SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-214.01 ARISS Japan Contact 29 Jul AMSAT News Service Bulletin 214.01 From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. Aug 1, 2004 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-214.01 The ARISS team announced that the next school contact with the International Space Station astronauts would take place Thursday, 29 July between the ISS crew and students at the Council on sound development for school children in Habikino, Japan. The contact was scheduled to begin about 1155 UTC. Students would ask the following questions: 1. How many laps does the Space Station go around the earth? 2. Is the Space Station big enough? 3. How do you see Japan from the Space Station? 4. Is the view that you see from the Space Station beautiful? 5. Can you get your hair cut in the Space Station? 6. How convenient is it to be able to float in the Space Station? 7. Is a space suit heavy? 8. What was your impression when you saw the earth with no border? 9. How do you feel about floating in the space? 10. How big is the Space Station? 11. How did you feel when you saw the mother earth for the first time? 12. Can you eat fresh vegetables in the Space Station? 13. What should we study to be an astronaut? 14. What is the favorite thing to do in the space? 15. How is typhoon seen from the Space Station? 16. What would you do if you get injured? 17. How young can you be an astronaut? 18. What is the primary mission in the Space Station? 19. Can we take a space trip some day? 20. What made you be an astronaut? 21. Don't you feel sick staying in the Space Station for many days? 22. How long does it take to get to the Space Station from the earth? 23. Aren't you bored of being in the Space Station for many days? 24. How do you receive radio wave for communication? 25. Which standard time do you use in the space? The contact would be in either English, Japanese, or possibly both. The ISS crew would use the NA1SS call sign and by Council on sound development of schoolchildren would use the 8N3ARISS call. The downlink would be on 145.80 MHz and the ARISS team welcomed everyone in the area to listen in on the contact. "This learning project is defined as an extracurricular activity in which children are aimed to experience practical learning and contact with the ISS. This program is organized by Council on sound development of schoolchildren in Habikino, supported by the Habikigaoka Elementary School, Japan Amateur Radio League and cosponsored by the Habikino Board of Education and Kyoiku Network for district of the Mineduka Senior High School. With the assistance of these groups and schools, the program is organized and performed." ARISS is an international educational outreach program with US participation from NASA, AMSAT (The Amateur Satellite Radio Corp.), and the American Radio Relay League. 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 experience, first hand, how Amateur Radio and crewmembers on ISS can energize youngsters' interest in science, technology, and learning. Further information on the ARISS programme is available on the website http://www.rac.ca/ariss [ANS thanks Scott H. Stevens, N3ASA for the above information] /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-214.02 Portable PREDICT Plus! AMSAT News Service Bulletin 214.02 From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. Aug 1, 2004 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-214.02 Announcing the release of Portable PREDICT Plus, a miniature distribution of Linux that includes several ham radio and OSCAR satellite communication applications. Portable PREDICT Plus boots from a pair of floppy disks and runs entirely in RAM. There's no need to download huge CDROM images, install Linux, compile code, configure a kernel, or re-partition your hard disk to run this software. A third "data disk" is used to save configuration and home directory files, and can be used to import Keplerian orbital data into the system during setup. Portable PREDICT Plus includes PREDICT, PB/PG, FODtrack, PacsatTools, MoonTracker, minicom, setserial, and a small collection of AX.25 applications and utilities including kisson, kissoff, kissattach, kissparms, listen, mheard, call, and beacon. There's even a program included to play audio CDs. :-) Portable PREDICT Plus is based on a Linux kernel version 2.6.7, and supports a total of eight "virtual consoles", providing multiple login sessions that take full advantage of the multitasking and co-operative nature of the operating system and many of the included applications. Portable PREDICT Plus is capable of supporting moonbounce, analog and digital (Pacsat) satellite operations (including the new ECHO satellite), satellite and terrestrial packet radio communications (including ISS operations), as well as the generation of APRS-style beacons. Portable PREDICT Plus supports KISS and 6pack mode terminal node controllers, and runs on 32-bit PCs from 386s on up. Portable PREDICT Plus is available in two forms: One that builds the disk sets under Linux, and another that builds the disks under a DOS/Windows environment. The DOS/Windows version contains some extra tutorial information to assist those new to a Linux computing environment. Downloads are about 3 megabytes, and are available as follows: Linux version: http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ftp/software/Linux/ppplus-0.90.tar.gz DOS/Windows version: http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ftp/software/PC/tracking/pplus090.zip Portable PREDICT Plus was created by John A. Magliacane, KD2BD, and is released under the GNU General Public License. Additional information is available at: http://www.qsl.net/kd2bd/predict.html [ANS thanks John, KD2BD for the above information] /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-214.03 AMSAT at US VHF Soc Conf AMSAT News Service Bulletin 214.03 From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. Aug 1, 2004 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-214.03 AMSAT was well represented at the at the Central States VHF Society 2004 Conference in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada. Attending this conference representing AMSAT and the Eagle satellite design team group were Robin Haighton VE3FRH, Tom Clark W3IWI, Rick Hambly W2GPS, Bob McGwier N4HY, Bill Tynan, W3XO and Keith Pugh W5IU. We demonstrated satellite communications using AO-51 and tried to recruit designers interested in the Eagle project from among the experts in RF and antenna design who were there. AMSAT received a donation of $250 during the awards ceremony, which was very much appreciated. [ANS thanks Rick, W2GPS for the above information] /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-214.04 ARISS Status AMSAT News Service Bulletin 214.04 From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. Aug 1, 2004 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-214.04 ARISS Status July 26, 2004 1. Kenwood D700 Engineering Tests Successful The ARISS U.S. Team successfully completed a comprehensive checkout pass on Thursday, July 22 with Astronaut Mike Finke, KE5AIT. Utilizing ground stations in Greenbelt, Maryland, Orlando, Florida and Houston, Texas and linking team members in Kansas, Colorado, Maryland, Florida and Texas, the ARISS USA team performed voice and packet radio uplink tests to fully validate the Kenwood D700 system for future school group operations. In the near future, the Expedition 9 crew will set up the Kenwood to allow a checkout of the repeater mode, which will conclude testing of this portion of the Phase 2 Hardware. ARRL's web story covers the tests in, "ARISS US Team Completes Phase II Equipment Checkout." See: http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2004/07/23/6/?nc=1 2. ARISS International Meeting An ARISS International Teleconference was held on Tuesday, July 20. Agenda items discussed included the Joint AMSAT - ARISS Meetings to be held in Arlington, Virginia on October 8 -13. ARISS Chairman Frank Bauer asked the delegates to provide short status reports for each region. The reports would be compiled and presented at the AMSAT portion of the meeting. Also during the AMSAT meeting will be time for a panel of ARISS delegates to provide highlights of their regions, and then be available for a question and answer session afterwards. 3. ARRL Article on Meizen School Contact ARRL ran a web story on the Meizen High School contact in Japan entitled, "'We Need to Work Together,' Astronaut Tells Students in Japan." See: http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2004/07/22/2/?nc=1 4. Nick Lance Receives Educator of the Year Award The ARRL held its Board of Directors meeting on Friday and Saturday, July 16-17, and presented awards to those who exhibited excellence in their respective areas over the past year. ARISS member, Nick Lance, KC5KBO, who not only worked with youth on ARISS studies, but also tutored Aerospace Education Specialists and ISS crew members, received the 2003 ARRL Professional Educator of the Year Award. See the web story, "ARRL Board Names Award Winners" at: http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2004/07/22/1/?nc=1 5. MCI Relays News of Space Camp Turkey Contact On July 23, MCI's employee news digest mentioned the ISS contact with Space Camp Turkey. The space camp was linked to the ISS via an MCI-donated telephone bridge. The news item referenced ARRL's July 16 Newsletter as the source. [ANS thanks ARISS for the above information] /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-214.05 AMSAT Pres Contact on SO51 AMSAT News Service Bulletin 214.05 From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. Aug 1, 2004 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-214.05 During the weekend of 30th July - 1st August the AMSAT UK Colloquim is be taking place at the University of Surrey. Robin Haighton, President AMSAT-NA made a successful contact through SO-51 (Echo) on Friday morning. [ANS thanks AMSAT-UK for the above information] /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-214.06 OSCAR Satellite Awards AMSAT News Service Bulletin 214.06 From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. Aug 1, 2004 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-214.06 Congrats go out to the following for earning their Oscar Satellite Communications Achievement Award. #399 N1MIW Larry Zielinski 22-Jul-2004 Congrats also go out to the following for earning their South Africa Communications Achievement Award. #US82 N1MIW Larry Zielinski 22-Jul-2004 [ANS thanks Bruce Paige, KK5DO for the above information] /EX