AMSAT NEWS SERVICE<br />ANS-001<br /><br />ANS is a free, weekly, news and information service of AMSAT North<br />America, The Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation. ANS reports on the<br />activities of a worldwide group of Amateur Radio operators who share an<br />active interest in designing, building, launching and communicating<br />through analog and digital Amateur Radio satellites.<br /><br />Please send any amateur satellite news or reports to:<br /><br />ans-editor@amsat.org<br /><br />In this edition:<br />* EAGLE<br />* XI-V Pictures<br />* AMSAT Awards<br />* AO-51 news & AMSAT Kid's Day on AO-51<br />* Visible Re-entry in January<br />* ARISS Status - 26 December 2005<br /><br /><br />SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-001.01<br />EAGLE<br /><br />AMSAT News Service Bulletin 001.01<br /> From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.<br />January 1, 2006<br />To All RADIO AMATEURS<br />BID: $ANS-001.01<br /><br />AMSAT Eagle, an HEO bird, is in need of support via funding. In order<br />to get off the ground and become a reality, a good foundation of initial<br />funding will be needed to begin the basic construction efforts by the<br />"Eagle Team." Presently, all members of AMSAT have received an envelope<br />for donations towards this effort. AMRAD and others have put out<br />requests to all to make every effort to contribute to this satellite so<br />do your part and spread the word to fund the project from this beginning<br />phase through launch. Please visit the AMSAT website to donate to this<br />Eagle appeal.<br /><br />[ANS thanks Barry Baines, WD4ASW for the above information]<br /><br />/EX<br /><br /><br />SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-001.02<br />XI-V Pictures<br /><br />AMSAT News Service Bulletin 001.02<br /> From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.<br />January 1, 2006<br />To All RADIO AMATEURS<br />BID: $ANS-001.02<br /><br />The small cubesat that was released from the SSETI satellite is sending<br />pictures back to us of the Earth. Find these at:<br />
http://www.ne.jp/asahi/hamradio/je9pel/xivpict2.htm<br /><br />This cubesat was put together by JAMSAT and is functioning as predicted.<br /><br />[ANS thanks Mineo Wakita, JE9PEL for the above information]<br /><br />/EX<br /><br /><br />SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-001.03<br />AMSAT Awards<br /><br />AMSAT News Service Bulletin 001.03<br /> From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.<br />January 1, 2006<br />To All RADIO AMATEURS<br />BID: $ANS-001.03<br /><br />This week, congratulations go out to all of the following.<br /><br />The following 51 on 51 Awards were posted in the order they were<br />received via email and U.S. mail. I did not post #50 to the web so<br />that no one knew when #50 would arrive giving everyone an equal<br />chance at earning Award #51.<br /><br />Bill Greene, VE7WFG, 51 on 51 Award #50 (Dec 15)<br />Emily Clarke, W0EEC, 51 on 51 Award #51 (Dec 16)<br />Leslie Scofield, W4SCO, 51 on 51 Award #52 (Dec 21)<br />Steven Jepsen, AI7W, 51 on 51 Award #53 (Dec 22)<br />Takuya Yoshihori, JE1FQV, 51 on 51 Award #54 (Dec 24 05:38 am)<br />Yasuo Mikashima, JR6LDE, 51 on 51 Award #55 (Dec 24 06:25 am)<br />Tim Pepper, K8NWD, 51 on 51 Award #56 (Dec 24 10:00 am)<br /><br />The AMSAT 51 on 51 Award is given to any station that makes contact<br />with 51 different stations on AMSAT's newest satellite, AO-51, during<br />the year 2005.<br /><br />To receive the award, you must submit your log entries either electron-<br />ically or by photocopy. Entries must indicate date and time (UTC) of<br />the contact, callsign and grid square of the contacted station, and<br />mode used. Only contacts made between 1 January, 2005 and 31 December,<br />2005 are eligible. Logbooks may be submitted until 30 April, 2006.<br /><br />QSL cards are not required, however logbooks may be checked against<br />other applicant's logs. The donation for the award is $10.00 (US Funds)<br />and AMSAT members receive a $5.00 discount. Award fees may be paid<br />through the AMSAT Online Store once you have received confirmation of<br />eligibility from the Director of Contests and Awards.<br /><br />To see all the awards visit
http://www.amsat.org.<br /><br />[ANS thanks Bruce, KK5DO for the above information]<br /><br />/EX<br /><br /><br />SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-001.04<br />AO-51 news & AMSAT Kid's Day on AO-51<br /><br />AMSAT News Service Bulletin 001.04<br /> From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.<br />January 1, 2006<br />To All RADIO AMATEURS<br />BID: $ANS-001.04<br /><br />AMSAT-Echo AO-51 News of the Week<br /><br />Mike Kingery, KE4AZN, AMSAT Vice-President Operations, announced a<br />new version of TlmEcho, the Telemetry Decoding Program for AO-51,<br />is now available on his website:<br />
http://home.centurytel.net/ke4aznsatellite/echo.htm.<br /><br />TlmEcho software will allow the user to view and capture telemetry<br />that is downlinked by Echo in real time.<br /><br />If you have used a previous version of TlmEcho then you can just down-<br />load Version 1.1.1 and place the new files in the existing directory<br />on your computer. This is all you need to do to upgrade to the new<br />version.<br /><br />If this is your first time using the TlmEcho program, then you need to<br />download the full installation which is Version 1.0.5. Install this<br />older version first and then upgrade to Version 1.1.1. Instructions<br />are on the web page.<br /><br />Also a new EchoCoef file has been placed on the site for download. This<br />file has better high and low limits for the Tlm Channels.<br /><br />The Echo Operations Team plans to enable the high power mode on AO-51<br />on January 4, 2006. Use 145.920 mhz FM, 67 hz PL tone for the uplink<br />on this day. The FM downlink will be on 435.300 Mhz. Echo is planned<br />for high power downlink operation on January 8 also in support of Kid's<br />Day activities.<br /><br />AMSAT-NA, the AO-51 Command Team, and the AO-51 Operations Team will<br />sponsor Kid's Day on AO-51 on January 8, 2006. The event will run from<br />approximately 0100 utc 8 January until 0345 utc 9 January. The event is<br />open to all kids, worldwide. We ask all amateur radio stations to give<br />this short time window to promote satellite operations with kids, by<br />actually showing a kid how to make contacts via AO-51, providing a<br />station to contact, or stepping aside to allow others to make contacts<br />with the kids.<br /><br />During the event, please limit contacts to stations that are operating<br />with kids at the microphone. This should allow the kids to have a nice<br />QSO and pass some information. Kids can tell their name, age, who is<br />helping them operate on AO-51, where they live, and other information<br />about themselves.<br /><br />AO-51 will be configured in the following mode during the event. Please<br />note the change in the uplink frequency for the event. The PL tone will<br />be turned off for the event.<br /><br />Uplink: 145.880 mhz FM voice<br />Downlink: 435.300 mhz FM voice<br /><br />The digital transponder on 435.150 will be turned off during the event.<br /><br />See
http://www.arrl.org/FandES/ead/kd-rules.html on the ARRL website for<br />more Kids Day information.<br /><br />Have fun and enjoy AO-51!<br /><br />73 KE4AZN<br />Amsat VP-Operations<br />Echo Command Station<br /><br />[ANS thanks Mike KE4AZN for the above information]<br /><br />/EX<br /><br /><br />SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-001.05<br />Visible re-entry in January<br /><br />AMSAT News Service Bulletin 001.05<br />From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.<br />January 1, 2006<br />To All RADIO AMATEURS<br />BID: $ANS-001.05<br /><br />When the NASA probe Stardust sample return capsule nose dives back to<br />Earth in January, it will become the fastest human-made object to streak<br />through the atmosphere. Scientists and engineers are at the ready to<br />observe the spectacular sky show—and savvy skywatchers can join in on<br />the aerial action too.<br /><br />If all goes to plan, Stardust will release its sample return capsule<br />carrying comet and interstellar dust particles on Jan. 15 at 12:57 a.m.<br />Eastern Standard Time (EST). Four hours later, the capsule will enter<br />Earth's atmosphere, zooming toward Utah and a parachute landing at<br />roughly 5:12 a.m. EST.<br /><br />During its plummet into Utah, the heat-thwarting capsule will skyrocket<br />across the Western United States [map].<br /><br />[ANS thanks Space News for the above information]<br /><br />/EX<br /><br /><br />SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-001.06<br />ARISS Status - 26 December 2005<br /><br />AMSAT News Service Bulletin 001.06<br /> From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.<br />January 1, 2006<br />To All RADIO AMATEURS<br />BID: $ANS-001.06<br /><br />ARISS Status<br />December 26, 2005<br /><br />1. Michigan Contact Successful<br /><br />On Wednesday, December 21, eighteen students from Carman Park Elementary<br />School in Flint, Michigan asked one question each of Bill McArthur,<br />KC5ACR, via the telebridge station, WH6PN in Hawaii. An audience of<br />approximately 300 people attended the event, with media coverage that<br />included the Flint Journal. The contact audio was webcast, and was fed<br />through EchoLink AMSAT (node 101 377) and EDU_Net (node 77 992)<br />conference room servers and was broadcast into the IRLP Discovery<br />Reflector 9010. Streaming audio was also available from the Discovery<br />Reflector website,
http://www.discoveryreflector.ca/<br /><br />Forty-four connections were made to Echolink from stations in Argentina,<br />Bangladesh, Cambodia, Canada, Iraq, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Slovenia,<br />Thailand, U.K., and U.S.A., which included 15 simplex nodes and 7<br />repeater nodes.<br /><br />The Flint Journal article, “Kids' questions zip into outer space,” may<br />be found at:<br />
http://www.mlive.com/news/fljournal/index.ssf?/base/news-33/1135266661268160.xml&coll=5<br /><br />Photos of the Carman Park event may be found at this website:<br />
http://www.expedition12.com/charlie/charlie.html<br /><br />2. Upcoming School Contacts<br /><br />The 25th Asia-Pacific Scout Jamboree contact has been approved for<br />Saturday, December 31 at 09:12 UTC. The jamboree is held once every<br />four years with scouts, ages 12-18 and will be held this year from<br />December 28 to January 3 in Sattahip, Chonburi Province in Thailand.<br />The hosting committee expects a turnout of 25,000 participants from the<br />around the world, but especially from the 23 member countries in<br />Asia-Pacific. There will be a live broadcast of the contact through the<br />internet at:
http://jamboree.siamportals.com . The audio will be fed to<br />the Echolink Bangkok (node number 106 440), AMSAT (node number 101 377),<br />and the EDU_Net node (77 992) conference room servers.<br /><br />STS Escola de Aviacao Civil in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil has been scheduled<br />for a contact with the ISS on Monday, January 2 at 15:54 UTC.<br /><br />3. ARRL Article on Sanderson, Mt. Carmel Contacts<br /><br />The students at Sanderson High School in Sanderson, Texas, and those at<br />Mt. Carmel High School in San Diego, California experienced ARISS<br />contacts on December 8 and 15, respectively. ARRL covered the contacts<br />in the article, “Astronauts Don't Spend Much Time in Space, ISS<br />Commander Tells Students.” See:<br />
http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2005/12/21/100/?nc=1<br /><br />4. Astronaut Training Status<br /><br />Brazilian astronaut Marcos Pontes is tentatively scheduled for a<br />training session at JSC on Monday, January 9, at which time he will be<br />introduced to ARISS operations and school contacts. Pontes is scheduled<br />to fly on a taxi flight to the ISS in the spring of 2006.<br /><br />5. ARRL Article on McArthur Contacts<br /><br />Bill McArthur, KC5ACR, continues to work stations around the world. On<br />Saturday, December 17, Bill made a contact with Palmer Station in<br />Antarctica, and now qualifies for the Worked All Continents award. ARRL<br />ran an article entitled, “Weekends Best Time to Catch NA1SS on the Air.”<br /> See:<br />
http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2005/12/23/2/?nc=1<br /><br />6. Russian Special Event<br /><br />Space Patrol, a Russian special event, was planned for December 25 - 26<br />to commemorate the first anniversary of the death of cosmonaut Gennady<br />Strekalov, U6MIR. Cosmonauts at Energia, using the callsign R3K, and<br />those at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center (GCTC), using RK3DZB,<br />operated HF radios on December 25, and cosmonauts are expected to<br />operate at GCTC on December 26. Two contacts with the ISS were<br />scheduled as part of the event – one on December 25 at 2056 UTC and<br />another on December 26 at 1947 UTC. In addition, the Kenwood radio may<br />be placed in cross band repeater mode from December 27 -31.<br /><br />7. Japanese Magazine Runs SuitSat Article<br /><br />The Japanese CQ magazine is writing an article on SuitSat which<br />references ARISS Chairman Frank Bauer’s paper, “THIS IS SUITSAT-1,<br />AMATEUR RADIO STATION RS0RS!!” The ARISS team provided photographs to be<br />included in the news write up, which will appear in the Japan CQ’s next<br />issue. SuitSat is expected to be deployed on February 2, 2006.<br /><br />[ANS thanks Carol, KB3LKI for the above information]<br /><br />/EX
