[jamsat-news:2880] ANS-283 AMSAT News Service Weekly Bulletins

AMSAT NEWS SERVICE
ANS-283

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:

* ARISSat-1 Delivered to JSC Houston; Next Journey to Russia
* AMSAT Board of Directors Names Senior Officers for 2010-2011
* AMSAT's Educational Outreach Reaches New High
* AO-51 Repeater Mode to Support JOTA Operations
* AO-51 Revised Schedule for October
* Call for Volunteers AMSAT at the NASM, Washington DC October 16
* SA AMSAT Presentation at South African Space Congress
* KiwiSat Team Requires FPGA Chips
* AMSAT Awards
* Satellite Shorts From All Over

SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-283.01
ARISSat-1 Delivered to JSC Houston; Next Journey to Russia

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 283.01
>From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.
October 10, 2010
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-283.01

AMSAT ARISSat Project Manager, Gould Smith, WA4SXM reported, 
ARISSat-1/RadioSkaf V, was shipped from Orlando, Florida to 
the Johnson Space Center in Houston and has arrived. From 
there it will be sent to Russia in early October. In Russia 
it will have the Kursk experiment added to the spaceframe.

The next milestone, the NASA Phase 2 Safety Review, is scheduled 
for October 13 - 14, 2010. The ARISSat-1 team says that actually
two satellites (flight and backup) were ready for the trip to
Russia.

A new Russian Orlan suit battery will be shipped to the ISS sep-
arately to be installed into the satellite (called the Amateur 
Radio Experiment) onboard the ISS. ARISSat-1 is scheduled to be 
sent to the ISS aboard Russian Progress vehicle 41P in January 
2011 and deployed during EVA R-28 in February 2011.

[ANS thanks whomever for the above information]

/EX


SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-283.02
AMSAT Board of Directors Names Senior Officers for 2010-2011

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 283.02
>From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.
October 10, 2010
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-283.02

Election of AMSAT's Senior Officers was one of the first orders of 
business to be settled once the AMSAT Board of Directors meeting 
opened on October 7, prior to the start of the 2010 AMSAT Space 
Symposium held near Chicago, IL.

The following positions were voted upon and filled:

President                     Barry Baines, WD4ASW
Vice-President Operations     Drew Glasbrenner, KO4MA	
Vice President User Services  Gould Smith, WA4SXM
Vice-President Engineering    Tony Monteiro, AA2TX
Secretary                     Alan Biddle, WA4SCA
Treasurer                     Keith Baker, KB1SF/VA3KSF
Manager                       Martha Saragovitz

The following Senior Officer positions remained open at this time
awaiting appointments:
Executive Vice President
Vice-President Human Spaceflight
Vice-President Marketing

The AMSAT Board of Directors elected on September 15 include:

Barry Baines, WD4ASW
Dr. Thomas A. Clark, K3IO
Lou McFadin, W5DID
Drew Glasbrenner, KO4MA
Gould Smith, WA4SXM
Alan Biddle, WA4SCA
Tony Monteiro, AA2TX 

The First Alternate member on the Board of Directors remains 
open at this time due to the resignation of Board Member Bill 
Ress, N6GHZ. First Alternate Board Member Tony Monteiro, AA2TX
assumed Bill's seat on the Board according to AMSAT's Bylaws. 

[ANS thanks the AMSAT Board of Directors for the above information]

/EX


SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-283.03
AMSAT's Educational Outreach Reaches New High

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 283.03
>From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.
October 10, 2010
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-283.03

AMSAT President, Barry Baines, WD4ASW announced at the 2010 Symposium
that the Board of Directors voted to approve the Memorandum of Under-
standing between AMSAT and the University of Florida, Gainesville to 
embark upon an educational outreach program. 

Discussion with University of Florida's Dr. Norman Fitz-Coy, who leads 
a graduate Cubesat development program, has revealed several opportuni-
ties for AMSAT members to mentor the students on electronics and system 
engineering issues including on-orbit satellite management learned from 
operating AMSAT's fleet of spacecraft. AMSAT will also offer assistance
with ground station development and operation.

The AMSAT Board of Directors also voted to continue with the educational
outreach project between AMSAT, Binghamton University - SUNY, and IBM's
Heritage Corridor Center for Advanced Studies. The NextGen Satellite
Program is lead by Alex Harvilchuck, N3NP. During the first year of this
cooperative effort the NextGen student team characterized supercapacitor
performance in vacuum and developed an engineering model of deployable
solar cells on a 3U cubesat.

AMSAT Vice-President of Engineering Tony Monteiro, AA2TX discussed 
plans for development of AMSAT's Project Fox cubesat. One goal for pro-
ject Fox is to establish development of "standardized" cubesat com-
ponents including reliable software-defined transponders, telemetry 
downlink, and spacecraft power management. A stable, well-documented,
standardized "cubesat bus" can be made available to university cubesat
development teams, freeing them to concentrate on the science of their
research programs. This will have the net effect of having an amateur
transponder flying in many cubesats in the future.

The NextGen partnership with AMSAT-SUNY-IBM will perform the system
engineering leveraging on AMSAT's pioneering Project Fox Cubesat.

AMSAT's educational outreach program provides several advantages to
ensure the continued growth of amateur radio in space by training the
next generation of space engineers:

+ AMSAT establishes a presence on major universities with state-of-the-
  art facilities and satellite development teams.

+ Potential for student projects focused on AMSAT needs.

+ Broadening of AMSAT's presence in the wider university community.

+ Increased potential for involvement with research/development grant-
  funded opportunities for AMSAT and AMSAT members.

+ Establishing a program that offers significant traction for further 
  education outreach.

This is developing news with ongoing details to be reported in future
news bulletins, the AMSAT web, and the AMSAT Journal magazine.

[ANS thanks the AMSAT Board of Directors for the above information]

/EX


SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-283.04
AO-51 Repeater Mode to Support JOTA Operations

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 283.04
>From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.
October 10, 2010
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-283.04

AO-51 Command Station Mark Hammond N8MH, said that the AO-51
Operations Team will configure the satellite to support the
Jamboree-On-The-Air (JOTA) for Scouting October, 16 - 17:
 
AO-51 FM Repeater, V/U
Uplink:   145.880 MHz FM (no PL tone)
Downlink: 435.150 MHz FM

No transmitter power or antenna restrictions usually associated
with the QRP mode of AO-51 operation on this repeater apply to
JOTA stations. Use good amateur practice during your operations.

Non-scouting users are asked to use 10 watts or less, and omni-
directional or handheld antennas on this repeater. Last minute
schedule changes may be required due to the power budget aboard
AO-51. Also non-scouting stations please give way to JOTA stations
or QSOs with JOTA stations

The 2010 Jamboree-on-the-Air, or JOTA, will begin on Saturday,
October 16, 2010, at 00:00 hours local time, and end on Sunday,
October, 17, 2010, at 23:59 hours local time.

This is an annual Scouting and amateur radio event sponsored by
the World Scout Bureau of the World Organization of the Scout
Movement. Thousands of amateur radio stations around the world
participate.

In the United States, Cub Scout dens and Boy Scout patrols visit
a local amateur's ham shack during JOTA. Amateurs set up stations
giving Scouts and leaders a chance to exchange greetings with Scouts
from other areas. The exchanges typically include information such
as Name, QTH, Scout rank, Hobbies, and Age. Full details from the
World Scout Bureau can be found on-line at:
http://www.scouting.org/filestore/intl/pdf/130-218.pdf

Scouts and Amateur Radio operators may also find the ARBONET III
high altitude balloon launch for JOTA interesting. ARBONET has
published full details of their mission on-line at:
http://www.arbonet.net/ARBONET%20FLIGHTS.html

Launch Date: Saturday, Oct 17, 2009 9:30 AM CDT, Clarksville, Texas
Launch Net:  K5FRC - 3.910MHz +/-, Starting at 9:00AM CST
Payloads:    2M Voice Beacon: ID: K5ARB - 144.390 MHz FM
             2M APRS: ID: K5ARB-1.  144.390 MHz.
             2M CW Homing Beacon ID: K5ARB. Comprised of FM carrier
                with CW tone at 147.475 MHz
             2M APRS: K5ARB-2 144.390 MHz.
             70CM / 2M FM Cross-Band Repeater: K5ARB -
                445.800 MHz UP, 145.560MHz Down
             20M CW Homing Beacon ID: K5RWK - 14.058 MHz

A DX-cluster for spotting JOTA activity can be accessed via telnet
at pi4raz.nl port 7300. This cluster will be available for scouting
purposes all year round, not just for JOTA.

[ANS thanks Mark N8MH, World Scouting, and ARBONET for the above
 information]

/EX


SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-283.05
AO-51 Revised Schedule for October

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 283.05
>From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.
October 10, 2010
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-283.05

The AO-51 Command Team and Operations Group has released this revised
schedule for October, 2010:

October 3 (late UTC)
--------------------
FM Repeater, V/U
Uplink:   145.920 MHz FM (no PL tone)
Downlink: 435.300 MHz FM

9k6 Baud PBBS Operations, L/U
Uplink:  1268.708 MHz FM at 9600 baud
Downlink: 435.150 MHz FM at 9600 baud

October 10 (late UTC)
---------------------
FM Repeater, V/U
Uplink:   145.920 MHz FM (no PL tone)
Downlink: 435.300 MHz FM

QRP (Oct. 10-15) and JOTA (Oct. 16-17) Only FM Repeater, V/U
Please give way to JOTA stations or QSOs with JOTA stations
Uplink:   145.880 MHz FM (no PL tone)
Downlink: 435.150 MHz FM

October 18 (late UTC)
---------------------
FM Repeater, V/U
Uplink:   145.920 MHz FM (no PL tone)
Downlink: 435.300 MHz FM

9k6 Baud PBBS Operations, L/U
Uplink:  1268.708 MHz FM at 9600 baud
Downlink: 435.150 MHz FM at 9600 baud

Monitor http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/echo/CTNews.php for the
latest Command Team and Operations Group AO-51 News.

[ANS thanks Mark Hammond N8MH for the above information]

/EX


SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-283.06
Call for Volunteers AMSAT at the NASM, Washington DC October 16

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 283.06
>From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.
October 10, 2010
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-283.06

Samudra Haque, N3RDX is leading the AMSAT outreach activity at the
Hispanic Heritage Month Family Day - Argentina in Air and Space which
will held be at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington DC.
The event will take place between 10 AM - 3 PM. Details can be found
at: http://www.nasm.si.edu/

Samudra says he needs help with the AMSAT display and if you can vol-
unteer any exhibition/display resources including pictures, posters.
AMSAT members would set-up tables with equipment, posters, and other
items of interest to visitors. These tables would be staffed throughout
the day by AMSAT members. You are welcome to volunteer for a couple of
hours or the whole day. Free parking will be provided to all, and lunch
will be provided for people who volunteer the whole day.

Contact Samudra via e-mail (samudra.haque@gmail.com) if you need more
information or can help out.

[ANS thanks Samudra Haque, N3RDX for the above information]

/EX


SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-283.07
SA AMSAT Presentation at South African Space Congress

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 283.07
>From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.
October 10, 2010
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-283.07

Hans van de Groenendaal, ZS6AKV representing SA AMSAT presented a
paper at the First Annual South African Space Congress in Cape Town
at the SA Astronomical Observatory on 7 and 8 October 2010.

The paper entitled 'Amateur Radio's significant contribution to
satellite communication' will trace the many facets of Amateur
Radio's involvement in space.

ZS6AKV reviewed the major contributions made by Amateur Radio to
satellite communication and focused on some of the current projects
both world-wide and in South Africa. His paper will also touched on
other space related activities such as SETI and Radio Telescopes.

SA AMSAT stated a copy of the paper will be available for download
from http://www.amsatsa.org after the event.

[ANS thanks SA AMSAT and SouthGateARC site for the above information]

/EX


SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-283.08
KiwiSat Team Requires FPGA Chips

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 283.08
>From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.
October 10, 2010
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-283.08

Terry Carrell, ZL3QL sent a request on behalf of the AMSAT-ZL KiwiSAT
team. They require four (4) Cypress CY7C383A-0JC or QuickLogic
QL12x16-2PL68C FPGA chips, used & un-programmed.

To date the team had 2 lots of 4 from two different sources but all
proved to have been compromised and could not be programmed. Terry
wrote, "We had a small stock but they have all been used during our
development work and while we can purchase new units, the source
requires us to buy a significant number more than our requirement
which is proving to be very expensive. We are happy to pay for good
units once we have confirmed they are clean. These chips will fly so
it is important we have perfect units."

If you help in any way, please let Terry, ZL3QL know. Terry can be
contacted via e-mail: tcarrell@xtra.co.nz

[ANS thanks Terry, ZL3QL and AMSAT-ZL for the above information]

/EX


SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-283.09
AMSAT Awards

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 283.09
>From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.
October 10, 2010
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-283.09

AMSAT Director Contests and Awards Bruce Paige, KK5DO says congratul-
ations are in order for the awards that he processed over the last
month.

The following have entered into the Satellite Communicators Club for
making their first satellite QSO:

Jay Kendall, N2JK
Darek Dabek, SP9TTX
Marisuz Kocot, SQ9MES

The following have earned the AMSAT Communications Achievement Award:

Bob Herrell, AJ5C #517
Jim Adams, K0BAM #518
Leo Hucin, OK2UUJ #519
Jay Kendall, N2JK #520

The following have earned the South Africa AMSAT Communications
Achievement Award:

Jim Adams, K0BAM #US149
Jay Kendall, N2JK #US150
Marisuz Kocot, SQ9MES #US151

The following have earned the AMSAT Century Club Award:
John Papay, K8YSE #39

The following have earned the W4AMI Satellite Communications
Achievement award:

Bob Herrell, AJ5C, #64
Zachary Beougher, KD8KSN #65
Mariusz Kocot, SQ9MES, #66 (plus 1 endorsement)
Darek Dabek, SP9TTX, #67 (plus 3 endorsements)

The following have earned the W4AMI 5000 Satellite Communications
Achievement award:

Darek Dabek, SP9TTX #24

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

[ANS thanks Bruce KK5DO for the above information]

/EX


SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-283.10
Satellite Shorts From All Over

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 283.10
>From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.
October 10, 2010
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-283.10

+ Congratulations to Sebastian, W4AS for attaining Satellite VUCC
  Award #200!

+ A humorous overview of the review process for the upcoming MAVEN
  (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution) mission to Mars has been
  posted by NASA. NASA gave the mission a green light to continue  
  development which will investigate the mystery of  how Mars lost
  much of its atmosphere:  
  http://www.universetoday.com/75011/so-you-want-to-build-a-satellite/
  Additional information about the MAVEN mission can be found at the
  MarsDaily.com web site: http://tinyurl.com/27zvovx

+ A good overview of HO-68 Operating has been posted by Henk, PA3GUO
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6oDgUTHCwg
 
+ A short video introduces the Firefly mission, a CubeSat built by
  undergraduate students with the partnership of Goddard Space Flight
  Center and the National Science Foundation.
  http://tinyurl.com/22tm3z5 (SoutGateARC site)

+ For those interested in building your own satellite antennas check
  out this article by Derek Hilleard, G4CQM considering three different
  state-of-the-art 7 element yagi designs for 144MHz.
  http://g4cqm.www.idnet.com/2M%20YAGI/  (via SouthGate)

+ This is not satellite related but you guys are going to like this
  one anyway. Watch this helmet-mounted camera video as our two heroes
  make a stomach-churning climb to the top of this 1,768 foot mast just
  to change a Xenon flasher: http://tinyurl.com/2c3nmul (SouthGate)

+ ARISS Chairman Gaston Bertels, ON4WF invites you to view the photos
  and listen to a a mp3 recording of the successful ARISS (Amateur Radio
  on the International Space Station) school contact with Norwegian
  Museum of Science, Technology and Medicine:
  http://www.ariss-eu.org/2010_09_25.htm

+ The next Hudson Valley Satcom Group net is Thursday Oct. 14, starting
  at 8PM EDT (UTC - 4) on the 146.970 MHz repeater (Down 600 & Pl. 100)
  and an Echo link node of: N2EYH-L. More info: http://www.hvsatcom.org
  (via Stu, WA2BSS)

+ Videos of the 2010 annual meeting of AMSAT-Italy held at Esrin south
  of Rome are available on the ESA website.
  http://download.esa.int/flv/amsat-i_2010_part1.flv (ISS)
  http://download.esa.int/flv/amsat-i_2010_part7.flv
  http://download.esa.int/flv/amsat-i_2010_part4.flv (ISS Digital ATV)
  http://www.esa-spaceweather.net/sda/ionosfera/amateur_radio.html

+ Paul 2E1EUB says starting this weekend and for the next 14 days he
  will be active at his 2M1EUB location in Scotland for the first 7 days.
  He will operate the last 7 days from the north west coast of Scotland.

[ANS thanks everyone 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. And, with that,
please keep this advice in mind for your next antenna project, working
together, two men can do the work of three. The trick is convincing
those two other suckers to work together.

73,
This week's ANS Editor,
JoAnne Maenpaa, K9JKM
K9JKM at amsat dot org

_______________________________________________
Via the ANS mailing list courtesy of AMSAT-NA
http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/ans