or proton
irradiation in tests conducted by NASA, and met or exceeded expectations in
other environmental stress testing performed by the Johnson Space Center
(JSC) earlier this year.  Maxwell's microelectronic products for the space
market include memory modules, power modules and single board computers that
incorporate proprietary shielding technology and other radiation mitigation
techniques to provide guaranteed life-of-the-application performance and
radiation tolerance.  --SpaceDaily

/EX

In addition to regular membership, AMSAT-NA 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-NA Office.

AMSAT-NA has developed an on-line volunteer survey, designed
to identify the interests and skills of those who may be available to
directly help in efforts to develop the amateur satellite program. The
survey is designed to be completed and returned on-line, and takes
only a few minutes to fill out. To request the survey, simply send an
e-mail request to:
volunteer at amsat.org

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


73,
This weeks ANS Editor,
Lee McLamb, KU4OS, ku4os at amsat.org

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