AMSAT NEWS SERVICE ANS-359

The AMSAT News Service bulletins are a free, weekly news and infor- mation service of AMSAT, 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 commun- icating 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

You can sign up for free e-mail delivery of the AMSAT News Service Bulletins via the ANS List; to join this list see: http://www amsat org/mailman/listinfo/ans

In this edition:

• Calling All Radio Amateurs: Help Find OPS-SAT!
• FCC Moves to Remove 3 4 GHz Amateur Satellite Allocation
• Changes to AMSAT-NA TLE Distribution
• FoxTelem version 1 08w Released
• AMSAT-EA works against the clock on GÉNESIS satellites
• New NASA eBook Reveals Insights of Earth Seen at Night from Space
• Israel Applauds Successful Launch of Duchifat3
• Ham Radio University Satellite Operations Forum on January 4
• Possible ARISS SSTV Operation Before Year's End
• Recent ARISS Contacts
• Upcoming Satellite Operations
• Satellite Shorts From All Over

SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-359 01 ANS-359 AMSAT News Service Weekly Bulletins

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 359 01 From AMSAT HQ KENSINGTON, MD DATE 2019 Dec 15 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-359 01

Calling All Radio Amateurs: Help Find OPS-SAT!

Calling all radio amateurs! The European Space Agency (ESA) is chal- lenging anyone with amateur radio equipment to catch the first signals from OPS-SAT, ESA’s brand new space software laboratory

On 17 December, OPS-SAT will be launched into low-Earth orbit on a Soyuz rocket from Kourou, French Guiana, together with ESA’s Cheops exoplanet-tracker

Once launched, the satellite will deploy its solar panels and ultra- high frequency antenna, and then start to send signals back home

Could you be the first on Earth to catch them? ESA’s mission control team in Darmstadt are asking for your help to find the fledgling Cube- Sat

OPS-SAT is a first-of-its-kind CubeSat dedicated purely to experimen- tation It carries a wide variety of advanced payloads allowing ‘Ex- perimenters’ to deploy and test their software and apps in space

Anyone can apply to be an Experimenter! Find out more about the mis- sion, and how to apply, here: https://tinyurl com/ul8327f

Lift-off is scheduled for 08:54:20 UTC on 17 December Deployment will begin 15044 6 seconds later (T+15044 6 seconds), expected to be at 13:05:04 UTC OPS-SAT will begin transmitting 15 minutes after satel- lite deployment and after ultra-high frequency (UHF) antenna and solar array deployment have been confirmed The first two passes over Europe are expected on the same evening

To track OPS-SAT, a preliminary launch TLE is available here, and will be updated as soon as new orbital information is available

Main downlink characteristics: Space segment transceiver GomSpace NanoCOM AX100 Frequency UHF – 437 2 MHz Modulation GMSK Occupied Bandwidth 25 kHz Baudrate 9k6 Modulation Index 0 5 More information can be found at: https://github com/esa/gr-opssat/blob/master/docs/os-uhf-specs pdf

[ANS thanks ESA for the above information]

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 Need new satellite antennas? Purchase Arrows, Alaskan Arrows,
and M2 LEO-Packs from the AMSAT Store
 When you purchase through
       AMSAT, a portion of the proceeds goes towards
              Keeping Amateur Radio in Space

    https://amsat
org/product-category/hardware/

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Donate to AMSAT Tax-Free From Your IRA

Are you over 70-1/2 years of age and need to meet your IRA's Required Minimum Distribution for 2019? Consider making a donation to AMSAT!

Under the Protecting Americans from Tax Hikes Act of 2015, individuals over 70-1/2 years of age may make direct transfers of up to $100,000 per year from a traditional IRA to an eligible charity without increasing their taxable income Consult your tax advisor or accountant to make certain you are eligible

AMSAT is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit educational and scientific organization whose purpose is to design, construct, launch, and operate satellites in space and to provide the support needed to encourage amateurs to utilize these resources AMSAT's federal tax ID is 52-0888529

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FCC Moves to Remove 3 4 GHz Amateur Satellite Allocation

AMSAT (@AMSAT) tweeted at 11:51 AM on Thu, Dec 12, 2019: "At today's Open Meeting, the Federal Communications Commission passed a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking proposing to delete the amateur allocation at 3 3-3 5 GHz, including the amateur satellite service allocation at 3 4-3 41 GHz "

Later, @AMSAT tweeted: "Noting the importance of microwave spectrum for future amateur satel- lites in HEO and/or GEO orbits and beyond, AMSAT will file comments in this proceeding opposing the deletion of this amateur satellite service allocation "

Watch ANS bulletins for future developments

[ANS thanks @AMSAT for the above information]

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Changes to AMSAT-NA TLE Distribution

The following Amateur Radio satellite has been added to this week's TLE distribution:

SMOG-P - NORAD CAT ID 44832 (per Nico Janssen, PA0DLO) 1 44832U 19084J 19346 85910300 00001000 00000-0 50000-4 0 05 2 44832 97 0009 211 0657 0089111 218 3064 289 3286 15 64885322 06 Frequency: 437 1497 MHz

The Israeli student satellite Duchifat3 was successfully placed in or- bit by ISRO (India) on December 11, 2019 along with several other sat- ellites Therefore, it will take a while for those objects to separate enough to accurately identify Duchifat3 The following is a set of preliminary TLEs supplied by Nicholas Mahr, KE8AKW (via AMSAT-BB) on December 12, 2019 for your use:

Duchifat3 1 84101U 19345 41319444 00000000 00000-0 50000-4 0 08 2 84101 37 0000 148 0000 0001442 0 0000 140 0000 15 02563222 03

On Dec 13, Nico Janssen, PA0DLO, verified Doppler measurements show- ing that Duchifat 3 is object 44854 (2019-089C) The telemetry down- link frequency is 436 400 MHz AMSAT

Another PocketQube on this launch (only 5 cm on a side!0 has been iden- tified as ATL 1 1 44830U 19084G 19346 85945000 00001000 00000-0 50000-4 0 08 2 44830 96 9998 211 0781 0044791 228 7076 277 5196 15 64736264 09 Frequency: 437 1741 MHz

[ANS thanks Ray Hoad, WA5QGD, Orbital Elements Manager, and Nico Janssen, PA0DLO, for the above information ]

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FoxTelem version 1 08w Released

Chris Thompson, AC2CZ/G0KLA, has announced the release of version 1 08w of the FoxTelem software This is a bug fix release to FoxTelem If you have been seeing issues then you should upgrade to this new version

Primarily it addresses the following: * Crashes seen at run time * Issue with DDE transmission to SatPC32 which can hang FoxTelem or another program using DDE * Some minor issues with HuskySat graphs and display

It is available as usual here: http://amsat us/FoxTelem/windows/ http://amsat us/FoxTelem/linux/ http://amsat us/FoxTelem/mac/

Thanks to all who reported bugs and issues Keep them coming Please advise Chris if you see any other issues via g0kla arrl net

Fox-in-a-box orders from the AMSAT Store after December 13, 12:01 UTC (that is, by the time you see this) will also ship with FoxTelem V1 08w The FIAB download directory has not yet been upgrad- ed, but a downloaded SD card as well as existing cards are very easy to upgrade Please see previous articles here and in the ANS for how to do it

[ANS thanks Chris Thompson, AC2CZ/G0KLA, and Burns Fisher, WB1FJ for the above information]

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AMSAT-EA works against the clock on GÉNESIS satellites

AMSAT EA is workin against the clock, together with students from the European university, in the development of the GENESIS satellites The 1 5 P pico sats, measuring 7 5x5x5cm are expected to be launched from the United States in February 2020 These satellites are based on the designs of EASAT-2 engineering and will allow testings of the EASAT-2 subsytems

The estimated time in orbit of the GENESIS is estimated at around a month They incorporate the linear transponder receiver module design- ed for EASAT-2 and an Amplitude Shift Keying (ASK) transmitter They will offer functionality of a regenerative repeater in ASK and CW and also incorporate the ionic motor experimental for pocketqubes devel- oped by Applied Ion Systems

[ANS thanks AMSAT-EA for the above information]

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New NASA eBook Reveals Insights of Earth Seen at Night from Space

Earth has many stories to tell, even in the dark of night Earth at Night, NASA’s new 200-page ebook, is now available online and includes more than 150 images of our planet in darkness as captured from space by Earth-observing satellites and astronauts on the International Space Station over the past 25 years The book is free for download in Kindle, ePub, and PDF formats at https://www nasa gov/connect/ebooks/earthatnight_detail html

“Earth at Night” shows how scientists use images such as this astronaut photo of the Gulf of Mexico taken from the International Space Station over the southern United States to study our changing planet

The images reveal how human activity and natural phenomena light up the darkness around the world, depicting the intricate structure of cities, wildfires and volcanoes raging, auroras dancing across the polar skies, moonlight reflecting off snow and deserts, and other dramatic earthly scenes

“Earth at Night explores the brilliance of our planet when it is in darkness,” wrote Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, in the book’s foreword “The book is a compilation of stories depicting the interactions between science and wonder I am pleased to share this visually stunning and captivating exploration of our home planet ”

In addition to the images, the book tells how scientists use these observations to study our changing planet and aid decision makers in such areas as sustainable energy use and disaster response

NASA brings together technology, science, and unique global Earth ob- servations to provide societal benefits and strengthen our nation The agency makes its Earth observations freely and openly available to everyone for use in developing solutions to important global issues such as changing freshwater availability, food security and human health

[ANS thanks NASA for the above information]

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Israel Applauds Successful Launch of Duchifat3

Israel has applauded the successful launch of Isro’s PSLV-C48 rocket that put an experimental satellite built by students of its country into orbit on Wednesday, Dec 11 The Cuchifat-3 Israeli satellite was among nine foreign customer satellites piggybacking on India's primary payload Risat-2BR1, a military radar imaging satellite The launch oc- curred at 09:55 UTC Full article at https://tinyurl com/uz7p35u

Duchifat3 was built by high school students supported by Herzliya Science Center in Israel and carries an on-board camera for earth imaging The V/u FM transponder has an uplink of 145 970 MHz and a downlink of 436 400 MHz -- however some reports indicate that the FM repeater downlink may actually be at 436 420 MHz

[ANS thanks The Times of India and AMSAT-UK for the above information]

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Ham Radio University Satellite Operations Forum on January 4

The 21st annual Ham Radio University, on Saturday, January 4, 2020 is a "A day of education to share ideas, experiences, knowledge and fellowship among Amateur Radio operators " The event will be held at:

LIU / Post Hillwood Commons Student Center 720 Northern Boulevard Brookville, NY 11548 Web: http://hamradiouniversity org/

The suggested donation $5 - no preregistration is required! Doors open at 7:30 AM with first forums at 8:30 AM

Satellite operation is a part of the learning experience: 11:00 a m Satellite Operations for Beginners by Frank Garofalo WA2NDV

[ANS thanks the Ham Radio University for the above information]

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AMSAT, along with our ARISS partners, is developing an amateur
radio package, including two-way communication capability, to
      be carried on-board Gateway in lunar orbit

Support AMSAT's projects today at https://www amsat org/donate/

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Possible ARISS SSTV Operation Before Year's End

ARISS reports the possibility of a worldwide commemorative SSTV opera- tion from the International Space Station on Friday, Dec 27 or Satur- day, Dec 28 and following days The SSTV downlink frequency is 145 800 MHz ARISS will provide more information as it becomes avail- able Watch the amsat-bb and follow @ARISS_status on Twitter for up- dates

An SSTV system is an integral part of one of the ARISS ham radio sta- tions, NA1SS/ RS0ISS in the Service Module It transmits and receives JPEG still images This system utilizes the Kenwood D700 and D710 ra- dios and the ARISS antennas mounted on the Service Module The SSTV equipment also includes SpaceCam and MMSSTV software, a radio/computer interface module and data cables A Kenwood VC-H1 is also used to pro- vide near real-time automatically transmitted images once every 3 min- utes, when active

A Kenwood D710 radio located in the Service Module was deployed by the Russian Space Agency, Energia to provide extended support of imaging experiments using various SSTV formats It employs SpaceCam and MMSSTV software to transmit stored images

The current Expedition 61 crew aboard the ISS includes Dr Andrew “Drew” Morgan, KI5AAA, an emergency physician in the U S Army; veter- an pilot Cosmonaut Alexander Skvortsov, RK6ATR; Luca Parmitano, KF5KDP, an Italian Air Force officer, pilot, and engineer; pilot Cosmonaut Oleg Skripochka; biologist Dr Jessica Meir; and electrical engineer Christina Koch

[ANS thanks ARISS and NASA for the above information]

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Upcoming and Recent ARISS Contacts

Istituto Comprensivo “Japigia 1 – Verga”, Bari, Italy, direct via IZ7RTN and Istituto Comprensivo “Caporizzi – Lucarelli”, Bari, Italy, direct via IZ7RTN The ISS callsign is presently scheduled to be RØISS, The scheduled astronaut is Luca Parmitano, KF5KDP Contact is go: Fri 2019-12-20 12:35:30 UTC 77 deg

There are few upcoming ARISS school contacts due to school holiday vacations around the world Recent contacts were:

A contact with About Gagarin From Cosmos, City of Kursk, Russia and City of Ufa, Russia, direct via RZ9WWB was scheduled for Wednesday, Dec 11 The ISS callsign was scheduled to be RSØISS, and the sched- uled astronaut was Alexander Skvortsov, RK6ATR

A contact with Woodridge Middle School, High Ridge, MO, direct via NØKBA was scheduled for Thursday, Dec 12 The ISS callsign was scheduled to be NA1SS, and the scheduled astronaut was to be Luca Parmitano, KF5KDP

ANS has verified that these contacts took place as scheduled

The ARISS contact with Council Rock High School South students at the Northampton, Pennsylvania school on Thursday, December 5 rece- ived local press coverage in the Bucks County Courier Times news- paper: https://tinyurl com/ANS-349-ARISS-CouncilRock

[ANS thanks ARISS for the above information]

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       Purchase AMSAT Gear on our Zazzle storefront

      25% of the purchase price of each product goes
        towards Keeping Amateur Radio in Space
          https://www
zazzle
com/amsat_gear

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Upcoming Satellite Operations

For "Ham Radio Day Aboard the Queen Mary" on Saturday, 14 December 2019 Endaf Buckley, N6UTC, and Patrick Stoddard, WD9EWK, will work passes as W6RO between 1700 UTC and 0100 UTC (9am-5pm Pacific time) from the Sports Deck on the RMS Queen Mary, next to the W6RO Wireless Room More information about this event is available at: https://amsat org/pipermail/amsat-bb/2019-November/075512 html and at https://www queenmary com/calendar-of-events/ham-radio-day/home/ On Sunday, 15 December 2019, N6UTC and WD9EWK will go north of the Los Angeles area to the DM04/DM05/DM14/DM15 (35 0 N 118 0 W) grid intersection They plan on working passes for a few hours there, starting with an AO-92 pass around 1740 UTC

[ANS thanks AMSAT Board member Patrick Stoddard, WD9EWK, for the above information]

South Florida (EL95, EL96) December 11-15, 2019 James, K4WPX, will be in EL96/95 December 11th-15th, vacation style, mostly evening passes, FM only James will be staying in EM96 but ~1mile from the EM95 line, so he can skip over there for some passes, too Pass announcements via Twitter: https://twitter com/k4wpx

Hawaii (BK19, BK28, BK29, BL20) December 21-28, 2019 Alex, N7AGF, is heading back to Hawaii over Christmas This will be a holiday-style activation, with special empahasis on the grid that got away – BK28 Keep an eye on Alex’s Twitter feed for further announce- ments: https://twitter com/N7AGF

Big Bend National Park (DL88) March 16-17, 2020 Ron AD0DX, Doug N6UA, and Josh W3ARD will operate from Big Bend Nation- al Park to put grid DL88 on the air Details will be added here, as they come available, but you are more than welcome to keep an eye on their individual Twitter feeds: https://twitter com/ad0dx, https://twitter com/dtabor, and https://twitter com/W3ARDstroke5

[ANS thanks Robert Bankston, KE4AL, AMSAT VP-User Services, for the above information]

XT2, BURKINA FASO (Reminder) Harald, DF2WO, is once again active as XT2AW from Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, until December 20th Activity is usually holiday style on 160-10 meters using CW, SSB and the Digital modes He states that he works mostly on the Digital modes (FT8, PSK31, JT65 and RTTY) and slow CW He will concentrate on 160/80/60 meters "PLS Skeds for 80 and 160 " He will also be active on the Satellites (including 3W into 85cm dish for QO-100) See QRZ com more details QSL via M0OXO, direct or by M0OXO's OQRS (www m0oxo com/oqrs/)

ZZ, BRAZIL (WFF Op) Operators Joao Carlos/PU4GOD, Leo/PY1CC, Aldir, PY1SAD and Eduardo/PU1REC will be active from the headquarters of the Restinga de Jurubatiba National Park (PYFF0226) with special callsign ZZ1F between December 12-15th This is during the first weekend of the Brazilian Parks event, under the coordination of Ronaldo (PS8RV) Activity will be on 80/40/20/17/15/12/10/6 meters including VHF using CW, SSB, Satellites and the Digital modes QSL via LoTW or QRZ com

[ANS thanks Ohio/Penn DX Bulletin No 1443 for the above information]

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Satellite Shorts From All Over

• Some observers have reported that satellite JY1 is, at least occa- sionally, transmitting image data from its on-board camera (ANS thanks Hasan Schiers, N0AN, for the above information)

• Want to build a satellite? A scholarly book, "Low Earth Orbit Satel- lite Design" by Dr George Sebestyen, Steve Fujikawa, Alex Chuchra, and Nick Galassi, was recently published by Springer, Inc This book offers an in-depth guide to engineers and professionals seeking to understand the technologies behind Low Earth Orbit satellites At $139 99 for the hardcover edition, it might be a pricey stocking- stuffer, but paperback and ebook editions are cheaper, and Springer is running a holiday book special: https://www springer com/us/book/9783319683140#aboutBook (ANS thanks The Orbital Index for the above information)

• ESA’s short film, The Burn, takes us into the heart of Europe’s mis- sion control during a critical moment in the life of a future mis- sion Filmed on site in Darmstadt, Germany, with the help of volun- teers (many of whom are real-life spacecraft controllers), The Burn illustrates the critical importance of decades of investment in state-of-the-art mission operations infrastructure and highly train- ed teams to flying Europe’s most daring space missions View the film at: https://tinyurl com/yxxewnjt (ANS thanks ESA for the above information)

• NASA's Space Launch System, or SLS, aims to carry astronauts to the moon in 2024 as part of the Artemis project, and has been described as "the most powerful rocket ever built " The SLS has just completed its latest round of testing: a "test to failure" pressure test of the main liquid hydrogen tank The tank withstood more than 260% of expected flight loads before buckling and rupturing! The tank was pushed to its limit and failed at the point predicted by the ana- lysts, which is good news for the models used by NASA (ANS thanks engadget com and NASA for the above information)

• Meade Instruments, a company familiar to backyard astronomers, has filed for bankruptcy The company has fallen on hard times in recent years, as they’ve faced increasing competition Meade also recently lost a lawsuit, which pushed them over the edge into bankruptcy The company is based in Irvine, California, and was founded in 1972 They started out selling small refracting telescopes They expanded and now sell telescope models worth up to $10,000 (ANS thanks Universe Today for the above information)

• The Orbital Index blog (orbitalindex com) maintains a directory of free space-related software resources for space hobbiests at: https://github com/orbitalindex/awesome-space (ANS thanks The Orbital Index for the above information)

• The Orbital Flight Test of Boeing's CST-100 Starliner spacecraft is scheduled for Dec 20 at 6:36 a m EST The uncrewed flight test will be Starliner’s maiden mission to the International Space Sta- tion for NASA’s Commercial Crew Program (ANS thanks NASA for the above information)

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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 and Remember to help keep amateur radio in space, This week's ANS Editor,

K0JM at amsat dot org

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