AMSAT NEWS SERVICE ANS-156

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:

• Eclipses Continue to Affect AO-51 Operation
• Reminder: The DARA Matching Gift Challenge
• AMSAT-NA Board of Directors Nominations Due by June 15th
• New Satellite Award: 5 in EM55
• AMSAT-DL Break FUNcube Dongle Distance Record
• Satellite Shorts From All Over
• 2011 AMSAT Field Day Competition
• Open Source Hardware List From Dayton TAPR Forum
• US Army Supports Student Launch Program

SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-156 01 Eclipses Continue to Affect AO-51 Operation

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 156 01

From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD June 5, 2011 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-156 01

Last week's ANS bulletins reported that the AO-51 Command Team had successfully restored the satellite to partial operations AO-51 at that time required a reload/reboot sequence every time it emerged from eclipse due to the Integrated Housekeeping (IHU) computer crash- ing from low battery voltage

This week AMSAT VP-Operations, Drew Glasbrenner, KO4MA said, "AO-51's computer has been running for over 5 hours now We have left the sat- ellite in repeater mode 145 88/435 15 for the time being, at over 2 watts We are very surprised by this development to say the least Without Whole Orbit Data we are flying a bit blind, so would really like to know what the satellite is doing in eclipse Please send your reports to me or to the amsat-bb Southern hemisphere observations are most very welcome "

• Robert, NH7WN reported from Honolulu: "AO51 was alive and well as she came out of eclipse on June 2 I was able to hear myself per- fectly on the downlink (145 880 up and 435 150 down) "

• Brett reported: "Heard on AO-51 today pass over Australia/New Zealand 145 880/435 150 Strong signals Copied VK1AMG, ZL2BX, VK4VDX "

• Alan, ZL2BX reported: "AO-51 solid signals in ZL AOS (0459 UT) about five minutes after it came out of eclipse Later on June 3, I can finally confirm that AO-51 is loud and clear over ZL in full eclipse with solid signals from the transponder "

• Dave, KB5WIA reported from California, "AO-51 was in great shape as it passed south above the Pacific Ocean on June 3 I had a nice S9+ full quieting downlink for the entire pass "

The Command Team has analyzed AO-51 live telemetry when the satellite is in range of a ground station because Whole Orbit Data is lost when the IHU Computer crashes Drew, KO4MA summarized, "Cell 3 is reporting 0 0 volts, so it's clear it has shorted completely "

Donations for Fox and ARISSat-1 are being collected If you haven't yet donated, please drop by http://www amsat org, or call Martha at the AMSAT Office at 1-888-322-6728 today and help us get Fox in space

Keep up with the latest AO-51 Control Team News on-line at: http://www amsat org/amsat-new/echo/CTNews php

[ANS thanks AMSAT-NA VP Operations Drew Glasbrenner, KO4MA for the above information]

/EX

SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-156 02 Reminder: The DARA Matching Gift Challenge

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 156 02

From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD June 5, 2011 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-156 02

The Dayton Amateur Radio Association (DARA) has announced a fund raising challenge for AMSAT whereby they will match on a 1:3 basis up to $5,000 00 for donations made in 2011 That is, for every $3 00 that AMSAT raises, DARA will provide $1 00 up to a maximum of $5,000 donated by DARA

AMSAT kicked off the fundraising campaign at the Hamvention, where donations began count against this goal Please consider making a donation to AMSAT at Hamvention or anytime this Spring as we strive to meet this goal

We appreciate DARA's support for AMSAT and see this as an opportunity for donors to increase the impact of their donations by taking advan- tage of this matching program

[ANS thanks AMSAT Headquarters for the above information]

/EX

SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-156 03 AMSAT-NA Board of Directors Nominations Due by June 15th

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 156 03

From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD June 5, 2011 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-156 03

It is time to submit nominations for the upcoming open seats on the AMSAT-NA Board of Directors The deadline is June 15th A valid nom- ination requires either one Member Society, or five current individual members in good standing, to nominate an AMSAT member for the position

Four director's terms expire this year:

Barry Baines, WD4ASW Alan Biddle, WA4SCA Drew Glasbrenner, KO4MA Tony Monteiro, AA2TX

The four candidates receiving the highest number of votes will be seated as full Board members for two year terms The two candidates receiving the next highest number of votes will be seated as alternate Board members for one year terms

Beginning this year, in addition to traditional submissions of written nominations which remains unchanged and is the preferred method, initial nominations may be made by electronic means =A0 These include e-mail, FAX, or electronic image of a petition Electronic petitions should be sent to MARTHA@AMSAT ORG or faxed to 301-608-3410 Written nominations, consisting of names, calls, and individual signatures, should be mailed to:

AMSAT-NA 850 Sligo Ave #600 Silver Spring, MD, 20910

No matter what method is used, petitions MUST arrive no later than June 15th at the AMSAT-NA office If the nomination is a traditional written nomination, no other action is required If it is other than this, i e electronic, a verifying traditional written petition MUST be received at the AMSAT-NA office at the above address within 7 days following the close of nominations on June 15th ELECTRONIC SUBMISSIONS WITHOUT THIS SECOND, WRITTEN VERIFICATION ARE NOT VALID UNDER THE EXIST- ING AMSAT-NA BYLAWS

Alan Biddle WA4SCA AMSAT Corporate Secretary

[ANS thanks Alan, WA4SCA, for the above information]

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SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-156 04 New Satellite Award: 5 in EM55

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 156 04

From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD June 5, 2011 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-156 04

Damon, WA4HFN announced this week, "In an effort to help increase interest in satellites, we have created a new award for working five (5) different hams in the EM55 grid "

You do not have to be in your home grid to count the stations worked There are several satellite ready hams in EM55 Here is the current list that we know of: WA4NVM, WA4HFN, WB4LHD, WA4OVO, KI4OTG, KD4NOQ, KJ4BIX, AND AJ4KF

Send your log to WA4NVM or WA4HFN for checking, along with your current mailing address The award is free and should any donations be sent, they will be forwarded to AMSAT along with your call and name

This award will be effective 1 June 2011, therefore, all contacts must be on or after this date

[ANS thanks Damon, WA4HFN for the above information]

/EX

SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-156 05 AMSAT-DL Break FUNcube Dongle Distance Record

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 156 05

From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD June 5, 2011 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-156 05

A story first reported on the Southgate ARC news web site reported members of AMSAT-DL have received the Stereo B spacecraft at a dis- tance of 219 million kilometers using an AMSAT-UK FUNcube Dongle Software Defined Radio as the I F in combination with a downcon- verter

Stereo B transmits in the X band around 8 GHz so could not be receiv- ed by the FUNcube Dongle directly since that covers 64-1700 MHz A downconverter was installed at the dish feed and the 1280 MHz output was fed into the FUNcube Dongle SDR

The frequency of Stereo B varies due to Doppler shift (of the rotating Earth) and was calculated by the tracking software

Watch Mario Lorenz DL5MLO explain how the record was broken Receiving Stereo B with a FUNcube dongle and the Bochum 20m dish: http://tinyurl com/6eukmjv (Southgate)

ANS thanks Southgate ARC news site for the above information]

/EX

SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-156 06 Satellite Shorts From All Over

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 156 06

From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD June 5, 2011 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-156 06

• EE Times published an article, "High-performance FPGAs take flight in microsatellites" featuring the U K Space Agency's UKube1 mission This satellite will also fly a transponder based on AMSAT-UK's FUNcube design The EE Times article is available on-line at: http://tinyurl com/6he8n82 A downloadable PDF file of the article can be found at: http://www xilinx com/publications/archives/xcell/Xcell75 pdf

• Free Book Downloads! National Academies Press offers more than 4,000 titles as free PDF downloads Begin on their download site at: http://www nap edu/ (Tammy Plotner on June 2, 2011 at UniverseToday com)

• SO-67 has been reported to be active this past week Monitor the satellite's schedule usually posted at: http://www amsatsa org za/

• The next Hudson Valley Satcom Nets are scheduled for June 9 and June 23, at 8PM EDT (UTC-4) on the 146 970 MHz repeater, (Pl 100), and also on Echolink node N2EYH-L More info: http://www hvsatcom org (Stu, WA2BSS)

• Angel Santana, WP3GW posted a video on YouTube about his live con- tact with the ISS this past week: http://www youtube com/watch?v=rdzRWEzKH_M

• A video based on images captured by the NASA with the Cassini Imaging Science System team has been posted by Chris Abbas of Digital Kitchen: http://vimeo com/24410924 The UniverseToday story can be found at: http://tinyurl com/6xyp4ph (UniverseToday com)

• NASA reveals the excitement of planetary exploration in over 90 images that can be viewed on their science outreach program called From Earth to the Solar System (FETTSS) web page: http://www fromearthtotheuniverse org/index php

• This high definition short is a fascinating document Narrated by NASA's Dr Justin Wilkinson, it shows a tour of planet Earth as seen by astronauts, explaining what are the places that they first focus on while in orbit: http://www youtube com/watch?v=rj18UQjPpGA (Clint, K6LCS)

• Check your ISS Keps! According to Roscosmos, the ISS boosted its orbit by 3 74 km Friday This will result in a "slippage" of predicted times of approximately 70 seconds per day until the Keps catch up The AMSAT NASA ALL Keps will probably not reflect this until next week, so be certain to update from Celstrak or Space Track

[ANS thanks everyone for the above information]

/EX

SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-156 07 2011 AMSAT Field Day Competition

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 156 07

From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD June 5, 2011 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-156 07

AMSAT Director of Awards, Bruce Paige, KK5DO says, "It's that time of year again: Summer and Field Day!"

Each year the American Radio Relay League (ARRL) sponsors Field Day as an emergency preparedness exercise The event takes place during a 24-hour period on the fourth weekend of June For 2011 the event takes place during a 27-hour period from 1800 UTC on Saturday June 25, 2011 through 2100 UTC on Sunday June 26, 2011 Those who set up prior to 1800 UTC on June 25 can operate only 24 hours

The Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation (AMSAT) promotes its own version of Field Day for operation via the amateur satellites, held concurrently with the ARRL event

Bruce advises, "If you are considering ONLY the FM voice satellites like AMRAD-OSCAR-27, SaudiSat-Oscar-50, or AMSAT-OSCAR-51 for your AMSAT Field Day focus Don't, unless you are simply hoping to make one contact for the ARRL rules bonus points "

The congestion on FM LEO satellites was so intense in prior years that we must continue to limit their use to one-QSO-per-FM-satel- lite This includes the International Space Station You will be allowed one QSO if the ISS is operating Voice You will also be allowed one digital QSO with the ISS or any other digital, non- store-and-forward, packet satellite (if operational)

Please refer to these links for the full document of the AMSAT Field Day rules: http://www amsat org/ (link on AMSAT org front page to PDF file) And, an alternative site is: http://www amsatnet com/2011fd doc (MS-Word Doc File) http://www amsatnet com/2011fd pdf (PDF File)

These documents also cover the message exchange format, scoring requirements, reporting requirements, station classes, etc

[ANS thanks AMSAT Director of Awards, Bruce Paige, KK5DO for the above information]

/EX

SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-156 08 Open Source Hardware List From Dayton TAPR Forum

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 156 08

From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD June 5, 2011 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-156 08

A discussion on the HPSDR-list contained a list from Open Source evangelist Bruce Peren's talk at the TAPR Forum in Dayton which provides supplier sources of relatively inexpensive Open Source" hardware

Some of the specific hardware projects listed include:

• OMAP L138 (TI chip with ARM and a DSP both on board) http://tinyurl com/5wb8ocz

• Papilo FPGA http://tinyurl com/3xnfne8 Also there is a 32-channel logic analyzer for $50 there

• Arduino http://www arduino cc/

• $15 CPLD (you can build things from 74xx series gate equivalent logic): http://tinyurl com/6h28olw

• Bus Pirate http://tinyurl com/47as6x9

Subscription information for the HPSDR list can be found at: http://lists openhpsdr org/listinfo cgi/hpsdr-openhpsdr org

[ANS thanks George K9TRV and Bruce Perens for the above information]

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SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-156 09 US Army Supports Student Launch Program

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 156 09

From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD June 5, 2011 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-156 09

(Editor Note: This item originated on the Space-Travel com web at http://tinyurl com/6zsu4ea

White Sands Missile Range NM (SPX) Jun 03, 2011 A scientific rocket screamed skyward at Spaceport America May 20, 2011, as students from all over New Mexico, as well as Texas and Arizona came to see their scientific payloads fly into space during a scientific and educational mission supported by White Sands Missile Range

The rocket carried 27 experiments from elementary, middle schools, high schools and universities into space before returning to earth, and landing at White Sands Missile Range, or WSMR Under the New Mexico Space Grant Student Launch Program, students were able to assemble their own scientific payloads to be launched over 65 miles above the earth

The student payloads, divided into seven different canisters within the rocket were a varied as the students who built them Crammed into the canisters were cameras, radiation monitoring sensors, and other measurement devices, along with some more advanced systems

"We had things from roasting green chilies to marshmallows to using a piezo electric board, tesla coils, and a lot of temperature monitors and Geiger counters, a bunch of variety, and a lot of magnetic experi- ments also," said Bruce Lewis with the space grant office and spaceport office

The rocket launch represented more than just an educational opportun- ity for the students, but a cooperative effort between different organizations and companies Even though the rockets flight began at Spaceport America, a state-run spaceport, it ended its flight on White Sands Missile Range and used range airspace

"This is White Sands airspace that we're flying in, so White Sand controls that airspace for us We have a great relationship with White Sands and we had a lot of support from (WSMRs) team," said Pat Hynes, director of the Space Grant Consortium

The recovery of the rocket, and it's return to the students was con- ducted by White Sands Missile Range's Army Air While the rocket was awaiting recovery White Sands Missile Range Chief of Staff Dan Hicks spoke with the students about the future of high technology careers and the kind of opportunities in those fields offered by WSMR and the Army

"The majority of the workforce consists of engineers and mathematicians and other scientific fields We've got about 4,000 people on the test center and garrison side that have that type of background So in order to be specific to what it takes to get a job out at White Sands one of the key things would be to continue your education into college and get a degree," Hicks said

Hick Also answered questions from the students about spaceflight, how the range operates and the kind of radar systems used to track rockets like the one used in the experiment

Data collected by these various devices had a variety of applications, with some being educational in nature, giving the students a glimpse of what it means to send something into space, and other experiments having more direct applications to the future of space flight

"Some of it is great data; some of it is fun data So you're got both the fun stuff and some things that are collecting real empirical data that NASA may be able to use in the future," Lewis said

One experiment bridged the gap between the two An experiment conducted by Aztec High School harvested the physical motion of the rocket in flight and converted it into electricity which was then used to power a small electric oven and roast a green chili While roasting green chilies isn't critical to the future of space flight, the electricity could have other purposes

"What we wanted to see is if you could power something in the rocket just using piezo electrics, just using the own forces of the rocket to generate it's own electricity while flying up into space," said Braden Goimarac, from Aztec High School's "Black Ops" science team

[ANS thanks Space-Travel 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 keep in mind the ham who asked his dog if the name Pavlov rang a bell

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

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