Text 407, 494 rader
Skriven 2005-05-22 01:01:03 av Amsat List (1:323/120.0)
Ärende: 
========
AMSAT NEWS SERVICE
ANS-142

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@amsat.org

In this edition:

* ARISS Status - 16 May 2005
* AMSAT Receives Certification
* AO-51 June Schedule
* AO-51 AMSAT Kid's Day June 2005
* AO-51 AMSAT Kid's Day Certificate
* An Amateur Radio Station on Columbus
* AMSAT-UK at The Space Technology Education Conference

SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-142.01
ARISS Status - 16 May 2005

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 142.01
From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.
May 22, 2005
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-142.01

1. Japanese School Contact Successful

Hosokawa Junior High School, in Ikeda, Osaka, Japan experienced an ARISS 
contact on Monday, May 9, 2005. Twelve students were able to ask 22 
questions of John Phillips, KE5DRY, before the ISS went over the horizon. 
Approximately four hundred students, teachers, and parents were present. 
Among the media covering the event were two newspapers, and one local cable 
television station. A video of the contact will be available.

2. Albany Hills School Contact

On May 4, Albany Hills State School in Brisbane, Australia participated in a 
contact with astronaut John Phillips, KE5DRY. The ARISS team received a 
report from the school's coordinating teacher, Cheryl Capra, who praised the 
program and those who volunteered their time and effort to make the contact 
such a success. Photos of John Phillips speaking to the Albany Hills 
students from space can be found on the NASA website. See: 
http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/gallery/images/station/crew-11/ndxpage15.html

3. Upcoming School Contact

One of John Phillips' crew picks, Village Elementary School, in Coronado, 
California, has been approved for a contact. It has been scheduled for 
Thursday, May 26 at 16:39 UTC via the telebridge station NN1SS.

The contact will be fed through the Echolink AMSAT (101377) and EDU_NET 
(77992) servers and IRLP reflector 9010.

4. Space Day 2005 Update

The Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center celebrated Space Day on May 5. AMSAT 
participated in the event with an activities station set up for students and 
the general public, displaying and distributing ARISS material. The total 
number of visitors who attended Space Day was 11,693. There were 1,576 
students who participated through school groups, and through a partnership 
with the Fairfax Public Schools Network, the center reached 32,971 schools 
and 7.5 million students.

5. SuitSat Status

SuitSat's voice greeting will celebrate the 175th anniversary of the Bauman 
Moscow State Technical University. Other voice messages to be included on 
SuitSat are being discussed and will need to be finalized in the near 
future. It has been suggested to use five two part messages. Five languages 
would be used, each delivering a standard greeting, and the second part of 
each message would vary, determined by the participating ARISS partners. 
Students would have the opportunity to interpret each message.

The U.S. team has suggested a plan where schools worldwide might participate 
in SuitSat by submitting something on an 8.5 x 11 inch paper, which 
represents the school, to the ARISS team. All papers would be scanned, put 
on a DVD and deployed in the Orlan suit. The proposal has been written up 
and distributed to the international delegates for their comments. Once this 
plan has been finalized, it will be forwarded to the NASA Education Office 
for distribution.

6. Expedition 10 Crew Debrief

Sergey Samburov had a debrief session with the Expedition 10 crew members. 
He received positive remarks about the ARISS program, with some suggestions 
for improvement. The U.S. team will tentatively meet with Leroy Chiao for 
his debrief the last week of June.

7. Dayton Hamvention 2005

The Dayton Hamvention 2005 will be held this coming weekend, May 20-22. Both 
AMSAT and ARRL will set up exhibition booths at the event. ARISS Chairman 
Frank Bauer, KA3HDO, will attend and give a presentation entitled, "Human 
Spaceflight Update (ARISS & Future Exploration Initiatives)."

8. School Selection Committee Meeting Held

The ARISS Educational Outreach/School Selection Committee meeting was held 
on Thursday, May 12. The minutes will be posted to the ARISS website in the 
near future.

[ANS thanks Carol, KB3LKI for the above information]

/EX

SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-142.02
AMSAT Receives Certification

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 142.02
From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.
May 22, 2005
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-142.02

On May 17, 2005, AMSAT was notified that we had been accepted for inclusion 
in the 2005 CFC (Combined Federal Campaign.) This concludes an extensive 
effort by AMSAT to become a registered charity within this massive national 
and international fund drive held each fall. The campaign is equivalent to 
the United Way, only conducted each fall among U.S. Federal Employees around 
the world. In upcoming news releases, "Journal" stories, and on our web 
site, AMSAT.org, we will outline the process and procedure that Federal 
Employees should follow in adding AMSAT to their annual giving plans. If you 
work for the Federal Government, stay tuned.

[ANS thanks AMSAT Treasurer Gunther, W8GSM for the above information]

/EX

SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-142.03
AO-51 June Schedule

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 142.03
From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.
May 22, 2005
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-142.03

1 June
FM Repeater, V/U
Uplink: 145.920 MHz FM, 67 Hz PL Tone
Downlink: 435.300 MHz FM
9k6 Digital, V/U, PBP BBS (Pacsat Broadcast Protocol BBS)
Uplink: 145.860 MHz FM, 9k6 PBP Digital
Downlink: 435.150 MHz FM, 9k6 PBP Digital

8 June - QRP Repeater Experimenter Wednesday
FM Repeater, V/U, High Power Mode
QRP requirements for the uplink.
See: http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/echo/ControlTeam.php
Uplink: 145.880 MHz FM, 67 Hz PL Tone
Downlink: 435.300 MHz FM

9 June
FM Repeater, V/U, High Power Mode
Uplink: 145.920 MHz FM, 67 Hz PL Tone
Downlink: 435.300 MHz FM

11 June (1420 UTC 11 June to 0450 UTC 12 June)
AO-51 Kid's Day Special Event
See the write-up elsewhere in ANS for details.
Please follow the event requirements and note the uplink frequency.
Certificate available for kids making a contact.
FM Repeater, V/U, High Power Mode
Uplink: 145.880 MHz FM, 67 Hz PL Tone
Downlink: 435.300 MHz FM

12 June (at conclusion of Kid's Day)
FM Repeater, V/U, High Power Mode
Uplink: 145.920 MHz FM, 67 Hz PL Tone
Downlink: 435.300 MHz FM

15 June (2 day session)
9k6 Digital, V/U, High Power, PBP BBS (Pacsat Broadcast Protocol BBS)
Uplink: 145.860 MHz FM, 9k6 PBP Digital
Downlink: 435.150 MHz FM, 9k6 PBP Digital

17 June
FM Repeater, V/S (Field Day Configuration)
Uplink: 145.920 MHz FM
Downlink: 2401.200 MHz FM

27 June
FM Repeater, V/U
Uplink: 145.920 MHz FM, 67 Hz PL Tone
Downlink 435.300 MHz FM
9k6 Digital, V/U, PBP BBS (Pacsat Broadcast Protocol BBS)
Uplink: 145.860 MHz FM, 9k6 PBP Digital
Downlink: 435.150 MHz FM, 9k6 PBP Digital

[ANS thanks Mike, KE4AZN and the AO-51 Team for the above information]

/EX

SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-142.04
AO-51 AMSAT Kid's Day June 2005

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 142.04
From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.
May 22, 2005
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-142.04

On 11 June 2005, AMSAT-NA and the AO-51 Operations Team will sponsor the 
second Kid's Day on AO-51 for 2005. The event will run from approximately 
1420 UTC 11 June until 0450 UTC 12 June. The event is open to all kids, 
worldwide. All amateur radio stations are asked to use this short time 
window to promote satellite operations with kids by actually showing a kid 
how to make contacts via AO-51, providing a station to contact, or stepping 
aside to allow others to make contacts with the kids.  During the event, 
please limit contacts to stations that are operating with kids at the 
microphone. This should allow the kids to have a nice QSO and pass some 
information. Kids can tell their name, age, who is helping them operate on 
AO-51, where they live, and other information about themselves. A 
certificate is available from the AO-51 Team to any kid making a successful 
Kid's Day contact. Please check the AMSAT Web Site, AO-51 Control Team Page, 
and other AMSAT news outlets for details on the award.

AO-51 will be configured in the following mode during the event. Please note 
the change in the uplink frequency for the event.

Uplink:  145.880 MHz FM voice, 67 Hz tone
Downlink:  435.300 MHz FM voice

The digital transponder on 435.150 will be turned off during the event.

[ANS thanks Mike, KE4AZN and the AO-51 Team for the above information]

/EX

SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-142.05
AO-51 AMSAT Kid's Day Certificate

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 142.05
From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.
May 22, 2005
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-142.05

The AO-51 Operations Team, made up of the AMSAT VP-Operations, AO-51 Command 
Team, and AO-51 Operations Group are sponsoring a certificate for kids 
making a contact during AMSAT Kid's Day on June 11, 2005. The award is free, 
and is supported and administrated by KE4AZN. The certificate is available 
to any kid that makes a contact with another amateur radio station during 
the AMSAT Kid's Day Event. The contacted station does not have to be 
operated by a kid. To receive your certificate, please mail a confirmation 
of contact to the following address:

AMSAT Kid's Day Certificate
c/o Michael Kingery - KE4AZN
1251 County Road 445
Enterprise, AL  36330
U.S.A.

Your confirmation can be a QSL card from you or the amateur control station, 
a note on a piece of paper, or anything you can come up with. Use your 
imagination! Please add a short note (a couple of paragraphs) about your 
experience talking through an operational amateur radio satellite.  Some of 
the best cards and notes will be used for a future AMSAT Journal article. 
Also, digital pictures and notes can be sent to ke4azn@amsat.org for 
potential inclusion in the Journal article.  The certificate is free, and no 
SASE is required. The certificate is available to any kid, anywhere in the 
world.

Have fun and enjoy AO-51!

[ANS thanks Mike, KE4AZN and the AO-51 Team for the above information]

/EX

SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-142.06
An Amateur Radio Station on Columbus

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 142.06
From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.
May 22, 2005
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-142.06

AN AMATEUR RADIO STATION ON COLUMBUS

November 2002, ARISS Europe extended a request to ESA Directorate for Manned 
Space Flight and Microgravity, asking for ham radio facilities on Columbus, 
the European ISS laboratory presently under construction. In 2003 ESA's 
Columbus division agreed on the principle. The project is to install amateur 
radio antennas on the nadir of Columbus, i.e. underneath the module, facing 
the earth. The antennas will be installed before launch. Columbus will be 
transported in the bay of an American Shuttle. Therefore, since little room 
is left between the module and the Shuttle bay, the ARISS antennas will be 
patch antennas, flat planes a few millimetres thick. The patch antennas will 
be fixed to the Meteorite Debris Panels (MDP) protecting the hull of 
Columbus. On the conical end of the module, where it attaches to the ISS 
main structure, feedthroughs have been installed for the ARISS antennas and 
coax cables are run from the feedthroughs to the nadir.

The development of the antennas is presently taken care of by the Institute 
of Telecommunications and Acoustics of the Wroclaw University of Technology. 
The proposed Columbus antennas will work on UHF, L-band and S-band. For VHF, 
the surface available on the Meteorite Debris Panels is not sufficient.

BENEFITS OF ADDING ARISS ANTENNAS TO THE COLUMBUS MODULE

The existing ARISS antennas on the Service Module are shared through 
diplexers and will not be especially effective on the microwave bands. Using 
the dedicated antennas on Columbus will, for the first time, permit viable 
ARISS operations on these useful bands.

With the Columbus module being located at some considerable distance from 
the other two ARISS stations, this will permit parallel operations on the 
new bands at the same time as the existing operations. The availability of 
these new frequencies will enable us to establish wideband and video 
operations for the first time. This facility will provide ATV facilities for 
School contacts and, additionally, continuous transponder operation. The 
Columbus module is designed to undertake experiments but may also be used as 
temporary sleeping accommodation for the European astronauts. It is 
anticipated that most, if not all of them, will be licensed amateurs.

Different sleep patterns of the astronauts can restrict the existing 
operations so this "remote" facility would overcome this constraint. To 
summarise, the addition of these new antennas will provide greatly enhanced 
opportunities for amateur radio operations on the ISS and an additional 
emergency communication facility for the astronauts.

FUNDING THE ARISS ANTENNAS ON COLUMBUS

The construction of Columbus has reached its final stage. The ARISS antennas 
shall be installed in the Autumn 2005. A most important aspect has to be 
solved: funding.

The installation cost of the ARISS antennas on Columbus exceeds 100.000 euro 
(coaxial feedthroughs, coax cables on the hull of the module, etc.) ESA 
initially offered to support 50.000 euro of this amount. Presently ESA HAS 
DECIDED TO COVER THE INSTALLATION COST COMPLETELY.

This is most welcome since the development and manufacturing of the antennas 
will cost 80.000 euro. Half of this sum has to paid by ARISS in June 2005. 
The other 40.000 euro can be paid by the end of the year.

Presently we have collected about 9.000 euro and 20.000 euro have been 
pledged. We still need TO COLLECT 11.000 EURO IN THE NEXT FEW WEEKS.

CALL FOR DONATIONS

Taking into account that time is very short, ARISS-Europe extends an urgent 
call for donations to the IARU and AMSAT societies as well as to their 
members individually. A financial account has been opened by AMSAT Belgium. 
Donators within the European Union will not have to pay any additional 
banking costs (beyond the costs of a national money transfer) if they use 
the following international banking number (IBAN) and mention the 
international identification code (BIC):

AMSAT Belgium
001-2306592-08

IBAN BE63 0012 3065 9208
BIC GEBABEBB

Without any additional cost for international money transfer, even the 
smallest donation is useful and will be most appreciated. Please don't 
forget to reference the transfer as "Donation Columbus".

PAYPAL

If you have a PayPal account you can easily make a donation by using the 
"Donate" button in the left column of the ARISS-Europe Columbus website 
page: www.ariss-eu.org/columbus.htm

Even if you don't have a PayPal account you can use your credit card to make 
a PayPal donation for the Columbus project. Simply click the "Donate" button 
and follow instructions.

CREDITS

On the ARISS-Europe website a special Columbus page has been added. 
Donations are listed from societies as well as from individuals. Taking into 
account the regulations on privacy protection, donations are listed as 
anonymous, unless the donator states his identity as reference for the 
transfer.

This list is permanently updated and distance from the target shown.

THANKS

On behalf of all the volunteering parties involved in the project, we extend 
thanks to all donators.

This is a great goal for amateur radio at its best.

18 May, 2005

Gaston Bertels, ON4WF
ARISS-Europe Chairman

Avenue Paul Hymans 117 B29
B-1200 Brussels, Belgium

E-mail : gaston.bertels@skynet.be
http://www.ariss-eu.org

[ANS thanks Ian, G3ZHI for the above information]

/EX

SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-142.07
AMSAT-UK at The Space Technology Education Conference

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 142.07
From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.
May 22, 2005
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-142.07

The Space Technology Education Conference (STEC2005) took place at Aarlborg 
university in northern Denmark over the 6-8th of April and consisted of 
various keynote presentations and over 40 technical workshops. Over one 
hundred university students attended from many European countries and many 
came as a result of direct ESA sponsorship that they received having 
submitted papers to ESA for assessment. There was an exhibition and display 
area and one evening was spent performing seriously detailed checks on the 
specific gravity of the various Danish beers.

The organisation at Aarlborg rested upon a team of students and was largely 
members of the Groundstation and OBC teams that have been formed for the 
SSETI Express project. This was done very well and during the conference we 
even got to see the "control room" for SSETI Express.

Two members from AMSAT-UK had attended the 2004 conference and decided that 
AMSAT needed some more robust representation than last year so we were 
delighted when Jan King, VK4GEY/W3GEY, agreed to do a keynote on "The 
lessons we have learnt over 50 Oscars" - this was well received and he was 
also able to briefly introduce his new suite of link/power/mass budget 
spreadsheets. These are, without doubt, wonderful tools for satellite 
developers to use to verify their own calculations in these vital areas of 
system design. Presently his presentation and these spreadsheets can be 
downloaded from http://lmts.epfl.ch/page10433.html.

Graham Shirville, G3VZV, was also able to give a short presentation on the 
IARU Satellite Coordination Group and described the process that has to be 
followed to ensure that the right sort of satellites use "our" allocations 
and what else has to be done in addition.

In addition Ib, OZ1MY, the Chairman of AMSAT-OZ, was also in attendance and 
as he is already known to a good number of the student fraternity in Denmark 
this was especially helpful. He provided some AO-51 demonstrations and 
helped Jim, G3WGM, setup and man the AMSAT stand in the exhibition arena.

We were also asked to chair the "Communications" technical workshop during 
the Conference where a number of RF associated papers were presented.

Other keynote presentations included one from Prof Bob Twiggs - the father 
of the cubesat family and also licensed as KE6QMD so there was a 
considerable amount of AMSAT input.

This was a great event that enabled these enthusiastic students to learn 
about the AMSAT experience and skills and for us to be able to discuss with 
them their ideas and problems. We have a lot to offer them and their 
enthusiasm lays the ground for the future generation of amateur satellite 
builders.

One of the projects described during the Conference is called Delfi-C3 and 
is a triple cubesat i.e. 300x100x100mm. This project comes from the 
University of Delft in the Netherlands and will hopefully include a U/V 
linear transponder as part of its payload. See 
http://www.delfic3.tudelft.nl/ for full details.

A number of the speakers at STEC2005 have expressed a desire to attend our 
AMSAT-UK Colloquium in July and to give us updated presentations on their 
projects so the interaction is set to continue in a positive way.

[ANS thanks Graham, G3VZV 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 additional benefits. 
Application forms are available from the AMSAT Office.

73,
This week's ANS Editor,
Al Marote, WA1LBG
wa1lbg at amsat dot org
----
Via the ans mailing list at AMSAT.ORG courtesy of AMSAT-NA.
To unsubscribe, send "unsubscribe ans" to Majordomo@amsat.org

--- ViaMAIL!/WC v1.60d
 * Origin: Chowdanet (401-331-0615) telnet://chowdanet.com  (1:323/120)