AMSAT NEWS SERVICE<br />ANS-254<br /><br />ANS is a free, weekly, news and information service of AMSAT North<br />America, The Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation. ANS reports on the<br />activities of a worldwide group of Amateur Radio operators who share an<br />active interest in designing, building, launching and communicating<br />through analog and digital Amateur Radio satellites.<br /><br />Please send any amateur satellite news or reports to:<br />ans-editor@amsat.org<br /><br />In this edition:<br /><br />* 2005 AMSAT Symposium is Cancelled<br />* AMSAT-NA Reschedules Key Meetings<br />* 2006 AMSAT Symposium Plans Announced<br />* ESA Award for SSETI Express telemetry download competition<br />* SSETI Express Mission Pages Updated<br />* ARISS Status for Week of September 5, 2005<br />* Heads Up - Alderney DXpedition May Include Satellite Activity<br />* Software Updates Available for Satellite Programs<br />* AMSAT Awards<br /><br />SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-254.01<br />2005 AMSAT Symposium is Cancelled<br /><br />AMSAT News Service Bulletin 254.01<br />>From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.<br />September 11, 2005<br />To All RADIO AMATEURS<br />BID: $ANS-254.01<br /><br />The AMSAT-NA Board of Directors in special session held September 6<br />via teleconference has made the decision to cancel the 2005 AMSAT<br />Symposium which was scheduled to take place in Lafayette, LA<br />October 7-9.<br /><br />While Hurricane Katrina spared Lafayette in terms of physical damage, the<br />city is now the home to thousands of evacuees who left the Gulf Coast and<br />are now housed in Lafayette's hotels and other accommodations for the near<br />future.<br /><br />Over the past week AMSAT-NA has been looking into the possibility of<br />relocating the Symposium to an alternative site. A number of options were<br />explored (such as Baltimore-Washington, Pittsburgh, Cleveland,<br />Cincinnati, Orlando, Tampa, San Francisco, and Tulsa) as several AMSAT<br />teams investigated if the Symposium could be relocated on short notice.<br />This required finding appropriate hotel facilities and putting local host<br />committees together to coordinate Symposium at each potential location. It<br />became obvious that with less than five weeks before the Symposium was<br />scheduled to take place, there would be insufficient time to make a suc-<br />cessful change in location. Altering the Symposium dates was not viewed as<br />practical since many attendees have to schedule their vacation time well<br />in advance and most individuals already have commitments for later weekends.<br /><br />"We regret that Symposium will not be held this year," says AMSAT-NA<br />President Rick Hambly, W2GPS. "Our thoughts and prayers go out to the<br />victims on the Gulf Coast who are now relocated to Lafayette and sur-<br />rounding states." Rick went on to note that the Board was concerned that<br />attempting to relocate on such short notice would impact the quality of the<br />Symposium. "The task of hosting a Symposium would potentially strain the<br />host committee tasked with handling the Symposium with less than 30 days<br />notice."<br /><br />"Many thanks to our AMSAT members who stepped forward to identify<br />potential locations. Clearly, these volunteers have worked very hard<br />to find an alternative site and would have done their best to host a<br />Symposium. Unfortunately, time is working against us" notes Barry Baines,<br />WD4ASW AMSAT's VP-Marketing & User Services.<br /><br />The Board also wishes to thank Nick Pugh, K5QXJ for the extensive work<br />that he has done to plan for the Lafayette Symposium and to his team for<br />organizing what would have been an excellent Symposium in Louisiana.<br /><br />The Board also noted that donations are needed to assist the relief<br />efforts on the Gulf Coast. Given that this year's Symposium is cancelled,<br />the Board hopes that individuals will decide to donate a portion of their<br />funds to be used to cover their cost of attending the Symposium to an<br />organization (such as American Red Cross) aiding the relief effort on the<br />Gulf Coast.<br /><br />AMSAT-NA Office Manager Martha Saragovitz will handle the process of<br />providing refunds for registration fees already collected. Checks will<br />be sent to those whose fees had previously been processed. In some cases,<br />registrants had completed the registration process on the AMSAT web site<br />by their credit cards. These charges will be destroyed. Checks covering<br />registration that have been sent by mail and not processed will be returned<br />to the sender.<br /><br />Attendees holding reservations at the Holiday Inn should cancel their reser-<br />vations prior to the scheduled arrival date in order to avoid first night<br />room charges. The Holiday Inn in Lafayette has been experiencing telephone<br />problems, so it may be best to contact the Holiday Inn Reservation Center<br />(888-HOLIDAY) or use the Holiday Inn website:<br />
http://www.holiday-inn.com<br />if the individual has their confirmation number for their reservation.<br /><br />[ANS thanks Barry Baines, WD4ASW, and the AMSAT Board of Directors for the<br />above information]<br /><br />/EX<br /><br />SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-254.02<br />AMSAT-NA Reschedules Key Meetings<br /><br />AMSAT News Service Bulletin 254.02<br />>From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.<br />September 11, 2005<br />To All RADIO AMATEURS<br />BID: $ANS-254.02<br /><br />With the cancellation of the 2005 AMSAT Symposium in Lafayette, LA due<br />to Hurricane Katrina, the AMSAT Board of Directors Meeting will now be<br />held on Thursday and Friday, October 6 & 7 at the Wyndham Pittsburgh<br />Airport Hotel.<br /><br />Following the BOD Meeting which is expected to end by noon on Friday,<br />the Eagle Team will have their meeting starting around 1400 on the 7th<br />and conclude late Saturday. However, if discussions are continuing,<br />provisions have been made to allow the Eagle Team to continue meeting on<br />Sunday morning, October 9.<br /><br />In addition, in order to comply with AMSAT Bylaws that require that an<br />AMSAT Annual Meeting be held in October or November of each year, this<br />meeting will take place on Friday evening as well, though the specific<br />time has not yet been finalized. AMSAT is also investigating the feasi-<br />bility of using various teleconference methods to allow AMSAT members<br />to participate who are not on site.<br /><br />With the exception of when the Board of Directors is in Executive Session,<br />all three meetings are open to those who wish to attend. Information on<br />the Wyndham Hotel where these meetings are taking place may be found at:<br />
http://www.wyndhampittsburghairport.com<br /><br />The IARU meeting that was scheduled for Sunday morning, October 9 in<br />Lafayette, LA has not been rescheduled.<br /><br />[ANS thanks Barry Baines, WD4ASW, and the AMSAT Board of Directors for the<br />above information]<br /><br />/EX<br /><br /><br />SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-254.03<br />2006 AMSAT Symposium Plans Announced<br /><br />AMSAT News Service Bulletin 254.03<br />>From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.<br />September 11, 2005<br />To All RADIO AMATEURS<br />BID: $ANS-254.03<br /><br />Recognizing that most of the 2005 Symposium attendees had already purchased<br />non-refundable airline tickets to fly to Lafayette, Baton Rouge, or New<br />Orleans, the Board also made a decision on the location for the 2006 AMSAT<br />Symposium. 'Non-refundable' means the airline will not return the airfare<br />to the individual due to cancellation but the value of the reservation may<br />be applied to a future flight as long as cancellation occurs prior to the<br />original flight. Other restrictions on making changes to non-refundable<br />reservations may also apply. Some airlines have waived 'change fees' for<br />altering a reservation associated with current reservations into New<br />Orleans, Baton Rouge, and Lafayette.<br /><br />The AMSAT Board of Directors voted September 6 nigh to accept an offer<br />from Project OSCAR to host the 2006 Symposium in the San Francisco Bay<br />area in the month of October. Emily Clarke, W0EEC will serve as host<br />chairperson and will coordinate the Symposium.<br /><br />"San Francisco is a great place to hold the Symposium," says Emily. "The<br />roots of the Amateur Satellite Service can be found here as Project OSCAR<br />began building the first amateur satellites in the Bay Area." Emily also<br />notes the allure of the area for both 'geeks' and families alike. "We have<br />everything from beaches to mountains, cities and wine country - so come to<br />the Symposium and plan your vacation, too!"<br /><br />In addition to the AMSAT Symposium, San Francisco is planned as a joint<br />meeting with the ARISS International Delegates. "We're looking forward<br />towards another successful joint meeting with AMSAT" says ARISS<br />International Chairman and AMSAT VP-Human Space Flight Frank Bauer,<br />KA3HDO.<br /><br />Details about exact dates and hotel for the 2006 Symposium will be announced<br />via ANS and posted on the AMSAT website later this month as they become<br />available. Individuals holding airline reservations into Lafayette should<br />hold off making changes until the dates and exact location of the 2006<br />Symposium are announced. In the meantime, AMSAT-NA looks forward towards an<br />outstanding Symposium in October 2006 in the Bay Area.<br /><br />[ANS thanks Barry Baines, WD4ASW, and the AMSAT Board of Directors for the<br />above information]<br /><br />/EX<br /><br /><br />SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-254.04<br />ESA Award for SSETI Express telemetry download competition<br /><br />AMSAT News Service Bulletin 254.04<br />>From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.<br />September 11, 2005<br />To All RADIO AMATEURS<br />BID: $ANS-254.04<br /><br />The Education Department of ESA, the European Space Agency, is<br />delighted to announce details of the award that will be offered<br />to the amateur radio community in relation to the downloading of<br />telemetry from their SSETI Express student built satellite. The<br />award will be given to the amateur who submits the largest number<br />of valid telemetry and payload packets regardless of which band<br />it is received on.<br /><br />SSETI Express is scheduled for launch on September 27th from Plesetsk<br />in northern Russia at approx 06:52 UTC. It will downlink telemetry and<br />payload data in AX25 format at 9k6 on 437.250MHz and at 38k4 on<br />2401.835 MHz. It will later also be available for radio amateurs to<br />use as a single channel FM transponder.<br /><br />All radio amateurs around the world are encouraged to download the<br />necessary software from the
www.sseti.org/express website (this will<br />be available starting approximately September 12) and to use the<br />SERACC system to forward the telemetry and payload data to SSETI<br />Express Mission Control. Submissions will be automatically recorded<br />and the leaderboard will be shown on the website.<br /><br />The winner will be offered the opportunity to visit the STEC06<br />Conference and Exhibition in Germany in Spring 2006. STEC, the Student<br />Technology Education Conference, follows previous events in 2004 in<br />Lausanne in Switzerland and in 2005 in Aalborg in Denmark.<br /><br />The three day event is similar to the AMSAT-NA Symposium and the<br />AMSAT-UK Colloquium but with more breakout technical sessions in<br />addition to the Keynote Speeches. The meetings are always interesting<br />and thought provoking and great enthusiasm and passion is shown by all<br />the attendees. The post meeting attitude adjustment sessions have also<br />proven to be exciting.<br /><br />The winner will also be encouraged to present a paper on how he/she<br />achieved their success - but this is not mandatory!<br /><br />In addition to attending the STEC 06 Conference, the winner will be<br />invited to visit ESA's Mission Operations Centre - ESOC - near Darmstadt<br />in Germany where they will be given a private escorted tour of the facil-<br />ities. ESOC currently controls the many exciting orbital and deep space<br />ESA missions and will be responsible for the European Columbus module<br />when it joins the International Space Station<br /><br />For more information on the STEC events - check<br />
http://www.stec2005.space.aau.dk/ to see what this year's event included and<br />for a few details of the ESOC facility, visit<br />
http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/ESOC/<br /><br />The winner will be the amateur at the top of the leaderboard at 00:00 on<br />January 1, 2006. The prize will include economy class travel from your<br />home location, accommodation and a "small" daily subsistence allowance.<br /><br />AMSAT-UK wishes to congratulate and thank ESA for their generous prize,<br />a first in the field, and is confident that it will add to the great<br />enthusiasm for the SSETI Express project which already exists within the<br />amateur radio community. It will be a great opportunity for us to<br />demonstrate that the amateur radio groundstation "network" is a valuable<br />resource for satellite projects which are able include useful amateur<br />payloads.<br /><br />[ANS thanks Graham, G3VZV for the above information]<br /><br />/EX<br /><br /><br />SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-254.05<br />SSETI Express Mission Pages Updated<br /><br />AMSAT News Service Bulletin 254.05<br />>From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.<br />September 11, 2005<br />To All RADIO AMATEURS<br />BID: $ANS-254.05<br /><br />The SSETI Express Mission Pages at:<br />
http://sseti.gte.tuwien.ac.at/WSW4/MOPWS/news.php<br />has a short report with some photos of the work being done at the<br />assembly facility at the Plesetsk Cosmodrome assembly facility.<br /><br />Both the UHF and S band units have been tested and all appears ok so far.<br /><br />Please continue to keep those fingers crossed for us<br /><br />[ANS thanks Graham, G3VZV for the above information]<br /><br />/EX<br /><br /><br />SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-254.06<br />ARISS Status for Week of September 5, 2005<br /><br />AMSAT News Service Bulletin 254.06<br />>From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.<br />September 11, 2005<br />To All RADIO AMATEURS<br />BID: $ANS-254.06<br /><br />1. World Expo 2005 Contact Successful<br /><br />The Japan Amateur Radio League (JARL) set up a radio station at<br />the 2005 World Expo in Aichi, Japan. On Friday, September 2,<br />twenty-one students, ranging in ages from 6 - 15, came from<br />Aichi and the surrounding county to take part in this ARISS<br />contact. John Phillips, KE5DRY, answered all twenty-one ques-<br />tions posed to him by the students, as approximately 150 people<br />looked on. Eight newspapers and one television station provided<br />media coverage of the event. Photos, video and audio of the<br />contact may be found on the following website:<br /> <http://jk1zrw.dyndns.org/expo2005.html.en><br /><br />2. Upcoming School Contacts<br /><br />The Matthew J. Kuss Middle School in Fall River, Massachusetts,<br />has been scheduled for a contact on Friday, September 16 at<br />1824 UTC. Kuss is a 2003 NASA Explorer School and has established<br />its own radio club.<br /><br />3. ARISS Videos Posted on AMSAT Website<br /><br />ARISS participated in the Dayton Hamvention 2005 held over the<br />May 20 - 22 weekend. ARISS Chairman Frank Bauer and ARISS Deputy<br />Program Manager Mark Steiner attended, giving a presentation<br />entitled, "Human Spaceflight Update: ARISS, the Moon and Mars,â€<br />at the AMSAT Forum. Videos of the ARISS presentation and of the<br />Hamvention activities are available on the AMSAT website.<br /><br />AMSAT and ARISS members also participated in Space Day at the<br />Udvar Hazy Center on May 5, 2005. A video clip which includes<br />coverage of the exhibition booth and an interview with Frank Bauer<br />is also available for viewing.<br /><br /> For all videos, see:<br /><http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/information/videoNews.php><br /><br />4. Progress 19P to Include SuitSat and SSTV<br /><br />The SuitSat hardware and the SSTV system will be launched on<br />Progress 19P, which was scheduled to fly on September 8. The<br />Russian EVA to deploy SuitSat is expected to take place in<br />early December.<br /><br />5. Cosmonaut Receives Birthday Wishes<br /><br />Sergei Krikalev, U5MIR, made several general contacts during the<br />last weekend of August. Stations from several countries spoke with<br />the cosmonaut, wishing him a happy birthday. The contacts were made<br />by operators in Kuwait, Malaysia, Columbia, Thailand, Argentina,<br />U.S., Brazil, Australia, Puerto Rico, and Chile. Krikalev turned<br />47 on Saturday, August 27. To listen to a sample of the contacts,<br />go to: <http://pd0rkc.mine.nu/><br /><br />6. Astronaut Training Status<br /><br />Astronaut Sandy Magnus is preparing to take her amateur radio exam<br />in the near future. Astronaut Nicole Stott is scheduled for a ham<br />radio training session at JSC on Tuesday, September 6.<br /><br />[ANS thanks Carol Jackson, KB3LKI for the above information.<br /><br />/EX<br /><br /><br />SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-254.07<br />Heads Up - Alderney DXpedition May Include Satellite Activity<br /><br />AMSAT News Service Bulletin 254.07<br />>From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.<br />September 11, 2005<br />To All RADIO AMATEURS<br />BID: $ANS-254.07<br /><br />The Alderney DX Team announced plans for a DXpedition to be on the air<br />Wednesday, October 12 to Wednesday, October 19, 2005. This is a group<br />of four amateur radio operators from around the U.K. who will be oper-<br />ational on all HF bands, 6 meters, VHF APRS, VHF/UHF SSB and hope-<br />fully, some satellite activity, from the Island of Alderney, the<br />most northerly island of the Channel Islands group.<br /><br />The first calls are planned to be made during the evening of<br />October 12 most probably on 40 and 80 meters.<br /><br />Additionally, Worked All Britain and Lighthouse activity may take<br />place, depending on the availability of portable power supplies or<br />a generator.<br /><br />Further information available from: dave at g1ocn dot com<br /><br />Skeds are welcomed and encouraged.<br /><br />QSL route(s) are:<br /><br />GU5XW via G5XW<br />GU1OCN via G5XW<br />MW0JZE via G5XW<br />MU3SDE via M3SDE<br /><br />Further information available under individual call signs on<br />QRZ.COM. A further updates will be sent prior to departure.<br /><br />[ANS thanks the Alderney DX Team for the above information]<br /><br />/EX<br /><br /><br />SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-254.08<br />Software Updates Available for Satellite Programs<br /><br />AMSAT News Service Bulletin 254.08<br />>From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.<br />September 11, 2005<br />To All RADIO AMATEURS<br />BID: $ANS-254.08<br /><br />* Simon Brown, HB9DRV, announced FT-847 support has been added into the<br />Ham Radio Deluxe software and is working well. Still to be added are<br />further updates for proper same-band Doppler support. See:<br />
http://www.ham-radio.ch/forums/viewtopic.php?p=15785#15785<br /><br />* Stefano Bravi, an SWL in Italy, announced a new version (1.2) of his<br />PCSAT2 Telemetry Decoder program is available for download. See:<br />
http://fc.retecivica.milano.it/~stefano.bravi/pcsat2dec_12.zip<br /><br />* Erich Eichmann DK1TB has released version 12.4 of the popular<br />satellite tracking program SatPC32. The program has two significant<br />new features. First is automatic internet download of Keplerian elements<br />such as the amateur.txt file from celestrak.com. Second is an improved<br />user interface for initial configuration of user location, radio and<br />rotor interfaces, etc. The program may be downloaded from the author's<br />personal web site:<br />
http://www.dk1tb.de/indexeng.htm<br /><br />Click the "downloads" button on the left frame, then choose the appro-<br />priate "SatPC32 Demo" version (9.7 MB download). The demo version is<br />fully functional except that the user must enter their lat/lon every<br />time when launching the program. If you already have a SatPC32 regis-<br />tration code you may use that code to make the 12.4 version fully<br />functional. If you have never purchased SatPC32 you may purchase a<br />registration code from the AMSAT online store:<br />
http://www.amsat-na.com/item.php?id=100020<br /><br />DK1TB has generously donated SatPC32 to AMSAT-NA, AMSAT-UK, and<br />AMSAT-DL. If you use SatPC32, please purchase a registration code<br />from one of these groups. All of the purchase price will go to<br />support amateur satellite programs.<br /><br />[ANS thanks Simon, HB9DRV, Stefano, Wayne, W9AE, and Erich, DK1TB for<br />the above information]<br /><br />/EX<br /><br /><br />SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-254.09<br />AMSAT Awards<br /><br />AMSAT News Service Bulletin 254.09<br />>From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.<br />September 11, 2005<br />To All RADIO AMATEURS<br />BID: $ANS-254.09<br /><br />Bruce Paige, KK5DO, AMSAT Director Contests and Awards, announces this week<br />congratulations go out to John Sagi, N3YZ, for earning the Satellite Commun-<br />icators Club Award and also a new member of AMSAT.<br /><br />Reminder: There is still time to earn your AMSAT 51 on 51 Award which<br />is good for contacts between January 1, 2005 and December 31, 2005.<br />To see all the awards visit
http://www.amsat.org<br /><br />[ANS thanks Bruce, KK5DO for the above information]<br /><br />/EX
