SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-233.01 AMSAT Symposium Reminder AMSAT News Service Bulletin 233.01 From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. August 21, 2005 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-233.01 Space! Ham radio goes there and you can join in the fun! Come to the AMSAT Technical Symposium and Annual Meeting this fall in lovely Lafayette, Louisiana. Education and technical sessions begin on Friday, the 7th of October. Technical, Field Ops, and the IARU forum follow through Sunday the 9th of October. Enjoy the best of Acadian Louisiana with Friday's "Shrimp Boil," Saturday's Banquet with great prizes, and Sunday's "Swamp Tour." This year represents the first time that you can register for the Symposium online! To get the $10 early registration discount, registrations must be received by 15 September 2005. For more, see: http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/symposium/. [ANS thanks the AMSAT Symposium team for the above information] /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-233.02 AMSAT Symposium Agenda AMSAT News Service Bulletin 233.02 From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. August 21, 2005 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-233.02 Thursday, 6 October 2005 8 am-Noon AMSAT Board Meeting Noon-1 pm Lunch Break 1 pm-5 pm AMSAT Board Meeting 5 pm-6 pm Dinner Break 6 pm-9 pm AMSAT Board Meeting Friday, 7 October 2005 8 am-Noon AMSAT Board Meeting 1 pm-5 pm AMSAT Symposium 5:30 pm Shrimp boil 7:30 pm President's Club Meeting Saturday, 8 October 2005 8 am-noon AMSAT Symposium Noon-1 pm Lunch on own 1 pm-1:30 pm Awards Ceremony 1:30-4 pm AMSAT Symposium 4 pm-5 pm AMSAT Annual Meeting 7-7:30 pm Attitude Adjustment 7:30-10 PM Banquet Sunday, 9 October 2005 7 am-8:30 am Area Coordinators Breakfast 7:30 am First Swamp Tour 9:30 am Second Swamp Tour 11:00 am IARU Meeting [ANS thanks the AMSAT Symposium team for the above information] /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-233.03 AMSAT Election Deadline Approaching AMSAT News Service Bulletin 233.03 From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. August 21, 2005 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-233.03 With the deadline for the receipt of ballots for the AMSAT Board of Directors less than a month away, Bill Hook, W3QBC, who heads up AMSAT's Ballot Counting Committee, advises that to date only 609 ballots have been received. This amounts to only 15% of the total number of ballots mailed to members. Votes are needed to select the 4 best qualified to serve among the 8 candidates. The biographical information as submitted by the Candidates can be found on the AMSAT website at http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/AboutAmsat/candidate_bios.php To be counted, ballots must be received at the AMSAT office before the close of business on Thursday, 15 September 2005. [ANS thanks Bill W3QBC for the above information] /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-233.04 Software Defined Transponder Prototype On-the-Air AMSAT News Service Bulletin 233.04 From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. August 21, 2005 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-233.04 At the labs of CNS Systems, Inc. in Md. (W2GPS business), W2GPS, W3IWI, and N4HY made the first on-the-air tests using a prototype software defined transponder on 16 August 2005. A sucessful three way QSO was conducted in a 45 Khz wide transponder. An audio clip of this first QSO is available at ftp://ftp.cnssys.com/pub/amsat/Eagle_SDT_1st_Contact.mp3 At the AMSAT Symposium in Louisiana, the plan is to have both the Mode B and the Mode A transponder fully functional and usable by all. We will show the power of using software defined radio for the transponders by having 1/2 of the transponder divided into two or three FM channels and the other half fully linear whilst adding 400bps AMSAT standard beacon in the middle, AND on command, switch it to fully linear, etc. We will incorporate the Stella AGC algorithms developed by Howard, G6LVB, adapted to our hardware for the demonstration in Lousiana. Expect to be able to conduct SSB, CW, FM, etc. QSO's on Mode A, Mode B and Mode LS if time permits. [ANS thanks Bob, N4HY for the above information] /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-233.05 AMSAT Website Technical Review Team Formed AMSAT News Service Bulletin 233.05 From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. August 21, 2005 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-233.05 Barry Baines, WD4ASW, AMSAT's VP-Marketing & User Services is pleased to announce that our Website Technical Review Team, under the leadership of Gould Smith, WA4SXM has been formed. Gould serves as Director-Field Operations and is the author of a number of AMSAT books. He is well qualified to handle this important task with the assistance of a very capable team that he has formed. The team that Gould has developed consists of AA2TX, KO4MA, KQ6EA, N8FGV, and VA3DB. The team has begun a systematic look at the content of the AMSAT website for technical issues, and is assigning a priority to identified items. The first areas the team is addressing are the Glossary and the Mode J operation article. When appropriate, they will seek input from other individuals who may be knowledgeable in particular areas. Two members of the team will OK articles for technical content with final approval from Gould before he forwards them for inclusion on the website. "Our team is excited about updating the technical content of our website" says Gould Smith, WA4SXM. "However, this will take some time and will require thoughtful evaluation. In looking at the Glossary for example, we have found through our initial research that even the experts sometimes disagree on proper definition of technical terms. We want the AMSAT website to be a trusted and reliable source." Emily Clarke, W0EEC serves as Director-Website and will be working closely with Gould to implement changes as they are developed. Should website visitors wish to suggest areas of current website technical content for the team's consideration or are interested in submitting suggested technical changes or updates, they can do so by contacting Gould Smith, WA4SXM using his AMSAT e-mail alias. Please put 'Website Technical Review' in the subject line. Gould and several members of the team will be attending the AMSAT Symposium in Lafayette, LA (7-9 OCT 2005) and are interested in hearing comments from attendees concerning their thoughts on the updating of technical content of our website. [ANS thanks Barry, WD4ASW for the above information] /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-233.06 New AMSAT Video News Released AMSAT News Service Bulletin 233.06 From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. August 21, 2005 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-233.06 AMSAT's Director of Video Services, Don Jacob, has posted a number of new video packages centering around Dayton 2005 & Space Day at the Smithsonian which are available for stream viewing on the AMSAT Web Site: www.amsat.org Select the box on the left entitled "AMSAT Video News" and take a look. Enjoy, AMSAT Video Department [ANS thanks Gunther, W8GSM for the above information] /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-233.07 ARISS Status - 15 August 2005 AMSAT News Service Bulletin 233.07 From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. August 21, 2005 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-233.07 1. ARISS Student Pursues Astronaut Career Stephanie Radcliff was a student at Daviess County High School (DCHS) in Owensboro, Kentucky when the school experienced an ARISS contact on May 31, 2001. She had prepared three questions to ask astronaut Susan Helms, KC7NHZ, that day, including one concerning future space explorations. Four years later, on August 12, 2005, Stephanie returned to her alma mater to speak to the students there. She is now a graduate of Emory-Riddle University, and holds a degree in the aerospace field. She has taken the first steps toward becoming an astronaut and hopes to be accepted for astronaut training. Harold Wilson, the coordinating teacher of the DCHS - ARISS contact, remarked that it was the ARISS contact which inspired Stephanie to pursue this career choice. 2. PCSAT2/MISSE5 Status The PCSAT2 PSK-31 transponder was turned on. It uses an uplink on 29.402 +/- 1 KHz and downlink on 435.275 +/- Doppler using FM . For more information, see: http://www.ew.usna.edu/~bruninga/pec/pc2ops.html 3. ARISS International Meeting ARRL ran a story on the ARISS International face-to-face Meeting held at the University of Surrey. The article, entitled, "ARISS Delegates Urged to Cast Eye on Future of Ham Radio in Space," may be found on their website. See: http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2005/08/12/106/?nc=1 ARISS delegate Rosalie White is currently working on the minutes of the U.K. meeting. They will be posted on the ARISS and AMSAT websites in the near future. The next ARISS International Teleconference will be held on Tuesday, 23 August 2005. 4. Australian News Article on Astronaut's Father The Australian newspaper, The Age, ran a story on Adrian Thomas. Thomas, father of astronaut Andy Thomas, was waiting apprehensively for word of Discovery's landing. A ham friend of his had been listening to NASA's channel, and called to let him know that the shuttle was heading for a safe landing in California. "Ham radio call ends father's anxious wait," may be found at: http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/ham-radio-call-ends-fathers-anxious-wait/2005/08/10/1123353330011.html 5. Astronaut to Visit ARISS School Astronaut Leroy Chiao, KE5BRW, plans to visit Fairview Elementary School in Mount Prospect, Illinois. Chiao visited the school in May, 2004, before his space flight, and. he exchanged e-mails and photos with the school, and participated in an ARISS contact with the children on 10 February 2005 during his Expedition 10 increment. The date for his visit has not yet been set, but 7 September 2005 is being considered. Fairview has posted on their website photos of Chiao's first visit, and the audio and questions from the ARISS contact. See: http://fairview.dist57.org:16080/spacewebsite/fvspacecontact.html 6. Teaching from Space Teleconference Held A teleconference was held on Thursday, August 10 between ARISS-U.S. members and the Teaching from Space Office at JSC. Education Specialist Jonathan Neubauer will be the point of contact for ARISS and the Education Office. ARISS extends a welcome to Jon! [ANS thanks Carol, KB3LKI for the above information] /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-233.08 OSCAR 11 Report - 15 August 2005 AMSAT News Service Bulletin 233.08 From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. August 21, 2005 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-233.08 OSCAR-11 REPORT 15 August 2005 OSCAR-11 is back! I received the good news, on Saturday morning, while at the AMSAT-UK Colloquium. This was entirely unexpected! On Sunday morning Bob G4VRC played me a recording of an early morning pass received that day. During the period 21 July to 14 August 2005 consistent signals have been heard from 30 July to 08 August. Signals seem to be weaker than usual, confirmed by the many reports received. However,since I last heard the satellite on 30 April, I've reinstalled my antennas , which makes comparisons difficult. Many thanks for all the recent reports of OSCAR-11 including those from KU7Z (who heard it first), KB2M, VK6XH, HK7MKE, KA2UPW, JE9PEL, G1OCN, HB9SKA and G8OQW. All the analogue telemetry channels, 0 to 59 are zero, ie they have failed. The status channels 60 to 67 are still working. One bit in channel 62, DSR mode, has changed from WRITE to READ. DSR is the Digital Store & Readout experiment. This could be significant if the experiment is still drawing current, but the other status bit indicates that it is switched OFF. The on-board clock is now showing a very large error. It has lost approximately 19 days since 30 April. During the recent data collection period, the clock error has been changing at a decreasing rate. The size of the clock error and the rate at which it is changing is similar to the duration of the solar eclipse periods. This suggests that the clock might have been switching OFF during eclipses. The eclipses have now ended, and the satellite should be in continuous sunlight for the remainder of this year, and well into next year. This should help the satellite to continue transmitting, although continuous sunlight can cause problems due to excessive temperatures. If the watchdog timer is still operating on a 20 day cycle, ie. approximately ten days ON followed by 10 days OFF, then the VHF beacon should resume transmissions around 18 August. The Beacon frequencies are - VHF 145.826 MHz. AFSK FM ASCII Telemetry UHF 435.025 MHz. OFF S-band 2401.5 MHz. OFF Listeners to OSCAR-11 may be interested in visiting my website which contains an archive of news & telemetry data. It also contains details about using a soundcard or hardware demodulators for data capture. There is software for capturing data, and decoding ASCII telemetry. The URL is www.users.zetnet.co.uk/clivew/ If you place this bulletin on a terrestrial packet network, please use the bulletin identifier $BID:U2RPT112.CWV, to prevent duplication. [ANS thanks Clive, G3CWV for the above information] /EX