Date: December 20th 2009

AMSAT NEWS SERVICE ANS-354

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:

AMSAT China's XW-1 Satellite Testing Proceeding Well
AO-51 Schedule to Support SKN
January 2010 AMSAT Kid's Day on AO-51
Students and Teachers Invited to Fly a File on ARISSAT-1
NASA Revised EVA Schedule Affects ARISSat
Satellite Shorts From All Over
ESA and CNES to Fly Atomic Clock to ISS Columbus Module

SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-354 01 AMSAT China's XW-1 Satellite Testing Proceeding Well

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 354 01

From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD December 20, 2009 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-354 01

Amateur satellite operators worldwide have reported receiving strong signals on the telemetry beacon of China's XW-1 satellite launched on December 15, 2009

The satellite is currently being commissioned but all three amateur radio modes, which include an V/U FM repeater, V/U linear transponder, and V/U AFSK packet, have been tested

Michael Chen, BD5RV/4 reported, "I managed to operate the special event station BT3WX to work several E2, BY, VR2, XX9 throughout an evening pass of XW-1 using the FM transponder It was the first open test of this bird's transponder Everything works just great!"

AFSK packets were active over Japan with JA0CAW receiving the down- link on 435 675 MHz AFSK 1200bps

JE1CVL, JH1EKH, BD4SY, JF2CTY, JH1BCL, JA5BLZ succeeded in a QSO over Japan using the linear transponder in 'VHF(LSB) up and UHF (USB) Linear Transponder Inverting on 145 950 MHz (Up) and 435 740 MHz (Down)

The XW-1 communications payload includes a beacon and three cross band transponders operating in FM, linear, and digital modes

Uplinks: 145 8250 MHz FM, PL 67 0 Hz 145 9250 - 145 9750 MHz SSB/CW 145 8250 MHz AFSK 1200 BPS

Downlinks: 435 6750 MHz FM 435 7650 - 435 7150 MHz SSB/CW 435 6750 MHz AFSK 1200 BPS

Beacon: 435 7900 MHz CW

Users have posted videos on YouTube regarding XW-1: http://www youtube com/watch?v=n4-0yuC4Sx4&feature=related http://www youtube com/watch?v=WwyTZT6JkC4

Luciano Fabricio PY5LF has made a YouTube video showing his reception of the beacon: http://tinyurl com/yjgett6

XW-1 was a secondary payload aboard the CZ-4C rocket from Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center into a sun-synchronous orbit about 1200 kilometers high The primary payload of this launch is the Yaogen-8 Remote Sensing Satellite

BD5RV/4 requests amateur radio operators send him audio recordings, notes on received content, your QTH, callsign, date/time of the XW-1 beacon you heard to AMSAT China by email Later, you'll be able to upload it via web, but for now, email works Send your files and information to michael bd5rv@gmail com

XW-1 CW Telemetry Decoder by Mike Rupprecht, DK3WN can be downloaded from his web site at: http://www dk3wn info/software shtml

You can get an updated copy of the XW-1 Telemetry Format at: http://www camsat cn/index php?option=com_phocadownload&view=category& id=1:xw-1&download=1:xw-1-telemetry&Itemid=66 (careful - line wrap)

The XW-1 Store-forward Transponder User's Manual can be found on the AMSAT web at: http://www amsat org/amsat-new/satellites/documents/ XW-1_Store-forward_Transponder_Users_Manual pdf (careful - line wrap)

Details of the XW-1 satellite are available at: http://www camsat cn/index php?option=com_content&view=article&id=56& Itemid=67 (careful - line wrap)

[ANS thanks Michael Chen BD5RV/4 and Alan Kung, BA1DU for the above information]

/EX

SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-354 02 AO-51 Schedule to Support SKN

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 354 02

From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD December 20, 2009 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-354 02

The AMSAT AO-51 Operations Group reminds everyone that AO-51 will be configured to support CW operations during the annual Straight Key Night event Participants may operate CW through AO-51 between 0000 and 2400 UTC on 1 January 2010, using a straight hand key

AO-51 will be configured in the following mode during the event: SSB/FM Repeater, V/U (CW QSOs only on Straight Key Night) Uplink: 145 880 MHz USB Downlink: 435 150 MHz FM

And don't forget to nominate someone you work for "Best Fist" Please send your nomination to w2rs@amsat org A list of those nominated will appear in ANS and the AMSAT Journal

Have fun and enjoy AO-51!

[ANS thanks the AMSAT AO-51 Operations Group and Ray, W2RS for the above information]

/EX

SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-354 03 January 2010 AMSAT Kid's Day on AO-51

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 354 03

From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD December 20, 2009 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-354 03

AMSAT-NA and the AO-51 Operations Group will sponsor Kid's Day on AO-51 on January 3, 2010 The event is open to all kids, worldwide

We ask all amateur radio stations to give this short time window to promote satellite operations with kids, by actually showing a kid how to make contacts via AO-51, providing a station to contact, or stepping aside to allow others to make contacts with the kids During the event, please limit contacts to stations that are operating with kids at the microphone This should allow the kids to have a nice QSO and pass some information Kids can tell their name, age, who is helping them operate on AO-51, where they live, and other information about themselves

AO-51 will be configured in the following mode during the event Uplink: 145 880 MHz FM voice Downlink: 435 300 MHz FM voice

See http://www arrl org/FandES/ead/kd-rules html on the ARRL website for more Kids Day information

Have fun and enjoy AO-51!

[ANS thanks the AO-51 Operations Committee for the above information]

/EX

SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-354 04 Students and Teachers Invited to Fly a File on ARISSAT-1

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 354 04

From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD December 20, 2009 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-354 04

On 3 February 2006, cosmonaut Valery Ivanovich Tokarev hand launched the Amateur Radio satellite SuitSat-1 from the ISS during an EVA (Extra Vehicular Activity = Spacewalk)

SuitSat-1 was a very special Amateur Radio satellite A discarded Russian ORLAN Space Suit (in Russian a "Skafander") was equipped with an Amateur Radio transmitter, which transmitted telemetry and greetings from youngsters to the youth of the world in several languages

In 2010, an Amateur Radio satellite will once more be hand launched from the International Space Station It will be called ARISSat-1

ARISSat-1 will again transmit messages recorded by students Moreover, teachers and students are invited to fly a file aboard this amateur radio satellite

The ARISSat-1 Team wishes to include on our new satellite a memory stick of files prepared by students This should be a jpg or pdf of things the student has prepared such as a paper or a study done on a STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) topic, a drawing of space craft or a schematic, a journal kept on a STEM topic, a story or news article about a STEM subject, a photo of the class doing a hands-on STEM activity -- that type of thing

Having the student's work be a part of ARISSat-1 means the student is a part of the satellite project and along for the spacewalk and deployment of ARISSat-1

Readers of this Bulletin are invited to approach teachers and students and draw their attention on this opportunity to participate directly to a space flight for the honor of being part of space activities

Dave Jordan, AA4KN, will take delivery of these files and copy them onto a memory stick The quantity of files and the size of a file are unlimited since memory sticks provide for a very large amount of file space

Files should be either JPG or PDF -- no Word documents, please Please send files to Dave Jordan's address -- aa4kn@amsat.org He will look at all of them for content appropriate to students

Files can be in any language as long as an English translation is also included as a text file

If the file contains sound recordings and/or photos or names of persons, a "Talent Authorisation and Release" is requested The appropriate document can be downloaded from http://www rac ca/ariss/Talent_Release htm

The permission slip has to be signed by the student or his/her guardian if the student is a minor

The signed release form is to be mailed to: AMSAT Martha Saragovitz 850 Sligo Ave Suite 600 Silver Spring, MD 20910

Deadline for submitting files: March 1st, 2010

[ANS thanks the ARISS Team for the above information]

/EX

SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-354 05 NASA Revised EVA Schedule Affects ARISSat

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 354 05

From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD December 20, 2009 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-354 05

NASA has informed AMSAT that the schedule of work for EVAs at the International Space Station is being revised The planned deploy- ment of ARISSat-1 from the ISS is now being scheduled for either Fall 2010 or early 2011 rather than Spring 2010

This schedule adjustment also impacts when ARISSat-1 will be flown to the Space Station with upload likely to take place sometime in Summer 2010 rather than in January

These revisions were made in response to new higher priority work that must be done during the timeframe of the EVA that ARISSat-1 was originally scheduled in April 2010

Overall, this revision helps ARISSat-1 because it provides additional time for testing of the spacecraft Furthermore, it also ensures that the NASA Safety Review process for ARISSat-1 can be concluded prior to shipment of the spacecraft to Russia

The major items to complete for ARISSat are the IHU software, PSU software, PSU testing and system testing The structure is coming together well and the team looks forward to providing an innovative and reliable satellite this coming spring

[ANS thanks Gould, WA4SXM for the above information]

/EX

SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-354 06 Satellite Shorts From All Over

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 354 06

From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD December 20, 2009 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-354 06

SSTV pictures received during the Moscow Aviation Institute Experiment aboard the ISS on December 9 can be viewed in the ARISS SSTV Gallery at: http://www amsat org/amsat/ariss/SSTV/
Congratulations to Jean-Marie, F2IL for 10,000 contacts via AO-7 (Via Zeljko, 9A2EY)
On December 7 Juan Antonio, EA4CYQ had a contact with Piraja PS8RF in Brazil via AO-7 Mode B Signals were reported to sound clear without any noise or distortion over the Atlantic Ocean
AMSAT Area Coordinator for the Washington, D C - Maryland Areas, Pat Kilroy, N8PK will kick off the planning for the next AMSAT-DC gathering with a teleconference call on Thursday, January 7, 2010, at 7:00 P M Eastern Standard Time Please RSVP for the telecon directly to Patrick L Kilroy@nasa gov, and he will forward the meeting information to you
A YouTube video showing how to make a VO-52 contact can be viewed at: http://tinyurl com/ydpc6ru

[ANS thanks everyone for the above information]

/EX

SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-354 07 ESA and CNES to Fly Atomic Clock to ISS Columbus Module

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 354 07

From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD December 20, 2009 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-354 07

The French space agency (CNES) and ESA have signed an agreement that paves the way for the launch of a high-accuracy atomic clock to be attached to the outside of the European Columbus laboratory onboard the International Space Station (ISS)

The PHARAO (Projet d'Horloge Atomique par Refroidissement d'Atomes en Orbite) atomic clock, which will be combined with another atomic clock, the Space Hydrogen Maser (SHM), to form ESA's Atomic Clock Ensemble in Space (ACES), will have an accuracy of 1x10-16, corres- ponding to a time error of about one second over 300 million years

This new generation of atomic clocks in space will be instrumental in enabling accurate testing of Einstein's theory of general rela- tivity In addition, it will contribute to the accuracy and long- term stability of global timescales, such as Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) A dedicated microwave link will send the timing signal to the ground

The atomic clock is designed for launch in the unpressurised cargo bay of the Japanese H-II Transfer Vehicle (HTV) or commercial SpaceX carrier in the second half of 2013 Once in orbit, it will be attached to Columbus' Earth-facing external payload platform using the Station Robotic Arm

(Via SpaceDaily com, see http://www spacedaily com/reports/PHARAO_ Atomic_Clock_Agreement_Signed_By_ESA_And_CNES_999 html for full story )

[ANS thanks SpaceDaily com 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 And with that please keep in mind that Santa's elves are actually subordinate Clauses

73, This week's ANS Editor, JoAnne Maenpaa, K9JKM K9JKM at amsat dot org

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