[ans] ANS-139 AMSAT News Service Weekly Bulletins

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

Date: May 18th 2013

AMSAT NEWS SERVICE ANS-139

The AMSAT News Service bulletins are a free, weekly news and infor- mation service of AMSAT North America, The Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation ANS publishes news related to Amateur Radio in Space including 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

The news feed on http://www amsat org publishes news of Amateur Radio in Space as soon as our volunteers can post it

Please send any amateur satellite news or reports to: ans-editor at amsat org

In this edition:

AMSAT Fox-1 Launch Date Announced
AMSAT At The Dayton Hamvention
DARC and UBA Support Amateur Radio in Tunisia
Frequencies announced for HamTV from the International Space Station
AMSAT-UK International Space Colloquium News
Merritt Island High School StangSat Progress and Launch Date

SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-139 01 ANS-139 AMSAT News Service Weekly Bulletins

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 139 01 From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD May 19, 2013 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-139 01

AMSAT Fox-1 Launch Date Announced

NASA announced on May 13, 2013 that AMSATs Fox-1 spacecraft has been assigned for launch in 2014 on the ELaNa XII mission The expected orbit is 470 x 780 km at 64 degrees inclination This orbit has a lifetime of about 11 years

AMSAT Vice President Engineering, Tony Monteiro, AA2TX, reported that the software development team successfully brought up the Fox-1 system software on the Internal Housekeeping Unit (IHU) The IHU is the brains of the Fox-1 satellite and it has a 32-bit, STM32L microprocessor The operating IHU card was shown in the AMSAT Engineering booth at the Dayton Hamvention

The Fox-1 Engineering Team will deliver the satellite for integration with the launch vehicle during May, 2014 with the launch scheduled for November, 2014 Tony commented, While this is later than we had hoped, it is well within the normal variance of ELaNa launch dates and the extra time will be most welcome for additional satellite testing This is very exciting news and really puts the focus on finishing the satellite and ground station software development

President Barry Baines says, AMSATs focus on STEM education and development of a cubesat platform capable of flying a science mission with a reliable communications link resulted in the selection of Fox-1 in the third round and RadFxSat (Fox-1B) in the fourth round of NASAs Cubesat Launch Initiative

All Fox cubesats are designed to host advanced science payloads to support future science missions that help us to continue qualify for NASA ELaNa (free) launches The Phase 1 Fox satellites are 1-Unit CubeSats They each include an analog FM repeater that will allow simple ground stations using an HT and an arrow type antenna to make contacts using the satellite This was the mode made so popular by AO-51 The Phase 1 CubeSats also have the capability of operating in a high-speed digital mode for data communications Phase 2 Fox satellites will include software-defined-transponders (SDX) like the one tested on ARISSat-1 These will be able to operate in a wide variety of analog and digital communications modes including linear transponders Since this requires more power for reliable operation, these will probably all be 3-Unit CubeSats Watch the AMSAT Journal and the AMSAT web (http://www amsat org) page for more news and details

[ANS thanks the AMSAT Fox Team for the above information ]

AMSAT At The Dayton Hamvention

This is past week the really big show in Amateur Radio was the 2013 Hamvention near Dayton, Ohio

AMSAT's theme this year at Dayton was "AMSAT - A View to the Future "

Thursday, 16 May, featured the third Annual AMSAT "Dinner at Tickets" party held at Tickets Pub & Eatery in Fairborn, OH

Friday, 17 May, concluded with the AMSAT/TAPR Banquet The banquet is one of the main AMSAT activities during the Hamvention at Dayton The speaker this year was Bruce Perens, K6BP, sharing the humorous history of technology evangelism: "The Evangelist's Dilemma: Driving New Ideas With Nothing But Words "

Saturday, 18 May, included the opportuity to get the latest information about what is going on with AMSAT and its projects at the AMSAT Forum including the exciting news of the launch date announced by NASA for the Fox-1 Satellite

Along with each day's featured activities every day included outside demos on all available satellite passes Meanwhile, inside at the AMSAT booth, the Fox-1 Internal Housekeeping Unit (IHU ), the brains of the Fox-1 satellite, and paper models of the FOX-1 satellite where available for everyone to stop by and have a look

Other hardware was also available for purchase AMSAT had a supply of the popular V/U/WX receive preamplifiers at Dayton for display and sales These preamps came fully assembled, tested, and installed in a metal enclosure with female BNC connectors on input and output and covers 100 MHz to 500 MHz which includes the 137 MHz WX, 2M, and 70cm satellite bands Full details and schematic can be found in the November/December 2012 AMSAT Journal article by Mark Spencer, WA8SME, or downloaded from the item in the Hardware section of the AMSAT Store: http://store amsat org/catalog/

Finally an updated LVB Tracker was shown at Dayton AMSAT has sold the popular G6LVB Tracker for several years We now have a new version which replaces the amber LCD display with an OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diode) display The new display offers a high visibility contrast with a wide angle of view It will be available in blue, green and amber Current LVB Tracker owners may update their own units or may send their LVB Tracker to WB8CXO for retrofit if they don't wish to do the modifications themselves Upgrading existing trackers will be $50 + shipping Contact WB8CXO@AMSAT ORG for details

[ANS thanks AMSAT's 2013 Dayton Committee, Tony, AA2TX, and Alan, WA4SCA, for the above information]

DARC and UBA Support Amateur Radio in Tunisia

The Deutscher Amateur Radio Club, which is Germany's national amateur radio society, reports that after the political changes in Tunisia amateur radio in that North African country has a new opportunity to expand This as members of the Association of Tunisian Radio Amateurs used World Amateur Radio Day on April 18th to inform the that nations public and in particular its Minister for Technology, Information and Communication about amateur radio in its various forms

Representatives of European amateur radio organizations were there to support the event This included the International Office of the Deutscher Amateur Radio Club in the person of Mustapha Landoulsi, DL1BDF Landoulsi gave a presentation on the important role of amateur radio in emergency and disaster situations

Stefan Dombrowski, ON6TI, from the Belgian federation the U-B-A was also on hand He explained the history of the development of amateur radio satellites, and in particular, the construction of CubeSat spacecraft and the AMSAT-UK FUNcube satellite

According to reports, the Tunisian Minister was quite impressed by the potential of amateur radio As a result he has promised to ensure that the necessary statutory basis for granting individual licenses would be created as soon as possible

[ANS thanks the Amateur Radio Newsline for the above information]

Frequencies announced for HamTV from the International Space Station

Frequencies have been announced for the new Ham Radio Digital TV transmitter that will send video from the ISS in the amateur radio 2400 MHz band

The main mission of HamTV is to perform school contacts between the astronauts onboard ISS and the scholarship, not only by voice, but also by unidirectional video from the ISS to the ground within the ARISS program

In addition to the existing VHF radio amateur station, ISS will host a S-Band video transmitting station This new equipment can broadcast images from the ISS during the school contacts or other pre-recorded video images up to 24 hours a day to allow ground stations tuning

It is planned to transmit DVB-S signals on 2 4GHz at either 1 3Msps or 2 3Msps with 10 watts of RF from the ISS Columbus module

The IARU Amateur Satellite Frequency Coordination Panel have announced frequencies of 2422 0 MHz and 2437 0 MHz

HamVideo is the name of the onboard DATV S-band transmitter HamTV is the name of the complete system, comprising DATV downlink and VHF voice uplink Kaiser Italia SRL was the prime-contractor for the design and development of the flight and ground segment http://www kayser it/index php/exploration-2/ham-tv

Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano KF5KDP is planned to launch from Baikonur in Kazhakstan to the ISS on May 28 (see High School Students RocketHub Project) It is understood that the HamTV equipment will be carried to the ISS on the Japanese HTV-4 spacecraft currently planned for a launch on August 4

HamTV on Facebook https://www facebook com/Hamtvproject

More information from AMSAT-Italia at http://www amsat it/Amsat-Italia_HamTV_brochure pdf

Link Budget http://www amsat it/Amsat-Italia_HamTV pdf

ARISS Antennas Installed on Columbus http://www ariss-eu org/columbus htm

[ANS thanks Mike, M5AKA, for the above information]

AMSAT-UK International Space Colloquium News

The 2013 AMSAT-UK International Space Colloquium will start late afternoon on Friday, July 19 and will run through until the afternoon on Sunday, July 21 at the Holiday Inn, Guildford, GU2 7XZ, UK

It will be preceded by an exciting Hands-on CubeSat Workshop which will take place at the nearby University of Surrey on the Friday and this will be followed, at the hotel, by the usual Colloquium Beginners Session in the late afternoon

A number of keynote presentations have already been arranged for the Colloquium These include Alistair Scott, the President of the British Interplanetary Society The BIS has, over many decades, developed ideas and concepts about the future of space travel and both Patrick Moore and Arthur C Clarke were members Alistair has had many years experience working in the space industry and will be reviewing the future possibilities for ventures into space both small and large The BIS is presently developing one of the Sprites for the Kicksat mission and Andrew Vaudin will be presenting a paper about this and also providing a demonstration

It is anticipated that both the FUNcube-1 and FUNcube-2 missions will be launched later this year and the FUNcube team will be on hand to talk about the missions and the planned educational outreach A full demonstration of the Engineering Model, which has been performing flawlessly for almost a year, will also be provided

On the Sunday, the General Manager of the RSGB, Graham Coomber, G0NBI will be talking about the Societys vision of the future of amateur radio and how amateur satellites can play a major part in helping to secure that future

There will also be updates on a number of the other current amateur satellite projects including HAMtv from the ISS, spectrum matters, operating methods, new products etc Additionally there will be a satellite demonstration station operating over the weekend and visits to the new technical facilities at the University are planned

There are still a few slots available for additional speakers, so if you would like to make a presentation, please contact Dave Johnson G4DPZ e-mail: dave at g4dpz dot me dot uk as soon as possible

The AMSAT-UK organising committee looks forward to welcoming both regular attendees and newcomers you can be assured of a warm welcome and an exciting weekend

The event is open to all, full details of the accommodation, travel and booking arrangements are at http://amsat-uk org/colloquium/colloquium-2013/

Details of the free Hands On CubeSat Workshop are at http://amsat-uk org/colloquium/cubesat-workshop-2013/

[ANS thanks AMSAT-UK for the above information ]

Merritt Island High School StangSat Progress and Launch Date

Integrated testing of the Merritt Island High School StangSat with CalPoly was accomplished this past week During the testing it was shown that StangSat can receive the wake-up and sleep signal from CalPoly's satellite and go to the respective states StangSat's mission is to measure acceleration and other factors involved in a launch

NASA has announced that StangSat launch will be next Summer on a SpaceX mission called CRS-5 CRS-5 is tentatively scheduled for August of 2014 and will serve as a resupply mission the International Space Station

Congratulations to the StangSat Team for being the first NASA sponsored High School CubeSat to be selected for a flight!

[ANS thanks StangSat Team, 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

73, This week's ANS Editor, Lee McLamb, KU4OS ku4os 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:

https://aus-city com/cgi-bin/dada/mail cgi/u/RADIOCOMM_LIST/example/example com/

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:

<[program_url]/list/[list]>

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