ANS-148 AMSAT News Service Weekly Bulletins

[K9JKM]

AMSAT NEWS SERVICE
ANS-148

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

In this edition:
* AMSAT Submits NASA Edison Program Proposals
* ARISS Call For Volunteers
* Dayton Hamvention Satellite Demonstration Area Videos Posted
* UKube-1 is Taking Shape
* Listen to HORYU-2 on the Web
* North America Rare Grid EK69 Activation From Cayo Culebra Island
* Satellite Operations Planned for Worldwide Museum Ships Weekend
* High Altitude Balloon Crossband Repeater Payload Northeast USA
* ARISS Status - 21 May 2012

SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-148.01
ANS-148 AMSAT News Service Weekly Bulletins

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 148.01
From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.
May 27, 2012
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-148.01

AMSAT Submits NASA Edison Program Proposals

This week the Board of Directors announced AMSAT was a partner in a pair of Phase-2 NASA Edison Program proposals that were successfully submitted on Tuesday May 22, 2012.

If selected, these proposals would provide AMSAT and its partners with the funds to construct and launch new amateur radio satellites. Due to the highly competitive nature of this program, no additional information can be released at this time.

NASA intends to announce the winning proposals in the Fall of 2012. More information will be released as it becomes available.

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

ARISS Call For Volunteers

During the Dayton Hamvention AMSAT and the ARRL announced opportunities for amateur radio satellite operators to join the ARISS Program (Amateur Radio on the International Space Station) in roles as Technical Mentors and Ground Station Operators.

On Friday and Saturday of the Hamvention AMSAT Vice President for Educational Relations Mark Hammond, N8MH took advantage of the ARRL Stage to explain these roles for radio amateurs who serve as an advising and coordinating liaison between NASA, the school or group making the ARISS contact, and the Ground Station Operators, who set up the satellite station at the contact location.

This week the ARRL published the ARISS recruiting program on the web with a call for volunteers. The ARRL said, "Public awareness of the ARISS program is growing as a result of a new proposal process, and promotion by NASA through its broad outreach to schools and teachers. This presents the Amateur Radio community with an opportunity to reach out to even more schools in locations across the US through the ARISS program.

See the ARRL web for full details of the ARISS call for volunteers.

With the help of experienced Amateur Radio volunteers, and coordination from the ARISS partnership team, crew members speak directly with large youth audiences in a variety of public forums --school assemblies, science museums, Scout camporees and jamborees and space camps—where students, teachers, parents, and communities learn about space, space technologies and Amateur Radio.

There are two ways to get involved:

Volunteer with a Ground Support Team
We are recruiting clubs and individuals throughout the US who are able and willing to support the ARISS program in their local communities. Optimally, this means setting up direct Amateur Radio contacts with the ISS. Direct contacts provide the best opportunity to showcase Amateur Radio and offer students a firsthand experience. An ARISS event can open the door for an ongoing relationship between local ham radio clubs and schools, providing students with continuing opportunities to explore radio science, satellite communications and wireless technology with Amateur Radio.

Volunteer as an ARISS Technical Mentor
ARISS is also seeking additional volunteers to train to support the program in the liaison capacity as US ARISS Technical Mentor who will serve as the coordinators between NASA operations and the local on-site support teams at the event site. They serve as advisors to the local Ground Support Volunteers and need the same skills as well as
hands-on satellite communications experience. Technical Mentors communicate with the other mentors on the ARISS international operations team to coordinate ARISS contacts via telebridge stations around the world. They assimilate and transfer this information to the local Ground Support Volunteers who complete all of the arrangements for a
scheduled ARISS contact.

The ARISS program is a cooperative venture of NASA, the ARRL and AMSAT and other international space agencies. ARISS organizes and schedules contacts via Amateur Radio between ISS crew members and educational organizations.

• Again ... More details about volunteering to assist with ARISS can be found at the ARRL website.
• Amateur radio operators interested in becoming involved as a ground support team or technical mentor are invited to send an email to: ARISS.Recruit@verizon.net

[ANS thanks ARRL, ARISS, and AMSAT for the above information]

Dayton Hamvention Satellite Demonstration Area Videos Posted

Patrick Stoddard, WD9EWK/VA7EWK recorded three videos of satellite passes that were worked from the AMSAT demonstration station at last weekend's 2012 Dayton Hamvention.

The videos are now available on Patrick's YouTube channel.

Two of the three videos were from VO-52 passes last Friday (18 May) and Saturday (19 May). Later on Saturday, the third video from an SO-50 pass was recorded.

You will see Keith Pugh, W5IU; Doug Papay, KD8CAO, and Roger Ley, WA9PZL taking care of the antenna. Keith’s equipment is used for the demonstration station is two Yaesu FT-817s, two homebrew antennas (3-element 2m Yagi, 6-element 70cm Yagi), and a laptop running SatPC32 to control the radios. The radios and laptop are powered from a large 12V battery.

[ANS thanks Patrick Stoddard, WD9EWK/VA7EWK for the above information]

UKube-1 is Taking Shape

AMSAT-UK is reporting UKube-1, the UK Space Agency’s first Cubesat mission, has reached an important milestone. Two payloads have now undergone pre-integration testing at Clyde Space’s facilities in Glasgow.

UKube-1, is a collaboration between the UK Space Agency, industry and academia. Open University payload C3D and University of Bath payload TOPCAT were the first of the four payloads selected to be tested. These workshops provided the first opportunity to carry out physical and functional testing between the protoflight payloads and platform subsystems.

The tests confirmed physical, electrical and operational interfaces between the subsystems. The tests represent the successful handover to flight integration and delivery from the interface emulator (supplied to payload teams by Clyde Space at the start of the program to facilitate rapid parallel development of subsystems).

C3D is a small imager which will take pictures of the earth and investigate radiation damage effects in space. It uses new sensor technology developed for space conditions.

TOPCAT (Topside Ionosphere Computer Assisted Tomography) will measure space weather conditions to inform users of the Global Positioning System (GPS) users using a dual-frequency GPS receiver designed especially for use in space.

With the remaining payloads due to be tested over the coming few weeks, the program continues confidently towards full integration in July.

UKube-1 will also take an educational subsystem called FUNcube, developed by the voluntary organisation AMSAT-UK, to encourage young people to learn about radio, space, physics and electronics. It contains a 1200 bps BPSK telemetry beacon and a 435/145 MHz linear transponder.

See these links to AMSAT-UK for more information:
UKube-1 on BBC TV http://www.uk.amsat.org/5983
UKube-1 to launch in 2013 http://www.uk.amsat.org/5933

[ANS thanks AMSAT-UK for the above information]

Listen to HORYU-2 on the Web

Andrei YO8SSQ and Cezar YO8TLC have made available a web based receiver to enable listeners to hear the new amateur radio satellite HORYU-2 when it’s within range of Romania.

The WebSDR receiver is located at the Astronomical Observatory Department of “Stefan cel Mare” University in Suceava, Romania, latitude 47.6417N longitude 26.2453E, grid locator KN37cp. The height ASL is 350m.

The hardware consists of two SDR receivers which are fed into 48 kHz sound cards on an AMD Sempron 2600+ computer running Vector Linux.

The web page displays a track showing the current position of HORYU-2 and also provides coverage of the 3.5 MHz (80m) band.

Listen to the HORYU-2 and 80m WebSDR.

More information about HORYU-2 437.375 MHz (+/- 9 kHz Doppler shift).

[ANS thanks AMSAT-UK for the above information]

North America Rare Grid EK69 Activation From Cayo Culebra Island

Members of the Radioclub Cancun will be active as 4A3RCC from Cayo Culebra Island, Mexico (NA-200) between June 1-3. Activity will be on 80-6 meters and possibly the Satellites. Special attention will be on 6m. Operators include: Jose Angel, XE3PP; Guillermo, XE3RA; Zalo, XE3N; Julio, XE3PHM; Jorge, XE3PBL; and Julio, XE3JMA.

Cayo Culebra is located on Reserve of Biosphere of Siaan Ka'an.

For more details, see the Radioclub Cancun Web page.

The main contact is Jose Angel Yanez, XE3PP; Presidente / President
EMAIL: radioclubcancun@hotmail.com

QSL via EA5FL:
JOSE MIGUEL MONCHO ALCARAZ
Apartado Postal : 252
03700 - DENIA
Spain

[ANS thanks the Ohio/Penn DX Bulletin No. 1063 for the above information]

Satellite Operations Planned for Worldwide Museum Ships Weekend

Museum Ships Weekend Coming Up June 2-3, 2012
by Allen F. Mattis, N5AFV, n5afv at amsat.org

The worldwide Museum Ships Weekend Event (MSWE) will be held for two days, June 2-3, 2012. Last year 83 ships in 13 countries around the world participated in the event. Amateur radio operators make special event contacts from these museum ships on all amateur radio bands with most of the contacts taking place on the HF bands. In the past
several years only two or three museum ships in North America have made satellite contacts during the event.

This year a number of Houston area AMSAT members, W5ACM, N5AFV and WC5WM, will participate with the Brazos Valley Amateur Radio Club (BVARC) operating club station KK5W from Seawolf Park on Pelican Island in Galveston, Texas. Seawolf Park is home to two Second World War vintage museum ships - the destroyer escort USS Stewart (DE-238) and the submarine USS Cavalla (SS-244). As a result, a contact with KK5W counts for two ships. Amateur radio operators who make contacts with 15 or more ships qualify for a handsome certificate.

The BVARC KK5W station plans to operate the afternoon passes of AO-27 and FO-29 on Saturday June 2nd and hope other AMSAT members will be operating from other ships. This will be their fifth year participating in the MSWE and hope to make their first MSWE satellite contact with another museum ship this year.

If any AMSAT members are interested in this event they may visit the MSWE website to find out if any museum ships near them are participating.

The Houston area based Brazos Valley Amateur Radio Club will celebrate its fifth year of participation in the annual Museum Ships Weekend Event, June 2-3, 2012 by offering a special commemorative certificate to amateur stations who contact all five Texas Based Museum ships during the event.

The five museum ships and their call signs include:

• The submarine USS Cavalla and Destroyer Escort USS Stewart (KK5W) in Galveston, Texas
• The Tall Ship Elissa (N5E) also in Galveston
• The Battleship USS Texas (NA5DV), in La Porte Texas
• The Aircraft Carrier USS Lexington (W5LEX) in Corpus Christi, Texas

To earn the Texas Navy Certificate, amateur stations must submit proof of contact with all five Texas Museum ships to QSL Manager, KK5W along with a #10 SASE. The address is in QRZ.com.

Museum Ships Weekend is an annual operating event sponsored worldwide by the Battleship New Jersey Amateur Radio Station with more than 90 ships participating this year. “We decided to put in a special Texastwist to the event to commemorate our five years of taking part”, said Ron Litt, K5HM, one of the Event Coordinators.

The Texas Navy Certificate is a cooperative effort between four different area clubs, In addition to the Brazos Valley club, members of the Battleship Texas Amateur Radio Station, The Tidelands Amateur Radio Society and the South Texas Amateur Radio Club are participating as well.

For more information contact: Ron Litt, K5HM; K5HM@arrl.net

[ANS thanks Allen Mattis, N5AFV for the above information]

High Altitude Balloon Crossband Repeater Payload Northeast USA

Amateur radio operators in New England and northern Atlantic coast in the US and Canada are invited to listen and operate via the crossband repeater payload on a high altitude balloon flight from Hermon, Maine. Launch is planned for June 2, 2012 at about 0830 EDT (UTC-4) by members of the Pine State Amateur Radio Club as one of the events
during the 25th Annual Bangor Hamfest at Hermon High School. The club is working with the University of Maine Electrical and Computer Engineering Department to plan and execute the flight.

The crossband repeater frequencies are:
Uplink: 147.570 MHz
Downlink: 446.100 MHz

The payload will also include APRS for position and altitude tracking. University of Maine tracking information can be found at the University of Maine website.

Coverage for the VHF/UHF repeater is estimated to be more than 450 miles. Stations as far away as western New York, Long Island, all of New England, and Maritime Canada should be able to work it.

The PSARC High Altitude Balloon team will award a certificate for the station furthest away from the balloon to make contact through the repeater. Please join in to help set a distance record for the repeater.

The latest launch information and more details are available on-line:
http://www.n1me.org/Hamfest.php
http://eece.maine.edu/umhab/ (which will be updated shortly before the launch.)

[ANS thanks Steve Jordan, KD1OM, President PSARC and Stuart Ballinger, WA2BSS for the above information]

ARISS Status - 21 May 2012

1. ARISS International Team Meeting Held
The ARISS International Team monthly meeting was held on May 15. Discussions included a status of the Ham TV project. Minutes have been posted.

2. Astronaut Training Status
Chris Hadfield, KC5RNJ/VA3OOG and Thomas Marshburn, KE5HOC, both slated to fly with Expedition 34, acquired their preflight training during a session on May 14. Alexander Gerst, KF5ONO (Expedition 40) took his introductory/ basic operations class on May 9.

Kevin Ford, KF5GPP is scheduled for a preflight session on May 22. He is scheduled to launch with the Expedition 33 crew in October 2012.

[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.

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 student rate for a maximum of 6 post-secondary years in this status. Contact Martha at the AMSAT Office for additional student membership information.

73,
This week's ANS Editor,
Lee McLamb, KU4OS
ku4os at amsat dot org

[K2NTT]

Should have chosen frequencies that are in the ham radio band world wide (144-146MHz / 430-440MHz) like they do with sats.
Unless they keep it on a leash, You can never tell if it won't end up in Spain, or Iceland, etc...

Nate.
K2NTT

High Altitude Balloon Crossband Repeater Payload Northeast USA

The crossband repeater frequencies are:
Uplink: 147.570 MHz
Downlink: 446.100 MHz