SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-029.01 SuitSat Release on February 3 - Are You Ready? AMSAT News Service Bulletin 029.01 >From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. January 29, 2006 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-029.01 Frank Bauer, KA3HDO, who is the ARISS International Chairman and AMSAT's V.P. for Human Spaceflight Programs, reminds us if all goes well, SuitSat will be deployed in 5 days. Are you ready? Have you talked to a school in your area about SuitSat? Or a student group? Is your SSTV receive capability ready for the challenge? SuitSat will be deployed during a Russian EVA scheduled to take place on Friday, February 3 at approximately 22:20 UTC. NASA TV will provide live coverage starting at 21:30 UTC. For digital downlink information and access to NASA TV's Public Channel on the Web in RealPlayer, RealAudio, or Windows Media Player formats, visit http://www.nasa.gov/ntv. Russian Cosmonaut Tokarev will carefully jettison SuitSat-1 by pushing the suit away at about a 30-degree angle upward and about 10 degrees to the left of the back of the station. Once activated, those who hear SuitSat transmissions on 145.99 MHz are asked to enter their realtime data on the SuitSat website, http://www.suitsat.org/ so that participants around the world can track the satellite. Educational Outreach reports (at schools or informal education sites) as well as Slow Scan TV images can be sent to suitsat@comcast.net. This information will be compiled by the ARISS team. Other information on SuitSat can be found on: http://www.amsat.org (includes a countdown timer to SuitSat release) http://www.rac.ca/ariss http://www.issfanclub.com http://http://www.amsat.org/amsat/archive/sarex/48hour/threads.html NASA Education Website information for students: http://www.nasa.gov/audience/forstudents/k-4/home/index.html http://www.nasa.gov/audience/forstudents/5-8/features/index.html http://www.nasa.gov/audience/forstudents/9-12/features/index.html http://www.nasa.gov/audience/forstudents/postsecondary/features/index.html SuitSat-1, called Radioskaf or Radio Sputnik in Russian, is sponsored by ARISS (Amateur Radio on the International Space Station), an international working group made up of volunteers from national amateur radio societies, including the Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation. The Russian space company, Energia, led the development of SuitSat and has trained the crew for the deployment mission. [ANS thanks Frank, KA3HDO and the ARISS team for the above information] /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-029.02 ISS Contacts West Point AMSAT News Service Bulletin 029.02 >From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. January 29, 2006 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-029.02 Last January 26th, The ISS conducted a QSO with the U.S. Military Academy, West Point. Cmdr. Bill McCarthur talked with his "Alma Mater" at 13:13 UTC. An interesting contact sparking interest in space flight with many Corp Cadets. Bill has been quite active and using his time well to communicate with many during his spare time. He even has completed WAS and WAC from the ISS. ARISS offers an opportunity for students to experience the excitement of Amateur Radio by talking directly with crewmembers on-board the International Space Station. Teachers, parents and communities see, first hand, how Amateur Radio and crewmembers on ISS can energize youngsters' interest in science, technology, and learning. Further information on the ARISS program is available on the website http://www.rac.ca/ariss (graciously hosted by the Radio Amateurs of Canada). Thank you & 73, Kenneth - N5VHO [ANS thanks Ken, N5VHO, for the above information] /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-029.03 Ship to be named USS Alan Shepard AMSAT News Service Bulletin 029.03 >From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. January 29, 2006 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-029.03 The following article was in the The EAGLE-TRIBUNE Newspaper(N.Andover,Ma) and reprinted with their permission. Ship to be named USS Alan Shepard By John Basilesco Staff writer DERRY, N.H. -- A new U.S. Navy ship will be named the USS Alan Shepard in honor of the accomplished Derry native and first American in space. The Navy will name the vessel, which is about to be built, after the famous astronaut, who grew up in East Derry and graduated from Pinkerton Academy. The 1,000-foot combat support ship will be built in San Diego and delivered to Navy by March 2007. U.S. Sens. Judd Gregg and John Sununu and Congressmen Charles Bass and Jeb Bradley, all of New Hampshire, made the announcement yesterday. "I think it's great,'' said state Rep. George Katsakiores, R-Derry. "It's quite an honor to have a ship named after you; it's a national honor.'' Katsakiores, 82, attended Pinkerton Academy with Shepard. "I knew him very well because he used to live in East Derry and his sister, Pauline, was in my class at Pinkerton,'' Katsakiores said. Shepard graduated in 1940 and Katsakiores graduated in 1942. Katsakiores recalls having a full house at his bar and restaurant in Derry in 1961 with everyone glued to a 10-inch black-and-white television watching Shepard blast off into space. "We applaud the Navy's decision to honor the legacy and contributions of New Hampshire's native son Alan Shepard Jr. by naming one of the new combat support ships after him,'' Gregg, Sununu, Bass and Bradley said in a joint statement. "Alan Shepard led a distinguished career in the U.S. Navy and at NASA, and naming a ship after him will be a fitting tribute to one of the nation's greatest pilots and astronauts. The USS Alan Shepard will play an important role in providing for our Navy's readiness and allow the Navy to maintain a forward presence in the 21st Century.'' Along with distinguishing himself as a pioneer in America's efforts to explore space, Shepard was one of only 12 Americans to walk on the moon. Following his 1961 space flight, Shepard battled an inner ear disorder before soaring back into space in 1974 as commander of the Apollo 14 mission to the moon. He spent 33 hours on the moon during this third lunar landing mission and became the only lunar golfer. He died from leukemia at the age of 74 in 1998 while living in Houston, Texas. Three years later, he was honored on the 40th anniversary of his historic space flight when the Derry post office on Tsienneto Road was named the Alan B. Shepard Jr. Post Office Building. A section of Interstate 93 is also named after him. The combat support ship will deliver supplies, transfer cargo and provide logistic support to other Navy vessels. [ANS thanks Arthur, N1ORC, for the above information] /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-029.04 OSCAR 11 Report January 23, 2006 AMSAT News Service Bulletin 029.04 >From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. January 29, 2006 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-029.04 OSCAR-11 REPORT 24 January 2006 Users of OSCAR-11 may be interested in recent additions to my website. Firstly UCAP, this is a simple OSCAR-11 capture program for Windows, and may be used instead of CTERM. It features an accurate time stamp facility, which is useful for checking the satellite's real time clock. Secondly, the news and telemetry archives have been updated to include all the 2005 data. The URL is www.users.zetnet.co.uk/clivew During the period 14 December 2005 to 23 January 2006 the VHF beacon on 145.826 MHz. has been heard from 23 to 31 December and from 11 to 21 January. Signals during the December passes were very variable. Sometimes received at good strength, at other times they were inaudible , even with the BFO switched ON (ie. in CW mode). Signals during the January passes tended to be much stronger, and good copy was obtained on most passes. The on-board clock continues to accumulate a very large error. On 21 January it was 22.14 days slow, having lost 0.33 days (8 hours) since 09 December. However, the rate of change of clock error appears to vary between zero and half an hour per day, over short periods. The greatest changes seem to correspond with poor signals, which suggests that the clock may slow or stop when the battery voltage is low. All the analogue telemetry channels, 0 to 59 are zero, ie they have failed. The status channels 60 to 67 are still working. The satellite is now in continuous sunlight until around 06 May, when eclipses will start again. This should help the satellite to continue transmitting, although continuous sunlight can cause problems due to excessive temperatures. Power supply problems can be caused by poor pointing attitude, ie the sunlight illuminating the ends of the satellite, instead of the solar arrays. The watchdog timer now appears to have resumed operation on the 20 day cycle, ie. approximately ten days ON followed by 10 days OFF. However, at any time, poor solar attitude, and battery problems, may result in a low 14 volt line supply, which may cause the beacon to switch OFF prematurely, and reset the watchdog timer cycle. 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:U2RPT117.CWV, to prevent duplication. 73 Clive G3CWV [ANS thanks Clive, G3CWV, for the above information] /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-029.05 ARISS Status January 23, 2006 AMSAT News Service Bulletin 029.05 >From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. January 29, 2006 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-029.05 ARISS Status January 23, 2006 1. Georgia Tech Contact Successful On January 19, eight students from Georgia Tech in Atlanta, Georgia had the opportunity to speak with alumnus Bill McArthur, KC5ACR. Fifteen questions were asked and answered as at least 100 visitors gathered in the campus theater to listen in. Campus news organizations covered the event, as did the local CBS and FOX affiliates, and campus radio station WREK carried the contact live and streamed audio on its website. Announcements of the event on local nets allowed other radio operators in the area to listen in. Radio coordinator Alexander Carver remarked, “Needless to say we all had a blast. Everyone walked out of the room with a grin from ear to ear. It's not often we get to speak to an alum 200 miles straight up.” 2. ARRL Article on Peterson, St. Albert School Contacts ARRL ran an article covering the Peterson Elementary School and St Albert the Great School contacts. “ISS Commander Visits Home via Ham Radio, Talks Space Trash with Ohio Kids” may be found at: http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2006/01/19/1/?nc=1 3. McArthur Completes “Worked All States” Bill McArthur, KC5ACR, worked a station in Alaska over the weekend, completing his Worked All States award. He continues to pursue his DXCC award, having worked 68 countries as of January 17, and is looking for more - including those in the Caribbean. 4. SuitSat Receives Media Attention Aviation Week and Space Technology, the premier U.S. Weekly aviation and space magazine read by thousands of engineers and leaders, worldwide, in the aerospace field, is planning to publish an article on SuitSat. ARISS Chairman Frank Bauer provided his SuitSat paper to the publication for background information on the satellite. The article is expected to run in the next week or two. AMSAT SM (Sweden) has posted a SuitSat article on its website with links to sites with other SuitSat information including video, papers, and articles. See: http://www.amsat.se/cgi-bin/main/index.pl The ARRL Journal published a SuitSat article this month which intrigued scouts attending the annual Boy Scouts Radio Merit Badge Day at the Sarnoff Corporation HQ in Princeton, NJ. The Scouts were very excited about the upcoming satellite and many expressed an interest not only in the project, but also in becoming licensed radio amateurs. 5. SuitSat EVA and Website SuitSat will be deployed during a Russian EVA scheduled to take place on Friday, February 3 at approximately 22:20 UTC. Once activated, those who hear SuitSat transmissions are asked to enter their data on the SuitSat website, www.suitsat.org so that participants around the world can track the satellite. Educational Outreach reports (at schools or informal education sites) as well as Slow Scan TV images can be sent to suitsat@comcast.net. This information will be compiled by the ARISS team. 6. Astronaut Training Status On Wednesday, January 11, astronaut Garrett Reismann took and passed his amateur radio license exam. He has been issued the callsign KE5HAE. On January 17, Clay Anderson, KD5PLA, attended a one hour refresher session with Kenneth Ransom at JSC. The session covered school contact procedures, general operating practices, and some hands on time spent practicing with the on board training hardware. 7. ARRL Article on Upcoming AMSAT Meeting On January 18, ARRL ran a story on the AMSAT – ARISS joint meetings to be held in October. To view, “AMSAT Space Symposium set for October,” go to: http://www.arrl.org/ 8. Space Day 2006 AMSAT has again been invited to set up an activity center at the Space Day event to be held at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center on Friday, May 5. The theme this year is "Living and Working on the Moon." AMSAT hosted a station last year which included an ARISS display, and representatives were on hand to distribute ARISS lithographs and answer questions. [ANS thanks Carol, KB3LKI, for the above information] /EX