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[jamsat-news:2852] ANS-213 AMSAT Weekly Bulletins


AMSAT NEWS SERVICE
ANS-213

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

**************************************
* Please return the AMSAT BOD Ballots* 
*      by September 15th, 2010       *
**************************************

In this edition:
* Reminder: Symposium Call For Papers Deadline is Coming
* UK Space Agency to launch CubeSat
* Satellite Shorts
* Balloon Launch Project
* Astronauts Complete Simulation Contacts
* ARISS Status - July 26, 2010

SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-213.01
Reminder: Symposium Call For Papers Deadline is Coming

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 213.01
  From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.
August 1,, 2010
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-213.01

It's already August 1 and the September 1 deadline of the call for 
papers for the 2010 AMSAT Space Symposium and Annual Meeting is 
approaching faster than ever! The abstracts and some completed
papers have arrived - thank you. For everyone else - we need to
get busier!

The abstract for your paper does not require any special format.
Simply send an e-mail to the Proceedings Editor, K9JKM with the
basic information: Author Name, Callsign, and a few sentences that
describe your proposed topic. I'll be looking forward to receiving
your abstracts in my in-box at k9jkm@comcast.net.

The Symposium Committee invites proposals for:

+ Papers for publication in the Proceedings

+ Symposium Presentations

+ Poster Presentations

+ Equipment and Operating Demonstrations

These can be on any topic of interest to the amateur satellite
community. We request a tentative title of your presentation as
soon as possible, with final copy submitted by September 1, 2010
for inclusion in the printed proceedings.

To help you prepare your paper the Symposium Committee has posted
an author's guide on the AMSAT.org web page: 
http://tinyurl.com/2djjnmx

The 2010 AMSAT Space Symposium and Annual Meeting will be held 
October 8 - 10 at the Chicago/Elk Grove Holiday Inn which is near 
O'Hare Airport.

[ANS thanks the 2010 Symposium Committee for the above information]

/EX


SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-213.02
UK Space Agency to launch CubeSat

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 213.02
  From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.
August 1, 2010
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-213.02

UK Space Agency to launch CubeSat
The UK Space Agency has announced a one-year pilot programme 
to design and launch a CubeSat and is running a competition for 
ideas for payloads.

This miniature, cube-shaped satellite will allow the UK to test 
new space technologies and carry out new space research 'cheaply' 
and quickly.

The pilot programme, named UKube 1, will use a spacecraft platform 
that is currently under development by the company Clyde Space 
Ltd and will involve a competition amongst companies and academic 
groups to come up with the most innovative ideas for payloads. 
The winning payloads will be launched on the satellite in mid 2011. 

Companies and academics who are interested in designing a payload 
can contact the UK Space Agency for more information.

There is another CubeSat under construction in the UK called 
FUNcube.

It is being built by AMSAT-UK and the hardware will be shown at 
the AMSAT-UK International Space Colloquium in Guildford 
July 31 - Aug 1.

This event is being streamed live to the web at 
http://www.batc.tv/ (click on Live Events)
  
UK Space Agency Announcement
http://www.ukspaceagency.bis.gov.uk/19128.aspx

AMSAT-UK FUNcube
http://www.funcube.org.uk/


[ANS thanks Southgate News for the above information.]

/EX


SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-213.03
Satellite Shorts

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 213.03
  From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.
August 1, 2010
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-213.03

+ Clint, K6LCS and Gordon West, WB6NOA will be giving a public AMSAT
  demonstration and presentation from the award-winning amateur radio 
  booth at the Orange County Fairgrounds on August 5, 2010 at 5:45PM PDT.

+ The Scouting SpaceJam-4 Weekend will be on August 6-8, 2010 at the
  Chanute Air Museum in Rantoul IL (between Chicago and Champaign, IL).
  Amateur radio features include an APRS balloon launch transmitting on
  144.39 MHz every minute under the call sign, W9YJ-11 and an ARISS
  contact with the scouts. The ISS-direct-to WB9SA contact is sched-
  uled for a 36 degree elevation pass on Sat 2010-08-07 15:07:14 UTC.
  More information about SpaceJam-4 can be found at:
  http://www.spacejamboree.com

+ Stu, WA2BSS reminds interested amateur satellite operators that the
  the dates for the next two Hudson Valley Satcom nets are Aug. 5 & 19.
  The 2 M repeater used is:146.970 MHz (2M Pl. 100) Time: 8PM EDT, or 
  2400 UTC. The EchoLink node is N2EYH-L. More info: www.hvsatcom.org.

+ Bruce, VE9QRP is asking for input from amateur satellite operators.
  He is designing a microcontroller system for doppler tuning portable 
  radios. He is looking for information regarding which HTs or mobile 
  radios are CAT-controllable. He is testing this concept with an TH-D7A 
  and reports it works well. Bruce's e-mail is ve9qrp_at_gmail.com.
  His web page is at: http://ve9qrp.blogspot.com. He demonstrates his
  project in a video at: http://www.youtube.com/user/VE9QRP.

+ While this video link is more related to new technology than the
  Amateur satellite program many radio amateurs will find learning about
  D-STAR technology interesting at: http://tinyurl.com/25moy7d
  (via SouthGateARC)

[ANS thanks everyone for the above information]

/EX

SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-213.04
Balloon Launch Project

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 213.04
  From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.
August 1, 2010
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-213.04

In association with Tom Webb, WA9AFM/5, President, Oklahoma City Autopatch 
Association, the North Texas Balloon Project would like to dedicate their 
Launch No. 18 to the memory of fellow ham, John Mark "Rob" Robbins.

Just two weeks ago, John Robbins, NO5X, became a Silent Key.  John was a 
founding member of the Near Space Exploration Group in the OKC/Tulsa area.  
We conducted several balloon launches from OKC until John's health 
prevented his participation and leadership.  It was John's goal to 
do a record setting 
flight for an amateur radio balloon.  He came very close, but never 
succeeded.

The John Mark Robbins Memorial Flight will be launched by the North 
Texas Balloon Project (NTEXBP) at about 8:30 am CDT on August 7, 2010 
from the municipal airport in Hillsboro, Texas, just south of Fort Worth 
and Dallas. The public is invited to come out to the Hillsboro 
Municipal Airport, located at Exit 3 on Interstate Highway 35W, 
to watch the launch.  The back up launch date is August 14, 2010. 

Three payload packages containing sensors and amateur radios will be 
carried to nearly 100,000 feet in about 90 minutes by a helium balloon 
and return via parachute in about 50 minutes.  Mobile recovery teams 
will use position reports from the onboard GPS and APRS transmitter on 
144.390 MHz and radio direction finding techniques to recover the payloads.

A cross band repeater will be activated soon after launch.  Uplink is 4
45.800 MHz and downlink is 147.560 MHz.  At the peak altitude ham radio 
operators from Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, and 
Kansas can contact each other using the cross band repeater.

The third payload of the flight is a ten meter beacon operating on a 
frequency of 28.274 MHz. The antenna is a home brew loop and the 
transmitter will be running approximately 1 watt. This beacon may be 
heard world wide if the band is open.  Please report reception and we 
will happily QSL the event. Email webmaster@ntexbp.org or kdvickers@aol.com

Pre-launch activities will begin about 7:00 am CDT with the HF Launch 
Net on 7260 +/- 5 KHz, LSB beginning around 8:00 am CDT.  Follow us on 
HF radio or on Twitter@NTEXBP .   
Saturday's launch will show on APRS as W5SJZ-11.

[ANS thanks Keith, W5IU, for the above information]

/EX

SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-213.05
Astronauts Complete Simulation Contacts

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 213.05
  From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.
August 1, 2010
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-213.05

Astronauts successfully complete amateur radio 
simulation contacts.

Astronauts Ron Garan, KF5GPO, and Mike Fossum, KF5AQG, 
each successfully completed a simulated Amateur Radio 
on the International Space Station (ARISS) contact with 
the Challenger Learning Center of Indianapolis on 
Thursday, July 22. 
Hopefully they will become as active as the present ISS crew
And carry out some casual contacts with others throughout
The World.

Garan and Fossum answered 14 and 22 questions respectively 
during their contacts. 

These training sessions were terrestrial-based amateur 
radio contacts using ARISS equivalent equipment. 


[ANS thanks Southgate for the above information]

/EX


SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-213.06
ARISS Status - July 26, 2010

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 213.06
  From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.
August 1, 2010
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-213.06

Amateur Radio on the International Space Station 
(ARISS) Status Report July 26, 2010


1. Upcoming School Contact

An Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) contact was
completed
with the 2010 National Boy Scout Jamboree in Fort A.P. Hill, Virginia on
Saturday, 
July 31 at 18:21 UTC. The jamboree is being planned for about 43,000 Scouts
and 
leaders in 825 troops, plus some 5,000 staff members for support, program
and 
headquarters services. The K2BSA Amateur Radio Demonstration Area is a hot
spot 
of activity throughout the Jamboree. At past Jamborees, thousands of Scouts 
toured K2BSA. More than 300 earned their Radio Merit Badges and more than 
100 new Technician licenses were earned. The club supporting this event is 
the K2BSA Amateur Radio Association.

2. ARISS Contact with International Space University Students

On Wednesday, July 21, International Space University in
Illkirch-Graffenstaden, 
France, participated in an Amateur Radio on the International Space Station
(
ARISS) contact with Shannon Walker, KD5DXB on the ISS. Twelve questions were

answered and regional television covered the event. In preparation for 
their contact, students studied the basics of satellite communications 
and learned about human spaceflight and space exploration. 

3. ARRL Covers 2010 National Scout Jamboree

The American Radio Relay League (ARRL) posted a story on its web page 
covering the upcoming 2010 National Boy Scout Jamboree during which an 
ARISS contact was planned. The article was also included in the ARRL Letter.

See:
http://www.arrl.org/news/connect-with-the-national-scout-jamboree-via-amateu
r-radio

4. ARISS-Brazil Web Page Updated

ARISS-Brazil has updated its Web page. The site has a new URL:
http://www.qsl.net/py1kcf/


5. Astronaut T. J. Creamer Participates in ISS Ham Debrief 

An Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) debrief 
session was held with Expedition 22/23 astronaut T. J. Creamer, KC5WKI 
on Monday, July 19.  The feedback received will help ARISS with its 
program operations. 

6. ARISS International Team Meeting Held

The Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) International 
Team teleconference was held on Tuesday, July 20. Discussions included a 
status on the Columbus Module radio equipment as well as an update on 
ARISSat-1.  The minutes have been posted. 
See: https://www.rac.ca/ariss/arisstel2010-07-20.htm
 

[ANS thanks Carol, KB3LKI, 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,
Dee Interdonato, NB2F
nb2f amsat dot org




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