AMSAT NEWS SERVICE<br />ANS-352<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 />* Straight Key Night on OSCAR 2006<br />* OSCAR-11 REPORT for December<br />* PCSAT-1 Enters Eclipse Cycle<br />* Amateur Station Hears MRO at 45 Million Miles<br />* ARISS Status for the week of December 12, 2005<br />* FM Satellites: Remember to Listen for N5AFV Aboard a Cruise Ship<br />* First Announcement of January 2006 Amsat Kid's Day on AO-51<br />* AMSAT Awards This Week<br /><br /><br />SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-352.01<br />Straight Key Night on OSCAR 2006<br /><br />AMSAT News Service Bulletin 352.01<br />>From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.<br />December 18, 2005<br />To All RADIO AMATEURS<br />BID: $ANS-352.01<br /><br />Once again, AMSAT-NA is pleased to sponsor Straight Key Night on OSCAR for<br />enjoyment by all radio amateurs.<br /><br />OSCAR SKN 2006 will run for 24 hours, 0000-2400 UTC, on 1 January 2006. It's<br />very simple: no rules, no scoring, and no need to send in a log. Just<br />operate CW through any OSCAR satellite using a straight hand key, working as<br />many other SKN participants as you can. Contacts via the moon (OSCAR Zero)<br />count too.<br /><br />As in past years, all participants are requested to nominate one of the<br />operators they worked for "Best Fist" recognition. Your nominee need not<br />have the best fist of those you heard, just of those you worked.<br /><br />Please send all nominations to Ray Soifer via w2rs@arrl.net.<br /><br />A list of those nominated will be published via the AMSAT News Service in<br />early February, and in The AMSAT Journal.<br /><br />[ANS thanks Ray, W2RS for the above information]<br /><br />/EX<br /><br />SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-352.02<br />OSCAR-11 REPORT for December<br /><br />AMSAT News Service Bulletin 352.02<br />>From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.<br />December 18, 2005<br />To All RADIO AMATEURS<br />BID: $ANS-352.02<br /><br />During the period 21 November to 14 December 2005 the VHF beacon<br />on 145.826 MHz has been heard from 05 to 10 December.<br /><br />Signals have been very variable during this period. Sometimes<br />received at good strength, at other times they were inaudible,<br />even with the BFO switched ON (ie. in CW mode).<br /><br />If the watchdog resets as expected, then the beacon should restart<br />around 31 December. However, more observations are needed to con-<br />firm the timing of the watchdog timer, and whether it is being reset<br />prematurely. Therefore, it may be worth listening for the satellite<br />a few days before 31 December.<br /><br />The on-board clock continues to show a very large error. On 09 Dec-<br />ember it was 21.8 days slow.<br /><br />All the analogue telemetry channels, 0 to 59 are zero, ie they<br />have failed. The status channels 60 to 67 are still working.<br /><br />The eclipses have now ended, and the satellite should be in<br />continuous sunlight for the remainder of this year, and next year<br />until early May. This should help the satellite to continue trans-<br />mitting, although continuous sunlight can cause problems due to<br />excessive temperatures. Power supply problems can be caused by poor<br />earth pointing attitude, ie the sunlight illuminating the ends of<br />the satellite, instead of the solar arrays.<br /><br />The watchdog timer appears to be operating on the 20 day cycle,<br />ie. approximately ten days ON followed by 10 days OFF. It appears<br />to be unaffected by problems of the on-board clock. However, poor<br />solar attitude, and battery problems, may be combining to produce<br />a low 14 volt line supply. This appears to be causing the beacon<br />to switch OFF prematurely, and resets the watchdog timer cycle.<br />It seems very likely that the battery is now unable to retain its<br />charge, due to having endured around 100,000 partial charge/discharge<br />cycles, always a problem with NiCad cells. When analogue telemetry<br />was transmitted, it showed an unexplained current drain from the 14<br />volt line. This just adds to the present problems.<br /><br />The Beacon frequencies are -<br />VHF 145.826 MHz. AFSK FM ASCII Telemetry<br />UHF 435.025 MHz. OFF<br />S-band 2401.5 MHz. OFF<br /><br />Listeners to OSCAR-11 may be interested in visiting my website<br />which contains an archive of news & telemetry data. It also con-<br />tains details about using a soundcard or hardware demodulators for<br />data capture. There is software for capturing data, and decoding<br />ASCII telemetry. The URL is
www.users.zetnet.co.uk/clivew/<br /><br />[ANS thanks Clive G3CWV for the above information]<br /><br />/EX<br /><br /><br />SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-352.03<br />PCSAT-1 Enters Eclipse Cycle<br /><br />AMSAT News Service Bulletin 352.03<br />>From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.<br />December 18, 2005<br />To All RADIO AMATEURS<br />BID: $ANS-352.03<br /><br />The PCSAT-1 digipeater on 145.825 was still going strong and<br />working well up until December 15.<br /><br />The activity page
http://pcsat.aprs.org shows about 75<br />stations accessed PSCAT-1 between December 13 and 14. This<br />won't last much longer since PCSAT-1 is now back to 30 minute<br />eclipses headed towards worst-case of 35 minutes during the<br />week of December 18-25.<br /><br />Sometime before 2202z on the 15th PCSAT-1 suffered a reset to<br />W3ADO-1 and lost its low power settings. Now at 1740z on the<br />17th, the US Naval Academy Satellite Lab sent the restore<br />commands, but with 33 minute eclipses, it is doubtfull they<br />will hold. We may have lost her until March, 2006.<br /><br />The command station at the US Naval Academy should be able to<br />keep PCSAT-1 alive indefinately as long as stations do not user<br />her in the dark and the command stations never let her 68 hour<br />command watch-dog timer time out.<br /><br />Anyone can work PCSAT-1 with ANY typical 1200 baud packet<br />station on 145.825. Just set your path to UNPROTO APRS via<br />ARISS (the same that you use via ARISS on the ISS or via PCSAT2).<br />Mobiles with the D700 or the TH-D7 HT APRS radios will see packets<br />directly on their front panel and can work it from their mobile.<br /><br />For more information see:<br />
http://www.ew.usna.edu/~bruninga/pcsat.html<br /><br />[ANS thanks Bob, WB4APR and the US Naval Academy Satellite Lab<br /> for the above information]<br /><br />/EX<br /><br /><br />SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-352.04<br />Amateur Station Hears MRO at 45 Million Miles<br /><br />AMSAT News Service Bulletin 352.04<br />>From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.<br />December 18, 2005<br />To All RADIO AMATEURS<br />BID: $ANS-352.04<br /><br />This week the Mars-Net e-mail list reported that Paul Marsh, an amateur<br />observer, has detected Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter at X band at a range<br />of 45 million miles from Earth.<br /><br />The MRO transmits on Deep Space Network channel 32 which is 8439.444444 MHz.<br />By the time that reaches Earth, due to doppler the frequency has dropped<br />to around 8439.031 MHz. The MRO has a 3 meter diameter dish antenna driven<br />by a 100 Watt X-band TWTA to transmit signals to Earth. The signal coming<br />in our direction is of the order of 4.2 mega watts of RF.<br /><br />The signal was clearly visible in the FFT display of an SDR-14 software<br />radio, and was just audible in SSB bandwidth of a communications receiver.<br />The signal was consistently about 6 to 8 dB above the noise floor.<br />More details can seen at:
http://www.uhf-satcom.com/mro/.<br /><br />[ANS thanks Joe, KM1P, the Mars-net list, and Uhf-satcom.com<br />for the above information]<br /><br />/EX<br /><br /><br />SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-352.05<br />ARISS Status for the week of December 12, 2005<br /><br />AMSAT News Service Bulletin 352.05<br />>From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.<br />December 18, 2005<br />To All RADIO AMATEURS<br />BID: $ANS-352.05<br /><br />1. Texas Contact Successful<br /><br />On Thursday, December 8, Sanderson High School in Sanderson,<br />Texas experienced a successful contact with Bill McArthur,<br />KC5ACR. Bill was able to answer 18 questions posed to him by<br />10 students, as an audience of approximately 25 students,<br />teachers, parents, and others looked on. Local dignitaries who<br />attended the event included the county judge and the county sheriff.<br />Among the media that covered the contact were The Terrell County<br />News Leader, The Davis Mountain Times (Fort Davis, TX), The Big<br />Bend Sentinel (Alpine, TX) and The Alpine Avalanche (Alpine, TX).<br /><br />2. Upcoming School Contacts<br /><br />Mt Carmel High School in San Diego, California made a contact on<br />Thursday, December 15 at 15:42 UTC via KG6EQU.<br /><br />Carman Park Elementary School, a crew pick, located in Flint,<br />Michigan, has been approved for an ARISS contact. It will take<br />place on Wednesday, December 21 at 16:35 UTC via the telebridge<br />station, WH6PN. The Carman Park contact will be webcast.<br />To join the event:<br />URL: <https://e-meetings.mci.com><br />CONFERENCE NUMBER: 5169963<br />PASSCODE: SPACE STATIO<br /><br />The audio will also be available through EchoLink AMSAT (node 101377)<br />and EDU_Net (node 77992) conference room servers and will be broadcast<br />into the IRLP Discovery Reflector 9010, with streaming audio available<br />from the Discovery Reflector Web Site,
http://www.discoveryreflector.ca/<br /><br />3. McArthur Still Active on Voice<br /><br />Over this past week, Bill McArthur, KC5ACR, made contacts with stations<br />in the U.S. on December 6. He also spoke with stations in Australia,<br />New Zealand and the U.S. on December 11.<br /><br />4. Astronaut Training Status<br /><br />Astronaut Michael Lopez-Alegria, who passed his amateur radio license<br />exam on Wednesday, November 30 has been issued the callsign KE5GTK.<br /><br />[ANS thanks Carol, KB3LKI for the above information]<br /><br />/EX<br /><br /><br />SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-352.06<br />FM Satellites: Remember to Listen for N5AFV Aboard a Cruise Ship<br /><br />AMSAT News Service Bulletin 352.06<br />>From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.<br />December 18, 2005<br />To All RADIO AMATEURS<br />BID: $ANS-352.06<br /><br />Allen, N5AFV is at sea in the Carribean with his FM satellite gear on a<br />cruise ship sailing from Port Everglades, FL to the island of Dominica<br />and back. He plans to work the FM birds AO-27, SO-50 and AO-51 using his<br />Icom W32A HT and an AL800 telescoping antenna.<br /><br />While Allen plans shipboard operation, and has done so successfully in the<br />past, there is always the possibility that he will not be allowed to operate<br />from the ship. If that happens, Allen will try to operate onshore at the<br />ports of call where he can do so.<br /><br />Itinerary<br />Dec 17, Leave Port Everglades, FL, 1700 EST<br /> Call signs N5AFV and N5AFV/C6A<br />Dec 18, Nassau, Bahamas, 0800-1600 local time<br /> Call sign N5AFV/C6A<br />Dec 19, At Sea<br /> Call sign N5AFV/C6A<br />Dec 20, San Juan, PR, 1300-2300 local time<br /> Call sign KP4/N5AFV<br />Dec 21, St. Thomas, USVI, 0800-1700 local time<br /> Call sign KP2/N5AFV<br />Dec 22, Dominica, 1200-1900 local time<br /> Call sign J79AFV<br />Dec 23, St. Barts, 0800-2300 local time<br /> Call sign FJ/N5AFV<br />Dec 24, Tortolla, BVI, 0800-1500 local time<br /> Call sign VP2V/N5AFV<br />Dec 25, At Sea<br /> Call sign N5AFV/C6A<br />Dec 26, At Sea<br /> Call sign N5AFV/C6A<br />Dec 27, Arrive Port Everglades, FL, 0700 EST<br /> Call sign N5AFV<br /><br />[ANS thanks Allen, N5AFV for the above information]<br /><br />/EX<br /><br /><br />SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-352.07<br />First Announcement of January 2006 Amsat Kid's Day on AO-51<br /><br />AMSAT News Service Bulletin 352.07<br />>From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.<br />December 18, 2005<br />To All RADIO AMATEURS<br />BID: $ANS-352.07<br /><br />January 2006 Amsat Kid's Day on AO-51<br /><br />Amsat-NA, the AO-51 Command Team, and the AO-51 Operations Team<br />will sponsor Kid's Day on AO-51 on January 8, 2006. The event<br />will run from approximately 0100 UTC 8 January until 0345 UTC<br />9 January. The event is open to all kids, worldwide. We ask<br />all amateur radio stations to give this short time window to<br />promote satellite operations with kids, by actually showing a<br />kid how to make contacts via AO-51, providing a station to contact,<br />or stepping aside to allow others to make contacts with the kids.<br />During the event, please limit contacts to stations that are<br />operating with kids at the microphone. This should allow the<br />kids to have a nice QSO and pass some information. Kids can tell<br />their name, age, who is helping them operate on AO-51, where they<br />live, and other information about themselves.<br /><br />AO-51 will be configured in the following mode during the event.<br />Please note the change in the uplink frequency for the event.<br />The PL tone will be turned off for the event.<br /><br />Uplink: 145.880 mhz FM voice<br />Downlink: 435.300 mhz FM voice<br /><br />The digital transponder on 435.150 will be turned off during<br />the event.<br /><br />See
http://www.arrl.org/FandES/ead/kd-rules.html on the ARRL<br />website for more Kids Day information.<br /><br />Have fun and enjoy AO-51!<br /><br />73 KE4AZN<br />Amsat VP-Operations<br />Echo Command Station<br /><br />[ANS thanks Mike, KE4AZN for the above information]<br /><br />/EX<br /><br /><br />SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-352.08<br />AMSAT Awards This Week<br /><br />AMSAT News Service Bulletin 352.08<br />>From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.<br />December 18, 2005<br />To All RADIO AMATEURS<br />BID: $ANS-352.08<br /><br />Bruce Paige, KK5DO, AMSAT Director Contests and Awards says<br />this week, congratulations go out to all of the following.<br /><br />Kenneth Beck, WI7B, South Africa AMSAT Communication Achievement Award #US92<br /><br />Ernie Howard, W8EH, 51 on 51 Award #47<br />Peter Meier, DC7TS, 51 on 51 Award #48<br />James Clay, ND9M, 51 on 51 Award #49<br /><br />To see all the awards visit
http://www.amsat.org.<br /><br />[ANS thanks Bruce, KK5DO for the above information]<br /><br />/EX
