Date: November 18th 2007

AMSAT NEWS SERVICE ANS-322

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:

AMSAT Maryland Lab Progress Report
ISS Amateur Radio Summary
ANDE De-Orbit Award
Arthur Z Rowe, N1ORC Silent Key
Satellite Shorts From All Over
ARISS Status Report for the Week of November 12, 2007

SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-322 01 AMSAT Maryland Lab Progress Report

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 322 01

From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD November 18, 2007 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-322 01

Recently, at the 2007 AMSAT Space Symposium, Robert Davis, KF4KSS, AMSAT Lab Manager and Assistant Vice-President of Engineering discussed the progress of building out the new AMSAT Satellite Integration Laboratory in Pokomoke, Maryland

This laboratory is a collaborative effort between AMSAT and the Hawk Ins- titute for Space Sciences (HISS), a division of the Maryland Hawk Corpor- ation which is a 501(c)(3) non-profit educational organization affiliated with the University of Maryland Eastern Shore (UMES) HISS is located in Pocomoke, Maryland, on the eastern shore of the Chesapeake Bay This facility is about two and a half hours southeast of Washington, D C and is also near the NASA Wallops Facility

The clean room walls have been cleaned and are currently being assembled The contractor for the fire sprinkler system is expected to complete work in early November The office walls have been completed and the laboratory,

electrostatic workstations, soldering equipment, and machine shop are near- ing final stages of construction

The 5000 square foot facility will also house a satellite earth station expected to be installed in February, 2008 The laboratory will begin to be used with a university Cubesat project in accordance with AMSATÃ‚Â’s agreement The Eagle satellite will be built and integrated at this facility also

AMSATÃ‚Â’s Lab was also utilized for a university student project called the HAWK High Altitude Student Platform (HASP) This was an interdisciplinary program with fourteen students which built and launched a balloon project to 120,000Ã‚Â’ The program will continue at the AMSAT Lab in 2008 and will be able to handle higher capacity payloads

[ANS thanks Robert, KF4KSS, AMSAT Lab Manager for the above information]

/EX

SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-322 02 ISS Amateur Radio Summary

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 322 02

From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD November 18, 2007 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-322 02

Kenneth, N5VHO, ARISS Project Engineer said this week, "Amateur radio operations on the ISS have had an interesting year After being unavail- able for months, the packet system was able to be partially restored when Suni Williams performed some basic manual reprogramming of the Kenwood D700 in June "

Since early September, packet has been operational on 145 825 simplex and will stay there until a complete reprogramming of the D700 system is performed A target date for fully restoring the radio has not been set It is hoped that the access to a computer on orbit and certification of the reprogramming software can be finalized for implementation during Expedition 17 Basic voice and packet operations are working but the crossband repeater is not available Future SSTV operations are on hold until issues related to the system and the radio can be resolved

School contacts have had a banner year so far with 74 contacts made since January 1, 2007 through October 31, 2007 This is the most ever school contacts recorded in a calendar year Expedition 15 set a new school contact record for most school contacts by an expedition crew with 39 Suni Williams contributed 16, Fyodor Yurchikhin had 3 and Clay Anderson finishing out the expedition with 20

The top 5 individual school contact counts for a single tour are: 1) Bill McArthur - 37 2) Suni Williams - 33 3) Leroy Chiao - 23 4) Frank Culbertson - 22 5) Clay Anderson - 21

NASA has stated that the next several months will be extremely difficult with all the activity on the ISS During Expedition 16, three new modules (Harmony, Columbus and the Japanese pressurized storage module) will be installed on the ISS Expedition 16 is planned to have three shuttle flights, 2 Soyuz flights, 2 progress flights and the maiden launch of the Automated Transfer Vehicle No school contacts are planned for the next several months Unattended operational support of the amateur radio equipment will be sporadic Resumption of amateur radio related activities should be possible 2008

[ANS thanks Kenneth, N5VHO for the above information]

/EX

SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-322 03 ANDE De-Orbit Award

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 322 03

From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD November 18, 2007 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-322 03

Henk, PA3GUO invites everyone to participate in ANDE's Final Weeks in orbit special event He said, "ANDE (NO-61) will de-orbit some- time in the next 4 weeks We do not know exactly, but that's the challenge and the fun!

A special ANDE de-Orbit AWARD can be obtained by everyone who makes QSOs via ANDE or receives telemetry during its final 10 days in space Your callsign and achievements will be listed on the award certificate

ANDE APRS QSOs:

1 point for each 2 way APRS QSO over ANDE in its last 10 days of life Example: 00:01:31:24:KB1GVR]APU25N,ANDE-1*,qAO,K8YSE-6::KC2PCR :GA Doug 00:01:31:42:KC2PCR]APRS,ANDE-1*,qAO,KB2CEV::KB1GVR:G'Afternoon Mark ;)

ANDE Telemetry Reception:

10 points for telemetry packets on the last day 9 points for telemetry packets on the last day -1 1 point for telemetry packets on the last day -9

In total 55 Telemetry points can be achieved, all to be scored in the last 10 days

Bob, WB4APR, will set the official date/time of de-orbit The 10 days before that date then count for the calculation of your achievements But you do not know before when those days will be

Further details such as shipping costs and the submission email address will be announced in the coming days

Have fun - and keep ANDE busy in its final exciting days in space !

Bob, WB4APR Mike, DK3WN Henk, PA3GUO

For questions on the award please contact PA3GUO (pa3guo @ amsat org) For current status of ANDE: http://www ew usna edu/~bruninga/ande-ops html

[ANS thanks Henk, PA3GUO for the above information ]

/EX

SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-322 04 Arthur Z Rowe, N1ORC Silent Key

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 322 04

From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD November 18, 2007 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-322 04

AMSAT received the sad news this week that Arthur Z Rowe, N1ORC became a Silent Key Many of you may know Arthur from his email postings on space related topics on the AMSAT and Sarex bulletin boards Arthur was a good friend and an avid manned space station enthusiast He was well known by many of the Mir and ISS ham crews His last Sarex message was posted the day before he became a silent key

[ANS thanks Miles, WF1F for the above information]

/EX

SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-322 05 Satellite Shorts From All Over

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 322 05

From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD November 18, 2007 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-322 05

Clive, G3CWV is requesting OSCAR-11 reception reports Please send reception reports to his callsign @amsat org or post to them to the amsat-bb Clive's website at http://www users zetnet co uk/clivew/
has additional information of this satellite which transmits on 145 826 MHz Eclipses have now started and are expected to continue until mid January 2008 Although the maximum duration of the current eclipses is less than those earlier this year, it is doubtful whether the satellite will be heard for any sustained period While in contin- uous sunlight during September and October the satellite was unable to support continuous operation
Cor, PD0RKC invites interested readers to visit his Ham Radio In Space website at http://pd0rkc ontwikkel nl He features a video showing Brazilian astronaut, Marcos Pontes, PYÃƒÂ˜AEB using the ARISS radio gear
John, G7HIA and Robert, G8ATE will award the SPUTNIK certificate to any Amateur Radio Station who worked SPUTNIK-1 special event station GB5OSO an any of the following satellites AO7, AO27, SO50, AO51, and AO52 Details are available at http://www turlington supanet com
Wouter Jan Ubbels, PE4WJ released a beta version of Warbler, a JAVA 1200bit/s BPSK AX 25 soundcard demodulator to copy the signals from AO-16 and IO-26 See: http://home casema nl/b ubbels/Warbler htm

[ANS thanks everyone for the above information]

/EX

SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-322 06 ARISS Status Report for the Week of November 12, 2007

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 322 06

From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD November 18, 2007 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-322 06

Amateur Radio Day Includes ARISS Program

The Ontario County Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Services (RACES) planned a few events in honor of local native Pam MelroyÃ‚Â’s STS-120 mission Mid- lakes Intermediate School in Clifton Springs, New York was one of eight schools that participated in a video Web conference with Sandy Magnus, KC5FYE, on October 31 which was viewed by 3447 students and 160 teachers The conference received television and newspaper coverage

On November 2, the school held an Ã‚Â“Amateur Radio DayÃ‚Â” in which nearly 300 students and 25 teachers participated The day began with an assembly, followed by a number of activities Local amateur radio operators gave an ARISS and satellite presentation They provided an outdoor antenna exercise, demonstrated tracking software and covered wave theory with a signal generator and oscilloscope There was also an outdoor transmitter hunt, a special event HF station and a Ã‚Â“Send your name in Morse CodeÃ‚Â” exercise An Internet Radio Linking Project (IRLP) contact was made through node 5400 in Manchester, England Media outlets reported on the event Students and teachers requested information on how to get licensed The radio club will supply Technician License Manuals to the schoolÃ‚Â’s library

DLN ARISS Module

Johnson Space Center is developing a module on the ARISS program for the Digital Learning Network (DLN) The module will incorporate ARISS lesson plans Thousands of school children are reached through DLN each year

[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

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