SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-247.01 Symposium News from AMSAT President AMSAT News Service Bulletin 247.01 From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. September 4, 2005 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-247.01 I received many panicked phone calls and e-mails today regarding the upcoming AMSAT Annual meeting, which also includes a Board of Directors meeting before the Symposium and IARU and Eagle Team meetings afterwards. Some of you have tried to call the hotel without success. Others have realized that their decision to fly to New Orleans and drive was flawed as the airport is under water only to find the airlines gouging you with high fees to change a "non-refundable ticket" that they can't honor anyway. The hotel is 100 miles West of New Orleans and therefore was spared the brunt of the storm and the resultant devastation. However, refugees are filling up hotels up to 300 miles away and many will not be returning any time soon. I fear that our Symposium may be doomed but I do not know for sure. Over the next several days AMSAT officials will be evaluating the situation in Lafayette LA and will be considering alternatives. We have already had one offer to try to host the Symposium in Dayton Ohio. Moving the symposium and associated meetings at this late date would be a Herculean task and may cost everyone significant extra air fare fees. The airlines have added major fuel cost surcharges and are sticking with the extra fees for exchanging tickets. Please do not change or cash in tickets yet. The hotel is no longer accepting any reservations, even at the national 800 number. If there are any other volunteers willing to try to host this event with no time to prepare and thousands of details to manage please contact our VP of Marketing and User Services, Barry Baines, WD4ASW at wd4asw@amsat.org or AMSAT's Manager, Martha Saragovitz at martha@amsat.org. Remember, we don't know for sure that we must change anything so wait until there is a final announcement before making any changes. Rick Hambly, W2GPS AMSAT President [ANS thanks Rick, W2GPS for the above information] /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-247.02 Katrina Assistance AMSAT News Service Bulletin 247.02 From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. September 4, 2005 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-247.02 We are all concerned about the people in the path of Katrina's destruction. Many of us have friends or family in the area, others have friends and co-workers who have friends or family in the area. At this time, information into and out of the affected areas is sporadic. Our fellow hams are overloaded with requests for food, water and rescue. If you need to locate someone visit: http://www.satern.org/ and complete the health and welfare information request. This group is also on the air on 14.265. SATERN has the ability to hold the messages and to handle delivery when information can get to the affected area. Don't forget to provide the last known address of the person you are looking for as well as the area they may have evacuated to. Here's how YOU can help now. Keep frequencies with any kind of relief traffic clear -- that means listen only, don't be a policeman. Offer to handle the internet input or the HF traffic to SATERN from your area for those without internet access or HF privileges. Try a text message via cell phone. Have patience. If you want to go to the area to assist with communications or other activities, contact the Red Cross or other relief agencies FIRST. They have required training courses before you can be deployed so do not be surprised if you are told no. Donate money. Most importantly, DO NOT ATTEMPT TO TRAVEL TO THE AREA ON YOUR OWN. [ANS thanks Sherri, W4STB for the above information] /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-247.03 ARISS Status August 29, 2005 AMSAT News Service Bulletin 247.03 From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. September 4, 2005 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-247.03 1. Sapporo Contact Successful The Sapporo Junior Amateur Radio Club in Sapporo, Kokkaido, Japan experienced a successful contact with the ISS on Monday, August 22. Thirteen students asked 19 questions of John Phillips, KE5DRY, as high school student Jun Maeda, JL8AQH, manned the radio. Approximately fifty people attended the event, which was covered by three newspapers and two television stations. 2. ARISS International Meeting The monthly ARISS International Teleconference was held on Tuesday, August 23. Among the items discussed were the SuitSat project, the SSTV status, PCSAT2, and the Exploration Initiative. The next ARISS International Meeting will be held on September 20. 3. ARRL Article on ARISS Delegate Rosalie White On August 22, ARRL ran a web story on ARRL Field and Educational Services Manager, Rosalie White. Rosalie has returned to her home state of Indiana to help with family issues, but she will continue to work with ARRL and ARISS. The story, "Rosalie White, K1STO, departs ARRL Headquarters, keeps connection," may be found at: http://www.arrl.org/ 4. SuitSat and SSTV Shipped Sergey Samburov, RV3DR, reports that the SuitSat hardware and the SSTV system have been packed and shipped to Baikonur Cosmodrome to be included on the next Progress flight, and that the crew has been trained in SuitSat assembly and radio operations. Progress 19P is scheduled to launch on September 8. 5. Crew Debrief On Monday, August 22, the ARISS-U.S. team spoke with Andy Thomas, KD5CHF, about the general contacts he made using the ARISS radio system while on the ISS. Thomas had not been scheduled for any school contacts due the busy schedule of the STS-114 astronauts, but he did make time for a few general contacts over Australia and New Zealand, causing much excitement among the radio operators there. 6. ARISS Member Interviewed for Documentary ARISS-Europe member, Carlos Eavis, G0AKI, was interviewed for the BBC Radio 1 documentary, "Radio Anyone." An article, "BBC Radio 1 documentary 'Radio Anyone' now on the web," was posted to the web and provides a link to the audio. To listen to the interview, go to: http://www.southgatearc.org/news/aug2005/radio_anyone_audio.htm 7. ARRL Article on Arizona Contact Students at D.W. Higgins Institute in Tempe, Arizona spoke with astronaut John Phillips, KE5DRY, on Wednesday, August 17. ARRL ran a web story on the contact, entitled, "Space QSO Provides Arizona Youngsters Something to Remember." See: http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2005/08/26/3/?nc=1 8. Cosmonaut Makes General Contacts Sergei Krikalev, U5MIR, made several general contacts over the weekend. Stations in the U.S., Kuwait, Malaysia, and Australia reported speaking to the cosmonaut on Saturday, August 27, with some sending wishes for a happy birthday, as Krikalev turned 47. [ANS thanks Carol, KB3LKI for the above information] /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-247.04 SSETI Express - Four Weeks Until Lift-Off AMSAT News Service Bulletin 247.04 From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. September 4, 2005 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-247.04 The launch date of September 27th and a lift-off time of 06:52:26 UTC now looks pretty certain for the Cosmos 3 rocket carrying SSETI Express with its three cubesat passengers and four other satellites into orbit. Updated pre-launch keps will be made available in a few days time and there are a number of web pages being developed to enable amateurs to locate SSETI Express, receive and download the telemetry and to forward it to Mission Control for their evaluation. Later in the mission it will also be possible for amateurs to transmit so-called "friendly" commands to request particular telemetry or thumbnail pictures. The SSETI team and ESA - The European Space Agency, are very keen to recruit as many radio amateurs as possible around the world to capture the telemetry. Our worldwide "virtual groundstation network" is a unique facility which we can use to our benefit as well as theirs. By showing how well our network can substitute for their expensive professional one, we will really encourage them to include amateur transponder systems in their future missions. ESA will be offering a very significant prize for the amateur who sends them the largest amount of telemetry during the mission and is also offering a unique "I heard it first" T shirt to the station that sends them the first report. This is actually likely to be one of the three Stations that we hope to having listening for SSETI Express in Antarctica - an ideal item of clothing for their forthcoming winter season! The main mission site is being finalised and can already be accessed at www.sseti.net -- click on the "express mission operation web site" link. This has full details of the mission, the software, present orbital position and a host of other information. There is also a Mission Control web site at: http://www.express.space.aau.dk/?language=en&page=home which will include a web cam of the control room and eventually the antennas and radio equipment. AMSAT-UK will shortly be publishing the first edition of the SSETI Express Handbook which has been kindly edited by Richard, G3RWL. This will be available as a downloadable PDF file or, for a small fee, in a full colour printed version by post. The SSETI Express launch campaign team will be setting off for Russia on Sept. 5th and will try to keep a good flow of up-to-date information flowing from the launch site. Meanwhile there are two possibilities for joining the excitement of the Sept. 27th launch: On ASTRA 1G which has coverage of most of Europe. The launch will be broadcast via ESA Television on ASTRA 1G at 19.2 degrees east: Transponder: 1.108 Reception Frequency: 12551.50 mHz Polarization: Vertical Symbol Rate: 22Msymb/s FEC: 5/6 TS_ID: 1108 ON_ID: 1 Service Name: ESA Service provider: ASTRA Service_ID: 12140 TXT: none This is always on and will transmit an ESA logo starting three days before the launch. The programme is expected to run for approximately 30 mins and will include the launch sequence live from the Plesetsk launch site. The final programme timing will be announced by ESA nearer to the time. On the Internet - World Wide Web The ESA launch programme on ASTRA 1G will also be available as a web stream on the internet. The Home Counties Amateur Television Club operate an amateur television repeater (GB3HV) at High Wycombe in the UK and the output of this repeater is usually streamed onto the internet. They have kindly agreed to make this web stream service available to us for the launch period. The web stream runs at about 210 Kbits/sec so a broadband internet connection will be required for a reliable relay. To access this web stream you need to have Windows Media Player and connect to mms://wm9.btrichmedia.com/hcatv. This service should be capable of serving a large number of users without difficulty. This web stream operates on a 24/7 basis so it can be checked at anytime. Before the launch it may be displaying a variety of test cards, amateurs or other pictures. The display may take up to 30 seconds to appear and during the second half of every hour (from 30 mins to 59 mins after the hour) it will display a blank screen unless GB3HV is actually in use. So we are nearly there! Please keep your fingers crossed for just a little longer so we can have a successful launch campaign. More information will be relayed over the next few weeks but if the web sites listed do not give you the answers that you need about anything to do with SSETI Express please get in touch. [ANS thanks Graham, G3VZV for the above information] /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-247.05 PCSAT2 Mode Change AMSAT News Service Bulletin 247.05 From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. September 4, 2005 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-247.05 The PCSAT2 side-A system has been operated for 4 weeks in PSK-31 mode, and will now be changed from PSK-31 mode to UI/APRS Packet digipeater mode. See: http://www.ew.usna.edu/~bruninga/pec/pc2ops.html In this mode, the uplink is 145.825 and downlink is 435.275 +/- 10 kHz doppler to avoid any interference with the 145.800 ARISS operations. The system is 1200 baud with the callsign of PCSAT2 and alias of ARISS, so the same setting as you use for normal ARISS packet, should work here too if you use the ARISS alias. Again, refer to the PCSAT2 operations page and the User Service Agreement for this mode. Specifically, unattended beacons are not authorized. The digipeater is for human communications, not blind beacons. See: http://www.ew.usna.edu/~bruninga/pec/useragreemt.txt [ANS thanks Bob, WB4APR for the above information] /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-247.06 North Texas Balloon Project Launch #14 AMSAT News Service Bulletin 247.06 From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. September 4, 2005 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-247.06 The North Texas Balloon Project will launch NTBP #14, named "Rapidfire," on Sept. 3, 2005 from the Hillsboro, TX, Airport. This flight is essentially a re-flight of NTBP #12, flown on 20 August 2005, to counter the actions of "Dr. Murphy" enjoyed on NTBP #12. It will have on board a cross band voice repeater, voice reports of inside and outside temperatures plus time (courtesy of the Fannin County ARC, Bonham, TX), APRS package location, and a DF Beacon. Liftoff time will be moved to approximately 8:15 AM CDT. A Special Event Callsign, N5B, will be used for this event. This time there will be a Special Event operation on 14.282 mHz during the event. There will be an HF Launch Information Net on 7260 +/-10 kHz. Other frequencies, and information for NTBP #14, are the same as the information for NTBP #12 posted at www.ntbp.org. Check the Web Page frequently for status and come join the fun! Frequencies: Crossband Repeater: Uplink: 445.800 mHz, Downlink: 147.560 mHz APRS Location Information: 144.390 mHz Time and Temperature Package: 146.56 mHz Shuttle Package DF Beacon: 145.56 mHz Launch Information Net: 7260 +/- 10 kHz N5B Special Event Check-In: 14.282 mHz [ANS thanks Keith, W5IU for the above information] /EX