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[jamsat-news:2822] Re: ANS-129 AMSAT Weekly Bulletins


AMSAT NEWS SERVICE
ANS-129

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

********************************************************************
*              Next week is the Dayton Hamvention.                 *
* The AMSAT team is preparing For the 2010 Dayton Hamvention and   *
*  AMSAT Booth and activities. For the latest information go to:   *
*    http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/hamvention/2010/Dayton.php     *
*                                                                  *
*   Please be advised that tickets for the AMSAT-TAPR banquet at   *
*             Dayton will not be sold at the booth.                *
*All tickets must be purchased at the AMSAT store by Monday, 10 May*
*      Attendees do not have to be a member of AMSAT or TAPR       * 
*         http://www.amsat-na.com/store/item.php?id=100158         *
********************************************************************

In this edition:
* Three Additional Cubesats Aboard the JAXA Planet-C Launch
* Power Management Software Operational on AO-51
* Special OPS during Armed Forces Day
* UNITEC 1 Latest update
* Satellite Shorts
* ARISS Status - 3 May 2010


SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-129.01
Three Additional Cubesats Aboard the JAXA Planet-C Launch

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 129.01
  From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.
May 9, 2010
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-129.01

Three Additional Cubesats Aboard the JAXA Planet-C Launch

In addition to the UNITEC-1 University satellite bound for Venus
orbit on May 17 there will also be three additional cubesat class
birds aboard. These cubesats will be dropped off in low-earth orbit
prior to the Planet-C and UNITEC-1 satellites departure for Venus.

Three of the CubeSats, Negai*", WASEDA-SAT2, KSAT, being launched by
the H-IIA rocket on May 17 will be dropped off into a low earth orbit
but UNITEC-1 will continue following the JAXA's Venus Climate Orbiter
PLANET-C / AKATSUKI on its journey to Venus.

Negai*", Soka University
  437.305MHz CW, Packet 1200bps FSK AX.25
  http://kuro.t.soka.ac.jp/main.html

WASEDA-SAT2, Waseda University
  437.485MHz CW(FM), PCM-FSK(FM) 9600bps
  http://www.miyashita.mmech.waseda.ac.jp/Waseda-Sat2/index.htm

KSAT, Kagoshima University
  Uplink: S-band(2GHz, 10kbps), Downlink: Ku-band(13.275GHz, 10kbps/1Mbps)
  http://www.sci.kagoshima-u.ac.jp/~nishio/download/Ukaren2008Nishio.pdf

More information is also available on Mineo Wakita's web page at:
http://www.ne.jp/asahi/hamradio/je9pel/unitec-1.htm

[ANS thanks Mineo Wakita, JE9PEL for the above information]

/EX


SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-129.02
Power Management Software Operational on AO-51

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 129.02
  From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.
May 9, 2010
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-129.02

Power Management Software Operational on AO-51

AO-51 has now reentered a period of eclipses that will reach almost 
20 minutes by July. Since the satellite has been in an extended period 
of continuous illumination and very warm spacecraft temperatures, the 
Operations Team will spend the next few weeks determining what the 
batteries capacities are in the new environment. 

AMSAT-NA VP Operations, Drew Glasbrenner, KO4MA enabled the power 
management software on AO-51. The 435.300 repeater with the new PL 
mode is programmed to run at 1.01 watt while in sun, and 290 milli-
watts while in eclipse. The low power mode will continute after exit-
ing eclipse until the solar cells recharge the batteries approximately 
7.9 volts. 

For this summer eclipse season, the eclipsed periods are while AO-51 
is over mostly unoccupied Antarctica and surrounding areas. This means 
when the batteries alone are supporting the transmitter there are not 
likely to be any users. The power management software combined with the 
PL, should mean we can protect the batteries from over-discharge, while 
still providing the strongest possible downlink.

Observations from the southern hemisphere while entering and leaving 
eclipse are very helpful. Post your reports on the AMSAT-BB or e-mail 
your report to the AO-51 Operations Team at ao51-modes@amsat.org. AO-51 
operators also monitor the Live OSCAR Satellite Status Page 
(see: http://oscar.dcarr.org/). Analysis of AO-51's Whole Orbit Data 
(WOD) files shows the distribution of the satellite's users. 
See: http://tinyurl.com/2f83ezk

If the eclipse periods get too long too fast the repeater may shut off 
due to a low battery voltage watchdog. If this happens, please email 
Drew directly at ko4ma@amsat.org.

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

/EX


SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-129.03
Special OPS during Armed Forces Day

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 129.03
  From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.
May 9, 2010
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-129.03

On May 15th & 16, in honor of Armed Forces Day, the Great 
South Bay ARC will set up portable HF/VHF operations at the 
Air Power Museum located at Republic Airport in Farmingdale, NY. 
using the call W2GSB/APM, a special QSL card will be sent. The 
club will be on HF from 11 AM until 4 PM each day.  I will be o
n AO-27 on May, 15th, 17:51 UTC using the special call sign, W2GSB/APM, 
look forward to working many stations, thank you.  
For more information,  www.gsbarc.org  
Ed: Don't forget to listen for AMSAT OPS from Dayton Hamvention.
 
 
[ANS thanks Pete, WB2OQQ, for the above information]

/EX

SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-129.04
Current UNITEC Information

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 129.04
  From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.
May 9, 2010
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-129.04
Amateur Radio Call for Assistance for UNITEC-1 Venus-Bound Satellite

On May 17 Japan's Space Agency JAXA plans to launch its Planet-C
Venus Climate Orbiter "AKATSUKI" mission to Venus. Also aboard will
be UNITEC-1, a 15 kg, 35cm cubed nano-satellite developed by twenty 
two universities and colleges of UNISEC (University Space Engineering 
Consortium).

UNITEC-1 be inserted into a Venus encounter trajectory and will become 
the world first university satellite which goes beyond Lunar orbit. The 
main mission of UNITEC-1 is to perform technological experiments of 
on-board computers and test long-range, inter-planetary communication 
using amateur radio frequencies:

Downlink Frequency: 5840.000MHz, band width 20MHz
Transmission Power: 4.8W/antenna, 9.6W total
Antenna:	        2 Microstrip patch antennas
Modulation:	        AFSK/FM 1200bps during LEO flight 
                    CW 1bps during Interplanetary flight

Due to development time and funding limitations UNITEC-1 does not 
have an attitude control system resulting in a tumbling motion in 
the inter-planetary trajectory. It will be impossible to maintain 
full-time earth pointing of the 5840 MHz patch antennas. Consequently, 
the 1 bps CW signal will detectable intermittently.

Tracking of the satellite should also be done using the same weak 
downlink signal. UNISEC cordially invites world-wide AMSAT and other 
amateur RF engineers to support the interplanetary team by receiving
the very weak RF signal, decoding it and enabling tracking during 
the long journey to Venus. In the future they hope to develop a world 
wide ground station network using the internet to relay your received
and decoded signals directly to the UNITEC-1 Mission Operation Center 
in Japan so that the real-time signal analysis can be performed.

In addition to the telemetry content of the beacon the direction of
incoming RF signal and the amount of Doppler Shift will also be sent 
to the Operation Center to continually estimate the satellite traject-
ory (position and velocity). This trajectory data will be available 
to all of the world amateur ground stations fine tune their C-band
antenna tracking. 

As the Earth rotates only the ground stations pointing toward UNITEC's
direction can receive the signal. This challenge can be overcome by 
creating a global network of interplanetary-capable amateur radio earth
stations.

Full information about this exciting mission and amateur radio challenge
can be found on-line at: http://www.unisec.jp/unitec-1/en/top.html

[ANS thanks Naomi Kurahara, UNITEC-1 project team member for the 
 above information]

/EX



SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-129.05
Satellite Shorts From All Over

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 129.05
  From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.
May 9, 2010
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-129.05

Satellite Shorts From All Over

+ Sebastian, W4AS has had good success at working DX via AO-7 footprint
  stretching contacts. While AO-7 was at about 3 degrees W4AS worked
  G7BTA on May 2 and May 4 for a distance of 6,975 km. On May 4 he
  worked 2E1EUB for a distance of 7,018 km while AO-7 was at 2 degrees
  elevation.

+ The Dayton Hamvention AMSAT Booths will be a hot spot with new items
  and a great place to get first hand questions answered from your elected
  officials.  Stop by and renew your membership while meeting them.
  Get the latest information about Satellite ops and up to date 
  information on present projects. Remember, the DARA Matching funds
  offer.

+ Congratulations are in order to George, WA5KBH for working his 50th
  state via satellite for Worked All States - Satellite when he made a
  contact with Adrian, AA5UK/KH6, in BL02 via FO-29 on April 3. George
  says he will apply for the award when he receives the QSL card. He
  commented, "This contact was like the excitement of my  first contact 
  as a new novice in the summer of 1964!" Well done!

+ News received from John, LA2QAA informed ANS that he is now the HO-68 
  area coordinator for Europe and has requested European satellite oper-
  ators (via the EU-Amsat list) to state their preferences for a future 
  mode schedules when commissioning is completed. John notes the extra-
  ordinary DX opportunities available on HO-68. For example, on May 5
  HO-68's footprint covered Europe, Africa  and Asia from Svalbard in 
  the north to The Sudan in the south and from Portugal in the west to 
  Pakistan in the east. John's blog will now have a new HO-68 category
  on his http://www.observations.biz website where GM1SXX does all the 
  work and LA2QAA takes all the credit. John can be reached via his
  e-mail at la2qaa@amsat.org.

+ Call for Papers and Presenters for the 2010 CSVHF Society Conference.
  http://www.csvhfs.org/conference/presenters.html -and-
  http://www.csvhfs.org/conference/authors.html are the web pages to
  read if you are interested in being a presenter or author at the
  Central States VHF Society Conference near St. Louis in July, 2010.

+ PowerPoint Slides from the successful CubeSat workshop held in April
  are now available for download. The slides in a 100 meg zip file can 
  be downloaded at http://mstl.atl.calpoly.edu/~jfoley/Spring2010/
  Videos of the CubeSat presentations can be seen at
  http://www.ustream.tv/channel/CubeSatWorkshop/v3

+ Matthias DD1US has added a number of recordings to his "Sounds from 
  Space" collection at http://www.dd1us.de. Matthias invites fellow 
  AMSAT members to enjoy listing to the sounds of past and present 
  satellites. He is also still looking for some additional record-
  ings especially from  some satellites which are long gone.

+ The ANS News team is looking for a few reliable volunteer editors. 
  Additional editors will keep the news flowing in a timely manner and 
  spread important information to our many readers of ANS.  Please respond
  To Joanne Maenpa k9jkm@amsat.org with questions and offers.  

+ The team of Teresina DX Group and Labre - is preparing for the ZW8B 
  DXpedition  to the Santa Isabel Island (IOTA SA) and Pedra do Sal 
  Lighthouse on  the coast of the state of Piauí in northeastern Brazil
  June 2 - 6, 2010. Their satellite operations include AO-7, FO-29, 
  AO-51, VO-52, SO-50, HO-68, SO-67 if active, and ISS repeater if 
  active. The ZW8B team plans to operate on all available orbits. QSL 
  via PS8HF.

+ Technical papers are solicited for presentation at the 29th Annual 
  ARRL and TAPR Digital Communications Conference to be held September 
  24-26, 2010 near Portland, Oregon. These papers will also be published 
  in the Conference Proceedings (you do NOT need to attend the conference 
  to have your paper included in the Proceedings). The submission dead-
  line is July 31, 2010. Please send papers to: Maty Weinberg, ARRL,
  225 Main St., Newington, CT 06111. You can make your submission via 
  e-mail to: maty@arrl.org. Papers will be published exactly as submit-
  ted and authors will retain all rights.

[ANS thanks everyone for the above information]

/EX

SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-129.06
ARISS Status - 3 May 2010

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 129.06
  From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.
May 9, 2010
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-129.06

1.	Upcoming School Contacts

An Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) contact was 
scheduled for Nippon Boy Scout Amateur Radio Club in Mitaka-shi, 
Japan on Tuesday, May 4 at 15:09 UTC. The Japan Boy Scouts have an 
amateur radio club, JA1YSS and study amateur radio station operations.  
The boys enjoyed speaking with Soichi Noguchi, a former Boy Scout.

The Smithsonian Institution National Air and Space Museum (NASM) in 
Washington, D.C. was scheduled for an Amateur Radio on the International 
Space Station (ARISS) contact on Space Day, Saturday, May 8 at 17:01 UTC 
via VK4KHZ in Australia. The Education Division of NASM recruited 
the young people who participated in the contact.  Generally, 
Boy Scouts and other groups are involved with this activity.  
The Museum drew approximately 30,000 on this Saturday in May.  

Komoro Higashi Junior High School in Komoro, Nagano, 
Japan has been scheduled for an Amateur Radio on the International 
Space Station (ARISS) contact on Friday, May 14 at 11:16 UTC. The 
students have become especially interested in space due to Koichi 
Wakata, the first long term Japanese astronaut on the ISS. Many 
children chose to take a space themed course under their general 
education requirement. As part of their studies, they visited 
Nobeyama Radio Observatory and worked on radio kits. A JAXA 
representative visited the school and gave a presentation on 
space and the ISS. Through these activities, students enhanced 
their knowledge of space, the ISS and communication using ham radio.  

2.	ARISS Contact Held at IARU Exhibition/European Parliament 

Students from European School Brussels II were invited to the European 
Parliament in Brussels, Belgium on April 27 to participate in an Amateur 
Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) contact with on-orbit 
astronaut Timothy Creamer, KC5WKI. Other students remaining at the school 
listened in to the contact via teleconference. Telebridge station 
LU1CGB in Argentina provided the connection. The ISS hook-up was the 
highlight of the ESA/IARU (International Amateur Radio Union) Region 
1 exhibition, “European Amateur Radio Benefiting Society.”  Afterwards, 
astronauts Frank De Winne and Robert Thirsk as well as cosmonaut 
Roman Romanenko visited the exhibition and met with a group of 40 
students to answer questions about their space missions. Several 
Members of the European Parliament and assistants attended the event.

The American Radio Relay League (ARRL) and the Radio 
Amateur Satellite Corporation (AMSAT) posted articles on this event.  

For the ARRL story, see:
http://www.arrl.org/news/amateur-radio-exhibition-reflects-unity-in-europe-e
uropean-radio-societies-exhibit-in-european-parli

For AMSAT coverage, see: http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/index.php

3.	Astronaut Training Status

On Monday, April 26, astronauts Ron Garan (Expedition 27) and 
Kevin Ford (Expedition TBD) successfully passed their FCC amateur 
radio licensing exams. Callsigns should be posted to the FCC 
database in about a week.

4.	Soichi Noguchi Contacts Showa Base

On April 29, on-orbit astronaut Soichi Noguchi, KD5TVP used 
ARISS radio equipment and contacted Yuusuke Otani and Sakae 
Kudouh at Showa Base in Antarctica.  This was the first contact 
ever made between the ISS and Showa Base, 8J1RL.  Noguchi 
remarked on the event, “One small chat for man, a giant 
leap for ARISS!”

[ANS thanks Carol, KB3LKI, for the above information.]
/EX


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




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