AMSAT NEWS SERVICE
ANS-237
The AMSAT News Service bulletins are a
free, weekly news and
information service of AMSAT North America, The
Radio
Amateur Satellite Corporation. ANS publishes news related to
Amateur
Radio in space including reports on the activities of a
worldwide
group of Amateur Radio operators who share an active interest in
designing, building, launching and communicating through analog
and
digital Amateur Radio satellites.
The news feed on http://amsat.org publishes news of Amateur Radio
in space as soon as our volunteers can post it.
Please send any
amateur satellite news or reports to:
ans-editor at amsat dot
org.
In this edition:
* Second Call for AMSAT 2019 Symposium
Papers
* Volunteer Opportunity: ANS Rotating Editors Needed
* American
Communications Committee Guards 5GHz and 47 GHZ Bands
* SatNOGS Basics to be
Featured at 2019 ARRL-TAPR Conference
* New French CEPT paper still seeks
144-146 MHz for Aeronautical
* Another Threat to the Amateur Radio 23cm Band
* New 144-146 Web SDR at Goonhilly Available
* AMSAT-LU Announces Marine
Buoy Testing and Tracking Project
* Upcoming Satellite Operations
* ARISS
News
* Satellite Shorts from All Over
SB SAT @ AMSAT
$ANS-237.01
ANS-237 AMSAT News Service Weekly Bulletins
AMSAT News
Service Bulletin 237.01
From AMSAT HQ KENSINGTON, MD.
August 25,
2019
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-237.01
Second Call for
AMSAT 2019 Symposium Papers
This is the second call for papers for the
2019 AMSAT-NA Annual
Meeting and Space Symposium to be held on October 18-20
at the
Hilton Arlington, 950 North Stafford Street, Arlington, Virginia.
Proposals for papers, symposium presentations, and poster
presentations are invited on any topic of interest to the amateur
satellite community. We request a tentative title of your
presentation
as soon as possible, with final copy to be submitted by
September 23 for
inclusion in the printed proceedings. Abstracts
and papers should be sent to
Dan Schultz at n8fgv at amsat dot org.
[ANS thanks Dan Schultz, N8FGV
for the above
information.]
+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+
The July/August edition of Apogee View, a comprehensive
update on AMSAT's
activities by AMSAT President Joe Spier,
K6WAO, has been posted to
the AMSAT website at:
https://www.amsat.org/apogeeview/
+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+
Volunteer
Opportunity: ANS Rotating Editors Needed
If you're open to volunteering
to help AMSAT this is your chance!
We have openings for a few volunteers
willing to help as an AMSAT
News Service rotating editor.
Our editors
work on a rotating schedule with each taking turns as
the current week's news
editor. Using input received from members,
the amateur radio community,
officers, plus our other editors your
job is to assemble the AMSAT News
Service bulletin for your week.
(A template is provided to help you format
the message.)
If you can help contact our Senior News Service Editor,
Mark Johns,
K0JM via his e-mail: k0jm at amsat dot
org.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
American
Communications Committee Guards 5GHz and 47 GHZ Bands
CITEL, the
telecommunications committee of the Organization of
American States,
concluded a week of meetings on Friday, August 16 in
Ottawa.
The
meeting tries to establish common positions on agenda items which
will be
acted upon during the World Radiocommunication Conference
(WRC-19) which
begins on October 28 in Egypt.
Among the principal highlights of the
week’s activities for Radio
Amateurs:
For 5 GHz, twelve member states
supported no change (NoC) to the
existing allocations in 5725-5850 MHz and
eighteen member states
supported no change in the range 5850-5925 MHz as
opposed to using
these frequency ranges for higher-power and outdoor
wireless access
points. The Amateur secondary allocation in Canada is
5650-5925 MHz.
Regarding 47 GHz, Amateurs were successful in having
Mexico remove
the frequency segment 47–47.2 GHz from their proposal to study
several additional frequency ranges for the Fixed Satellite Service.
Also, eleven member states supported no change (NoC) to the existing
(Amateur Primary) allocation in 47–47.2 GHz. Specifically, not to be
considered for sharing with 5G international mobile telephony.
The
French proposal to consider 144–146 MHz for sharing with the
aeronautical
mobile service was not on the CITEL agenda. It will be
considered next in a
CEPT meeting in late August.
[ANS thanks Bryan Rawlings, VE3QN and
AMSAT-UK for the above
information.]
+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+
The digital download version of the 2019 edition of
Getting Started with
Amateur Satellites is now available as a
DRM-free PDF from the AMSAT
Store. Get yours today!
https://tinyurl.com/ANS-237-Getting-Started
+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+
SatNOGS
Basics to be Featured at 2019 ARRL-TAPR Conference
Details on the current
roster of presentations and speakers for the
2019 ARRL-TAPR Digital
Communications Conference (DCC) have been
announced. The conference takes
place September 20 – 22 at the
Detroit Metro Airport Marriott
Hotel.
Among the many topics announced, the Sunday Seminar will be “Learn
to
build and operate your own SatNOGS ground station,” presented by
Dan
White, AD0CQ, and Corey Shields, KB9JHU. This seminar will be a
hands-on,
progressive tutorial, starting with the basics of a SatNOGS
(Satellite
Networked Open Ground Station) and ending with the
development of telemetry
decoders.
Familiarity with Linux and the Raspberry Pi platform is
beneficial
but not required. The presenters also will interact with SatNOGS
web
services and discuss other technologies in use such as Python,
GNURadio, InfluxDB, Kaitai Structs, and Grafana. Participants should
gain an understanding of how SatNOGS applications work, how to use
them,
and a basic familiarity with the technologies behind the scenes,
should
they wish to contribute to the development of the project.
Participants
should bring a laptop and sign up for a free account.
See all the DCC
topics announced at
https://tinyurl.com/ANS-237-DCC-Topics
[ANS
thanks the ARRL for the above
information.]
--------------------------------------------------------------------
New
French CEPT paper still seeks 144-146 MHz for Aeronautical
The French
administration has renewed its attack on the Amateur Radio
144-146 MHz band
ahead of a key CEPT ECC CPG meeting in Ankara,
August 26-30.
In a
paper to be considered at the conference the French
Administration says it
is not at this time seeking Primary status for
the Aeronautical Mobile
Service in 144-146 MHz, however, their
intent is still that the Aeronautical
Mobile Service should share
the amateur 2 meter band.
It is clear
where such sharing would inevitably lead, amateur
operation in the band
would only be tolerated if there were no
interference to Aeronautical
Mobile. Radio Amateurs might be subject
to heavy restriction and low EIRP
limits.
We can get on idea of France’s long term intent for 144 MHz from
their attitude to the 1240-1300 MHz band. It was initially said the
Galileo constellation could amicably share this allocation and
amateur
operation could continue but now France says “unregulated use
of the band
1240-1300 MHz by the amateur service is a serious source
of harmful
interference to RNSS receivers.”
[ANS thanks AMSAT-UK for the above
information.]
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Another
Threat to the Amateur Radio 23cm Band
A joint paper by France, Lithuania,
Malta, Slovenia and
The Netherlands for the European Conference of Postal
and
Telecommunications Administrations (CEPT) Conference Preparatory
Group (CPG) meeting on August 26-30, attacks the continued use by
Radio
Amateurs of its 1240-1300 MHz band.
This is the final CEPT CPG meeting in
preparation for the ITU World
Radiocommunication Conference 2019 (WRC-19) to
be held October 28 to
November 22. This conference will define the Agenda
Items for WRC-23.
Paper AI10 – Proposal on AS-RNSS says:
Galileo is
close to full operational capability and its E6 signals in
the band
1260-1300 MHz will support new services such as the free-to-
use Galileo High
Accuracy Service, and also robust authentication,
expected to be used by a
variety of applications including autonomous
vehicles and the Internet of
Things (IoT).
Several cases of interference to Galileo E6 receivers from
amateur
service emissions have occurred in the recent past, sometimes at
significant distance, and have taken several hours or even days to be
eliminated. There is therefore a serious concern that as Galileo E6
receivers are deployed and used more widely, cases of interference
from
amateur stations will rapidly grow in number.
A WRC-23 agenda item is
necessary to address this issue because:
1. Unregulated use of the band
1240-1300 MHz by the amateur service
is a serious source of harmful
interference to RNSS receivers. This
is demonstrated by
experience.
2. The number of Galileo receivers in 1260-1300 MHz will
increase
dramatically, and interference cases will multiply if not addressed
timely.
3. Galileo and other RNSS systems will deploy at global
scale, and
interference scenario between amateur emissions and RNSS
receivers
include cross-border cases. The issue is therefore of
international
nature and is to be addressed in the ITU framework.
4.
Galileo is a major European asset, and a decision at WRC-23 is
essential to
be compatible with the road map of deployment of Galileo
receivers in this
band.
[ANS thanks AMSAT-UK for the above
information.]
+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+
The Fox-In-A-Box Raspberry Pi SD card for setting up a
Raspberry Pi-based
telemetry station for the Fox-1 satellites
now supports the
Raspberry Pi 4.
Get yours today on the AMSAT Store!
https://amsat.org/product/fox-in-a-box-raspberry-pi-sd-card/
+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+
New
144-146 Web SDR at Goonhilly Available
AMSAT-UK and the British Amateur
Television Club have announced the
availability of a new 144-146 MHz
Web-based Software Defined Radio
installation at Goonhilly.
This is
being provided in collaboration with Goonhilly Earth Station
where it is
kindly hosted alongside the existing receiving equipment
for the amateur
radio transponders on the Qatar-Oscar-100
(QO-100/Es’hail-2) geostationary
satellite.
It shares the same Turnstile antenna that is used for the
reception
of the AO73, EO88 & JO97 CubeSats.
Being located in the
far South West of the UK, it is anticipated the
SDR will be useful for early
Acquisition of Signal (AOS) of 144 MHz
downlinks from amateur satellites and
the International Space
Station (ISS). Additionally it can be used for
reception of
tropospheric signals from the south – the Spanish beacon ED1ZAG
on
144.403 MHz has been already been heard on the system.
The new 144
MHz band WebSDR is available at
https://vhf-goonhilly.batc.org.uk/
The
AMSAT-UK / BATC 10 GHz WebSDR for QO-100 is still available at
https://eshail.batc.org.uk/
[ANS
thanks AMSAT-UK for the above
information.]
--------------------------------------------------------------------
AMSAT-LU
Announces Marine Buoy Testing and Tracking Project
AMSAT-LU plans to test
their marine buoy system on August 31 in the
Lagoon of Pehuajó. The city is
375 km from Buenos Aires and 500 km
from Mar del Plata, Argentina.
Operational nets are planned to be on
144.930 MHz FM and 7.095 MHz
LSB.
The buoy is powered with batteries and solar cells for long-term
operation using APRS and WSPR transmissions:
WSPR 14095.6 MHz) 900 mW
call sign LU7AA can be tracked at
http://lu7aa.org.ar/wspr.asp.
APRS
call sign LU7AA-8 beacons every 2 minutes can be seen at
http://aprs.fi?call=lu7aa-8.
Solar
power equipped super pressure balloons also transmitting WSPR
packets are
planned to be tested.
The buoy is planned for deployment in the Atlantic
Ocean next summer.
Land-based test transmissions from Buenos Aires are
already
operational.
AMSAT-LU has posted details at: Details: http://amsat.org.ar/?f=boya
[ANS
thanks AMSAT-LU for the above
information]
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Upcoming
Satellite Operations
Help Celebrate AMSAT's 50th Anniversary with these
"W3ZM on the Road"
Operations:
Call - Date - State - Grids - Operator
- Mode
W3ZM/7 - Aug 24-25 - AZ - DM41, DM51/52 - KF7R - FM &
Linear
W3ZM/5 - Aug 29 - MS - EM43 - KE4AL - FM & Linear
W3ZM/5 - Sep
10 - LA - EL49 - EM40 - KG5GJT - FM
N7MJ Roving 11 State Tour – WY, NE,
IA, IL, KY, TN, AR, OK, TX, NM,
AZ, August 25th – September 9th,
2019.
Jack M7MJ is heading out (in his Vette) on a 2 weeks road trip from
Cheyenne, WY to the big 25th Anniversary Celebration of the National
Corvette Museum in Bowling Green, KY, (August 28-31). Then he will
head
through TN to AR (EM34) for a family gathering 9/3-4, the
another family
gathering 9/4-5 in Atoka, OK (EM14/24). With the
partying over, down through
TX and NM and end up in Chandler, AZ.
FM only.
Way Up in the
Northeast (GN27, GN26, GN37) Aug 26 – Sept 7, 2019
Chris, VE3FU will be in
GN27 August 26-30 and will try to make a trip
to GN26, possibly on the
GN26/27 line. He will be in GN37 (again)
August 30-September 7. Chris will
be operating as VO2AC/1 and try to
announce operating times on Twitter as
far ahead as possible.
https://twitter.com/ChrisVE3FU.
Road
to Oklahoma (EM52, EM43/44, EM34, EM35, EM25, EM26)
Aug 29 – Sep 1,
2019
Robert KE4AL is heading to Oklahoma (EM26). Plan is to stop in EM52
Thursday (1800 ish UTC) and get on the air from Mississippi as
W3ZM/4.
Next up will EM43/44 line around 2330Z and spend the night
in EM34. Friday
will be a trip up through Little Rock onto I-40
with stops in EM35 and
EM25. Follow KE4AL on aprs.fi and keep an eye
on Robert’s Twitter feed for
specific pass times.
https://twitter.com/KE4ALabama
Mississippi
(EM42) Aug 31 – Sep 1, 2019
Brian, KG5GJT is taking the Casita and his
Mamacita on a little trip
to EM42. This is a family vacation, so Brian will
Tweet passes before
they come up. Watch https://twitter.com/KG5GJT
Peru –
August 31 – September 7, 2019
Tony, KD8RTT will be in Peru Saturday night,
August 31 and leave on
Saturday, September 7. FM passes, mainly AO-91 and
AO-92, vacation
schedule permitting. Tony is not exactly sure what
days/times he can
operate yet, but he’ll try to tweet before he gets on any
passes.
https://twitter.com/kd8rtt
AM1SAT
(All Grids in Spain) September 9-15, 2019
AMSAT-EA will be transmitting its
special call AM1SAT via all active
satellites from September 9th to
September 15th as part of the V
RadioHam Fair IberRadio 2019 activities.
IberRadio is the biggest
event for the ham community in SouthWest Europe and
will open doors
September 14th and 15th . Learn more about IberRadio at
http://www.iberradio.es.
The
AM1SAT call sign will be active from a minimum of 14 different
grids during
that time to help satellite operators to collect as
much EA locators as
possible.
As part of this activity and in order to promote the
participation,
AMSAT-EA is sponsoring the AM1SAT Special Award in two
categories,
Silver and Gold. More info available at https://www.amsat-ea.org/
and as a pdf
at https://tinyurl.com/ANS-237-AM1SAT-Award.
[ANS
thanks Robert Bankston, KE4AL for the above
information.]
--------------------------------------------------------------------
ARISS
News
There are no scheduled school contacts to report at this
time.
+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+
AMSAT and ARISS are currently supporting a FundRazr campaign
to raise
$150,000 for critical radio infrastructure upgrades
on ISS. The upgrades
are necessary to enable students to
continue to talk to astronauts in
space via Amateur Radio.
We have reached a great milestone with $33,480
raised
or about 22% towards our goal. This would not have
been
possible without your outstanding generosity!!
For more information and to DONATE TODAY visit:
https://fundrazr.com/arissnextgen?ref=ab_e7Htwa_ab_47IcJ9
+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+
Satellite
Shorts from All Over
+ A0-40: A GPS Pioneer
The GPS III SV02
satellite launched on Thursday, August 22nd, 2019.
GPS III SVs are designed
to introduce new capabilities to meet
higher demands of both military and
civilian users.
AMSAT-OSCAR 40 was launched on November 16, 2000. It
carried a
GPS experiment that helped to validate above-the-constellation use
of GPS and influenced the design of the Block III GPS satellites.
For
more details see https://tinyurl.com/ANS-237-AO-40.
+
Ruth Willet KM4LAO Joins the ICQ Podcast Team
Keen amateur satellite user
Ruth Willet KM4LAO @KM4Ruth has joined
the ICQ Podcast team. The latest
podcast covers the news that AMSAT
member 12-year-old Marissa Robledo W4AQT
is the recipient of the 2019
ARRL Alabama Outstanding Youth Ham Award. Hear
it at
https://tinyurl.com/ANS-237-Ruth-Willet
(ANS
thanks icqpodcast.com and AMSAT-UK for the above information.)
+ TAPR
Announces Funds for Student Attendance at DCC
Thanks to a generous grant
from Amateur Radio Digital Communications,
TAPR is able to fund attendance
at the DCC for a limited number of
students. To nominate a deserving student
for an all-expense-paid
trip to the DCC, submit a nomination at taproffice
at tapr dot org.
[ANS thanks the ARRL for the above
information.]
+ Ideas sought for the next FUNcube satellite
In
November the FUNcube-1 CubeSat will have been in orbit for 6 years
and the
FUNcube team are now soliciting suggestions for the next
satellite
The team are looking for suggestions for:
-
Conformation of the satellite (2U / 3U)
- Orbit (LEO / MEO)
- STEM
Outreach
- Amateur Radio Payloads
- Research Payloads
Please
email your ideas to funcube-next at funcube dot org dot uk.
[ANS thanks
AMSAT-UK for the above information.]
+ NASA Releases Study On
Commercial Space Economy
New insights from companies in the growing space
economy are helping
NASA chart a course for the future of commercial human
spaceflight in
low-Earth orbit.
Input the companies provided to NASA
as part of the studies will
inform NASA's future policies to support
commercial activities that
enable a robust low-Earth orbit
economy.
NASA selected twelve companies to complete studies about the
commercialization of low-Earth orbit and the International Space
Station, assessing the potential growth of a low-Earth orbit economy
and
how to best stimulate private demand for commercial human
spaceflight Read
the complete story at
https://tinyurl.com/ANS-237-Report.
[ANS
thanks SpaceRef-Business for the above
information.]
--------------------------------------------------------------------
In
addition to regular membership, AMSAT offers membership in the
President's
Club. Members of the President's Club, as sustaining
donors to AMSAT Project
Funds, will be eligible to receive
additional benefits. Application forms
are available from the
AMSAT office.
Primary and secondary school
students are eligible for membership at
one-half the standard yearly rate.
Post-secondary school students
enrolled in at least half time status shall be
eligible for the
student rate for a maximum of six post-secondary years in
this
status.
Contact Martha at the AMSAT office for additional
student
membership information.
73,
This week's ANS
Editor,
Frank Karnauskas, N1UW
n1uw at amsat dot org
Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. AMSAT-NA makes this
open forum
available to all interested persons worldwide without requiring
membership. Opinions expressed are solely those of the author
and do not
reflect the official views of AMSAT-NA.
Not an AMSAT member? Join now to
support the amateur satellite
program!
Subscription settings: http://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
_______________________________________________
Sent
via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. AMSAT-NA makes
this open forum available
to all interested persons worldwide without
requiring membership. Opinions expressed
are solely those of the author, and
do not reflect the official views of AMSAT-NA.
Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join
now to support the amateur satellite program!
Subscription settings: https://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
