SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-176.01 ECHO checkout continues at launch site AMSAT News Service Bulletin 176.01 From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. June 20, 2004 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-176.01 On Monday, 14 June 2004, ECHO was fit-checked. The following day the process of placing it on a piece of Aluminum with a satellite from Italy and then putting that on the launch platform was completed. Chuck Green, N0ADI, reporting from Baikonur says, "ECHO was placed on the launch platform that will be on top of the rocket. It looks really good there." The launch integration team at Baikonur includes Chuck Green, N0ADI. [ANS thanks Chuck, N0ADI for the above information] /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-176.02 AMSAT Comments of FCC "Omnibus" Proposal AMSAT News Service Bulletin 176.02 From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. June 20, 2004 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-176.02 AMSAT filed comments with the FCC on 15 June 2004 on the so-called "omnibus" Notice of Proposed Rule Making and Order, WT Docket 04-140. Dr. Perry I. Klein, W3PK, AMSAT Vice President, Government Liaison says, "this filing covers a wide range of issues and is very important to the future of satellites in the amateur radio service." Topics covered in the filing include auxiliary station and spread spectrum operations in the 2M band, retransmission of audio from manned spaceflight missions, reducing the number and lead-time required for written pre-space station notifications and the licensing of amateur space stations. The full text of AMSAT's comments can be found at http://www.amsat.org/amsat/amsat-na/filings/wt-04-140-comments.pdf All comments filed with the FCC can be viewed on the FCC Web-site at: http://gullfoss2.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/websql/prod/ecfs/comsrch_v2.hts?id_proceeding=04-140&ws_mode=retrieve_list Perry noted that among the many people who contributed to getting these comments filed in a timely manner, the special efforts of Ray Soifer, W2RS and inputs from Bill Tynan, W3XO were greatly appreciated. [ANS thanks Perry, W3PK for the above information] /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-176.03 ARISS Update 2004-06-17 18:00 UTC AMSAT News Service Bulletin 176.03 from AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. June 20, 2004 To ALL RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-176.03 Congrats to Expedition 10 crewmember Leroy Chiao, now KE5BRW. Expedition 9 crew is now on the ISS. The schedule page has been updated as of 2004-06-17 18:00 UTC. The successful school list has been updated as of 2004-06-02 22:00 UTC. The latest ARISS announcement and successful school list is now available on the ARISS web site. There are several ARISS web sites: English: http://www.rac.ca/ariss/ French: http://c.avmdti.free.fr/ariss/index.htm ARISS Europe: http://www.ariss-eu.org/ ARISS Japan: http://www.jarl.or.jp/ariss/ Other locations include: Latest ARISS announcements and news http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/arissnews.txt Successful school list http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/Successful_ARISS_schools.rtf or http://ariss.gsfc.nasa.gov [ANS thanks Charlie Sufana, AJ9N for the above report] /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-176.04 Nominations AMSAT News Service Bulletin 176.04 From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. June 20, 2004 To ALL RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-176.04 The following people have been nominated to run for the AMSAT Board of Directors: Tom Clark, W3IWI Steve Diggs, W4EPI Lou McFadin, W5DID Lee McLamb, KU4OS Bruce Paige, KK5DO Paul Shuch, N6TX Ballots should be mailed by July 10th. 73- Martha Saragovitz, Corporate Secretary /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-176.05 AMSAT President's Message AMSAT News Service Bulletin 176.05 From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. June 20, 2004 To ALL RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-176.05 Hi All, I am sure that you are all following the messages put out on ANS as we get closer to the launch of ECHO. The big day, when the window opens, is now only two weeks away and All seems to be going well. Meanwhile I am delighted to advise that the current status of the Launch fund is $95,165, only $14,835 to go and the satellite launch will have been paid for. I hope that all members of AMSAT-NA will have made a contribution to this launch fund and that all potential users of the satellite whether AMSAT-NA members or not will make a suitable contribution. Satellites do cost money! and if you want them built and available to you the please contribute to their success, we need your support. 14 days and counting ..... 73 Robin Haighton VE3FRH President AMSAT-NA /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-176.06 OSCAR-11 REPORT 14 June 2004 AMSAT News Service Bulletin 176.06 From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. June 20, 2004 TO ALL RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-176.06 During the period 22 May to 14 June 2004 the 145.826 MHz. beacon has been heard transmitting continuous ASCII telemetry from 31 May to 10 June. During this period consistent signals have been received. The beacon operates under control of the watchdog timer, approximately 10 days ON followed by 10 days OFF. Assuming that the 20 day cycle continues, the beacon should switch ON around 21 June. The internal temperatures have decreased by 2.5C. They are now 2.8C, 0C and 6.6C for battery, telemetry electronics and command decoder, respectively. Solar eclipse predictions indicate that the temperatures will continue to decrease towards a trough in June/July and then increase until the end of September, when the satellite will encounter continuous sunlight for the remainder of the year. Higher temperatures and greater temperature changes are expected this year, compared to 2003. The battery voltage observed during daylight passes has varied between 12.5 and 13.9 volts. However the higher value was a single observation recorded shortly after the beacon switched ON. The average of the other readings was 13.2 volts, a small increase on last month's values. The rotational speed of the satellite has remained very low, making it impossible to measure the speed accurately from telemetry, during a ten minute pass. The spin period appears to be around 1500 seconds, ie. one revolution every 25 minutes. When the spin was being controlled by the magnetorquers the target spin period was 300 seconds. The mode-S beacon has been heard by Hans DL6KG and Jean-Jacques ON7EQ. Hans reports S3-S4 signals, with G3RUH antenna, Kuhne converter, and IC910 receiver. Jean has received S8 signals using a one metre dish, G3RUH patch, and DB6NT converter. Many thanks for those reports. Users of OSCAR-11 should note that the date in the telemetry is now advanced by FOUR days. The time is advanced by 19.8 minutes, and this error is increasing by about one minute per year. OSCAR-11 now operates in a default mode, controlled by the watch-dog timer. The satellite transmits continuous ASCII telemetry for about 10 days on 145.826 MHz., followed by about 10 days of silence. This regular sequence might be interrupted by ground control, at any time. The mode-S beacon is ON continuously, even when the VHF beacon is OFF, nominally transmitting an unmodulated carrier on 2401.5 MHz. There is however a VERY low level of AFSK modulation, (now a constant audio tone), which has been detected on strong signals. Telemetry indicates that the beacon has partially failed, and is delivering half power. This beacon is a useful test source for those testing mode-S converters. However the signals are very weak, and there is a lot of Doppler. Users should also note that the polarisation of OSCAR-11 is LHC. Any reports of reception on 2401.5 MHz. would be most welcome, however please DO NOT send sound files. Please e-mail g3cwv@amsat.org. The 435.025 MHz. beacon is normally OFF. It can only be heard on the very rare occassions when the satellite is being commanded by ground control, ie. within range of Guildford, UK. When the 435 MHz beacon is transmitting, the 145 MHz beacon is normally OFF. The data transmitted is mainly binary. Listeners to OSCAR-11 may be interested in visiting my web site. The web site contains details about using a soundcard for data capture, and also details about using hardware demodulators. There is software for capturing data, and decoding ASCII telemetry. There is an archive of raw data for analysis, which is continually being expanded, as new data is captured. Originally this was for WOD, but it is now being expanded to include ASCII telemetry. At the present time the telemetry covers 1996 to April 2003. I will add other years as time permits. In parallel there is a news archive which provides an overview of the state of the satellite, at the times when the telemetry was captured. If anyone out there can provide any data, particularly for the 1984 to 1993 years, this would be most appreciated. Please e-mail me with details. However please DO NOT SEND ANY FILES, before futher discussion. Also included are some audio files, examples of each type of data transmitted by OSCAR-11, each one plays for about ten seconds. There are also examples of mode-S reception. All the audio files are zipped, so that they can be played off-line. These should help listeners identify the various types of data, and give an indication of the signal quality required for successful decoding. The URL is - http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/clivew/ If you place this bulletin on a terrestrial packet network, please use the bulletin identifier $BID:U2RPT98.CWV, to prevent duplication. 73 Clive G3CWV g3cwv@amsat.org [ANS Thanks Clive, G3CWV for this information] /EX