AMSAT NEWS SERVICE ANS-188

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

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In this edition:

• 2019 AMSAT Board of Directors Election Update
• Candidates for the AMSAT Board of Directors Announced
• Frank Karnauskas, N1UW Appointed as AMSAT VP for Development
• First Ever Contact via Moon Orbiting Transponder on LO-94
• First Call for Papers for the 50th Anniversary AMSAT Symposium
• Take W3ZM on the Road!
• ARISS-International Delegates Meet in Montreal
• JAISAT-1 telemetry beacon downlink on 435 325 MHz FM 4k8 GMSK
• Additional Amateur Radio Payloads to Launch with JAISAT-1
• VUCC Awards-Endorsements for July *
• Upcoming Satellite Operations
• Satellite Shorts From All Over

SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-188 01 ANS-188 AMSAT News Service Weekly Bulletins

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 188 01 From AMSAT HQ KENSINGTON, MD DATE: 2019 July 7 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-188 01

2019 AMSAT Board of Directors Election Update

The 2019 AMSAT Board of Directors election will be conducted dif- ferently than in past elections In previous years, the balloting pro- cess was handled by multiple vendors This year, AMSAT has contracted with a single, independent party, ElectionBuddy, to conduct and fully manage the election process

A ballot card will be mailed to all current members in accordance with the organization’s by-laws by or on July 15, 2019 You may cast your ballot by visiting a unique URL or utilizing the QR code printed on the card If you do not receive your ballot, you will need to contact ElectionBuddy ElectionBuddy will be responsible for distributing ballots, collecting ballots, and tallying votes

Individual candidates’ statement of qualification (biographies) will be published on AMSAT’s website and will be displayed on the ElectionBuddy website available to eligible voters

AMSAT believes this voting system will result in greater election integrity as it removes the potential for any perceived conflicts of interest ElectionBuddy will manage AMSAT’s voter list and interaction with members regarding the election This ensures voter anonymity Individual ballot responses will never be shared with any volunteer or paid AMSAT staff

Because AMSAT has contracted ElectionBuddy for a fully managed elec- tion, they will be voters’ single point of contact regarding any ballot issues The AMSAT Secretary or Office Manager may direct you to contact ElectionBuddy in situations deemed part of this fully managed election Questions will not be answered on the AMSAT-BB or organizational Social Media accounts

In the event that you are unwilling or unable to cast your ballot via the online mechanism, ElectionBuddy will mail you a specific ballot that must be returned to them within the parameters of our election time frame so that it is received by the office no later than Sept- ember 15, 2019 If you choose this option, please understand it is at an increased cost to the organization

Sincerely, Clayton L Coleman, W5PFG AMSAT Secretary

[ANS thanks Clayton L Coleman, W5PFG, AMSAT Secretary, for the above information]]

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Candidates for the AMSAT Board of Directors Announced

The corrected list of 2019 candidates, in alphabetical order by last name are:

Jerry Buxton, N0JY Howard (Howie) Defelice, AB2S Drew Glasbrenner, KO4MA Jeff Johns, WE4B Brennan Price, N4QX Patrick Stoddard, WD9EWK Paul Stoetzer, N8HM Michelle Thompson, W5NYV

This year AMSAT membership will select four candidates to the Board of Directors The four candidates receiving the highest number of votes will be seated as voting members of the Board of Directors Two alternate directors will be selected based on the next highest number of votes received

Ballots will be mailed to the AMSAT membership by July 15, 2019

The election closes September 15, 2019

[ANS thanks Clayton L Coleman, W5PFG, AMSAT Secretary, for the above information ]

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Frank Karnauskas, N1UW Appointed as AMSAT VP for Development

The AMSAT Board of Directors has elected Frank Karnauskas, N1UW, Vice President - Development This position carries the responsibility for fund raising, marketing and public relations for AMSAT programs In addition to enhancing the AMSAT and ARISS brands within their tradi- tional spheres, this position is expected to broaden the appeal of its activities to a wider market This includes the educational, corporate and philanthropic sectors

Joe Spier explains, "The cost of planning, building and launching satellites has risen exponentially over the past years It is essential that we not only raise the Amateur Radio community's financial participation in these programs, we need to enlist the support of outside entities We can only do this by demonstrating the value that Amateur Radio satellites bring to society's best interests This is especially true for youth and educational programs where AMSAT's and ARISS' growth lies "

Frank comes to this position with a forty-five year career as a sales and marketing executive in the consumer and industrial markets He was first licensed in 1963 and has been a long-term member of AMSAT and the ARRL Frank also contributes to AMSAT as an AMSAT News Service Rotating Editor

[ANS thanks AMSAT President Joe Spier, K6WAO for the above information]

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+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+ 2019 marks AMSAT’s 50th Anniversary of Keeping Amateur Radio in Space To help celebrate, we are sponsoring the AMSAT 50th Anniversary Awards Program Full details are available at https://www amsat org/amsat-50th-anniversary-awards-program/ +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+

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First Ever Contact via Moon Orbiting Transponder on LO-94

Daniel Estevez, EA4GPZ, reported on the details of the first contact via a lunar orbiting repeater that was accomplished via China's DSLWP-B (LO-94) satellite

EA4GPZ wrote, "In parallel [with the solar eclipse testing], the GMSK to JT4G repeater onboard DSLWP-B was used to make a QSO between BY2HIT, the Harbin Institute of Technology Amateur radio club, and Reinhard Kuehn DK5LA This is the first ever Amateur radio QSO made through a lunar orbiting repeater It was reported by Wei Mingchuan, BG2BHC "

Continuing, "Using the GMSK to JT4G repeater is not easy, in terms of the signal power needed for the uplink There were plans to make a QSO between BY2HIT and Reinhard since many months ago, but previous attempts didn't work out My congratulations to the people at both sides of the QSO, who have achieved it a month before DSLWP-B crashes against the lunar surface

"The GMSK to JT4G repeater works by sending commands to the satellite which embed a 13 character message, using the same frequency and a similar protocol to the one used to command the camera and other sat- ellite functions The precise definition of this mode is a 7 8125 baud FSK modulation with a shift of 394 53125Hz Each FSK tone is "spread" with a 250 baud GMSK 32 bit syncword The CCSDS 32 bit syncword is used to mark the beginning of a packet, and a Reed-Solomon (64,32) code is used for FEC, together with CCSDS scrambling Such a message takes a bit longer than one minute to transmit The uplink is in the 2m Amateur satellite band

"The repeater downlink is the usual JT4G downlink of DSLWP-B in the 70cm Amateur satellite band The 13 character messages sent in the uplink command replace the usual JT4G telemetry, being repeated as a free-form JT4G message In the case of this QSO, the B1 radio at 436 400MHz was used This radio was also used to transmit the images using GMSK SSDV "

Access EA4GPZ's full report at: https://destevez net/2019/07/analysis-of-dslwp-b-eclipse-test-run-again/

[ANS thanks Daniel Estevez, EA4GPZ for the above information]

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First Call for Papers for the 50th Anniversary AMSAT Symposium

The 50th Anniversary AMSAT Annual Meeting and Space Symposium will be held on the weekend of October 18 – 20 at The Hilton Arlington, 950 North Stafford Street, Arlington, Virginia Proposals for papers, symposium presentations, and poster presentations are invited 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 to be submitted by September 23rd for inclusion in the printed proceedings Abstracts and papers should be sent to Dan Schultz at n8fgv(at)amsat org

[ANS thanks AMSAT for the above information]

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Take W3ZM on the Road!

Leading up to the 2019 AMSAT 50th Anniversary Space Symposium and Gen- eral Meeting, to be held in Arlington, VA, October 18 – 20, 2019, AMSAT’s call sign, W3ZM, will operate from all 50 States, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico Not only is this your chance to get Worked All States-Satellites under the W3ZM call sign, but, also, your chance to be a part of this historic effort

Note: When operating outside of the “3” call area, operators will append the W3ZM call sign with “/(call area) ” As an example, someone operating from Texas will use W3ZM/5; from Hawaii, W3ZM/KH6; from Alaska, W3ZM/KL7; and from Puerto Rico, W3ZM/KP4

To make this happen – We need your help! Please volunteer to get on the air and activate your State, using AMSAT’s W3ZM call sign, as well as to cover those States without an active AMSAT Member Activations of other United States Territories (i e Guam, American Samoa, the U S Virgin Islands, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands) are also welcome

To volunteer and operate using AMSAT’s W3ZM call sign, you must: - Be a current member of AMSAT - Obtain permission by emailing AMSAT VP of User Services, specifying the requested date(s) and location(s) - Submit an ADIF log of contacts made for upload to LoTW by AMSAT, as instructed in your notice of approval to use the W3ZM call sign

Additional information and a schedule of operations may be found at: https://www amsat org/events/was-w3zm/

[ANS thanks Robert Bankston, KE4AL, AMSAT VP of User Services, for the above information]

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ARISS-International Delegates Meet in Montreal

Nine nations were represented as Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) held its 2019 “face-to-face” meeting of interna- tional delegates at the Canadian Space Agency in Montreal, June 26–28 ARISS-Canada was the host for the gathering A high point of the con- ference came when Kenwood software manager Shin Aota, JL1IBD, present- ed two Kenwood TM-D710GA transceivers to ARISS-Russia delegate Sergey Samburov, RV3DR One of the TM-D710GA radios will replace aging Amateur Radio equipment currently in use on the International Space Station, while the other will remain on Earth as a spare for training cosmonauts For more than a year, these radios have undergone detailed NASA qualification testing followed by final software configuration and verification

“With today’s transfer of the radios to ARISS-Russia, we are one step closer to an enhanced Amateur Radio system on board the ISS, support- ing various operations such as SSTV, voice communication, APRS, and a variety of experiments,” ARISS-International said in announcing the presentation The ARISS Hardware Team met on June 25

Those on hand for the event included Radio Amateurs of Canada President (RAC) and ARISS-Canada Delegate for RAC Glenn MacDonell, VE3XRA; AMSAT-NA President Joe Spier, K6WAO, and AMSAT-Italia President Emanuele D’Andria, I0ELE ARRL Southeastern Division Director Greg Sarratt, W4OZK, attended in his role as chair of the ARRL Board’s new ARISS Committee Rosalie White, K1STO, represented ARRL as an ARISS-US delegate and handled the duties of ARISS-International Secretary The other ARISS-US delegate was Dave Taylor, W8AAS

The French government’s proposal to consider 144–146 MHz for possible allocation to the Aeronautical Mobile Service drew some discussion Other topics included ARISS’ future participation in NASA’s Deep Space Gateway (DSG) program ARISS is the only noncommercial entity whose ideas are under study by the program The ARISS plan focuses on Amateur Radio communication, including optical communication channels, as well as equipment development, team cooperation, education, and public out- reach

Canadian Space Agency Program Manager of the Lunar Gateway Program Ken Podwalski noted that Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that Canada will go to the moon CSA provided the “Canadarm” robotic arm for the space shuttle and contributed the Mobile Servicing System, a sophisticated robotics suite that plays a critical role in ISS oper- ations

White and Taylor presented the ARISS-US Region Report, highlighting many of the accomplishments of the US team since the last ARISS face- to-face meeting

Dave Honess of the European Space Agency presented some ideas for en- hanced ARISS educational outreach A future SSTV session to honor Owen Garriott, W5LFL (SK), also came in for some discussion Garriott was the first space traveler to use Amateur Radio from space — Thanks to Dave Jordan, AA4KN, ARISS Public Relations, and Rosalie White, K1STO

[ANS thanks ARRL for the above information]

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JAISAT-1 telemetry beacon downlink on 435 325 MHz FM 4k8 GMSK

JAISAT-1 was launched on July 5, 2019 at 05:41:46z along with a total of 33 satellites from 12 countries

The JAISAT-1 telemetry beacon is at 435 325 MHz The telemetry signal format is 4k8 GMSK Mobitex (same as Dstar one Sparro and iSAT CMX990 Mobitex Format) in accordance with the details from the IARU satellite co-ordinator site: http://www amsatuk me uk/iaru/finished_detail php?serialnum=521

This is keplerian element from simulated orbit the following as below: JAISAT-SIM 1 77777U 19001a 19186 41724769 00000000 00000-0 00000-0 0 00015 2 77777 098 5564 148 1307 0015651 161 6334 118 6706 15 15099188000017

All amateur radio operators capable of receiving signals from the JAISAT-1 satellite are invited to send the data by email to: jaisatonetele@gmail com The Radio Amateur Society of Thailand will have a SWL card to confirm reception

[ANS thanks Tanan Rangseeprom, HS1JAN, Project Manager of JAISAT-1, for the above information]

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Additional Amateur Radio Payloads to Launch with JAISAT-1

When JAISAT-1 launches in July from the Vostochny Cosmodrome it will fly with additional amateur radio payloads, summarized below

Berlin Technical University (Germany) Beesat-9 Coordination details at: http://www amsatuk me uk/iaru/finished_detail php?serialnum=657 A 1U Cubesat, BEESAT-9 is an educational, experimental satellite The main objective is to verify 3- axes stabilization using a GPS receiver, reaction wheels and magnetorquers A camera will take pictures of Earth to verify the attitude of the satellite A new attitude control actuator, developed in a PhD thesis, will be first flown on BEESAT-9 The operations of the spacecraft will be conducted in lecture courses under the guidance of licensed radio amateurs

The satellite will have a digipeater function to mirror a signal to another satellite or ground station Furthermore, it will provide a beacon signal for radio amateurs, including telemetry The amateur radio community is highly encouraged to collect telemetry data pack- ets, plans for special operations e g experiments shall be announced to the amateur radio community on the Internet It is also planned to include the amateur radio community to receive parts of pictures, which will then be put together by TU Berlin and published on the Website and on social networks proposing to use a UHF downlink with 4k8 or 9k6 Mobilex GMSK modulation A downlink on 435,950 MHz has been coordinated by the IARU

BEESAT-9 Will fly with BEESAT10-13 and MOVE-2B More info from: http://www raumfahrttechnik tu-berlin de/menue/ forschung/aktuelle_projekte/beesat-4/parameter/en/ https://tinyurl com/ANS-188-BEESAT-9

Munich Technical University (Germany) will demonstrate their inno- vative cubesat bus by launching MOVE-IIb Coordination details at: http://www amsatuk me uk/iaru/finished_detail php?serialnum=645 A 1U CubeSat Proposing a VHF QPSK 12k5 Bit/s downlink for telemetry and mission data with a UHF uplink capability for a cross band repeat- er A downlink on 145,840 MHz has been coordinated No additional amateur radio repeater operation is available at press time The IARU release suggests to monitor for updated information on the mission website at: https://www move2space de/

Tallinn Technical University (Estonia) - an educational satellite TTU101 developed to test Earth observation cameras and a novel high speed X-band communication system Coordination details at: http://www amsatuk me uk/iaru/finished_detail php?serialnum=660 The mission of TTU satellite is to perform remote sensing in visible and IR electromagnetic spectrum from 500-600 km polar orbit with 1U cubesat for educational and technology demonstration purposes Another mission task is to test amateur 10 450 - 10 500 GHz band frequencies for high-speed data downlink operations Proposing a 435 MHz downlink with data rates up to 9k6 GFSK/GMSK and also OQPSK downlink on 10 45 GHZ at data rates up to 20Mbs Downlinks on 10460 000 MHz and 435 450 MHz with a beacon on 435 500 MHz have been coordinated More info at: https://www ttu ee/projects/mektory-eng/satellite-programme-3/

Royal Institute of Technology KTH (Sweden) - SEAM-2 0 scientific spacecraft for measuring the magnetic field of the Earth http://www amsatuk me uk/iaru/finished_detail php?serialnum=584 A 3U CubeSat intended to test a deployable boom carrying miniature sensors for measuring magnetic fields A commercial S Band transceiver will operate in addition to a UHF transceiver using 9k6 GMSK A down- link on 437 250MHz has been coordinated

University of Wuerzburg (Germany) - SONATE, a cubesat for technology demonstration, and orbital verification of various satellite compon- ents and autonomous payloads Coordination details at: http://www amsatuk me uk/iaru/finished_detail php?serialnum=572 The educational objective of this mission includes opportunities students to build and operate radio communication systems of space and ground segment systems Such a system is the amateur payload of this satellite, a transceiver which is currently built by several students over the course of their theses This transceiver will initially provide regularly SSTV downlinks with images from one of the on-board cameras Other thesis for instance address the antenna deploy mechanism The following downlink frequencies have been coordinated: 9k6 GMSK/GSFK AX25 telemetry 437 025 MHz and for SSTV 145 840 MHz

SkyFox Labs (Czech Republic) - Lucky-7 cubesat will demonstrate innovative solutions for 1U cubesat platform Coordination details at: http://www amsatuk me uk/iaru/finished_detail php?serialnum=452 In addition to radio frequency operation the satellite includes high power LEDs transmitting in visible spectra (blue) to demonstrate EPS high power handling capability Also included is a Digital Color cam- era module which will be used aboard the satellite to capture the images of Earth to confirm ADCS stabilization functionality and "high" data transfer throughput capability of the custom-built FSK onboard radio A downlink on 437 525 MHz has been coordinated for a FSK downlink at variable bit rates up to 9k6 Data format information will be made available at http://www lucky7satellite org

Additional launch information can be found at: https://tinyurl com/y39pxhel

[ANS thanks the IARU and parabolicarc com for the above information]

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VUCC Awards-Endorsements for July

Here are the endorsements and new VUCC Satellite Awards issued by the ARRL for the period June 1, 2019 through July 1, 2019 Congratulations to all those who made the list this month!

CALL 01 Jun 01 Jul 2019 K5OE 1008 1079 K6FW 794 801 Correction WD9EWK 550 567 N3GS 454 525 NS3L 457 475 K9UO 351 400 W5TD New 381 MI6GTY 281 354 KE8AKW 258 329 W7JSD 279 309 G0ABI 305 306 AD0HJ 250 282 KC9ELU 229 233 AJ4A 225 230 AB1OC 177 184 N7EGY 100 169 PU8RFL 157 166 PS8MT 156 165 AA8CH/N8R New 113 KC9VGG New 102 N6REK New 100 WD9EWK (DM45) New 100

[ANS thanks Ron Parsons, W5RKN for the above information]

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Upcoming Satellite Operations

Hawaii (BL20) – July 5-8, 2019 Mark, N8MH will be operating as N8MH/KH6 and as W3ZM/KH6 July 5-8 from BL20, FM and linears Possibility of other grids once there Watch the Twitter feed for further announcements: https://twitter com/N8MH

Wabakimi Provincial Park, Ontario (EO50) – July 4-10, 2019 Fred, VE3FAL, is heading off to Wabakimi Provincial Park July 4th-10th and will activate EO50 via FM satellites Keep an eye on Fred’s Twitter feed for further updates: https://twitter com/Fred_VE3FAL

UP and Ontario (EN85, EN86, EN87) July 6-13, 2019 Chris, AA8CH, is heading back up north MI July 6th Staying in EN85, will also hit EN86 if any requests July 13 going to stay in EN76/VE3, with activation of EN86/EN87 planned DM or email Chris, if you need one of ’em Keep an eye on Chris’ Twitter feed for further updates: https://twitter com/charliehotel10

Montana (EN55) July 8-10, 2019 Dennis, N7EGY, will be in DN55 starting the evening of July 8th thru ~1800z July 10th First priority is moving his daughter & family into their new home, but he’ll sneak away to play on the birds as able Keep an eye on Dennis’ Twitter feed for specific pass announcements: https://twitter com/n7egy1

Iceland (HP93, HP94, HP95, IP03, IP05, IP13, IP14, IP15, IP24, IP25, IP35) – July 13-19, 2019 Adam, K0FFY, is taking his family (and his radios) to Iceland He’ll be staying in HP95 on July 13, IP15 on July 14-15, IP25 on July 16, IP03 on July 17-18, and HP94 on July 19 In total, he’ll be passing through HP93, HP94, HP95, IP03, IP05, IP13, IP14, IP15, IP24, IP25, & IP35 There’s a lot to see, so passes will be best effort & announced on Twitter shortly prior: https://twitter com/K0FFY_Radio

For more information on the latest satellite roves and special events: https://www amsat org/satellite-info/upcoming-satellite-operations/

[ANS thanks KE4AL for the above information]

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Satellite Shorts From All Over

• Several AMSAT members will be operating on satellites during the 13 Colonies Special Event this weekend: N2OA will be operating as K2A from FN03 KG4AKV will operate as K2J from North Carolina N3CAL will represent Maryland from FM18 as K2F For more information see: http://www 13colonies net/ (ANS thanks N2OA, KG4AKV, and N3CAL for the above information)

• An ARRL video introducing amateur radio to the public includes AMSAT Members N8HM, KM4LAO, and NP4JV: https://www facebook com/ARRL org/videos/576779882849805/ (ANS thanks ARRL for the above information)

• Lunar-OSCAR 94 successfully imaged the solar eclipse from lunar orbit on July 2 The images were downloaded by BY2HIT and PI9CAM https://pbs twimg com/media/D-ifQaaXsAAGBwd jpg https://pbs twimg com/media/D-iDwjdUcAA8ehc jpg https://pbs twimg com/media/D-iNUXCX4AEzjmQ jpg https://pbs twimg com/media/D-iGqg9W4AAT3ue jpg (ANS thanks Nico Janssen, PA0DLO for the above information )

• A nicely detailed description of equipment needed for access to the geosynchronous QO-100 by Tobias Mädel, DL4TMA was recently posted at: https://tbspace de/qo100eshail2 html (ANS thanks Tobias Mädel, DL4TMA, for the above information)

• NASA will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the historic Apollo 11 Moon mission and look to the future of exploration on the Moon and Mars with a live, two-hour television broadcast Friday, July 19, and partner-led events taking place across the country from July 16 through July 20 For details, see: https://www nasa gov/specials/apollo50th/index html (ANS thanks NASA for the above information)

• The Planetary Society's LightSail 2 spacecraft sprang loose from its Prox-1 carrier vehicle as planned on July 2, and sent its first signals back to mission control at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo in Cali- fornia The satellite, with callsign WM9XPA, sends AX 25 FSK telem- etry at 9600 bps on 437 025 MHz Full news release at: https://tinyurl com/y6dtauv2 (ANS thanks The Planetary Society for the above information)

• A reminder that AO-85 is in a low battery voltage condition Please do not use the satellite while it is in eclipse, even if you hear it Please send reports to the AMSAT-BB They are welcome and helpful (ANS thanks Drew Glasbrenner, KO4MA for the above information )

• On July 1, 1976, the main exhibition hall of the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC opened AMSAT was on site with a portable satellite station on the steps of the museum and President Ford's dedication speech was transmitted through AO-7 Photos of this event were posted by AMSAT at https://twitter com/AMSAT/status/1145679438744608769

• The submission deadline for AMSAT Field Day scores is July 8th

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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 and Remember to help keep amateur radio in space, This week's ANS Editor,

K0JM at amsat dot org

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