Date: August 22nd 2010

AMSAT NEWS SERVICE ANS-234

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: * Election Reminder * ARRISSat-1 Update * Symposium Call for Papers * AO-51 Update * ARISS STATUS * Satellite Shorts

SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-234 01 Election Reminder

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 234 01 From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD August 22, 2010 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-234 01

Just another nag that the AMSAT election for members of the Board of Directors is in progress The end of the summer, and the start of school is upon us Still, if you haven't gotten around to it, take a few minutes to vote The deadline will be here in a month Obviously it is important as a member to vote, but it is also important for Board members to receive your input in this way

73s,

Alan Biddle WA4SCA AMSAT Corporate Secretary

[ANS Thanks Alan, WA4SCA, for the above information] /EX

SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-234 02 ARISSat-1 Update

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 234 02 From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD August 22, 2010 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-234 02

ARISSat-1 update We are now manifested on Progress 41P to get ARISSat to the ISS The current timeline has the launch in January 2011 Four ARISSat satellites have been assembled in Orlando The two Russian flight units are assembled, electronics are undergoing operational tests, software is close to being the final version and we expect to have the satellite complete and ready for vibration tests next week We don't have a date for the vibration test yet, but are working to get one in the next few weeks NASA has been very instrumental in getting us an export license, arranging for transportation to Russia and helping clarify how the satellite will be attached to the Progress vessel We plan on shipping the two satellites to Russia in September, to give them time to install the Kursk experiment, test their battery with the satellite and do additional tests before shipping to Baikonur for launch Gould, WA4SXM AMSAT ARISSat-1 Project Manager

[ANS thanks Gould, WA4SXM, for the above information]

/EX

SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-234 03 Symposium Call for Papers

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 234 03 From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD August 22, 2010 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-234 03

Reminder: Symposium Call For Papers Deadline is Coming

It's already August 1 and the September 1 deadline of the call for papers for the 2010 AMSAT Space Symposium and Annual Meeting is approaching faster than ever! The abstracts and some completed papers have arrived - thank you For everyone else - we need to get busier please!

The abstract for your paper does not require any special format Simply send an e-mail to the Proceedings Editor, K9JKM with the basic information: Author Name, Callsign, and a few sentences that describe your proposed topic I'll be looking forward to receiving your abstracts in my in-box at k9jkm@comcast net

The Symposium Committee invites proposals for:

Papers for publication in the Proceedings
Symposium Presentations
Poster Presentations
Equipment and Operating Demonstrations

These can be on any topic of interest to the amateur satellite community We request a tentative title of your presentation as soon as possible, with final copy submitted by September 1, 2010 for inclusion in the printed proceedings

To help you prepare your paper the Symposium Committee has posted an author's guide on the AMSAT org web page: http://tinyurl com/2djjnmx

The 2010 AMSAT Space Symposium and Annual Meeting will be held October 8 - 10 at the Chicago/Elk Grove Holiday Inn which is near O'Hare Airport

[ANS thanks the 2010 Symposium Committee for the above information]

/EX

SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-234 04 AO-51 Update

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 234 04 From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD August 22, 2010 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-234 04

Eclipses Cause Short Term Changes to AO-51 Schedule

AO-51 Command Team member, Mark N8MH noted this week that AO-51 is still in eclipses until the last week of August The satellite will be back in 100% sun until the end of December after this time That means the Command Team should be able keep AO-51 transmitting all the time In fact, they will need to do this in order to keep temp- eratures down!

In recent days the Command Team had to resort to shutting down the voice repeater in order to grab some telemetry files from the bird
This was very important as we are nearing the end of the eclipse period and was a unique opportunity to collect good data for current use and for future reference for AO-51 Operations

Recently AO-51 has been automatically turning itself OFF and back ON because of the power budget Users see this more often as it first comes out of eclipse and as it begins to enter eclipse The Command Team will continue to fine tune this, but the goal is to keep AO-51 transmitting when there is enough power--without having the bird shutdown until manually commanded back ON by one of the command team members

Starting January 2011, we won't see much of a break from the eclipse periods for a long, long time (there is one short window of full sun, but it's about 2 weeks long in late Feb/early March 2011) The com- mand team has been using the recent eclipse period to learn how to become more efficient in the use of the power management code on board
This allows us to get the most "bang for the buck" out of the available power It's pretty complex and versatile We've learned a tremen- dous amount this eclipse period, but still have more to learn in the future

[ANS thanks AO-51 Command Team member, Mark N8MH for the above information]

/EX

SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-234 05 ARISS Status Report

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 234 05 From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD August 16, 2010 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-234 05

Upcoming School Contact

An Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) contact has been scheduled with the DaVinci Science Center in Allentown, Pennsylvania The Center has integrated this activity into its Summer Camp Program for 2010 Students have learned about space through lessons from the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Education Office and Astronaut Terry Hart is expected to give presentations The Delaware-Lehigh Amateur Radio Club has provided instruction on Amateur Radio, how it works, what it is and its uses, how the ARISS radio systems work, the international ham radio team, satellite tracking, radio wave propagation and the organizations that sponsor ARISS The club will also provide VHF demonstrations and multi-media presentations to the group which will enhance the center's 200 hands-on exhibits that promote the understanding of science and technology Due to ISS Problems, This has been postponed, however, keep informed as this can change before this ANS is published

QST Covers ARISS

The American Radio Relay League (ARRL) September issue of QST carried an item in the "Inside HQ" column about how NASA ISS crew members participated in one or more ARISS educational activities per week during the first half of 2010 The ARRL monthly journal has a circulation of 150,000

ISS Ham Debrief Scheduled

An Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) debrief session has been scheduled with Expedition 22/23 astronaut Soichi Noguchi, KD5TVP on Tuesday, August 17 The feedback provided on the radio system and school contacts will help the ARISS program update its operations

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

/EX

SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-234 06 Satellite Shorts

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 234 06 From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD August 22, 2010 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-234 06

SA-AMSAT Reports Plans for Sumbandilasat SO-67 Return to Service

South Africa AMSAT (SA-AMSAT) is slowly adding additional operational time for Sumbandilasat SO-67 On their web page they report that the ground control station will start slowly with the amateur payload and observe if the satellite remains stable and then gradually add more operating time The current SO-67 schedule for operations over South Africa and Europe can be found on their web page at: http://www amsatsa org za/

The PTT of the transmitter now STAYS ON for the duration of the payload activation (i e 15 min), regardless of a valid "transponder" tone received Please leave a 3 second gap between overs

AMSAT Awards

AMSAT Director Contests and Awards, Bruce Paige, KK5DO says congratulations are in order for these stations earning AMSAT awards during July and August

The following have entered into the Satellite Communicators Club for making their first satellite QSO

George Jounakros, K2KVI Johnathon Ballard, KI4UKF Stephen Ponder, N5WBI Bob Herrell, AJ5C Jason Brisco, N5NBJ

The following have earned the AMSAT Communications Achievement Award Stephen Rish, K8SAR #516

The following have earned the South Africa AMSAT Communications Achievement Award John Neeley, W6ZKH #US148

To see all the awards visit http://www amsat org

Japan's Venus Mission Getting Close

The mission that launched UNITEC-1, Amateur Radio's first inter- planetary probe, the Venus Climate Orbiter also known as Akatsuki remains healthy and is nearing the planet The 5 8 GHz amateur radio beacon from UNITEC-1 was last heard only two days outbound from Earth

Akatsuki, bristling with cameras, will circle the exotic planet's equator in an elliptical orbit for at least 2 years, monitoring the atmosphere at different altitudes using various wavelengths (IR, UV, and visible) With this data and data from the spacecraft's radio dish, scientists will reconstruct a 3D model of the atmosphere's structure and dynamics

The instruments will also scrutinize the planet's surface for volcanic activity In addition, Akatsuki's Lightning and Airglow Camera will hunt for lightning in order to settle a longstanding debate about how is Venusian lightning generated in a dry atmosphere?

The full story can be found on-line at NASA Science News http://science nasa gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2010/16aug_vco/

[ANS thanks Everyone 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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