[ans] ANS-141 AMSAT News Service Weekly Bulletins

From: "[RADIOCOMM LIST]" <list.admin@aus-city.com>

Date: May 20th 2012

AMSAT NEWS SERVICE ANS-141

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 Satellite Education Focus at Dayton * Reminder - One Month to Field Day - AMSAT FD Rules On-Line * Japan Amateur Radio CubeSat Launch May 17 - Telemetry on 437 325 MHz * Three Hams Arrive at ISS & Prepare for SpaceX Dragon Arrival * CubeSat Article in Time Magazine * Promising Future of CubeSat Missions in UK Metro Newspaper * Satellite Shorts From All Over

SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-141 01 ANS-141 AMSAT News Service Weekly Bulletins

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 141 01 From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD May 20, 2012 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-141 01

AMSAT Satellite Education Focus at Dayton

This weekend marked the annual Dayton Hamvention AMSAT was present and active inside at the booth in the Ball Arena of the Hara Center and outside at the Satellite Demonstration area AMSAT Vice President for Educational Relations Mark Hammond, N8MH said, "This year, we had a focus on trying to get youth and first time operators ON THE AIR!"
The Satellite Demonstration area gave students, educators, and first time hams the opportunity to come to the microphone and make a satel- lite contact Between passes equipment and experienced operators were available for discussions and answers to questions Differences in operating techniques between FM and linear satellites were demonstra- ted Also differing levels of equipment ranging between very simple and portable stations to a full station with computer control were operating

Dayton also gave AMSAT and ARRL the opportunity to recruit new ARISS (Amateur Radio on the International Space Station) Technical Mentors and Ground Station Operators Mark, N8MH took advantage of the ARRL Stage on Friday and Saturday to explain the roles of ARISS Technical Mentors 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

The AMSAT Forum at Dayton, moderated by Alan Biddle, WA4SCA also in- cluded Mark's presentation on the current and future education work He described specific needs, especially in area of writing K-12 lesson plans (in science and math) using amateur satellite telemetry Educa- tors who are satellite operators should contact him directly at n8mh@amsat org and are encouraged to join the AMSAT-EDU mailing list to learn how they can help with our educational outreach (See: http://www amsat org/mailman/listinfo to join AMSAT-EDU )

AMSAT's university level mentorship of CubeSat development projects was presented by Alex Harvilchuck, N3NP as he discussed CubeSats at Pennsylvania State University-Erie

Also, at the AMSAT Forum, AMSAT Engineering VP, Tony Monteiro, AA2TX discussed Project Fox - AMSAT's First CubeSat which was accepted for launch by Project ELaNa, NASA's "Educational Launch of NanoSat" Fox-1 was selected to join the NASA ELaNa program on merit in support of NASA strategic and educational goals The "Running With Fox" theme at the AMSAT booth featured a model of the Fox-1 cubesat

[ANS thanks Gould Smith, WA4SXM, and Mark Hammond, N8MH for the above information]

Reminder - One Month to Field Day - AMSAT FD Rules On-Line

AMSAT Director Contests and Awards, Bruce Paige, KK5DO reminds you that time of year is once again approaching - Field Day!

Each year the American Radio Relay League (ARRL) sponsors Field Day as an emergency preparedness exercise The event takes place during a 24-hour period on the fourth weekend of June For 2012 the event takes place during a 27-hour period between 1800 UTC on Saturday, June 23, 2012 and 2100 UTC on Sunday June 24, 2012 Those who set up prior to 1800 UTC on June 23 can operate only 24 hours

The Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation (AMSAT) promotes its own ver- sion of Field Day for operation via the amateur satellites, held con- currently with the ARRL event

With the loss of AO-51 and SO-6ay this y ear is going to be most challenging If you are considering ONLY the FM voice satellites like AMRAD-OSCAR-27 or SaudiSat-Oscar-50 for your primary AMSAT Field Day focus: Don't, unless you are simply hoping to make one contact for the ARRL rules bonus points

The congestion on FM LEO satellites was so intense in prior years that we must continue to limit their use to one-QSO-per-FM-satellite This includes the International Space Station You will be allowed one QSO if the ISS is operating Voice You will also be allowed one digital QSO with the ISS or any other digital, non-store-and-forward, packet satellite (if operational)

If you have worked the satellites on Field Day in recent years, you may have noticed a lot of good contacts can be made on some of the less-populated, low-earth-orbit satellites like VUSat OSCAR-52,Fuji- OSCAR 29 (may or may not be operational), AMSAT-OSCAR 7 During Field Day the transponders come alive like 20 meters on a weekend The good news is that the transponders on these satellites will support multi- ple simultaneous contacts The bad news is that you can't use FM, just low duty cycle modes like SSB and CW

The AMSAT Field Day 2012 event is open to all Amateur Radio operators Amateurs are to use the exchange as specified in ARRL rules for Field Day The AMSAT competition is to encourage the use of all amateur sat- ellites, both analog and digital

For the complete listing of the AMSAT Field Day Rules please refer to the documents posted on-line at: http://www amsatnet com/fd2012 doc http://www amsatnet com/fd2012 pdf Links are also accessible from http://www amsat org front page

[ANS thanks AMSAT Director Contests and Awards, Bruce Paige, KK5DO for the above information]

Japan Amateur Radio CubeSat Launch May 17 - Telemetry on 437 375 MHz

The May 17 launch from Japan of the H-IIA rocket delivered a JAXA climate observation satellite SHIZUKU (GCOM-W) and a South Korean earth observation mission KOMPSAT-3 into orbit also launched an amateur radio satellite HORYU-2, built by students at the Kyushu Institute of Technology (KIT)

The HORYU-2 Cubesat includes several experiments: + 300 volt power generation in LEO + COTS technology demonstration of surface potential measurement + Orbital debris observation + Earth photography

The satellite callsign is JG6YBW and radio amateurs are asked to listen for the 437 375 MHz telemetry downlink The CW data is com- posed of an 11 character callsign "JG6YBW HORYU" followed by 15 characters of telemetry data Details of the telemetry format are available via a link on the AMSAT-UK web, see: http://www uk amsat org/7404

More information is available on the web: Horyu website in Google English: http://tinyurl com/HoryuSatellite http://www uk amsat org/6638 http://www uk amsat org/4279 http://www uk amsat org/7404 http://www uk amsat org/7540 (showing Horyu-2 separation on-orbit)

Initial TLE set can be found on-line at: http://kitsat ele kyutech ac jp/Documents/ground_station/TLE txt

The 437 375 MHz telemetry downlink also transmits 1200 bps AX 25 packet radio There is a monthly competition for those who send data received from the telemetry to the KIT server, via the HORYU-2 telemetry analysis software which can be downloaded from: http://kitsat ele kyutech ac jp/Documents/information_launch_english html

Day 1 Initial Reception Reports

The CW signal from HORYU-2 was copied in South America by LW2DTZ on 437 375 MHz on May 17 on a 10 degree elevation pass using 7 element yagi antenna A strong downlink CW beacon signal was heard in Sudan by ST2NH GW1FKY reported a strong signal was heard in Wales, UK JE9PEL captured downlink telemetry from Japan

[ANS thanks the Horyu-2 team and AMSAT-UK for the above information]

Three Hams Arrive at ISS & Prepare for SpaceX Dragon Arrival

The three crew members who are licensed amateur radio operators were successfully launched on Monday aboard a Russian Soyuz TMA-04M space craft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan and have arrived at the International Space Station The three ham crew consists of NASA Flight Engineer Joseph Acaba, KE5DAR, and two Russian crewmates, Soy- uz Commander Gennady Padalka, RN3DT, and Flight Engineer Sergei Revin, RN3BS

Their arrival brings the crew roster up to six as they join Expedi- tion 31 Commander Oleg Kononenko, RN3DX, of the Russian Federal Space Agency, Flight Engineer Don Pettit, KD5MDT, of NASA and Flight Engin- eer Andrei Kuipers, PI9ISS, of the European Space Agency, who have been aboard the ISS since December 2011

NASA reported on the events after arrival of the crew in their ISS On-Orbit Status report posted at: http://tinyurl com/ISS-On-Orbit The NASA ISS daily status report for May 18 notes that Joe, KE5DAR also powered on the ham radio station in the Russian Service Module A NASA video report of the ISS crew activities can be viewed at: http://www youtube com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=bA9PXqX_L4Y

The new crew members will begin preparations for the arrival of an unmanned Dragon cargo ship built by SpaceX Originally scheduled for launch on May 19, a faulty check valve on an engine caused an abort SpaceX is replacing the failed valve The next launch attempt is at present planned for Tuesday, May 22 at 3:44 AM EDT (UTC-4)

Dragon will deliver about 1150 pounds of food, clothing and other low-priority items The capsule then will be repacked with around 1455 pounds of trash and no-longer-needed components and detached from the space station on May 31 SpaceX plans to guide the craft back to Earth for a parachute descent to a Pacific Ocean splashdown to complete the test flight If the test flight goes well, SpaceX hopes to begin routine cargo delivery missions in August, 2012

The Dragon capsule will also deliver 15 student experiments from the Student Spaceflight Experiments Program (SSEP) See: http://www space-travel com/reports/Space_Station_Here_We_Come_999 html

Soon after Dragon a Russian Progress vehicle will arrive In July a Japanese HTV cargo ship will arrive The crew will also be managing over 215 scientific investigations affecting over 400 scientists on the ground

An on-line Expedition 31 Mission Status page can be found at: http://spaceflightnow com/station/exp31/status html For additional details of the Soyuz launch see: http://spaceflightnow com/station/exp31/120514launch/ Archived video of the Soyuz launch can be viewed on-line at: http://www universetoday com/95174/expedition-31-blasts-off/

[ANS thanks SpaceFlightNow com and UniverseToday com for the above information]

CubeSat Article in Time Magazine

In an article titled, "How a Pocket-Size Satellite Could Find Another Earth", Time Magazine reports that unlike the massive NASA Kepler probe the next mission to search for new planets will be a tiny CubeSat called ExoplanetSat

Time says: What makes ExoplanetSat even more un-NASA-like is that it began as a class project - although admittedly, the class was at MIT It was a design-and-build course, which the university's engineering students have to take in order to graduate In a recent semester, the class was co-taught by Sara Seager [KB1WTW] an astrophysicist who has done groundbreaking research studying how the atmospheres of planets orbiting dis- tant stars might look like from earthly telescopes Seager re- cruited five science undergrads to join her engineers, on the theory that out in the real world, they'd eventually have to work with engineers anyway

The group is developing a prototype ExoplanetSat capable of mon- itoring a single, bright, sun-like star for two years Planned to launch late 2012 or 2013 it is hoped it will open the gates for ExoplanetSat interest and funding Once the funding doors are opened, then the fleet of ExoplanetSats can be launched The fleet may contain as many as a hundred of these small satellites, each focused on its own star

In a 2011 visit to Cambridge, UK, Sara said "The reason why we're excited is because we think that this is a really huge thing Hun- dreds and thousands of years from now, people will look back and ask, what are the significant accomplishments of our society in the early twenty-first century? One of them will be that we were the first to discover other worlds and other worlds that might be like Earth When you think back four hundred years, what do you remember? You think about Christopher Columbus and Lewis and Clark It's the exploration-finding things that were new to our culture And that's why we're excited "

Read the Times Magazine article at http://www time com/time/health/article/0,8599,2114158,00 html

MIT paper on ExoplanetSat http://dspace mit edu/openaccess-disseminate/1721 1/61644

AMSAT-UK article at: http://www uk amsat org/7348

[ANS thanks AMSAT-UK for the above information]

Promising Future of CubeSat Missions in UK Metro Newspaper

The May 14, 2012 edition of the Metro newspaper carried a story by Ben Gilliland, "The next space age: Cuberty", on pages 26-27 about CubeSats Among those mentioned is the UK amateur radio Android smartphone CubeSat STRaND-1 which is being built by volunteers at the Surrey Space Centre (SSC)

The online edition of the Metro newspaper can be read at: http://e-edition metro co uk/2012/05/14/ You will be prompted for an email address but anything that looks like an email address will keep the prompt happy and you can then read the newspaper

Ben Gilliland's article is also available on the CosmOnline website at: http://www cosmonline co uk/blog/2012/05/14/next-space-age-cuberty

See also: http://www uk amsat org/7395

[ANS thanks Trevor, M5AKA and AMSAT-UK for the above information]

Satellite Shorts From All Over

It is time to submit nominations for the upcoming open seats on the AMSAT-NA Board of Directors Three directors and two alternate directors have terms expiring this year The director seats open for election are held by Tom Clark, K3IO; Lou McFadin, W5DID; and Gould Smith, WA4SXM The alternate director seats open for election are held by Mark Hammond, N8MH and Patrick Stoddard, WD9EWK The AMSAT front page news at http://www amsat org has the instructions to submit your nominations
The 2012 AMSAT Annual Meeting and Symposium will be held at the Holiday Inn, Orlando (Florida) Airport on October 26-28, 2012 The First Call for Papers has been issued The Symposium Team requests a tentative title of your presentation as soon as poss- ible, with final copy to be submitted by October 1 for inclusion in the printed proceedings Abstracts and papers should be sent to Dan Schultz, N8FGV, at n8fgv at amsat org Watch for the latest 2012 Symposium information to be posted on the AMSAT web at: http://www amsat org/amsat-new/symposium/2012/index php
While the AMSAT on-line store is closed due to technical issues you can place an order through the AMSAT office The hours are 10:00 AM - 6:00 PM EDT Our phone number is 301-589-6062 Martha is looking forward to hearing from you!
Clint Bradford, K6LCS and Rich Arland K7SZ collaborated on an article, "Learning Curve - Working the Birds" which was just pub- lished in the May, 2012 Dayton Special issue of CQ magazine
The future plans of the QB50 network of 50 CubeSats in a 'string- of-pearls' configuration that will be launched together in the first half of 2015 by a single rocket has caught the attention of the press The UK Daily Mail published an article how the network of 50 satellites aims to find out what happens INSIDE the northern lights and hopefully 'forecast' solar weather See: http://tinyurl com/UKMail-QB50
A Video showing a time lapse view of Earth's Northern Hemisphere from Russia's Electro-L Weather Satellite is posted at: http://www spaceref com/news/viewsr html?pid=40807
Two videos, one of the Aalto-1, about Finland's first satellite project, showing their new groundstation and an animation of the mission is posted on the AMSAT-UK web at: http://www uk amsat org/7371
Though likely no operation on amateur radio satellites at this time, the re-planned TX5, Clipperton Island DXpedition has a plan to utilize satellites The Cordell Expeditions is pleased to announce a DXpedition to Clipperton Island in early 2013 The team of 24 will sail from San Diego on February 19, 2013, and will be active from Clipperton for 10 days starting around March 1 They will be active on all bands and all modes, and will use DXA, the satellite-linked system that displays near-real-time log data on any Web browser They state, "We invite your participation in this project, as a team member, supporter, or callsign in our log!" Clipperton Island Web page: http://www cordell org/CI/index html Details of DXA satellite program: http://www cordell org/DXA/ The DXA program is also planned to be used on a Cordell Expeditions trip to VK0H, Heard Island in early 2014 (via Ohio/Penn DX Bulletin #1062, and #1062 2)
51 years ago on May 5, 1961, NASA launched the Mercury-Redstone 3 rocket carrying Alan B Shepard, Jr aboard the Freedom 7 capsule Shepard successfully became America's first man in space, making a brief but historic suborbital test flight that propelled Ameri- can astronauts into the space race of the 1960s NASA has compiled a video from from photographs taken by a film camera mounted to the Freedom 7 spacecraft Compare the view in 1961 with the latest generation of space video we routinely receive from the ISS Watch at: http://www universetoday com/95016/the-view-from-freedom-7/
Tom Doyle, W9KE posted a video demonstrating a feature he hoped to turn into a SatPC32 Add-On It provides a "Look Down" perspective as if you were a passenger aboard the satellite The video is HD and looks best viewed full screen in 720p Watch it at: http://www youtube com/watch?v=g1K1sIw_F8Y
Check out the view of the Big Dipper from 290 million km away taken by NASA's Juno spacecraft en route to Jupiter: http://tinyurl com/Juno-Big-Dipper (UniverseToday com)

[ANS thanks everyone 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 addi- tional 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 stu- dent rate for a maximum of 6 post-secondary years in this status Contact Martha at the AMSAT Office for additional student membership information And with that please keep in mind if you were to take all of the water on Earth, all of the fresh water, sea water, ground water, water vapor and water inside our bodies, take all of it and somehow collect it into a single, giant sphere of liquid, it would make a ball 860 miles (1,385 km) in diameter, only about as wide edge-to-edge as the distance between Salt Lake City to Topeka, Kansas That's it

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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