[jamsat-news:2235] ANS-204 AMSAT Weekly Bulletins

AMSAT NEWS SERVICE
ANS-204

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:

* Wray E. Dudley, W8GQW, SK
* OSCAR-11 Report for July 2006
* Help Wanted at the Small Satellite Conference
* Deep Space DX to be Featured at AMSAT-UK International Space Colloquium
* AMSAT BoD Ballots Have Been Mailed
* ARISS Status July 17, 2006
* July 26 Launch for 13 Amateur Radio Satellites
* Inflatable Satellite Launched

SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-204.01
Wray E. Dudley, W8GQW, SK

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 204.01
From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.
July 23, 2006
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-204.01

Wray was born in 1914 and passed from this life in 2006 at the age of 92 in 
Tubac, Arizona.  Wray was first licensed in 1931 receiving the callsign 
W8GQW.  He served his country during WWII as a B-17 Instructor Pilot. 
During much of his working career, Wray lived in Troy, OH, and, upon 
retirement, moved to Tubac to enjoy Golf, Sunshine, and Amateur Radio.  Wray 
joined AMSAT in 1979 and became Life Member #1470 in 1980.

During most of his years in AMSAT, Wray was best known as one of the 
"Voices" of the AMSAT HF Nets.  At one time or the other, he served as Net 
Control Station on most of the HF Nets, but I remember him best for the 20 
and 15 meter Sunday afternoon nets.  He originally did these nets from Troy, 
OH, and continued after the move to Tubac, AZ.  During the pre-net 
activities he would work with the other NCS station.  At bulletin time, he 
would usually move to 15 meters while the other station stayed on 20 meters. 
His booming, broadcast quality, voice was unmistakable. Whenever possible, 
Wray would "simulcast" the net on both 15M and AO-13.  In later years, he 
was a regular "check-in" on the 17 meter net and on the nets held on AO-10 
and AO-13.  When it became time to retire from the active control of the 
nets, he recruited and trained his own replacement, Larry Brown, W7LB.

In addition to his NCS activity, Wray was active on the "birds" especially 
AO-10 and AO-13.  He was always eager to help a newcomer with a wealth of 
good advice.

While still living in Troy, OH, Wray was AMSAT's contact with the Dayton 
HamVention for many years.  He and other local volunteers made sure all of 
the arrangements were made ahead of time for a smooth operation.  If 
anything extra was needed, they were the "Go-Fors" to make sure it was 
obtained on a timely basis.

I'm sure his "Voice" will now join with those "Voices" that preceded him on 
this journey - Vern (Rip) Riportella, WA2LQQ; Jim McKim, W0CY; John 
Browning, W6SP; Byron Lindsey, W4BIW; and Ron Broadbent, G3AAJ - as they 
continue to spread the AMSAT word.  Remember them well!

[ANS thanks Keith Pugh, W5IU for the above information]

/EX

SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-204.02
OSCAR-11 Report for July 2006

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 204.02
From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.
July 23, 2006
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-204.02

Clive, G3CWV requested reception reports for OSCAR-11. Due to solar eclipses 
the VHF beacon on 145.826 MHz. may only transmit for a short times, perhaps 
for only a few orbits, or even less, at irregular intervals. Please e-mail 
your reception reports to xxxxx@amsat.org (replace xxxxx by g3cwv), or post 
on the AMSAT-BB.

During the period 15 June to 17 July 2006 nothing has been heard from the 
satellite.  It was last heard on 05 May, just one day before the solar 
eclipses were due to start. These eclipses will continue until 04 August 
2006, reaching a maximum duration of 22% around 19 June. If the satellite 
behaves in the same way as it did last year, regular 10 day transmissions 
should re-start, sometime in August.

Clive wrote, "Once again I am indebted to Jeff KB2M, for monitoring the 
satellite, during this period.  He has not heard any signals."

The current status of the satellite is that all the analogue telemetry 
channels, 0 to 59 are zero, i.e. they have failed. The status channels 60 to 
67 are still working. The spacecraft computer and active attitude control 
system have switched OFF, i.e. the satellite's attitude is controlled only 
by the passive gravity boom gradient, and the satellite is free to spin at 
any speed. When telemetry was last received it showed that one of the solar 
arrays had failed, and there was a large unexplained current drain on the 
main 14 volt bus. After 22 years in orbit the battery has undergone around 
100,000 partial charge/discharge cycles, and observations suggest that it 
cannot power the satellite during eclipses, or sometimes during periods of 
poor solar attitude.

When last heard, the on-board clock showed a very large accumulated error. 
On 05 May it was 22.76456 days slow.  The clock lost two hours during the 
last OFF period, and nine hours during the last transmission period. The 
observations of clock errors suggest that the clock may slow or stop when 
the battery voltage is low.

The frequencies to listen for OSCAR 11 is 145.826 MHz.  The downlink signal 
will be AFSK FM containing the ASCII Telemetry

Listeners to OSCAR-11 may be interested in visiting Clive's web site which 
contains an archive of news & telemetry data. It also contains details about 
using a sound card 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/

[ANS thanks Clive G3CWV whomever for the above information]

/EX

SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-204.03
Help Wanted at the Small Satellite Conference

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 204.03
From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.
July 23, 2006
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-204.03

AMSAT Executive Vice-President, Lee KU4OS says, "AMSAT will again have a 
table this year at the Small Satellite Conference in Logan, UT August 14-17. 
Since the exhibit runs 2.5 days I would greatly appreciate some assistance 
manning the table.  Please let me know if you are able to help.  AMSAT is 
allotted four 'exhibitor passes' as part of our exhibitor registration. This 
is a great Conference and a fascinating opportunity to see exhibits by some 
of the major leaders in industry as well as many University satellite 
projects."

Lee will be arriving Friday, August 11 for the CubeSat workshop and 
departing late the following Friday after the AFRL/Responsive Space Meeting. 
You can see all the associated meeting around Smallsat at:
http://www.smallsat.org/meetings.

Contact Lee at his e-mail address callsign@amsat.org.

[ANS thanks Lee, KU4OS for the above information]

/EX

SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-204.04
Deep Space DX to be Featured at AMSAT-UK International Space Colloquium

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 204.04
From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.
July 23, 2006
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-204.04

AMSAT-UK's International Space Colloquium takes place from Friday 28th until 
Sunday 30th July.  In addition to the report from Achim Vollhardt, DH2VA on 
the remarkable  achievement by Radio Amateurs in Germany in receiving 
signals from the Voyager 1 at the Space Colloquium we can now announce that 
the event will also include a live demonstration of DX reception from deep 
space.

Freddy de Guchteneire, ON6UG, will be receiving signals live from the NASA 
Mars Reconnaissance  Orbiter. This spacecraft was launched last year and 
only entered Mars orbit in March 2006. By the end of July Mars will be at a 
distance of approximately 350 million kilometres from earth so we cannot 
expect the signals to be very strong!

The demonstration is expected to take place on the Saturday of the 
Colloquium - the exact time will depend upon scheduling and visibility 
constraints.

See http://www.uk.amsat.org/Colloquium/ for the latest programme and on line 
booking form and maps.  The International Space Colloquium welcomes all 
Radio Amateurs and SWL's.

For further details contact Jim Heck G3WGM Tel: 01258 453959 or e-mail: 
g3wgm@amsat.org

[ANS thanks Graham, G3VZV for the above information]

/EX

SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-204.05
AMSAT BoD Ballots Have Been Mailed

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 204.05
From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.
July 23, 2006
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-204.05

AMSAT Manager, Martha Saragovitz says, "The AMSAT ballots for the Board of 
Director's seats have been mailed.  They should arrive shortly."  Members 
are invited to read the candidate's statements on the AMSAT web site at:
http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/articles/2006_Board_Candidates/

[ANS thanks Martha for the above information]

/EX

SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-204.06
ARISS Status July 17, 2006

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 204.06
From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.
July 23, 2006
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-204.06

1. Upcoming School Contacts

The Central Experimental Farm in Ontario, Canada is a research facility in 
the City of Ottawa. A public camp is held at the farm for 7-18 year olds 
during the month of July. An ARISS contact with the camp has been approved 
and is scheduled for Tuesday, July 25 at 15:59 UTC.

A contact has been scheduled for the Children's Club Camp, an event 
organized for ESA employees' children in Patras, Greece for Saturday, July 
29 at 12:27 UTC. ESA Astronaut Thomas Reiter, DF4TR, will participate in the 
contact via the telebridge station, WH6PN, in Hawaii.

2. ARRL Article Covers Hiroshima Contact

ARRL ran an article on the Hiroshima, Japan contact entitled, "Hiroshima 
Children's Museum Visitors Speak with ISS via Ham Radio." See:
http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2006/07/12/1/?nc=1

3. NASA Article on SuitSat-1

NASA ran a follow up story on SuitSat-1. "The Space Suit Heard 'Round the 
World" may be found at:
http://www.nasa.gov/audience/foreducators/k-4/features/F_Space_Suit_Round_the_World.html

4. Barrios Technology Highlights Snoopy Award Recipient

Barrios Technology ran a feature story on ARISS member Kenneth Ransom's 
recent Silver Snoopy award presentation. Kenneth received the award for his 
Expedition 12 work with the ISS Ham program. To view the article, see:
http://www.barrios.com/NewsItem1.cfm?News_ID=88

5. ARRL Covers Thomas Reiter, DF4TR

ARRL ran a web story on Expedition 13 crew member Thomas Reiter, DF4TR. The 
article, "New ISS crew member settling in, school QSOs being lined up" may 
be viewed on: http://www.arrl.org/?artid=6590

[ANS thanks Carol, KB3LKI for the above information]

/EX

SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-204.07
July 26 Launch for 13 Amateur Radio Satellites

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 204.07
From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.
July 23, 2006
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-204.07

Remember to listen for the thirteen Amateur Radio Satellites that will be 
launched on July 26, 2006 on a DNEPR-1LV rocket from the Kazakstan Baikonur 
Cosmodrome.  This will be the largest ever deployment of Amateur Radio 
Satellites. A fourteenth satellite will operate on commercial frequencies.

The satellites will be put into a 500 by 566 km orbit with an inclination of 
97 degrees. Each satellite is a 10cm cube weighing just 1kg into which is 
packed the battery, transmitter and the various experiments.

Further information on the Dnepr Launch 1 can be seen at:
http://littonlab.atl.calpoly.edu/.

Additional information about the cubesats can be found on the AMSAT cubesat 
pages.

Ralph, WϳPK, maintains a web page with up-to-date CubeSat status at:
http://showcase.netins.net/web/wallio/CubeSat.htm.

See the AMSAT main web page summarizes the July 26 CubeSat launch manifest,
http://www.amsat.org.

[ANS thanks AMSAT for the above information]

/EX

SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-204.08
Inflatable Satellite Launched

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 204.08
From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.
July 23, 2006
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-204.08

A private space firm, Bigelow Aerospace, launched its Genesis I spacecraft. 
The inflatable spacecraft has successfully expanded and all of the solar 
arrays have been deployed.

Genesis I, the first spacecraft in a series to be built by Bigelow 
Aerospace, is a one-third scale prototype of a future craft that will 
eventually become a part of a commercial space station.

By the fall, Bigelow Aerospace hopes to launch Genesis II. Over the next 
several years, Bigelow plans to test larger prototype spacecraft, including 
a full-scale prototype that could launch as early as 2012.

The Genesis I satellite is visible to the naked eye. Pass times for your 
location can be found on-line at:
http://www.heavens-above.com.

[ANS thanks nasaspaceflight.com 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,
Al Marote, WA1LBG
wa1lbg at amsat dot org
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