[jamsat-news:2151] ANS-029

AMSAT NEWS SERVICE
ANS-029

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

***** AMSAT 2006 Space Symposium *****
The AMSAT web team has posted informational pages on the AMSAT web site.
You can find the announcement with many links at:
http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/symposium

Future announcements including the Call For Papers, Online Registration
and Online Hotel Registration will be available approximately 1 April 2006.

**************************************************************************

In this edition:

* SuitSat to be deployed Feb. 3rd
* ISS Contacts West Point
* Ship to be named USS Alan Shepard
* OSCAR-11 Report
* ARISS Status January 23, 2006

SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-029.01
SuitSat Release on February 3 - Are You Ready?

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 029.01
> From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.
January 29, 2006
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-029.01

Frank Bauer, KA3HDO, who is the ARISS International Chairman and
AMSAT's V.P. for Human Spaceflight Programs, reminds us if all
goes well, SuitSat will be deployed in 5 days.  Are you ready?

Have you talked to a school in your area about SuitSat?  Or a
student group?  Is your SSTV receive capability ready for the
challenge?

SuitSat will be deployed during a Russian EVA scheduled to take
place on Friday, February 3 at approximately 22:20 UTC.  NASA TV
will provide live coverage starting at 21:30 UTC.  For digital
downlink information and access to NASA TV's Public Channel on
the Web in RealPlayer, RealAudio, or Windows Media Player formats,
visit http://www.nasa.gov/ntv.

Russian Cosmonaut Tokarev will carefully jettison SuitSat-1 by pushing
the suit away at about a 30-degree angle upward and about 10 degrees
to the left of the back of the station.

Once activated, those who hear SuitSat transmissions on 145.99 MHz
are asked to enter their realtime data on the SuitSat website,
http://www.suitsat.org/ so that participants around the world can
track the satellite.

Educational Outreach reports (at schools or informal education
sites) as well as Slow Scan TV images can be sent to
suitsat@comcast.net.  This information will be compiled by the
ARISS team.

Other information on SuitSat can be found on:

http://www.amsat.org (includes a countdown timer to SuitSat release)
http://www.rac.ca/ariss
http://www.issfanclub.com
http://http://www.amsat.org/amsat/archive/sarex/48hour/threads.html

NASA Education Website information for students:
http://www.nasa.gov/audience/forstudents/k-4/home/index.html
http://www.nasa.gov/audience/forstudents/5-8/features/index.html
http://www.nasa.gov/audience/forstudents/9-12/features/index.html
http://www.nasa.gov/audience/forstudents/postsecondary/features/index.html

SuitSat-1, called Radioskaf or Radio Sputnik in Russian, is sponsored
by ARISS (Amateur Radio on the International Space Station), an
international working group made up of volunteers from national amateur
radio societies, including the Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation.

The Russian space company, Energia, led the development of SuitSat and
has trained the crew for the deployment mission.

[ANS thanks Frank, KA3HDO and the ARISS team for the above information]

/EX

SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-029.02
ISS Contacts West Point

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 029.02
> From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.
January 29, 2006
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-029.02

Last January 26th, The ISS conducted a QSO with the U.S. Military
Academy, West Point.   Cmdr. Bill McCarthur talked with his "Alma Mater"
at 13:13 UTC.  An interesting contact sparking interest in space flight
with many Corp Cadets.
Bill has been quite active and using his time well to communicate with
many during his spare time.  He even has completed WAS and WAC from the ISS.
ARISS offers an opportunity for students to experience the excitement of
Amateur Radio by talking directly with crewmembers on-board the
International Space Station. Teachers, parents and communities see,
first hand, how Amateur Radio and crewmembers on ISS can energize
youngsters' interest in science, technology, and learning. Further
information on the ARISS program is available on the website
http://www.rac.ca/ariss
(graciously hosted by the Radio Amateurs of Canada).

Thank you & 73,
Kenneth - N5VHO

[ANS thanks Ken, N5VHO, for the above information]

/EX


SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-029.03
Ship to be named USS Alan Shepard

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 029.03
> From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.
January 29, 2006
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-029.03


The following article was in the The  EAGLE-TRIBUNE
Newspaper(N.Andover,Ma) and reprinted with their permission.


                   Ship to be named USS Alan Shepard
 By John Basilesco
 Staff writer
 DERRY,  N.H.  -- A new U.S. Navy ship will be named the USS Alan
Shepard in honor of the accomplished Derry native and first American in
space.  The  Navy  will  name  the vessel, which is about to be built,
after the famous  astronaut,  who  grew up in East Derry and graduated
from Pinkerton Academy.
The  1,000-foot  combat  support  ship  will  be  built in San Diego and
delivered to Navy by March 2007.  U.S.  Sens.  Judd Gregg and John
Sununu and Congressmen Charles Bass and Jeb Bradley, all of New
Hampshire, made the announcement yesterday.  "I  think  it's  great,''
said  state Rep. George Katsakiores, R-Derry. "It's  quite  an  honor
to  have  a  ship named after you; it's a national honor.''
Katsakiores, 82, attended Pinkerton Academy with Shepard.  "I  knew  him
 very  well  because he used to live in East Derry and his sister,
Pauline, was in my class at Pinkerton,'' Katsakiores said.
     Shepard graduated in 1940 and Katsakiores graduated in 1942.
Katsakiores  recalls  having  a  full house at his bar and restaurant in
Derry  in  1961 with everyone glued to a 10-inch black-and-white
television watching Shepard blast off into space.  "We applaud the
Navy's decision to honor the legacy and contributions of New Hampshire's
native son Alan Shepard Jr. by naming one of the new combat support
ships after him,'' Gregg, Sununu, Bass and Bradley said in a joint
statement.
"Alan Shepard led a distinguished career in the U.S. Navy and at NASA,
and naming a ship after him will be a fitting tribute to one of the
nation's greatest pilots and astronauts. The USS Alan Shepard will play
an important role in providing for our Navy's readiness and allow the
Navy to maintain a forward presence in the 21st Century.''
Along with distinguishing himself as a pioneer in America's efforts to
explore space, Shepard was one of only 12 Americans to walk on the moon.
Following his 1961 space flight, Shepard battled an inner ear disorder
before soaring back into space in 1974 as commander of the Apollo 14
mission to the moon. He spent 33 hours on the moon during this third
lunar landing mission and became the only lunar golfer.
He died from leukemia at the age of 74 in 1998 while living in Houston,
Texas. Three years later, he was honored on the 40th anniversary of his
historic space flight when the Derry post office on Tsienneto Road was
named the Alan B. Shepard Jr. Post Office Building. A section of
Interstate 93 is also named after him. The combat support ship will
deliver supplies, transfer cargo and provide logistic support to other
Navy vessels.

[ANS thanks Arthur, N1ORC, for the above information]

/EX


SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-029.04
OSCAR 11 Report
January 23, 2006

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 029.04
> From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.
January 29, 2006
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-029.04

OSCAR-11 REPORT

                  24 January 2006

Users of OSCAR-11 may be interested in recent additions to my website.
Firstly UCAP, this is a simple OSCAR-11 capture program for Windows, and
may be used instead of CTERM. It features an accurate time stamp
facility, which is useful for checking the satellite's real time clock.

Secondly, the news and telemetry archives have been updated to include
all the 2005 data. The URL is www.users.zetnet.co.uk/clivew

During the period 14 December 2005 to 23 January 2006 the VHF beacon on
145.826 MHz. has been heard from 23 to 31 December and from 11 to 21
January.

Signals during the December passes were very variable. Sometimes
received at good strength, at other times they were inaudible , even
with the BFO switched ON (ie. in CW mode). Signals during the January
passes tended to be much stronger, and good copy was obtained on most
passes.

The on-board clock continues to accumulate a very large error. On 21
January it was 22.14 days slow, having lost 0.33 days (8 hours) since 09
December. However, the rate of change of clock error appears to vary
between zero and half an hour per day, over short periods. The greatest
changes seem to correspond with poor signals, which suggests that the
clock may slow or stop when the battery voltage is low.

All the analogue telemetry channels, 0 to 59 are zero, ie they have
failed. The status channels 60 to 67 are still working.

The satellite is now in continuous sunlight until around 06 May, when
eclipses will start again. This should help the satellite to continue
transmitting, although continuous sunlight can cause problems due to
excessive temperatures. Power supply problems can be caused by poor
pointing attitude, ie the sunlight illuminating the ends of the
satellite, instead of the solar arrays.

The watchdog timer now appears to have resumed operation on the 20 day
cycle, ie. approximately ten days ON followed by 10 days OFF. However,
at any time, poor solar attitude, and battery problems, may result in a
low 14 volt line supply, which may cause the beacon to switch OFF
prematurely, and reset the watchdog timer cycle.

The Beacon frequencies are -																								
VHF 145.826 MHz. AFSK FM ASCII Telemetry

UHF 435.025 MHz. OFF

S-band 2401.5 MHz. OFF

Listeners to OSCAR-11 may be interested in visiting my website which
contains an archive of news & telemetry data. It also contains details
about using a soundcard or hardware demodulators for data capture. There
is software for capturing data, and decoding ASCII telemetry. The URL is
www.users.zetnet.co.uk/clivew/

If you place this bulletin on a terrestrial packet network, please
use the bulletin identifier $BID:U2RPT117.CWV, to prevent duplication.

73 Clive G3CWV

[ANS thanks Clive, G3CWV, for the above information]

/EX


SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-029.05
ARISS Status
January 23, 2006

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 029.05
> From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.
January 29, 2006
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-029.05

ARISS Status
January 23, 2006



1.	Georgia Tech Contact Successful

On January 19, eight students from Georgia Tech in Atlanta, Georgia had
the opportunity to speak with alumnus Bill McArthur, KC5ACR. Fifteen
questions were asked and answered as at least 100 visitors gathered in
the campus theater to listen in.  Campus news organizations covered the
event, as did the local CBS and FOX affiliates, and campus radio station
WREK carried the contact live and streamed audio on its website.
Announcements of the event on local nets allowed other radio operators
in the area to listen in.  Radio coordinator Alexander Carver remarked,
ůeedless to say we all had a blast.  Everyone walked out of the room
with a grin from ear to ear.  It's not often we get to speak to an alum
200 miles straight up.

2.	ARRL Article on Peterson, St. Albert School Contacts

ARRL ran an article covering the Peterson Elementary School and St
Albert the Great School contacts. ŪSS Commander Visits Home via Ham
Radio, Talks Space Trash with Ohio Kidsmay be found at:
http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2006/01/19/1/?nc=1

3.	McArthur Completes Ÿorked All States
Bill McArthur, KC5ACR, worked a station in Alaska over the weekend,
completing his Worked All States award. He continues to pursue his DXCC
award, having worked 68 countries as of January 17, and is looking for
more - including those in the Caribbean.

4.	SuitSat Receives Media Attention

Aviation Week and Space Technology, the premier U.S. Weekly aviation and
space magazine read by thousands of engineers and leaders, worldwide, in
the aerospace field, is planning to publish an article on SuitSat.
ARISS Chairman Frank Bauer provided his SuitSat paper to the publication
for background information on the satellite. The article is expected to
run in the next week or two.

AMSAT SM (Sweden) has posted a SuitSat article on its website with links
to sites with other SuitSat information including video, papers, and
articles. See: http://www.amsat.se/cgi-bin/main/index.pl

The ARRL Journal published a SuitSat article this month which intrigued
scouts attending the annual Boy Scouts Radio Merit Badge Day at the
Sarnoff Corporation HQ in Princeton, NJ.   The Scouts were very excited
about the upcoming satellite and many expressed an interest not only in
the project, but also in becoming licensed radio amateurs.

5.	SuitSat EVA and Website

SuitSat will be deployed during a Russian EVA scheduled to take place on
Friday, February 3 at approximately 22:20 UTC.  Once activated, those
who hear SuitSat transmissions are asked to enter their data on the
SuitSat website, www.suitsat.org so that participants around the world
can track the satellite.  Educational Outreach reports (at schools or
informal education sites) as well as Slow Scan TV images can be sent to
suitsat@comcast.net.  This information will be compiled by the ARISS team.

6.	Astronaut Training Status

On Wednesday, January 11, astronaut Garrett Reismann took and passed his
amateur radio license exam.  He has been issued the callsign KE5HAE.

On January 17, Clay Anderson, KD5PLA, attended a one hour refresher
session with Kenneth Ransom at JSC.  The session covered school contact
procedures, general operating practices, and some hands on time spent
practicing with the on board training hardware.

7.	ARRL Article on Upcoming AMSAT Meeting

On January 18, ARRL ran a story on the AMSAT ARISS joint meetings to
be held in October.  To view, ŢMSAT Space Symposium set for October,go to: http://www.arrl.org/


8.	Space Day 2006

AMSAT has again been invited to set up an activity center at the Space
Day event to be held at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center on Friday, May
5. The theme this year is "Living and Working on the Moon." AMSAT hosted
a station last year which included an ARISS display, and representatives
were on hand to distribute ARISS lithographs and answer questions.


[ANS thanks Carol, KB3LKI, 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
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