Date: November 30th 2008

AMSAT NEWS SERVICE ANS-335

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:

AO-51 Software Reload in Progress
ARISS Commemorative Event 25th Anniversary of Ham Radio in Space
SKN on OSCAR 2009
GENSO Groundstation Development Opportunity For Students
Call For Articles - Brief Author's Guide to the AMSAT Journal
ARISS Status Report for the Week of November 24, 2008

SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-335 01 AO-51 Software Reload in Progress

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 335 01

From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD November 30, 2008 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-335 01

AO-51 was reported as "not heard" starting Wednesday, November 26 by stations around the world The satellite's ground stations determined that AO-51 required a software reload AMSAT Vice President of Operations, Drew KO4MA reported, "It looks like we'll be reloading AO-51 for Thanksgiving Gould WA4SXM started the process this evening, and I expected it'll be Saturday or later before it's back open for general use "

Gould, WA4SXM reported on Saturday, November 29, "AO-51 reload was mostly successful and the main V/U repeater became operational on Friday The SQRX receiver task didn't reload and cause a the crash in the software We are in the process of reloading the SW and hope to have it operational the first of the week Thanks to Kevin, WA6FWF for all his work during the Thanksgiving holiday working on the soft- ware upload to AO51 "

The latest status for AO-51 remains as not operational with a soft- ware reload in progress Drew, KO4MA said, "Meanwhile, the 9600 baud downlink (only) on 435 150 is running at very high power, so it might be a good time to try your 9600 baud receive setups Please do not attempt any uplinks until the repeater is back on Once the satellite is recovered the Operations Team will test to deter- mine the appropriate operating mode "

The full AO-51 schedule and Command Team News can be found on-line at: http://www amsat org/amsat-new/echo/ControlTeam php The AMSAT main web page will also provide a quick status update when the infor- mation changes Operating mode requests can be sent via e-mail to ao51-modes@amsat org

[ANS thanks The AO-51 Command Team for the above information]

/EX

SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-335 02 ARISS Commemorative Event 25th Anniversary of Ham Radio in Space

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 335 02

From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD November 30, 2008 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-335 02

AMSAT-NA V P for Human Spaceflight Programs and ARISS Inter- national Chairman Frank Bauer, KA3HDO announced, "Twenty-five years ago this week, Owen Garriott, W5LFL, made history by being the first amateur radio operator to talk to hams from space Owen's historic flight on the STS-9 Space Shuttle Columbia mission was launched on ovember 28 and landed on December 8, 1983 Owen's ham radio adventure on STS-9 ushered in a host of outstanding out- reach activities that continue today with the ARISS program "

Frank continued, "Many will recall that first set of contacts and downlinks with Owen Those first contacts allowed each of us to share the excitement of space exploration through Owen's first-hand eyewitness accounts Owen's ham radio legacy enabled space travelers that have flown on the Space Shuttle, the Space Station Mir and now the International Space Station to share their journey of exploration "

"Owen's son Richard, W5KWQ just a month ago carried the torch further to become the first 2nd generation amateur rdaio operator to talk to hams from space What other hobby, except amateur radio, could or would open the communications lines of space travelers beyond that of the space agencies or international heads of state?"

To celebrate our 25 years of amateur radio operations from space, the ARISS team has planned a set of special event opportunities during the month of December and part of January A special certificate is being developed for those who communicate with the ISS, either 2-way direct (with the ISS crew,the digipeater, or cross band repeater), or 1-way reception of SSTV or voice downlink Several events will be described here with several "surprises" planned over the month-long celebration The surprises will be announced once we are prepositioned to accomplish them

Specifically, the following is being planned in the near-term:

December 1-5 - in addition to school contacts and APRS digi operations, we plan to configure the radio system for cross band repeater operations This will utilize the standard U/V operations in low power mode
December 7-12 we will run a test of 9600 baud packet operations on the simplex frequency 145 825 MHz
Given that PCSAT should be in full sun starting December 9, Dec ember 14-19 we will switch to 1200 baud packet on 145 825 to support double hop opportunities
And at times, especially during the weekends, you might see some SSTV operations if the crew is available

We will provide more updates in the near future We would like to remind everyone that ISS flight requirements related to EVA and vehicle activity may require the radio to be off for some portion of this schedule And school contacts and general QSO opportunities by the crew will also preempt this schedule for short periods of time (But remember that if you hearthese, you still qualify for a commemorative certificate)

Frank concluded, "In the meantime, enjoy the ARISS ops on ISS! And congratulations to Owen Garriott, W5LFL, on the 25th anniversary of his historic flight!!"

[ANS thanks Frank, KA3HDO for the above information]

/EX

SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-335 03 SKN on OSCAR 2009

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 335 03

From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD November 30, 2008 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-335 03

Ray Soifer, W2RS this week extended the annual cordial invitation to all radio amateurs worldwide to participate in AMSAT s Straight Key Night (SKN) on OSCAR 2009

Participating in SKN on OSCAR 2009 is easy No rules, no scoring and no need to send in a log Just operate CW through any OSCAR between 0000 and 2400 UTC on 1 January 2009, using a straight hand key

In keeping with the friendly nature of this event, all participants are encouraged to nominate someone they worked for "Best Fist " Your nominee need not have the best fist of those you heard, just of those you worked Please send your nomination to w2rs@amsat org A list of those nominated will appear in ANS and The AMSAT Journal CU SKN!

[ANS thanks Ray Soifer, W2RS for the above information]

/EX

SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-335 04 GENSO Groundstation Development Opportunity For Students

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 335 04

From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD November 30, 2008 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-335 04

GENSO Project Software Engineering Mentor, Dave, G4GPZ writing on behalf of the ESA Education Office invites students to apply to take part in the development of the system

The Groundstation Educational Network for Spacecraft Operations (GENSO) is a system is aimed at CubeSat operators and Amateur Sat- ellite users to enable more effective use of the devices by pro- viding better wordwide opportunities for telemetry recovery

More details can be found at http://www genso org and http://www esa int/esaED/SEMSOC5KXMF_index_0 html

The project is being sponsored by member agencies of ISEB

AMSAT-UK is participating in the project by providing equipment recommemdations, setting up reference ground stations, software for predictions and hardware driver

[ANS thanks Dave, G4DPZ and ESA for the above information]

/EX

SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-335 05 Call For Articles - Brief Author's Guide to the AMSAT Journal

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 335 05

From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD November 30, 2008 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-335 05

You are invited to share your amateur radio in space ideas and experiences with fellow satellite operators The AMSAT Journal, a bi-monthly publication of AMSAT-North America, brings you the latest information in satellite mission planning, satellite- related hardware design and construction, satellite-related soft- ware design and implementation, and amateur radio earth station construction

There are plenty of opportunities for you to share your ideas and experience across all levels Did you homebrew a successful antenna? Which setup did you use for your first satellite con- tacts? A brief write-up and photos are appreciated by everyone!

Do you have ideas about future amateur radio space missions? Can you describe unique aspects of a particular orbit and the equip- ment needed to make it work? Simply type out your ideas on your computer and send them in Let the AMSAT Journal editorial team do the clean up and formatting for you

Its easy to send your article to the AMSAT Journal e-mail box via journal@amsat org There is no need to do any special formatting on your submission because the final layout format is driven by the magazine's typesetting software All you need to include is:

Your text in MS-Word or plain text format
Graphics saved in separate files (jpg, gif, tiff)

(Actually, an MS-Word file with embedded graphics is the most diffi- cult format to typeset )

If you have any questions, or need some help feel free to contact the editors at the AMSAT Journal at journal@amsat org One of us will get back to you as soon as we can To assist with your planning the submission deadline for articles is the 15th of each odd numbered month

Ed Long, WA4SWJ Editor-in-Chief Tim Lilley, N3TL Assistant Editor Bill Hook, W3QBC Assistant Editor JoAnne Maenpaa, K9JKM Assistant Editor

[ANS thanks the AMSAT Journal for the above information]

/EX

SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-335 06 ARISS Status Report for the Week of November 24, 2008

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 335 06

From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD November 30, 2008 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-335 06

Upcoming School Contacts

The Wairarapa Home School Association in Carterton, Wairarapa, New Zealand had an ARISS contact on Wednesday, November 26 via telebridge station VK4KHZ in Australia Students learned about space exploration and the International Space Station to prepare for the contact Age appropriate studies, exercises, and activ- ities have been undertaken by all those who will be involved in the event which will include some of the parents

An ARISS contact has been scheduled with St Anthony's College in Shillong, India on Monday, December 1 at 08:04 UTC Telebridge station WH6PN will facilitate the contact

An ARISS contact has been approved for Alexandroupolis School of Special Education and 11th Alexandroupolis Primary School in Alex- androupolis, Greece The contact will take place on Monday, December 1 Astronomy and amateur radio lectures have been given in preparation for the event Special attention has been given to the role of humanity and science and to the every day life of an astronaut The ISS courses have been based on ESA's education tool "ISS Education Kit "

Quispamsis Elementary and Middle Schools in Quispamsis, New Bruns- wick, Canada have been scheduled for an ARISS contact on Thursday, December 4 at 18:02 UTC Math, Social Studies, and Literacy Skills have been emphasized through the participation of students in this project Subjects of amateur radio, space, satellites and the ISS have been integrated into the science curriculum Quispamsis Ele- mentary School (QES) and the Loyalist City Amateur Radio Club (LCARC) have participated in AMSAT-Echo-51 Satellite contacts for the past two years The Quispamsis Middle School has an enrichment program
Two years of students who participated in the satellite contacts at QES are also involved with this program The amateur radio instal- lation has been used to complement the enrichment program, and to demonstrate amateur radio to girl guides and scout troops Children have created posters for placement in the school to publicize the event and local and national media coverage is anticipated

First ARISS School Contact in New Zealand Successful

The first ARISS contact with a school in New Zealand took place on Thursday, November 20 Students from St Teresa's School in Wairarapa connected with the ISS via the telebridge station VK4KHZ in Australia
Astronaut Mike Fincke, KE5AIT answered all questions from the 21 students as an audience of 130 watched The audio was fed into the EchoLink AMSAT (101 377) and JK1ZRW (277 208) servers and received 7 connections from stations in Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the US
There was extensive media coverage which included TVNZ, The Dominion Post, The Wellington Daily News and The Wairarapa Times Age The con- tact was first reported on the late news on TV One at 10 30 pm on Thursday evening It was repeated on 4 different occasions during the Early Morning and Midday news on TV One and a 3-4 minute slot was given in the Friday 6 pm evening news The New Zealand Education Gazette editor also asked for details regarding the contact, as it is being written up for the December issue

The Dominion Post article has been posted on-line See: http://www stuff co nz/4767581a6479 html

To view The Wairarapa Times Age story, go to: http://www times-age co nz/localnews/storydisplay cfm?storyid=3790845&thesec tion=localnews&thesubsection=&thesecondsubsection=

TVNZ One News coverage may be found here: http://tvnz co nz/view/page/2324497

ARISS Celebrates International Education Week

Students from Poolesville, Maryland, Raleigh, North Carolina and Quito, Ecuador participated in a joint ARISS contact on Friday, November 14 as part of International Education Week (IEW)

The students, as well as family members and other guests, reconvened on Tuesday, November 18 Poolesville High School students visited the U S Department of Education in Washington, D C where approximately 150 students participated, and the North Carolina and Ecuador schools tied in via videoconference for another IEW session Former astronaut Don Thomas gave a presentation on International Exploration, from the past to the present, and ARISS Chairman Frank Bauer gave an overview of amateur radio and the ARISS contact using video of the students from the contact event They joined GSFC Earth Observation expert Robert Cahalan in the expert panel session Amateur radio operators from Hawaii, Italy, China, England, Spain, and Canada participated through a teleconference, giving talks about amateur radio and the culture of their countries Students participated in the sessions and asked questions in English, but also in foreign languages such as Spanish and German

ARISS International Team Meeting Held

The monthly ARISS International Team teleconference was held on Tuesday, November 18 Agenda items discussed included the next ARISS face to face meeting, SuitSat-2 status and on-orbit hardware The minutes have been posted to the ARISS Web site
See: http://www rac ca/ariss/arisstel2008-11-18 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 With that please keep in mind that the preferred brand of coffee served aboard the Titanic was Sanka, of course

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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