[amsat-bb] ANS-166 AMSAT News Service Weekly Bulletins

Sat Jun 14 18:30:03 PDT 2008

AMSAT NEWS SERVICE
ANS-166

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 at amsat.org

**************************************************************
***  2008 AMSAT Space Symposium and Annual General Meeting ***
***            October 24-26 in Atlanta, Georgia           ***
**************************************************************

In this edition:

* 2008 AMSAT North America Space Symposium
* New AMSAT Videos available
* PreSat and NanoSail-D CubeSats Launch on June 23
* AO-51 Operating Mode Announcement for Field Day
* CUTE-1.7 + APD-II Satellite Camera Activated
* AO-16 Operations Update
* ARISS Status Report for the Week of June 9, 2008

SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-166.01
2008 AMSAT North America Space Symposium

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 166.01
>From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.
June 15, 2008
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-166.01

2008 AMSAT North America Space Symposium
24-26 October 2008, Atlanta, Georgia Call for Papers:

This is the first call for papers for the 2008 AMSAT Space 
Symposium and Annual Meeting to be held October 24-26, 2008 
in Atlanta, Georgia.

Proposals for papers, symposium presentations, and poster 
presentations are invited on any topic of interest to the 
amateur satellite program. An emphasis for this year is an 
educational outreach to middle and high school students.  
Another topic if interest is using amateur satellite
tracking systems to monitor deep space network objects.

In particular, papers on the following topics are solicited:
+ Students & Education
+ ARISS
+ AO-51
+ P3E
+ Eagle
+ Deep Space Network monitoring
+ Any additional satellite-related topics.

We request a one-page abstract as soon as possible. Camera 
ready copy on paper or in electronic form will be due by 
September 1, 2008 for inclusion in the printed symposium 
proceedings. Papers received after this date may not be 
included in the printed proceedings.

Abstracts and papers should be sent to n8fgv at amsat.org

[ANS thanks Robin, AA4RC and the 2008 Symposium Committee 
 for the above information]

/EX

SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-166.02
New AMSAT Videos available

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 166.02
>From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.
June 15, 2008
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-166.02

We recorded videos of an AO-51 pass and of all the AMSAT Forum 
presentations at Dayton 2008.  You can find out the latest on 
the current satellite projects, AO-51, AO-16, AMSAT Operations, 
ARISS and the ACP satellite and ground station progress. Barry, 
WD4ASW moderated the Forum.

Thanks to Steve Belter, N9IP for doing the recordings and Mike 
Young, WB8CXO for the video equipment and converting the tapes 
to this format. Thanks to Gunther and Rob Meisse for hosting the 
videos at the WMFD site.

The following videos are clickable if you have Windows Media
Player (or equivalent) installed on your computer.  The URLs
can also be pasted into other compatible viewers.

Operating AO-51 Video 
Keith, W5IU doing the demonstration during Dayton 2008
mms://media.wmfd.com/amsat/W5IU_AO51_Dayton_Demo.wmv

Videos of 2008 AMSAT Forum at Dayton

Rick, W2GPS  AMSAT, P3E, Eagle, SuitSat-2 Update
mms://media.wmfd.com/amsat/W2GPS_2008_forum.wmv 

Gould, WA4SXM  Operations and AO-51 UpdateN2MJI
mms://media.wmfd.com/amsat/WA4SXM_2008_forum.wmv

Mark, N8MH  AO-16 Update
mms://media.wmfd.com/amsat/N8MH_2008_forum.wmv

Michelle, W5NYV  ACP Ground Unit
mms://media.wmfd.com/amsat/W5NYV_2008_forum.wmv

Matt, N2MJI  ACP Satellite Unit
mms://media.wmfd.com/amsat/W2GPS_2008_forum.wmv

Tony, VK5ZAI ARISS Update
mms://media.wmfd.com/amsat/VK5ZAI_2008_forum.wmv

[ANS thanks Gould, WA4SXM for the above information]

/EX

SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-166.03
PreSat and NanoSail-D CubeSats Launch on June 23

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 166.03
>From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.
June 15, 2008
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-166.03

Santa Clara University students invite amateur radio operators 
worldwide to participate with them by receiving beacon signals 
from PreSat and NanoSail-D, two pioneering cubesat missions that 
will launch from the Reagan Test Site (Omelek Island, Kwajalein 
Atoll, Republic of Marshall Islands) on June 23, 2008 at about 
7:00 pm PDT.  

Both spacecraft will go into Low Earth Orbit as secondary payloads 
aboard a SpaceX Falcon-1 launch vehicle into a 685x330 km, 9 degree 
inclination orbit.

PreSat is a 10 x 10 x 30 cm. spacecraft, operating at 437.318 MHz 
FM, will send an AX.25 packet every 5 seconds. The mission will 
evaluate the performance of a generic biofluidic sample management 
and handling system for future advanced in situ spaceborne biology 
experiments.  

NanoSail-D is a 10 x 10x 30 cm. spacecraft, operating at 437.269 MHz 
FM, sending an AX.25 packet every 10 seconds, will deploy a solar 
sail that also will be used as a drag sail to demonstrate orbital 
debris mitigation technology.  

Amateur radio operators are encouraged to submit received beacon 
packets through the mission websites in order to receive a web-based 
QSL card:
   PreSat -     http://www.presat.org
   NanoSail-D - http://www.nanosaild.org

[ANS thanks Mike Miller, KE7EGC for the above information]

/EX

SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-166.04
AO-51 Operating Mode Announcement for Field Day

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 166.04
>From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.
June 15, 2008
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-166.04

The AO-51 Operations Team says that during the week of June 22 
to June 29 the satellite will be in the Field Day configuaration.
The early start to the Field Day configuration will allow you to
test your station prior to the event.

Field Day is June 27 and 28. Please be courteous and 
remember both AMSAT and ARRL rules only allow ONE QSO 
per repeater during the contest. 

FM Repeater, V/U 
Uplink: 145.920 MHz FM, NO PL Tone 
Downlink: 435.300 MHz FM 

FM Repeater, L/U 
Uplink: 1268.700 MHz FM, NO PL Tone 
Downlink: 435.150 MHz FM 

All the details of AMSAT Field Day operation can be found on-line
at: http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/awards/amsatfd.php.

Refer to the ARRL Web Page for general Field Day operations.

[ANS thanks Drew, KO4MA and the AO-51 Operations Team for the 
 above information]

/EX

SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-166.05
CUTE-1.7 + APD-II Satellite Camera Activated

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 166.05
>From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.
June 15, 2008
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-166.05

Earth photos taken by the CUTE-1.7 + APD-II camera were successfully
received at the ground station.  See:
http://lss.mes.titech.ac.jp/ssp/cute1.7/blog/080601_Picture_180degRotated.jp
g

JA1GDE created a diagram showing the area captured in the photograph: 
http://lss.mes.titech.ac.jp/ssp/cute1.7/blog/080601_Picture_JA1GDE.jpg

Additional photos from the satellite camera can be seen at:
http://www.ne.jp/asahi/hamradio/je9pel/cut17apd.htm#bottom

[ANS thanks Mineo, JE9PEL for the above information]

/EX

SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-166.06
AO-16 Operations Update

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 166.06
>From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.
June 15, 2008
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-166.06

Drew KO4MA, AMSAT-NA Vice-President of Operations gave an update of
AO-16's on-going malfunctions and troubleshooting.  

Drew reported, "AO-16 continues to spontaneously shut off. We suspect 
it is a watchdog timer that is malfunctioning, and that it is tempera-
ture related."  The resets on the satellite began shortly after AO-16 
re-entered periods of eclipses after a long period of full sun. 

Mark, N8MH, and Drew have, at various times, re-commanded the bird on. 
It will stay on for anywhere from just a few seconds to a few minutes. 
They also experimented with doing the reset operation automatically, 
with not much success.

Drew summarizes, "The current plan is to wait a little bit until the 
eclipses start getting shorter, the overall temperature of the satellite 
rises some, and see if the frequency of the resets goes down enough to 
make some sort of day-to-day operation feasible again."

[ANS thanks Drew, KO4MA for the above information]

/EX

SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-166.07
ARISS Status Report for the Week of June 9, 2008

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 166.07
>From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.
June 15, 2008
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-166.07

1. School Contact Status

Planning continues for ARISS contacts; however, the level of school 
contacts will drop temporarily due to crew time constraints.

On Friday, June 6, a successful ARISS contact took place between Kursk 
State University in Russia and cosmonauts Sergei Volkov, RU3DIS, and 
Oleg Kononenko, RN3DX, aboard the ISS. Over three hundred students 
attended the event.

2. ARRL Article on STS-124 

The American Radio Relay League (ARRL) posted a story to its Web site 
on the STS-124 mission.  The article covers ISS flight engineer Greg 
Chamitoff, KD5PKZ, and mission specialist Akihiko Hoshide, KE5DNI, 
who flew to the ISS on shuttle Discovery. It also includes information 
on the new JAXA Kibo laboratory. "Hams Head into Space" may be found at:
http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2008/06/03/10139/?nc=1

The article was also published in the ARRL Letter. 
See: http://www.arrl.org/arrlletter/08/0606/

3. ARISS-Europe Posts DRS Article

An ARISS contact took place with Delta Researcher Schools (DRS) on 
Friday, May 23 at Space Expo, Noordwijk, the Netherlands. ARISS-Europe 
has posted a summary of the contact with photos on its Web site. 
See: http://www.ariss-eu.org/2008_06_06.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,
JoAnne Maenpaa, K9JKM
K9JKM at amsat dot org