ARISS Joins NASA On-The-Air for a Special SSTV Event October 27-29

Amateur Radio On The International Space Station (ARISS) is planning a very special Slow Scan TV event currently scheduled to start Saturday, October 27th about 10:00 UTC.  Transmissions are scheduled to continue until around 19:30 UTC on October 29th. Helping to support the event will be NASA’s Space, Communication and Navigation (SCaN) Department.

The Space Communications and Navigation (SCaN) program manages NASA’s three most important communications networks: The Space Network (SN), Near Earth Network (NEN), and the Deep Space Network (DSN).

Just as in past ARISS SSTV commemorations, twelve images will be downlinked, but this time with six featuring the SCaN educational activities while the other six images will commemorate major NASA anniversaries, ie., when NASA was established, astronauts first landing on the moon, etc.

In addition to the fun of receiving these images, participants can qualify for a special endorsement for the NASA On The Air (NOTA) celebration event. To learn more about NOTA visit https://nasaontheair.wordpress.com.

Once received, images can be posted and viewed at http://www.spaceflightsoftware.com/ARISS_SSTV/index.php. The transmissions are expected to be broadcast at the usual frequency of 145.800 MHz using the PD-120 SSTV mode.

Please note that the event is dependent on other activities, schedules and crew responsibilities on the ISS and are subject to change at any time.

More information will follow soon, so please continue to check for  news and the most current information on the AMSAT.org and  ARISS.org websites, the [email protected], the ARISS Facebook at Amateur Radio On The International Space Station (ARISS) page and ARISS Twitter @ARISS_status.

ISS SSTV Image (Courtesy M0AEU)

Fox-1Cliff Delivery And Integration

AMSAT Vice-President Engineering Jerry Buxton, N0JY, has posted a YouTube video entitled “Fox-1Cliff Delivery And Integration” in which he explains what goes on in the final step of getting an amateur radio CubeSat into orbit.

Fox-1Cliff Ready for Launch

On Monday, September 24th, Jerry Buxton, NØJY, AMSAT Vice-President Engineering, delivered and performed the integration of AMSAT’s Fox-1Cliff CubeSat in preparation for launch.

Fox-1Cliff in the clean room, ready for prep

Unlike AO-85 and AO-91, AMSAT purchased a commercial launch for Fox-1Cliff. Please consider a donation to help replenish the coffers for GOLF and other future AMSAT projects!
https://www.amsat.org/product-category/amsat-general-donations/
https://www.amsat.org/product-category/amsat-membership/
https://www.amsat.org/product-category/amsat-presidents-club-donations/

Uplink:      435.300 MHz FM voice (67.0 Hz CTCSS tone) / 1267.300 MHz FM voice (67.0 Hz CTCSS tone)
Downlink:  145.920 MHz FM voice; AFSK digital data up to 9600 bps
Transmit power: 600 mW nominal

Fox-1Cliff after insertion in the PSL-P deployer

Because only one uplink frequency can be active at a time, the use of the Mode-L uplink will be limited to experimental periods announced in advance.

Fox-1Cliff carries the flight spare of the AO-85 Vanderbilt University Low Energy Proton (LEP) radiation experiment, and the standard Fox-1 Penn State University–Erie gyroscope experiment. Virginia Tech provided a VGA camera which is the same as AO-92 but will provide images at a higher 640 x 480 resolution. These non-SSTV images will be decoded in the FoxTelem software.

Spaceflight Mission Managers and the two CubeSat teams performing integration

Fox-1Cliff, unlike the other three Fox-1 FM spacecraft, does not have an active AFC on the uplinks.

Fox-1Cliff’s Subaudible Telemetry (low-speed telemetry) will be the same as for AO-85, AO-91, and AO-92. It will be supported by the same FoxTelem software already released.

As with AO-92, a high-speed mode will be used to support the Virginia Tech VGA camera experiment.

The Fox-1Cliff Remove Before Flight Pin after its final removal for the mission.

This mode will be active for 40 minutes by ground command before reverting to standard U/v transponder voice operation.

Fox-1Cliff is named in honor of long-time AMSAT member, contributor, and benefactor Cliff Buttschardt, K7RR (SK), who passed away in 2016. Cliff’s contributions to AMSAT and other amateur satellite programs, including serving as an adviser during the initial development of the CubeSat specification at California Polytechnic State University, earned him the Lifetime Achievement Award from Project OSCAR in 2006.

[ANS thanks Jerry Buxton, NØJY, AMSAT Vice-President Engineering for the above information]

 

Spaceflight team along with some team members of the other CubeSats that were integrated Monday

 

 

AMSAT President Joe Spier, K6WAO, to appear on Ham Nation September 26th

AMSAT President Joe Spier, K6WAO, will appear on Ham Nation’s September 26, 2018 episode (#369) with Gordon West, WB6NOA. Joe is scheduled to discuss the latest news from AMSAT and ARISS.

Ham Nation records live every Wednesday at 9:00pm Eastern / 6:00pm Pacific / 01:00 (Thu) UTC and can be viewed at  https://twit.tv/shows/ham-nation

AMSAT President Joe Spier, K6WAO