SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-282.01 Initial Report From the AMSAT Meeting AMSAT News Service Bulletin 282.01 >From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. October 9, 2005 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-282.01 The AMSAT News Service caught up with Board Member Emily Clarke, W0EEC after the first day of the Annual AMSAT BoD meeting in Pittsburgh. Emily said, "This is my first meeting as a member of the board, and I am very impressed at how unified the board is. The meeting has been focused on our top priority - to build and launch Eagle(s) - and the board has been very productive in identifying plan elements that will bring Eagle to orbit." Emily continued with, "One challenge we face is fund-raising, which is difficult to do at an early stage of the project. Unlike previous efforts much of the work, such as writing and testing software for the SDTX is intangible. Fundraising is our biggest challenge, and I encourage every member to think of creative ways we might meet our goal." Emily described another key action of the Board being the elections of the Executive Team officers taking place this week. The Board will announce the results of these elections when the process is completed. The AMSAT Annual Meeting followed on Friday, October 8, at 8PM. Powerpoint slides from this meeting can be viewed on-line at: http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/articles/2005_General_Meeting/ If one is navigating from the http://www.amsat.org front page the steps are: Navigator (main menu) Current Articles 2005 General Meeting We will upload additional presentations as they are reviewed and approved. [ANS thanks Emily, W0EEC for the above information] /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-282.02 AMSAT President's Letter AMSAT News Service Bulletin 282.02 >From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. October 9, 2005 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-282.02 As I prepare for the series of AMSAT meetings that will take place in Pittsburgh this week I have been reviewing the accomplishments of the past year and the challenges of the coming year. I am pleased with the progress of AMSAT's organizational and infrastructure improvements and with the progress of the two satellite projects, P3E and Eagle. For the coming year I am committed to focus AMSAT's activities primarily on the completion and launch of P3E, the construction of the Eagle space frame and implementation of the Eagle Software Defined Transponders (SDX), at a minimum. The changes in AMSAT's organizational structure have created many new opportunities for members to actively contribute to the growth and advancement of our organization. Our members are working on teams that are dedicated to areas of excellence such as finance and fundraising, marketing and field operations, technical and scientific, office management, external affairs, operations, human spaceflight, and record keeping. We have a great group of volunteers working in these areas and there is always room for more people. Our infrastructure has improved in a number of ways, most notably the rollout and constant upgrade of AMSAT's new Web site and on-line store and the overhaul of our accounting practices. Other improvements are in process and will be brought on line as time permits such as the AMSAT Information Management System (AIMS) and member only services. The P3E project is a very exciting one that holds great promise for the return of AMSAT to the benefits of high earth orbit satellites. This project is being led by AMSAT-DL, as have all the HEO satellite projects. AMSAT in North America is contributing substantial manpower and funding to P3E and is committed to the success of the project and to our close relationship with our good friends and colleagues in AMSAT-DL. I am personally a member of AMSAT, AMSAT-DL and AMSAT-UK. The Eagle project is maturing to the point that we will soon be ready to build the space frame and start assembling some of the payload modules like the Internal Housekeeping Unit and the U/V and L/S software defined transponders. Nearly all of the work that we are doing in support of P3E will also be used in Eagle so we will maximize the benefits of having cooperated on P3E. As with any new satellite design there are design issues and uncertainties. Let there be no mistake that these are normal and health parts of the design process as we balance the science, engineering, technology and mission requirements for Eagle. The Eagle team is large, diverse and excited about what they are doing. New qualified volunteers are being added to the team on a regular basis. Status reports are appearing in every issue of the AMSAT Journal. This coming year will be one of improved communication. There will be an effort to expand our communications beyond the official outlets, the Journal and AMSAT News Service. You will see more reports on the AMSAT-BB message board and we will improve the content and timeliness of the information on the AMSAT Web site, especially on the Eagle pages. The annual membership meeting will be held Friday evening, October 7th, at 8:00 pm Eastern Time and is open to the membership. This meeting will be recorded and both audio and video will be placed on AMSAT servers soon after the meeting. The meeting will also be broadcast on the AMSAT EchoLink conference. If you have questions and cannot be there please submit them by e-mail (details to be announced on ANS). We may also be able to take questions from EchoLink's text messaging window, if we can get someone in the meeting to operate the computer. AMSAT is an exciting and vibrant organization with a great deal to offer our members. No organization is perfect but we have a fabulous Mission and Vision and we are performing to those promises. I encourage those who need more information or clarification to gain a better understanding of what we are doing and why it is important and exciting to contact me or any of the other Board members and Officers. Contact information is on the AMSAT Web site at http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/AboutAmsat/officers.php. Rick, W2GPS AMSAT President [ANS thanks Rick, W2GPS for the above information] /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-282.03 ARISS Status October 3, 2005 AMSAT News Service Bulletin 282.03 >From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. October 9, 2005 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-282.03 1. Tregaron School Contact Successful On September 29, Tregaron High School (Ysgol Uwchradd Tregaron) in Tregaron, Ceredigion, Wales, U. K., experienced a successful ARISS contact. John Phillips, KE5DRY, answered 18 questions posed to him by the 14 students and after the contact was lost, he gave answers to the two remaining questions the students had prepared, allowing other radio stations to hear the answers. Approximately 400 students, teachers and dignitaries witnessed the contact. Audio of the contact is available on the ARISS-Europe website. See: http://www.ariss-eu.org/2005_09_29.htm To view the BBC article online, see: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/4292620.stm 2. ARRL Article on Expedition 12 On September 28, ARRL ran a web story on the new ISS crew. "ISS Expedition 12 crew, space tourist to launch October 1" may be found at: http://www.arrl.org/ 3. Space Adventures Announces Greg Olsen's Flight Plans A press release on Greg Olsen's flight and planned amateur radio contacts has been posted on the Space Adventures website. See: http://www.spaceadventures.com/media/releases/2005-09/283 4. Cosmonaut Greets IARU Conference Members On September 11-15, the International Amateur Radio Union (IARU) Region 1 held their tri-annual General Conference in Davos, Switzerland, where one hundred fifty delegates from 56 countries participated. On Sunday, September 11, during the opening ceremony, the delegates viewed a video of Sergei Krikalev, U5MIR, who sent greetings from space to the participants, wishing them a successful meeting. A news bulletin covering the meeting and including a link to the video has been posted on the ARISS-Europe website. See: http://www.ariss-eu.org/2005_09_30.htm 5. Students Run PCSAT2 Experiment On Thursday, September 29, Naval Academy midshipmen ran an experiment with PCSAT2. The students watched for packets via the PCSAT2 145.825 uplink, which were digipeated on the 435.275 downlink, and answered those by voice on the 437.975 downlink. Although they had little time to prepare for the pass, the students did have some success, and gained some experience from their lesson. 6. ARISS Budget 2006 A proposal was submitted to the Space Operations Mission Directorate (SOMD) to request funds for the ARISS program for the fiscal year 2006. ARISS Chairman Frank Bauer gave a presentation supporting this request on Friday, September 30. 7. NASA Nights Event On September 27, NES teachers from Pine Ridge Middle School in Naples, Florida, held "NASA Nights," an event to educate parents, teachers and students about NASA programs. Amateur Radio operators from the Amateur Radio Association of South West Florida volunteered to set up a radio demonstration station, and schedule radio contacts with Amateur Radio operators who work at NASA facilities. The scheduled radio contacts allowed students to ask questions of "NASA experts." After listening to contacts with hams in Chile, Great Britain and several states, students asked questions of hams at the NASA Ames Center in California. The Ames hams then made contact with hams at Kennedy Space Center, and relayed students' questions to KSC experts about the ISS and shuttles. 8. ARISS International Meeting Held The monthly ARISS International teleconference was held on Tuesday, September 27. Agenda items discussed included the status of the Columbus Module antennas, SSTV, the SuitSat project, Greg Olsen's contacts, and the use of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) for direct ARISS contacts. The next international meeting will be held on October 25. [ANS thanks Carol, KB3LKI for the above information] /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-282.04 New Launch Date for SSETI Express AMSAT News Service Bulletin 282.04 >From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. October 9, 2005 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-282.04 We have been advised that a new launch date has been agreed - Thursday 27th October from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome - with 28th October as a back-up date. The launch time is still expected to remain at 06:52:26 UTC For those who have already set-up their sat TV equipment to receive the ESA transmissions on ASTRA 1G - you may like to know that the launch of the ESA Cryosat spacecraft will be broadcast this coming Saturday - 8th October. Cryosat will lift-off from a launch facility at Plesetsk just a few kilometers away from where SSETI Express will be launched from. Start End Description GMT GMT 14:20 14:45 Start of ESA TV Program - welcome from ESA/ESRIN 14:45 15:15 Launch coverage from ESA/ESOC and Plesetsk Cosmodrome 15:02 Scheduled lift-off 15:15 16:30 Cryosat background information - live from ESA/ESRIN 16:30 16:45 Live coverage of satellite/launcher separation from ESA/ESOC 16:36 Scheduled orbital injection 17:00 17:30 Post-launch media briefing from ESA/ESRIN [ANS thanks Graham, G3VZV for the above information] /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-282.05 AO-51 Special Event - JOTA Weekend 15-16 October AMSAT News Service Bulletin 282.05 >From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. October 9, 2005 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-282.05 The annual Boy and Girl Scouts "Jamboree on the Air" Amateur Radio event is scheduled for 15 and 16 October 2005. As this is an International Scouting event, amateur radio stations around the world are invited to participate. The AO-51 command team is scheduling the satellite for exclusive use by the Scouts, and Satellite operators communicating with the Scouts, for this weekend. Please allow the Scouts the opportunity to make as many contacts as possible via AO-51 during this short time period. Base stations, please remember that most of the JOTA stations will be portable, so please use minimum power. The official times for the JOTA event will be from 1200 UTC on October 15 until 1200 UTC on October 17, 2005. For the JOTA weekend, AO-51 will be configured in the Dual FM repeater mode. This will provide two independent FM repeaters (separate uplink and downlink frequencies) for use over the weekend. Both repeaters will be for use by the JOTA activity. This mode will run Monday through Friday before the event to allow amateur satellite stations to familiarize and test this mode. The configuration of the satellite frequencies for this mode is listed below. AO-51 FM repeater #1 Downlink: 435.300 MHz Uplink: 145.920 MHz with 67hz PL Tone AO-51 FM repeater #2 Downlink: 435.150 MHz Uplink: 145.880 MHz with NO PL Tone Here are some web links for information on the JOTA weekend activity. http://www.arrl.org/FandES/ead/jota.html http://www.arrl.org/FandES/ead/ideas.html http://www.scouting.org/international/jota.html If your local club has a JOTA activity planned for the weekend please consider volunteering your services to provide a satellite communication station for the event. Thanks for your support and participation. [ANS thanks Mike, KE4AZN for the above information] /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-282.06 South Africa, Other African Nations to Build LEO Satellite Network AMSAT News Service Bulletin 282.06 >From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. October 9, 2005 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-282.06 SA AMSAT has been involved in discussions with the Department of Science and Technology to include an amateur payload to serve the needs of Amateurs on the African continent. "Now that the announcement has been made we will intensify our discussions with the various role-players", SA AMSAT President, Hans van de Groenendaal ZS6AKV said. "At this time I call on Radio Amateurs to send in ideas of what payload they believe will serve the African Amateur Radio Community best. The full story can be seen at: http://www.southgatearc.org/news/october2005/sa_satellite.htm [ANS thanks Trevor, M5AKA for the above information] /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-282.07 AMSAT Board and Officers for 2005-2006 AMSAT News Service Bulletin 282.07 From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. October 9, 2005 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-282.07 One of the key actions of the Board of Directors was the election of the Executive Team officers. Here are the results: AMSAT Board of Directors ------------------------- Richard Hambly, W2GPS Barry Baines, WD4ASW Gunther Meisse, W8GSM Dr. Thomas A. Clark, W3IWI Lou McFadin, W5DID Paul Shuch, N6TX Emily Clarke, W0EEC Bob McGwier, N4HY (First Alternate) Lee McLamb, KU4OS (Second Alternate) AMSAT Officers --------------- Richard Hambly, W2GPS: President Lee McLamb, KU4OS: Executive Vice President Mike Kingery, KE4AZN: Vice-President Operations Frank Bauer, KA3HDO: Vice President of Human Spaceflight Bob McGwier, N4HY: Vice-President Engineering Barry Baines, WD4ASW: Vice-President Marketing and User Services Steve Diggs, W4EPI: Secretary Gunther Meisse, W8GSM: Treasurer Martha Saragovitz: Manager Stan Wood, WA4NFY has retired as VP of Engineering. AMSAT thanks Stan for his years of service in this important capacity. We welcome and congratulate, Bob McGwier, N4HY, as the new AMSAT Vice-President Engineering. /EX