Re: [amsat-bb] Honeymoon trip and tentative grid operation
Congratulations you are a lucky guy! There is the age old question ... Are you happy? Or, are you married? Congratulations to Hector and bride for being happily married! -- 73 de JoAnne K9JKM k9...@amsat.org ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
Re: [amsat-bb] Rosetta probe has rendezvoused with comet
The space probe has passed within 1,000 kilometers of the comet and is maneuvering to match velocity. ESA Webcast is currently providing looping playback of the Rosetta mission and the rendezvous from earlier this morning. I followed the link from http://www.universetoday.com with the title ... Rosetta on Final Approach to Historic Comet Rendezvous - Watch Live Here -- 73 de JoAnne K9JKM k9...@amsat.org Editor, AMSAT Journal ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
[amsat-bb] Perseid Pings on the Internet
The Perseid meteor shower peak is predicted to occur between August 11 to 13. There are a few pre-peak pings already audible. The activity should increase over the next several days. Web streaming of the Perseid is on-line at: http://spaceweatherradio.com/ Quoting from their web page here is how they do it now: The US Air Force Space Surveillance Radar has been shut down, but we're still recording meteor echoes. How do we do it? Radio engineer Stan Nelson uses a Yagi antenna in New Mexico to detect 54 MHz TV signals reflected from meteor trails. When a meteor passes over his observatory--ping!--there is an echo. -- 73 de JoAnne K9JKM k9...@amsat.org Editor, AMSAT Journal ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
Re: [amsat-bb] going digital
Circumstances in the launch business have driven many groups, including AMSAT, to select the cubesat path to space. Arguing about an on-going project isn't productive but I find discussions about future possibilities interesting. These discussions don't have come at the expense of the current project plan (such as why use FM when this project is already 2 years in progress). We do have future satellites still on the drawing board however! On the digital radio front Phil makes a very good point ... So many hams seem to automatically assume, for no good reason, that getting on any new digital mode must necessarily require exotic, expensive and hard to find components and a PhD to use. But the required hardware is now very common, and nearly all of the complexity that defines any particular digital communi- cation system these days is implemented almost entirely in soft- ware that costs nothing to copy and distribute once written. I used free software, my FT-857, small yagis at fixed elevation on a TV rotor to decode Delfi, ARISSat, FUNcube, and 2-way with ISS packet. The computer that does this is a bargain e-machine box with the only modification being additional memory. The software tools for digital modes on these satellites were a free download. The key to getting the software and your computer to do this requires one additional piece of hardware if you use an external radio. If you use one of the various flavors of Dongles on your computer you only need to add a software audio path (another download). When thinking of projects to enter into the digital communication world plan on building or buying that digital interface to connect your radio to the soundcard. A few days or weeks spent on the soundcard interface is the key link to enter this exciting other half of satellite operating. There are many paths to soundcard digital interfaces. Google is your friend. I bet a local dealer would love to sell you a RigBlaster (which many have had good luck with). I used a less expensive off-the-shelf digital interface from a place called Donner Digital Interfaces. He sells it on the web: http://www.donnerstore.org/ ... the page is quite an entrepreneur operation, select digital interfaces from the menu on the left side. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34dy21z2I8Y ... shows how to set up a Donner interface to your rig. More good news ... the setup for the digital interface is the same for HF, VHF, or UHF. Once installed you have digital modes on all bands. (On HF I use the JT-65 software which often decodes DX signals so weak I cannot hear them by ear - it was just another software download.) PSK and SSTV were more downloads. But ya gotta install that Soundcard interface to get to this good stuff! http://www.eham.net/reviews/detail/2073 ... some reviews and discussion to help your research. -- 73 de JoAnne K9JKM k9...@amsat.org Editor, AMSAT Journal ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
[amsat-bb] NASA TV Broadcast Progress 56 Cargo Craft on Wednesday
For those of us who enjoy the roar of a big rocket on a Wednesday afternoon ... NASA TV will broadcast the ISS Progress 56 cargo craft launch from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Wednesday at 5:44 p.m. EDT on a 4-orbit, 6-hour fast track rendezvous to dock with the station's Pirs docking compartment at 11:30 p.m. EDT. Live NASA Television coverage of the Progress launch begins at 5:30 p.m. EDT and returns at 11 p.m. EDT for docking coverage. Press release: http://www.nasa.gov/content/next-station-cargo-spacecraft-rolls-out-to -pad/ NASA TV: http://www.nasa.gov/ntv (or, I watch it on my Roku streaming box) -- 73 de JoAnne K9JKM k9...@amsat.org Editor, AMSAT Journal ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
Re: [amsat-bb] ANS-199 AMSAT News Service Special Bulletin - AMSAT Fox-1C Launch Opportunity Announced
Hey, this sounds like a terrific opportunity. Not only did AMSAT work on securing our new launch opportunities ... but we are in a position to offer a launch opportunity for a mode/radio/experiment for those who can contribute to amateur radio in space instead of complain about it. -- 73 de JoAnne K9JKM k9...@amsat.org -Original Message- From: amsat-bb-boun...@amsat.org [mailto:amsat-bb-boun...@amsat.org] On Behalf Of Andrew Glasbrenner Sent: Saturday, July 19, 2014 15:43 To: 'Phil Karn'; 'Paul Stoetzer' Cc: amsat-bb@amsat.org Subject: Re: [amsat-bb] ANS-199 AMSAT News Service Special Bulletin - AMSAT Fox-1C Launch Opportunity Announced Getting a launch opportunity is difficult and expensive. Going digital is not. The Fox satellites each have four designated experiment cards. Assemble a team and pitch a proposal for 1D, or 1C if you can do it in a hurry. 73, Drew KO4MA ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
Re: [amsat-bb] UKube-1
Hi Nick, What are the tle or the sat number The AMSAT keps sent this week included this message from Ray WA5QGD: UKube-1 was successfully launched and deployed 7-8-2014 at 15:58 UTC from a Soyuz-2-1B/Fregat-M launch vehicle from Baikonur in Kazakhstan. The primary payload was Russia's Meteor-M2 weather satellite. At this time, it is believed that UKcube-1 is one of the following objects which have been added to this weeks KEPs: OBJECT C - 2014-37C - Cat#40071 OBJECT G - 2014-37G - Cat#40075 OBJECT H - 2014-37H - Cat#40076 OBJECT D is in this group, but SpaceTrack currently identifies OBJECT D - 2014-37D - Cat#40072 as SKYSAT-2 (a payload). As always, this could change. More later. Nico PA0DLO mentioned ... Doppler measurements suggest that UKube 1 is either object 40074, 2014-037F, or object 40075, 2014-037G. The separation between these objects is now only 1 s, so no more than 7.5 km. OBJECT C 1 40071U 14037C 14191.82540802 -.0222 0-0 -21970-4 0 107 2 40071 098.4040 243.5240 0007266 248.4855 111.5565 14.79492373 302 OBJECT G 1 40075U 14037G 14191.82422499 -.3687 0-0 -47620-3 0 121 2 40075 098.4033 243.5283 0004132 270.1457 089.9292 14.80344779 307 OBJECT H 1 40076U 14037H 14191.82417973 -.0362 0-0 -39849-4 091 2 40076 098.3972 243.5179 0004261 273.8749 086.1949 14.80382331 304 -- 73 de JoAnne K9JKM k9...@amsat.org Editor, AMSAT Journal ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
Re: [amsat-bb] UKube-1
Hi there Graham, (I am using Object F quite happily!) I just tried using Object G and copied the CW on 145.840 on schedule. UKube was about 10° elevation, east of me in Chicago. It seemed good enough for manual tracking and manual tuning at least. So I guess I'll be pretty close while the objects separate and positions resolve further. -- 73 de JoAnne K9JKM k9...@amsat.org Editor, AMSAT Journal ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
[amsat-bb] Possible ISS Voice Contacts on Field Day
Current discussions between the ARISS team and NASA suggest the possibility of voice contacts with the International Space Station (ISS) during Saturday's ARRL Field Day activities this coming weekend. Read the full story at: http://www.amsat.org/?p=2860 and http://amsat.org/pipermail/ans/2014/000797.html to view the ANS Special Bulletin on this. -- 73 de JoAnne K9JKM k9...@amsat.org Editor, AMSAT Journal ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
Re: [amsat-bb] TNC Question
Hi Kelley, ... searching for settings specific to this unit for ARISS work I'm not familiar with the Kantronics syntax for typing commands but see below for a general summary of the parameters you may find useful. ARISS has a summary of hardware TNC and soundcard TNC operations posted at: http://www.ariss.org/uploads/1/9/6/8/19681527/k9jkm_2012_symposium_ver 2.pdf (careful, might line wrap this URL) The list of parameters you will find useful but may need to adapt to Kantronics syntax: MYCALL - Your Callsign Default is NOCALL, but you want others to know you are there. DAYTIME - YYMMDDHHMM Used if you want to timestamp the packets you are receiving. MONITOR ON - Displays all packets on the frequency MALL ON - Displays all packets on the frequency (connected or unconnected) MCOM ON - Displays the AX.25 protocol with the message (might clutter your screen) MCON ON - Allow you to see all packets even when in CONVERS mode MSTAMP ON - Monitored packets are timestamped MRPT ON - Displays the entire digipeat path for the packets. CONSTAMP ON - Connect and disconnect status messages are timestamped HEADERLN ON - Header information is displayed on separate line from message text PASSALL ON - TNC will accept and display packets that have errors (noise). Partial packets, even with errors, are often still readable to the human eye. PASSALL OFF - TNC will only accept and display packets that have complete CRC. CONVERS enter - Mode to type packet message from keyboard directly to the TNC. Ctrl-C will exit CONVERS mode. MHEARD enter - Displays your TNC's heard list (updated only when PASSALL OFF) UNPROTO CQ VIA ARISS - Most basic string for ARISS to copy, route, and digipeat your packet -- 73 de JoAnne K9JKM k9...@amsat.org ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
[amsat-bb] Math Tool for Authors
Hello everyone, I found an interesting tool for those who publish technical articles such as Symposium Papers and AMSAT Journal articles. (hint) A review by the University of Wisconsin reads, Created through the collaborative efforts of the American Mathematical Society, Design Science, Inc., and the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics, MathJax is the best source for visually displaying math online. Demos of features and samples of various mathematical expressions and equations and downloading of the free JavaScript-based engine is at: http://www.mathjax.org/ You can even copy/paste your equations and math into Word without finding the special fonts much less figuring out how to make them work. Looking forward to your articles! -- 73 de JoAnne K9JKM k9...@amsat.org Editor, AMSAT Journal PS - Our AMSAT Journal welcomes all kinds of articles in addition to the fancy pants math. How did you optimize your station? ... lend a helping hand to beginners ... operate a demonstration at a hamfest ... work with a satellite team ... ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
Re: [amsat-bb] ARISS
Hi Kelley, If you are able to copy stations on the 145.825 MHz downlink you have your packet setup working. If you add more antenna you'll find you can copy a pass starting sooner and lasting longer. Otherwise, if you hear with the vertical antenna it is working OK. I use the USA 144.390 MHz APRS beacon frequency for testing my packet receive setups. I'm near Chicago so there is always an APRS brap-brap-brappity-brap around. In rural areas you may need to wait a while. But, if your packet setup works on terrestrial signals it is ready for the ISS. You can do testing without waiting for an ISS pass if you use 144.390. Then tune back up 145.825 and it should be ready. But (there is always a but) ... 1. Getting on the list and/or map at www.ariss.net depends on the downlink also being heard by an earth station setup to SATGATE its received packets. There seem to be fewer SATGATE stations around than in years previously. You don't have to do anything special to get SATGATE'd. Your UNPROTO CQ VIA ARISS (CQ VIA RS0ISS works also) is all you need to do. But there has to be a SATGATE station in range. 2. ARISS has a weaker signal than before. It is still a good signal but in the past their higher power used to make the packet bursts able to be copied on an HT and rubber duck. Nowadays an external antenna is necessary (which you have). The ARISS downlink signal experiences shadowing from the ISS structure. Sometimes this contributes to the weaker downlink which means fewer stations hearing you ... or, SATGATES hearing you. 3. Setting PASSALL to ON helps you copy packets that don't complete the checksum. Many times there is enough information in there for human eyes to pick out. Still, the SATGATES will need to receive the entire packet with checksum to relay you. This is just another technique for troubleshooting. PASSALL is available on the hardware TNC configurations but I haven't found a soundcard packet program which supports it. 4. PCSAT NO-44 can digipeat on 145.825 if it has a good charge from its solar panels. Set your unproto to CQ VIA W3ADO-1. The signal from NO-44 is definitely weaker than the ISS. It often shuts down after a few packets because of power issues. On a good day it is another satellite to add to your list. The packet log and map for NO-44 is at http://www.findu.com/cgi-bin/pcsat.cgi The same lack of SATGATE stations issue also applies here. Sometimes it may be a couple of days until someone makes it through and on rare passes several stations are successful. -- 73 de JoAnne K9JKM k9...@amsat.org Editor, AMSAT Journal -Original Message- From: amsat-bb-boun...@amsat.org [mailto:amsat-bb-boun...@amsat.org] On Behalf Of Kelley Sent: Saturday, June 07, 2014 21:08 To: AMSAT-BB Subject: [amsat-bb] ARISS Hi all, I've been trying to work stations on ARISS as it goes over the USA, and don't seem to be getting anywhere. I hear the ARISS exactly when my tracking software says I should. I switch to converse mode and send a Hi. I see a number of stations sending packets, I attempt to contact them without results. I used K9JKM's PDF to help set things up (very helpful). My unproto is CQ VIA ARISS. I looked at the bottom of www.ariss.net to see if the ARISS was hearing me, I didn't see my call, nor did I see the other calls I heard. Perhaps it takes a while to appear. Is there another way to see if things are setup okay on my end? I'm using Winpack on Windows 7 to a MFJ-1278T to a IC-706MKIIG connected to a vertical antenna mounted at 50' (working on a better antenna, hope to have it up soon). -- Kelley - WØRK ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
Re: [amsat-bb] ARISS
Yeah, it sounds like the radio/TNC/Computer end is running. Hopefully some of my comments would prove useful to others thinking of trying ARISS packet. converse command and send something like Hi from Kelley EN25. Yes, this will send the UI packet from you with the quoted text. If I see another station I send something like Hi W0ABC this is Kelley W0RK. Is this the right format? Again, yes this is the right format. If W0ABC copies the downlink they will see your message. I assume that trying to connect to another station isn't the right way? Technically it should work but is not recommended. This is because your station and the other station will kick into the full AX.25 handshake protocol. If one of the handshake sequences is missed AX.25 will faithfully try, retry, retry, retry to complete the handshake message. It is likely the pass will be over before the handshake sequence is completed and you will have not received the text of the message. The retry'ed handshake messages add as much competition to a UI channel as do the unattended beacons others mentioned this morning. I've thought I should make myself a SATGATE because there are so few active at present. I tend to leave my station off and disconnected when I'm not operating. I will likely not make my station operate unattended due to stretches of being away from the radio doing things like the Journal or news bulletins. But when you see packets from me I really am at the keyboard. I'll look for you on upcoming passes. -- 73 de JoAnne K9JKM k9...@amsat.org Editor, AMSAT Journal ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
Re: [amsat-bb] The ERP Blues
The ERP Blues by W5PFG Excellent indeed! I'm reminded of the fellow who was driving to a hamfest when a wheel fell off his car. He sang, You Picked a Fine Time to Leave Me Loose Wheel. (With apologies to Kenny Rogers) -- 73 de JoAnne K9JKM k9...@amsat.org ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
Re: [amsat-bb] Appearing on http://www.ariss.net/
Hi Mike, why I'm no longer able to digi via the ISS ... There are a few issues with the amateur radio equipment aboard the ISS. The only working ham rig at the moment is the 5 watt Ericsson HT. So the downlink is weaker than what we historically recall. The FM deviation seems a bit more narrow as well. This report from the ARISS International meeting may offer additional insights: http://www.arrl.org/news/ariss-international-partners-regroup-at-first -in-person-meeting-since-2011 I hope the mailing list doesn't mangle the long URL. Anyway, when you get halfway through this article there is a link called 'presentation' which gets you the PowerPoint slides from the meeting. The ARISS radio gear is discussed in the slides. I've also found that orientation of the ISS with respect to my QTH affects how well I am heard on the uplink and how well I hear the downlink. Perhaps that is another reason the APRS gates aren't copying. When you see my greetings on 145.825 I am always at the keyboard ... no beacons here. We can try for a packet QSO. -- 73 de JoAnne K9JKM k9...@amsat.org Editor, AMSAT Journal ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
Re: [amsat-bb] Appearing on http://www.ariss.net/
Hi Mike, I have tried to digi via ARISS using several paths, CQ,ARISS,SGATE,WIDE CQ,ARISS,SGATE,WIDE CQ,ARISS,WIDE1-1 I set my UNPROTO to CQ VIA RS0ISS (although ARISS does alias with RS0ISS). That is the only path I need for a digipeat via the ISS. I haven't needed the various flavors of WIDE. So, 2 questions, using UI-View32: 1. What's the most common Is there something that could cause it *not* to gateway to the www.ariss.net page ? 2. What is the Digi Path to end up on www.ariss.net ? I found when using UI-View that the map display of what you've heard is nice. I usually operate a bit more minimally when I'm looking for keyboard contacts. I do without the UI-View map. I use UISS for my keyboard operation. I've found that the UZ7HO Soundmodem software in place of AGWPE hears a bit better. The thing with the soundcard packet modes is that the software packet engine expects a complete packet and correct checksum before displaying the message. With my hardware TNC I can set PASSALL ON. It lets the partial packets through which are often good enough for human interpretation rather than demanding a correct checksum. A few times a year PCSAT gets enough sunlight to come alive and digipeat on 145.825. Just set your path UNPROTO CQ VIA W3ADO-1. The map display for who makes it through for PCSAT is at http://www.findu.com/cgi-bin/pcsat.cgi -- 73 de JoAnne K9JKM k9...@amsat.org Editor, AMSAT Journal ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
Re: [amsat-bb] New US Satellite Export Reforms Gets Positive Response from Industry
This latest update shows that US Government agencies continue to work on changes to ITAR and hopefully are making progress. Perhaps relief is closer now as compared to a year ago. I thought it would be interesting to find the source document(s) to this report. While the initial good news fits within a single press release, the changes as published on May 13 in the Federal Register cover a few dozen pages of legal language. Here are links to the ITAR rule changes as published in the Federal Register: https://www.federalregister.gov/articles/2014/05/13/2014-10807/revisions-to- the-export-administration-regulations-ear-control-of-spacecraft-systems-and- related In case our mailing list mangles the long URL here is an equivalent tiny-URL to federalregister.gov: http://tinyurl.com/ITAR-FedRegister -- 73 de JoAnne K9JKM k9...@amsat.org Editor, AMSAT Journal -Original Message- From: amsat-bb-boun...@amsat.org [mailto:amsat-bb-boun...@amsat.org] On Behalf Of Eric Rosenberg Sent: Monday, May 19, 2014 07:38 To: Amsat-bb Mailing List Subject: [amsat-bb] New US Satellite Export Reforms Gets Positive Response from Industry from Via Satellite. Enjoy! 73, Eric W3DQ Washington, DC --- New US Satellite Export Reforms Gets Positive Response from Industry By Caleb Henry | May 16, 2014 [Via Satellite 05-16-2014] After 15 years of restrictions and intense scrutiny, the United States Department of State has reclassified satellites and several related components so they will no longer be treated as weapons. The changes affect Category 15 of the U.S. Munitions List (USML), which covers spacecraft and related articles, by shifting most commercial, civil and scientific satellites and accompanying equipment to the Department of Commerce’s Commerce Control List (CCL). The satellite industry has called for reforms to these policies for a long time, citing lost revenue and missed opportunities internationally. Congress transferred satellites under the domain of International Traffic and Arms Regulations (ITAR) after a launch failure of the Chinese Long March 3B carrying a U.S. payload in 1996. With satellites treated as armaments, international trade suffered, and the industry atrophied. An estimated $21 billion in satellite revenue was lost from 1999 to 2009, according to the Aerospace Industries Association (AIA). This was compounded by the loss of roughly 9,000 directly related jobs. The new revisions first remove most radiation-hardened microelectronic microcircuits, taking effect 45 days after publication of the rule. Communications satellites without classified components, remote sensing satellites with certain performance parameters, and other spacecraft parts not specifically identified in the revised category are cleared 180 days after publication. The U.S. government will, under certain conditions, allow CCL-classified satellites with some USML components to remain CCL-controlled. The reform is also intended to make it easier for the U.S. government to make use of hosted payloads on commercial satellites. Exports to China remain forbidden along with other select countries. “[The Satellite Industry Association] (SIA) congratulates the U.S. government on this truly comprehensive overhaul to the U.S. satellite export control system,” said Patricia Cooper, president of SIA. “With a more modern regulatory environment for exports in place, we look forward to unleashing the full force of American ingenuity and innovation at work in the international market.” The amendment to ITAR is part of President Barack Obama’s Export Control Reform (ECR) effort. With a few exceptions, items not subject to the export control jurisdiction of ITAR fall under the Department of Commerce’s less strict Export Administration Regulations (EAR). The CCL is included under EAR, which still imposes license requirements on exports, re-exports and retransfers, but with less stringency because they are no longer considered easily repurposed for military applications. The AIA applauded the reclassification, calling the previous restrictions “excessive,” and encouraged greater cooperation between Congress and the Obama administration to continue making U.S. companies more competitive internationally. The Department of State and the Department of Commerce published final rules facilitating the transfer of satellites and related components on May 13, 2014, but acknowledged the need for an interim period. “The Department [of State] has committed to reviewing during the six months after the publication of this rule whether further amendments to the USML controls on civil and commercial remote sensing satellites are warranted, and seeks additional public comment on this matter,” the agency said in a statement released by the Federal Register. Comments during the interim period close on June 27, 2014. The effective date is scheduled for Nov. 10, 2014.
[amsat-bb] Re: Spam via amsat.org reflector
I receive all sorts of JUNK in Russian and Chinese characters via the a...@amsat.org and jour...@amsat.org (in addition to k9...@amsat.org) alias e-mail addresses. So far no suitable solution has been revealed. So I keep the DELETE key armed and ready to fire. AMSAT is in the process of moving e-mail to a new server vs. our 15 year old server so perhaps relief is on the way! -- 73 de JoAnne K9JKM k9...@amsat.org Editor, AMSAT Journal -Original Message- From: amsat-bb-boun...@amsat.org [mailto:amsat-bb-boun...@amsat.org] On Behalf Of Phil Karn Sent: Wednesday, May 14, 2014 16:53 To: amsat-bb@amsat.org; kb...@amsat.org Subject: [amsat-bb] Spam via amsat.org reflector Like most people here I have an email address on amsat.org that automatically relays to my primary email address. ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
[amsat-bb] Re: [Bod] FOX News
Barry mentioned (originally in his March/April Apogee View column in the AMSAT Journal and later relayed via an AMSAT News Service bulletin) that: ... it also means that we have more time to complete and test the spacecraft prior to delivery to SRI. In the overall scheme of things, it allows AMSAT to have greater confidence in the delivery of a thoroughly tested spacecraft by taking more time to allow for unforeseen contingencies and to do the ground testing. Clint seems worried and sent a divisive opinion that: You mean we were going to launch a project that was NOT already thoroughly tested? ... but this paragraph plainly states that AMSAT might not have been able to provide a stable satellite to the launch site on time anyway. It states that AMSAT might not be as confident with a 2014 launch as they will be for a 2015 launch. What was written states that the satellite is not ready for a 2014 launch. Nowhere in the NRO discussion of candidate payloads scheduling for GRACE/L-55 or the ULTRASAT/AFSPC-5 missions did Barry suggest we cannot finish building or testing to be ready. Rather, having more time means more opportunities for testing rather than simply placing the satellite on the shelf. One AMSAT member noted about getting ready for first-flight on a new aircraft, We ran tests until the engines lit up and they rolled down the runway. It is in this spirit that Barry's observation needs to be understood. It is important to note: Fox-1 is actually manifested on a launch as Barry states. We are not hoping to find a rocket for Fox-1. We are already chosen. This seats AMSAT as a member of the launch team with the other payloads. This is why AMSAT receives specific launch scheduling information. AMSAT Vice President Engineering, Jerry Buxton, N0JY is our representative and receives direct input from the USAF and NASA regarding flight schedules and vehicle requirements. This information has been shared with AMSAT members when key facts are firmed up. This also means that the launch cost for Fox-1 will be paid for by NASA once we deliver the satellite by the stipulated deadline. Keeping our members and supporters in the loop with verifiable dates and data is the spirit in which this information is shared. Unfortunately some envision an opportunity to scheme an attack by not including the complete context of the discussion. In the aerospace industry key milestones to ensure delivery of stable systems that meet design requirements are documented in the form of design reviews and flight readiness reviews. AMSAT is following the same review process. The launch schedule changes by the National Reconnaissance Office - Office of Space Launch means that we have new dates that we have to meet their review and integration requirements. This has been shared openly with our members and supporters. AMSAT VP-Engineering Jerry Buxton, N0JY will be a speaker at the AMSAT Forum at this weekend's Hamvention and will discuss the status of Fox-1, the engineering timeline, launch schedule, and provide some thoughts on the development of the Fox-2 class satellites. The AMSAT Forum is scheduled to take place in Forum Room 5 on Saturday from 1115-1330. -- 73 de JoAnne K9JKM k9...@amsat.org Editor, AMSAT Journal ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
[amsat-bb] Arianespace Launch Webcast Tuesday Evening
Here is something for those who enjoy the roar of a rocket engine in the evening ... http://arianespace.tv/ says they will webcast the Arianespace Flight Vega VV03 -KasEOSat-1 Launch set for Tuesday, April 29 2014 from Kourou. Lift-off of the Vega launcher is now set for Tuesday, April 29 2014, at exactly: 10:35:15 pm local time on Tuesday, April 29, 2014 09:35:15 pm in Washington, D.C. 01:35:15 am UTC on Wednesday, April 30, 2014 No amateur satellite payload ... just the thrill of the countdown which brings us to the smoke and flames and kick in the seat ... -- 73 de JoAnne K9JKM k9...@amsat.org Editor, AMSAT Journal ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
[amsat-bb] ANS-114 AMSAT News Service Special Bulletin - AMSAT-NA Is Moving!
SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-114.01 ANS-114 AMSAT News Service Special Bulletin - AMSAT-NA Is Moving! AMSAT News Service Bulletin 114.01 From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. April 24, 2014 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-114.01 After 30 years in the same location, AMSAT-NA is moving to a new office. The office will be closed Friday, 25 April, and will reopen Friday, 2 May. During the move, our e-mail will be operational, however responses will be delayed. Purchases through the AMSAT Store may be made normally, but they will not be processed until the move is completed. Our new street address will be: Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation (AMSAT-NA) 10605 Concord St, #304 Kensington, MD 20895 For those visiting, we are about 5 miles north of the old office, outside I-495, the Capital Beltway. During the move, we are changing some phone numbers. After the new office opens, the new numbers will be: From the US call toll free: (888) 322-6728 (Unchanged) From all other locations call: (301) 822-4376 FAX: (301) 822-4371 The deterioration of the current building has been discussed in the AMSAT Journal Apogee View. Martha Saragovitz and the rest of the office team have gone to great lengths to minimize disruptions under very trying, uncomfortable, and sometimes unsafe circumstances in the old office. Finally, the county authorities ordered the building closed. It will take some time to get the new office fully up and running. However, the improvements in building facilities and especially safety will be worth it. If you are in the area after the move, give us a call, and come by and visit. [ANS thanks AMSAT President Barry Baines, WD4ASW for the above information] /EX --- This email is free from viruses and malware because avast! Antivirus protection is active. http://www.avast.com ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
[amsat-bb] Re: K5UTD Is On The Air
Sounds like it would make a great Journal article! 73, Drew KO4MA I can use the photos on Andrew's K5UTD album plus send any additional photos, captions, description to either k9...@comcast.net or jour...@amsat.org. This invitation is for all of your stations. One bit of feedback I have received often in the past is the guys like to see how someone else built their station ... or, how/when/where they operate from. -- 73 de JoAnne K9JKM k9...@amsat.org Editor, AMSAT Journal --- This email is free from viruses and malware because avast! Antivirus protection is active. http://www.avast.com ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
[amsat-bb] Re: N American Satellite Activity UP
Hi Bernhard, Now if I could only convince them to include a transponder for us hams ... FUNcube boards and the AMSAT-NA Fox-1 boards include the capability to transmit telemetry data modes and support a voice transponder. Not sure what ITAR issues prevent Fox-1 boards being used in other country's satellites. The Fox-1 boards supply the avionics radio half of the satellite leaving the students to concentrate on designing their scientific payload. Fox boards have a documented interface for experimenters to use. FUNcube switches between ham voice/cw modes and full power telemetry. Fox-1 boards would provide the capability to support both voice and low-rate telemetry stream simultaneously or switch to a high speed data link with no voice. -- 73 de JoAnne K9JKM k9...@amsat.org Editor, AMSAT Journal ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
[amsat-bb] W5KUB Live Webcast - This Friday, Saturday, and Sunday
Some folks like to follow Tom on his ham video internet streaming broadcasts. Here is the info for one of his shows this coming weekend. It's time for the W5KUB.COM live webcast of Gigaparts Ham Radio Day!! Please join W5KUB.com for our live, online webcast of the Gigaparts Ham Radio Day on Saturday, March 29th in Huntsville, Alabama. Great in-store prizes and online prizes will be awarded. To join the broadcast go to http://W5KUB.com where the fun begins! W5KUB will interview various vendors regarding their latest products, special guests, and attendees. During the live broadcast, online viewers will have the opportunity to meet and chat with other ham radio operators from around the world or chat directly with us at the event and ask questions. You may see some of your friends on the broadcast. Make sure to register at Gigaparts.com for the Icom IC-7100 HF radio. This Gigaparts sweepstakes prize will be announced on our webcast at 2:00 PM CT on Saturday, March 29th. You will instantly know if you are the winner. You could also win one of many online prizes awarded during the webcast if your name is called from the registered users in the W5KUB chatroom. As always, you must claim your prize within the specified time frame. In the past year over $10,000 in prizes have been awarded! Of course, no purchase is necessary to win an online prize as W5KUB does not sell any products or services. All prizes are donated from vendors or manufacturers. Broadcast schedule (all times are subject to change): Friday, March 28th 1300 UTC (8:00 AM - 1200 PM CT) Live broadcast of our drive from Collierville, TN to Huntsville, AL. Saturday, March 29th 1400 UTC to 2100 UTC (9:00 AM 4:00 PM CT), Gigaparts Ham Radio Day Sunday, March 30th: 1400 UTC to 1900 UTC (9:00 AM 2:00 PM CT), Live broadcast of our drive from Huntsville, AL to Collierville, Tennessee. Join our group on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/groups/w5kub/ to keep up with us year-round. Also, please help spread the word by posting this announcement in Facebook and forwarding this message to your ham radio friends that may not have received this message! We'll 'see' you at Gigaparts! 73, Tom Medlin, W5KUB http://w5kub.com If you would like to be removed from these mailings, please click Reply and type 'Remove' in the subject line. ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
[amsat-bb] Satellite Splat on Sunday
Hello, I saw a space story on-line which is interesting in case it burns up over your QTH. A Kosmos satellite is estimated to re-enter and crash on Sunday: http://www.foxnews.com/science/2014/02/15/russian-reconnaissance-satel lite-to-hit-earth-sunday/ or ... http://tinyurl.com/psgbbwh in case line-wrap clobbers the URL. The article includes a link to the n2yo.com page for tracking the Kosmos. -- 73 de JoAnne K9JKM k9...@amsat.org Editor, AMSAT Journal ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
[amsat-bb] Re: Another Great Tech Tuesday Net
I shudder when I read negative vibes on amsat-bb. The opportunities in amateur radio and even in the satellite world are so big that every contribution has a place. Perhaps someone in range of the repeater heard about AMSAT for the first time and 10 years from now will lead us to a GEO opportunity. C'mon guys ... there are so many opportunities awaiting! -- 73 de JoAnne K9JKM k9...@amsat.org ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
[amsat-bb] Re: Using AO-40 in Rx for Ham TV?
Hi Andy, ... wondering if the AO-40 LNBs connected to a Funcube dongle (and a bias tee for power) would receive the carrier (is there one on DATV) from the ham TV test transmissions? Gaston's announcement is posted on the AMSAT-NA web under the title, Update on HamTV on ISS. For a direct link to the article see: http://ww2.amsat.org/?p=2177 ... within the posting there is a link which may help with receiving HAMTV. Bill Ress, N6GHZ has provided an excellent article, Low Cost DVB-S Receivers Suitable For HAMTV Reception, in the November/December issue of the AMSAT Journal. There is a link on the web page (above) where you may find a copy of this article. Bill discusses the DVB-S boxes he tested. He includes a short description of the RF front-end you'll need. -- 73 de JoAnne K9JKM k9...@amsat.org Editor, AMSAT Journal -Original Message- From: amsat-bb-boun...@amsat.org [mailto:amsat-bb-boun...@amsat.org] On Behalf Of andy thomas Sent: Monday, January 27, 2014 10:19 To: amsat Subject: [amsat-bb] Using AO-40 in Rx for Ham TV? I was just If so, that should be a project that could show AOS/LOS , power levels etc, even if it's a black screen being sent: after all, it's RF. maybe this has been thought about before? But I could use my converted blue lnb... 73 de andy g0sfj ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
[amsat-bb] Re: APRS packet using Kenwood TS2000 and UISS software
Hello Rupesh, Even though we try to digipeat and data is transmitted, we are not able to receive data on the software screen. whenever we have a pass of ISS some signals are detected and a receiving led glows even in squelch on. The new ARISS web pages at http://www.ariss.org are one place to find more information. Select the 'Contact the ISS' link in the top row. This brings you to a page which describes all of the ARISS amateur radio modes. There is a section on this page titled Packet Operations. AGWPE only passes the packets that have the correct checksum. Otherwise you will not see the packet displayed via UISS even though it sounds like a good signal. I am not at all familiar with the operation of the TS-2000 internal modem. If it operates in a mode similar to other TNC-2 configurations you might be able to see non-checksum-computed packets using the TNC's PASSALL command. In this configuration you would not be using AGWPE. Packets received with PASSALL = ON contain the good characters and erroneous characters - but it is often good enough for humans to understand the content. Both types of packet operation, hardware TNC and soundcard modem, are discussed in a link in the ARISS.org's packet operations section. The only amateur radio presently in operation on the ISS is the Ericsson HT. The 5 watt downlink and shadowing from the spacecraft structure (depending on the orientation of the ISS) leads to varying signal strengths at the ground station. A real-time packet log of the 145.825 ARISS signals that have been satgated displays at http://www.ariss.net which is a different page from the ariss.org page I mentioned. If there are no satgate stations near you in India then this may not show much except to gauge prior packet activity on orbits approaching your QTH. Hope this helps some ... -- 73 de JoAnne K9JKM k9...@amsat.org Editor, AMSAT Journal ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
[amsat-bb] Re: AMSAT JOURNAL
Hi Rich, It is always a pleasure to publicize all the good things our hams and clubs are accomplishing! Congratulations on attaining such a great outreach at K4AMG. Note to other clubs and groups: The AMSAT Journal is looking forward to hearing of your outreach to the amateur radio community, the educational community, and the public at large. All it takes to get started is to send an e-mail of your program/project to jour...@amsat.org. We have a great team of editors who will help you get the rest of the story in print. -- 73 de JoAnne K9JKM k9...@amsat.org Editor, AMSAT Journal -Original Message- From: amsat-bb-boun...@amsat.org [mailto:amsat-bb-boun...@amsat.org] On Behalf Of Rich/wa4bue Sent: Thursday, December 26, 2013 12:14 To: Amsat - BBs Subject: [amsat-bb] AMSAT JOURNAL Thank you AMSAT for publishing the great artical about the K4AMG Club in the AMSAT JOURNAL. Happy New Year Everyone. Rich W4BUE Pres K4AMG ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
[amsat-bb] UT1FG in IN70
For the stations tracking UT1FG/MM a DX spot at 1914Z on Sunday has the Captain heading for Bulgaria: EA1JM 435854.0 UT1FG/MM JM76SATIN70 FO-29 HEADING TO BULGARIA CAPT. YURI -- 73 de JoAnne K9JKM k9...@amsat.org ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
[amsat-bb] Re: Pico Dragon??
At approximately 1630 UTC on the cubesat internet relay chat (irc://irc.freenode.org #cubesat channel) I saw a posting of receiving Pico Dragon: UB4UAD cubesat deployed TokaiGS PicoDragon signal received just now. TokaiGS Decorded DRAGONVIETNAM5 Not sure where on the planet TokaiGS is at. -- 73 de JoAnne K9JKM k9...@amsat.org Editor, AMSAT Journal ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
[amsat-bb] Call for Symposium Photos
Hello Everyone, I would appreciate receiving selected photos, or a link to your on-line albums for photos from the 2013 AMSAT Symposium and Annual General Meeting. With the November/December Journal in-progress it is time to begin planning for full coverage of the Symposium, Banquet, and tour of the Johnson Space Center in the January/February 2014 AMSAT Journal. Please send you photos and/or link information to me by December 1. Thanks! -- 73 de JoAnne K9JKM k9...@amsat.org Editor, AMSAT Journal ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
[amsat-bb] Re: SSTV on Sunday Indianapolis Balloon Flight on 144.310 MHz
I just saw a message on the Balloon_Sked list that the Sunday launch has been scrubbed. The list promises more information on a future launch when the student payload is ready for flight. -- 73 de JoAnne K9JKM k9...@amsat.org Editor, AMSAT Journal -Original Message- From: amsat-bb-boun...@amsat.org [mailto:amsat-bb-boun...@amsat.org] On Behalf Of JoAnne Maenpaa Sent: Saturday, November 09, 2013 00:06 To: amsat-bb@amsat.org Subject: [amsat-bb] SSTV on Sunday Indianapolis Balloon Flight on 144.310 MHz Some amateurs in the midwest may be interested in this news posted by Bill, WB8ELK on the Balloon_Sked list: Spaceport Indiana balloon launch around 11 am to noon EST Sunday, November 10 from downtown Indianapolis at the IUPUI campus carrying a student experiment. Landing zone is a few miles northeast of Cincinnati about 10 miles west of Blanchester. One of the payloads includes SSTV on 144.310 MHz in Scottie 2 format. APRS: WB8ELK-11 and WB8ELK-12 SSTV: 144.310 MHz S2 mode 110 baud ASCII RTTY: 433.996 MHz USB Iridium satellite modems might also report on APRS.FI as WB8ELK-13 and WB8ELK-14. -- 73 de JoAnne K9JKM k9...@amsat.org Editor, AMSAT Journal ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
[amsat-bb] SSTV on Sunday Indianapolis Balloon Flight on 144.310 MHz
Some amateurs in the midwest may be interested in this news posted by Bill, WB8ELK on the Balloon_Sked list: Spaceport Indiana balloon launch around 11 am to noon EST Sunday, November 10 from downtown Indianapolis at the IUPUI campus carrying a student experiment. Landing zone is a few miles northeast of Cincinnati about 10 miles west of Blanchester. One of the payloads includes SSTV on 144.310 MHz in Scottie 2 format. APRS: WB8ELK-11 and WB8ELK-12 SSTV: 144.310 MHz S2 mode 110 baud ASCII RTTY: 433.996 MHz USB Iridium satellite modems might also report on APRS.FI as WB8ELK-13 and WB8ELK-14. -- 73 de JoAnne K9JKM k9...@amsat.org Editor, AMSAT Journal ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
[amsat-bb] ANS-306 AMSAT News Service Special Bulletin - Annual Meeting Via Echolink Today
AMSAT NEWS SERVICE SPECIAL BULLETIN ANS-306 In this edition: * 2013 AMSAT-NA Annual General Meeting Simulcast Today via Echolink SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-306.01 ANS-306 AMSAT News Service Special Bulletin AMSAT News Service Bulletin 306.01 From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. DATE November 2, 2013 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-306.01 The AMSAT-NA Annual General Meeting will be simulcast today, Saturday, November 2 at 15:45 - 17:15 CDT (UTC-5) via the AMSAT Echolink node 101377. AMSAT President Barry Baines, WD4ASW will give his annual President's Report during this time. [ANS thanks the 2013 Symposium Committee for the above information] /EX ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
[amsat-bb] AMSAT Journal Call for Articles
The AMSAT Journal is continuously searching for news, articles, and photos related to all of the activities of amateur radio in space. In the past this has included satellite development, satellite history, ground stations, antennas, hardware devel- opment, software. We find that some items related to SDR, VHF, UHF, and microwave operating or roving are directly applicable to satellite operations. Educational outreach has been identified as a key area which AMSAT may use to leverage launch opportunities. The Journal welcomes news, photos, and articles of ARISS contacts, University research and development, and STEM programs. Amateur satellite operators have the gear and expertise to also receive interesting transmissions from non-amateur spacecraft and EME. Articles discussing how this is done are useful to our readers discovering they can do more with the station they have built. The deadlines for each AMSAT Journal, which is published six times per year, are: ISSUEDEADLINE --- 1. January/February December 20 2. March/AprilFebruary 20 3. May/June April 20 4. July/AugustJune 20 5. September/October August 20 6. November/December October 20 Our editors will work with you to finalize your article for publi- cation. Please send the following: 1. Electronic copy of your article in any of the popular word pro- cessing formats (MS-Word, OpenOffice, plain-text Notepad, etc.) PDF files containing a custom layout with embedded graphics can- not be used. 2. Your text must be single column wide. You do not need to do any formatting to make it appear in the 3 column layout of the fin- ished magazine. We have to remove all your hard work of pre- formatting before publication so save yourself the problems of trying to get columns to line up, etc. 3. You may send a copy of your article with the photos where you recommend they appear with the text but this is not the version that will be published. This gives the editors some cues to maintain continuity with photos/captions and text. 4. We require a text-only copy your article. Embedded photos will not publish during the layout process. You can leave in a ref- erence in the text related to the photo associated with that point in your article as shown here: ... text ... text ... text ... text ... text ... text ... ... text ... text ... text ... text ... text ... text ... (Insert Graphic 1234 here) Figure 2. Sample Lorem Ipsum Text ... text ... text ... text ... text ... text ... text ... ... text ... text ... text ... text ... text ... text ... 5. Send a separate text file with the captions to each of the graphics. 6. Send photos and graphics as separate files. Use as high resolu- tion pixel format as you can. The preferred graphic format for the Journal is JPG. The Journal can publish additional graphic formats including GIF, BMP, and PNG. Contact the editor before submitting these formats. Note that a photo which appears nicely on a web page does not publish well on the high resolution finished magazine product. Photos from digital cameras in mega-pixels work well. You do not need to compress or shrink the file for us. 7. If you use printed circuit board software or schematic drawing programs we can usually import a PDF copy of the diagram into the publishing software. Please do not send PDF formatted copies of the article however. 8. We can freely republish papers you have submitted to prior AMSAT Symposiums. If you have a good idea that you would like to get out the AMSAT Journal is an excellent way to expand your audience. We find that 200-300 copies of the Symposium Proceedings are dis- tributed. The AMSAT Journal reaches 4000 additional satellite operators. 9. If your article was previously published in another AMSAT organi- zation's Journal, or magazine (QST, CQ, CQ VHF, etc.) we will work with you to secure the permission to republish your work. Our Journal editors will be happy to work with you to assist getting your article published. We can help you develop an idea into a fin- ished article as well as a ready-to-print submission. Ask us via e-mail and we can get rolling with your article. During the preparation process it is quite likely that an editor working on the article might personally contact you with questions and suggestions. Those suggestions might include extra pictures or maybe additional references, keeping in mind that some readers might not have an extensive background on the topic being discussed. Send your articles and photo/graphics files as attachments to e-mail to jour...@amsat.org. -- 73 de JoAnne K9JKM k9...@amsat.org Editor, AMSAT Journal
[amsat-bb] September 29 NASA TV Cygnus Arrival at ISS
Here is another news item that is best sent now rather than waiting for the news cycle. NASA TV will televise the arrival and docking of Cygnus at the International Space Station. The schedule (as of now) is: Sunday, September 29 08:30 UTC (4:30 a.m. EDT: Cygnus rendezvous, grapple and berthing coverage begins on NASA Television. 11:15 UTC (7:15 a.m. EDT): Grapple of Cygnus by International Space Station's Canadarm2 robotic arm 13:15 UTC (9:15 a.m. EDT): Cygnus berthing to Earth-facing port of Harmony node begins 17:00 UTC (1 p.m. EDT): Cygnus Post-Capture News Conference -- 73 de JoAnne K9JKM k9...@amsat.org Editor, AMSAT Journal ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
[amsat-bb] Soyuz Launch Wednesday, September 25 on NASA TV
Here is a bit of time limited news which will occur before the next news bulletins are released. Astronaut Mike Hopkins, KF5LJG, and Russian cosmonauts Oleg Kotov and Sergey Ryzanskiy will liftoff aboard a Soyuz Rocket on Wednesday, September 25. NASA TV has published this schedule (all times in USA Eastern Daylight Time UTC-4) September 25, Wednesday 4 p.m. - ISS Expedition 37/38 Soyuz TMA-10M Launch Coverage (Launch scheduled at 4:58 p.m. ET; includes video B-roll of the crew's pre-launch activities at 4:10 p.m. ET) - JSC via Baikonur, Kazakhstan (All Channels) 7 p.m. - Video File of ISS Expedition 37/38 Soyuz TMA-10M Pre-Launch, Launch Video B-Roll and Post-Launch Interviews - JSC (All Channels) 10 p.m. - ISS Expedition 37/38 Soyuz TMA-10M Docking Coverage (Docking scheduled at 10:48 p.m. ET) - JSC (All Channels) September 26, Thursday 12 a.m. - ISS Expedition 37/38 Soyuz TMA-10M Hatch Opening and Other Activities (Hatch Opening scheduled at 12:25 a.m. ET) - JSC via Baikonur, Kazakhstan (All Channels) -- 73 de JoAnne K9JKM k9...@amsat.org Editor, AMSAT Journal ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
[amsat-bb] Re: Another brilliant idea!
... full-sized 160m beam into orbit ... Reminds me of the two antennas who met up on the roof. They fell in love and got married. The ceremony wasn't much but the reception was fantastic ... -- 73 de JoAnne K9JKM ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
[amsat-bb] Soyuz Landing This Evening
Soyuz landing this evening USA time (September 10): http://spaceflightnow.com/station/exp36/130910prelanding/#.Ui-qN3-z6So Watching the undocking on NASA TV media channel ... going on right now. -- 73 de JoAnne K9JKM k9...@amsat.org ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
[amsat-bb] Re: Latest Newsletter
Hmmm, my July/August AMSAT Journal has not arrived either (even with the wrong name). Martha at the AMSAT Office handles circulation/mailing issues and she is our interface with vendors and contractors like the print shop. I've let her know that so far we're missing issues for K9JKM, K7TEJ, and W5AOO. If others are missing please let Martha know. -- 73 de JoAnne K9JKM k9...@amsat.org Editor, AMSAT Journal ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
[amsat-bb] Re: AMSAT Journal No Joy in EM63
It is indeed unfortunate to have the commendable efforts of the volunteer contributors and editorial staff to the AMSAT Journal be undone by problems at a PAID contractor. If you have not received your 2013 September/October AMSAT Journal via the postal mail please let the AMSAT office know via e-mail at mar...@amsat.org. -- 73 de JoAnne K9JKM k9...@amsat.org Editor, AMSAT Journal ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
[amsat-bb] Missing 2013 July/August AMSAT Journal?
September/October Journal is in progress now. It seems we are having problems with the mailing of the July/August Journal. It is indeed unfortunate to have the commendable efforts of the volunteer contributors and editorial staff to the AMSAT Journal be undone by problems at a PAID contractor. If you have not received your 2013 July/August AMSAT Journal via the postal mail please let the AMSAT office know via e-mail at mar...@amsat.org. -- 73 de JoAnne K9JKM k9...@amsat.org Editor, AMSAT Journal ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
[amsat-bb] Re: HF Amsat net
Is there still a net on 20 meters for AMSAT and what would the time, day and freq.? AMSAT 20 meter international net meets on Sunday at 1900 UTC on 14282 KHz +/- for QRM. Net controls are W5IU and W7LB. The pre-net warm up begins on the same frequency generally around 1800 UTC. This includes general conversation, question/answer, etc. The Houston AMSAT net meets Tuesday at 8PM Central Time (UTC-5 in the summer). It is a 2M net simulcast on the AMSAT node on Echolink. -- 73 de JoAnne K9JKM k9...@amsat.org ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
[amsat-bb] Re: Back Issues of AMSAT Journal in PDF
... AMSAT International Net on 14,280mhz The AMSAT International Net still holds forth on Sunday at 1900 UTC now on 14.282 MHz. The pre-net warm up session begins shortly after 1800 UTC with informal contacts and questions and answers. -- 73 de JoAnne K9JKM k9...@amsat.org Editor, AMSAT Journal ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
[amsat-bb] Re: AMSAT Journal Latest Issue?
Hi Les, ... AMSAT Journal (March/April 2013). Can anyone tell me if a later issue has shipped yet ... The AMSAT Journal comes out 6 times a year. The schedule is January/February, March/April, May/June, July/August, September/October, and November/December. The May/June issue was at the print shop 10 days ago, likely the post office by now. So hopefully you will see it arrive soon. You can see a preview of the May/June issue on-line at: http://ww2.amsat.org/?p=651 The July/August issue is currently being put together so it appears we'll be on schedule for that too. Quick note for everyone: The Journal welcomes your input about everything related to amateur radio in space. Please send your articles, photos, operating tips, or announcements to the magazine's in-box at jour...@amsat.org or you can send it directly to me. -- 73 de JoAnne K9JKM k9...@amsat.org Editor, AMSAT Journal ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
[amsat-bb] Re: Improving performance of packet communications through the ISS
Hi Les, Here is a quick follow up to your earlier question: ... SignaLink interface, through Packet Engine Pro and UISS ... ... provide other suggestions on how to improve my ability to communicate through the ISS? Replies from others to your question offered alternatives to using AGWPE and UISS for software packet application on the ISS digipeater. These included substituting either 'Dire Wolf' or the UZ7HO AX.25 modem in place of AGWPE. Yesterday I had a chance to try substituting 'Dire Wolf' for AGWPE. Here is a quick summary of my set up and results. 1. Download Dire Wolf from http://home.comcast.net/~wb2osz/site/ 2. The setup guide and user guide are easy to follow. 3. The out-of-the-box application for Dire Wolf is for APRS. I tuned to 144.390 for a quick test and immediately received raw and decoded APRS data just like the user guide says. 4. Next I tested with UISS. a. Start Dire Wolf first. b. You need to change the setup of UISS between running with AGWPE or Dire Wolf. c. In UISS top menu select Setup - UISS - LAN d. In LAN setup click on 'Enable LAN Mode' Host 127.0.0.1 Port 8000 e. UISS may ask you to restart, go ahead and restart UISS. The Dire Wolf is only a software emulation of a hardware TNC. You still need a user interface for you to communicate via packet. That is what UISS or UI-View will do for you. There is no place to enter the PASSALL command but the error correction in Dire Wolf visibly improved performance. I saw more packets than previously with AGWPE (AGWPE just rejects the whole message if there a checksum error). One glitch for me is Dire Wolf displays an error message when I transmit from UISS. It says something about a packet header error. But it transmits my UI packet OK. I saw myself successfully digipeat several times via 145.825 ARISS packet on last evening's passes. I think the error message is related to how UISS talks with Dire Wolf. I noted seamless integration with Dire Wolf and APRS applications such as UI-View. I haven't had time to dig much further at this point. When time permits I'll try the UZ7HO software with UISS but I gotta get back to the July/August AMSAT Journal project. Links to dozens of ham radio digital mode software packages, including Dire Wolf and UZ7HO, can be found at this starting point: http://www.qsl.net/rv3apm/ -- 73 de JoAnne K9JKM k9...@amsat.org ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
[amsat-bb] AMSAT Field Day Rules Posted On-line
Please see http://ww2.amsat.org/?p=678 for the AMSAT Field Day announcement. This page has the links to the full rules available in docx and pdf formats. Contact AMSAT Director of Contests and Awards Bruce Paige, KK5DO for any Field Day questions you may have (kk...@amsat.org -or- kk...@arrl.net) (AMSAT Web navigation hint: Click on the bold AMSAT-NA at the top of the page for a quick return to the main www.amsat.org page.) -- 73 de JoAnne K9JKM k9...@amsat.org Editor, AMSAT Journal ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
[amsat-bb] Amateur Radio Newsline Interview With Barry Baines, WD4ASW
Please see http://ww2.amsat.org/?p=661 for the transcript of the Amateur Radio Newsline interview with AMSAT President Barry Baines, WD4ASW at Dayton. -- 73 de JoAnne K9JKM k9...@amsat.org Editor, AMSAT Journal ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
[amsat-bb] June 1 Texas Balloon Launch to Carry 70 cm to 10 meter SSB, CW, and FM Transponders
Please see http://ww2.amsat.org/?p=655 for news of the June 1 N5BPS balloon launch from Galveston, Texas. This flight includes a 70 cm to 10 meter transponder capable of SSB, CW, and FM modes. -- 73 de JoAnne K9JKM k9...@amsat.org Editor, AMSAT Journal ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
[amsat-bb] Re: Problems with SATPC32 CAT
Mark you are a genius--and T-H-E M-A-N! Shhh! We was keepin' that secret! ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
[amsat-bb] May/June 2013 AMSAT Journal is Ready
The May/June 2013 AMSAT Journal is complete and at the print shop. See http://ww2.amsat.org/?p=651 for more details. -- 73 de JoAnne K9JKM k9...@amsat.org Editor, AMSAT Journal ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
[amsat-bb] Re: Amateur Satellites and the emergency on tornado in Oklahoma and Texas
Hello Domenico, In reply to your inquiry: I am interested to know if someone in BB has used or is using the actual Amateur Satellites during the emergency occurred in Oklahoma and Texas because of the actual tornado's. Despite the sheer devastation that is shown and huge number of people affected, as in the Oklahoma tornado, most of that damage fits within the footprint of many 2-meter and 440 MHz repeaters. Also, the city most affected is 15 km from the state capital so access to government relief/response in this case happens to be nearby. -- 73 de JoAnne K9JKM k9...@amsat.org ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
[amsat-bb] ANS-134 ANS Special Bulletin - NASA Announces Fox-1 Launch Date
AMSAT NEWS SERVICE SPECIAL BULLETIN ANS-134 SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-134.01 ANS-134 ANS Special Bulletin - NASA Announces Fox-1 Launch Date AMSAT News Service Bulletin 134.01 From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. May 14, 2013 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-134.01 NASA announced Monday that AMSAT's Fox-1 spacecraft has been assigned for launch in 2014. For details on the launch vehicle, targeted launch date, orbit specifics, and more, please attend the AMSAT Forum or visit the AMSAT booth at the Dayton Hamven- tion this weekend. Watch http://www.amsat.org and the AMSAT News Service for more details to follow. [ANS thanks AMSAT Vioe President Engineeing Tony Monteiro, AA2TX for the above information] /EX ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
[amsat-bb] ANS-132 AMSAT News Service Weekly Bulletins
from Memphis to Dayton live. The broadcast will be up on Thursday to show various vendors setting up. Then the show will feature Hamvention coverage Friday through Sunday. As in the past, W5KUB will be giving out thousands of dollars of ham prizes to their viewers. Join in on the fun at W5KUB.Com. When you login to the web chat room you are registered for the prize drawings. + In this video Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield explains how to steer the ISS: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embeddedv=IZHw4UKFiHQ + In case you wondered why there was never a station broadcasting on UHF TV channel 37 find out why in the Universe Today story, The Curious Channel 37 - Must-see TV For Radio Astronomy. http://tinyurl.com/channel37 (UniverseToday.com) [ANS thanks everyone 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. And with that please keep in mind to never trust an atom ... they make up everything! 73, This week's ANS Editor, JoAnne Maenpaa, K9JKM K9JKM at amsat dot org ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
[amsat-bb] Re: Path to HEO
Then fire to the rear forcing the little satellite faster Yeah, but the control, er safety, folks won't give us enough mass out the ass to propel us forward ... can't have a clip with 30 pretty soon! -- 73 de JoAnne K9JKM ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
[amsat-bb] Relay Turksat3usat Posting
Some on amsat-bb are not on Facebook. The Turksat3usat Team posts most of their updates on Facebook. Here is a copy/paste from Turksat3usat Fan Club on Facebook today: Turksat3usat Fan Club Önemli: TURKSAT-3USAT uydumuz bu gece Türkiye üzerinden yüksek açıda geçecek. Radyo amatörlerinden ricamız tekrar duyuru yapılana kadar sadece beacon sinyalini izlemeleri ve olabildiğince yüksek kaliteli (ve sıkıştırma yapmadan) ses kaydı yapmalarıdır. Kayıtlarınızı doğrudan turksat3u...@tamsat.org.tr adresine gönderebilirsiniz. Sinyal kaydınız ne kadar düşük olursa olsun tüm kayıtlarınızı gönderiniz. Teşekkürler. - Important: TURKSAT-3USAT uydumuz from Turkey will be high angle tonight. Radio beacon signal until the announcement again please only amatörlerinden monitor, and high-quality as possible (and without any compression) audio recording make bids. Records directly to turksat3u...@tamsat.org.tr. No matter how low the signal records all records. Thanks. (Translated by Bing) - AMSAT-NA and AMSAT-DL also have Facebook groups. -- 73 de JoAnne K9JKM k9...@amsat.org Editor, AMSAT Journal ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
[amsat-bb] PhoneSat Request From NPR
This arrived via the ANS-Editor mailbox. Perhaps members on amsat-bb can be of assistance to NPR in regards to the Phonesats. -- 73 de JoAnne K9JKM k9...@amsat.org Editor, AMSAT Journal From: ans-editor-boun...@amsat.org [mailto:ans-editor-boun...@amsat.org] On Behalf Of gor...@aol.com Sent: Wednesday, April 24, 2013 17:02 To: ans-edi...@amsat.org Subject: [ans-editor] Fwd: Listening for phonesat Hi, Can someone in AMSAT help Goeff? See below. 73, Gordon, NQ4K -Original Message- From: Geoffrey Brumfiel gbrumf...@npr.org To: nq4k n...@arrl.net Sent: Tue, Apr 23, 2013 1:04 pm Subject: Listening for phonesat Hi Gordon, I’m a reporter with NPR who’s working on a little story about some cell-phone satellites that were recently launched into space (Bud, one of the engineers here, sent me your way). Apparently, they’re transmitting to Ham radio operators around the world (see http://phonesat.org/). I’m trying to track down some people who’ve detected the satellites and received some data from them. Ideally, I’d like to talk to them on the phone or even by shortwave radio, if that could be arranged. There are callsigns on the phonesat.org website. Any idea how I’d find some of these people? Or are members of the sterling park amateur radio club involved? Any help appreciated, Geoff Geoff Brumfiel | Science Correspondent, National Public Radio | gbrumf...@npr.org | desk: (202) 513-2446 | cell: (202) 495-8614 ___ ANS-editor mailing list ans-edi...@amsat.org http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/ans-editor ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
[amsat-bb] Re: Third Time Lucky For Antares
The launch was smooth and the payload is now in orbit ... YouTube video of the Antares launch can be viewed at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embeddedv=V3L7crGudVU -- 73 de JoAnne K9JKM k9...@amsat.org Editor, AMSAT Journal ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
[amsat-bb] ANS-111 AMSAT News Service Weekly Bulletins
cabin, of course! 73, This week's ANS Editor, JoAnne Maenpaa, K9JKM K9JKM at amsat dot org ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
[amsat-bb] News Posting on www.amsat.org
Hello Everyone, Our http://www.amsat.org web pages continue their recovery to return the tools and features we enjoyed. The good news is that a new-and-improved web news posting system is proving itself to be quite useful. So, while the remainder of the pages will be restored soon we are now able to post news items as soon as possible without waiting for the weekly ANS bulletin news cycle. The two most recent news items posted include: + ARRL Seeks Comments on 5 and 10 GHz National Band Plans + Auckland Technology Convention KiwiSAT Photos Posted If you hear of anything interesting to Amateur Radio in Space please send it to ans-edi...@amsat.org. -- 73 de JoAnne K9JKM k9...@amsat.org Editor, AMSAT Journal ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
[amsat-bb] Re: cw decoding software
Hi Norm, the sound card in a computer to decode cw telemetry The ARISSatTLM software has a CW decoder for copying the ARISSat-1 telemetry. I even used this CW decoder on the HF bands. See: http://www.arissat1.org/v3/ -- 73 de JoAnne K9JKM k9...@amsat.org ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
[amsat-bb] ANS-090 AMSAT News Service Weekly Bulletins
, and SSB. For a pre- view of the topic see: http://tinyurl.com/KD2BMH-SDR-Handheld The TAPR Forum will be on Friday from 9:15-11:00 AM in Room 1. (TAPR PSR #121 WINTER 2013) + James W. Cutler, KF6RFX, Assistant Professor, Department of Aero- space Engineering at the University of Michigan (developers of the successful RAX cubesat mission) invite amateur satellite oper- ators to participate in the Ground Station Survey. The engineering team is collecting information on global ground station availabil- ity to improve satellite communication capabilities. Their goal is to survey existing and under utilized ground antennas to im- prove satellite communication opportunities. To participate go to: http://gs.engin.umich.edu/gs_survey/ + NASA posted a video about the CubeSat Launch Initiative which pro- vides new opportunities for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics by helping people design, launch and collect data: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embeddedv=q38k0RRmOKk + The CQ Magazine Newsroom at http://cqnewsroom.blogspot.com/ has posted several news items of amateur radio in space: o AMSAT Preparing for Two Launch Opportunities o Smartphone-based Ham Satellite Now in Orbit o Hams Take Part in ISS Dead Zone Experiment o AMSAT Website Hacked, Taken Offline o AMSAT Receives Matching Fund Challenge for Fox Contributions o 6-Meter Beacon from Antarctica? (also plans for satellite ops) + In the April, 2013 QST World Above 50MHz column (page 94) Roger, VE1SKY says he uses his VHF and UHF gear on AO-7, FO-29, and VO-52 while waiting for the next band opening. Roger is quoted, This is a good way to make use of your gear and a challenging activity in its own right. [Ed. note] - This could work the other way around: ... while you are waiting for the next satellite pass use your VHF and UHF station to check if the bands are open ... further use of your gear as well. + Enjoy shopping in the ham radio shops in Akihabara, Tokyo, Japan in this video by Marcin Kielce, SQ7BCE. Although the commentary is in Polish it none-the-less provides a good idea of the range of equipment available and the prices in Japan. To convert the prices shown to UK Pounds Sterling divide by 142 or to get the US dollar price divide by 94. Watch it on Southgate at: http://tinyurl.com/Southgate-Tokyo-Shopping. [ANS thanks everyone 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. And with that please keep in mind that the best number is 73. Why? 73 is the 21st prime number. Its mirror (37) is the 12th and its mirror (21) is the product of multiplying, 7 and 3. ... In binary, 73 is a palindrome, 1001001 which backwards is 1001001. In Morse Code it is also a palindrome --... ...-- 73, This week's ANS Editor, JoAnne Maenpaa, K9JKM K9JKM at amsat dot org ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
[amsat-bb] Re: Satellite hit by debris from weapon test
Trevor, thanks for all your work on finding the news. It seems Trevor was among the first to pioneer a method of news reporting about amateur radio in space (and, topics interesting to satellite hams) where you roll out the news while it is still timely and providing actionable information ... then, later summarize it into a list of news whether that might be a web site or a weekly news bulletin. -- 73 de JoAnne K9JKM k9...@amsat.org ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
[amsat-bb] ANS-069 AMSAT News Service Weekly Bulletins
and other amateur radio news can be read at: http://cqnewsroom.blogspot.com/ + The VHF Plus column by Joe Lynch, N6CL in the March 2013 CQ Maga- zine discusses the Fox-1 satellite (pages 78-79). + This coming week is the best time to watch for the Comet PanSTARRS. Viewing information and diagrams are posted at: http://www.skyandtelescope.com/letsgo/whatsuptonight/194257261.html + HAM RADIO 2013 Convention, organized by Deutscher Amateur Radio Club will take place from Friday, June 28 through Sunday, June 30, 2013 in Friedrichshafen, Germany. [ANS thanks everyone 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. And with that please keep in mind when in 1987 Ivan Sutherland, when asked How could you possibly have done the first interactive graphics program, the first non-procedural programming language, the first object-oriented software system, all in one year? ... replied, Well, I didn't know it was hard. 73, This week's ANS Editor, JoAnne Maenpaa, K9JKM K9JKM at amsat dot org ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
[amsat-bb] Re: Fw: UPDATE: OSCAR 7 Close Approach Notification
OSCAR 7 (SCC# 7530) and SCC# 18116 ... After a couple of google searches it seems that the 18116 object is a Russian Cosmos 1855 communications satellite. There is a brief description of 18116 on this page: http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/spacecraftDisplay.do?id=1987-051D -- 73 de JoAnne K9JKM k9...@amsat.org ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
[amsat-bb] ANS-048 AMSAT News Service Weekly Bulletins
of the Earth at: http://eol.jsc.nasa.gov/ + Michael, HB9WDF is reported to be active as FM/HB9WDF from Mar- tinique between February 11-21. Activity will be holiday style on the satellites AO-7, FO-29, VO-52, SO-50 and others if they are active, and the HF bands on PSK-31 and some SSB. QSL via home calls. (Ohio/Penn DX Bulletin No. 1099) and (DX Newsletter DXNL 1819 - Feb 13, 2013) + A video of the West Palm Beach Amateur Radio Group hosting the largest ever ARISS contact at the South Florida Science Museum has been posted at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embeddedv=VvcGLKSvBnQ This contact had a live audience of hundreds in the Museum plus a live TV feed to the entire county school system of about 180,000 students and 12,000 teachers. Plus a live audience on The Educa- tion Channel of another 25,000 in private and home schools, plus live broadcast on the PBS station with another 15,000 viewers and live feed on 2 Comcast Cable TV channels with another 30,000 view- ers. It was also streamed live on the Internet. (Southgate.org) + The Winter 2013 CQ VHF Magazine has several articles of interest to amateur satellite operators: o Transatlantic Balloon Flight 2012 - CNSP 18 - K6RPT-12 o K6RPT-12 Recovery Effort o A Panadaptor for FT-817 using the FUNCube Dongle o Raspberry Pi in the Sky o CQ Satellite and 6 Meter WAZ Award Update o Satellites Column by AMSAT's Keith Pugh, W5IU [ANS thanks everyone 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. And with that, please keep in mind a team of astronomers from Johns Hopkins University in their paper, The 2dF Galaxy Red- shift Survey: constraints on cosmic star-formation history from the cosmic spectrum, reported that their survey of the color of all light in the universe added up to a slightly beige white they named 'Cosmic Latte'. The survey included more than 200,000 galaxies, and measured the spectral range of the light from a large volume of the universe. The hexadecimal RGB value for Cosmic Latte is #FFF8E7. (Credit: http://www.oddee.com/item_63950.aspx#lrmr9I6M5Glrh4rD.99) 73, This week's ANS Editor, JoAnne Maenpaa, K9JKM K9JKM at amsat dot org ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
[amsat-bb] Re: hams on ISS
Charlie mentioned: [ARISS Schedule] ... post to the SAREX BB ... sa...@amsat.org Just a quick note, the mail list archives have been recovered. The SAREX list archive can be found at: http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/tools/maillist/ This page will get you to where you can subscribe to the SAREX list: http://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo -- 73 de JoAnne K9JKM k9...@amsat.org ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
[amsat-bb] NASA TV Live Coverage of Atlas Launch Streaming Now
Atlas 5 rocket launching TDRS-K is on NASA TV now. http://www.nasa.gov/ntv is where to watch if you are near a streaming device. I'm watching on my Roku box. About an hour to go before launch. -- 73 de JoAnne K9JKM k9...@amsat.org ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
[amsat-bb] ANS-027 AMSAT News Service Weekly Bulletins
notice. The radio link is via the MBARC Repeater on 146.970 MHz and on Echolink on the N2EYH-L node. (Stu, WA2BSS) [ANS thanks everyone 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. And with that, please keep in mind the young ham who was practicing the violin in the living room while his father was trying to read in the den. The family dog was lying in the den, and as the screeching sounds of little Harold's violin reached his ears, he began to howl loudly. The father listened to the dog and the vio- lin as long as he could. Then he jumped up, slammed his paper to the floor and yelled above the noise, For Pete's sake, can't you play something the dog doesn't know?! 73, This week's ANS Editor, JoAnne Maenpaa, K9JKM K9JKM at amsat dot org ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
[amsat-bb] ANS-022 AMSAT News Service Special Bulletin - AMSAT-NA Website Down
AMSAT NEWS SERVICE SPECIAL BULLETIN ANS-022 SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-022.01 ANS-022 ANS Special Bulletin - AMSAT-NA Website Down AMSAT News Service Bulletin 022.01 From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. January 22, 2013 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-022.01 On or about 20 January 2013, AMSAT-NA's main web site www.amsat.org was compromised by an attacker, with the contents of the supporting database, including non-public information, posted on other publicly available web sites. It is likely that the attacker gained enough access to the site to post arbitrary and possibly illegal content, so out of an abundance of caution the main site was shut down. Neither the AMSAT store nor the Fox project web site were affected by this breach. Mail services remain operational. The main site was developed roughly 10 years ago by a AMSAT volun- teers under a more benign Internet threat environment. The team that built that site is no longer associated with AMSAT, so work has been underway over the last several months to move to a modern, maintain- able, secure infrastructure. This recent breach will accelerate that activity. In the interim, www.amsat.org will have limited content. [ANS thanks AMSAT's User Services Team for the above information] /EX ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
[amsat-bb] Re: [sarex] Kline School Solar Arrays Donation
A good SARC article on the recent donation of solar arrays to the Fox Project ... http://www.southgatearc.org/news/ Also posted on http://www.amsat.org and covered in ANS on December 16. -- 73 de JoAnne K9JKM k9...@amsat.org Editor, AMSAT Journal ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
[amsat-bb] ANS-006 AMSAT News Service Weekly Bulletins
] - /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. And with that, please keep in mind when Christmas was over Rudolph had a chance to do something he had wanted to do for a long time. He made an appointment with a plastic surgeon because he was so sensitive about his looks. However, it wasn't his glowing pro- boscis that he wanted changed. He was proud of his nose and the help he had given Santa because of it. No, he was sensitive about his long ears which were much more prominent than the ears of the aver- age reindeer. So one week after Christmas, he underwent reconstruc- tive surgery, and since that time, January 1st has been celebrated as ... New Ears Day. 73, This week's ANS Editor, JoAnne Maenpaa, K9JKM K9JKM at amsat dot org ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
[amsat-bb] Streaming Video Today of Arine 5 Launch
Spaceflightnow.com says they will have live streaming coverage of the Ariane 5 launch of Skynet 5D and Mexsat Bicentenario communications satellites. The web page reports the weather outlook seems promising for an on-time launch at 2149 GMT (4:49 p.m. EST). The launch window extends for 79 minutes to 2308 GMT (6:08 p.m. EST). Right now its text updates; the web page says they will begin streaming video closer to launch time: http://spaceflightnow.com/ariane/va211/status.html -- 73 de JoAnne K9JKM k9...@amsat.org ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
[amsat-bb] ANS-351 AMSAT News Service Weekly Bulletins
) or Nauka for the International Space Station can be seen at:. http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewnews.html?id=1691 The Nauka MLM is a modified version of Functional Cargo Block (FGB-2). It will dock at the Zvezda Service Module's nadir (earth facing) port and will replace the current PIRS module. PIRS will be allowed to renter Earth's atmosphere. Launch is planned for 2013 or 2014. Nauka will serve as Russia's primary research mod- ule but will also have stowage and crew work areas. + Last week the Smithsonian issued the following statement regarding the passing of a unique ISS crewmember: It is with sadness that we announce the death of Nefertiti, the Spidernaut. This morn- ing (Dec 3), before museum hours, a member of the Insect Zoo staff discovered Neffi had died of natural causes. Neffi lived for 10 months. She traveled over 40 million miles while living onboard the International Space Station earlier this year as part of a stu- dent-initiated experiment sponsored by NASA. After returning to Earth, Nefertiti went to the Smithsonian National Museum of Natur- al History's Insect Zoo to live out the remainder of her life. (via AmericanSpace.org) + The next Hudson Valley Satcom net will be Thursday, December 20 at 8 PM EST (UTC-5) on the 146.97 MHz MBARC Repeater (PL 100). An echolink connection is available on the N2EYH-L node. More infor- mation at: http://www.hvsatcom.org. (Stu, WA2BSS) + The W5KUB live webcasts are preparing for a December 29 D-Star Live show on http://W5KUB.com between 1000-1600 Central US time (UTC-6). Tom says there will be lots of good stuff and special guests. You will be able to ask questions of the experts. The latest news of all W5KUB broadcasts can be found on their Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/w5kub/ . + UniverseToday.com posted a 19 minute video of the Overview Effect showing how the view from space has altered our whole Earth per- spective: http://tinyurl.com/Perspective-Video (UniverseToday.com) + NASA released a video and images showing the Earth at night taken by a new sensor aboard the NASA-NOAA Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (NPP) satellite: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/NPP/news/earth-at-night.html + The National Air and Space Museum Webcast Archive has several videos available at: http://airandspace.si.edu/webcasts/archive.cfm + The NASA Voyager 1 probe has been spotted by the SETI Institute's Allen Telescope Array (ATA) on 8419.62 MHz. The signal processing used to detect this radio signal from the outer edge of our solar system is quite educational, although the site does plug a commer- cial product not associated with AMSAT: http://baudline.blogspot.com.es/2012/11/setiquest-voyager-1-redux.html + The Comet Quest game for iPhone and iPad from NASA's Jet Propul- sion Laboratory can be downloaded from the iTunes Apps store at: http://bit.ly/xXhjI7. The game mimics the real Rosetta mission, and enables you to control the spacecraft, drop a lander on a comet's nucleus, then observe and record events. Players must avoid hazards and successfully transmit data to Earth, earning points for each accomplishment. + You and the kids can talk to Santa on the radio. Santa Claus will be appearing on 3.916 MHz. There are still a few opportunities to to tell Santa how good you've been and which rig would delight you. All net times are 2030 Central US time UTC-6) Monday,December 17 Wednesday, December 19 Friday,December 21 Saturday, December 22 Sunday,December 23 Monday,December 24 [ANS thanks everyone 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. And with that, please keep in mind the interstellar gas cloud that comprises Sagittarius B contains a billion billion billion (yes, that's three orders of billion) liters of alcohol. If you are doing your mathematics homework please remember to not drink and derive. 73, This week's ANS Editor, JoAnne Maenpaa, K9JKM K9JKM at amsat dot org ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman
[amsat-bb] ANS-330 AMSAT News Service Weekly Bulletins
*: January 25, 2013 [ANS thanks Filippo Graziani, G.A.U.S.S. President and IAA member, Conference Chair for the above information] - Satellite Shorts From All Over + Video of ARISS contact from the National Scouting Museum Jamboree on the Air (JOTA) event in Irving, Texas on October 20 with Sunita Williams, KD5PLB on the ISS can be viewed at: http://vimeo.com/53281390 + NASA's Pete Worden presentation at the Canadian Space Summit on the topic of Small Satellites for Science and Other Uses and as an example: Earth Observation, promises and challenges has been posted by SpaceRef.com at: http://tinyurl.com/SpaceRefSmallSatellites + Andy Foad, G0FTD has made a collection of RF calculations avail- able in a spreadsheet. This can be downloaded from: https://sites.google.com/site/g0ftdradio/home/rf-spreadsheets + How about the concept of private/commercial CubeSat missions to Mars? See the exploremars.org posting at: http://tinyurl.com/CubeSatsToMars + The Van Allen Probes Mission, part of NASA's Living With a Star program, studies the physical dynamics of Earth's radiation belts and space weather. A video of this mission, including classroom activities about space weather is posted by Johns Hopkins Univers- ity Applied Physics Laboratory: http://vanallenprobes.jhuapl.edu/ (Bill, W3XO) [ANS thanks everyone 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. And with that, please keep in mind the ham who's son pestered his parents for a trip to the zoo. Finally his mother talk- ed his reluctant father into taking him. So how was it? his mother asked when they returned home. Great, the son replied. Did you and your father have a good time? asked his mother. Yeah, Daddy really liked it, exclaimed the son excitedly, especially when one of the animals came home at 30 to 1! 73, This week's ANS Editor, JoAnne Maenpaa, K9JKM K9JKM at amsat dot org ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
[amsat-bb] No Hudson Valley Satcom Net on November 8
Hello Everyone, Thanks to Stu, WA2BSS for sending this in .This is another item if we waited for this week's ANS news cycle this news would be too late. There will be no Hudson Valley Satcom net this week on Thursday, November 8. Net Control Gary, WA2AQH will be tied up at work. The next net for November would fall on Thanksgiving Day (for USA) so no net session is planned for that week either. The Hudson Valley Satcom net plans to resume operation in December, 2012. Watch the ANS bulletins for announcements. The club web http://www.hvsatcom.org has more information. Net Control, Gary can be reached via e-mail for questions: wa2...@amsat.org Via Stu, WA2BSS -- 73 de JoAnne K9JKM k9...@amsat.org Editor, AMSAT Journal ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
[amsat-bb] Call For Photos for AMSAT Journal - Symposium and KSC Tour
Hello everyone, This message is mostly for the folks who were able to attend the 2012 AMSAT Symposium and tour at the Kennedy Space Center. I am planning for photo and text coverage of the Symposium in the AMSAT Journal being planned for the January timeframe. During these events I noticed several 'well-equipped-camera-guys' getting photos of the Symposium and KSC tour activities. I'd really appreciate copies of your hi-res photos for our coverage in the Journal. Please select 5-6 of your favorite photos and add a couple of your personal comments about what you found interesting or cool. The comments can just be text in the e-mail message ... no formatting is required. Alternatively, if you use any of the on-line photo album sites you could just send me the URL for that. I can go there to select photos but I would appreciate a comment from you about which ones you may recommend. Send your input to me by December 1 to k9...@comcast.net. This account at Comcast may reject very large attachments greater than 10MB. You could send a couple of messages with attachments. If your message is not getting through to me contact me off-list and I'll supply another e-mail address to try. I'll be looking forward to your input, thanks! -- 73 de JoAnne K9JKM k9...@amsat.org Editor, AMSAT Journal ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
[amsat-bb] ANS-309 AMSAT News Service Weekly Bulletins
AMSAT NEWS SERVICE ANS-309 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 at amsat.org In this edition: * President's Update Given at AMSAT-NA Annual Meeting in Orlando * Update on AO-27 Recovery Work * Successful ARISS School Contacts * Flabob Airport Preparatory Academy ARISS Contact Wins PR Award * Hurricane Damage Delays First Cuba National Satellite Meeting * Special Symposium Visitor Hector Martinez, CO6CBF Back Home * F-1 Amateur Radio CubeSat Update * 2013 CanSat Competition Applications Due November 30 * NASA Offers Spot The Space Station Service Via Text or E-mail * Satellite Shorts From All Over SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-309.01 ANS-309 AMSAT News Service Weekly Bulletins AMSAT News Service Bulletin 309.01 From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. November 4, 2012 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-309.01 - President's Update Given at AMSAT-NA Annual Meeting in Orlando AMSAT President Barry Baines, WD4ASW gave a presentation to members at the 30th Space Symposium and Annual General Meeting in Orlando, Florida on Saturday, October 27. Barry noted the significant strides AMSAT has accomplished in the area of education outreach reflected by the appointment of Mark Ham- mond, N8MH, as AMSAT's VP-Educational Relations. Over the past year Mark has been developing a team to enhance our capabilities in this area and worked with the ARRL to develop new approaches to STEM edu- cation that will translate into future opportunities in space. Barry provided a summary of additional accomplishments for 2012: + Fox selection by NASA for an ELaNa Launch based on our STEM educational activities. + The Fox-1 project is on schedule planning for launch in the 2nd half of 2013. + The Engineering Team has developed a capable and motivated staff. + Evolving partnerships for future launch opportunities are under way. + AMSAT has continued to deal with ITAR issues. The publication of the Fox design in the Symposium Proceedings book opens the path to placing the work in the public domain which is expected to relieve many ITAR issues going forward. + Appointment of Frank Bauer, KA3HDO as VP-Human Spaceflight will allow AMSAT to develop additional opportunity in this area. + Implementation of the new ARISS school selection process. + Re-establishment of the AMSAT store on-line. + Steps are being taken to revive the AMSAT Journal. Appointment of JoAnne Maenpaa, K9JKM as the new Editor. + ANS is a world-class distributor of information about amateur radio in space. One new ANS Editor has joined the weekly rotation with openings for additional volunteers. Many details of AMSAT's future partnerships for launch opportunities will be published in the AMSAT Journal. A link to the President's Report will be added to our http://www.amsat.org web page. [ANS thanks AMSAT President Barry Baines, WD4ASW for the above information] - Update on AO-27 Recovery Work AO-27 Command Station Michael Wyrick, N3UC provides updates on the team's attempts to recover the satellite on their web page. They are working to return AO-27's FM repeater back to service after it stopp- ed responding on October 5. In early October AO-27 was restored back to running on its primary Bootloader. Control operators were able to turn on the Transmitter for a short time on several occasions. Also required were multiple recoveries the stuck AFSK modem which was one of the initial symp- toms of the problems. During recovery efforts AO-27 crashed once again on October 16. The command team once again recovered to the bootloader state, recovered from another occurrence of the AFSK modem problem and once again per- formed another software upload. On October 18 the transmitter was left ON in an attempt to discharge the batteries with the hope that faults could be cleared. Once the battery was recharged last week the high-level EOS software aboard AO-27 ran for a few seconds before locking up. The team was able to reset it back to the bootloader. Dumps indicate it is locking up while fetching telemetry from the hardware. Michael, N3UC, wrote, It does not look like there will be a quick resolution to this crash. ATTENTION OPERATORS: To prevent interfering with the command team's recovery efforts, if you can't hear AO-27 in Analog mode, please don't transmit to it. The latest AO-27 news is posted on its webpage: http://www.ao27.org/AO27/index.shtml Mode V/U (J) FM Voice Repeater Frequencies Uplink 145.8500 MHzFM Downlink436.7950 MHzFM
[amsat-bb] Re: Shuttle Atlantis Roll-Over Celebration Will Be Webcast
The Atlantis moving project is already underway. Streaming coverage of the trek and ceremonies at KSC is at: http://spaceflightnow.com/shuttle/ferry/status104.html The NASA Digital Learning Network webcast is still scheduled for 1PM as they announced previously. -- 73 de JoAnne K9JKM k9...@amsat.org Editor, AMSAT Journal -Original Message- From: amsat-bb-boun...@amsat.org [mailto:amsat-bb-boun...@amsat.org] On Behalf Of JoAnne Maenpaa Sent: Thursday, November 01, 2012 14:37 To: amsat-bb@amsat.org Subject: [amsat-bb] Shuttle Atlantis Roll-Over Celebration Will Be Webcast NASA Education Express just announced a special webcast on Friday, November 2: NASA's Digital Learning Network, or DLN, is hosting a special event on Nov. 2, 2012, at 1 p.m. EDT to commemorate the departure of space shuttle Atlantis. Join DLN hosts Rachel Power and Joshua Santora live at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida as space shuttle Atlantis is transferred from the Vehicle Assembly Building to its permanent home at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex. The Space Shuttle Atlantis Roll Over Celebration will feature special guests including NASA Administrator and astronaut Charles Bolden, members of the space shuttle's processing team and members from the team responsible for the design of the new home for Atlantis. For more information and to watch the webcast online, visit the DLN website at http://dln.nasa.gov. Do you have a question you would like to see answered live during the webcast? Send questions to dlinfochan...@gmail.com. Inquiries about this webcast should be directed to Joshua Santora at joshua.sant...@nasa.gov. -- 73 de JoAnne K9JKM k9...@amsat.org Editor, AMSAT Journal ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
[amsat-bb] Shuttle Atlantis Roll-Over Celebration Will Be Webcast
NASA Education Express just announced a special webcast on Friday, November 2: NASA's Digital Learning Network, or DLN, is hosting a special event on Nov. 2, 2012, at 1 p.m. EDT to commemorate the departure of space shuttle Atlantis. Join DLN hosts Rachel Power and Joshua Santora live at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida as space shuttle Atlantis is transferred from the Vehicle Assembly Building to its permanent home at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex. The Space Shuttle Atlantis Roll Over Celebration will feature special guests including NASA Administrator and astronaut Charles Bolden, members of the space shuttle's processing team and members from the team responsible for the design of the new home for Atlantis. For more information and to watch the webcast online, visit the DLN website at http://dln.nasa.gov. Do you have a question you would like to see answered live during the webcast? Send questions to dlinfochan...@gmail.com. Inquiries about this webcast should be directed to Joshua Santora at joshua.sant...@nasa.gov. -- 73 de JoAnne K9JKM k9...@amsat.org Editor, AMSAT Journal ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
[amsat-bb] ANS-301 AMSAT News Service Special Bulletin - Annual Meeting on Echolink 15:55 EDT October 27
SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-301.01 ANS-301 AMSAT News Service Special Bulletin AMSAT News Service Bulletin 301.01 From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. October 27, 2012 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-301.01 The AMSAT Annual Meeting starting at 15:55 EDT (UTC-4) will be carried on Echolink via the *AMSAT* Node 101377. /EX 73 de JoAnne K9JKM k9...@amsat.org ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
[amsat-bb] Re: PRISM HAM Radio Service OPEN
I am seeing a blank page when I go to: http://www.space.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp/prism/en/HAMservice.html Are there any other pages with information? Thanks! -- 73 de JoAnne K9JKM k9...@amsat.org Editor, AMSAT News Service Associate Editor, AMSAT Journal -Original Message- From: amsat-bb-boun...@amsat.org [mailto:amsat-bb-boun...@amsat.org] On Behalf Of Mineo Wakita Sent: Sunday, October 21, 2012 07:23 To: amsat-bb@amsat.org Subject: [amsat-bb] Re: PRISM HAM Radio Service OPEN Uplink frequency, Command and the other attention are written in detail. Please click the bottom button. http://www.space.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp/prism/en/HAMservice.html JE9PEL, Mineo Wakita ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
[amsat-bb] Video Streaming as Next ISS Crew Launches From Baikonur on Tuesday Morning
A Russian Soyuz booster will launch two cosmonauts and an American astronaut from Baikonur on Tuesday at 6:51 a.m. EDT (1051 GMT). Live updates and streaming video will be carried at: http://spaceflightnow.com/station/exp33/status.html -- 73 de JoAnne K9JKM k9...@amsat.org Editor, AMSAT News Service Associate Editor, AMSAT Journal ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
[amsat-bb] Re: ISS digi on 145.800
Hello Ted, Has the frequency settled down on this? 800 or 825 ?? ISS digi is back on their usual 145.825 MHz frequency now. I just heard them and had a packet QSO via .825 at 2100 UTC today over USA. There will be a few more USA passes coming up this afternoon/evening. I check http://issfanclub.com ... on the right side of the page is a status listing of their various frequencies, such as 'last heard', etc. -- 73 de JoAnne K9JKM k9...@amsat.org ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
[amsat-bb] ANS-295 AMSAT News Service Weekly Bulletins
spacefarer Sarah Brightman had passed the required mental and physi- cal examinations to fly into space. In 2013 she will undertake six months of training at Star City in Moscow in preparation for her mission to the International Space Station. Read the entire post at: http://www.uk.amsat.org/?p=11034 + Bob McGwier, N4HY says that the Hume Center for National Security and Technology, and the Bradley Department of Electrical and Com- puter Engineering at Virginia Tech, are seeking applicants for junior and mid-level research staff members to support a growing body of research programs in signals intelligence, military com- munications, and electronic warfare. Details are posted at: http://listings.jobs.vt.edu/applicants/Central?quickFind=196236 + In HamRadioNow.tv, Episode 27, Gary Pierce, KN4AQ interviewed Bill Brown, WB8ELK, who sends balloons carrying ham radio to the edge of space, and David Stephenson KJ4OKJ who launches rockets with NASA. Watch the podcast: http://arvideonews.com/hrn/HRN_Episode_0027.html Additional programs can be found at: http://HamRadioNow.tv + Learn some Finnish as you watch a video from Kauto, OH2LFM with OH2AUE demonstrating a P3E transponder at SRAL summer camp: http://tinyurl.com/OH-transponder + Watch a video (http://www.uk.amsat.org/?p=11061) by students from the Univeristy of Manitoba showing what is involved in assembling a Nanosatellite. T-Sat1 will use the 145 and 437 MHz amateur radio bands. + Lots of good VHF information plus the Updated VE7BQH VHF Antenna Comparison Tables is found at: http://www.bigskyspaces.com/w7gj/ + In celebration of Britain's contributions to space discovery and exploration, Royal Mail is issuing a set of six special stamps to mark the 50th anniversary of Britain's first launch into the final frontier. Read the details posted at: http://spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=38911 + Ride along with Endeavour in Los Angeles on its way to museum duty in a time lapse compilation by photographer/cinematographer Matthew Givot: http://vimeo.com/51621640 + The next Hudson Valley Satcom net date is Thursday, October 25 at 8 PM EDT (UTC-4 UTC) on the 146.97 MHz MBARC Repeater (PL 100). An echolink connection is available on the N2EYH-L node. More information at: http://www.hvsatcom.org. (Stu, WA2BSS) [ANS thanks everyone 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. And with that, please keep in mind the tale of the ham who went to his dentist to see why his dentures kept decaying rapidly. The dentist looked at the hams's dentures and remarked, This is very odd. They look like something's been eating them. Is there anything different that you've been eating lately? The ham said, Well, my wife has been making a lot of eggs Benedict recently with hollandaise sauce. Ah! exclaimed the dentist, That's it. I know just what you need. I'm going to order you some new dentures with plates made out of chrome. Chrome? exclaimed the ham incredulously, Why Chrome? The dentist replied, Because, there's no plates like chrome for the hollandaise. 73, This week's ANS Editor, JoAnne Maenpaa, K9JKM K9JKM at amsat dot org ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
[amsat-bb] Re: shoe box sats
Hey ya'll, EMike mentioned: features an article on CubeSat Microthrusters - page 38 That is a nice article. SatMagazine is pretty cool for free. There is some thruster information available on the web also. I know the AMSAT-UK web has done a wonderful job of archiving satellite missions thanks to Trevor's amazing efforts. A search on uk.amsat.org with the keyword thrust brought me to this page: http://www.uk.amsat.org/?s=thrust When you have thrust you need attitude control to know your spacecraft's position/orientation and keep it there. Only when you are pointing to the right spot in the sky it would be OK to light the engine. An interesting aside to the AMSAT Fox-1 project is the on-board student experiment. The Penn State University AMSAT sponsored senior design project is a 3-axis MEMs gyro sensor to measure satellite spin rate, spin direction and wobble about magnetic axis. First steps toward attitude control in a cubesat. Perhaps future Foxes will host a microthruster experiment. The 2012 Dayton Forum Fox Project slides even mention future launch opportunities for the add-on Fox-like fleet. See: http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/fox/AA2TX_Dayton2012V3.ppt -- 73 de JoAnne K9JKM k9...@amsat.org ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
[amsat-bb] Re: shoe box sats - video on microthrusters
There is video on cubesat microthrusters from the 2012 AMSAT-UK Colloquium: - Go to http://www.batc.tv/ - Click on Film Archive - Select AMSAT 2012 in Category box and click on Select Category - Select 012 - STRaND-2 presentation in Stream box and click on Select Stream - Click the button on the video player window The audio is very low for the first minute but it becomes audible in just a bit. -- 73 de JoAnne K9JKM k9...@amsat.org ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
[amsat-bb] ANS-291 AMSAT News Service Special Bulletin - AMSAT Space Symposium Begins Next Week
AMSAT NEWS SERVICE ANS-291 Special Bulletin 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 at amsat.org In this edition: * 2012 AMSAT Space Symposium Begins Next Week in Orlando SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-291.01 ANS-291 AMSAT News Service Special Bulletin AMSAT News Service Bulletin 291.01 From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. October 17, 2012 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-291.01 - 2012 AMSAT Space Symposium Begins Next Week in Orlando This bulletin is a reminder that the time of the 2012 AMSAT Space Symposium is quickly approaching. The Symposium will be held on Friday, October 26th through Sunday, October 28th in Orlando, Flor- ida at the Holiday Inn at Orlando-International Airport. The Symposium weekend will feature: + Space Symposium with Amateur Satellite Presentations + Operating Techniques, News, Plans from the Amateur Satellite World + Board of Directors Meeting open to AMSAT members + Meet Board Members and Officers + Annual General Membership Meeting + Annual Banquet-Keynote Speaker and Door Prizes Symposium Registration including Proceedings o Starting September 24, 2012: $ 50.00 o At the Door: $ 55.00 o Saturday Evening Banquet $ 45.00 o Sunday Morning Area Coordinators' Breakfast $ 15.00 o Sunday Trip to the Orlando Science Center - contact Martha at the AMSAT Office (888-322-6728 or 301-589-6062) by October 17 to reserve your spot for the tour of the Star Wars Exhibit. o Monday (Oct 29) bus trip to KSC and entrance ticket $ 100.00 See the AMSAT Web Store to complete your on-line registration: http://store.amsat.org/catalog/index.php?cPath=27 Downloadable paper registration forms in MS-Word format and PDF format are available on the 2012 Symposium page: http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/symposium/2012/index.php The hotel offers free Internet connection and free airport shuttle. When you arrive at the Orlando Airport call 407-709-5310 to request the shuttle. The Orlando International Airport (MCO) is the closest to the Sympos- ium and is served by most major air carriers. The hotel address is: 5750 T.G. Lee Blvd - Orlando, FL 32822. A map link is included on the hotel web page: http://www.holidayinn.com/hotels/us/en/orlando/mcoap/hoteldetail Special Symposium Visitor Hector Martinez, CO6CBF - Hector Martinez, CO6CBF will travel from Cuba to the AMSAT Symposium in Orlando next week. AMSAT extended an invitation for Hector to attend and to make a presentation. Thanks to the work done by Patrick Stoddard, WD9EWK/VA7EWK, Hector has been able to obtain a visa to come to the United States for the Symposium. Once the invitation was extended, Hector had to approach both govern- ments and file applications to get a Cuban passport and travel permit and a US visa. All expenses for his trip must be guaranteed by some- one outside Cuba. Patrick took on that task personally on behalf of AMSAT, even signing legally-binding documents for the Cuban government to that end. Patrick has covered expenses out of his personal funds since no AMSAT funds are available. Patrick would appreciate donations to cover the expenses via his callbook address. AMSAT looks forward to welcoming Hector, CO6CBF at the Symposium! Dr. Samuel T. Durrance, NASA Astronaut at the Saturday Evening Banquet -- The featured speaker for the AMSAT 2012 Saturday Evening Banquet on October 27 will be Dr. Samuel T. Durrance, NASA Astronaut/Payload Specialist and Professor of Physics and Space Sciences at the Flor- ida Institute of Technology. For all the details see: http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/symposium/2012/BanquetSpeaker.php 2012 AMSAT Symposium Schedule - To help you plan your trip to Orlando the 2012 Symposium Committee has posted a high-level schedule of the weekend's events. Thursday 25 October 2012 AMSAT Board of Directors Meeting 8am - 9pm Friday 26 October 2012 AMSAT Board of Directors Meeting 8am - Noon Trips to SkyCraft 9am - Noon AMSAT Symposium 1pm - 5pm Saturday 27 October 2012 Symposium 8am - 3pm AMSAT Annual General Meeting 3:30pm AMSAT Banquet 6:30pm - 10pm Sunday 28 October 2012 AMSAT Area Coordinator's Breakfast 7:30am Trip to the Orlando Science Center 9:00am Monday 29 October 2012 Special trip to Kennedy Space Center 8am-6pm The AMSAT Symposium Web Schedule Pages include links for details of the activities:
[amsat-bb] Re: OH2AUE P3E transponder demo video
Hello, Newer technology and more advanced modes can be made available for experiment, either simultaneously, on (say) bands L, S, C, etc, and also on more accessible bands (U, V) by having the bird switch mode accordingly ... As far as meshed networks ... Like these designs? Proposed in 2003 - http://www.cnssys.com/files/amsat/cc_amsat.pdf Proposed in 2004 - http://www.cnssys.com/files/amsat/cc-revisited.pdf Proposed in 2006 - http://www.cnssys.com/files/amsat/SDX_and_Future_AMSAT_Missions.pdf Thing is ... everyone knows we've been looking for a suitable launch since the dates of these papers. Other cool designs live in the Symposium Proceedings for AMSAT-Eagle and the Phase IV GEO-Rideshare projects. Some of the good old days are archived in the Historical AMSAT-NA Symposium Proceedings - http://www.klofas.com/amsat_symposium/ -- 73 de JoAnne K9JKM k9...@amsat.org ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
[amsat-bb] Skydiving Mission in Progress Now
Since it is raining outside I have a good excuse for sitting in the shack and having more coffee ... instead of raking leaves. I just was reminded that the record breaking skydive mission is currently in progress. So if you find yourself sitting around the shack tune into http://www.redbullstratos.com for a live webcast showing views from the capsule, mission control, and playbacks of the launch earlier (including an updating telemetry display). -- 73 de JoAnne K9JKM k9...@amsat.org ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
[amsat-bb] ISS digi on 145.800
ISS digipeater has been running on 145.800 MHz simplex for the past couple of passes. So if you don't copy anything on 145.825 try 145.800. It was lonely for a mid-continent prime time pass. -- 73 de JoAnne K9JKM k9...@amsat.org ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
[amsat-bb] ANS-281 AMSAT News Service Weekly Bulletins
/ The bulletins will continue to be sent via the ANS List and the AMSAT-BB in e-mail format. + Watch a video by the Minute Physics folks explaining why the sky is dark at night: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embeddedv=gxJ4M7tyLRE + Astronomy Now and Spaceflight Now have created an interactive iPad guide to the Curiosity rover mission: http://tinyurl.com/8peyrz8 (itunes.apple.com) + Canadian Special Event Station will be signing CG3X until October 28 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the first Canadian satellite Alouette. QSL via VE3JPP. (DX Newsletter DXNL 1800 - Oct 3, 2012) + Hams like science so get a peek at the eXtreme Deep Field, or XDF, a photo was assembled by combining 10 years of NASA Hubble Space Telescope photographs taken of a patch of sky at the center of the original Hubble Ultra Deep Field. That's right, a 10 year time ex- posure: http://tinyurl.com/Hubble-XDF (SpaceDaily.com) Also see the article at: http://spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=38692 + Cool, new postage stamps for your QSL activities featuring Ameri- ca's diverse landscapes on photos taken from ultra lights to sat- ellites are on the Earthscapes stamps. Details of the stamp plus where to find first-day issues can be found in the article at: http://spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=38738 + Doug, VK3UM reports updates have been made for his EME Calculation software. New versions are available from Doug's website at http://www.vk3um.com for: o EMECalc Ver 8.07 (28th Sep 12) o EME Planner Ver 1.71. (21st Sep 12) o EMR Calculator Ver 7.03 (22nd Sep 12) + Flex Radio has posted a guide to using SATPC32 with the Flex 5000 VU5K transverter. Along with the SATPC32-specific details, there is information of use to satellite operators in general. See: http://support.flex-radio.com/Downloads.aspx?id=404 (via Alan, WA4SCA) + The Houston AMSAT Net meets every Wednesday at 0100z (this is Tues- day evening in North America) on Echolink - Conference *AMSAT* . The MP3 audio is also streamed http://www.amsatnet.com. After the net a Podcast is available at: http://www.amsatnet.com/podcast.xml or iTunes + The next Hudson Valley Satcom net dates are Thursday, October 11 and October 25 at 8 PM EDT (UTC-4 UTC) on the 146.97 MHz MBARC Repeater (PL 100). An echolink connection is available on the N2EYH-L node. More information at: http://www.hvsatcom.org. (Stu, WA2BSS) + The 2012 Great World Wide Star Count is a citizen science project running between October 5 to October 19. You are invited to make night star observations from your QTH and report your results on- line. To learn more of this project and to participate see: http://www.windows2universe.org/citizen_science/starcount/index.html [ANS thanks everyone 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. And with that, please keep in mind that the light from the sun, arriving now is 30,000 years old. The energy in the sunlight we see today started out in the core of the Sun 30,000 years ago. It spent most of this time passing through the dense atoms that make the core and just 8 minutes to reach us once it had left the Sun. 73, This week's ANS Editor, JoAnne Maenpaa, K9JKM K9JKM at amsat dot org ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
[amsat-bb] W5KUB Live WebCast on October 4, 5, 6
Hello Everyone, Here is a news item that would be too late if we waited for the next ANS bulletins. I'm posting this as a favor for Tom W5KUB since many hams enjoy his live amateur radio webcasts. AMSAT is not sponsoring any part of this event nor endorses any of the products or commercial content. Lots of hams have a good time during Tom's shows so tune in if you can. You might win one of his on-line prize drawings too. He randomly picks a participant in the webchat. When live webcasts are not going on he loops recordings of his previous shows. His amateur radio webchat is available from his web page also. -- 73 de JoAnne K9JKM k9...@amsat.org Editor, AMSAT News Service Associate Editor, AMSAT Journal It's time for the Live Broadcast of MFJ 40th Anniversary Celebration! The Amateur Radio webcasts live, on-line at http://w5kub.com will cover MFJ Enterprises as they celebrate their 40th anniversary Oct- ober 5th and 6th (Friday and Saturday) in Starkville, Mississippi! For those that can attend in person, there will be door prizes (must be present to win), free factory tours (MFJ, Ameritron, Cushcraft, Hy-Gain, Mirage, Vectronics, and MFJ Metal Shop), free lunch, free tailgating, free forums/discussions, and FCC license exams. Special guests will include: + Martin F Jue, K5FLU, president and founder of MFJ Enterprises Inc + Malcolm Keown, W5XX, ARRL Mississippi Section Manager + Harold Kramer, WJ1B, CEO American Radio Relay League + Chip Margelli, K7JA, CQ Advertising Manager and famous DXer + Janet Margelli, KL7MF, Ham Radio Outlet Anaheim Manager + Ray Novak, N9JA, ICOM America Amateur Radio Sales Manager + Ted Randall, WB8PUM, QSO Shortwave Radio Host + Dick Ross, K2MGA, CQ Magazine Publisher + George Thomas, W5JDX, Ham Nation, AmateurLogic.com For additional information regarding the MFJ 40th Anniversary Cele- bration go to http://www.mfjenterprises.com/dayinpark.php. If you cannot attend in person, please join the live, online broad- cast of MFJ 40th Anniversary Celebration events at http://W5KUB.com where the fun begins! MFJ 40th Anniversary Celebration broadcast hours: + Thursday, October 4: 2000 UTC (3:00 PM CT) drive from Memphis, Tennessee to Starkville, Mississippi (approx. 3 1/4 hour drive) + Friday, October 5: 1300 - 21:30 UTC (8:00 AM - 4:30 PM CT) + Saturday, October 6: 1300 UTC - 1900 UTC (8:00 AM - 2:00 PM CT) + Saturday, October 6: 2000 UTC (3:00 PM CT) drive from Starkville, Mississippi to Memphis, Tennessee (approx. 3 1/4 hour drive) You could be the winner of an online MFJ prize (not to be confused with the MFJ door prizes) which will be awarded during the W5KUB broadcast. Of course, no purchase is necessary to win a prize. W5KUB is not affiliated with any products or companies and does not sell any products or services. During the live broadcast, you will also have the opportunity to meet and chat with other amateur radio operators from all over the world. The 2012 Dayton Hamvention broadcast had 47,400 viewers! Please join our group on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/groups/w5kub/ to keep up with us year-round. Also, please help spread the word by posting this announcement in Facebook and forwarding this message to your ham radio friends that may not have received this message! We'll 'see' you at MFJ! 73 Tom Medlin, W5KUB http://w5kub.com ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
[amsat-bb] ANS-267 AMSAT News Service Weekly Bulletins
Reconnaissance Office. Also aboard this flight at four cubesats as part of ELaNa IV mission and seven cubesats for government missions. + A photo of the Soyuz TMA-04M spacecraft as it lands with Expedi- tion 32 Commander Gennady Padalka of Russia, NASA Flight Engineer Joe Acaba and Russian Flight Engineer Sergie Revin in a remote area near the town of Arkalyk, Kazakhstan, on September 17 can be seen at: http://spaceref.com/news/viewsr.html?pid=42064 + NASA Explorer Schools is offering students in grades 4-12 an oppor- tunity to ask questions of Bob Cabana, astronaut and Director of NASA's Kennedy Space Center. Join the video chat on Sept. 25, 2012, from 1-1:45 p.m. EDT to ask Cabana questions about his education, astronaut training, living and working in space and the future of space exploration. Students do not need to be in a school partici- pating in the NASA Explorer Schools project in order to ask ques- tions during this video chat. Submit questions during the chat through a chat window, or send them to: nasa-explorer-scho...@mail.nasa.gov. To learn more about NES, visit http://www/explorerschools.nasa.gov. For more information and to view the video chat, visit: http://tinyurl.com/explorer-chat (nasa.gov) + NASA has announced their Space Place Prime, the new NASA maga- zine for iPad. This free, brand new app gathers some of the best and most recent Web offerings from NASA. It taps engrossing arti- cles from The Space Place website, enlightening NASA videos and daily images such as the Astronomy Picture of the Day and the NASA Earth Observatory Image of the Day. For more information about the new magazine, visit http://spaceplace.nasa.gov/ios/. (iPad is a reg- istered trademarks of Apple Inc.) + The Houston AMSAT Net meets every Wednesday at 0100z (this is Tues- day evening in North America) on Echolink - Conference *AMSAT* . The MP3 audio is also streamed http://www.amsatnet.com. After the net a Podcast is available at: http://www.amsatnet.com/podcast.xml or iTunes + The next Hudson Valley Satcom net date is Thursday, September 27, 8 PM EDT (UTC-4 UTC) on the 146.97 MHz MBARC Repeater (PL 100). An echolink connection is available on the N2EYH-L node. More informa- tion at: http://www.hvsatcom.org. (Stu, WA2BSS) + The Canadian Space Agency announced that a British Columbia arti- san-made organic cereal is one of 12 Canadian foods to accompany Canadian Astronaut and Mission 35 Commander Chris Hadfield on the December space mission to the International Space Station where he will live and work for six months as part of the crew. We wonder how many students will ask how the crew is enjoying their cereal described at: http://spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=38629 + How would you like to be famous? If you know any scientific, math, or electronics puns send them to k9...@amsat.org. The winners will occasionally be included in the ANS bulletins. [ANS thanks everyone 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. And with that, please keep in mind that programming today is a race between software engineers striving to build bigger and better idiot-proof programs, and the Universe trying to produce bigger and better idiots. So far, the Universe is winning. 73, This week's ANS Editor, JoAnne Maenpaa, K9JKM K9JKM at amsat dot org ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
[amsat-bb] NASA TV to Show 3 Hams Return to Earth on Sunday, September 16
Hello everyone, Here is some news that is best sent before the weekend ANS is released. Check out the Three Hams Return to Earth this Weekend; Watch Live on NASA TV link on http://www.arrl.org/ for information about NASA TV coverage on Sunday, September 16. -- 73 de JoAnne K9JKM k9...@amsat.org Editor, AMSAT News Service Associate Editor, AMSAT Journal ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
[amsat-bb] ANS-253 AMSAT News Service Weekly Bulletins
above information] - Successful ARISS Contacts With Germany, Japan, and Maryland Astronaut Akihiko Hoshide, KE5DNI participated in two ARISS (Ama- teur Radio on the International Space Station) contacts over the past week. He spoke with students attending Megina Gymnasium Mayen in Mayen, Germany on Friday, August 31 and with youth from the Iruma Junior Ham Club in Iruma, Japan on Sunday, September 2. Sunita Williams, KD5PLB picked up a third ARISS contact with the National Electronics Museum in Linthicum, Maryland on Saturday, September 1. The radio contacts were integrated into comprehensive science and math lessons. [ANS thanks Carol Jackson, KB3LKI, for the above information] - September 9 Launch From India Planned for Japan PROITERES Satellite The Japanese amateur radio satellite PROITERES is planned to launch Sunday, September 9 at 0421 UT from the Indian Space Research Organ- isation (ISRO) Satish Dhawan space centre. The satellites SPOT6 and mRESINS will be on the same launch into a 695 km × 695 km, 98.2º inclination orbit. PROITERES was built by a team of students and faculty members of Osaka Institute of Technology (OIT) and the spacecraft aims to demonstrate powered flight using a Pulsed Plasma Thruster (PPT) engine. Its amateur radio callsign is JL3YZK. PROITERES stands for PRoject of OIT Electric-Rocket-Engine Onboard Small Space Ship and will transmit on 437.485 MHz FM/AFSK. The spacecraft carries a camera and the two CPUs run the Linux opera- ting system. PROITERES, Osaka Institute of Technology, Japan Launch : 9 Sep 2012 4:21UTC (9:51IST) Vehicle: PSLV-CA with SPOT6 and mRESINS Site : Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota, India 30cm^3, 10kg, 10W, 437.485MHz FM/AFSK The PROITERES Google English website contains the most up-to-date information see http://tinyurl.com/PROITERES-Satellite There is also an English language website at http://www.oit.ac.jp/elc/~satellit/ImageProiteres.html A video showing ISRO launch prepartion for PROITERES can be found at: http://www.uk.amsat.org/10201 [ANS thanks Mineo Wakita, JE9PEL and AMSAT-UK for the above information] - Help Wanted: AMSAT News Service Rotating Editor Positions Available The AMSAT News Service (ANS) is responsible for researching, writing, editing, and publishing the weekly amateur satellite news bulletins. After the passing of Dee, NB2F, we currently have a two editors who take a turn weekly to publish the bulletins. With the addition of a volunteer, or two, this would generally involve taking a turn about every 3 to 4 weeks. At present we a looking for interested satellite enthusiasts to join the ANS editorial team. Professional writing/editing experience is NOT a requirement. Your interest and enthusiasm in following and reporting on amateur radio in space will get you started! The ANS Editor team helps each other by rounding up items of interest. Plus we receive submitted items for publication ... so you won't be left all alone! If you can commit to working on the bulletins for a week on a rotat- ing basis please reply via e-mail to AMSAT News Service Editor JoAnne Maenpaa, K9JKM via k9jkm at amsat.org. [ANS thanks AMSAT Vice-President User Services, Gould Smith, WA4SXM for the above information] - Satellite Shorts From All Over + Listen for Tom Deeble, KA6SIP operating on FO-29, SO-50, and AO-27 satellites from the north shore of Kauai in the Hawaiian Islands. Tom is running a dual FT-817 setup with an Arrow antenna and ARR 440 preamp. Since this is a family trip he will try to operate on satellites in his spare time. He will be on Kauai until Friday, September 14. + Plan ahead! Scouting's Jamboree on the Air is coming up the week- end of October 20. If you know of local scout groups latch on to them and hopefully let's make the satellites come alive with Scout to Scout contacts. It may end up being the high point for many of the Scouts involved with JOTA. (Tom Schuessler, N5HYP) + Congratulations Bob Bruninga, WB4APR as the ARRL announced him as the winner of the August QST Cover Plaque award. Bob's article is Rethinking Electrical Power for the Ham. The QST Cover Plaque award is given to the author or authors of the best article in each issue of QST Magazine and is determined by a vote of ARRL members. (ARRL) + Enjoy a simulated flyover of the most intriguing landmarks on giant asteroid Vesta, as seen by NASA's Dawn spacecraft: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embeddedv=84vz6J8cnc8 + Congratulations to Hector, CO6CBF on his successful amateur radio and satellite demonstration in the town's central park at Aguada de Pasajeros
[amsat-bb] AMSAT President Barry Baines, WD4ASW TV Interview on HAMRADIONOW.tv
Hello Everyone, Here is some good news that is best shared immediately: AMSAT President Barry Baines, WD4ASW TV Interview on HAMRADIONOW.tv Gary Pearce, KN4AQ, producer and host of the HAMRADIONOW.tv webcasts interviewed AMSAT President Barry Baines, WD4ASW at the Shelby North Carolina Hamfest. Barry's interview provides an in-depth update on AMSAT activities and plans. As Gary says, So there's a lot going on at AMSAT. Exciting stuff like commanding a remote-control vehicle with instructions relayed through the ISS (think Mars Curiosity Rover). As Barry said, This isn't your grandfather's AMSAT anymore. Barry discussed AMSAT's exciting projects including: + Project Fox Cubesat development + AMSAT selection for NASA's ELaNa launch program + AMSAT development of missions meeting STEM educational goals + AMSAT-ARRL-ARISS teamwork + Future opportunities in space + How you can join and help Watch the 60 minute interview at HAMRADIONOW.tv, Episode 19: http://arvideonews.com/hrn/HRN_Episode_0019.html While you are on the Amateur Radio Video News website please click the pig if you can donate to this amateur radio video series. [ANS thanks Gary Pearce, KN4AQ and Amateur Radio Video News for the above information] -- 73 de JoAnne K9JKM k9...@amsat.org Editor, AMSAT News Service Associate Editor, AMSAT Journal ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
[amsat-bb] ANS-239 AMSAT News Service Weekly Bulletins
won't be left all alone! If you can commit to working on the bulletins for a week on a rotat- ing basis please reply via e-mail to AMSAT News Service Editor JoAnne Maenpaa, K9JKM via k9...@amsat.org. [ANS thanks AMSAT Vice-President User Services, Gould Smith, WA4SXM for the above information] - NASA Announces SpaceX Cargo Missions to ISS Begin in October CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - NASA Administrator Charles Bolden announced Thursday [August 23, 2012] new milestones in the nation's commercial space initiatives from the agency's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The latest advances made by NASA's commercial space partners pave the way for the first contracted flight of cargo to the International Space Station (ISS) this fall and mark progress toward a launch of astronauts from U.S. soil in the next 5 years. Bolden announced Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) has complet- ed its Space Act Agreement with NASA for Commercial Orbital Transpor- tation Services (COTS). SpaceX is scheduled to launch the first of its 12 contracted cargo flights to the space station from Cape Cana- veral in October, under NASA's Commercial Resupply Services Program. Through the COTS program, NASA provides investments to stimulate the American commercial space industry. As part of its COTS partnership, SpaceX became the first commercial company to resupply the space station in May, successfully launching its Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft to the orbiting complex. During the historic mission, the Dragon was captured by astronauts using the station's robot arm, un- loaded and safely returned to Earth carrying experiments conducted aboard ISS. Later this winter, Orbital Sciences Corp. plans to carry out its first test flight under COTS. The full NASA press release can be found on-line at: http://www.nasa.gov/exploration/commercial/crew-cargo-milestones.html [ANS thanks NASA for the above information] - Satellite Shorts From All Over + AMSAT joins all of the spacefaring people of Earth in remembering a hero for mankind on the passing on August 25 of Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the Moon. Armstrong was 82. + AMSAT has received the sad news of the passing QST Managing Edi- tor Joel P. Kleinman, N1BKE, of Meriden, Connecticut. Joel died from injuries received during a house fire. He was 64. Kleinman was responsible for the coordination, organization, control and completion of all aspects of QST's editorial content each month. Kleinman's wife Jayne survived the fire, but is currently in the intensive care unit of a local hospital. The ARRL is collecting condolence messages to forward on to Joel's family. If you would like send a message, please email it to: n...@arrl.org. + Members of the Grupo DX Caracas announced their YW5B DXpedition to La Blanquilla Island (SA-037) between August 21-27. Activity will be on 160-2 meters using CW, SSB, FM, Satellites and the Digital modes. QSL Manager is DM4TI with instructions on his QRZ.com page. (Ohio/Penn DX Bulletin No. 1075) + A video about the amateur radio F-1 CubeSat that is due to be deployed from the International Space Station in September by Japanese astronaut Akihiko Hoshide KE5DNI using the ISS Kibo robot arm can be viewed on the AMSAT-UK web at: http://www.uk.amsat.org/9746 It was broadcast on the Vietnamese TV station VTC2 and features interviews with Thu Trong Vu XV9AA, Hong Thai Pham and Pham Quang Hung along with a graphics clip showing the proposed deployment of the CubeSat. Part of the interview is held on the roof of the FPT university and shows the antenna array that will be used to command the F-1 CubeSat. + Scouts from all over the United States came to this year's Space Jam 6 sponsored by Crew 272 and Troop 17 where a ARISS contact with the ISS was held. Scouts talked with Japanese (JAXA) Astro- naut Akihiko Hoshide KE5DNI using the WB9SA Satellite Communica- tions Ham Radio Station on August 5, 2012. Watch on-line at: http://tinyurl.com/SpaceJam6-ARISS-Contact (www.southgatearc.org) + Photos from Mars keep coming in. An HD quality video of Curiosity's descent was assembled from full-resolution 1600×1200 frames from the MARDI descent imager. It also shows the best views yet of the heat shield impact on the surface of Mars: https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embeddedv=gZX5GRPnd4U + Add this to your wish list - a personal Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) is now available. The drone in this video one uses a 2.4 GHz WiFi connection to an iPhone or iPad: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embeddedv=IkvGvaNnMJM http://tinyurl.com/Personal-UAV (Southgate ARC) + Watch a video by KB3TQO posted on Southgate that shows a simple way to launch amateur radio antennas into the trees, really
[amsat-bb] YW5B La Blanquilla Island DXpedition on Satellites
Hello Everyone, Here is some news that arrived at the ANS newsdesk which would be too late if we waited for the next weekend news cycle: + Members of the Grupo DX Caracas announced their YW5B DXpedition to La Blanquilla Island (SA-037) between August 21-27. Activity will be on 160-2 meters using CW, SSB, FM, Satellites and the Digital modes. QSL Manager is DM4TI with instructions on his QRZ.com page. (Ohio/Penn DX Bulletin No. 1075) -- 73 de JoAnne K9JKM k9...@amsat.org Editor, AMSAT News Service Associate Editor, AMSAT Journal ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
