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AMSAT NEWS SERVICE
ANS-282
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:
* Initial Report From the AMSAT Meeting
* AMSAT President's Letter
* ARISS Status October 3, 2005
* New Launch Date for SSETI Express
* AO-51 Special Event - JOTA Weekend 15-16 October
* South Africa, Other African Nations to Build LEO Satellite Network
SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-282.01
Initial Report From the AMSAT Meeting
AMSAT News Service Bulletin 282.01
>From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.
October 9, 2005
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-282.01
The AMSAT News Service caught up with Board Member Emily Clarke, W0EEC after
the first day of the Annual AMSAT BoD meeting in Pittsburgh. Emily said, "This
is my first meeting as a member of the board, and I am very impressed at how
unified the board is. The meeting has been focused on our top priority - to
build and launch Eagle(s) - and the board has been very productive in
identifying plan elements that will bring Eagle to orbit."
Emily continued with, "One challenge we face is fund-raising, which is
difficult to do at an early stage of the project. Unlike previous efforts much
of the work, such as writing and testing software for the SDTX is intangible.
Fundraising is our biggest challenge, and I encourage every member to think of
creative ways we might meet our goal."
Emily described another key action of the Board being the elections of the
Executive Team officers taking place this week. The Board will announce the
results of these elections when the process is completed.
The AMSAT Annual Meeting followed on Friday, October 8, at 8PM.
Powerpoint slides from this meeting can be viewed on-line at:
http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/articles/2005_General_Meeting/
If one is navigating from the http://www.amsat.org front page the steps are:
Navigator (main menu)
Current Articles
2005 General Meeting
We will upload additional presentations as they are reviewed and approved.
[ANS thanks Emily, W0EEC for the above information]
/EX
SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-282.02
AMSAT President's Letter
AMSAT News Service Bulletin 282.02
>From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.
October 9, 2005
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-282.02
As I prepare for the series of AMSAT meetings that will take place in
Pittsburgh this week I have been reviewing the accomplishments of the past
year and the challenges of the coming year. I am pleased with the progress of
AMSAT's organizational and infrastructure improvements and with the progress
of the two satellite projects, P3E and Eagle. For the coming year I am
committed to focus AMSAT's activities primarily on the completion and launch
of P3E, the construction of the Eagle space frame and implementation of the
Eagle Software Defined Transponders (SDX), at a minimum.
The changes in AMSAT's organizational structure have created many new
opportunities for members to actively contribute to the growth and advancement
of our organization. Our members are working on teams that are dedicated to
areas of excellence such as finance and fundraising, marketing and field
operations, technical and scientific, office management, external affairs,
operations, human spaceflight, and record keeping. We have a great group of
volunteers working in these areas and there is always room for more people.
Our infrastructure has improved in a number of ways, most notably the rollout
and constant upgrade of AMSAT's new Web site and on-line store and the
overhaul of our accounting practices. Other improvements are in process and
will be brought on line as time permits such as the AMSAT Information
Management System (AIMS) and member only services.
The P3E project is a very exciting one that holds great promise for the return
of AMSAT to the benefits of high earth orbit satellites. This project is
being led by AMSAT-DL, as have all the HEO satellite projects. AMSAT in North
America is contributing substantial manpower and funding to P3E and is
committed to the success of the project and to our close relationship with our
good friends and colleagues in AMSAT-DL. I am personally a member of AMSAT,
AMSAT-DL and AMSAT-UK.
The Eagle project is maturing to the point that we will soon be ready to build
the space frame and start assembling some of the payload modules like the
Internal Housekeeping Unit and the U/V and L/S software defined transponders.
Nearly all of the work that we are doing in support of P3E will also be used
in Eagle so we will maximize the benefits of having cooperated on P3E. As
with any new satellite design there are design issues and uncertainties. Let
there be no mistake that these are normal and health parts of the design
process as we balance the science, engineering, technology and mission
requirements for Eagle. The Eagle team is large, diverse and excited about
what they are doing. New qualified volunteers are being added to the team on
a regular basis. Status reports are appearing in every issue of the AMSAT
Journal.
This coming year will be one of improved communication. There will be an
effort to expand our communications beyond the official outlets, the Journal
and AMSAT News Service. You will see more reports on the AMSAT-BB message
board and we will improve the content and timeliness of the information on the
AMSAT Web site, especially on the Eagle pages.
The annual membership meeting will be held Friday evening, October 7th, at
8:00 pm Eastern Time and is open to the membership. This meeting will be
recorded and both audio and video will be placed on AMSAT servers soon after
the meeting. The meeting will also be broadcast on the AMSAT EchoLink
conference. If you have questions and cannot be there please submit them by
e-mail (details to be announced on ANS). We may also be able to take questions
from EchoLink's text messaging window, if we can get someone in the meeting to
operate the computer.
AMSAT is an exciting and vibrant organization with a great deal to offer our
members. No organization is perfect but we have a fabulous Mission and Vision
and we are performing to those promises. I encourage those who need more
information or clarification to gain a better understanding of what we are
doing and why it is important and exciting to contact me or any of the other
Board members and Officers. Contact information is on the AMSAT Web site at
http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/AboutAmsat/officers.php.
Rick, W2GPS
AMSAT President
[ANS thanks Rick, W2GPS for the above information]
/EX
SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-282.03
ARISS Status October 3, 2005
AMSAT News Service Bulletin 282.03
>From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.
October 9, 2005
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-282.03
1. Tregaron School Contact Successful
On September 29, Tregaron High School (Ysgol Uwchradd Tregaron) in Tregaron,
Ceredigion, Wales, U. K., experienced a successful ARISS contact. John
Phillips, KE5DRY, answered 18 questions posed to him by the 14 students and
after the contact was lost, he gave answers to the two remaining questions the
students had prepared, allowing other radio stations to hear the answers.
Approximately 400 students, teachers and dignitaries witnessed the contact.
Audio of the contact is available on the ARISS-Europe website. See:
http://www.ariss-eu.org/2005_09_29.htm
To view the BBC article online, see:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/4292620.stm
2. ARRL Article on Expedition 12
On September 28, ARRL ran a web story on the new ISS crew. "ISS Expedition 12
crew, space tourist to launch October 1" may be found at:
http://www.arrl.org/
3. Space Adventures Announces Greg Olsen's Flight Plans
A press release on Greg Olsen's flight and planned amateur radio contacts has
been posted on the Space Adventures website. See:
http://www.spaceadventures.com/media/releases/2005-09/283
4. Cosmonaut Greets IARU Conference Members
On September 11-15, the International Amateur Radio Union (IARU) Region 1 held
their tri-annual General Conference in Davos, Switzerland, where one hundred
fifty delegates from 56 countries participated. On Sunday, September 11,
during the opening ceremony, the delegates viewed a video of Sergei Krikalev,
U5MIR, who sent greetings from space to the participants, wishing them a
successful meeting. A news bulletin covering the meeting and including a link
to the video has been posted on the ARISS-Europe website. See:
http://www.ariss-eu.org/2005_09_30.htm
5. Students Run PCSAT2 Experiment
On Thursday, September 29, Naval Academy midshipmen ran an experiment with
PCSAT2. The students watched for packets via the PCSAT2 145.825 uplink, which
were digipeated on the 435.275 downlink, and answered those by voice on the
437.975 downlink. Although they had little time to prepare for the pass, the
students did have some success, and gained some experience from their lesson.
6. ARISS Budget 2006
A proposal was submitted to the Space Operations Mission Directorate (SOMD) to
request funds for the ARISS program for the fiscal year 2006. ARISS Chairman
Frank Bauer gave a presentation supporting this request on Friday, September
30.
7. NASA Nights Event
On September 27, NES teachers from Pine Ridge Middle School in Naples,
Florida, held "NASA Nights," an event to educate parents, teachers and
students about NASA programs. Amateur Radio operators from the Amateur Radio
Association of South West Florida volunteered to set up a radio demonstration
station, and schedule radio contacts with Amateur Radio operators who work at
NASA facilities. The scheduled radio contacts allowed students to ask
questions of "NASA experts." After listening to contacts with hams in Chile,
Great Britain and several states, students asked questions of hams at the NASA
Ames Center in California. The Ames hams then made contact with hams at
Kennedy Space Center, and relayed students' questions to KSC experts about the
ISS and shuttles.
8. ARISS International Meeting Held
The monthly ARISS International teleconference was held on Tuesday, September
27. Agenda items discussed included the status of the Columbus Module
antennas, SSTV, the SuitSat project, Greg Olsen's contacts, and the use of
Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) for direct ARISS contacts. The next
international meeting will be held on October 25.
[ANS thanks Carol, KB3LKI for the above information]
/EX
SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-282.04
New Launch Date for SSETI Express
AMSAT News Service Bulletin 282.04
>From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.
October 9, 2005
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-282.04
We have been advised that a new launch date has been agreed - Thursday 27th
October from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome - with 28th October as a back-up date.
The launch time is still expected to remain at 06:52:26 UTC
For those who have already set-up their sat TV equipment to receive the ESA
transmissions on ASTRA 1G - you may like to know that the launch of the ESA
Cryosat spacecraft will be broadcast this coming Saturday - 8th October.
Cryosat will lift-off from a launch facility at Plesetsk just a few kilometers
away from where SSETI Express will be launched from.
Start End Description
GMT GMT
14:20 14:45 Start of ESA TV Program - welcome from ESA/ESRIN
14:45 15:15 Launch coverage from ESA/ESOC and Plesetsk Cosmodrome
15:02 Scheduled lift-off
15:15 16:30 Cryosat background information - live from ESA/ESRIN
16:30 16:45 Live coverage of satellite/launcher separation from ESA/ESOC
16:36 Scheduled orbital injection
17:00 17:30 Post-launch media briefing from ESA/ESRIN
[ANS thanks Graham, G3VZV for the above information]
/EX
SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-282.05
AO-51 Special Event - JOTA Weekend 15-16 October
AMSAT News Service Bulletin 282.05
>From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.
October 9, 2005
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-282.05
The annual Boy and Girl Scouts "Jamboree on the Air" Amateur Radio event is
scheduled for 15 and 16 October 2005. As this is an International Scouting
event, amateur radio stations around the world are invited to participate. The
AO-51 command team is scheduling the satellite for exclusive use by the
Scouts, and Satellite operators communicating with the Scouts, for this
weekend. Please allow the Scouts the opportunity to make as many contacts as
possible via AO-51 during this short time period. Base stations, please
remember that most of the JOTA stations will be portable, so please use
minimum power. The official times for the JOTA event will be from 1200 UTC on
October 15 until 1200 UTC on October 17, 2005.
For the JOTA weekend, AO-51 will be configured in the Dual FM repeater mode.
This will provide two independent FM repeaters (separate uplink and downlink
frequencies) for use over the weekend. Both repeaters will be for use by the
JOTA activity. This mode will run Monday through Friday before the event to
allow amateur satellite stations to familiarize and test this mode. The
configuration of the satellite frequencies for this mode is listed below.
AO-51 FM repeater #1
Downlink: 435.300 MHz
Uplink: 145.920 MHz with 67hz PL Tone
AO-51 FM repeater #2
Downlink: 435.150 MHz
Uplink: 145.880 MHz with NO PL Tone
Here are some web links for information on the JOTA weekend activity.
http://www.arrl.org/FandES/ead/jota.html
http://www.arrl.org/FandES/ead/ideas.html
http://www.scouting.org/international/jota.html
If your local club has a JOTA activity planned for the weekend please consider
volunteering your services to provide a satellite communication station for
the event.
Thanks for your support and participation.
[ANS thanks Mike, KE4AZN for the above information]
/EX
SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-282.06
South Africa, Other African Nations to Build LEO Satellite Network
AMSAT News Service Bulletin 282.06
>From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.
October 9, 2005
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-282.06
SA AMSAT has been involved in discussions with the Department of Science and
Technology to include an amateur payload to serve the needs of Amateurs on the
African continent.
"Now that the announcement has been made we will intensify our discussions
with the various role-players", SA AMSAT President, Hans van de Groenendaal
ZS6AKV said.
"At this time I call on Radio Amateurs to send in ideas of what payload they
believe will serve the African Amateur Radio Community best.
The full story can be seen at:
http://www.southgatearc.org/news/october2005/sa_satellite.htm
[ANS thanks Trevor, M5AKA 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
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