[jamsat-news:2264] ANS-267 AMSAT News Service Weekly Bulletin

AMSAT NEWS SERVICE
ANS-267

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

Online registration and hotel reservation for the 2006 AMSAT Space
Symposium has been posted to the AMSAT website, and information about
the Symposium has been expanded.  The 2006 AMSAT Space Symposium will
be held October 6, 7 and 8 at the Crowne Plaza in Foster City,
California in the beautiful San Francisco Bay Area.

Please visit http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/symposium for additional
information and an index to the expanded Symposium web pages.

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

In this edition:

* HITSAT - New Amateur Radio Cubesat in Orbit
* AMSAT President's Club News
* AMSAT-UK Chief Discusses PoSAT End-of-Life Issues
* Microwave Update Conference 2006
* ARISS Operations Update
* SSETI GTO Satellite Project Report
* AO-51 QRP Repeater to be Activated for JOTA
* 2006 AMSAT Space Symposium Registration
* Hawaii Activation on FM Satellites


SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-267.01
HITSAT - New Amateur Radio Cubesat in Orbit

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 267.01
>From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.
September 24, 2006
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-267.01

HITSAT, a new amateur radio cubesat, was successfully launched from
Japan on September 22.  HITSAT was developed by the Hokkaido Cubsat
Development Ham club at the Hokkaido Institute of Technology under
the guidance of Assistant Professor Mitsuhashi Ryuichi.  It rode to
orbit as a secondary payload aboard a Japanese Space Agency launch
of the Japanese Solar-B mission.

Satellite Call Sign             JR8YJT
CW telemetry down-link          437.275MHz
1200 baud FM packet down-link   437.425MHz

HITSAT transmits its CW telemetry data every 40 seconds. Refer to
http://www.hit.ac.jp/~satori/gs/e/hitsatgs.html for a detailed des-
cription of the telemetry format.

After launch reception reports began to arrive from amateur radio
operators around the world.  Pass predictions using the keplerian
elements from Space-Track.org have been narrowed down to Object A
or Object D, with Object D seeming to be the more accurate at press
time.

An excellent resource for HITSAT and other CubeSat information can
be found at:  http://showcase.netins.net/web/wallio/CubeSat.htm.

[ANS thanks the HITSAT team and observant amateur radio operators
 around the world for the above information]

/EX


SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-267.02
AMSAT President's Club News

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 267.02
>From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.
September 24, 2006
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-267.02

Past President Robin Haighton, VE3FRH, has been continuing his support
of AMSAT by leading the organizational efforts for the President's Club.
Robin has requested that President's Club members send him their email
addresses so that he can better keep in touch with them.

In response, Robin received the following from President's Club member
Jim Jerzycke, KQ6EA, who recently upgraded to "silver" level of member-
ship.  Jim writes, "I upgraded to "silver" this year. It's my way of
paying back AMSAT for not only the enjoyment I get from this aspect of
Amateur Radio, but also the knowledge I gained which helped my career
immensely."  Jim explains, "I never would have been employed by DirecTV,
and now Sea Launch, without the *practical* knowledge of satellite opera-
tions I gained by being an AMSAT member."

Members of the President's Club, as sustaining donors to AMSAT
project funds, are also eligible to receive additional benefits.
You too can join the President's Club either through the website
at http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/membership/presclub.php or by
calling Martha at the AMSAT office, 1-888-322-6728.

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

/EX


SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-267.03
AMSAT-UK Chief Discusses PoSAT End-of-Life Issues

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 267.03
>From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.
September 24, 2006
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-267.03

Following the recent kind agreement of Consóòcio SAT, the owners of
PoSAT (PO28 or 1993-061D) which was launched on the Ariane V59 from
Kourou on the 26th September 1993, work has been progressing  at SSTL
and the Surrey Space Centre to switch transponder frequencies to the
amateur satellite service to serve as a voice FM transponder for use
by all radio amateurs worldwide.

Unfortunately, recent investigations now indicate that the PoSAT on-
board NiCd batteries are showing the effects of 12 years in orbit and
the approximately 100,000 charge /discharge cycles to which they have
subjected and are no longer holding sufficient charge to operate the
downlinks. This may mean that, sadly after all, it will not be possible
for the satellite to be made available for amateur use.

We fully understand the benefits that PO28 would offer radio amateurs
and work is continuing at Surrey to see if there is any way to revive
this 'old lady'.  AMSAT-UK will provide updates when further informa-
tion becomes available.

Martin Sweeting G3YJO
http://www.uk.amsat.org

[ANS thanks AMSAT-UK for the above information]

/EX


SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-267.04
Microwave Update Conference 2006

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 267.04
>From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.
September 24, 2006
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-267.04

Gerd, WB8IFM from Dayton, Ohio writes, "There is only a little over a
month left to the national Microwave Update Conference 2006. For the
first time this yearly conference will be held* in Dayton,Ohio on the
19th to the 22nd of October.

Presentations are on Friday and Saturday (Oct 20 & 21) with a fleamarket
which will be held on Friday night.  A banquet on is scheduled for Saturday
night with awards and drawings for prizes.  There will be a spouse program
also.

This is an excellent opportunity to learn about ham activity on the micro-
waves, loosely described from about 400 Mhz to light! We hope to attract
many hams within driving distance of Dayton.

You have to the end of September to get the earlybird registration fee of
$40. After October  1st the registration fee will go up by $5. If you pay
at the door the cost will be $50. This fee includes a volume of the proceed-
ings which has the presented papers plus others that are not being present-
ed!  AMSAT will be represented by Freddy, ON6UG.

For registration info and a more detailed plan go to:
http://www.microwaveupdate.org.

[ANS thanks Gerd, WB8IFM for the above information]

/EX


SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-267.05
ARISS Operations Update

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 267.05
>From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.
September 24, 2006
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-267.05

Kenneth Ransom, N5VHO ARISS Project Engineer reminds ISS radio
fans to, "Please note, the amateur equipment on the ISS has not
been functioning in the automatic modes properly and may be silent
more than usual. Information about the next scheduled ARISS contact
can be found at http://www.rac.ca/ariss/upcoming.htm#NextContact.

Random ISS voice activity expected the week of September 21-28. Space
Station visitor Ansari has announced that she may be active on the
Amateur Radio station on ISS.  She is planning on a few pre-scheduled
school links and some random contacts.

[ANS thanks ARISS for the above information]

/EX


SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-267.06
SSETI GTO Satellite Project Report

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 267.06
>From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.
September 24, 2006
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-267.06

This week Graham G3VZV reported that the SSETI GTO satellite project is
still on track for a launch from Kourou in Nov 2008 with the planned
AMSAT-UK U/S linear transponder is on the manifest.

This transponder is expected to support the following features:
 + Approximate 50kHz bandwidth
 + 10 watts of RF output
 + Selectable DSP/SDX and analogue signal paths
 + 400bps beacon

The satellite may not have good, long term, attitude control therefore
the antennas are being designed to work well even if the satellite is
tumbling.  Although the link budget is not as good as AO40 was nor as
P3E will be, circular polarisation of ground segment antennas will be
needed.

Before we operate the system as an amateur transponder, it will be used as
the initial main communications package for the reception of telecommands
to, and for the transmission of telemetry and mission data from, the
satellite - so it is quite important for the whole project.

The Preliminary Design Review will be completed during next month and an
engineering model of the satellite should be under construction early next
year. Hopefully this process will be visible using the same webcam system
as we were able to engineer during the SSETI Express construction.

The website at http://www.sseti.net/ has lots of info about the SSETI
program. Click on "missions" and ESEO for more details about their plans
for their GTO satellite.

A full report on the SSETI Express launch last year, the SSETI ESEO project
with the DSP transponder, and their SSETI ESMO (moon orbiter!) project will
be provided at the upcoming AMSAT-NA Symposium.

[ANS thanks Graham, G3VZV for the above information]

/EX


SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-267.07
AO-51 QRP Repeater to be Activated for JOTA

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 267.07
>From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.
September 24, 2006
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-267.07

The AO-51 Operations Group announced plans for AMSAT's support of the
Jamboree on the Air event (JOTA) on the weekend of October 21st and 22nd.
AO-51 will run in dual repeater mode with the 435.150 QRP repeater reserved
for JOTA contacts on the weekend.  Please yield the 435.150 repeater to
JOTA contacts, especially between two JOTA stations.  The normal AO-51 QRP
rules apply: 10 watts to omni or handheld antennas only.

Visit the AO-51 schedule at:
http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/echo/ControlTeam.php

[ANS thanks the AO-51 Operations Group for the above information]

/EX


SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-267.08
2006 AMSAT Space Symposium Registration

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 267.08
>From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.
September 24, 2006
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-267.08

The 2006 AMSAT Space Symposium will be held October 6, 7 and 8 at
the Crowne Plaza in Foster City, California in the beautiful San
Francisco Bay Area.

There is still plenty of time to sign up for the 2006 AMSAT Space
Symposium!  Please note that registrations received after September 24
will cost $55.

Hotel registrations have filled the initial block of rooms at the
Crowne Plaza Hotel that were set aside for Symposium attendees.  The
Symposium Committee worked with the hotel management and they are
now happy to report that additional rooms have been added to the
AMSAT block.

A glitch in the hotel's reservation system causes an occasional error
when trying to book rooms at the special AMSAT rate.  If you try to
book your room through the central  Crowne Plaza reservation system
(toll free number) they may tell you the dates are unavailable.  If
this happens call the hotel directly (information on AMSAT web) and
be sure to mention the AMS group code.

If you still have problems please send Emily Clarke (n1did@amsat.org)
an email with your arrival and departure dates and she will arrange
to speak with the hotel manager directly.

One thing that isn't available through the website is that we can
upgrade to the Executive rooms.  The rate for executive rooms
increases from $109 per night to  $129 per night.  Call the hotel
directly to take advantage of this offer.

Information about the Spouse Tours and Activities can be found online.
See: http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/symposium/2006GroupTours.php

Please visit http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/symposium for additional
information and an index to the expanded Symposium web pages.

[ANS thanks the 2006 Symposium Committee for the above information]

/EX


SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-267.09
Hawaii Activation on FM Satellites

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 267.09
>From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.
September 24, 2006
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-267.09

Ron, W6ZQ, and Rick, WH6FC will be active on SO-50 and AO-51 for the next
week or two from Hawaii.  They are on the big island now.  Ron will be
going to Maui next week for a week or two. Good hunting!  Check those
westerly passes!

[ANS thanks John, K6YK 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,
JoAnne Maenpaa, K9JKM
K9JKM at amsat dot org


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