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K4T DXpedition Satellite Operations March 11 - 15 The K4T DXpedition will have two full satellite stations and one portable satellite station ready for operation from the Dry Tortugas Islands in the Gulf of Mexico (grid EL84). Plans include working phone and some CW on the linear birds, since some members of the team are CW aficionados. To help people find them, K4T will probably work CW around the target frequency listed in the table, rather than at the bottom of the transponder pass bands. FM phone is planned on the satellites listed in the table. The second repeater on AO-51 will be configured in V/U FM mode for K4T operations.
Target Frequencies for K4T Satellite Operations
| Satellite |
Downlink |
Uplink |
Mode |
| AO-7 |
145.960 USB |
432.160 LSB |
SSB Phone and CW |
| AO-27 |
436.795 |
145.850 |
FM Phone |
| FO-29 |
435.860 USB |
145.940 LSB |
SSB Phone and CW |
| SO-50 |
436.795 |
145.850 |
FM Phone |
| AO-51 |
435.150 |
145.880 |
Primary FM Phone |
| AO-51 |
435.300 |
145.920 |
Secondary FM Phone |
| VO-52 |
145.910 USB |
435.240 LSB |
SSB Phone and CW |
| HO-68 |
435.760 USB |
145.930 LSB |
SSB Phone and CW |
Possible satellite pass times in UTC to work K4T. The team will try to operate on as many as possible, but might not be able to realistically work EVERY pass on the list.
Close Encounter of the AO-51 Kind
 AMSAT-NA VP Operations, Drew KO4MA, received notification from the US Joint Space Operations Center, located at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California on Sunday, February 28 warning that AO-51 would have a close approach to another satellite, FORMOSAT 3-D, on Monday at 1056 UTC. This occurred over the Eastern US, with many stations on hand capable of receiving telemetry from AO-51 before and after the near miss. Drew said, "The predicted miss distance was 953 meters, which is over 3000 feet overall but the radial difference between the two orbits was only 39 meters."
Steve, W3HF noted, "Given the orbital uncertanties of both satellites, an orbit separated by only 39 meters could mean that distance may become eaten up rather quickly!"
In preparation for the close encounter, Drew shut off the S band transmitter and turned on the digital downlink at 2 watts, with telemetry transmitted every 5 seconds. The next morning, on March 1, Drew was able to post a message that AO-51 was alive and well, "It looks like we are fine. A second warning email this morning from the Air Force called it even closer, but everything was working at LOS this pass."
 FORMOSAT-3 is a constellation of satellites launched on April 15, 2006. It is a joint U.S.- Taiwanese project with major participants including the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR), the National Science Foundation, the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL), the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) on the U.S. side and the National Space Organization (NSPO) on the Taiwanese side.Updated: 09 Mar, 10 |
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Building the First US ARISSAT-1 Flight Unit Begins Gould Smith, WA4SXM writing on behalf of the ARISSAT-1 team said construction of the flight unit begins in early February when Tony Monteiro, AA2TX begins electronic assembly of the first US flight unit for ARISSat.
The ARISSAT-1 team has had prototypes working for months. The enclosures have been painted by NASA and the cables prepared by Larry Brown, W7LB. The flight boards were built by the Microchip ARISSat team and Chuck Green, N0ADI, with Chuck checking all the flight units.
Lou McFadin, W5DID has nearly assembled a complete flight structure (see photo above) designed by Bob Davis, KF4KSS. Lou expects to exhibit the structure in the AMSAT Booth at the upcoming Orlando HamCation. The first two flight TX/RX/Command receiver modules from Bill Ress, N6GHZ are due to arrive in February.
We just found out that ARISSat will receive a new callsign and some additional Russian greetings will be added. We will have more than 25 international greetings from around the world in twelve languages broadcast on the FM downlink. In addition to the greetings will be voice ID, voice telemetry values, SSTV images, CW signals, a new 1k BPSK signal by Phil Karn, KA9Q sending full telemetry and experiment data and a 16 kHz wide transponder. Kurst State University in Russia is providing the experiment and the Silver-Zinc battery for the mission.
ARISSAT-1 Design Review Held in Orlando, February 15-16
 Members of the ARISSat team from AMSAT, NASA and Microchip held a Design Review in Orlando, Florida on Monday and Tuesday February 15-16, 2010. There were 23 presentations describing the operation, status and testing of the major areas of the satellite. Many of the members used their holiday and vacation time to participate in a 12 hour session on Monday and 9 hour session on Tuesday before heading home.
The meeting was very successful in identifying areas that need additional work and definition. The major items to work on are the Max Power Point Tracker, the ICB (Interconnect Board), working on making a warmer environment for the battery, power management software and IHU software.
The prototype structure was on display and additional structures are being built. We have nearly all the flight electronics built and checked. The next challenges are developing test plans and coordinating with NASA for thermal, vacuum and vibrations tests. We will not be able to deliver an operational and vetted satellite in March and are in discussion about a launch and EVA date later this year.
The presentations in PDF format will shortly be available on the ARISSAT-1 web page under Design Review.
AMSAT Acceptable Use Policy.
Updated: 09 Mar, 10
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| NASA Image of the Day |
Snapshot of the International Space Station
On March 13, 2008, the International Space Station passed across the field-of-view of Germany's remote sensing satellite, TerraSAR-X, at a distance of 195 kilometers, or 122 miles, and at a relative speed of 34,540 kilometers per hour, or more than 22,000 mph. In contrast to optical cameras, radar does not 'see' surfaces. Instead, it is much more aware of the edges and corners which bounce back the microwave signal it transmits. Smooth surfaces such as those on the station's solar generators or the radiator panels used to dissipate excess heat, unless directly facing the radar antenna, tend to deflect rather than reflect the radar beam, causing these features to appear on the radar image as dark areas. The radar image of the station therefore looks like a dense collection of bright spots from which the outlines of the space station can be clearly identified. The central element on the station, to which all the modules are docked, has a grid structure that presents a multiplicity of reflecting surfaces to the radar beam, making it readily identifiable. This image has a resolution of about one meter (about 39 inches). In other words, objects can be depicted as discrete units--that is, shown separately--provided that they are at least one meter apart. If they are closer together than that, they tend to merge into a single block on a radar image. Since this image as taken, the station has expanded and is more than 90 percent complete, including a full complement of solar arrays. Image Credit: DLR |
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