AMSAT NEWS SERVICE ANS-082

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:

• Your Purchases at AmazonSmile com Donate to AMSAT-NA
• AC0RA Road Trip to Activate Grids in ND, SD, CO, NE, and KA
• High Altitude Balloon Flight to Carry APRS and Crossband Repeater
• Es’hailSat 2 Satellite to Carry Amateur Transponder
• $50Sat Receives an OSCAR Number
• FO-29 Extreme DX Contact
• Satellite Activation From the Isle of Lewis
• 33rd Annual 2014 ARRL/TAPR Digital Communications Conference Announcement
• 2014 AMSAT Field Day Rules Now Available

SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-082 01 ANS-082 AMSAT News Service Weekly Bulletins

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 082 01 From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD March 23, 2014 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-082 01

Your Purchases at AmazonSmile com Donate to AMSAT-NA

AMSAT-NA is participating in the AmazonSmile program AmazonSmile is a simple and automatic way for you to support your favorite charitable organization every time you shop at Amazon com, at no cost to you

Amazon will donate 0 5% of eligible AmazonSmile purchases to the charitable organization of your choice If you do business with Amazon you can apply your donation by logging into your Amazon account using http://smile amazon com/ch/52-0888529 to designate AMSAT-NA as the organization of your choice You must use the URL smile amazon com for AMSAT (or another charity) to receive the donation from your purchases

[ANS thanks Martha at the AMSAT Office for the above information]

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AC0RA Road Trip to Activate Grids in ND, SD, CO, NE, and KA

Listen for Wyatt Dirks, AC0RA who has been on the road since March 21 in ND, SD, CO, NE, and KA He plans to active rare grids from this region Wyatt does not have a set schedule so he will catch opportunities on SO50, VO52, FO29, AO73, and AO7 Mode B

If you want more info on which grids he will be in and when email him at wyattdirks@msn com He will send updates on the grids he will be in and when throughout trip He is open to assisting with any specific requests for grids I might be close to or going through I can try to activate those as well

[ANS thanks Wyatt Dirks, AC0RA for the above information

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High Altitude Balloon Flight to Carry APRS and Crossband Repeater

Arizona Near Space Research plans to launch a high altitude balloon flight, ANSR-81/ASCEND!-17, on March 29, 2014 at 0900 MST The flight from the University of Arizona Maricopa Agricultural Center (33 0803 N, -111 984 W Grid: DM43AB) will be the 17th in a series of ASCEND! flights sponsored by the NASA/AZ Space Grant Consortium

The payloads will contain a variety of scientific apparatus designed and constructed by students from six Arizona colleges and universities Participating schools include the University of Arizona, Arizona State University, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Pima Community College, South Mountain Community College and Glendale Community College Additional information about the ASCEND! program can be found at: http://spacegrant arizona edu/research/ascend

APRS Beacons will transmit position information as follows: + KA7NSR-11 and KA7NSR-14 both on 445 925 MHz + KA7NSR-13 on 144 34 MHZ

The ANSR Cross-Band Repeater will operate with an input frequency of 145 56 MHz with a 162 2 Hz tone, and an output of 445 525 MHz While contacts (especially DX) are welcome, please give priority to chase team members Our mobile cross band Digipeater will repeat locally the beacon's APRS data to the 144 390 MHz standard APRS frequency and subsequently will be I-GATED to the Internet for out-of-area trackers

You can track the flight using the link: http://aprs fi/?call=ka7nsr-11 (or ka7nsr-13,-14)

Be sure to check http://groups yahoo com/group/Ballooning for updates to this announcement prior to the flight

[ANS thanks Allen Sklar, W7AS and the Amateur Radio High Altitude Ballooning ARHAB launch list for the above information]

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Es’hailSat 2 Satellite to Carry Amateur Transponder

Qatar’s Es’hailSat 2 satellite will provide the first amateur radio geostationary communications capability linking Brazil and India The satellite is expected to launch by the end of 2016 and will be positioned at 26 degrees East

AMSAT-DL say more details on the technical characteristics will be published in the next month

Presentation by Peter Guelzow DB2OS, President of AMSAT-DL, at the 2013 AMSAT-UK Colloquium http://www batc tv/streams/amsat1306

AMSAT Deutschland https://www facebook com/amsat deutschland

[ANS thanks AMSAT-DL for the above information]

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$50Sat Receives an OSCAR Number

The following was received from Bill Tynan, W3XO, AMSAT's OSCAR Number Administrator

Congratulations to the entire $50Sat team for your successful launch and operation of this Amateur Radio satellite $50Sat meets all of the conditions needed to receive an OSCAR number In your e-mail yesterday, you agreed to my suggestion that, since the satellite was constructed at Morehead State University in Kentucky, that Morehead OSCAR would be an appropriate name, I therefore by the authority vested in me by the President of AMSAT-NA, am pleased to confer on $50Sat the designation Morehead OSCAR-76 or the abbreviation, MO-76

Speaking for AMSAT-NA, I wish Morehead OSCAR a long and successful life in space and hope that all of its mission goals will be met

73,

William (Bill) Tynan, W3XO AMSAT OSCAR Number Administrator

[ANS thanks Bill, W3XO, for the above information]

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FO-29 Extreme DX Contact

Frank Griffin, K4FEG and Erich Eichmann, DK1TB report a successful contact via FO-29 on February 14, 2014 They waited to make their announcement until QSL cards for this DX contact had arrived on both sides The calculated distance between us within ± 20m was 7,538 685km This contact rates among the furthest on FO-29

Frank wrote, "The only way we were able to complete this QSO was by making full use of Erich's improvements to SatPC32 with the "frequency at satellite" feature We were able to take advantage of extremely brief windows on FO-29 that only occur every 4 to 6 months FO-29 with its "processing elliptical orbit" walks through "footprints" that, if you do not look for them, will come and go with out you ever knowing that such extreme contacts are possible Erich and I only had 3 viable orbits to try and make this contact, the first one lasted about 105 seconds, Erich heard me Q5 but I called to long and he hit LOS, next attempt I heard Erich but he was not hearing his downlink and the opening was only about 55 seconds, the final and ultimately successful attempt we had 2 minutes and 55 seconds but my maximum elevation was just 0 1 degrees and Erich hit about 1 4 degrees at his peak elevation "

This was not an easy contact For example, it took almost the entire pass to exchange calls, reports, and confirmations Frank summarized, "I want to thank Erich for all of the hard work he puts into SatPC32 and I can assure you we would not have been able to make this contact without his program!"

[ANS thanks Frank Griffin, K4FEG for the above information]

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Satellite Activation From the Isle of Lewis

Camb-Hams will be active as GS3PYE/P from the Isle of Lewis between April 26th and May 3rd The Camb-Hams have been activating the Scottish Isles each year since 2008 and will be traveling to the Isle of Lewis in the Scottish Outer Hebrides in 2014 Thirteen operators will be active on all bands and many modes from 4m to 80m, 2m and 70cm for Satellites, and 2m and 23cm for EME

The HF bands will be covered by five simultaneous stations, while the 6m and 4m stations will have a great take-off towards the UK and Europe from the island's northern tip in IO68 square

2m and 23cm EME will be available with a portable low-ERP Yagi system, mainly focused on JT modes

2m and 70cm will be available for portable satellite operations

Contest operations will take place in the RSGB 70MHz UKAC on April 29th The group will be active on the major social networks before, during and after the trip

You can check on progress or interact with the operators via their blog at or through Twitter, Facebook and YouTube [links below] Previous trips have generated some great audio and video recordings of the GS3PYE/P signal from around the world

Please E-mail skeds-2014@camb-hams.com to arrange skeds on the more challenging bands and modes VHF and EME skeds will also be made via ON4KST and N0UK's EME Chat

All links are available via , , and

[ANS thanks Camb-Hams and Ohio/Penn DX Bulletin #1154 for the above information]

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33rd Annual 2014 ARRL/TAPR Digital Communications Conference Announcement

The Digital Communications Conference (DCC) is returning to Texas this year and will be held at the Austin Marriott South in Austin, TX over the weekend of Friday, September 5th - Sunday, September 7th

The DCC has two days of Technical forums on Friday & Saturday and a concurrent Introductory forum on Saturday

On Saturday night the banquet will feature an interesting speaker and the Sunday morning Seminar will be a deep-dive into a technical topic

Those who submit Technical Papers for inclusion in the annual DCC Proceedings will receive preference for a forum, however you can propose to present a forum without submitting a technical paper

There will be free tables in the demo room to demonstrate projects and vendors to demonstrate products

We encourage those interested in attending the DCC to make your hotel reservations early to get special TAPR hotel rate

Updated DCC Information Available on TAPR's Web Site at: www tapr org/dcc

Follow TAPR & DCC Announcements on Twitter at: https://twitter com/taprdigital

TAPR & DCC Announcements are on TAPR's Facebook page at: https://www facebook com/TAPRDigitalHam

[ANS thanks Mark, WB9QZB, for the above information]

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2014 AMSAT Field Day Rules Now Available

Field Day 2014 is right around the corner If you would like to pick up your copy of the AMSAT Field Day rules, they are now available at http://www amsat org click on the Event drop down and select Field Day 2014 (file is a PDF)

[ANS thanks Bruce, KK5DO, 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

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