Month: February 2017

Frank Bauer, KA3HDO, AMSAT Vice President for Human Spaceflight, Named 2017 Dayton Hamvention Amateur of the Year

by

The Dayton Hamvention has announced the winners of the 2017 Hamvention Awards. Each year, the Dayton Hamvention honors radio amateurs who have made major contributions to the art and science of amateur radio. AMSAT Vice President for Human Spaceflight Frank Bauer, KA3HDO, was named 2017 Amateur of the Year.

The award citation reads:

“Frank serves as the Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) international chairman. In the mid-1990s, Bauer proposed a GPS reception experiment on the AMSAT Phase 3D satellite (AO-40). The experiment was to measure the signal strength of the GPS satellite constellation while Phase 3D was in high-Earth orbit (HEO). The AO-40 experiment subsequently has been cited often in aerospace literature, as it remained the most comprehensive above-the-constellation data source for nearly a decade and led to changes in the system’s specifications and applications. The results of the AO-40 experiment jump started a game-changing transformation in navigation at HEO/GEO altitudes, enabling new and exciting missions in these orbits.

Bauer holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in aeronautics and astronautics from Purdue University. His career in aerospace spans 4 decades within NASA and in private industry

Bauer has been licensed since 1974. In 1983, in preparation for the space mission of Owen Garriott, W5LFL, he was responsible for setting up and operating the worldwide retransmission of Space Shuttle air-to-ground communications from Goddard Amateur Radio Club station WA3NAN. This initiative provided a critical conduit of information to hams attempting to contact astronaut-hams in the pre-Internet era.”

The 2017 Dayton Hamvention Award winners are listed at http://hamvention.org/event-details/awards/

Frank Bauer, KA3HDO, 2017 Dayton Hamvention Amateur of the Year

Two projects with AMSAT ties selected for NASA launches

by

Two cubesat missions with ties to AMSAT have been selected as part of the eighth round of the NASA CubeSat Launch Initiative. These spacecraft are eligible for placement on a launch manifest after final negotiations, depending on the availability of a flight opportunity.

TJREVERB is a cubesat from Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, in Alexandria, Virginia. This satellite will include an AMSAT Fox mode U/v FM radio system, and will be capable of serving as an analog FM repeater.

HuskySat-1 from the University of Washington in Seattle will carry a mode V/u linear transponder and 1200 baud BPSK beacon similar to RadFXsat-2. The satellite will demonstrate plasma propulsion and high gain telemetry in advance of a larger cubesat lunar mission.

The complete list of satellites selected may be found at on the NASA web page. Further information will be shared when available.

RadFXsat-2 receives IARU frequency coordination

by

RadFXSat-2 is a 1U cubesat technology demonstration mission from Vanderbilt University that has been accepted for launch as part of NASA’s CubeSat Launch Initiative. Vanderbilt University is partnered with AMSAT, who will provide the satellite and communications for the experiments onboard as part of the AMSAT Fox program.

AMSAT recently received IARU frequency coordination for a 1200 baud BPSK telemetry downlink beacon on 435.750 MHz, and a mode V/u inverting transponder with an uplink of 145.860-145.890 MHz and a downlink of 435.760-435.790 MHz.

RadFXSat-2 is currently manifested as part of the ELaNA XX mission, scheduled for no earlier than December 2017, on a Virgin Galactic Launcher One, from Mojave, California. Other satellites on the mission include:

  • CACTUS-1 – Capitol Technology University, Laurel, Md.
  • ALBus – NASA Glenn Research Center, Cleveland, Ohio
  • SurfSat – University of Central Florida, Orlando, Fla.
  • Q-PACE – University of Central Florida, Orlando, Fla.
  • CAPE-3 – University of Louisiana Lafayette, La.
  • MiTEE – University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Mich.
  • PICS – Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah
  • INCA – New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, N.M.
  • MicroMas-2b – Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Lexington, Mass.
  • EXOCUBE – California Polytechnic University, San Louis Obispo, Calif.
  • PolarCube – University of Colorado at Boulder, Boulder, Colo.