The Latest News from AMSAT, as of 07 February, 2010 - 1454 UTC
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| FO-29 Status Update
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The JARL FO-29 command team reported on the status of FO-29 this week. After long eclipse periods caused a negative power budget on FO-29 in early November, 2009 which took it off the air temporarily the command team switched the satellite from continuous operation to scheduled operations. This allows the command team to monitor the state of the battery charge aboard the spacecraft and adjust operations as required.
Since the last commanded power up of the analog transponder on January 27, 2010 the command team has received reports worldwide which indicate that FO-29 has been able maintain continuos operation. The power budget aboard the spacecraft is improving as the eclipse periods decrease.
If the power budget decreases too much the satellite will automatically power down. The JARL command team requests telemetry reports (either direct or posted via the amsat-bb) from stations that may have data from January 27 to January 28. Additionally, if you find the transponder is off during a scheduled ON period please report this to the command team as well.
JARL places no restrictions on the use of FO-29 during scheduled operation periods except to remind satellite ground stations to transmit with as low as uplink transmitter power as possible.
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| AMSAT Activities at Orlando Hamcation
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AMSAT will once again have a major presence at the Orlando Hamcation (http://www.hamcation.com), which takes place next weekend, 12-14 FEB at the Central Fairgrounds, 4603 West Colonial Drive, Orlando. AMSAT Team leader for Hamcation, Dave Jordan, AA4KN, reports that AMSAT will have a booth at the same location as in prior years (Booth 83 and 84) in the main commercial area. A satellite station will be operating and satellite demonstrations are planned. Stop by the booth to get a list of scheduled satellite passes on Friday afternoon, Saturday and Sunday. Those who have attended Hamcation in past years will remember the satellite antenna trailer maintained by the Lake Monroe Amateur Radio Society (LMARS); this will be in operation again this year by AMSAT.
An AMSAT Forum is scheduled from 1000-1100 on Saturday morning in the 'Bubble Buildiing.' Presenters will include:- AMSAT President Barry Baines, WD4ASW
- AMSAT Chief Scientist and Board Member Tom Clark, K3IO
- AMSAT VP-Operations and Board Member Drew Glasbrenner, KO4MA
- ARISSat-1 Program Manager and Board Member Gould Smith, WA4SXM
- ARISS Hardware Manager and Board Member Lou McFadin, W5DID
Presentations will cover a variety of topics, including an AMSAT Status report which will discuss AMSAT's strategic direction and focus on LEO satellites, an update on current satellite operations, and an update on ARISSat-1 which is expected to deploy from the International Space Station in late 2010.
In addition to the operational satellite station, ARISSat-1 RF hardware will be demonstrated at the booth. AMSAT members and others are also encouraged to stop by the AMSAT booth to ask questions and meet with members of the AMSAT Leadership Team.
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| First call for speakers for the AMSAT-UK Colloquium 2010
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This is the first call for speakers for the AMSAT-UK Colloquium 2010 which will be held at the Holiday Inn, Guildford, UK (same venue as in 2009) on Sat 31st Jul and Sun 1st Aug 2010.
AMSAT-UK invite speakers, about amateur radio, space and associated activities, for this event. They are also invited to submit papers for the "Proceedings" document which will be published at the same time but printed papers are not mandatory. We normally prefer authors to present talks themselves rather than having someone else give them in the authors' absence. We also welcome "unpresented" papers for the Proceedings document.
Offers of talks should be submitted as soon as possible; the final date for full documents to be received is late-June 2010 in order that the "Proceedings" document be available to participants.
Submissions should be sent ONLY to G4DPZ, via the following routes:- e-mail: david.johnson AT blackpepper.co.uk
- SnailMail: QTHR from www.QRZ.com
AMSAT-UK also invite anyone with requests for Program Topics to submit them as soon as possible to G4DPZ. Invitations for any papers on specific subjects will be included in the future call. Likewise if anyone knows of a good speaker, please send contact and other information to G4DPZ.
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| Satellite Presentation at Palm Springs Desert RATS Meeting
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AMSAT area coordinator Clint Bradford, K6LCS, will be presenting his "Working Amateur Satellites With Your HT" multimedia session at the February 16, 2010 meeting of the Desert RATS of Palm Springs. All are welcome to attend.
"Tentatively, we'll have a workable pass of AO-51 at 5:37PM that evening," Clint reports. If you would like toshow up early, Clint will be working the satellite from the Jack-in-the-Box parking lot at 2591 E. Tahquitz Canyon Way, and monitoring the 146.940 - 107.2 repeater.
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Desert RATS meeting starts at 7PM
Palm Springs Corporate Yard
425 N. Civic Drive
Palm Springs CA 92262-0331
Attendees should download Clint's four-page tutorial and radio programming matrix before the meeting from http://www.work-sat.com
And Clint welcomes pre-presentation questions - call him at 909-241-7666, or send email to clint@clintbradford.com
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| ARISS Status - 1 February 2010
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JAXA Astronaut Participates in ARISS Contact with Boy Scouts
On Thursday, January 28, JAXA astronaut Soichi Noguchi, KD5TVP conducted an Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) contact with Boy Scouts visiting the Morioka Children's Museum of Science in Morioka, Iwate, Japan. The children asked questions such as, "What is done to avoid collisions with space debris?" and "Why don't artificial satellites fall on the earth?" Through this activity, the youth learned about the ISS, satellite orbits and amateur radio.
Moscow Aviation Institute Experiment Activated
Cosmonaut Maxim Suraev activated the Moscow Aviation Institute (MAI-75) experiment onboard the ISS on Wednesday - Friday, January 27 - 29. Slow Scan Television (SSTV) images of Earth and the ISS were downlinked to ground stations. Images received were archived to the ARISS SSTV Gallery. See: http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/SSTV/
ISS Ham Debrief Scheduled
An Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) debrief session has been scheduled with Expedition 20/21 astronaut Frank DeWinne, ON1DWN on Thursday, February 4. The feedback provided will help ARISS update program operations.
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