[ans] ANS-085 for distribution

From: "[RADIOCOMM LIST]" <list.admin@aus-city.com>

Date: March 25th 2012

AMSAT NEWS SERVICE ANS-085

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

Volunteers are needed to help at the AMSAT booth at Dayton
Gould , WA4SXM, is looking for volunteers to help man the AMSAT booth during
the 2012 Hamvention People are needed all 3 days for 2 hour
shifts Please send the days and times you are available to help
as well as how many shifts you are willing to work via e-mail to
wa4sxm at amsat org
Monitor http://www amsat org/amsat-new/hamvention/2012/Dayton php
for the latest AMSAT at Dayton news and developments

In this edition: * AMSAT-NA BOD Nominations Due * ARISS Mentor Introduction at Dayton 2012 * NASA'S GRAIL MOONKAM RETURNS FIRST STUDENT-SELECTED LUNAR IMAGES * Satellite Operation Planned for UK Olympic Special Event Station * Masat-1 Experiment Required Silent Mode for a Short Period of Time * HAMSAT VO-52 User Reports Requested * Satellite Shorts From All Over * 2012 AMSAT-NA Symposium Update * New Feature For SatPC32 Adjusts Doppler From Satellite Point of View * ARISS Status Report - 19 March 2012

SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-085 01 ANS-085 AMSAT News Service Weekly Bulletins

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 085 01 From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD March 25, 2012 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-085 01

AMSAT-NA Board of Directors Nominations

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

Three directors have terms expiring this year: Tom Clark, K3IO; Lou McFadin, W5DID; and Gould Smith, WA4SXM The three nominees receiving the highest number of votes will be seated as regular board members with two year terms The two nominees receiving the next highest number of votes will be seated as alternates for one year

Written nominations, consisting of names, calls and individual signatures, should be mailed to: AMSAT-NA, 850 Sligo Ave #600, Silver Spring, MD, 20910 They must be received no later than June 15th No other action is required

Nominations may also be made by electronic means 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, and also must be received by June 15th If using any electronic submission, there is a second, verifying step ELECTRONIC SUBMISSIONS WITHOUT THIS SECOND, WRITTEN VERIFICATION ARE NOT VALID UNDER THE EXISTING AMSAT-NA BYLAWS 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

[ANS Thanks Alan, WA4SCA for this input]

ARISS Mentor Introduction at Dayton 2012

AMSAT and ARRL are teaming up during the 2012 Hamvention to recruit new ARISS (Amateur Radio on the International Space Station) mentors Friday and

Saturday (May 18 & 19) at 4pm in the ARRL stage area AMSAT will explain the need for additional ARISS mentors and the requirements and responsibilities needed to help provide a reliable conversation between astronauts and selected schools or groups We encourage anyone interested in helping make future school contacts with the ISS successful to please attend

[ANS Thanks the ARISS Team]

NASA'S GRAIL MOONKAM RETURNS FIRST STUDENT-SELECTED LUNAR IMAGES

WASHINGTON -- One of two NASA spacecraft orbiting the moon has beamed back the first student-requested pictures of the lunar surface from its onboard camera Fourth grade students from the Emily Dickinson Elementary School in Bozeman, Mont , received the honor of making the first image selections by winning a nationwide competition to rename the two spacecraft

The image was taken by the MoonKam, or Moon Knowledge Acquired by Middle school students Previously named Gravity Recovery And Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) A and B, the twin spacecraft are now called Ebb and Flow Both washing-machine-sized orbiters carry a small MoonKAM camera Over 60 student-requested images were taken aboard the Ebb spacecraft from March 15-17 and downlinked to Earth on March 20

"MoonKAM is based on the premise that if your average picture is worth a thousand words, then a picture from lunar orbit may be worth a classroom full of engineering and science degrees," said Maria Zuber, GRAIL mission principal investigator from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Mass "Through MoonKAM, we have an opportunity to reach out to the next generation of scientists and engineers It is great to see things off to such a positive start "

GRAIL is NASA's first planetary mission to carry instruments fully dedicated to education and public outreach Students will select target areas on the lunar surface and request images to study from the GRAIL MoonKAM Mission Operations Center in San Diego

The MoonKAM program is led by Sally Ride, America's first woman in space, and her team at Sally Ride Science in collaboration with undergraduate students at the University of California in San Diego More than 2,700 schools spanning 52 countries are using the MoonKAM cameras

"What might seem like just a cool activity for these kids may very well have a profound impact on their futures," Ride said "The students really are excited about MoonKAM, and that translates into an excitement about science and engineering "

Launched in September 2011, Ebb and Flow will answer longstanding questions about the moon and give scientists a better understanding of how Earth and other rocky planets in the solar system formed

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif , manages the GRAIL mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington GRAIL is part of the Discovery Program managed at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala Lockheed Martin Space Systems in Denver built the spacecraft

To view the student-requested images, visit:

http://images moonkam ucsd edu

For more information about MoonKAM, visit:

https://moonkam ucsd edu

For more information about GRAIL, visit:

http://www nasa gov/grail

[ANS Thanks Michael Williams, K9QHO, for this input]

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Satellite Operation Planned for UK Olympic Special Event Station

This week John Warburton, G4IRN announced The Radio Society of Great Britain will activate two special event call-signs to celebrate the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games:

2O12L (Two Oscar One Two Lima) from London, England 2O12W (Two Oscar
One Two Wales) from Barry, Wales

The London station, 2012L will be active through the duration of the Games, located at the historic Eltham Palace, south-east London on 160m-2m, all modes More information on the web site: http://www 2O12L com

The Welsh station 2O12W will also be active on all bands from 160m to 23cms and all modes including SSTV and satellite from Whitmore Bay, Barry Island, Vale of Glamorgan, Wales More information on web site: http://www 2O12W com

2O12L and 2O12W go on the air on 27th July 2012

[ANS thanks The Radio Society of Great Britain and Southgate News for the above information]

Masat-1 Experiment Required Silent Mode for a Short Period of Time

Masat-1 (MO-72) recently has been switched to a 'silent mode' on March 16, March 21, and March 22 to perform long term, sensitive electromagnetic measurements which require the switching off the satellite's transmitter In silent mode, all RF transmission from the satellite is turned off, while the satellite receiver makes the required measurements After these experiments regular telemetry transmission resumed operation

MO-72 Call sign: HA5MASAT TX frequency: 437 345 MHz Modulation: CW (120 char/min ), 2-GFSK (625 and 1250 bit/s) TX power: 100 and 400 mW

Soundcard software to capture and decode the GFSK telemetry can be downloaded from: http://cubesat bme hu/en/radioamatoroknek/ The latest keplerian elements are also available on this site

[ANS thanks the Masat-1 Team and AMSAT-UK for the above information]

HAMSAT VO-52 User Reports Requested

AMSAT-India Secretary Nitin, VU3TYG says the user feedback form (in Word format) requested by VO-52 controllers has been posted on the web for download from: http://www amsatindia org/reports/VO-52-Feedback doc

HAMSAT VO-52 controllers at ISRO thanked amateur radio operators for the reports received after VO-52 was reactived with the Dutch Trans- ponder They are in the process of documenting anomaly analysis and Transponder 2 Switch ON' report containing the feedback from users

Reports are requested to be sent in the Word format as attachments to e-mail sent to: tprangan@istrac org and copied to wmy@isac gov in

[ANS thanks AMSAT-India Secretary Nitin, VU3TYG and Mani, VU2WMY at India ISRO Satellite Centre for the above information]

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Satellite Shorts From All Over

AMSAT to facilitate student satellite contacts

AMSAT is encouraging all students attending the 2012 Dayton Hamvention to come by the Satellite Demonstration Area just outside of the Ball Area entrance and make a contact using the amateur satellites There will be AMSAT volunteers there to explain how to make the contacts and during actual

satellite passes will try to get as many students as possible to complete actual contacts There are lists of satellite pass times in the satellite demonstration area and at the AMSAT booth (BA444-BA449)

[ANS Thanks Gould, WA4SXM, For the above ]

NASA released a new narrated animation depicting the planned 2014 launch of the Orion spacecraft on the Exploration Flight Test-1 (EFT-1) mission to a 3600 mile altitude orbit: http://tinyurl com/OrionOrbitTest (YouTube) Full article at: http://tinyurl com/OrionArticle (UniverseToday)
Paul, 2E1EUB says his next mobile satellite operations as 2M1EUB from his van will be starting March 24 for 7 days from the east coast of Scotland Main operations are planned for AO-7 Mode A/B and other satellites as available Paul will post his latest infor- mation on amsat-bb and also on the lookup at QRZ com for 2M1EUB
The Project Blue Horizon 6 high-altitude transatlantic balloon flight took off on Friday, March 23 at 2300 EST (0300 Saturday UT) from Owego, NY transmitting on 7 1023 and 10 1466 MHz CW with the N2XE call sign and 144 390 MHz FM APRS using the KD2AUD call sign Please send reports via e-mail to pbh18 data@gmail com or manually enter received data points at http://www projectbluehorizon com/ More information is available on their web page
Congratulations to Rick Walter, WB3CSY, for earning VUCC Satellite certificate #228 with 165 confirmed grids Rick wrote, "I would like to thank the many satellite operators who continually take time to stop during their travels and give us rare grids It would be much more difficult to obtain this prestigious award without their help "
The next Hudson Valley Satcom Net is Thursday March 29, 8:00PM EDT (UTC-4) on the 146 97 MHz Mt Beacon ARC Repeater and also on the N2EYH-L Echolink Node More information at: http://www hvsatcom org and http://www wr2abb org/ (Stu, WA2BSS)
Watch the BBC video of UKube-1, planned to launch in 2013: http://www bbc co uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-17439236 UKube-1 will carry a set of AMSAT-UK FUNcube boards that will pro- vide a 435/145 MHz linear transponder for SSB/CW amateur radio com- munications See also: http://www uk amsat org/5933
John, K8YSE reported that Yuri, UT1FG/MM, who has been so active on the birds may be off the air for a short time He is navigating the St Lawrence Seaway and has been too busy to operate on the satellites There are many inspection requirements for a ship com- ing into the Great Lakes and his duties are such that he does not have much free time He will be in Montreal shortly All of his equipment is working fine Yuri will be operating as time permits
The Winter 2012 TAPR Packet Status Register Journal now available for download: http://www tapr org/psr/psr117 pdf You can download previous editions from http://www tapr org/psr html This quarterly Journal is full of Technical, Non-Technical and User Digital infor- mation and articles
Watch a video of time lapse images from the ISS showing how stars appear from space: http://vimeo com/ajrclips/starsfromspace A jaw dropping flight of the ISS over the aurora can be viewed at: http://tinyurl com/AuroraGreatLakes

+USAF and Lockheed have Satellite Problems Too:

http://news yahoo com/delicate-rescue-saves-stranded-1-7b-us-satellite-1 44826517 html

At least their problems had a happy ending

+New Echolink Net Saturday evenings at 8pm Eastern The NET is titled "SATCHAT" by initiator Check in at the AMSAT Conf Echolink slot and Join the conversations about satellites Ask questions and hear what other people in the country are Doing for satellite activity It is hosted by: Vince Waelti, K9TSU Stop by and add your experiences to the group

[ANS thanks everyone for the above information]

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Symposium 2012 Monday Trip to the Kennedy Space Center

Those attending the 2012 AMSAT Symposium and interested in a Monday Trip (Oct 29) to the Kennedy Space Center please contact Martha via email: martha at amsat org

The trip will include a round trip bus from the hotel and entrance to the Space Center The cost will be about $100 This is a wonderful experience for those that haven't been and for those that have been multiple times We need to get an idea of how many will participate to select the correct bus

[ANS Thanks Gould for this Symposium Update ]

------------------------------------------------------------------------

New Feature For SatPC32 Adjusts Doppler From Satellite Point of View

Erich, DK1TB has added a new feature into SatPC32 V12 8b which will allow adjustment for doppler shift between two separate stations so each will appear to be on the same frequency From a ground station point of view each station will see a different doppler shift unless they are located physically near each other What is desired is that both stations will appear on the same frequency from the satellite receiver's point of view

The whole idea of doppler correction is to be at a constant frequency within the satellite receiver passband To do that you have to adjust your uplink frequency constantly And you have to adjust your down- link frequency to continue to hear yourself or someone else using full doppler correction

Erich has now added the option of seeing the frequency you are on at the satellite receiver This is a common frame of reference so if you tell someone you'll be on 435 845 at the satellite, they can be on that same frequency even though your terrestrial dial frequencies will be much different Just adjust your receiver or use the up/down buttons in SatPC32 to set your frequency shown in the "Sat" window That frequency will remain constant as your uplink and downlink are controlled by SatPC32

Staying at a constant frequency at the satellite allows many stations to share the bird without drifting into each other And being able to know exactly where you are in the passband without doing the calcula- tion in your head gives you more time to concentrate on making a suc- cessful QSO

This feature is implemented by loading a patch file for SatPC32, V12 8b which can be found in the "downloads" link at: http://www dk1tb de - Scroll down to Section 7, Patches

Erich, DK1TB donates the proceeds from the sale of SatPC32 to AMSAT When you purchase this software you are helping AMSAT

You can download the software from the SatPC32 website at: http://www dk1tb de/ A CD-ROM with the software is available from the AMSAT Store: http://www amsat-na com/store/item php?id=100017 To activate the downloaded version of the program, you can purchase a registration code via the AMSAT online store or by calling the AMSAT office See: http://www amsat-na com/store/item php?id=100020

[ANS thanks John Papay, K8YSE for the above information]

------------------------------------------------------------------------

(ARISS) Status Report March 19, 2012

Upcoming School Contacts

Centre de Formation de la Base Aï¿½rienne de Payerne, Switzerland has been scheduled for an Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) contact was successful on Wednesday, March 21 at 08:39 UTC The contact was held in the museum "Clin d'Ailes", located on the Payerne Swiss Airforce Base that has on display military aeronautics exhibits from the second half of the 20th century Mr Claude Nicollier, HB9CN, who is the first Swiss astronaut and president of the Museum Foundation, plans to attend the event The Clin d'Ailes Swiss Air Force Museum Ham Radio Club, holding callsigns HB4FR and HB9SPACE, set up its radio for the contact Students plan to launch a stratospheric balloon equipped with video and photo cameras and sensors and beacons two weeks prior to the event After the ARISS contact, they will present the videos, photos and the analysis of the recorded sensor data

Salem Elementary School in Apex, North conducted an ARISS contact on Wednesday, March 21 at 14:09 UTC via station VK5ZAI in Australia This contact is part of a comprehensive education plan which will pique students' interest in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM)

Liberty Junior High Radios Don Pettit on ISS

Students attending Liberty Junior High School in Burbank, Illinois experienced a very successful Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) contact on Wednesday, March 14 Over 800 students, teachers and guests were present as students put their questions to astronaut Don Pettit, KD5MDT on ISS The ARISS contact highlighted the school's comprehensive education plan covering Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) subject matter Other activities students participated in included investigating thermal properties of different materials, building models of the ISS and exploring the cast distances of space and the effect of distance and radio waves

Belgium Contact Successful

An Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) contact was held on Friday, March 16 between Middenschool de Regenboog Bree in Bree, Belgium and on-orbit astronaut Andrï¿½ Kuipers, PI9ISS A newly licensed 14 year girl operated the radio during the event while students had all 15 of their prepared questions answered The contact was carried out as part of a curriculum covering the micro-gravity environment, history of manned spaceflight, commercial spaceflight and the construction of the ISS

Leone Acciaiuoli Students Question ISS Astronaut

On Sunday, March 18, Dan Burbank, KC5ZSX fielded ten questions from youth attending the Istituto Tecnologico Statale Trasporti e Logistica "Leone Acciaiuoli" in Ortona, Italy via an ARISS contact Approximately 200 people were in attendance, including representatives from two television stations AMSAT-Italia also provided coverage, streaming video on the Internet The contact complemented science courses taught at the school such as Navigation, Astronomy, Mathematics, Physics and Satellite Communications and was a featured activity during the International Day of Planetaria

ARISS-U S Schools Selected

The NASA Teaching From Space office received 27 U S proposals for ARISS contacts that will be scheduled during the second half of this year The U S Selection Committee reviewed the proposals and selected 18 schools for these contacts The schools will be notified of their status early this week

[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 addi- tional benefits Application forms are available from the AMSAT Office

Primary and secondary school students are eligible for membership at one-half the standard yearly rate Post-secondary school students enrolled in at least half time status shall be eligible for the stu- dent rate for a maximum of 6 post-secondary years in this status Contact Martha at the AMSAT Office for additional student membership information

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

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