[jamsat-news:2145] ANS-008 AMSAT Weekly Bulletins

AMSAT NEWS SERVICE
ANS-008

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 2006 Space Symposium
* 2006 AMSAT Kid's Day on AO-51 (Rebroadcast)
* AMSAT 51 on 51 Award Time Period Expires
* SKN on OSCAR 2006 Best Fist Nominations Due
* AO-7 Activity Reports
* ARISS Status January 2, 2006
* NASA Reports Explosion on the Moon
* FREE 2006 Daily Skywatching Guide Available

SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-008.01
AMSAT 2006 Space Symposium

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 008.01
From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.
January 8, 2006
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-008.01

The 2006 AMSAT Space Symposium Planning Committee hosted by the Project 
OSCAR Amateur Radio Club is pleased to announce that the 2006 Space 
Symposium will be held at the Crowne Plaza San Francisco Mid-Peninsula hotel 
in Foster City, California.  The dates of the Symposium and surrounding 
activities will begin on the 5th of October and run through the 11th of 
October, 2006.  Why so long?  This year's Symposium will be include the 
AMSAT Board meeting, AMSAT General Membership Meeting, the ARISS 
International Delegates Meeting, a meeting of the IARU Satellite Advisors 
Committee and AMSAT International Delegates.  It's going to be a busy 
weekend!

"We are very excited to host the Symposium here in the San Francisco Bay 
Area" says Project OSCAR VP Emily Clarke who is also co-chair for the 
planning committee.  "We are especially pleased to chose the Crowne Plaza as 
it fills more qualifications based on what the membership indicated was 
important in our recent survey.  It is spacious, has affordable food 
services, excellent rooms and free shuttles to shopping and commuter rail 
service.  Even more important, according to the survey, there is free high 
speed internet in the rooms, meeting spaces, dining spaces and even the 
swimming pool!  We also invite AMSAT Symposium attendees to stay for 
Pacificon, the ARRL Pacific Division Convention which will be held the 
following weekend."

The AMSAT web team has posted informational pages on the AMSAT web site. 
You can find the announcement with many links at:
http://www.amsat-org/amsat-new/symposium

Future announcements including the Call For Papers, Online Registration and 
Online Hotel Registration will be available approximately 1 April 2006.

[ANS thanks Emily, W0EEC and the 2006 AMSAT Symposium Committee for the 
above information]

/EX

SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-008.02
2006 AMSAT Kid's Day on AO-51 (Rebroadcast)

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 008.02
From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.
January 8, 2006
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-008.02

AMSAT-NA, the AO-51 Command Team, and the AO-51 Operations Team will sponsor 
Kid's Day on AO-51 on January 8, 2006. The event will run from approximately 
0100 UTC 8 January until 0345 UTC 9 January. The event is open to all kids, 
worldwide. We ask all amateur radio stations to give this short time window 
to promote satellite operations with kids, by actually showing a kid how to 
make contacts via AO-51, providing a station to contact, or stepping aside 
to allow others to make contacts with the kids.

During the event, please limit contacts to stations that are operating with 
kids at the microphone. This should allow the kids to have a nice QSO and 
pass some information. Kids can tell their name, age, who is helping them 
operate on AO-51, where they live, and other information about themselves.

AO-51 will be configured in the following mode during the event. Please note 
the change in the uplink frequency for the event. The PL tone will be turned 
off for the event.

Uplink: 145.880 MHz FM voice
Downlink: 435.300 MHz FM voice

The digital transponder on 435.150 will be turned off during the event.

See http://www.arrl.org/FandES/ead/kd-rules.html on the ARRL web site for 
more Kids Day information.

Have fun and enjoy AO-51!

[ANS thanks Mike, KE4AZN for the above information]

/EX

SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-008.03
AMSAT 51 on 51 Award Time Period Expires

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 008.03
From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.
January 8, 2006
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-008.03

The AMSAT 51 on 51 Award time period for operating is now over. It ended 
December 31, 2005. You still have until April 30, 2006 to submit for this 
award if you have earned it.

This week, congrats go out to all of the following.

Laurent Ferracci, F1JKJ, Satellite Communications Achievement Award #427

Steven Holly,     WI2W,   51 on 51 Award #57
Alan Rothermich,  WB0QLU, 51 on 51 Award #58
Marc Sanchez,     KD5MSS, 51 on 51 Award #59
Patrick Stoddard, WD9EWK, 51 on 51 Award #60

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

[ANS thanks Bruce Paige, KK5DO, AMSAT Director Contests and Awards for the 
above information]

/EX

SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-008.04
SKN on OSCAR 2006 Best Fist Nominations Due

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 008.04
From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.
January 8, 2006
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-008.04

Ray Soifer, W2RS passes along the following request regarding Straight Key 
Night on OSCAR 2006:

"Many thanks to all who participated in Straight Key Night on OSCAR 2006."

"Please remember to nominate someone you worked for 'Best Fist.' Your 
nominee need not have the best fist of those you heard, just of those you 
worked. Nominations should be sent to w2rs@arrl.net. A list of those 
nominated will be published in ANS in early February, and in a forthcoming 
issue of The AMSAT Journal."

[ANS thanks Ray, W2RS for the above information]

/EX

SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-008.05
AO-7 Activity Reports

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 008.05
From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.
January 8, 2006
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-008.05

The AMSAT-bb has been active this week with reports of AO-7 activity. Emily 
Clarke, W0EEC filed the following report:

"There were some excellent reports on the AO-7 log by VE9QRP and W8IJ this 
evening (04 Jan after 0000). Sweet. Unfortunately, I worked the 04:40 pass 
on the west coast and there was nada except someone who appeared to tune up 
and gave up."

"I'm curious enough to mention that AO-7 is only operable when in full 
sunlight. This doesn't meant that it is operable when Nova says "Visible." 
Visible means that it is "Sunlit" but not that it is in full sunlight. So 
wait about 30 more seconds (or so) for it to get fully illuminated."

"Not all tracking programs will tell you when it is illuminated by the sun. 
If not, look at the footprint and see if there is a clear delineation 
between the footprint and the sunlight portion of the earth beyond the gray 
line. That is when it will be fully illuminated (thanks to Drew KO4MA for 
that hint.)"

"I've recently added some real-time graphs to track the mode shifts and also 
a scorecard for AO-7 operators. You don't have to make the entry yourself, 
but someone you have had a QSO with does. Kudos to K3SZH for being the most 
frequently heard or listening ham on AO-7."

Emily states that if you do work AO-7, you are encouraged to log your 
contacts at:
http://www.emilyshouse.com/experthams/ao7/

--

JAMSAT member Mineo Wakita, JE9PEL caught an AO-7 telemetry cycle on 5 
January 2006. Mineo reported that the telemetry cycle was approximately 80 
seconds long and that he has recorded it to an MP3 file.

You can hear Mineo's MP3 file at the following URL:
http://www.ne.jp/asahi/hamradio/je9pel/60105a07.mp3

The following data was also provided:

AO-7
Jan 5, 2006
11:04-11:26 UTC
145.972 MHz CW
54 Degrees Max Elevation

HI HI
180 180 180 180
252 252 252 252
324 324 324 324
496 496 496 496
568 568 568 568
696 696 696 696
HI HI

For an explanation of AO-7 telemetry see:
http://www.amsat.org/amsat/sats/n7hpr/ao7_tlm.html

For the most recent AO-7 status report see:
http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/satellites/status.php#AO-7

[ANS thanks Emily, W0EEC and Mineo, JE9PEL for the above information]

/EX

SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-008.06
ARISS Status January 2, 2006

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 008.06
From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.
January 8, 2006
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-008.06

1. Asia-Pacific Scout Jamboree Contact Successful

On Saturday, December 31, ten scouts attending the 25th Asia-Pacific Scout 
Jamboree contacted the ISS, and spoke to Bill McArthur, KC5ACR. The children 
were able to ask and have answered 14 questions, as an audience of 100 
people looked on.  Three newspapers, 3 television stations, and one radio 
station covered the event. The audio was fed to the Echolink Bangkok, AMSAT 
and EDU_Net conference room servers. Sixty-four connections were made from 
the following ten countries, which included 33 simplex and 5 repeater nodes: 
Australia, Canada, France, Germany, India, Japan, Luxembourg, Thailand, 
U.K., U.S.A.

2. Upcoming School Contacts

Peterson Elementary School in Red Springs, North Carolina (a crew pick) has 
been scheduled for an ARISS contact via the telebridge station, VK5ZAI in 
Australia. The students will speak with Bill McArthur, KC5ACR, on Monday, 
January 9, 2006 at 16:39 UTC.

St. Albert the Great School in North Royalton, Ohio has been approved for an 
ARISS contact on Wednesday, January 11 at 18:11 UTC.

3. McArthur Active on Voice

Bill McArthur, KC5ACR, was active on voice over the holiday week, and 
continues to work stations around the world. Stations in Japan and Europe 
reported having contacts with the astronaut this past week.

4. Russian Special Event

The Russian special event, Space Patrol, was held December 25 - 26 to 
commemorate the first anniversary of the death of cosmonaut Gennady 
Strekalov, U6MIR. Cosmonauts at Energia and the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training 
Center (GCTC) participated, using HF radios. Two contacts were made with the 
ISS as part of the event. The Kenwood radio was then placed in repeater mode 
for a few days. Stations reported having made contacts with the cosmonauts 
on the ground, and heard Valery Tokarev making contacts from the ISS.

[ANS thanks Carol, KB3LKI for the above information]

/EX

SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-008.07
NASA Reports Explosion on the Moon

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 008.07
From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.
January 8, 2006
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-008.07

NASA scientists have observed an explosion on the moon. The blast, equal in 
energy to about 70 kg of TNT, occurred near the edge of Mare Imbrium (the 
Sea of Rains) on 7 November 2005, when a 12-centimeter-wide meteoroid 
slammed into the ground traveling 27 km/s.

"What a surprise," says Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) researcher Rob 
Suggs, who recorded the impact's flash. He and colleague Wes Swift were 
testing a new telescope and video camera they assembled to monitor the moon 
for meteor strikes. On their first night out, "we caught one," says Suggs.

The full story can be found at:
http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2005/22dec_lunartaurid.htm?list835304

[ANS thanks NASA Science News for the above information]

/EX

SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-008.08
FREE 2006 Daily Skywatching Guide Available

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 008.08
From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.
January 8, 2006
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-008.08

Here is a FREE 407-page downloadable book containing What's Up skywatching 
material from UniverseToday.com for every day in 2006. You can download the 
book to your local computer, go to the day you like and print off the page 
to take outside with you nicely formatted.

It's also got tons of other material including general skywatching advice, 
equipment selection, and hundreds of beautiful photographs.

It's an Adobe Acrobat PDF file, so you'll need to download the Adobe Acrobat 
reader if you don't have it already.

And yes, this book is absolutely free.

More information can be found at the UniverseToday.com web site:
http://www.universetoday.com/am/publish/whatsup_2006_book.html

[ANS thanks UniverseToday.com 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,
Al Marote, WA1LBG
wa1lbg at amsat dot org
----
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