Date: August 26th 2007

AMSAT NEWS SERVICE ANS-238

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

AMSAT 2007 Space Symposium **

The Wireless Association of South Hills Amateur Radio Club announces the 2007 AMSAT Space Symposium will be held at the Pittsburgh Airport Marriott Hotel on Friday, October 26 through Sunday, October 28, 2007 The AMSAT web team has posted informational pages on the AMSAT web site You can find the announcement with many links at: http://www amsat org/amsat-new/symposium/2007/index php

In this edition:

Special Satellite Operating Event on ANDE for August 28 + 30
G0SFJ Satellite Mini-DXpedition to LZ and YO
Digital Communications Conference September 28-30
Satellite Shorts From All Over
ARISS Status Report For The Week of August 20, 2007

SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-238 01 Special Satellite Operating Event on ANDE for August 28 + 30

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 238 01

From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD August 26, 2007 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-238 01

The US Naval Academy Satellite Laboratory announced a special ANDE Operations Event for the Tuesday, August 28 and Thursday, August 30 morning passes over the US East Coast

Bob, WB4APR described the operation plans, "On Tuesday, Naval Academy stuents will operate ANDE to gather statistics on the success rate of the APRS mission We invite participation, attended or unattended and request these guidelines be followed: 1) Tracking Base stations transmit at 5 minute intervals 2) 50W mobiles transmit at 3 minute intervals 3) 5W HT's transmit at 1 minute intervals

Bob reminds amateurs, "Please do not transmit more often, as it will mess up the statistics It would be helpful if you put your station info in your posit text so we could confirm the validity of the sta- tistics of your transmit rate" We recommend something like: "Base=5min +10 dB" "50W =3min w 5/8ths" "HT=1min w 19" ant"

On Thursday, the Naval Academy may activate the packet to voice synthesizer

ANDE operates on 145 825 MHz simplex and responds to packets that are addressed VIA APRSAT or VIA ARISS For more information please See http://www ew usna edu/~bruninga/ande-ops html

[ANS thanks the US Naval Academy Satellite Laboratory for the above information]

/EX

SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-238 02 G0SFJ Satellite Mini-DXpedition to LZ and YO

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 238 02

From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD August 26, 2007 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-238 02

Andy, G0SFJ operated on the FM satellites with an Arrow Antenna and a FT51-R from Bulgaria (LZ) on August 12-13 and from Romania (YO) on August 18

From Belite Brezi, Bulgaria Andy reported working these stations via AO51: G7HIA, 9H1FF, F6CDZ, G0VHS, PD1DRE, SW1IXP, OZ1MY, and DG9YIB

From Bucharest, Romania Andy worked IW0DTK while operating portable in Herastrau Park Later that evening he worked ON5SA while operat- ing in a sunflower field

Photos of Andy's portable satellite operations can be seen at: http://andythomasmail googlepages com/qrpportablewitharrow

[ANS thanks Andy, G0SFJ for the above information]

/EX

SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-238 03 Digital Communications Conference September 28-30

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 238 03

From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD August 26, 2007 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-238 03

The 26th Annual ARRL/TAPR Digital Communications Conference to be held on September 28-30, 2007 in Hartford, CT will feature topics of interest to amateur satellite operators AMSAT Director and VP Engineering, Bob McGwier, N4HY, will have several presentations

On September 30 Bob will present the Sunday Seminar, "A Stroll Through Software Radio, Information Theory, and Some Applications " Software Radio will be the main theme and a package of tutorials and give away software will be a part of the seminar

The Software Defined Radio linear transponder system in AMSAT's spacecraft will be discussed Some necessary information theory will be discussed with examples with the goal of leaving the attendee with a working know- ledge of the practical use of this theory in thinking about communication systems As time permits, Bob will show some software radio systems from the $30 softrock40 to GnuRadio/USRP doing multi megabit per second OFDM on the air and then a technical description of the Flex5000 and DttSP will be given

Additional Software Defined Radio topics among the digital offerings at the conference include:

The FSM Virtual Radio Kernel: Why, What, & How (In That Order); Frank Brickle, PhD, AB2KT
AMSATÃ‚Â¹s Phase IV (lite)?; Bob McGwier
On A Method for Automatic Image Balancing in IQ Mixer Based Software Defined Receivers; Bob McGwier, N4HY
TPSK31: Getting the Trellis Coded Modulation Advantage; Bob McGwier, N4HY
The Flex 5000 Software Defined Transceiver; Gerald Youngblood, K5SDR

And also known to AMSAT members, Bob Bruninga, WB4APR has written a paper for the conference: The APRS Local Voice Repeater Initiative

Additional information and on-line registration is at: http://www tapr org/dcc

[ANS thanks TAPR for the above information]

/EX

SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-238 04 Satellite Shorts From All Over

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 238 04

From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD August 26, 2007 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-238 04

Satellite operators can find the latest information about New Zealand's KiwiSAT at http://www kiwisat org which is upAugust 26d weekly Terry, ZL3QL wrote, "The project is well down the track to completion and this page will give a good idea of what is still required " He invited ama- teurs to check out and respond to http://www kiwisat org nz/funding html
Matthias, DD1US invites satellite operators to visit his "Sounds from Space" site at http://www dd1us de He has posted a collection of recordings from various space objects Most of them are ham radio satellites and space ships
NASA's two venerable Voyager spacecraft are celebrating three decades of flight as they head toward interstellar space Their ongoing odysseys mark an unprecedented and historic accomplishment Voyager 2 launched on Aug 20, 1977, and Voyager 1 launched on Sept 5, 1977 They continue to return information from distances more than three times farther away than Pluto
Zarya, the International Space Station's first component to go into space, passed the 50,000th orbit mark this week on August 14 Zarya, which is Russian for "Sunrise", was funded by the United States and built by Russia It launched atop a Proton rocket from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Nov 20, 1998
An interactive guide to the International Space Station can be found on-line at: http://www nasa gov/externalflash/ISSRG/index htm
Google Earth software has now added the capability to view images of the sky Using the new "Sky in Google Earth" feature you can zoom in Hubble images Version 4 2 of the software at http://earth google com/ contains the additional sky watching features
While not quite amateur radio related, many hams enjoy learning about scientific work in other fields The events taking place today at CERN's Large Hadron Collider outside Geneva, Switzerland by one of the world's largest assembled teams of scientists attempting to discover what is considered the "Holy Grail" of particle physics, the Higgs Boson, and recreate the conditions that existed a few seconds after the Big Bang are highlighted in an interesting on-line BBC video at: http://video google com/videoplay?docid=6454521153918323669

[ANS thanks everyone for the above information]

/EX

SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-238 05 ARISS Status Report For The Week of August 20, 2007

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 238 05

From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD August 26, 2007 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-238 05

University Students Radio ISS

Fifteen students who attend Kursk State University in Russia experienced a successful ARISS contact on Thursday, August 9 The students spoke with cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin, RN3FI, on board the ISS from Mount Elbrus in the Caucasus Mountains, Russia

ARISS Contact with Teacher Barbara Morgan, Successful

The McCall-Donnelly School District in McCall, Idaho participated in an ARISS contact on Thursday, August 16, via the telebridge station VK5ZAI in Australia The school district consists of two high schools, one middle school, and two elementary schools and approximately 900 students During the contact, eleven students asked one question each of Barbara Morgan, KD5VNP, in front of an audience of 300 Local media outlets in McCall, Idaho were present to cover the news

The event was aired live on NASA TV and can be heard online and via podcast at: http://www nasa gov/multimedia/podcasting/STS118_morgan_radio html

Space com ran an article on MorganÃ‚Â’s space activities including the ARISS contact with the McCall-Donnelly School District See: http://www space com/missionlaunches/070816_sts118_morgan_idaho html

Upcoming School Contacts

Nanjing No 3 High School in Nanjing, Jiangsu, P R China has been sched- uled for an ARISS contact on Sunday, August 26 at 10:49 UTC To prepare for the contact, elective courses will be offered on amateur radio and contests will be held to determine the best essays and cartoons concerning ARISS Other schools in the area will be invited to the event The school has an active amateur radio club which was established in 1992 and has been a five time winner of the national youth amateur radio contest Local hams and businesses will support the students with the contact Extensive media coverage is expected from newspapers, television and radio stations and the internet The audio for this event will be fed into the EchoLink AMSAT (101 377), the JSDXC (337 784) and JK1ZRW (277 208) servers The audio from this event is also planned to be fed into the IRLP Discovery Reflector 9010

Amagasaki Child Science Hall, located in Amagasaki, Hyogo, Japan has been scheduled for an ARISS contact on Tuesday, August 28 at 08:27 UTC The children will learn the history of Amagasaki, its economic growth and the problems associated with its growth, such as pollution They will cover environmental issues and weather patterns that occur globally, and will discuss the purpose of the ISS An engineer will be invited to speak to the children and will arrange for a tour at his companyÃ‚Â’s research institute to increase the childrenÃ‚Â’s interest in space

An ARISS contact has been planned for Ashland Greenwood High School in Ashland, Nebraska on Wednesday, August 29 at 15:59 UTC A NASA committee was formed at the school, comprised of teachers from grades K-12, in order to promote earth and space science The school will present one space fact per day to the students over a five week period and at the end of this time a contest will be held to see who remembers the most facts Clay Anderson, KD5PLA, is an alumnus of the school and visited students there in March 2007 Information about him has been posted to http://www agps org/ This event is expected to receive newspaper and television coverage This contact is a Clay Anderson crew pick

Gail Borden Public Library to Contact ISS via Amateur Radio

The Gail Borden Public Library in Elgin, Illinois, has been tentatively scheduled for an ARISS contact during the week of September 3 Gail Borden Public Library has posted its press release on the event See: http://www gailborden info/LivewithISS html

ARISS Video to be Presented at AMSAT Symposium

The Orlando, Florida Area Coordinator for AMSAT is currently working on a presentation to be given at the 2007 Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation (AMSAT) Space Symposium which will be held in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on October 26- 28 The presentation will include video from the July 17 ARISS contact with the Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children

[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

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

The following information is a reminder of your current mailing list subscription:

You are subscribed to the following list: [list_name]

using the following email: example@example.com

You may automatically unsubscribe from this list at any time by visiting the following URL:

http://www aus-city com/cgi-bin/dada/mail cgi/u/[list]/

If the above URL is inoperable, make sure that you have copied the entire address Some mail readers will wrap a long URL and thus break this automatic unsubscribe mechanism

You may also change your subscription by visiting this list's main screen:

http://www aus-city com/cgi-bin/dada/mail cgi/list/[list]

If you're still having trouble, please contact the list owner at: