[jamsat-news:2733] ANS-284 AMSAT Weekly Bulletins

AMSAT NEWS SERVICE
ANS-284

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:
* AMSAT Election of new Officers at the Symposium
* SpaceX Announces Conference
* AO-51 configuration to support Scouting JOTA
* US Senate Bill Introduced
* AO-51 Configured for JOTA
* ARISS Status - October 4,  2009


SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-284.01
AMSAT Election of Officers

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 284.01
   From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.
October 11 2009
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-284.01

At the Baltimore Symposium the initial actions of the newly elected BOD
is to elect new officers.  The seats were filled as follows:

President   Barry Baines, WD4ASW
VP of Engineering   Tony Monteiro, AA2TX
VP of Operations   Drew Glassbrenner, KO4MA
VP of User Services   Gould Smith, WA4SXM
Secretary   Alan Biddle, WA4SCA
Treasurer   Gunther Meisse, W8GSM
Manager   Martha

Congratulations to the newly elected officers.

Also, a fine time was had by all that attended the Baltimore AMSAT 
Symposium.  Many excellent presentations were given during the event. At 
the annual meeting, the newly elected officers were introduced and new 
priorities were introduced.  AMSAT will  offer a DVD of the 
presentations.
The Banquet had a great guest speaker, Mr. Collins from the Air and 
Space museum.
Plan to attend next years meeting.

(ANS thanks Martha for the above information]

/EX
SB Sat @ $ans-284.02
SpaceX announces Conference

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 284.02
   From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.
October 11, 2009
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-284.02

Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) has announced a second user 
conference
for its commercial product DragonLab™, a free-flying, reusable 
spacecraft
capable of hosting pressurized and unpressurized payloads to and from 
orbit.
The event will focus on the needs of European users and take place on 
October
29th, 2009, in Haarlem, Netherlands.

DragonLab provides a platform for in-space experimentation, including 
recovery
of pressurized and some unpressurized payloads, as well as deployment of 
small
spacecraft. As a complete system, DragonLab provides a highly capable
spacecraft platform that includes propulsion, power, thermal control,
environmental control, avionics, communications, thermal protection, 
flight
software, guidance, navigation and control, entry, descent and landing, 
and
recovery.

The user conference is an opportunity for potential customers to explore
DragonLab's capabilities, as well as present customer-specific interests 
and
requirements. The agenda includes an overview of the Dragon spacecraft,
concept of operations, payload accommodations and cost parameters.

DragonLab is an alternate configuration of SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft 
which,
along with the Falcon 9 launch vehicle, has been contracted by NASA to 
provide
cargo resupply services to the International Space Station as early as 
2010.

To express interest in attending the user conference, visit
DragonLabUserConference.com.

Space is limited and all participants must receive confirmation from 
SpaceX in
order to attend this workshop. For more information or questions 
regarding the
user conference, please email DragonLab@spacex.com.


[ANS thanks Lee for the above information]

/EX

SB Sat @ amsat $ans284.03
US Senate Bill Introduced


AMSAT News Service Bulletin 284.03
   From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.
October 11, 2009
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-284.03

RADIO LAW:  SENATE BILL INTRODUCED TO STUDY HAM RADIO EMCOMM

A companion bill to the Amateur Radio Emergency Communications 
Enhancement
Act of 2009 was introduced in the U.S. Senate on Tuesday, October 6
by  Connecticut Democrat Joe Lieberman and Maine Republican Susan 
Collins.

Titled Senate Bill 1755, it carries the same name as the House measure
introduced this past April by Representative Sheila Jackson-Lee.  The 
bill,
if passed, would direct the Department of Homeland Security to undertake 
a
study on emergency communications with an emphasis on the role that ham
radio operators play.

S 1755 points out that "There is a strong Federal interest in the 
effective
performance of Amateur Radio Service stations, and that performance must 
be
given  support at all levels of government; and protection against
unreasonable regulation and impediments to the provision of the valuable
communications provided by such stations.

Introduction of S 1755 is the result of many months of groundwork laid 
by
the American Radio Relay League and appears to be directly based on the
basis and purpose of the service.  This as outlined in Section 97.1 of 
the
FCC rules.  (ARRL)



[ANS thanks ARRL for the above information]

/EX

SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-284.04
AO-51 Configured for JOTA

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 284.04
   From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.
October 11, 2009
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-284.04

AO-51 configuration to support Scouting JOTA

AMSAT-NA is supporting the 52nd Jamboree on the Air (JOTA) Scouting
event by dedicating AO-51 operation to the event.

For October 17th and 18th, the AO-51 QRP repeater will be allocated
for JOTA use. All users are requested to give way to JOTA stations
or QSOs with JOTA stations.

The frequencies used for this weekend will be 145.880 FM uplink,
and 435.150 FM downlink, no PL tone required. The mode change should
occur at ~00:00 UTC on the 17th (Friday evening in the US) and run
for approximately 48 hours.

AMSAT wishes the Scouts good luck operating via the AO-51 satellite
for the event.

Reports of your JOTA operations should be sent to the AMSAT-BB or
directly to ko4ma@amsat.org.

Photo files up to 5 Mb total are also welcome for possible inclusion
in an upcoming AMSAT Journal article.

73, Drew KO4MA
AMSAT-NA VP Operations

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

/EX



SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-284.05
ARISS Report for Oct 4,2009

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 284.05
   From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.
October 4, 2009
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-284.045

1.	Upcoming School Contacts

An Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) contact has 
been scheduled for Sint-Michielscollege Brasschaat vzw (SMCB) in 
Brasschaat, Belgium on Wednesday, October 7 at 10:20 UTC. Visits to 
space and science museums are among the science activities planned for 
the children. Guest speakers will include a representative from Verhaert 
Space Systems and Dirk Frimout, Belgium’s first astronaut.

An Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) contact has 
been scheduled with the National Planetarium in Kuala Lumpur, Wilayah 
Persekutuan, Malaysia on Thursday, October 8 at 09:34 UTC. The contact 
will occur as part of the National Space Challenge, a program that was 
created in an effort to instill the talents and desire towards the 
understanding of space in primary school aged children. Sixteen schools 
will participate.

An Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) contact has 
been scheduled for Belmont Elementary School in Langley, British 
Columbia, Canada on Friday, October 9 at 20:20 UTC. Students are working 
on projects with a “Mission Control” theme and the Langley Amateur Radio 
Association (L.A.R.A.) is working with the school to organize this 
event.

2.	Thirsk Participates in ARISS Contact with R.T. Alderman Students

Astronaut Bob Thirsk, VA3CSA participated in an Amateur Radio on the 
International Space Station (ARISS) contact with students attending R. 
T. Alderman School in Calgary, Alberta, Canada on Monday, September 28. 
An audience of 615 people gathered, watched and listened as Thirsk 
answered 15 questions posed to him by the students. Media coverage was 
provided by a local television station. After the contact, Thirsk 
changed the ISS radio beacon text to read, “Hello to RT Alderman 
School!”

3.	De Winne Speaks with Lisbon, Portugal Students via ARISS

On Thursday, October 1 an Amateur Radio on the International Space 
Station (ARISS) contact was held between the Ciência Viva Museum in 
Lisbon, Portugal and Frank De Winne, ON1DWN onboard the ISS. Ground 
station ON4ISS in Belgium provide the telebridge connection. An audience 
of 300 people gathered and watched as twenty-three questions were asked 
and answered. The ARISS contact at Ciencia Viva was a major event during 
the nationwide celebrated Space Week. The participating students have 
been working on space projects for two years and they were highly 
motivated to do this science-related activity.

4.	ARISS Contact with University of Liege

An Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) contact took 
place on Friday, October 2 between the University of Liege in Belgium 
and on-orbit astronaut Frank De Winne, ON1DWN via telebridge station 
ON4ISS in Belgium. Eighteen questions were answered before losing 
contact with the ISS. The University of Liege offers the only aerospace 
engineering education program in the French part of Belgium. In the 
context of the OUFTI-1 project (www.oufti.ulg.ac.be) that aims at 
building a CubeSat featuring the amateur radio D-STAR technology, an 
amateur radio club was formed at the university.

5.	Nicole Stott Participates in ARISS Contact with Italian Students

On Friday, October 2, students attending Scuola Secondaria 1° Grado 
“Alighieri – Trevigi” in Casale Monferrato, Prov. Alessandria, Italy 
participated in an Amateur Radio on the International Space Station 
(ARISS) contact. The youth asked Nicole Stott, KE5GJN 21 questions as an 
audience of 200 students, parents and teachers looked on. Local media 
provided news coverage. The event was streamed live on the internet and 
the audio was fed into the EchoLink AMSAT and JK1ZRW servers. The 
contact motivated the youth to study Science, History, Geography, 
Information Technology and English.

6.	ARISS Contact with Boy Scouts of Canada

On Saturday, October 3, Scouts of Canada in Ottawa, Ontario experienced 
an Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) contact. 
Three hundred scouts and parents were present as Robert Thirsk VA3CSA 
answered questions about life and work in space. Thirsk turned over a 
few questions to Mr. Guy Laliberte, Circ De Soleil president and 
spaceflight participant. Audio was fed into the EchoLink AMSAT and 
JK1ZRW servers. The ARISS contact was held in conjunction with the Scout 
Science Badge Award system.

7.	ARISS News on Amateur Radio Newsline

On October 2, Amateur Radio Newsline Report 1677 reported on Amateur 
Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) astronaut licensing. To 
view “Ham Radio in Space:  New Ham Astronaut is KF5DBF,” see: 
ftp://ftp.arnewsline.org/quincy/News-A/news.txt

/EX

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


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