[jamsat-news:1837] ANS-243 AMSAT Weekly Bulletin

AMSAT NEWS SERVICE

ANS-243

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.

In this edition:
*  AMSAT-NA President's Reminder
*  VUSat Update
*  CCARC VHF AMSAT Satellite net
*  AO-40 DX Update
*  Upcoming ARISS Contact Schedule
*  This Week's News in Brief


SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-243.01
AMSAT-NA President's Reminder

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 243.01 From AMSAT HQ
SILVER SPRING, MD.  August 28, 2003
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-243.01

As we approach September, I issue this "Annual Reminder" for various AMSAT
Activities.  If you Plan coming to the Annual Meeting and Space Symposium
the remember our block of Reserved Rooms  is no longer available after
SEPTEMBER 17.  The current rate of exchange is about  $1.00 Cdn=$0.71 US.
Thus the rooms advertised as $119 Cdn+Tax are about $84.50 +Tax.  Also, if
you register with Martha  before September 15th then your registration fee
is only $30 US.  After September 15, it rises to $35 US and at the door $40
US or  57Cdn.

The Saturday evening Dinner Price is fixed at $35 US, however I am pleased
to advise that we have received the generous donation of a new ICOM 910H
Satellite radio as our Grand Prize which will be drawn form all of the
tickets for those who register.
- Wow-
Many other valuable prizes have also been  donated, including Hardware,
Software, and Gift Certificates.

As you are aware this year we will welcome at least 2 and maybe more new
members, of the Board of Directors. How many new ones depends on your votes,
there are 4 places available and 8 candidates.  So keep your votes rolling
into Silver Spring, keep the Corporate Secretary (Martha) busy counting
them, remember if you don't vote, then don't grumble about BoD actions.
It's your organization so vote for your choice of candidates.  As we have
over 4500 Members I would like to find out how high Martha can count!
All ballots must be received by the close of Business on September 15.

73,
Robin Haighton, VE3FRH
President,  AMSAT-NA

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

/EX


SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-243.02
VUSat Update

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 243.02 From AMSAT HQ
SILVER SPRING, MD.  August 28, 2003
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-243.02

VUSat is a 40Kg micro-satellite to be launched onboard PSLV(Polar Satellite
Launch Vehicle) from Sriharikota launch range.  It will be a co-passenger
along with another remote sensing satellite (most likely IRS-P6) to be
launched on the same vehicle

It is cubical in structure of about 630mm x 630mm x 550mm size.

It has body-mounted solar panels on the four sides. Antennae for
communication are mounted on the top, the bottom portion interfaces with
the launcher.

VUSat is a spinning satellite in a synchronous polar orbit of about 917Km
(LEO)

The bus electronics performs the functions of attitude control, telemetry,
telecommand and data acquisition and is controlled by a single
microprocessor.

Satellite Telecommand(TC) and Telemetry(TM) are on the VHF band

VUSAT PAYLOAD ::

There will be two transponders: Indian and Dutch as main and redundant
systems.  Both of them will be operating in Mode-B configuration with
UHF uplink and VHF downlink. This mode is also known as U-V operation.

They are linear transponders designated to operate in CW/USB/FM modes of
amateur communication. Since they are linear transponders they may be tried
in other modes of operation too. They will have an output power of about
30dBm(=1Watt)

They will share common turnstile antennae for input and output along with
satellite mainframe TC/TM systems

Typical link calculations are as below:

1) UHF uplink (435.25MHz centre frequency)
    Ground station power : 40dBm (10Watts)
    Antenna gain : 12 - 18 dBi
    EIRP at max.ant.gain : 56dBm

2)VHF down link (145.90MHz centre frequency)
   Antenna gain: 16dBi
   Received carrier power(at gnd.RX) : -107dBm(1uV)

Notes: Both the transponders will have 60KHz bandwidth


Transponders may be differentiated by their respective beacons; Indian
transponder will have an unmodulated carrier on 145.940MHz whereas the Dutch
transponder will have modulated information on 145.860MHz

Satellite will have a periodicity of about 7000 secs and is likely to be
visible for about 10-12mins. maximum during a good pass. Like any other LEO
satellite, daily we may expect 3-4 good passes.

Flight versions of The Dutch (by Williams, PE1RAH) and Indian transponders
were tested "on-the-air" on  27 August 2003. Both the transponders worked
satisfactorily in CW/SSB/FM of mode-B (UV) operation. Hams VU2LX, VU2POP,
VU2IR, VU2WMY/URC participated in this important test and gave reports.
With this  testing the packages are ready to go on to VUSat deck.

Current news and additional information is available at the AMSAT-India web
site.
http://www.amsat-india.org

[ANS thanks Nagesh, VU2NUD, for the above information]

/EX


SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-243.03
CCARC VHF AMSAT Satellite net

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 243.03 From AMSAT HQ
SILVER SPRING, MD.  August 28, 2003
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-243.03

The weekly  Cowley County Amateur Radio Club in Winfield, KS,. CCARC VHF
AMSAT Satellite net  meets each Sunday evening at 8:00 p.m. local time on
the 145.190- repeater.

On 24 August 2003, NCS was Greg, N0ZHE.  There was 11 check-ins to the net,
with SAT OPS reporting 35 contact made through the week of 18-24 August,
Satellites reported worked was AO-7 and AO-40

SAT OPS reporting this week was: John KA0OXY, Bill W0OQC, Greg N0ZHE

DX contacts reported off AO-40 into the following countries:
Russia
Indonesia
Italy
Mali
Germany
Czech Rep.
Netherlands
France
Sicily Island

Other topics talked about on the net ranged from:
UO-14
UO-22
ISS
AO-40
mods done on Grid dishes for operating on AO-40.
Bill W0OQC going to start working on his 7.5ft dish for AO-40.
design for a harness for the 14 element cross arrow antenna.
the new FEC program for coping tlm off AO-40.

For more information on our local VHF AMSAT satellite net check out:
http://www.havilandtelco.com/~gregwycoff/chat.htm

[ANS thanks Greg, N0ZHE, for the above information]

/EX

SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-243.04
AO-40 DX Update

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 243.04 From AMSAT HQ
SILVER SPRING, MD.  August 28, 2003
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-243.04

The following AO40 DX operations planned for the near future:

V31KD (Belize) August 30-31    by Jim Huhta AA4MD.

KH2GR (Guam) September 5-8    by Yoshi JF6BCC

C3/EB4AFK (Andorra) September 6-7   by Jose EB4AFK

Also, for those who haven't noticed, Dave, EI4HT, is now quite active on
AO40.

Wayne, W9AE, adds, "I wish I could be home to work Andorra because that
would be a "new one" for me.  Nowadays there is so much DX activity on AO40
that it's almost impossible to take a long vacation without missing
something!"

[ANS thanks Wayne, W9AE, for the above information]

/EX


SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-243.05
Upcoming ARISS Contact Schedule

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 243.05 From AMSAT HQ
SILVER SPRING, MD.  August 28, 2003
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-243.05

Upcoming ARISS Contact Schedule as of 2003-08-27 04:00 UTC


The ARISS (a joint effort of AMSAT, the ARRL, NASA, the ARISS international
partners including Canada, Russia, the European Partners, and Japan)
operations team wishes to announce the following very tentative schedule for
ARISS school contacts.  This schedule is very fluid and may change at the
last minute.

Remember that amateur radio use on the ISS is considered secondary.  Please
check the various AMSAT and ARISS webpages for the latest announcements.
Changes from the last announcement are noted with (***).  Also, please check
MSNBC.com for possible live retransmissions
(http://www.msnbc.com/m/lv/default.asp).  Listen for the ISS on the downlink
of 145.80 MHz.

ISS Expedition 7 crew:
Ed Lu KC5WKJ
Yuri Malenchenko RK3DUP

Tentative cutoff day for ARISS contacts with Expedition 7 is 2003-09-20

Next up Expedition 8 crew:
Mike Foale KB5UAC
Alexander Kaleri U8MIR

Tentative schedule:
2003-10-18 Soyuz launch
2003-10-20 dock
2003-10-28 undock


Incarnate Word Academy Houston, TX
Contact is a go Thursday 2003-08-28 18:58 UTC at 81 degrees

Boulder High School
Contact is a go for Wed 2003-09-03 16:10 UTC  (***)

Cornell University
Contact is a go Thu 2003-09-04 13:40 UTC

Kagawa Junior High School, Ube City, Japan
TBD direct via 8N4ISS (***)

Webster High School, Webster, N.Y.
TBD UTC

Stanford University
Palo Alto Gunn High School, California
TBD UTC

Punahou School, Honolulu, Hawaii
TBD UTC

Verbum Casa das Palabras  Vigo Spain
TBD UTC with Pedro Duque

Ceip Seixalbo school  Ourense,  Spain
TBD UTC with Pedro Duque

Challenger Learning Center of Tallahassee, Tallahassee, FL
TBD UTC (Contact was not completed)

The latest ARISS announcement and successful school list is now available on
the
ARISS web site.  Several ways to get there.

Latest ARISS announcements and news
http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/arissnews.txt

Successful school list
http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/Successful_ARISS_schools.rtf

or
http://ariss.gsfc.nasa.gov

If you can not get into the GSFC site, then go directly to the RAC site.
(***)

click on English (sorry I don't know French)
you are now at http://www.rac.ca/ariss/
click on News

Currently the ARISS operations team has a list of over 60 schools that we
hope will be able to have a contact during 2003.   As the schedule becomes
more solidified, we will be letting everyone know.  Current plans call for
an average of one scheduled school contact per week.

[ANS thanks Charlie, AJ9N, for the above information]

/EX

SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-243.06
This Week's News in Brief

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 243.06 From AMSAT HQ
SILVER SPRING, MD.  August 28, 2003
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-243.06

**   At 09:51 universal time (UT) on August 27th,
Earth made its closest approach to Mars in nearly 60,000 years. The two
worlds, center-to-center, were just 56 million kilometers apart--a short
distance on the scale of the solar system. The last people to come so close
to Mars were Neanderthals.  --SpaceDaily

**   The Demonstration for Autonomous Rendezvous Technology (DART)
spacecraft, recently completed design certification review for the Orbital
Space Plane (OSP) program. The OSP is a NASA initiative to develop a crew
rescue and transfer vehicle for the International Space
station.  --SpaceDaily

**   Boeing has successfully launched NASA's Space Infrared Telescope
Facility, or SIRTF, aboard a Delta II Heavy launch vehicle from Cape
Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla.  Liftoff occurred on 19 August 2003 at
0535 UTC from Space Launch Complex 17B. Telemetry data indicated that the
launch vehicle successfully deployed SIRTF to a solar orbit.  --SpaceDaily

**   Maxwell's Synchronous Dynamic Random Access Memory (SDRAM) -- the
highest performance memory component available to the space market -- uses
Rad-Stak technology, making it the first component to be hermetic and
completely radiation shielded in a vertically stacked package subject to
full MIL-STD-883 qualification and characterization .  --SpaceDaily

**    The third flight of the Boeing Delta IV successfully deployed the U.S.
Air Force's Defense Satellite Communications System (DSCS) spacecraft, DSCS
III B6. The Delta IV Medium launch vehicle carrying DSCS III B6 lifted off
at 2313 UTC on 29 August 2003 from Space Launch Complex 37B, Cape Canaveral
Air Force Station, Fla. Approximately 42 minutes after liftoff, the Delta IV
delivered the communications satellite to a geosynchronous transfer
bit.   --SpaceDaily

/EX

In addition to regular membership, AMSAT-NA 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-NA Office.

AMSAT-NA has developed an on-line volunteer survey, designed
to identify the interests and skills of those who may be available to
directly help in efforts to develop the amateur satellite program. The
survey is designed to be completed and returned on-line, and takes
only a few minutes to fill out. To request the survey, simply send an
e-mail request to:
volunteer@amsat.org

Please send any amateur satellite news or reports to:
ans-editor@amsat.org


73,
This weeks ANS Editor,
Lee McLamb, KU4OS, ku4os@amsat.org

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