[jamsat-news:2629] ANS-067 AMSAT Weekly Bulletins

AMSAT NEWS SERVICE
ANS-067

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:
* 40th AMSAT Anniversary
* SumbandilaSat launch delayed again
* AO-27 Satellite Comes Back
* Satellite Shorts
* ARISS Status - 8 March 2009
* AO-51 Schedule adjustment
* AMSAT/TAPR Banquet


SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-067.01
40th AMSAT Anniversary

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 067.01
   From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.
March 8, 2009
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-067.01

March 3, 2009 marks the 40th anniversary of AMSAT's incorporation.
AMSAT was incorporated in the District of Columbia on March 3, 1969.

Perry, W3PK who was AMSAT President from 1969 to mid-1980 said, "We
filed the application for incorporation 40 years ago on Feb. 27, 1969.
A copy of the filing has been saved at:
http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/AboutAmsat/documents/incorporation.php

You can see a copy of the Certificate of Incorporation at:
http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/AboutAmsat/documents/certificate.php

Perry is working with Dick Daniels, W4PUJ to preserve the original
AMSAT Newsletters, archived in paper format onto electronic media.
Additional AMSAT history can be found in the archives of the "Amateur
Satellite Report" Newsletters scanned and converted to PDF by Phil
Karn, KA9Q. Phil has these issues posted on his website (with AMSAT's
permission). See: http://www.ka9q.net/newsletters.html

As the electronic archive project makes progress Perry will issue
a call for one or more volunteers willing to receive scans of
additional issues JPEG format via e-mail, perform the OCR work and
help us change them to searchable PDF files.

Watch upcoming issues of The AMSAT Journal for articles of AMSAT's
roots. AMSAT will also feature 40 years of our accomplishments at
the 2009 Dayton Hamvention.

[ANS thanks Perry, W3PK for the above information]

/EX


SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-067.02
SumbandilaSat launch delayed again

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 067.02
   From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.
March 8, 2009
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-067.02

SumbandilaSat launch delayed again

The launch of SumbandilaSat has been delayed again, this time due to a
technical hiccup at the Russian launch site, Baikonur.

The Director-General of the Department of Science and Technology, Dr
Phil Mjwara, told SA AMSAT that the launch agency in Russia had sent a
message that the launch would probably be at some time in May this year.

He said that as the launch agency had not been specific in their
communication he will not make a public announcement until DST had
received full details about the reasons for the delay and a new
confirmed date.

It is speculated that the delay is caused by problems of delivering one
of the other payloads on time.

Currently SumbandilaSat is still safely at the test range near Bredasdorp.

[ANS thanks Trevor, M5AKA, for the above information]

/EX


SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-067.03
AO-27 Satellite Comes Back

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 067.03
   From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.
March 8, 2009
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-067.03

AO-27 Satellite Comes Back

In December, 2008 AO-27 went off the air. The control team members
pursued a strategy to drain the batteries in the hopes of resetting
the locked up modem. As of a week ago, the bird has rebooted into
the primary bootloader.

During February, 2009 the control team has managed to upload the high
level software (EOS) to AO-27 after several attempts. They took a week
to collect data to check on the battery status and conduct an on-orbit
checkout before returning to analogue mode.

As of March 1, 2009 the AO-27 control team reports that telemetry is
looking good. During several passes over the US they turned on the
Analogue Repeater. This week the control team will continue the data
download schedule to collect as much whole orbit data to check on the
health of the batteries. So far, it is looking like AO-27 will return
to normal operations on or around March 7th.

AO-27 Uplink:   145.850 MHz FM
AO-27 Downlink: 436.795 MHZ FM
http://www.ao27.org

[ANS thanks the AO-27 Control Team for the above information]

/EX

SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-067.04
Satellite Shorts

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 067.04
   From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.
March 1, 2009
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-067.04

AO-7 UHF Beacon Activates RTTY Telemetry

The AO-7 UHF Beacon at 435.100 MHz has been reported as becoming oper-
ational. Satellite telemetry in RTTY format is being copied. The AO-7
70-cm beacon was monitored with very strong signals during February 28
passes and also since then. Some reported the beacon initially sounded
as if it was in a two-state mode that sounded a bit like RTTY in idle.
Successful RTTY decodes have been accomplished using "reverse, 45, 85"
parameters.

AO-7 Command Operator, Mike, N1JEZ says, "This is a pretty significant
development. Every time I've tried to activate the RTTY system, all I
would get is a solid carrier then the bird has reset indicating a lack
of power."

[ANS thanks Mike, N1JEZ for the above information]

-----------------------------------------------------------------

Adrian, AA5UK, will be operating as ZF2AE from Grand Cayman and 
ZF2AE/ZF8 from Little Cayman during his March 25th - April 8th vacation. 
Current plans are to operate holiday style on AO-51, SO-50 and FO-29. 
He plans to activate EK99hi from March 25 – 28th, EK99xp and EK99wp from 
March 28th through April 3rd and EK99kh from April 3rd through April 
8th. Most activity will be in the afternoon and evenings.

[ANS thanks Adrian, AA5UK, for the above info]

--------

AMSAT-UK Colloquium Manchester England - First Call for Speakers

This year AMSAT-UK will be holding their Colloquium from Friday
July 24th to Sunday 26th July at the University of Manchester
right in the centre of the city and within 200 metres of
Piccadilly Railway Station.

The station has direct trains to Manchester Airport and there is
also an hourly bus service from the Liverpool John Lennon Airport.

This 3 day event attracts an International audience of those
involved in building and operating Amateur Radio satellites
and CubeSats.

Details of this and previous events can be found at:

http://www.uk.amsat.org/colloquium

AMSAT-UK invite speakers, about amateur radio space and associated
activities, for this event. They are also invited to submit papers
for the "Proceedings" document which will be published at the same
time but printed papers are not mandatory. We normally prefer
authors to present talks themselves rather than having someone else
give them in the authors' absence. We also welcome
"unpresented" papers for the Proceedings document.

Offers of talks should be submitted as soon as possible; the final
date for full documents to be received is late-June 2009 in order
that the "Proceedings" document be available to participants.

Submissions should be sent *ONLY* to G4DPZ via the following routes:

e-mail: david dot johnson at blackpepper dot co dot uk

SnailMail: QTHR from http://www.qrz.com/
(enter G4DPZ is the callsign box)

AMSAT-UK also invite anyone with requests for Program Topics to
submit them as soon as possible to G4DPZ. Invitations for any
papers on specific subjects will be included in the future call.
Likewise if anyone knows of a good speaker, please send contact
and other information to G4DPZ.

AMSAT-UK website
http://www.uk.amsat.org/

Join AMSAT-UK online at https://secure.amsat.org.uk/

Colloquium page: http://www.uk.amsat.org/colloquium/

[ANS thanks AMSAT-UK for the above information]

/EX


SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-067.05
ARISS Status - 2 March 2009

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 067.05
   From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.
March 1, 2009
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-067.05


1. Upcoming School Contact

An Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) contact has
been completed with Padthaway Primary School in Padthaway, SA, Australia
on Tuesday, March 3 at 08:32 UTC via telebridge station W6SRJ in
California. To prepare for the contact, children wrote essays on space
related topics. They chose a planet to analyze for feasibility of life,
looked at the life of an astronaut (training, diet, etc), researched an
event in space history and created a timeline of important events in
space history. Media coverage is planned.

2. Upcoming ARISS Simulated Contacts

Three simulated Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS)
contact has been completed on Wednesday, March 4.  These training
sessions are terrestrial-based amateur radio contacts using
ARISS-equivalent equipment. Audio is expected to be available on IRLP.
All times are approximate.

15:15 UTC - Technopolis, Belgium and Andre Kuipers, PI9ISS
15:30 UTC - Ralph McCall School, Airdrie, Alberta, Canada and Chris
Hadfield, VA3OOG
15:45 UTC - Ralph McCall School, Airdrie, Alberta, Canada and Cady
Coleman, KC5ZTH

3. Fassett Middle School Contact Successful

Fassett Middle School in Oregon, Ohio experienced a successful Amateur
Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) contact on Monday,
February 23. Mike Fincke, KE5AIT, answered 16 students' questions while
over 550 people who gathered for the event looked on. The Oregon school
superintendent was also present for the contact. Audio was fed into the
EchoLink AMSAT (101377) and JK1ZRW (277208) servers. Thirteen
connections were made, including 3 link nodes and one repeater, from
England, Germany, Malaysia and the U.S.   The Toledo Blade and TV 11
covered the news.

To view the WTOL TV 11 story, "Can you hear me now? Oregon students call
outer space," see:
http://www.wtol.com/Global/story.asp?S=9889811&nav=menu34_2_4

The Toledo Blade article may be viewed here:
http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090224/NEWS16/902249997

4. Australian Contact Successful

Chatham Public School in Taree, NSW, Australia, took part in an Amateur
Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) contact on Wednesday,
February 25 via telebridge station K6DUE in Maryland. The event was held
at the studios of Radio 2RE. Mike Fincke, KE5AIT, answered 13 questions
posed to him by ten children. John Key, the New Zealand prime minister,
tied in to the contact and sent greetings to Mike from the Asia/Pacific
region. Thirty-eight radio stations belonging to the Super Radio Network
covered the event the following morning. The audio was also fed into the
EchoLink AMSAT and JK1ZRW servers and received 19 connections from
stations in the USA, New Zealand, Australia, Russia, Belgium and England.

5. Italian School Questions Astronaut

On Wednesday, February 25, students from 1 Circolo Didattico G. Marconi
in Casamassima, Italy participated in an Amateur Radio on the
International Space Station (ARISS) contact with Mike Fincke, KE5AIT.
Seventeen students asked one question each of the astronaut. Special
guest Princess Elettra Marconi attended the event and spoke briefly with
Mike as approximately 250 students, teachers and others watched.  Some
regional television stations and local newspapers covered the event.
For more information, photos and audio, visit the ARISS-Europe Web site:
http://www.ariss-eu.org/2009_02_25.htm

6. New York Contact Successful

Students attending Hampton Bays Middle School in Hampton Bays, New York
took part in an Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS)
contact on Wednesday, February 25.  Students created a mockup set of the
ISS from which ten students asked 14 questions of Mike Fincke, KE5AIT.
The school's IT department provided live coverage of the contact to all
the schools in the district via intranet.  Video of the event will be
available on the school Web site in the near future.

7. Astronaut Training Status

An Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) training
session was held with Cady Coleman, KC5ZTH, on Wednesday, February 18.
Coleman is a backup crew member for Expedition 20.

On Tuesday, February 24, two successful simulated ARISS contacts took
place.  The first was held between students at the European Space
Center, Belgium and Frank DeWinne, ON1DWN.  The second was held between
the Manordale Public School children in Canada and Bob Thirsk, W5/VA3CSA.

8. ARRL Announces Dayton Hamvention Guest Speaker

The American Radio Relay League (ARRL) ran an article about the upcoming
ARRL National Convention to be held at the Dayton Hamvention in May.
Richard Garriott, W5KWQ, will attend the event and spend time in the
ARRL EXPO area greeting visitors. He will also speak at the Hamvention
forum.  See:
https://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2009/02/21/10660/?nc=1

The ARRL Letter also ran the story, "ARRL National Convention to Feature
Richard Garriott, W5KWQ." See:  https://www.arrl.org/arrlletter/09/0227/

ARRL's web feature called "ARRL in Action" for the month of March
includes an entry on Richard's attendance at the ARRL National
Convention (Dayton Hamvention) May 15-17.

The ARRL Web site has 100,000 regular readers; the e-newsletter has a
circulation of 115,000.

9. Richard Garriott, Keynote Speaker at AMSAT Banquet

The Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation (AMSAT) announced that Richard
Garriott, W5KWQ, will be the keynote speaker at the AMSAT/TAPR Banquet
during Dayton Hamvention 2009. The banquet will be held on May 15.
Richard will also give a talk at the AMSAT forum on Saturday, May 16.
See: http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/index.php

10. AMSAT Story on SuitSat Meeting

The Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) team held a
SuitSat-2 meeting on Friday - Sunday, February 20 - 22 in Phoenix,
Arizona. The Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation (AMSAT) posted a story
summarizing the meeting.  See: http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/index.php

11. Amateur Radio Newsline Covers ARISS Contact

On February 27, the Amateur Radio Newsline Report #1646 covered the
Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) contact with
South Park Elementary Center.  The report may be found here:
http://www.arnewsline.org/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=18&Itemid=

[ANS thanks Carol, KB3LKI, for the above information]

/EX

SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-067.06
AO-51 Scehdule Adjustment

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 067.06
   From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.
March 8, 2009
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-067.06

We've made a few tweaks to the schedule to accommodate the G3VZV cruise,
at the request some South African operators, and to correct an uplink
frequency for the SSTV mode.

The new schedule, as posted at
http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/echo/CTNews.php :

March 2009 AO-51 Schedule

All modes using the 435.150 downlink are subject to interruption for
telemetry collection by a command station.

March 2nd - March 9th

FM Repeater, V/U
Uplink: 145.920 MHz FM
Downlink: 435.300 MHz FM

FM Repeater, V(SSB)/U
Uplink: 145.880 MHz SSB
Downlink: 435.150 MHz FM

March 9th - March 16th

Uplink: 145.920 MHz FM
Downlink: 435.300 MHz FM

9k6 BBS, L/U
Uplink: 1268.700 MHz 9k6 FM
Downlink: 435.150 MHz 9k6 FM

March 16th - March 23rd

FM Repeater, V/S
Uplink: 145.880 MHz FM
Downlink: 2401.200 MHz FM

FM Repeater V/U
Uplink: 145.920 MHz FM
Downlink: 435.150 MHz FM

March 23rd - March 30th

FM Repeater V/U
Uplink: 145.920 MHz FM
Downlink: 435.300 MHz FM

FM Repeater V/U SSTV
Uplink: 145.860 MHz FM
Downlink: 435.150 MHz FM

73, Drew KO4MA
AMSAT-NA VP Operations

[ANS thanks Drew, KO4MA for the above info]

/EX

SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-067.07
AMSAT/TAPR Banquet

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 067.07
   From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.
March 8, 2009
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-067.07

Reservations for the AMSAT/TAPR Banquet are now available through the
AMSAT Store. Richard Garriott, W5KWQ will be the Banquet speaker. He
will also give a short talk during the Saturday AMSAT Forum and spend
some time at the AMSAT booth. Richard has many interests in additon to
his amateur radio work aboard the ISS. Be sure and read his Wikipedia
bio to learn of his numerous accomplishments.
Information about AMSAT Activities during Hamvention 2009 are being
posted to the AMSAT web site.  Use the Dayton Hamvention link on the
AMSAT front page left hand navigation.

[ANS thanks Gould, WA4SXM, 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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