SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-001.01 EAGLE AMSAT News Service Bulletin 001.01 From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. January 1, 2006 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-001.01 AMSAT Eagle, an HEO bird, is in need of support via funding. In order to get off the ground and become a reality, a good foundation of initial funding will be needed to begin the basic construction efforts by the "Eagle Team." Presently, all members of AMSAT have received an envelope for donations towards this effort. AMRAD and others have put out requests to all to make every effort to contribute to this satellite so do your part and spread the word to fund the project from this beginning phase through launch. Please visit the AMSAT website to donate to this Eagle appeal. [ANS thanks Barry Baines, WD4ASW for the above information] /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-001.02 XI-V Pictures correction AMSAT News Service Bulletin 001.02 From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. January 1, 2006 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-001.02 XI-V (pronounced "Sai five") was built by students at the Intelligent Space Systems Laboratory at the University of Tokyo. It was not assembled by JAMSAT. The official English Website is http://www.space.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp/cubesat/index-e.html [ANS Thanks Daniel Kekez, VA3KKZ, for this correction] /ex SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-001.03 AMSAT Awards AMSAT News Service Bulletin 001.03 From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. January 1, 2006 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-001.03 This week, congratulations go out to all of the following. The following 51 on 51 Awards were posted in the order they were received via email and U.S. mail. I did not post #50 to the web so that no one knew when #50 would arrive giving everyone an equal chance at earning Award #51. Bill Greene, VE7WFG, 51 on 51 Award #50 (Dec 15) Emily Clarke, W0EEC, 51 on 51 Award #51 (Dec 16) Leslie Scofield, W4SCO, 51 on 51 Award #52 (Dec 21) Steven Jepsen, AI7W, 51 on 51 Award #53 (Dec 22) Takuya Yoshihori, JE1FQV, 51 on 51 Award #54 (Dec 24 05:38 am) Yasuo Mikashima, JR6LDE, 51 on 51 Award #55 (Dec 24 06:25 am) Tim Pepper, K8NWD, 51 on 51 Award #56 (Dec 24 10:00 am) The AMSAT 51 on 51 Award is given to any station that makes contact with 51 different stations on AMSAT's newest satellite, AO-51, during the year 2005. To receive the award, you must submit your log entries either electron- ically or by photocopy. Entries must indicate date and time (UTC) of the contact, callsign and grid square of the contacted station, and mode used. Only contacts made between 1 January, 2005 and 31 December, 2005 are eligible. Logbooks may be submitted until 30 April, 2006. QSL cards are not required, however logbooks may be checked against other applicant's logs. The donation for the award is $10.00 (US Funds) and AMSAT members receive a $5.00 discount. Award fees may be paid through the AMSAT Online Store once you have received confirmation of eligibility from the Director of Contests and Awards. To see all the awards visit http://www.amsat.org. [ANS thanks Bruce, KK5DO for the above information] /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-001.04 AO-51 news & AMSAT Kid's Day on AO-51 AMSAT News Service Bulletin 001.04 From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. January 1, 2006 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-001.04 AMSAT-Echo AO-51 News of the Week Mike Kingery, KE4AZN, AMSAT Vice-President Operations, announced a new version of TlmEcho, the Telemetry Decoding Program for AO-51, is now available on his website: http://home.centurytel.net/ke4aznsatellite/echo.htm. TlmEcho software will allow the user to view and capture telemetry that is downlinked by Echo in real time. If you have used a previous version of TlmEcho then you can just down- load Version 1.1.1 and place the new files in the existing directory on your computer. This is all you need to do to upgrade to the new version. If this is your first time using the TlmEcho program, then you need to download the full installation which is Version 1.0.5. Install this older version first and then upgrade to Version 1.1.1. Instructions are on the web page. Also a new EchoCoef file has been placed on the site for download. This file has better high and low limits for the Tlm Channels. The Echo Operations Team plans to enable the high power mode on AO-51 on January 4, 2006. Use 145.920 mhz FM, 67 hz PL tone for the uplink on this day. The FM downlink will be on 435.300 Mhz. Echo is planned for high power downlink operation on January 8 also in support of Kid's Day activities. AMSAT-NA, the AO-51 Command Team, and the AO-51 Operations Team will sponsor Kid's Day on AO-51 on January 8, 2006. The event will run from approximately 0100 utc 8 January until 0345 utc 9 January. The event is open to all kids, worldwide. We ask all amateur radio stations to give this short time window to promote satellite operations with kids, by actually showing a kid how to make contacts via AO-51, providing a station to contact, or stepping aside to allow others to make contacts with the kids. During the event, please limit contacts to stations that are operating with kids at the microphone. This should allow the kids to have a nice QSO and pass some information. Kids can tell their name, age, who is helping them operate on AO-51, where they live, and other information about themselves. AO-51 will be configured in the following mode during the event. Please note the change in the uplink frequency for the event. The PL tone will be turned off for the event. Uplink: 145.880 mhz FM voice Downlink: 435.300 mhz FM voice The digital transponder on 435.150 will be turned off during the event. See http://www.arrl.org/FandES/ead/kd-rules.html on the ARRL website for more Kids Day information. Have fun and enjoy AO-51! 73 KE4AZN Amsat VP-Operations Echo Command Station [ANS thanks Mike KE4AZN for the above information] /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-001.05 Visible re-entry in January AMSAT News Service Bulletin 001.05 From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. January 1, 2006 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-001.05 When the NASA probe Stardust sample return capsule nose dives back to Earth in January, it will become the fastest human-made object to streak through the atmosphere. Scientists and engineers are at the ready to observe the spectacular sky show—and savvy skywatchers can join in on the aerial action too. If all goes to plan, Stardust will release its sample return capsule carrying comet and interstellar dust particles on Jan. 15 at 12:57 a.m. Eastern Standard Time (EST). Four hours later, the capsule will enter Earth's atmosphere, zooming toward Utah and a parachute landing at roughly 5:12 a.m. EST. During its plummet into Utah, the heat-thwarting capsule will skyrocket across the Western United States [map]. [ANS thanks Space News for the above information] /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-001.06 ARISS Status - 26 December 2005 AMSAT News Service Bulletin 001.06 From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. January 1, 2006 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-001.06 ARISS Status December 26, 2005 1. Michigan Contact Successful On Wednesday, December 21, eighteen students from Carman Park Elementary School in Flint, Michigan asked one question each of Bill McArthur, KC5ACR, via the telebridge station, WH6PN in Hawaii. An audience of approximately 300 people attended the event, with media coverage that included the Flint Journal. The contact audio was webcast, and was fed through EchoLink AMSAT (node 101 377) and EDU_Net (node 77 992) conference room servers and was broadcast into the IRLP Discovery Reflector 9010. Streaming audio was also available from the Discovery Reflector website, http://www.discoveryreflector.ca/ Forty-four connections were made to Echolink from stations in Argentina, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Canada, Iraq, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Slovenia, Thailand, U.K., and U.S.A., which included 15 simplex nodes and 7 repeater nodes. The Flint Journal article, “Kids' questions zip into outer space,” may be found at: http://www.mlive.com/news/fljournal/index.ssf?/base/news-33/1135266661268160.xml&coll=5 Photos of the Carman Park event may be found at this website: http://www.expedition12.com/charlie/charlie.html 2. Upcoming School Contacts The 25th Asia-Pacific Scout Jamboree contact has been approved for Saturday, December 31 at 09:12 UTC. The jamboree is held once every four years with scouts, ages 12-18 and will be held this year from December 28 to January 3 in Sattahip, Chonburi Province in Thailand. The hosting committee expects a turnout of 25,000 participants from the around the world, but especially from the 23 member countries in Asia-Pacific. There will be a live broadcast of the contact through the internet at: http://jamboree.siamportals.com . The audio will be fed to the Echolink Bangkok (node number 106 440), AMSAT (node number 101 377), and the EDU_Net node (77 992) conference room servers. STS Escola de Aviacao Civil in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil has been scheduled for a contact with the ISS on Monday, January 2 at 15:54 UTC. 3. ARRL Article on Sanderson, Mt. Carmel Contacts The students at Sanderson High School in Sanderson, Texas, and those at Mt. Carmel High School in San Diego, California experienced ARISS contacts on December 8 and 15, respectively. ARRL covered the contacts in the article, “Astronauts Don't Spend Much Time in Space, ISS Commander Tells Students.” See: http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2005/12/21/100/?nc=1 4. Astronaut Training Status Brazilian astronaut Marcos Pontes is tentatively scheduled for a training session at JSC on Monday, January 9, at which time he will be introduced to ARISS operations and school contacts. Pontes is scheduled to fly on a taxi flight to the ISS in the spring of 2006. 5. ARRL Article on McArthur Contacts Bill McArthur, KC5ACR, continues to work stations around the world. On Saturday, December 17, Bill made a contact with Palmer Station in Antarctica, and now qualifies for the Worked All Continents award. ARRL ran an article entitled, “Weekends Best Time to Catch NA1SS on the Air.” See: http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2005/12/23/2/?nc=1 6. Russian Special Event Space Patrol, a Russian special event, was planned for December 25 - 26 to commemorate the first anniversary of the death of cosmonaut Gennady Strekalov, U6MIR. Cosmonauts at Energia, using the callsign R3K, and those at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center (GCTC), using RK3DZB, operated HF radios on December 25, and cosmonauts are expected to operate at GCTC on December 26. Two contacts with the ISS were scheduled as part of the event – one on December 25 at 2056 UTC and another on December 26 at 1947 UTC. In addition, the Kenwood radio may be placed in cross band repeater mode from December 27 -31. 7. Japanese Magazine Runs SuitSat Article The Japanese CQ magazine is writing an article on SuitSat which references ARISS Chairman Frank Bauer’s paper, “THIS IS SUITSAT-1, AMATEUR RADIO STATION RS0RS!!” The ARISS team provided photographs to be included in the news write up, which will appear in the Japan CQ’s next issue. SuitSat is expected to be deployed on February 2, 2006. [ANS thanks Carol, KB3LKI for the above information] /EX