Date: March 9th 2009

AMSAT NEWS SERVICE ANS-067

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@amsat org

In this edition: * 40th AMSAT Anniversary * SumbandilaSat launch delayed again * AO-27 Satellite Comes Back * Satellite Shorts * ARISS Status - 8 March 2009 * AO-51 Schedule adjustment * AMSAT/TAPR Banquet

SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-067 01 40th AMSAT Anniversary

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 067 01 From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD March 8, 2009 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-067 01

March 3, 2009 marks the 40th anniversary of AMSAT's incorporation AMSAT was incorporated in the District of Columbia on March 3, 1969

Perry, W3PK who was AMSAT President from 1969 to mid-1980 said, "We filed the application for incorporation 40 years ago on Feb 27, 1969 A copy of the filing has been saved at: http://www amsat org/amsat-new/AboutAmsat/documents/incorporation php

You can see a copy of the Certificate of Incorporation at: http://www amsat org/amsat-new/AboutAmsat/documents/certificate php

Perry is working with Dick Daniels, W4PUJ to preserve the original AMSAT Newsletters, archived in paper format onto electronic media Additional AMSAT history can be found in the archives of the "Amateur Satellite Report" Newsletters scanned and converted to PDF by Phil Karn, KA9Q Phil has these issues posted on his website (with AMSAT's permission) See: http://www ka9q net/newsletters html

As the electronic archive project makes progress Perry will issue a call for one or more volunteers willing to receive scans of additional issues JPEG format via e-mail, perform the OCR work and help us change them to searchable PDF files

Watch upcoming issues of The AMSAT Journal for articles of AMSAT's roots AMSAT will also feature 40 years of our accomplishments at the 2009 Dayton Hamvention

[ANS thanks Perry, W3PK for the above information]

/EX

SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-067 02 SumbandilaSat launch delayed again

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 067 02 From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD March 8, 2009 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-067 02

SumbandilaSat launch delayed again

The launch of SumbandilaSat has been delayed again, this time due to a technical hiccup at the Russian launch site, Baikonur

The Director-General of the Department of Science and Technology, Dr Phil Mjwara, told SA AMSAT that the launch agency in Russia had sent a message that the launch would probably be at some time in May this year

He said that as the launch agency had not been specific in their communication he will not make a public announcement until DST had received full details about the reasons for the delay and a new confirmed date

It is speculated that the delay is caused by problems of delivering one of the other payloads on time

Currently SumbandilaSat is still safely at the test range near Bredasdorp

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

/EX

SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-067 03 AO-27 Satellite Comes Back

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 067 03 From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD March 8, 2009 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-067 03

AO-27 Satellite Comes Back

In December, 2008 AO-27 went off the air The control team members pursued a strategy to drain the batteries in the hopes of resetting the locked up modem As of a week ago, the bird has rebooted into the primary bootloader

During February, 2009 the control team has managed to upload the high level software (EOS) to AO-27 after several attempts They took a week to collect data to check on the battery status and conduct an on-orbit checkout before returning to analogue mode

As of March 1, 2009 the AO-27 control team reports that telemetry is looking good During several passes over the US they turned on the Analogue Repeater This week the control team will continue the data download schedule to collect as much whole orbit data to check on the health of the batteries So far, it is looking like AO-27 will return to normal operations on or around March 7th

AO-27 Uplink: 145 850 MHz FM AO-27 Downlink: 436 795 MHZ FM http://www ao27 org

[ANS thanks the AO-27 Control Team for the above information]

/EX

SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-067 04 Satellite Shorts

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 067 04 From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD March 1, 2009 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-067 04

AO-7 UHF Beacon Activates RTTY Telemetry

The AO-7 UHF Beacon at 435 100 MHz has been reported as becoming oper- ational Satellite telemetry in RTTY format is being copied The AO-7 70-cm beacon was monitored with very strong signals during February 28 passes and also since then Some reported the beacon initially sounded as if it was in a two-state mode that sounded a bit like RTTY in idle Successful RTTY decodes have been accomplished using "reverse, 45, 85" parameters

AO-7 Command Operator, Mike, N1JEZ says, "This is a pretty significant development Every time I've tried to activate the RTTY system, all I would get is a solid carrier then the bird has reset indicating a lack of power "

[ANS thanks Mike, N1JEZ for the above information]

Adrian, AA5UK, will be operating as ZF2AE from Grand Cayman and ZF2AE/ZF8 from Little Cayman during his March 25th - April 8th vacation Current plans are to operate holiday style on AO-51, SO-50 and FO-29 He plans to activate EK99hi from March 25 Ã‚Â– 28th, EK99xp and EK99wp from March 28th through April 3rd and EK99kh from April 3rd through April 8th Most activity will be in the afternoon and evenings

[ANS thanks Adrian, AA5UK, for the above info]

AMSAT-UK Colloquium Manchester England - First Call for Speakers

This year AMSAT-UK will be holding their Colloquium from Friday July 24th to Sunday 26th July at the University of Manchester right in the centre of the city and within 200 metres of Piccadilly Railway Station

The station has direct trains to Manchester Airport and there is also an hourly bus service from the Liverpool John Lennon Airport

This 3 day event attracts an International audience of those involved in building and operating Amateur Radio satellites and CubeSats

Details of this and previous events can be found at:

http://www uk amsat org/colloquium

AMSAT-UK invite speakers, about amateur radio space and associated activities, for this event They are also invited to submit papers for the "Proceedings" document which will be published at the same time but printed papers are not mandatory We normally prefer authors to present talks themselves rather than having someone else give them in the authors' absence We also welcome "unpresented" papers for the Proceedings document

Offers of talks should be submitted as soon as possible; the final date for full documents to be received is late-June 2009 in order that the "Proceedings" document be available to participants

Submissions should be sent ONLY to G4DPZ via the following routes:

e-mail: david dot johnson at blackpepper dot co dot uk

SnailMail: QTHR from http://www qrz com/ (enter G4DPZ is the callsign box)

AMSAT-UK also invite anyone with requests for Program Topics to submit them as soon as possible to G4DPZ Invitations for any papers on specific subjects will be included in the future call Likewise if anyone knows of a good speaker, please send contact and other information to G4DPZ

AMSAT-UK website http://www uk amsat org/

Join AMSAT-UK online at https://secure amsat org uk/

Colloquium page: http://www uk amsat org/colloquium/

[ANS thanks AMSAT-UK for the above information]

/EX

SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-067 05 ARISS Status - 2 March 2009

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 067 05 From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD March 1, 2009 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-067 05

Upcoming School Contact

An Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) contact has been completed with Padthaway Primary School in Padthaway, SA, Australia on Tuesday, March 3 at 08:32 UTC via telebridge station W6SRJ in California To prepare for the contact, children wrote essays on space related topics They chose a planet to analyze for feasibility of life, looked at the life of an astronaut (training, diet, etc), researched an event in space history and created a timeline of important events in space history Media coverage is planned

Upcoming ARISS Simulated Contacts

Three simulated Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) contact has been completed on Wednesday, March 4 These training sessions are terrestrial-based amateur radio contacts using ARISS-equivalent equipment Audio is expected to be available on IRLP All times are approximate

15:15 UTC - Technopolis, Belgium and Andre Kuipers, PI9ISS 15:30 UTC - Ralph McCall School, Airdrie, Alberta, Canada and Chris Hadfield, VA3OOG 15:45 UTC - Ralph McCall School, Airdrie, Alberta, Canada and Cady Coleman, KC5ZTH

Fassett Middle School Contact Successful

Fassett Middle School in Oregon, Ohio experienced a successful Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) contact on Monday, February 23 Mike Fincke, KE5AIT, answered 16 students' questions while over 550 people who gathered for the event looked on The Oregon school superintendent was also present for the contact Audio was fed into the EchoLink AMSAT (101377) and JK1ZRW (277208) servers Thirteen connections were made, including 3 link nodes and one repeater, from England, Germany, Malaysia and the U S The Toledo Blade and TV 11 covered the news

To view the WTOL TV 11 story, "Can you hear me now? Oregon students call outer space," see: http://www wtol com/Global/story asp?S=9889811&nav=menu34_2_4

The Toledo Blade article may be viewed here: http://www toledoblade com/apps/pbcs dll/article?AID=/20090224/NEWS16/902249997

Australian Contact Successful

Chatham Public School in Taree, NSW, Australia, took part in an Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) contact on Wednesday, February 25 via telebridge station K6DUE in Maryland The event was held at the studios of Radio 2RE Mike Fincke, KE5AIT, answered 13 questions posed to him by ten children John Key, the New Zealand prime minister, tied in to the contact and sent greetings to Mike from the Asia/Pacific region Thirty-eight radio stations belonging to the Super Radio Network covered the event the following morning The audio was also fed into the EchoLink AMSAT and JK1ZRW servers and received 19 connections from stations in the USA, New Zealand, Australia, Russia, Belgium and England

Italian School Questions Astronaut

On Wednesday, February 25, students from 1 Circolo Didattico G Marconi in Casamassima, Italy participated in an Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) contact with Mike Fincke, KE5AIT Seventeen students asked one question each of the astronaut Special guest Princess Elettra Marconi attended the event and spoke briefly with Mike as approximately 250 students, teachers and others watched Some regional television stations and local newspapers covered the event For more information, photos and audio, visit the ARISS-Europe Web site: http://www ariss-eu org/2009_02_25 htm

New York Contact Successful

Students attending Hampton Bays Middle School in Hampton Bays, New York took part in an Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) contact on Wednesday, February 25 Students created a mockup set of the ISS from which ten students asked 14 questions of Mike Fincke, KE5AIT The school's IT department provided live coverage of the contact to all the schools in the district via intranet Video of the event will be available on the school Web site in the near future

Astronaut Training Status

An Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) training session was held with Cady Coleman, KC5ZTH, on Wednesday, February 18 Coleman is a backup crew member for Expedition 20

On Tuesday, February 24, two successful simulated ARISS contacts took place The first was held between students at the European Space Center, Belgium and Frank DeWinne, ON1DWN The second was held between the Manordale Public School children in Canada and Bob Thirsk, W5/VA3CSA

ARRL Announces Dayton Hamvention Guest Speaker

The American Radio Relay League (ARRL) ran an article about the upcoming ARRL National Convention to be held at the Dayton Hamvention in May Richard Garriott, W5KWQ, will attend the event and spend time in the ARRL EXPO area greeting visitors He will also speak at the Hamvention forum See: https://www arrl org/news/stories/2009/02/21/10660/?nc=1

The ARRL Letter also ran the story, "ARRL National Convention to Feature Richard Garriott, W5KWQ " See: https://www arrl org/arrlletter/09/0227/

ARRL's web feature called "ARRL in Action" for the month of March includes an entry on Richard's attendance at the ARRL National Convention (Dayton Hamvention) May 15-17

The ARRL Web site has 100,000 regular readers; the e-newsletter has a circulation of 115,000

Richard Garriott, Keynote Speaker at AMSAT Banquet

The Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation (AMSAT) announced that Richard Garriott, W5KWQ, will be the keynote speaker at the AMSAT/TAPR Banquet during Dayton Hamvention 2009 The banquet will be held on May 15 Richard will also give a talk at the AMSAT forum on Saturday, May 16 See: http://www amsat org/amsat-new/index php

AMSAT Story on SuitSat Meeting

The Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) team held a SuitSat-2 meeting on Friday - Sunday, February 20 - 22 in Phoenix, Arizona The Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation (AMSAT) posted a story summarizing the meeting See: http://www amsat org/amsat-new/index php

Amateur Radio Newsline Covers ARISS Contact

On February 27, the Amateur Radio Newsline Report #1646 covered the Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) contact with South Park Elementary Center The report may be found here: http://www arnewsline org/index php?option=content&task=view&id=18&Itemid=

[ANS thanks Carol, KB3LKI, for the above information]

/EX

SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-067 06 AO-51 Scehdule Adjustment

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 067 06 From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD March 8, 2009 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-067 06

We've made a few tweaks to the schedule to accommodate the G3VZV cruise, at the request some South African operators, and to correct an uplink frequency for the SSTV mode

The new schedule, as posted at http://www amsat org/amsat-new/echo/CTNews php :

March 2009 AO-51 Schedule

All modes using the 435 150 downlink are subject to interruption for telemetry collection by a command station

March 2nd - March 9th

FM Repeater, V/U Uplink: 145 920 MHz FM Downlink: 435 300 MHz FM

FM Repeater, V(SSB)/U Uplink: 145 880 MHz SSB Downlink: 435 150 MHz FM

March 9th - March 16th

Uplink: 145 920 MHz FM Downlink: 435 300 MHz FM

9k6 BBS, L/U Uplink: 1268 700 MHz 9k6 FM Downlink: 435 150 MHz 9k6 FM

March 16th - March 23rd

FM Repeater, V/S Uplink: 145 880 MHz FM Downlink: 2401 200 MHz FM

FM Repeater V/U Uplink: 145 920 MHz FM Downlink: 435 150 MHz FM

March 23rd - March 30th

FM Repeater V/U Uplink: 145 920 MHz FM Downlink: 435 300 MHz FM

FM Repeater V/U SSTV Uplink: 145 860 MHz FM Downlink: 435 150 MHz FM

73, Drew KO4MA AMSAT-NA VP Operations

[ANS thanks Drew, KO4MA for the above info]

/EX

SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-067 07 AMSAT/TAPR Banquet

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 067 07 From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD March 8, 2009 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-067 07

Reservations for the AMSAT/TAPR Banquet are now available through the AMSAT Store Richard Garriott, W5KWQ will be the Banquet speaker He will also give a short talk during the Saturday AMSAT Forum and spend some time at the AMSAT booth Richard has many interests in additon to his amateur radio work aboard the ISS Be sure and read his Wikipedia bio to learn of his numerous accomplishments Information about AMSAT Activities during Hamvention 2009 are being posted to the AMSAT web site Use the Dayton Hamvention link on the AMSAT front page left hand navigation

[ANS thanks Gould, WA4SXM, 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 additional benefits Application forms are available from the AMSAT Office

73, This week's ANS Editor, Dee Interdonato, NB2F nb2f at amsat dot org

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