AMSAT NEWS SERVICE<br />ANS-338<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 />ans-editor@amsat.org<br /><br /><br />In this edition:<br /><br />* PCSAT1 and PCSAT2 Two-Hop Operations<br />* ISS Active on Casual Contacts<br />* Straight Key Night on OSCAR 2006<br />* AMSAT Awards This Week<br />* ARISS Status for the week of November 28, 2005<br />* Russian Space Agency Explains December Spacewalk Delay<br />* St. Pierre and Miquelon Satellite DXpedition Report<br />* Eagle Hardware Elements<br /><br /><br />SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-338.01<br />PCSAT1 and PCSAT2 Two-Hop Operations<br /><br />AMSAT News Service Bulletin 338.01<br />>From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.<br />December 4, 2005<br />To All RADIO AMATEURS<br />BID: $ANS-338.01<br /><br />Bob Bruninga, WB4APR, writing on behalf of the US Naval Academy<br />Satellite Laboratory, reported this week that the original PCSat<br />(PCSAT1), which is operational only when its solar cells are in<br />sunlight, has had as many as 45 users in a single day and 72 dif-<br />ferent callsigns over a period of two days. This is because<br />PCSAT1's orbit has taken the satellite into a 12 day full-sun<br />period.<br /><br />Additionally, PCSAT2, mounted aboard an external strut on the<br />International Space Station will be activated as its solar cells<br />will be once again facing the sun as the ISS makes orbital attitude<br />adjustments. The PCSAT2 user digipeater with its 145.825 uplink<br />and 435.275 downlink will be back on-the-air.<br /><br />With PCSAT1 and PCSAT2 both active, the control team at the<br />US Naval Academy will make a few changes to improve the chances<br />of mulitple satellite hops of digipeated signals:<br /><br />1) We will add SGATE as an alias to PCSAT2 so that ANY over<br />the horizon PCSAT1 originated packets that are heard by PCSAT2<br />will be relayed since these packets already contain the SGATE<br />digipeating path.<br /><br />2) Stations sending up through PCSAT1 as a first hop may get a<br />second hop through PCSAT2 if they use any dual hop path (ARISS,<br />ARISS; or WIDE2-2; or PCSAT2,PCSAT1; etc) The second hop will<br />only be heard on the PCSAT2 435.275 downlink.<br /><br />3) As of December 3, the PCSAT2 435.275 downlink was switched<br />down to 145.825 so that PCSAT2 and PCSAT1 are identical systems<br />both with uplinks and downlinks on 145.825 acting as a 2-hop<br />constellation both on 145.825. Both will be supporting the normal<br />APRS aliases of WIDE, or ARISS, or APRSAT or WIDE2-2 so that you<br />can digipeat through either one or both.<br /><br />4) The PCSAT2 dowlink will shift back to 435.275 on 7 Dec to avoid<br />any possible interference with the next school contact with Sanderson,<br />TX, on 8 Dec at 1730z.<br /><br />Bob reminds PCSat users, "Of course, the MORE that try the FEWER<br />will be the success rate. So if you really don't know what you are<br />doing, PLEASE do not transmit and just watch. YOUR station may be<br />the one that SEES the dual hop, so that should be a good reward too.<br />Make your packet as SHORT as possible and use the shortest TXD for<br />your TNC. The PCSATs should respond with TXD's as low as 10 which<br />is 100 milliseconds in real-time. Also, transmit occassionally,<br />NOT repeatedly, maybe once a minute or so.<br /><br />Bob summarized, "When PCSAT1 returns to eclipses, we are usually<br />lucky enough to keep her from resetting for a few more weeks and<br />at least daylight operations can continue normally. But once it<br />resets, either due to peak user load or a Single Event Upset from<br />radiation, then we lose her again until the next full sun period<br />in the first week of March 2006."<br /><br />For additional details please see the PCSAT2 web page at:<br />
http://www.ew.usna.edu/~bruninga/pcsat2.html<br /><br />[ANS thanks Bob, WB4APR, and the US Naval Academy Satellite Lab<br />for the above information]<br /><br />/EX<br /><br /><br />SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-338.02<br />ISS Active on Casual Contacts<br /><br />AMSAT News Service Bulletin 338.02<br />>From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.<br />December 4, 2005<br />To All RADIO AMATEURS<br />BID: $ANS-338.02<br /><br />International Space Station Commander, Astronaut Bill McArthur,<br />KC5ACR, has been very active on the NA1SS amateur radio station<br />aboard the ISS over the past several days. Since November 23,<br />NA1SS has made over 50 contacts during brief operating opportunities.<br />This past week, reports from Turkey, South Africa, South America<br />and North America indicated NA1SS was calling CQ and making contacts.<br /><br />For those who are still trying for a contact with the ISS, keep<br />it up! For those of you lucky enough to work him, congratulations,<br />but please give the others a little more time before making another<br />contact since you have your QSO for Expedition 12. Lets see how<br />many different stations he can work.<br /><br />In addition, Bill has been doing 2 school contacts a week when<br />his schedule allows. Not since Expedition 3 has a crew member<br />done this on a regular basis. Please consider telling Bill,<br />"Thank you" for all of us if you are fortunate enough to speak<br />with NA1SS.<br /><br />Worldwide packet uplink: 145.990 MHz FM<br />Region 1 voice uplink: 145.200 MHz FM<br />Region 2/3 voice uplink: 144.490 MHz FM<br />Worldwide downlink: 145.800 MHz FM<br /><br />Repeater Uplink: 437.800 MHz FM<br />Repeater Downlink: 145.800 MHz FM<br />Doppler Shift is 10 KHz<br /><br />Russian callsigns: RS0ISS, RZ3DZR<br />USA callsign: NA1SS<br />Packet station mailbox callsign: RS0ISS-11<br />Packet station keyboard callsign: RS0ISS-3<br />Digipeater callsign: ARISS<br /><br />[ANS thanks Kenneth, N5VHO for the above information]<br /><br />/EX<br /><br /><br />SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-338.03<br />Straight Key Night on OSCAR 2006<br /><br />AMSAT News Service Bulletin 338.03<br />>From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.<br />December 4, 2005<br />To All RADIO AMATEURS<br />BID: $ANS-338.03<br /><br />Once again AMSAT-NA is pleased to sponsor Straight Key Night on<br />OSCAR for enjoyment by all radio amateurs.<br /><br />OSCAR SKN 2006 will run for 24 hours, 0000-2400 UTC, on 1 January<br />2006. It's very simple: no rules, no scoring, and no need to send<br />in a log. Just operate CW through any OSCAR satellite using a straight<br />hand key, working as many other SKN participants as you can. Contacts<br />via the moon (OSCAR Zero) count too.<br /><br />As in past years, all participants are requested to nominate one of<br />the operators they worked for "Best Fist" recognition. Your nominee<br />need not have the best fist of those you heard, just of those you<br />worked.<br /><br />Please send all nominations to Ray Soifer via w2rs@arrl.net.<br /><br />A list of those nominated will be published via the AMSAT News Service<br />in early February, and in The AMSAT Journal.<br /><br />[ANS thanks Ray, W2RS for the above information]<br /><br />/EX<br /><br /><br />SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-338.04<br />AMSAT Awards This Week<br /><br />AMSAT News Service Bulletin 338.04<br />>From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.<br />December 4, 2005<br />To All RADIO AMATEURS<br />BID: $ANS-338.04<br /><br />Bruce Paige, KK5DO, AMSAT Director Contests and Awards, says<br />this week congratulations go out to all of the following.<br /><br />Whitton Amateur Radio Group, G0MIN, 51 on 51 Award #45<br />Tokuhisa Saito, JA2NLT, 51 on 51 Award #46<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-338.05<br />ARISS Status for the week of November 28, 2005<br /><br />AMSAT News Service Bulletin 338.05<br />>From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.<br />December 4, 2005<br />To All RADIO AMATEURS<br />BID: $ANS-338.05<br /><br />1. ESA CERN Contact Successful<br />On Tuesday, November 22, eighteen students attending the ESA CERN Geneva<br />Science Festival each asked a question of Bill McArthur, KC5ACR, via the<br />telebridge station, NN1SS, in Greenbelt, Maryland. The event was attended<br />by approximately 300 students and teachers, and at least one television<br />station and a professional photographer. ESA will edit and post a video<br />of the contact on its website in the near future.<br /><br />The audio was fed to the Echolink AMSAT and EDU_NET conference room servers.<br />Twenty-three connections were made, including three repeater nodes, from<br />the following countries: Belgium, France, Germany, Israel, Morocco,<br />Slovenia,<br />Switzerland, Thailand, the U.K. and the U.S.A.<br /><br />A write up on the contact, “Students at ‘Science on Stage’ Festival Talk<br />with ISS” is available on the ARISS Europe website. A link to the audio<br />is included. See:
http://www.ariss-eu.org/2005_11_24.htm<br /><br />2. Central Park Middle School (NES) Contact Successful<br />On Wednesday, November 23, students from Central Park Middle School, (a<br />NASA Explorer School), in Schenectady, New York, experienced a successful<br />ARISS contact via the telebridge station, W6SRJ, in Santa Rosa, California.<br />Astronaut Bill McArthur, KC5ACR, answered eighteen questions posed to him<br />by thirteen Central Park students. Four television stations (6, 9, 13 and<br />Fox 23) covered the event.<br /><br />Echolink was used for this contact, where thirty-one connections were<br />made from these countries: Bangladesh, Canada, France, Germany, Israel,<br />Italy, Morocco, Oman, Romania, Russia, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand, the<br />U.K., and the U.S.A.<br /><br />Central Park posted a short story covering the contact on its website:<br />"Central Park NASA Explorer School Call International Space Station, Again"<br />may be found at:<br />
http://www.schenectady.k12.ny.us/NASAExplorerSchool/spacestation112305.htm><br /><br />3. School Contacts This Week<br />Hawthorne Brook Middle School in Townsend, Massachusetts completed an<br />ARISS contact on Tuesday, November 29. Ralph McCall School in<br />Airdrie, Alberta, Canada completed an ARISS contact on Friday, December 2.<br /><br />4. ARRL’s New Book Mentions ISS Ham Contacts<br />ARRL has released, for sale, the first edition of a brand new book, "Basic<br />Radio, Understanding the Key Building Blocks." The first page of one<br />chapter features a large NASA photograph of astronaut Leroy Chiao, who<br />earned ham radio call sign KE5BRW. The descriptor explains that Leroy<br />set a record in space. His record was making 23 educational radio<br />contacts with school students while leading Expedition 10 aboard the<br />International Space Station.<br /><br />[ANS thanks Carol, KB3LKI for the above information]<br /><br />/EX<br /><br /><br />SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-338.06<br />Russian Space Agency Explains December Spacewalk Delay<br /><br />AMSAT News Service Bulletin 338.06<br />>From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.<br />December 4, 2005<br />To All RADIO AMATEURS<br />BID: $ANS-338.06<br /><br />Russian space agency officials on Thursday, December 1, officially<br />postponed the scheduled December 8 spacewalk by the Russian-American<br />crew of the International Space Station. The December 8 spacewalk<br />was originally scheduled to release SuitSat.<br /><br />"The extravehicular activity of Valery Tokarev and William McArthur<br />is not planned in December," Russia's Mission Control Center spokesman<br />Valery Lyndin told the Itar-Tass news agency.<br /><br />Mission Control Center Flight Director Vladimir Solovyov said the<br />postponement was made possible since the spacemen would not have to<br />prepare to receive a U.S. shuttle in March, as had been planned.<br /><br />"It was initially planned that the American shuttle will come to the<br />ISS in March, but now it is apparent that the 12th crew will not work<br />with the shuttle," Solovyov told Itar-Tass.<br /><br />NASA officials say the shuttle will not be launched earlier than May<br />or July and set February 2, 2006 as the date for the postponed space-<br />walk. SuitSat is planned for deployment during this ISS spacewalk.<br /><br />[ANS thanks SpaceDaily.com for the above information]<br /><br />/EX<br /><br /><br />SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-338.07<br />St. Pierre and Miquelon Satellite DXpedition Report<br /><br />AMSAT News Service Bulletin 338.07<br />>From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.<br />December 4, 2005<br />To All RADIO AMATEURS<br />BID: $ANS-338.07<br /><br />Ian, K8MM, reported DXpedition success from St. Pierre and Miquelon.<br />"I had a great time, satellite operation was a blast, and I'm really<br />glad that I took satellite gear with me. I was using my IC-910 with<br />a pair of homebrew K5OE TPMII antennas along with Icom preamps.<br /><br />Sunday night, the first night of the expedition, was spent at the Hotel<br />Robert on St. Pierre. The local terrain was not favorable for satellites<br />as I could only hear the overhead passes. The first bird I managed to get<br />into was VO-52 and I called CQ for close to 10 minutes without making any<br />contact as nobody was listening to the bird at that time. After a couple<br />more fruitless tries on FO-29 and AO-51 I took the gear down and repacked<br />it for the ferry trip to Miquelon in the morning.<br /><br />Wednesday morning we awoke to gale force winds and rain. Having had my<br />fill of HF pile-ups, I dug out the satellite antennas, put on my rain<br />gear and braved the elements. You have not lived until you're tried put-<br />ting up antennas in 70 mph winds! I had to wait until AO-51 was about 20<br />degrees in elevation before it wasn't blocked by the hotel or the mountain<br />so I could hear it clearly. There weren't any qso's in progress so I gave<br />a short CQ with my call and the bird quickly sprang to life with KB2YCC<br />calling me. We exchanged info and he was the first satellite qso in the log<br />for the dxpedition. More guys that were quickly worked on that pass were<br />VO1ONE, W8EH, AJ9K and N8BBQ in that order.<br /><br />A look at the computer showed that FO-29 would be giving me an EU pass.<br />I put my rain gear on and went back outside to point the antennas toward<br />the East. It was directly over the sea for the portion of time EU and FP<br />were in it's footprint. I worked F6BBJ, ON5NY on CW. On phone the satellite<br />sounded pile-up on 20M! I managed work PH7PCF, 2E1EUB, and PH7AT. There are<br />many more stations in the log than I can mention here.<br /><br />Operating on the FM birds, KO4MA, K1PL, WI2W, KC8ZFN, W0SAT, and many<br />other stations made it into the log.<br /><br />If anyone is thinking of going to Miquelon there isn't a place that<br />I can't recommend more highly than the Maxhotel and I left my TPMII<br />satellite antennas there for anyone that wants to use them. The hotel<br />is ham friendly and Christina, the manager at the hotel, went above and<br />beyond the call of duty."<br /><br />[ANS thanks Ian, K8MM for the above information]<br /><br />/EX<br /><br /><br />SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-338.08<br />Eagle Hardware Elements<br /><br />AMSAT News Service Bulletin 338.08<br />>From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.<br />December 4, 2005<br />To All RADIO AMATEURS<br />BID: $ANS-338.08<br /><br />Fred, KF0AK, is a member of the team working on the building of the<br />Eagle Modules. He has put some information on his web page about<br />the hardware construction of the Eagle modules. Fred says he will<br />try to update his site weekly.<br /><br />See:
http://www.paulbunyan.net/users/fparker<br /><br />[ANS thanks Fred, KF0AK for the above information]<br /><br />/EX
