AMSAT NEWS SERVICE ANS-355

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:

• Worked All USA Grids Via Satellite - #488 for Doug Papay, KD8CAO
• Opportunities to Help at AMSAT User Services
• 73 on 73 Award #4 - EA5TT
• Samantha Cristoforetti, IZ0UDF, Reflects on Her First ARISS Contact
• ARISS News
• Satellite Shorts From All Over

SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-355 01 ANS-355 AMSAT News Service Weekly Bulletins

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 355 01 From AMSAT HQ KENSINGTON, MD DATE December 21, 2014 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-355 01

Worked All USA Grids Via Satellite - #488 for Doug Papay, KD8CAO

Congratulations to Doug Papay, KD8CAO for working grid #488 of the 488 USA grids Doug worked N2COP/p, in FM13, for his final grid The contact was via SO-50 and was logged on 15/Dec/2014 @ 1252Z

For his efforts he has been granted GRID MASTER award # 2

In a recent AMSAT-BB email exchange with Damon Runion WA4HFN, Doug said of his accomplishment, " it certainly would not have been possible without the help of the many individuals that went to extra effort to activate so many rare grids These include those who recently helped put the last 30 or so girds in the log: my father K8YSE, Tom KA6SIP, Denny WB8K, Bill N2COP, Ron N8RO, Craig KL4E, Ed WA7ETH, Steven KF7SLV, Wyatt AC0RA, and Clayton W5PFG Special recognition goes to my father K8YSE, Jim ND9M, Patrick WD9EWK, and Ted AA5CK for having been major contributors over the years to this accomplishment I'm sure there are may more that I have not mentioned, and so I'm thankful for every effort, every contact is appreciated!

"I also want to thank Rick WA4NVM for the heads-up via text from my father K8YSE about FM13 on Sunday morning--while I missed Bill N2COP that day, this head's-up gave the motivation to be at the radio on Monday morning, and sure enough Bill was there and the contact was logged Without these guys watching out for me I would have missed the grid yet again (Thanks Rick!) "

The Star Comm Group sponsors the Grid Master Award To qualify for this award you must make a satellite contact with all 488 grids in the U S and get confirmation Send your information to Ricky, WA4NVM or Damon, WA4HFN All Star Comm Group awards are free, they only ask that you make a donation to AMSAT NA

Grid Master Award #1 was awarded to Doug's father, John Papay, K8YSE

More information on the Grid Master and other Star Comm Group awards can be found at: http://www starcommgroup org/

[ANS thanks the Star Comm Group and Doug KD8CAO for the above information]

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Opportunities to Help at AMSAT User Services

AMSAT's User Services Department is recruiting for several volunteer positions to augment our dedicated and elite staff! The User Services Department provides support in several areas including:

• AMSAT News Service
• The AMSAT Journal magazine
• AMSAT's web presence at www amsat org

The AMSAT News Service

We need two or more volunteers to step forward who can dedicate time on a rotating shift of news editors The AMSAT News Service (ANS) sends out a weekly news bulletin of everything of interest to amateur radio in space

The entire ANS crew (currently 3 editors) helps round up the news and each ANS editor takes a week as editor to compile the week's ANS bulletins We'll get you into the bulletin rotation and you'll take your turn as the ANS editor this week

The AMSAT Journal Magazine

We need two or more volunteers who can help compile one of AMSAT's key membership benefits The AMSAT Journal Magazine An assistant editor is needed to help our existing team of editors (currently 3) to locate articles and establish contact with potential authors All you need is an eye for articles of interest to amateur radio in space You'll compile input from AMSAT HQ, volunteer authors, and amateur radio news sources into articles for publication in our bi- monthly magazine

We also need one volunteer who is capable of assuming the position of editor-in-chief of the AMSAT Journal You'll help develop article sources and using AMSAT provided software and templates compile the 32-page magazine for six issues per year Our publishing system is the Adobe InDesign CS6 package This can be learned quickly by any computer literate ham InDesign is MS-Word on steroids

AMSAT's Web Presence

Help is needed on the front to locate and publish up to date content for the AMSAT web We publish late breaking news of amateur radio in space We also publish reference information to help operate on the satellites software, radios, antennas, operating techniques Web content containing late-breaking operating news and reliable operator tips currently has several gaps needing to be filled Our WordPress environment makes the web display easy but you'll be spending your volunteer time on the content This is a job for 5 or more volunteers and needs to be filled immediately!

AMSAT also is looking for a webmaster who will assume responsibility for the display of all content in a WordPress environment The basic framework is in place but can definitely stand to be fine tuned and made into a world class display of amateur radio in space For most hams on-line www amsat org is our "front door" and we are looking for the most capable help on this important user interface!

Our team is the "voice of AMSAT" News, operator tips, and membership benefits are important products for AMSAT User Services For questions or to volunteer please contact AMSAT's Vice President of User Services, JoAnne Maenpaa, K9JKM at k9jkm@amsat org

[ANS thanks AMSAT Vice President of User Services, JoAnne Maenpaa, K9JKM for the above information]

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73 on 73 Award #4 - EA5TT

Paul Stoetzer, N8HM, who is sponsoring the award for contacts made via the AO-73 (FUNcube-1) amateur radio satellite, recently recognized Manuel D Ruiz Carrasco, EA5TT, for becoming the fourth recipient of the 73 on 73 Award He submitted a list of 73 stations worked via AO-73 between September 1, 2014 and December 8, 2014

The award aims to promote activity on AO-73 The requirements are straight-forward:

1. Work 73 unique stations on AO-73
2. Contacts must be made on or after September 1, 2014
3. There are no geographic restrictions on your operating location

There will be no cost for this award (donations to AMSAT-UK and AMSAT-NA's Fox program are encouraged though)

No QSL cards are required When you complete the requirements, email your log extract including the callsign of each station worked, time GMT, and date to n8hm@arrl net as well as the address where you'd like the award certificate sent

Congratulations Manuel!

[ANS thanks Paul N8HM for the above information]]

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Samantha Cristoforetti, IZ0UDF, Reflects on Her First ARISS Contact

In her blog shared 16 Dec 2014, Samantha Cristoforetti, IZ0UDF, reflects on her first ever ARISS school contact with twenty students from Elena di Savoia in Bari and "Alessandro Volta" in Bitonto In her comments she thanks the "army of volunteers in many countires" who make the contacts possible and how impressed she was with the quality of all the questions that "showed a great interest and knowledge in science and technology "

"Yesterday I had my first HAM radio contact with school pupils A big hello to the students of the schools 'Elena di Savoia' in Bari and 'Alessandro Volta' in Bitonto! It was fun talking to you and thanks for the great questions!

Amateur radio contacts between astronauts and school kids have a long tradition on ISS, thanks to a little army of volunteers in many countries who work with the local schools not only on the day of contact, but also in the weeks and months leading up to the event: they teach students about radio technology and about space, to get them ready and hopefully excited about the event

From my side, I only needed to be ready on the proper channel at the proper time: it is very important, because we need direct line-of- sight with the amateur radio station on the ground and the pass is only about ten minutes long A couple of minutes before the expected acquisition-of-signal time, I started making calls to check if someone was already picking me up Eventually I picked up a call from the ground station and sure enough, we started our conversation I heard them loud and clear, which positively surprised me: somehow I expected signal quality not to be as good I hope they had the same quality on the other side

On such contacts, there's no time for small talk and formalities: in less than ten minutes, we had to make sure that the 20 students who were lined up to ask their question got their chance So here I was, ready to go And here came the first question - are you ready? Here's it is:

'It is known that people become taller when they are in space What happens to bio-molecules? Is there any alteration in the tertiary structure of proteins?'

I almost fell off my chair well, if I had had a chair (Wonder what a good equivalent of this expression would be in weightlessness any suggestions?)

Where are the good old question about space food and the space toilet? Jokes apart, I was really impressed with all the questions: they showed a great interest and knowledge in science and technology and gave me great hope for our future generations of scientists and engineers Keep up the great work, girls and boys!"

Cristoforetti's adventures in space can be followed at https://plus google com/+SamanthaCristoforetti/posts

[ANS thanks Samantha Cristoforetti, IZ0UDF for the above information]

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ARISS News

• A Successful contact was made between ELENA DI SAVOIA, BARI AND ALESSANDRO VOLTA, BITONTO, Italy and Astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti, IZ0UDF using callsign IR0ISS The contact began Monday 15 December 2014 at 1518 UTC and lasted about nine and a half minutes Contact was direct via IZ7EVR ARISS Mentor was IKØWGF

The Alessandro Volta school teaches communications, social-history, mathematics, science and technology in different contexts: life, study, job In addition it fosters useful competence, allowing students to access continuous innovations through 3 specializations: Mechanics and Mechatronics, IT and Telecommunications, Electronics and Electro-technics

ARISS mentor Francesco De Paolis, IK0WGF proposed to Radio Contact Coordinator Mr Michele Mallardi IZ7EVR to set up a direct contact, with the support by IK1SLD back-up ground station, and this was accepted The event took place in Elena di Savoia school, where an audience of more than 200 students, visitors (including some Italian Air Force officers) and Media (2 TV, 2 newspapers) participated at contact site, and about 200 at both schools Total of more than 400 people

Before the contact, Mrs Rosa Tagliamonte by ASI (Italian Space Agency) presented the Cristoforetti mission and the Italian contribution to the International Space Station Mr Michele Mallardi IZ7EVR presented ARISS and explained how a contact with the ISS is performed via Ham Radio

Upcoming ARISS Contact Schedule

Yekaterinburg, Russia, direct via TBD Contact is presently scheduled to be with RSØISS Contact is a go for Sun 2014-12-21 11:55 UTC (primary) or Sun 2014- 12-21 13:00 UTC (backup)

Kursk, Russia, direct via TBD Contact is presently scheduled to be with RSØISS Contact is a go for Thu 2014-12-24 TBD UTC

Kursk, Russia, direct via TBD Contact is presently scheduled to be with RSØISS Contact is a go for Fri 2014-12-25 TBD UTC

[ANS thanks ARISS, Charlie AJ9N and David AA4KN for the above information]

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Satellite Shorts From All Over

• Revised Tracking Utilites for DESAPTCH and Shin-en2

  The spacecrafts, DESAPTCH and Shin-en2 are still alive

  Masahiro Sanada JI1IZR has recently revised the predict tracking utilites for the extension of the data range

  The new versions can be obtained from: http://ji1izr air-nifty com/ham_satellite/2014/12/artsat2-desp-11 html

  [ANS thanks Masahiro,JI1IZR for the above information]

• Radio ham helps ESA with tracking widget

  Thanks to radio amateur Chip Sufitchi N2YO the European Space Agency's new satellite tracking widgets are live

  The tracking widgets are fed with the latest orbital tracks for ESA missions, or missions with significant ESA participation The default track shows the ISS

  Track ESA missions http://blogs esa int/rocketscience/track-esa-missions/

  ESA tracking widgets are powered by http://www n2yo com/ [ANS thanks Southgate ARN for the above information]

• In Liue of the recent SSTV transmissions from the International Space Station, everyone is reminded that information is available by visiting the ARISS SSTV Blogspot http://ariss-sstv blogspot com/

  Also, the full set of archived SSTV images are located at: http://www spaceflightsoftware com/ARISS_SSTV/index php

  Those that receive images can upload to the above link The best of the best uploads may make it to the blog

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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, EMike McCardel, KC8YLD kc8yld at amsat dot org

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