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[jamsat-news:2356] ANS-112 AMSAT Weekly Bulletins


AMSAT NEWS SERVICE
ANS-112

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:
* Dnepr/Cubesat Launch 17 April 2007
* 2007 AMSAT-NA Space Symposium Announcement
* OSCAR-11 REPORT
* AMSAT Offerings at Dayton
* AMSAT Banquet Tickets
* AMSAT Awards
* ARBONET-2 High Altitude Balloon Flight Set for an April 28th Launch

SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-112.01
Dnepr/Cubesat Launch 17 April 2007

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 112.01
  From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.
April 22, 2007
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-112.01


Hi all,At 0645 UTC April 17, a Dnepr rocket lifted off from Kazakhstan
and sucessfully deployed 7 CubeSats (along with 7 other satellites from
Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the Ukraine) into orbit.We offer our sincerest
congratulations to everyone on a successful launch!  We offer our
special congratulations to Colombia on the successful launch of their
first satellite! Thank you for allowing us to be a part of this mission!
We hope that you all are able to help us track the satellites. We expect
CAPE 1 and Libertad-1 to start beaconing by the time you receive this
email, with CP3 and CP4 turning on 2 hours after launch. We will update
the TLE's on our website, www.cubesat.org, as soon as we receive them to
ensure accurate tracking.
Thank you all for your help and support.


[ANS thanks Lori Brooks for the above information]

/EX


SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-112.02
2007 AMSAT-NA Space Symposium Announcement

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 112.02
  From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.
April 22, 2007
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-112.02

2007 AMSAT-NA Space Symposium Announcement

The Wireless Association of South Hills Amateur Radio Club would like
to announce that the 2007 AMSAT-NA Space Symposium will be held at the
Pittsburgh Airport Marriott Hotel on Friday, October 26 through Sunday,
October 28, 2007.

This is the same hotel (then known as the Pittsburgh Airport Wyndham
Hotel) that at a moments notice hosted the 2005 AMSAT Board of
Directors meeting, 2005 Annual meeting, and Eagle  Project meeting in
the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

This year we are focusing efforts to attract local middle and high
school students to the Saturday sessions of the symposium and special
programs by contacting local gifted and science teachers.  As part of
this there will be available on site a fully operational satellite
station for demonstrations and use.  More will be announced as this
program develops.

Our keynote speaker this year will be Mr. Sy Liebergot, a former EECOM
controller responsible for the electrical and environmental systems
onboard the Apollo Command Module. He was part of the team that guided
Apollo 13 back to Earth following the explosion which crippled the
spacecraft. For movie buffs, in the Apollo 13 movie, Sy Liebergot was
played by Clint Howard, the brother of director Ron Howard.

The Pittsburgh Airport Marriott Hotel has fine accommodations including
wireless internet access.  Shopping and dining venues are easily
accessible from the hotel as well scenic views of downtown Pittsburgh.
Marriott has not yet provided a reservation code but it will be
announced as soon as we have it.  An announcement will be issued by mid
May 2007 that reservations for the symposium and hotel will be taken
from the 2007 Space Symposium page of AMSAT.org.

Finally the Call For Papers announcement will follow shortly.

Basic Information:

Preliminary Symposium Information:
http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/symposium/2007/index.php

Where:
Pittsburgh Airport Marriott Hotel
777 Aten Road (Moon Run exit of PA 60)
Coraopolis, PA 15108
	
Phone:  1-412-788-8800
Fax:  1-412-788-0743
Toll-free:  1-800-328-9297

http://marriott.com/hotels/travel/pitmc-pittsburgh-airport-marriott/

Symposium Rate: 	
Single $104 per night (this is a special Symposium rate)

When:
October 25, 26, 27, & 28, 2007

Preliminary Agenda:

Thursday, October 25 through Friday noon, October 26, 2007 BOD meeting
		
Friday, October 26, 2007
Symposium First Session; 1:00 to 5:00 PM Annual meeting; 5:00 to 6:00 PM
Introduction to Amateur Satellites by Gould Smith; 7:30 - 9:00 PM

Saturday, October 27, 2007
Symposium Second Session; 8:00 AM to 12:00 Noon Symposium Third Session;
1:30 PM to 5:00 PM Cocktails & Hors D'ourves; 6:30 PM to 7:30 PM Banquet
(Keynote Speaker Mr. Sy Liebergot); 7:30 PM till ?

Sunday, October 28, 2007
Area Coordinators meeting; 8:00 AM - 9:00 AM Tour (details to be announced);

9:00 AM to ?

The Wireless Association of South Hills Amateur Radio Club and area
AMSAT members are excited and eager for the chance to provide attendees
a great Pittsburgh Pennsylvania experience.

Sincerely,

Kevin Smith, N3HKQ
Pat Sanford, KC4WTT
Co-chairs
2007 AMSAT Space Symposium

[ANS thanks Kevin and Pat for the above information]

/EX


SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-112.03
OSCAR-11 REPORT

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 112.03
  From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.
April 22, 2007
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-112.03



RECEPTION REPORTS REQUESTED!

OSCAR-11 is expected to switch ON around 22:00 UTC 21 April.  This is
just after the start of solar eclipses, which may cause the satellite
to switch OFF for 21 days. In the past the satellite has been very
sensitive to the start of eclipse season, although the duration of the
eclipses is initially very short. Please send reception reports to the
address below or post to amsat-bb. If you are able to record the
satellite as a WAV file, please do so, but let Clive know what you have,
before sending it!

If you need to hear what the satellite sounds like, please visit
http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/clivew/  The satellite transmits on
145.826 MHz NBFM.

During the period 22 March to 17 April 2007, the satellite's 145.826 MHz.
beacon was heard from 01 to 11 April . Excellent signals have beeen heard
on most passes, and good copy of the telemetry obtained.

If the satellite's watchdog timer continues to operate normally, the
beacon should switch ON around 21/22 April 2007. However, solar eclipses
are expected to start on 20 April and will continue until 23 August.
If the satellite performs as it did last year, it is unlikely to be
heard, for any length of time, during the eclipse season.

Clive said, "I am indebted to David G8OQW, Jeff KB2M, Edward BX1AD,
Sil ZL2CIA, Gene WA4UKX and Rik, ON4GJ for their reports. Many thanks."

The spacecraft computer and active attitude control system have switched
OFF, ie. the satellite' 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.

The Beacon frequency is VHF 145.826 MHz.  AFSK FM  ASCII Telemetry

73 Clive G3CWV   g3cwv@amsat.org (please replace xxxxx by g3cwv)

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

/EX

SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-112.04
AMSAT Offerings at Dayton

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 112.04
  From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.
April 22, 2007
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-112.04


In addition to free gifts with your membership renewal or joining AMSAT,
we will have a number of other offerings at the Dayton AMSAT booth.

Updated    Frequency Chart
Updated    "2007 Getting Started With Amateur Satellites" book
***New***  Black Computer backpacks with AMSAT logo
***New***  G6LVB computer controlled rotor tracker boards (bare with parts
list)
***New***  White SS Golf shirts with AMSAT logo
***New***  Blue LS heavy tee shirt with AMSAT logo
***New***  Blue baseball cap with AMSAT logo
***New***  AMSAT lanyards with badge clips
***New***  Digital CD with 1200 - 38k4 test signals, WiSP software and
other digital items
***New*** Green medium weight jacket with AMSAT logo and name/callsign
***New*** 2006 San Francisco Symposium Proceedings
AMSAT Journal CDs
Arrow Antennas
SatPC32, Nova for Windows, SCRAP and IT tracking software
AMSAT clocks
Eagle Decals and Patches
ARISS Patches
AO-7 QSL cards

The Eagle area will have an operational SDX (Software Defined
Transponder) demonstration, 70cm receiver, 1/2 scale model of the Eagle
sturcture, Eagle power generation system, Ultra cap and NiCd battery and
SuitSat 2 hardware.

The outdoor satellite demonstration area will be upgraded and be working
FM and SSB satellites all day, each day.

Gould is also looking for additional volunteers to work 2 hours shifts
in the AMSAT booth on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.  Email your
availability to wa4sxm@amsat.org

Make your plans for the Thursday evening Pizza Party, Friday AMSAT
Forum, Banquet and booth visits, Satellite Demonstrations and Eagle area
for the latest information and hardware.

[ANS thanks Gould WA4SXM for the above information]


/EX


SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-112.05
AMSAT Banquet Tickets

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 112.05
  From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.
April 22, 2007
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-112.05

Attendees to the AMSAT/TAPR Banquet on Friday night in Dayton are asked
to pick up their tickets at the AMSAT Booth during the day on Friday.
Please make sure you order your tickets at the AMSAT website before
Monday May 14th as a count must be given to the Banquet people.
Remember, the ticket includes being admitted to the museum before the
banquet and browsing after until 10pm.

[ANS thanks Martha for the above information]

/EX


SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-112.06
AMSAT Awards

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 112.06
 From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.
April 22, 2007
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-112.06


Burce KK5DO, AMSAT Director Contests and Awards says. "Awards this
week include the following who we would like to welcome to the satellite
community:

These amateurs have made their first satellite contact and are now members
of the AMSAT Satellite Communicators Club:

   Rafael Valdez     XE2PWF
   Francis Geraci    WB1FXX
   Edgar Hoey III    N1YXW
   I. Made Sudarsana YB9AY

AMSAT Communication Achievement Award
Stephen Ayling, SO5AS, #448

To see all the awards visit http://www.amsat.org.

[ANS thanks Bruce, KK5DO for the above information]


/EX

SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-112.07
ARBONET-2 High Altitude Balloon Flight Set for an April 28th Launch

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 112.07
  From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.
April 22, 2007
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-112.07


Members of the ARBONET (Amateur Radio Balloons Over NorthEast Texas)
organization are making final preparations for the April 28th launch
of ARBONET-2. The second in an on-going series of high altitude bal-
loon flights carrying Amateur Radio, ARBONET-2 is being dedicated to
the memory of Kim R. Miles, N9IS SK, a long time contributor to the
central Indiana Windtrax Amateur Radio High Altitude Balloon team who
passed away March 27th at the age of 51.

ARBONET-2 will be launched from the JD Trissell Airport in Clarksville,
TX which is located in the northeast corner of the Lone Star State.
Launch time is scheduled for 9:00 AM CDT on Saturday April 28th. Current
winds aloft forecasts indicate the ground track of the flight will
carry the amateur payloads into the southwest corner of the state of
Arkansas. If ARBONET-2 reaches its expected altitude of 96,000 ft,
radio amateurs in parts of as many as seven states should be able to
monitor the beacons and communicate through the cross band repeater
onboard the near space vehicle.

The compliment of payloads aboard ARBONET-2 include:

  A plain language homing beacon that will transmit navigation data
to the ground on 146.560 MHz in plain English thus allowing anyone
with a scanner or 2 meter hand-held in the coverage zone to follow
the progress of the flight without the need for additional equipment
to process the data.

An APRS beacon operating on 144.390 MHz to report vehicle location
data throughout the duration of the flight and to aid in the recovery
of the packages following descent.

A 70 cm Up / 2 meter Down Cross band FM repeater (445.800MHz Up
147.560 MHz Down) will support two way communications during the
duration of the ARBONET-2 flight.

A 10 meter CW beacon experiment produced by the Richardson Wireless
Klub, K5RWK will transmit a 500 milliwatt signal on 28.061 MHZ.

In addition, ARBONET-2 will carry a number of secondary payloads that
will perform remote data collection functions for analysis once the
payloads are recovered.  These payloads include a 4 mega pixel digital
camera configured to capture images every 30 seconds through the dura-
tion of the flight, a self contained balloon burst video system design-
ed to capture images of the balloon burst event, a three axis acceler-
ometer and other environmental data loggers.

Operators are encouraged to submit reception reports from the ARBONET-2
flight to team members via the ARBONET web site: www.arbonet.net. A
special commemorative QSL card will be made available to everyone who
submits reception reports to the ARBONET team.

An ARBONET Launch Information HF net will be held on 7.260 MHz ( 10 KHz)

beginning at 8:30 AM CDT to report the progress of flight preparations
and to provide real time coverage of the expected 2 and a half hour flight.

The ARBONET team encourages radio amateurs throughout the flight's coverage
zone to make use of the payloads aboard ARBONET-2.

Additional updates will be posted to the ARBONET web site in the days
leading up to the mission. In the event weather conditions cause a post-
ponement of the launch, the next launch attempt is scheduled for the
following Saturday, May 5th.

[ANS thanks ARBONET Membes for the above information]

73,
This week's ANS Editor,
Dee Interdonato, NB2F
nb2f at amsat dot org
















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