AMSAT NEWS SERVICE ANS-017
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: * JARL Publishes FO-29 Return-to-Operations Schedule * HO-68 Schedule 17-24 Jan 2010 * AO-51 Satellite Grid DXpedition Starts 21 January * AO-51 Returned to Normal Attitude * OSCAR-11 Report 14 January 2010 * New Release of Delfi-C3 RASCAL Telemetry Software is Available * Satellite Shorts From All Over * ARISS Status - 11 January 2010
SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-017 01 JARL Publishes FO-29 Return-to-Operations Schedule
AMSAT News Service Bulletin 017 01 From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD January 17, 2010 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-017 01
Mineo Wakita, JE9PEL reported this week that FO-29 ground controllers at JARL plan to open the satellite for amateur radio use FO-29 may not remain operational after eclipses due to power budget issues but operations are planned according to the following schedule when the satellite will be turned on:
Jan UTC 16 21:00- 22 22:33- 24 10:35- 29 21:25- 31 09:30-
Feb UTC 5 22:00- 7 10:00- 11 11:40- 12 20:53- 14 10:40-
Depending on the power budget JARL may need to selectively cancel operations Operators are reminded to please use as low power as necessary on the uplink to complete their communications
[ANS thanks Mineo, JE9PEL for the above information]
/EX
SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-017 02 HO-68 Schedule 17-24 Jan 2010
AMSAT News Service Bulletin 017 02 From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD January 17, 2010 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-017 02
17 Jan 2010 HO-68 FM and Digital Transponder 16:15 Turn On India,Middle East Asia, Europe, NA 17:00 Turn Off
17 Jan 2010 HO-68 FM and Digital Transponder 23:25 Turn On South Africa,South America,Europe, NA,North Pole,North Asia 00:10 Turn Off
18 Jan 2010 HO-68 FM and Digital Transponder 10:10 Turn On Australia,South Pole, New Zealand, East Asia, North Asia,Europe,North Pole,NA 10:55 Turn Off
18 Jan 2010 HO-68 FM and Digital Transponder 12:20 Turn On Australia,South Asia,East Asia,North Asia 12:35 Turn Off
18 Jan 2010 HO-68 FM and Digital Transponder 19:25 Turn On South Africa,Europe,NA,North Pole,North Asia 20:10 Turn Off
18 Jan 2010 HO-68 FM and Digital Transponder 23:15 Turn On South America,NA,Europe,North Asia 24:00 Turn Off
19 Jan 2010 HO-68 FM and Digital Transponder 11:40 Turn On South Pole, Australia,New Zealand,South Asia 11:56 Turn Off
19 Jan 2010 HO-68 FM and Digital Transponder 13:51 Turn On Australia,South Asia,East Asia, North Asia 14:07 Turn Off
19 Jan 2010 HO-68 FM and Digital Transponder 19:10 Turn On Africa,NA,North Asia 19:55 Turn Off
19 Jan 2010 HO-68 FM and Digital Transponder 22:55 Turn On South America,North Africa,NA,North Pole,North Asia 23:40 Turn Off
20 Jan 2010 HO-68 FM and Digital Transponder 11:25 Turn On South Pole,Australia, New Zealand,East Asia 11:48 Turn Off
20 Jan 2010 HO-68 FM and Digital Transponder 13:34 Turn On Australia,South Asia,Est Asia, 13:50 Turn Off
20 Jan 2010 HO-68 FM and Digital Transponder 15:55 Turn On East Africa,Middle East Asia,Europe,NA 16:20 Turn Off
20 Jan 2010 HO-68 FM and Digital Transponder 17:10 Turn On Europe,NA,North Pole,North Asia,East Asia 17:55 Turn Off
21 Jan 2010 HO-68 FM and Digital Transponder 11:05 Turn On South Pole,Australia, New Zealand 11:27 Turn Off
21 Jan 2010 HO-68 FM and Digital Transponder 13:14 Turn On South Asia,East Asia,North Asia 13:29 Turn Off
21 Jan 2010 HO-68 FM and Digital Transponder 18:45 Turn On South Africa,Europe,NA,North Pole,North Asia 19:30 Turn Off
22 Jan 2010 HO-68 FM and Digital Transponder 00:10 Turn On South America,NA,North Pole, North Asia,East Asia 00:55 Turn Off
22 Jan 2010 HO-68 FM and Digital Transponder 10:50 Turn On Oceania,South Asia,East Asia, North Asia,Europe,NA 11:35 Turn Off
22 Jan 2010 HO-68 FM and Digital Transponder 13:30 Turn On Oceania,South Asia,Middle Asia, Europe,North Pole 14:15 Turn Off
22 Jan 2010 HO-68 FM and Digital Transponder 16:40 Turn On Africa,Middle East Asia,Europe, NA,North Pole,North Asia 17:25 Turn Off
23 Jan 2010 HO-68 FM and Digital Transponder 01:30 Turn On North Africa,Europe,North Pole,NA,North Asia, East Asia 02:15 Turn Off
23 Jan 2010 HO-68 FM and Digital Transponder 02:23 Turn On North Asia, East Asia,South Asia,Oceania 02:39 Turn Off
23 Jan 2010 HO-68 FM and Digital Transponder 03:20 Turn On South America,NA,North Asia,North Pole 03:09 Turn Off
23 Jan 2010 HO-68 FM and Digital Transponder 23:35 Turn On South America,NA,Europe,North Pole, North Asia,East Asia 00:20 Turn Off
24 Jan 2010 HO-68 FM and Digital Transponder 00:30 Turn On South Asia,Australia,New Zealand 00:50 Turn Off
24 Jan 2010 HO-68 FM and Digital Transponder 01:10 Turn On South America,NA,North Asia,North Pole 01:55 Turn Off
24 Jan 2010 HO-68 FM and Digital Transponder 03:51 Turn On North Asia,East Asia,South Asia 04:06 Turn Off
[ANS thanks Alan, BA1DU, for the above information]
/EX
SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-017 03 AO-51 Satellite Grid DXpedition Starts 21 January
AMSAT News Service Bulletin 017 03 From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD January 17, 2010 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-017 03
Jim, ND9M/VQ9JC, plans to activate 85 grids in 8 states on AO-51 between January 21st and February 10th Jim and his wife will be driving to the Denver area (DN70) where his step-son lives and Cheyenne (DN71) where his brother lives The trip will start from Panama City, Florida, on/or around January 21st, from where they head to Memphis, TN Jim may possibly activate some grids From Memphis they will head westbound through OK, then into KS and NE before hitting CO Their around trip will take them through Big Bend National Park and Texas (hitting every grid in TX) and the Gulf Coast into Louisiana
[ANS thanks KB8NW, OPDX Bulletin, and MakeMoreMilesOnVHF Newsletter For the above information]
/EX
SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-017 04 AO-51 Returned to Normal Attitude
AMSAT News Service Bulletin 017 04 From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD January 17, 2010 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-017 04
On 9 January the magnet on AO-51 was repolarized to again favor the northern hemisphere There may be some rapid fading as the nutation dampers do their job over the next few weeks The command team appreciates all the reports and observations during this experiment
73, Drew KO4MA AMSAT-NA VP Operations
[ANS thanks Drew, KO4MA, for the above information]
/EX
SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-017 05 OSCAR-11 Report 14 January 2010
AMSAT News Service Bulletin 017 05 From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD January 17, 2010 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-017 05
This report covers the period from 30 November 2009 to 14 January 2010 During this time the satellite was heard briefly on 10 & 11 December and then from 31 December until 10 January Good signals were received, and decoded Sometimes signals have been very strong, although frequent changes in polarisation have been observed The satellite was not heard during solar eclipses, which now occur during the afternoon and evening passes over the UK
The last two 'off' periods have lasted 14 and 19 days respectively, suggesting that the watchdog timer has been reset However, the last transmission period lasted for the full ten days, so it is possible that transmissions may resume after ten days of silence, ie around 20 January However, please note that the satellite's behaviour is now very unpredictable, and until a pattern of operation is established, it is impossible to predict what will happen next, with any certainty
The telemetry is unchanged from the 2008 downloads The on-board clock is now 252 days slow When last received in 2008 it was 83 days slow The increasing error suggests that the clock may be stopping, when the satellite is in eclipse During the last transmission period the date failed to increment on one occasion, from 29 to 30 May
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RECEPTION REPORTS REQUESTED!
Please send reception reports to xxxxx@amsat org (replace xxxxx by g3cwv) or post to amsat-bb If you have a file, please discuss it with me, before sending it!
You may also like to add your reception report to the live satellite status page, on the website set up by David KD5QGR and Bob WB4APR The URL is http://oscar dcarr org/index php
The satellite transmits on 145 826 MHz , set receiver to NBFM OSCAR-11 has a characteristic sound, rather like raspy slow Morse code, sending "di di dah dah dah dah dah dah dah" sent over five seconds If you are receiving a very weak signal, switch the receiver to CW or SSB You should hear several sidebands around the carrier frequency, should be able to hear the characteristic Morse code like' sound usually on at least two of the sidebands
Please note that you need a clean noise free signal to decode the signals There is an audio clip on my website www g3cwv co,uk which may be useful for identification and as test signal for decoding
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Reception reports have been received from Peter ZL3TC, Mike DK3WN, Jon 2M0IBO and Detlef DJ3AK Many thanks for those
The Beacon frequencies are -
VHF 145 826 MHz AFSK FM ASCII Telemetry
UHF 435 025 MHz OFF
S-band 2401 5 MHz OFF
The satellite is now subject to eclipses during every orbit Long term predictions indicate that eclipses will occur until 2019, when there will be some eclipse free periods until 2023 However these very long term predictions should be regarded with caution, as large tracking errors can accumulate over long periods of time
When analogue telemetry was last received in March 2005, it showed that one of the solar arrays had failed, and there was a large unexplained current drain on the main 14 volt bus After 25 years in orbit the battery has undergone over 100,000 partial charge/discharge cycles, and observations suggest that it cannot power the satellite during eclipses lasting more than about ten minutes, or sometimes even during periods of poor solar attitude
Study of the satellite's behaviour prior to 2008 suggested that its battery would not sustain operation during solar eclipses, and the watchdog timer would switch the satellite OFF after less than an orbit Eclipses are now occur during every orbit and will continue for many years In practice this meant that OSCAR-11 would only be heard occasionally by stations monitoring the frequency while listening for other satellites
The satellite unexpectedly started sustained transmissions during November 2009, suggesting that there may have been a failure causing reduced drain on the power supplies or a change in the watchdog timer characteristics
The current status of the satellite, is that all the analogue telemetry channels, 0 to 59 are zero, ie they have failed The status channels 60 to 67 are still working The real time clock is showing a large accumulated error, although over short periods timekeeping is accurate to a few seconds per month The day of the month has a bit stuck at 'one' so the day of the month may show an error of +40 days for some dates The time display has switched into 12 hour mode Unfortunately, there is no AM/PM indicator, since the time display format was designed for 24 hour mode
The spacecraft computer and active attitude control system have switched OFF, ie the satellite' attitude is controlled only by the passive gravity boom gradient, and the satellite is free to spin at any speed
The watchdog timer now operates on a 20 day cycle The ON/OFF times have tended to be very consistent The average of many observations show this to be 20 7 days, ie 10 3 days ON followed by 10 4 days OFF However, poor solar attitude may result may result in a low 14 volt line supply, which may cause the beacon to switch OFF prematurely, and reset the watchdog timer cycle When this occurs, the beacon is OFF for 20 7 days
Listeners to OSCAR-11 may be interested in visiting my website If you need to know what OSCAR-11 should sound like, there is a short audio clip for you to hear The last telemetry received from the satellite is available for download The website contains an archive of news & telemetry data It also contains details about using a soundcard or hardware demodulators for data capture There is software for capturing data, and decoding ASCII telemetry The URL is www g3cwv co uk Please note that my old website www users zetnet co uk/clivew is no longer being updated, athough it may still be available
If you place this bulletin on a terrestrial packet network, please use the bulletin identifier $BID:U2RPT146 CWV, to prevent duplication
73 Clive G3CWV xxxxx@amsat org (please replace xxxxx by g3cwv)
[ANS thanks Clive, G3CWV, for the above information]
/EX
SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-017 06 New Release of Delfi-C3 RASCAL Telemetry Software is Available
AMSAT News Service Bulletin 017 06 From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD January 17, 2010 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-017 06
According to a report received from Wouter Weggelaar, PA3WEG the Delfi-C3 team has released an updated version of the RASCAL software for the reception of Delfi-C3 (DO-64) telemetry A copy is available on-line at: http://www delfic3 nl/rascal If you already have RASCAL installed, you can use the upgrade package which leaves all your set- tings intact
Improvements: + Current & voltage of reference diodes added This is a measure for the solar intensity received on the solar panels These diode outputs correlate with the output of the TFSC measurements, and can be found in the IV-curves window (Options -> Show IV Curves)
- AWSS data presence indicators added These indicators light up green if data from the sun sensors (AWSS) is received, and in which quadrant there is data The AWSS data presence indicators can be found in the lower right corner of the RASCAL main screen
The team reports Delfi-C3 is still in good health and performing fine in science mode Approximately 121 5 MB of telemetry data from 335 registered users and guest accounts has been received
Delfi-C3 has been on orbit for 622 days and her second birthday is coming up on April 28th There are no signs of considerable degradation in science mode, so everything is still healthy
[ANS thanks Wouter, PA3WEG, for the above information]
SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-017 07 Satellite Shorts From All Over
AMSAT News Service Bulletin 017 07 From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD January 17, 2010 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-017 07
On January 14 Bob, W7LRD, reported copying RN1NW via AO-7 just about at his LOS The distance between the stations is 7686Km A two-way contact was not completed at this time
George, KA3HSW, says a new version of the schedule lister is now avail- able to download This version corrects the issue of stale data files being downloaded from an old URL It also increases the refresh rate to every 5 seconds, instead of 10 seconds The software can be found at: http://sites google com/site/ao27satellitescheduler
AMSAT area coordinator Clint Bradford, K6LCS, will be presenting his "Working Amateur Satellites With Your HT" multimedia session at the January 20, 2010 meeting of the Fullerton (California) Radio Club All are welcome to attend Before the meeting at 5:15PM PST Clint will demonstrate an AO-51 pass at the Ruby's Diner, 1301 S Harbor Blvd in Fullerton The presentation begins at 7:00PM PST at the FRC Club meeting at the Fullerton Senior Center, 340 West Commonwealth Avenue, in Fullerton
Henk, PA3GUO, reports hearing the ANDE-2 satellites again: Castor (KD4HDO-1) transmits every 30 seconds an APRS telemetry beacon at ~145 827 MHz at ~28 and ~58 seconds of each minute
The Southeastern VHF Society invites interested amateurs to check out the plans for the 14th Annual Southeastern VHF Society Conference April 23rd and 24th, 2010 at Morehead State University in Morehead, Kentucky See http://www svhfs org for more information
The ARRL DX News ARLD002 reported special event station LM50NRK is operational during 2010 in celebration of the 50th anniversary of television in Norway Activity is on the HF bands, including some satellite activity QSL via LA4FPA
[ANS thanks everyone for the above information]
/EX
SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-017 08 ARISS Status - 11 January 2010
AMSAT News Service Bulletin 017 08 From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD January 17, 2010 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-017 08
- ARISS Featured at Marconi Commemoration Event
On Thursday, January 7, students attending the University of Rome “Tor Vergata” Marconi Commemoration Event in Rome, Italy participated in an Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) contact with on-orbit astronaut Jeffrey Williams, KD5TVQ The contact was facilitated by telebridge station W6SRJ in California An audience of 200 watched as eleven questions were asked and answered After the contact, Princess Elettra Marconi, daughter of Guglielmo Marconi and Mr Dieter Isakeit of ESA ESRIN (European Space Research Institute) Corporate Communication Office & Communication and Knowledge Department, sent greetings to the ISS crew Presentations were given by ARISS mentor Francesco De Paolis as well as Mr Augusto Cramarossa, Italian Space Agency, Head of Strategy, National and International, Mr Massimo Pucini, Deputy Mayor of Moteporzio Catone town and Mrs Marina Ruggeri, Director Department of Electronics Engineering – University “Tor Vergata ”
- ISS Ham Debrief Held
An Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) debrief session was held with Expedition 20/21 crew members Nicole Stott, KE5GJN and Robert Thirsk, VA3CSA on Tuesday, January 5 The feedback provided by the astronauts will help ARISS update program procedures
[ANS thanks Carol, KB3LKI, 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, Lee McLamb, KU4OS ku4os at amsat dot org
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