AMSAT NEWS SERVICE ANS-335

The AMSAT News Service bulletins are a free, weekly news and infor- mation service of AMSAT North America, The Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation ANS publishes news related to Amateur Radio in Space including 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

The news feed on http://www amsat org publishes news of Amateur Radio in Space as soon as our volunteers can post it

Please send any amateur satellite news or reports to: ans-editor at amsat org

In this edition:

• November/December 2013 AMSAT Journal is Ready
• Commands for WREN SSTV Released
• FUNcube - AO73 Data Warehouse
• South Africa ZACube-1 Now Named TshepisoSat
• AMSAT in the Press
• AMSAT SKN ON OSCAR 2014 IN MEMORY OF W2LV

SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-335 01 ANS-335 AMSAT News Service Weekly Bulletins

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 335 01 From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD December 1, 2013 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-335 01

November/December 2013 AMSAT Journal is Ready

The November/December 2013 issue of the AMSAT Journal is complete and has been sent to the print shop It should be on the way to your mailbox during the coming weeks

Here are some highlights of what you will find in this issue:

• AMSAT Announcements
• Apogee View by Barry Baines, WD4ASW
• Cubesat De-orbits in Hampton Roads by Richard Siff, W4BUE
• Low Cost DVB-S Receivers Suitable for HAMTV Reception by Bill Ress, N6GHZ
• November 19 Minotaur ELaNa Cubesat Frequency Summary
• AMSAT at Texas Ham-Com 2013
• AMSAT Field Activities Summer 2013
• Part 1 - Fox-2 Maximum Power Point Tracker Series by Brenton Salmi, KB1LQD and Bryce Salmi, KB1LQC
• EMike McCardel, KC8YLD Appointed AMSAT Vice President-Educational Relations
• November 21 DNEPR Launch Cubesat Summary
• The Gizmo - A Homebrew Equatorial Antenna Mount by Arthur Payne, VE3GNF
• Patrick Stoddard, WD9EWK Named New Vice President Field Operations
• KA6SIP Portable Satellite Grid Expedition by Tom Deeble, KA6SIP with observations from John Papay, K8YSE about The USA Lower 48 Worked all 488 Grids non-Award

The AMSAT Journal is a membership benefit AMSAT-NA For more infor- mation on how to join see: http://ww2 amsat org/?page_id=1095

We'll help you get your article about your projects, trips, hamfests, operating into the Journal For more information see: http://ww2 amsat org/?page_id=1709 for tips on how to get started!

[ANS thanks the Journal Editor JoAnne, K9JKM; and Journal Editorial team: Mike, K4ERA; James, K3JPH; Bernhard, VA6BMJ, and Douglas, KA2UPW/5 for the above information]

Commands for WREN SSTV Released

It is believed that the SSTV PocketQube WREN is currently in a mode where it beacons on 437 405 MHz for 1 6 seconds then listens for 6 minutes on that frequency for any commands If none are received it goes to sleep for 2 minutes before transmitting the beacon again

The WREN team have released the following information on their Facebook page to enable radio amateurs to activate the WREN SSTV transmitter

BASIC COMMANDS

Commands to WREN are sent by toggling the carrier [of a FM transmitter]: Carrier on/off: 1=long, 0=short, leave a noticeable silence between the bits

• Activate/HK: 110011 • wait until answer [should be within 2 seconds] • Camera ON: 11111 • wait until answer • Snapshot & Thumbnail receive: 110 • decoder should display thumbnail picture 12*14 pixel can repeat this command until something useable appears • SSTV send: 110100 • martin-1 SSTV picture comes… in 320×240 pixels color

Wren should answer to the commands within two seconds Wait always at least two seconds after having received data before sending to WREN

Notice: Send the Activate/HK command first, else WREN won´t react to other commands When camera is OFF, a snapshot or SSTV command will send WREN into sleep mode ALWAYS SWITCH CAMERA ON FIRST BEFORE SENDING CAMERA COMMANDS WREN´s housekeeping data will show the status of camera power (ON or OFF)

The Telemetry Decoder and an Audio File of the beacon are available at http://we tl/TkWEuhIlnF

WREN on Facebook http://www facebook com/StaDoKo

WREN a Ham Radio Slow Scan TV PocketQube Satellite http://amsat-uk org/2013/10/24/wren-a-ham-radio-sstv-pocketqube/

[ANS thanks AMSAT-UK for the above information]

FUNcube - AO73 Data Warehouse

Since the acquisition of the first signal by ZS1LS on Thursday 21st Nov there has been a steady stream of data flowing in

A few warehouse statistics as at 12:00 UTC, Nov 28th 2013:

• over 12MB of unique data uploaded and stored
• 424 user registrations since 2013-11-17
• 319 users have have uploading data
• 41388 Real-time entries
• 11754 Whole Orbit Data entries
• 77940 High Resolution entries

Graphs of WOD and HighRes data are now on the web site:

https://warehouse funcube org uk

Thanks go to all the individuals and groups who are helping to characterise the performance of the satellite by uploading the data Please keep it coming and spread the word about how to get involved

The main source of information is at: http://www funcube org uk

There is also a support forum at: http://forum funcube org uk

[ANS thanks Dave, G4DPZ, for the above information]

South Africa ZACube-1 Now Named TshepisoSat

The South African Radio League posted this news in their SARL News Sunday November 24 Bulletins:

On Thursday 21 November 2013 the French South African Institute of Technology (F'SATI), at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology, made history by being the first in South Africa, and indeed the first in Africa, to launch a locally built nano satellite into orbit from a site in Russia

Deon Coetzee, ZR1DE, who represented SA AMSAT at a ceremony held in the auditorium at the university campus reports that Vice Chancellor, Prof Vuyisa Mazwi-Tonga, paid tribute to all at the university who made this achievement possible, and said she was immensely proud of being part of it all

Original known as ZACube-1, the satellite has been named TshepisoSat, after a competition held for Grade 9 learners Tshepiso is the seSotho word meaning promise

The launch was the culmination of five years' work after the first proposal to build a small satellite as part of the engineering curriculum was put forward by Professor Robert van Zyl in February 2008 Co-operation of the French Government made possible the forming of F'SATI and the French Ambassador in South Africa, Elizabeth Barbier, during a video address, promised continued support by France for the programme

ZACUBE-1 was one of fourteen cubesats aboard the thirty metre tall, three stage rocket All the cubesats were successfully released at a height of 600 km above the Earth TshepisoSat will circle the Earth up to fifteen times per day in a polar orbit

"At 11h13 the first signals from ZACUBE-1 were received amongst loud cheers", Deon said According to Francois Visser, ZS1CED, who was the principal engineer and student mentor, the satellite was functioning well The satellite also includes a small camera which will be used to monitor the releases of the 20 metre beacon antenna The beacon will operate on 14 099 kHz and will be used to characterise the Superdarn antennas at the Antarctic which are used to study the ionosphere A UHF beacon operates on 437,345 MHz Follow progress at www cput ac za/fsati and www amsatsa org za

[ANS thanks the South African Radio League for the above information]

AMSAT in the Press

• The Fall 2013 issue of CQ VHF published an article by George Carr, WA5KBH George wrote about his experiences as "Being the QSL Manager for CO6CBF " The article begins on page 30

• The Fall 2013 issue of CQ VHF also includes the regular Satellites column by Keith Pugh, W5IU Keith writes about amateur radio's 30th anniversary in manned space flight, the upcoming HAMTV experiment on the ISS, and FUNcube Keith's column begins on page 60

[ANS thanks JoAnne, K9JKM, for the above information]

AMSAT SKN ON OSCAR 2014 IN MEMORY OF W2LV

You are cordially invited to participate in Straight Key Night on OSCAR 2014, sponsored by AMSAT for all radio amateurs throughout the world

Operate CW through any amateur satellite from 0001 through 2400 UTC on 1 January 2014, using a manual, non-electronic key Note that bugs are now allowed, as they are in similar ARRL and SKCC events

There is no need to send in a log, but please nominate someone you worked for Best Fist Your nominee need not have the best fist of those you heard, just of those you worked Send your nomination to w2rs@amsat org A list of those nominated will be published in early February

This year’s event is being held in memory of Robert Morris (1902-1997), W2LV Bob’s amateur and professional career in radio literally spanned the era from spark to satellite One of the first to work across the Atlantic in 1923, he also received Satellite DXCC No 2 in 1979 Bob was featured in the PBS-TV documentary, “Empire of the Air ”

[ANS thanks Ray, W2RS, 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, Lee McLamb, KU4OS ku4os at amsat dot org

Via the ANS mailing list courtesy of AMSAT-NA http://amsat org/mailman/listinfo/ans