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[jamsat-news:1855] ANS-285 AMSAT Weekly Bulletin


AMSAT NEWS SERVICE

ANS-285

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:
*  AO-40 Update
*  YACER software update
*  HAMSAT launch delayed
*  This Week's News in Brief


SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-285.01
AO-40 Update

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 285.01 From AMSAT HQ
SILVER SPRING, MD.  October 12, 2003
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-285.01

Due to the worsening solar angle we have begun off-pointing ALON at the rate
of about 1 deg/day.  ALON/ALAT was ~ 18 / 0 on 11/12 Oct 2003.  ALON will be
slowly advancing to 45.  Watch the telemetry beacon's N-block for updates.

Due to the changing attitude, the schedule has been adjusted with
transponder operations moving later in the orbit.  The new schedule is shown
below.

N  QST AMSAT AO-40          SCHEDULE                 2003-10-09
      MA      002   060   174   176   184   230   244   002
      ---------7-----1-----3-----6-----4-----5-----0-----7
      S2/K-Tx  |  S  |  S  | S/K | S/K |  S  |  S  |  S  |
      MB       |  *  |  *  |  *  |  *  |  *  |  *  |  *  |
      RUDAK    |     |     |     |     |     |     |     |
      V/U-Rx   |  U  |  U  |  U  |  U  |  U  |  U  |  V  |
      Uplink   |     | UL1 |     | UL  | UL  |     |     |

The AO-40 team would like your telemetry files!
Please "zip" compress your daily telemetry files and e-mail to:
                        ao40-archive@amsat.org

[ANS thanks Stacey, W4SM, for the above information]

/EX


SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-285.02
YACER software update

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 285.02 From AMSAT HQ
SILVER SPRING, MD.  October 12, 2003
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-285.02

Those interested in following the ALAT and ALON of AO-40 from the shack:
Paul, KB5MU,  has just posted the latest version of YACER on the AMSAT.org
web site. "YACER", Yet Another Camera Experiment - Revisited, is a suite of
the programs that the Ground Controllers use to determine the current ALAT
and ALON of our spacecraft by using pictures taken with the YACE camera.
While not for the faint of heart, it is truly a fun project, especially at
this time of year when there is plenty of spacecraft re-orientation.

The latest version, V1.05, is the same as prior versions with the exception
of a bug-fix to the program ConvKeps.  If you presently have YACER you can
go to the AMSAT site and download ONLY the new ConvKeps V1.5e program.
Present users should probably just take the new program, not the complete
suite, since the suite is an auto executable file that will re-establish the
complete file structure. You will risk overwriting files that you have
created earlier.

The same package and stand alone program, in German documentation, will soon
be available on AMSAT-DL.

[ANS thanks Gunther, W8GSM, for the above information]

/EX


SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-285.03
HAMSAT launch delayed

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 285.03 From AMSAT HQ
SILVER SPRING, MD.  October 12, 2003
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-285.03

HAMSAT also known as VUSat, which was to be a co-passenger of a remote
sensing satellite onboard a  Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) from
Sriharikota launch range later this month, will not make the trip.

An official release from ISRO said that the Hamsat was to be launched as an
auxiliary payload using the launch capacity of PSLV.  Unfortunately, during
the thermovacuum test of Hamsat, deviations in the performance of  the Ham
payload were observed.

After the required corrections have been made, Hamsat will be accommodated
on
one of the subsequent flights of PSLV.

 Updated information is available from the web sites
www.amsatindia.org and www.amsat-india.org

[ANS thanks AMSAT-INDIA for the above information]

/EX


SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-285.04
This Week's News in Brief

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 285.04 From AMSAT HQ
SILVER SPRING, MD.  October 12, 2003
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-285.04

**   A Chinese space official confirms today that the launch date of
Shenzhou-5 (SZ-5) has been set for this week, and there will be live TV
coverage for the entire population in China, and perhaps worldwide
broadcasting.  A message posted on an online aerospace forum said that
according to unconfirmed information from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch
Centre (JSLC) where SZ-5 would blast off, a favored launch date could be
Oct. 16, weather permitting.  --SpaceDaily

**   A team of astrophysicists have taken a kick at the conventional view
that the Universe is flat and endless, suggesting instead that the cosmos is
shaped like... a football.  The notion of a Universe made of curved
pentagon-shaped panels is derived from a satellite mapping of the radiation
that was released by the Big Bang billions of years ago and which still
washes through space in the form of microwave energy.   They suggest that
only a "dodecahedral" -- the posh word for a soccer-ball shape -- could
contain this kind of energy release.  --SpaceDaily

**   The Heinlein Prize, a major new award for practical accomplishments in
commercial space activities, was announced today at the 54th International
Aeronautical Congress underway in Bremen, Germany. Trustees of the Robert A.
and Virginia Heinlein Prize Trust revealed that the first Heinlein Prize
award has been set at $500,000 USD.  The Heinlein Prize may be given as
frequently as annually to one or more individuals who have achieved
practical accomplishments in the field of commercial space activities. The
Trustees emphasize that the award is for effort by an individual - not
corporate or government sponsored activities - and that the Heinlein Prize
is intended to be world-wide in scope.  --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 at amsat.org

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

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

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