[jamsat-news:3595] [ans] ANS-061 AMSAT News Service Weekly Bulletin

[Mark D. Johns via ANS]

AMSAT NEWS SERVICE
ANS-061

The AMSAT News Service bulletins are a free, weekly news and infor-
mation service of AMSAT North America, The Radio Amateur Satellite
Corporation. ANS publishes news related to Amateur Radio in Space
including 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.

The news feed on http://www.amsat.org publishes news of Amateur
Radio in Space as soon as our volunteers can post it.

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

You can sign up for free e-mail delivery of the AMSAT News Service
Bulletins via the ANS List; to join this list see:
http://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/ans

In this edition:

* Call for Volunteers - AMSAT at Dayton Hamvention
* JAMSAT Announces 2019 Symposium, March 16-17
* SatNOGS Client and gr-satnogs Updates
* ARISS News -- Reports Requested
* "Off to the Motherland" Rove
* Activating Northern Maine Grids - March 2-3
* Summer Internship Positions Open in the SpaceSTEM Program
* Virginia Cubesat Constellation Moves Forward
* New ‘NASA Science Live’ Program Premiers This Week
* Satellite Shorts From All Over


SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-061.01
ANS-061 AMSAT News Service Weekly Bulletins

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 061.01
>From AMSAT HQ KENSINGTON, MD.
March 2, 2019
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-061.01


Call for Volunteers - AMSAT at Dayton Hamvention

The 2019 Hamvention will be held on May 17-19 2019 at Greene County
Fairground and Expo Center in Xenia Ohio. If you're available we can
also use your help for setup operations on May 16.

Planning is under way for AMSAT's participation. We are looking for
volunteers in the following areas:

+ Volunteer Assistant
+ Sales Assistant
+ Outdoor Demo Assistant
+ Facilities and Setup Assistant.

Interested Hams should contact Team Leader Phil Smith via email at
w1eme at amsat.org for information.

[ANS Thanks W1EME for the above information]

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JAMSAT Announces 2019 Symposium to be Held March 16-17

The 2019 JAMSAT Symposium will be held on March 16-17 at the Hotel
Binario Saga Arashiyama in Kyoto, Japan. JAMSAT invites anyone inter-
ested in the satellite communication to participate in the symposium
and social gathering.

The Symposium will offer a lot of content about the NEXUS satellite
jointly developed with Nihon University. The entire program has been
posted at:
https://tinyurl.com/y6n7pcf9

Activities planned for Saturday, March 16 and Sunday, March 17:
Saturday:
12:30 - 13:15 General Assembly for JAMSAT members only
13:30 - 18:30 Symposium Activities
18:00 -       Banquet and Reception

Sunday:
08:45 - 13:15 Symposium Activities
14:15 - 16:45 GNU Radio Exercise (advance registration required)

Participation in the Symposium is free. The cost of the banquet
and reception is 5000 yen with a registration deadline of March 2.
The contact for more information is jh3bum ＠ gmail.com

[ANS thanks JAMSAT for the above information]

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SatNOGS Client and gr-satnogs Updates

SatNOGs has announced new releases for satnogs-client 3 and
gr-satnogs 4 for Raspbery Pi 3 and Debian operating systems.

Notable changes on satnogs-client:
* Support demodulator for Reaktor Hello World 2 satellite
* Sent observation frequency in metadata
* Add option for manual power level range in waterfall (there is an
  issue with this one, there will be an update in satnogs-client-
  ansible 2 later that will fix this.)

Notable changes on gr-satnogs:
* Golay (24, 12) decoder
* Demodulating flowgraph for the Reacktor Hello World Satellite
* Fix of the baud rate issue in BPSK gr-script

For installation or upgrade information, see the wiki at:
https://tinyurl.com/yytxwge5

[ANS thanks https://satnogs.org/news/ for the above information]

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Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) News

Reports requested:
An ARISS contact with Huntington High School, Huntington, TX, direct
via KI5AJL on Monday 2019-02-25 at 19:39 UTC was unsuccessful. ARISS
is attempting to determine what happened and welcomes SWL reports.

Upcoming ARISS Contact Schedule
An International Space Station school contact has been planned with
participants at Ceip Nuestra Señora Del Carmen, Torre De La Reina,
Spain on 05 Mar. The event is scheduled to begin at approximately
09:50 UTC. The duration of the contact is approximately 9 minutes and
30 seconds. The contact will be direct between OR4ISS and EG7NSC. The
contact should be audible over Spain and adjacent areas. Interested
parties are invited to listen in on the 145.80 MHz downlink. The con-
tact is expected to be conducted in English.

ARISS is always glad to receive listener reports for the above
contacts. Listen for the ISS on the downlink of 145.80 MHz. ARISS
thanks everyone in advance for their assistance. Please send your
reports to aj9n ＠ amsat.org or aj9n ＠ aol.com.

ARISS Contact Application window for the United States open in the
spring of 2019. See the ARISS webpage at http://www.ariss.org/ for
details. ARISS would be particularly interested in applications from
the following US states and entities that have never had an ARISS
contact: South Dakota, Wyoming, American Samoa, Guam, Northern Mari-
anas Islands, and the Virgin Islands.

[ANS thanks AJ9N and AA4KN for the above information]

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"Off to the Motherland" Rove

Gabe Zeifman, AL6D/VE6NJH wrote to AMSAT-BB on February 23:
"I am on the first of four flights now on the way for another one of
my signature trips. This voyage will take me to Poland (Feb 24-28),
Lithuania(Feb 28-Mar 4), Kaliningrad (Mar 4-7), Saint Petersburg (Mar
7-11), Åland Islands (Mar 11-13), and Helsinki (Mar 13-14). I think
the most desired entities are going to be UA2 and OH0 (unfortunately
OH0 is gonna be quick, get in in the evening and leave in a morning,
so two nights and one full day). I’m hoping to make US contacts from
every entity and will try to hit as many grids as feasible (I’ll have
a car in Vilnius and Kaliningrad), but good transatlantic locations
will take precedence over grids. Don’t expect me on every pass, I’m
traveling with family and we’ll be doing touristy stuff, but I’ll make
my best effort to be on the great AO-7 and FO-29 passes across the
ocean, updates will be on Twitter @AL6D_Alaska. I’m operating ninja
portable like the good ole days, QRP with two FT-817NDs and an arrow,
hopefully that doesn’t attract too much negative attention from
customs in Russia."

[ANS thanks AL6D for the above information]

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Activating Northern Maine Grids - March 2-3

Clayton, W5PFG writes, "Between ~03:00 UTC March 2 thru ~17:00 UTC
March 3, I will operate satellites /TM (Tobaggan Mobile) thru grids
FN54, FN55, FN56, FN57, FN66, and FN67. I plan to activate the FN54/55,
FN56/66, and FN57/67 grid lines I've used on previous Maine expedi-
tions. This will be a fast-paced trip and I don't anticipate working
every bird or every pass. I will stop to sleep, drink, and eat. Weather
will be a huge factor. Like many of my activations, it's recommended
you monitor my @w5pfg Twitter feed for the latest information."

[ANS thanks W5PFG for the above information]

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Summer Internship Positions Open in the SpaceSTEM Program

ESTCube is calling all space enthusiasts! The SpaceTEM application
period for internships in Estonian and Latvian space technology
entities for the summer of 2019 has begun!

Challenge yourself and enjoy this summer by being a part of an
amazing space adventure - SpaceTEM '19!

SpaceTEM is a new EstLat project which aims to initiate the
development of NewSpace industry in Estonia and Latvia through
a series of mutual activities. If you are interested in space
technologies, innovation, and entrepreneurship, this intern-
ship is a great opportunity for you! There are over 50 topics
to choose from - from building 3D printers to developing soft-
ware for ESTCube-2. More information can be found at this link:
http://tinyurl.com/ANS-062-SpaceSTEM

To apply, fill in the internship form and send your CV and moti-
vational letter (for additional bonus points you can also add
a link to any project you have been a part of so far) to:
spacetem_internship ＠ venta.lv

The application deadline is March 31, 2019. Chosen interns will
be announced from the middle of April until the beginning of
May, 2019.

[ANS thanks ESTCube for the above information]

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Virginia CubeSat Constellation Moves Forward

A project built by a team of University of Virginia engineering
students took step toward outer space this week when they and student
colleagues from Old Dominion University and Virginia Tech delivered
three CubeSats to NanoRacks, an aerospace company in Houston.

NanoRocks will integrate the CubeSats into a deployer aboard a rocket
set for launch next month to the International Space Station.

The satellites are part of the Virginia CubeSat Constellation mission,
a collaborative project of the Virginia Space Grant Consortium and its
four member universities (which also includes Hampton University). The
three nano-satellites, each carrying a UHF packet repeater for amateur
use, were developed by engineering students to obtain measurements of
the properties of the Earth’s atmosphere to quantify atmospheric den-
sity. Full article available at:
https://tinyurl.com/y3u7skkl

[ANS thanks news.virginia.edu for the above information]

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SpaceCube near the end, request to receive the last telemetry

Jean Guérard, from the Office National d'Etudes et de Recherches
Aérospatiales (France), ONERA, asks all those who have the opportunity
to record the latest SpaceCube telemetry frames.

Launched in May 2017, SpaceCube is expected to disintegrate sometime
around March 1, 2019.

The frequency is 436,880 MHz, AFSK modulation 1k2, AX25 mode.

Note: The frames are not decodable, it is therefore requested to re-
cord the audio signal of the satellite and to send it to Jean Guérard
( jean.guerard ＠ saf-astronomie.fr )

For large files, you can use the service:
https://www.grosfichiers.com/fr/

[ANS thanks Christophe Mercier for the above information]

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New ‘NASA Science Live’ Program Premiers This Week

NASA invites you to take a behind-the-scenes look at how the agency
explores Earth and outer space with a new monthly television series
that premiers this week.

The inaugural episode of “NASA Science Live” will air at 3 p.m. EST
Wednesday, Feb. 27, on NASA Television, the agency’s website, Facebook
Watch, YouTube, and Ustream. Viewers will be able to submit questions
on social media using the hashtag #askNASA or by leaving a comment in
the chat section on Facebook.

>From remote locations on Earth to the depths of outer space, join the
conversation live each month to interact with NASA experts and watch
as they reveal the mysteries of our solar system and beyond.

“I am personally very excited about how this new show will highlight
the interconnected nature of science from across the agency,” said
Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission
Directorate. “The series will find new ways to talk about science from
various disciplines, missions and centers to show how each works
together in order to achieve our exploration goals.”

This first episode - entitled “To the Moon, and Beyond” - will explore
the how science conducted on the lunar surface in the past informs
current missions studying the Moon and future plans to send science,
robots and humans to our nearest celestial neighbor.

For more information about the show, visit:
https://go.nasa.gov/NASAScienceLive

[ANS thanks NASA HQ News for the above information]

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Satellite Shorts From All Over

+ RTL-SDR.com tells of a new SDR radio PodCast that calls itself
  "Signals Everywhere". Episode 1 was just released. More information
  at: https://tinyurl.com/y5khc5hl
  (via RTL-SDR.com)

+ A recent ARISS contact between the International Space Station and
  Faith Christian Academy middle school in Orlando, Florida received
  good press coverage from WUSF public radio in Tampa. See the story
  at https://tinyurl.com/y4b2p4ro
  (via http://wusfnews.wusf.usf.edu)

+ SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft is scheduled for a test flight to
  the International Space Station on Saturday, March 2. Liftoff of the
  human-rated capsule — flying without astronauts this time — is
  scheduled for 2:49 a.m. EST (07:49Z). Assuming an on-time launch and
  docking this weekend, the spacecraft will depart the space station
  March 8 and return to a parachute-assisted splashdown in the Atlan-
  tic Ocean. More details at https://tinyurl.com/y4o2n5u9
  (via spaceflightnow.com)

+ Scott, K4KDR, reports that The JY1SAT (JO-97) satellite started
  transmitting digital media files on 145.840 USB. Decoding is accom-
  plished with the “Funcube” type dashboard which can be downloaded at:
  https://tinyurl.com/y5uutqct (via K4KDR)

+ The TAPR PSR Digital Journal, Winter 2019 Edition is now available
  online at: https://www.tapr.org/psr/psr140.pdf
  (via tapr.org on facebook)

+ The Central States VHF Society offers a Reverse VUCC for rovers.
  Only a few have actually applied for the award on satellite. See:
  https://www.csvhfs.org/index.php/awards-and-programs/reverse-vucc
  (via Martin A Schuette on AMSAT-BB)

+ AMSAT-DL has agreed to a proposal by the British Amateur Television
  Club (BATC) for the use of the bottom 100 kHz of the wideband trans-
  ponder on QO-100 (10491 – 10491.1 MHz) for ATV co-ordination pur-
  poses. Details at: https://tinyurl.com/y6tzwsuz
  (via AMSAT-UK)

+ Bruce Paige, KK5DO, AMSAT Director Contests and Awards, writes:
  "One of the really cool things about receiving an AMSAT award in the
  mail is the certificate inside. However, what is even cooler is the
  envelope. Yes, the envelope. My wife has purchased stamps for years
  and years. I use those stamps on the envelopes I mail. None of those
  little white labels from the post office. Is it time for you to
  apply for an AMSAT award or to add to your stamp collection?"
  (via KK5DO) [See https://www.amsat.org/awards-2/ ]


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/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 addi-
tional benefits. Application forms are available from the AMSAT
Office.

Primary and secondary school students are eligible for membership
at one-half the standard yearly rate. Post-secondary school students
enrolled in at least half time status shall be eligible for the stu-
dent rate for a maximum of 6 post-secondary years in this status.
Contact Martha at the AMSAT Office for additional student membership
information.

73 and Remember to help keep amateur radio in space,
This week's ANS Editor,

K0JM at amsat dot org
_______________________________________________
Via the ANS mailing list courtesy of AMSAT-NA
http://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/ans