SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-313.01 NEW GEAR FOR THE ISS AMSAT News Service Bulletin 306.01 From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. November 9, 2003 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-306.01 Radio gear from some well known ham radio manufacturers is in space. This, as the group known as Amateur Radio on the International Space Station announces the delivery of the so-called Phase 2 ham equipment to the ISS. Norm Seeley, KI7UP, has the details in this report: -- A Russian Progress supply rocket has delivered a Kenwood TM-D700E, dual band transceiver to the International Space Station. The installation of this new radio will mean a significant boost to the power output of the ARISS station from 5 watts to 25 watts. The Chairman of Amateur Radio on the International Space Station is Frank Bauer, KA3HDO. He says that the software for the D700 has been programmed for five modes of operation. These are for standard F-M phone, crossband repeater, APRS, packet and an emergency mode. Bauer predicted that APRS probably will be the default mode when a crew member is not actively using the ham station. Next up will be gear from Vertex-Standard, the Yaesu brand folks. Bauer says that a Yaesu FT-100D, some SSTV equipment, along with new headsets, will be taken to the space outpost on Progress Flight 14P. Look for it to launch in January. But says Bauer, that will be the endof the transport of any more ham radio gear for quite a while. At least until the space shuttle returns to flight in September 2004. But that in itself could be a blessing in disguise. KA3HDO says that the equipment still on the ground will be tested this month at the Service Module facility in Moscow. This will permit making sure that the Phase 1 and 2 systems are compatible. RF testing will also take place. According to Bauer, current plans call for the current Expedition 8 crew of Mike Foale, KB5UAC, and Alex Kaleri, U8MIR, to install the new hardware after ground tests are complete. Previous crews already installed four Amateur Radio antennas to cover HF, 2 meters, 70 cm and microwave frequencies. [ANS thanks Norm Seeley, KI7UP, Amateur Radio Newsline, for above information] /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-313.02 Satellite Operation Awards and First Contacts AMSAT News Service Bulletin 306.02 From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. November 9, 2003 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-306.02 Congrats to out to those that have recently made their very first satellite QSO. May they have many more years of fun on the satellites. (no particular order, like maybe random) Jerry Clement, VE6AB Jerry Ervine, KC5YRE Berufliches Schulzentrum Elektrotechnik, DL0IKT Richard Bradley, N1YLX Congrats go out to the following for earning their Robert W. Barbee Jr., W4AMI Award. #37 Al Lee, Jr., WA4EWV Congrats also go out to the following for earning their AMSAT Oscar Century Award. #35 Grant Zehr, AA9LC To see all the awards and a list of those earning the awards, visit http://www.amsatnet.com/awards.html 73...bruce Bruce Paige, KK5DO AMSAT VP-User Services & Awards Manager [ANS thanks Bruce Paige, KK5DO, for the above information] /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-313.03 Houston AMSAT Net AMSAT News Service Bulletin 306.03 From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. November 9, 2003 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-306.03 Houston AMSAT Net - Wed 0200z on W0KIE AMC-7, T5, 7.5Mhz Also streaming MP3 at http://www.amsatnet.com Latest satellite news on the ARRL Audio News http://www.arrl.org [ANS thanks Bruce Paige, KK5DO, for the above information] /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-313.04 ARiSS Status AMSAT News Service Bulletin 306.04 From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. November 9, 2003 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-306.04 1. Vigo, Spain School Contact Successful ESA sponsored a competition for Spanish primary schools based on space exploration and the Cervantes Mission - Pedro Duque's visit to the ISS. The five winning schools as well as a class from Portugal gathered at the Verbum Casa das Palabras in Vigo, Spain on October 26, 2003. ESA astronaut Pedro Duque, ED4ISS, successfully completed his second ARISS school contact answering sixteen questions. The event was webcast live by EA1RCT, the radio club of the University of Vigo, and was covered by the national and regional radio, TV stations, and newspapers. 2. Upcoming School Contacts Work has begun to schedule an ARISS contact with the McCall-Donnelly School District in McCall, Idaho. This school was chosen by astronaut Barbara Morgan, KD5VNP, (Shuttle STS-118 mission) and is scheduled for December 9. A contact is also being scheduled for the Renmark Primary School in Renmark, South Australia. This contact will take place during the third week of November. 3. TIM in Moscow Plans have been finalized for the Technical Interchange Meeting (TIM) to be held in Moscow November 10 - 20. [ANS thanks Carol Jackson tcekmjackson@comcast.net, for the above information] /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-313.05 SAT_EXPLORER Tracking Software AMSAT News Service Bulletin 306.05 From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. November 9, 2003 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-306.05 This is to inform that a new release of the SAT_EXPLORER tracking software is available on the F1ORL's web site : http://perso.club-internet.fr/f1orl/index.htm SAT_EXPLORER 2.4 is a free software for tracking satellites. It works with Windows 95 and up It speaks English, French and German It computes actual and future satellite visiblity periods for up to one hundred satellites. Running as a background task, it warns you through audio and visual alarms when your favourite satellites are about to become visible. It computes DX co-visibility periods from just one click on a world map. It handles POURSAT, FODTRACK, ARSWIN, GS232 and EASYCOMM tracking interfaces. It makes tracking angles available for programmers through DDE. It provides visibility periods and ephemeris table in local time. 73s and good trafic via satellites [ANS thanks Gabriel, f6dqm@tiscali.fr, for the above information] /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-313.06 ARISS Operation over UK AMSAT News Service Bulletin 306.06 From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. November 9, 2003 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-306.06 Howard Long G6LVB received notification from ARISS that astronaut Michael Foale was prepared for a contact on one of the following dates with Kings School Canterbury, England Tue 25 Nov 18:50 UTC 54 degrees Wed 26 Nov 17:48 UTC 33 degrees Thu 27 Nov 16:46 UTC 67 degrees Fri 28 Nov 17:19 UTC 42 degrees Howard offered has his services, and hopes that Carlos Eavis, G0AKI, cordinator for the RSGB GB4FUN vehicle might be available too. (http://www.rsgb.org/gb4fun/) THIS CONTACT HAS YET TO BE CONFIRMED (G4DPZ, Ed., ANS) [ANS thanks AMSAT-UK for the above information] /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-313.07 AMSAT-UK TO DONATE FUNDS FOR AMSAT-NA AND AMSAT-DL PROJECTS AMSAT News Service Bulletin 313.07 From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. November 9, 2003 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-313.07 Press Release: AMSAT-UK is funding the development of two new amateur radio satellites by donating £10,000 to each of two projects in the USA and Germany. In accordance with their constitution, at their meeting on Sat 25 Oct 2003, the committee of AMSAT-UK decided to make an immediate donation of £10,000 to the AMSAT-NA Project Echo Launch Campaign Fund. Also at the meeting they decided to earmark £10,000 for transfer to AMSAT-DL to support the Phase 3 Express project when a suitable component for funding can be identified. In making these grants, the committee, on behalf of all members of AMSAT-UK, wish AMSAT-NA and AMSAT-DL every success with their projects. The Project Echo satellite is due to be launched on 31 Mar 2004 on a Depnr rocket into low earth orbit. As well as an FM transponder, it will have various data modes, using S and L bands. Further details of the satellite are available at http://www.amsat.org/amsat/sats/echo/article-02-11.html It is understood that Phase 3 E Express is likely to be launched in 2005/2006. It will be launch from an Arriane rocket, and will carry its own rocket motor which will eventually place it in a highly elliptical orbit, allowing radio amateurs access to its analogue transponder operating on 2m and 70 cms for hours at a time. It will also have a variety of other transmitters and receivers on higher frequency bands. Further details at http://www.amsat-dl.org/p3e/ More information from J D Heck, G3WGM, Hon Sec AMAST-UK, Tel (44) 1258 453959, g3wgm@amsat.org, or JD Heck, Badgers, Letton Close, Blandford, Dorset, DT11 7SS [ANS thanks the AMSAT-UK Committee for the above information] /EX