SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-244.01 BELGIUM TO LAUNCH HAM ASTRONAUT AMSAT News Service Bulletin 244.01 From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. SEPTEMBER 1, 2002 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-244.01 Belgium's second astronaut to go into space is a radio amateur. Frank De Winne, ON1DWN, will join the International Space Station at the end of October this year. The exact timing of the flight is not yet available. Gaston Bertels, ON4WF, who is Chairman of ARISS-Europe, has organized an amateur radio contact with the Belgian air force Royal Technical School. Bertels says that there may be other opportunities for operators to make contact with the mission as well. A full color QSL will be available. QSL cards and listener reports should be sent either direct or via the bureau to ON7AQ. [ANS thanks Amateur Radio Newsline, for the above information.] /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-244.02 RS-12/13 REMAINS SILENT AMSAT News Service Bulletin 244.02 From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. SEPTEMBER 1, 2002 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-244.02 Hams reporting to the RS-12/13 Forum from across the US and from Europe have stated that they have not been able to hear any beacons from either the RS-12 or RS-13 satellite packages since early this week. (Approximately Tuesday) It is unknown if they have been switched off or if it is perhaps related to absorption or solar flares. More news as it becomes available. [ANS thanks Kevin Manzer, AC5DK, for the above information.] /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-244.03 AO-40 UPDATE AMSAT News Service Bulletin 244.03 From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. SEPTEMBER 1, 2002 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-244.03 The MB off (eclipse) time has been moved slightly. It is now MA =40 to 90 N QST AMSAT AO-40 S2 Downlink @=variable 2002-08-29 MA 020 040 090 OFF@ 216 240 020 ---------7-----4-----1-----3-----5-----0-----7 MB | * | | * | | * | * | RUDAK | | | | * | | | V-Rx | | | | * | | * | U-Rx | * | * | * | | * | | Passband | | | UL | | UL | | Some readers have asked what "OFF@=Variable" means in the schedule above? It's a "place holder" says Stacey Mills, who runs one of AO-40's command stations. He reports that RUDAK is off until further notice, but this line is left in the schedule to remind the command team of RUDAK's schedule line number, etc. "If RUDAK were active, the word "OFF" would be replaced with an MA value, and I would post the days of the week that it was scheduled to be active on the amsat-bb", he says. Stacey goes on to note that, "The "variable" never was meant to refer to variable MA, it referred to variable days of the week." The MA was only occasionally changed and OFF means off for now", says Stacey. 2002 Aug 30 ALON/ALAT ~ 40/0 Shortly after the end of these eclipses, ALAT will be raised and the ME will be allowed to drift AO-40 back to ALON = 330+ Because of the increasing ALON, it is now necessary to take pictures for attitude determination at the end of one orbit, and download them after apogee on the next orbit. This requires the IHU-2 to be left on through two passes of the radiation belts. Since EDAC is not currently active on the IHU-2, there is an excellent chance that it will crash about every second or third time this is done. A crash of the IHU-2 takes only a few minutes to correct, but until it is corrected the result will be an unmodulated tone on the middle beacon. If you should encounter this, be aware that the IHU-1 is running properly in the background and the command team will restore the beacon ASAP. The photos are not lost when the IHU-2 crashes, as long as the unit is not powered off. [ANS thanks Stacey, W4SM, for the above information.] /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-244.04 ARISS CONTACT SCHEDULE AMSAT News Service Bulletin 244.04 From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. SEPTEMBER 1, 2002 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-244.04 Upcoming ARISS Contact Schedule as of 2002-08-23 17:00 UTC The ARISS (a joint effort of AMSAT, the ARRL, NASA, the ARISS international partners including Canada, Russia, the European Partners, and Japan) operations team wishes to announce the following very tentative schedule for ARISS school contacts. This schedule is very fluid and may change at the last minute. Remember that amateur radio use on the ISS is considered secondary. Please check the various AMSAT and ARISS web pages for the latest announcements. Changes from the last announcement are noted with (***). Also, please check MSNBC.com for possible live retransmissions (http://www.msnbc.com/m/lv/default.asp). Listen for the ISS on the downlink of 145.80 MHz. For information about educational materials available from ISS partner space Agencies, please refer to links on the ARISS Frequently Asked Questions page. If you are interested in supporting an ARISS contact, then you must fill in an application. The ARISS operations mentor team will not accept a direct request to support an ARISS contact. You should also note that many schools think that they can request a specific date and time. It does not work that way. Once an application has been accepted, the ARISS mentors will work with the school to determine a mutually agreeable date. Web sites that may be of interest include: http://www.arrl.org/sarex http://www.arrl.org/ariss http://www.amsat.org http://ariss.gsfc.nasa.gov http://spacelink.nasa.gov/index.html http://ehb2.gsfc.nasa.gov/edcats/educator_guide/ Your completely filled out application should be returned to the nearest coordinating ARISS region if your specific region is not listed. E-mail is the preferred method of submitting an application. Here are the email addresses: ARISS-Canada: ve2ka@rac.ca (Daniel Lamoureux VE2KA) ARISS-Europe: jh.hahn@gmx.net (J. Hahn, DL3LUM / PA1MUC) ARISS-Japan: iaru-r3@jarl.or.jp (Keigo Komuro JA1KAB) ARISS-Russia: n2ww@attbi.com (Valerie Agabekov N2WW/UA6HZ) ARISS-USA: ARISS@arrl.org (The American Radio Relay League) ARISS-Australia: ve2ka@rac.ca (Daniel Lamoureux VE2KA) ARISS-New Zealand: ve2ka@rac.ca (Daniel Lamoureux VE2KA) ISS Expedition 5 crew: Peggy Whitson KC5ZTD Sergei Treschev RZ3FU Valeri Korzun RZ3FK 2002-08-26 05:00 EVA ARISS contacts are off limits the day before, the day of, and the day after EVAs. Jamboree Station, The Netherlands, PI4RIS TBD Mikve Israel School/ Givatayim Space Observatory, Israel direct via 4Z4SAT 2002-09-02 10:01 UTC (***) Whitson Crew Pick, Stanley Clark School, South Bend, IN direct via W9AB 2002-09-04 17:19 UTC (***) Glen Waverley Secondary College, Melbourne Australia, VK3BPU Week of 2002-09-09 TBD Whitson Crew Pick, Martensdale - St. Mary's School, Martensdale, IA Week of 2002-09-16 TBD Whitson Crew Pick, Silver Hills Middle School, Fairplay, CO Week of 2002-09-16 TBD Whitson Crew Pick, St. Mark's Lutheran School, Hacienda Heights, CA Week of 2002-09-16 TBD Joamie Ilniarvik, Iqualuit, Nunavut, Canada Week of 2002-09-23 TBD Whitson Crew Pick, Spruce Hill Christian School (K-8), Philadelphia, PA Week 2002-09-30 TBD Look for possible live streaming video, the web site is http://www.adlerplanetarium.org Center for Educational Technologies, Wheeling Jesuit University, Wheeling, WV Telebridge TBD The latest ARISS announcement and successful school list in now available on the ARISS web site. Several ways to get there. http://ariss.gsfc.nasa.gov click on English (sorry I don't know French) you are now at http://www.rac.ca/ariss.htm click on News Currently the ARISS operations team has a list of over 40 schools that we hope will be able to have a contact during 2002. As the schedule becomes more solidified, we will be letting everyone know. Current plans call for an average of one scheduled school contact per week. [ANS thanks Charlie Sufana, AJ9N, for the above information.] /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-244.05 NEWS IN BRIEF FOR THIS WEEK AMSAT News Service Bulletin 244.05 From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. SEPTEMBER 1, 2002 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-244.05 ** The AO-40 FAQ is now on the AMSAT-NA web site. (http://www.amsat.org) -- Steve, VK5ASF ** You may sometimes be able to catch the AO-40 audio stream from Howard G6LVB at http://213.123.249.83:1024 using the Windows Media Player format. -- Howard, G6LVB ** Due to a system crash some of the AO-40 telemetry archive was lost. If you sent in any telemetry to the AO-40 archive between 16-18 August 2002 (orbits 826 to 828), please send them in again to ao40-archive@amsat.org Sorry about this! -- Paul, VP9MU ** The UO-11 VHF beacon usually heard on 145.826 MHz. appears to be silent again. Clive would appreciate hearing if anyone has heard the S-band beacon on 2401.5 MHz. Send e-mail reports to g3cwv@amsat.org. Please do not send sound or spectrogram files. -- Clive, G3CWV ** NASA announced last week it was postponing the launch of the space shuttle Atlantis to October 2 to allow engineers more time to repair the two crawler transporters that move shuttles to their launch pad. -- SpaceDaily **An Ariane 5 rocket placed two European satellites into orbit late Wednesday, one of which it is hoped will improve the world's weather forecasting capability, especially for extreme weather patterns. --SpaceDaily /EX