SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-307.01
AMSAT-NA PRESIDENTS LETTER OCTOBER

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 307.01 From AMSAT HQ
SILVER SPRING, MD. November 3, 2002
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-307.01

Well, I am sorry that this October letter is nearly a November one, but as
the saying goes 'Better late than never.'

The latter part of September and all of October are traditionally a very
busy time for AMSAT, as we are preparing for the AMSAT Annual meeting
and Space Symposium. many activities in making sure that you, the members
and visitors are going to be comfortable and well looked after by the Hotel,
that meals are available and that the symposium papers are printed and
readily
available for those of you who come to the meetings.

This year the Annual meetings Hotel is the AmeriSuites (City View) in Fort
Worth Tx.  Details may be found on the AMSAT web page (www.amsat.org).
November 7 through November 11 - see the agenda.

In addition there is a Board of Directors meeting which will start on Sunday
1300 hrs and be completed (we hope) at 1300 hrs on Monday. You are cordially
invited to attend this meeting and see how  AMSAT business is conducted.
I am certainly looking forward to meeting as many AMSAT members as possible
in Fort Worth and I wish you luck in the Banquet door prize draw for some
impressive prizes.

Some of you may have noticed that the September/October 'AMSAT Journal' has
not yet reached your mail box. I must apologise for this as we have had some
quite unexpected production delays. This issue is now nearly complete and I
hope will be at the printers within a few days. The November / December
issue will shortly be generated and I hope will be on schedule. One of the
requirements of the Journal is, of course, articles! a majority of which are
supplied by AMSAT members. Do you have an article you would like to put in
the journal, however short or long it will be welcome. I have set up a
special mail box for E-mailed articles please send your articles,
photographs etc. to journal@amsat-na.org our editor can then pick up
articles
from this mail box to use in 'The Journal'.

Each and every member of AMSAT-NA will be receiving a letter from me in the
next few days, concerning the need for increased funding for our satellites,
and introducing the next level of the "President's Club" donations. You may
now become a Presidents' club donor for only $10/month. This donation level
is called "The Core level" as it is the basic level, which we hope all
satellite users will use as their minimum donation in support of the
building and development of satellites.

They say that copying is the highest compliment, in which case it great to
note that the ARRL has recently introduced their equivalent of the
"President's Club". With your help we can get a higher percentage of members
as donors, and thus really support our satellite design, building and
launching programs. If all of our members were to be President's Club Core
donors we would not need any further fund raising programs - will you
donate?.

Once more I look forward to seeing you in Fort Worth,

73,
Robin Haighton, VE3FRH,
President AMSAT-NA

[ANS thanks Robin, VE3FRH, for the above information]

/EX


SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-307.02
ANS WEEKLY OPERATING UPDATE

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 307.02 From AMSAT HQ
SILVER SPRING, MD. November 3, 2002
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-307.02

** ANS welcomes the opportunity to publish your good news of success in
working a new satellite, new DX, new mode, etc.  We also print reports
about what space related activities your local satellite groups and ham
clubs are doing.  Send your operating reports to ANS Editor JoAnne Maenpaa
(wb9jej@amsat.org) and they will be printed here.

** After spending about 6 months piecing together the parts to become
active on the satellites, Jamie WB4YDL has a success story.  He wrote,
"After a big weekend on the CQ WW SSB contest, I decided to have a listen
to AO-40's beacon. Wow ! It was pounding in above S5 on the meter. The
telemetry received was about 86% on CRC. I set up shop about 10 kHz above
the beacon and managed to find myself on 70 cm. I found Alfred I5UXJ, about
10 kHz above where I was positioned. He was in a QSO already so that gave
me time to be sure the frequency pair still worked.  The noise floor was
substantial, much like listening to 160 meters! Using the digital filter
and noise reduction, I could make him out real well. Then I heard Alfred
call "QRZ satellite". I pounced ! I gave him a careful call with phonetics
and he came right back to me. Hooray ! He gave me a 55 report but in the
excitement I forgot to right his name down. No problem, I quickly looked
it up through QRZ.com. Not clearly thinking while I was on 'cloud 9', I
gave him a 59 report - hey, he was my first - he earned it! I gushed back
to him that he was my first AO-40 QSO and told him my rig and antennae,
name, grid locator, and anything else I could think of.  He made my day!
Jamie adds, "It would have been  a whole lot harder to get going on this
aspect of our great hobby had I not had the good fortune to hook up with
several compatriots on the AMSAT reflector. Many thanks to one and all."
Jamie's station includes a Yaesu FT-847, an M2 436CP42 for the uplink, N3IYR
3' offset helical fed dish on the downlink, and Transystem AIDC-3733 2.4 GHz
downconverter.

** Ciemon G0TRT wrote about his efforts via FO-20, "Well that was a first,
and what a big cheesy grin I have on my face!!  After finally taking the
plunge and getting some decent gear I hooked up my new FT-847 to my Arrow
antenna and had my first attempt at listening and working through FO-20.

After a few calls and not hearing myself I swept my transmit frequency until
I could hear myself, and wow could I hear myself, better than any
terrestrial SSB I've ever heard. Hang on..
I was only using 5 watts... fantastic.

So it appears that keeping a fixed tx and following with rx is the
recognized technique (?) Now all I need is someone to work!

I've been dying to get something more than a TH-D7 and an Arrow on the air
for years, and I've finally taken the plunge. I'd like to thank Howard G6LVB
for his endless enthusiasm, experimentation, help and encouragement. Let the
fun begin!!! Now.. when's the next pass......"

[ANS thanks and congratulates WB4YDL and G0TRT for this week's operating
news.]

/EX


SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-307.03
AO-40 UPDATE

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 307.03 From AMSAT HQ
SILVER SPRING, MD. November 3, 2002
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-307.03

As a result of the improving solar angles, ALAT has already been lowered
considerably and the drift back to ALON 360 has begun.  Based on the new
attitude the operating schedule has been adjusted as shown in the table
below.

N  QST AMSAT AO-40        S2 Downlink               2002-10-27
                MA      020   050   170   246   020
                ---------7-----1-----5-----0-----7
                MB       |  *  |  *  |  *  |  *  |
                RUDAK    |     |     |     |     |
                V-Rx     |     |     |     |  *  |
                U-Rx     |  *  |  *  |  *  |     |
                Passband |     |  *  |     |     |


As of 2002 Oct 27, AO-40's attitude was ALON/ALAT ~340/12.
ALAT is being lowered to 0 during next ~10 days
ALON will be slowly advanced to 0 at ~1 deg/day

[ANS thanks Stacey, W4SM, for the above information]

/EX


SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-307.04
SATELLITE DXPEDITION TO JAMAICA

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 307.04 From AMSAT HQ
SILVER SPRING, MD. November 3, 2002
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-307.04

A major Satellite DXpedition to Jamaica with Team Vertical plans to be on
the air between November 16 to November 25 as W6FOG/6Y5.  Neil W6FOG, will
head up a dedicated satellite station from Jamaica.  Operation will be on
AO-7, AO-10,  AO-27, U0-14, FO-20, FO-29, PACKET ON UO-22 AND THE ISS.
Operating modes are planned to include FM, SSB, CW, SSTV, and Packet.

Neil will be the primary operator, but will be backed up by experienced con-
testers and DXpeditioners to maintain a high level of activity on the birds.
Don't be surprised if you hear W6FOG on both AO-40 and the LEOs at the same
time.  Neil said, "Our goal is to give a 'new one' to as many ops as
possible.

Please, if you work us once, do not work us again on that bird so we can
work as many stations as possible."

Neil explains some flexibility is planned, "If we start getting low on new
stations to work. We have made arrangements to move to the next Grid Square.
Then we will start ALL OVER AGAIN."

Neil's web page at www.w6fog.com will keep you informed
with daily up dates.  Also, the logs, a picture gallery, and digital
operating movies will be available in addition to the latest DXpedition
news.  Neil said, "This is where you Will find out if we have changed
Grid Squares. I plan on posting times when I will, be able to drop down to
14.282 MHz. AMSAT net frequency.

QSL Instructions: W6FOG P.O.BOX 533 ALAMEDA CA.94501

All QSLs via W6FOG/6Y5 will do a 100% QSL mailing for USA QSOs via:
AMSAT QSL BUREAU, 3702 Allison St. Brentwood MD 20722. Send # 10 SASE.
(AMSAT membership is not required to receive QSL cards via the bureau.)

The QSL manager outside of the USA is:
Robert Kaplan WA4WTG, 718 SE 3rd Lane, Dania, FL 33004 USA
(Please send SASE or SAE + IRC/greenstamp if you want the cards returned
directly.  Otherwise they will go via the bureau.  WA4WTG is an avid stamp
collector, so if you have some stamps you were going to throw away, please
send them to Kappy!  Thank you!)

[ANS thanks Neil, W6FOG, for the above information.]

/EX


SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-307.05
SOYUZ MISSION TO ISS SUCCESSFULLY LAUNCHED

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 307.05 From AMSAT HQ
SILVER SPRING, MD. November 3, 2002
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-307.05

Right on time, a Russian-Belgian cosmonaut crew blasted off in a newly
modified Soyuz capsule from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan
on Oct. 30, headed for a linkup to the International Space Station later
this week to deliver a fresh crew return vehicle.

Russian "taxi crew" Commander Sergei Zalyotin, European Space Agency
Flight Engineer Frank DeWinne from Belgium and Russian Flight Engineer
Yuri Lonchakov lifted off in dense fog in the new Soyuz TMA-1 vehicle at
9:11 p.m. Central time (311 GMT Oct. 30). About nine minutes later, the
new Soyuz had reached orbit and its solar panels and navigational
antennas had deployed.

The new Soyuz is scheduled to dock to the station's Pirs Docking
Compartment Thursday night around 11 p.m. CST (500 GMT Nov.
1) for the start of eight days of joint operations. Hatches between the
Soyuz and the ISS are scheduled to swing open around 12:40 a.m. CST
Friday (640 GMT).  The taxi trio is scheduled to board the Soyuz TM-34
return craft that has been linked to the ISS since April, and undock on
Nov. 9 for a landing on the steppes of Kazakhstan.

A fresh Soyuz is delivered to the ISS every six months to provide an
assured return capability for station residents in the unlikely event a
problem would force them to come home prematurely.

Information on the crew's activities, future launch dates, as well as
station sighting opportunities from anywhere on the Earth, is available
on the Internet at: http://spaceflight.nasa.gov Details on station
science operations can be found on an Internet site administered by the
Payload Operations Center at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in
Huntsville, Ala., at: http://www.scipoc.msfc.nasa.gov

Claudio IK1SLD received the following packet message from Valery aboard
the ISS:

> From   : RS0ISS
> @ BBS  :
> xID    :
> Subject: SOYUZ-4 TAXI
>
> TOMMOROW SOYUZ-TMA (NEW RUSSIAN SPACE SHIP) WILL START FROM BAIKONUR AT
> ABOUT 15.30 GMT. IT WILL DOCK BY CREW TO ISS AT 1 NOVEMBER. CREWMEMBERS
> ARE ZALIOTIN-CDR, DE WINN-FE, LONCHAKOV-FE. THEY GOING TO DO ABOUT 20
> EXPERIMENTS. WE WILL WORK TOGETHER ONE WEEK.HOPE ALL OF THEM WOULD BE
> HAPPY TO USE HAM RADIO TO TELL HELLO EVERYBODY ON THE EARTH(ESPECIALLY
> FOR ISS FUN CLUB MEMBERS). HAM OF STATION WILL BE ON 25 HOURS A DAY. BEST
> 73.VALERY-CDR ISS.

[ANS thanks NASA, Arthur N1ORC, and Claudio IK1SLD for the above
information.]

/EX


SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-307.06
ARISS JOTA CONTACT

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 307.06 From AMSAT HQ
SILVER SPRING, MD. November 3, 2002
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-307.06

US Astronaut Peggy Whitson, KC5ZTD, made Jamboree On The Air (JOTA) a very
special occasion this year for Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts in The
Netherlands. One of the International Space Station's Expedition 5 crew
members and the only woman, Whitson on October 20 answered questions posed
by the scouts via Amateur Radio. The direct, 2-meter contact with PA3HGQ
was arranged as part of the Amateur Radio on the International Space
Station (ARISS) program.

"The scouts were very impressed by the quality of the radio link and
delighted to have an astronaut joining the Jamboree On The Air right from
the International Space Station," said ARISS Vice Chairman Gaston Bertels,
ON4WF. On hand for the official opening of the JOTA in The Netherlands was
Dutch astronaut Andre Kuipers, who congratulated the Ascanen scouting
group of Lelystad for their ARISS QSO with Whitson.

More than 100 scout groups from all over The Netherlands listened in on
the downlink while Whitson answered about a dozen questions. At the
contact site, parents and friends of the 20 youngsters selected to take
part assisted with the space chat, and local radio and TV stations covered
the event.

Several of the questions the Dutch youngsters asked mirrored those often
put to crew members by their American counterparts. One Scout asked about
how the ISS crew prepared its meals. Whitson explained that meals in space
are pre-cooked and stowed in foil packages or cans. "It's just a matter of
warming it up or adding water," she said.

Whitson told another questioner that the crew can see weather from space.
"It's beautiful up here," she said, noting that the crew can recognize
such systems as hurricanes. "At night, we can even see thunderstorms," she
added. Whitson said the crew can see the aurora borealis (northern lights)
too. "They're beautiful from here!" she declared.

Bertels said the NA1SS downlink also was monitored at Flanders Expo in
Ghent, Belgium, where a science exhibition for youth drew a big audience.
At a booth set up by the Royal Belgian Amateur Radio Union (UBA) and
devoted primarily to ARISS, visitors--mostly youngsters, parents and
teachers--followed the pass of the ISS on a screen showing the world map.

"The UBA also was very pleased to use this opportunity to demonstrate
Amateur Radio at its best to the public visiting a popular scientific and
technological event," Bertels remarked. He said many amateur stations all
over Western Europe tuned into the downlink and reported excellent copy.

ARISS is an international project with US participation by NASA, ARRL and
AMSAT.--Gaston Bertels, ON4WF, provided information, photographs and
audio-video for this report.

[ANS thanks The ARRL Letter Vol. 21, No. 42 for the above information.]

/EX


SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-307.07
STRAIGHT KEY NIGHT ON OSCAR 2003

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 307.07 From AMSAT HQ
SILVER SPRING, MD. November 3, 2002
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-307.07

You are cordially invited to participate in the 30th annual Straight Key
Night on OSCAR, conducted by AMSAT-NA for Radio Amateurs throughout the
world.

There are no rules, no scoring and no logs required.  Just operate CW on any
OSCAR satellite, using a straight hand key, from 0000 UTC to 2400 UTC on 1
January 2003, working as many SKN stations as you can.  The moon (OSCAR
Zero) counts too.

In keeping with the friendly nature of this event, each participant is asked
to nominate one of the operators worked for "Best Fist."  It is not
necessary that your nominee have the best fist of anyone you heard, just of
those you worked.  Please send your nomination to W2RS via e-mail at
w2rs@amsat.org, via packet radio at W2RS @ WA2SNA.NJ.USA.NA, or by mail.
Those nominated will be recognized in an ANS Bulletin to be published in
early February, and in The AMSAT Journal.

[ANS thanks Ray, W2RS, for the above information]

/EX


SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-307.08
AM-1601 IPS EMULATOR ANNOUNCED

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 307.08 From AMSAT HQ
SILVER SPRING, MD. November 3, 2002
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-307.08

Announcement:  Am1601 Emulator & IPS-F1G Available

This week Paul VP9MU announced that development and emulation software,
called IPS, for the next generation of AMSAT Internal Housekeeping pro-
cessors has been made available on the AMSAT web page.

Paul described it as, "IPS is a powerful yet simple process control lang-
uage. It is very stable and reliable.  A custom processor code-named the
Am1601 is currently under development for AMSAT use. This processor is being
specifically designed to be IPS friendly."

An Am1601 emulator program for Windows NT, and a general user version of
IPS to run on the emulator are now available for download.

Paul reminded potential developers that, "The purpose of the emulator is to
aid the design and development of the hardware Am1601, not to run
"real-life" programs. IPS running on the emulator is considerably slower
than it would be on a real hardware machine. That said the emulator is a
very useful tool for debugging purposes."

This software is being made available to the general public for peer review
purposes, and is provided "as is" under the GNU license. This is a work in
progress, ... please remember that!

The Programmers Reference for the Am1601 is available in both MS Word and
..pdf formats on the AMSAT-NA web site.

You can find the emulator and documentation here:
http://www.amsat.org/amsat/projects/ips/Am1601.html

General documentation on IPS and IPS-X can be found in the IPSDOS (ips.zip)
file, which can be found here: http://www.amsat.org/amsat/sats/ao40/ips.html

[ANS thanks Paul, VP9MU, for the above information.]

/EX


SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-307.09
ARISS SCHOOL CONTACTS

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 307.09 From AMSAT HQ
SILVER SPRING, MD. November 3, 2002
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-307.09

October 30, 2002

TWO ARISS SCHOOL CONTACTS FOR ESA ASTRONAUT FRANK DE WINNE (ON1DWN)

Tuesday 29 October 2002, ESA and RSC-Energia signed the final protocol
regarding operations related to the "BTF-Odissea" mission. BTF stands for
"Belgian Taxi Flight". Indeed, the scientific Odissea mission, sponsored
by the Belgian federal government, occurs during a "taxi flight", i.e. the
replacement of the ISS docked Soyouz space rescue vehicle by a new one.
Such replacements are necessary every six months.

Main scientific engineer of the Odissea crew is Belgian ESA astronaut
Frank De Winne.  Frank will conduct 23 experiments during his 7 days on
board the ISS, covering domains as varied as cardiology, protein
cristallography
and metal research. Frank, civil engineer, test pilot and colonel of  the
Belgian Air Force, is also holder of an amateur radio license. His
callsign is ON1DWN.

Two ARISS School Contacts have been integrated in Frank's mission. The
first is scheduled Sunday 3 November 2002 at 09:15 UTC with the Royal
Technical School of Sint Truiden (Frank's hometown). This is a school for
petty officers of the Belgian army where an amateur radio club station
(ON4BAF) is operational.

The second contact is scheduled Tuesday 5 November 2002 at 09:00 UTC with
the Euro Space Center located in the Belgian Ardennes. Dutch and French
speaking students, winners of a space oriented competition, will
participate to the space talk with Frank De Winne at the micro of the club
station ON4ESC.

As usual, the downlink frequency is 145.800 MHz FM.

Gaston Bertels
ARISS-Europe Chairman

[ANS thanks Gaston Bertels for the above information]

/EX


SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-307.10
NEWS IN BRIEF FOR THIS WEEK

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 307.10 From AMSAT HQ
SILVER SPRING, MD. November 3, 2002
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-307.10

** Alan, WA4SCA, reports recently receiving a recall notice for a Radio
Shack
powered omni directional TV antenna which is intended for RV or low profile
use.  It seems that early versions can interfere with GPS receivers.  He can
verify that this problem exists.  Alan wrote, "So if you have poor GPS
reception, or recently deteriorated reception, take a look around for a
horizontal white disk, about 2' in diameter, mounted on a pole or mast.  Its
a free
fix, but you need to send in the antenna for repair."  -- Alan, WA4SCA

** NASA has posted some pictures of the ISS Expedition 5 crew using amateur
radio at these links:

http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/gallery/images/station/crew-5/html/iss005e11300.
html
http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/gallery/images/station/crew-5/html/iss005e11311.
html
http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/gallery/images/station/crew-5/html/iss005e11317.
html
http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/gallery/images/station/crew-5/html/iss005e11318.
html
(watch the line wrap so you get the entire URL.) -- Arthur N1ORC

** NASA has rescheduled the launch of Space Shuttle Endeavour, STS-113,
to Nov. 11.  The announced launch period is 0000-0400 EST. -- NASA

** A Boeing Delta 2 rocket was damaged in a freak accident last week as
workers attached a Global Positioning System satellite to the booster at
Cape
Canaveral's launch pad 17B, the Air Force acknowledged Tuesday.  Initial
reports indicate the pad's lifting crane tried to pull upward the canister
containing the satellite after the structure had been bolted to the rocket,
possibly due to miscommunication between workers.   --Spaceflightnow.com

/EX