AMSAT NEWS SERVICE
ANS-293
The AMSAT News Service bulletins are a
free, weekly news and infor-
mation service of AMSAT, 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
commun-
icating through analog and digital Amateur Radio
satellites.
The news feed on http://www.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:
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You can sign up for free e-mail delivery of the AMSAT News
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In
this edition:
* 2019 AMSAT Symposium Underway! Livestream Available
*
AMSAT Board of Directors Announces 2019 Officers
* AMSAT-UK Colloquium Videos
Available
* Cubesat Simulators Launched
* Changes to AMSAT-NA TLE
Distribution
* Upcoming ARISS Contact Schedule
* Upcoming Satellite
Operations
* Satellite Shorts From All Over
SB SAT @ AMSAT
$ANS-293.01
ANS-293 AMSAT News Service Weekly Bulletins
AMSAT News
Service Bulletin 293.01
From AMSAT HQ KENSINGTON, MD.
DATE
2019-Oct-19
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-293.01
2019 AMSAT
Symposium Underway! Livestream Available
The 37th Annual AMSAT Space
Symposium and General Meeting has begun,
and will continue through Sunday,
October 20, 2019, at The Hilton Ar-
lingtonin in Arlington, Virginia.
Sessions are being live streamed at
https://www.facebook.com/AMSATNA/
The
AMSAT Board of Directors met just before the Symposium, Oct. 16-17,
at the
same hotel.
The Symposium, which celebrates 50 years of AMSAT, features
OSCAR Park
–- a display of satellites from throughout the history of amateur
rad-
io in space. Paper presentations and the AMSAT Annual General
Meeting
will also be featured. The schedule of presentation is available
at
https://www.amsat.org/symposium-schedule/
[ANS
thanks Paul Stoetzer, N8HM, AMSAT Executive Vice President for
the above
information]
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AMSAT
Board of Directors Announces 2019 Officers
These are the results of the
2019 AMSAT Board of Directors meeting
vote for Officers:
* Joe Spier,
K6WAO, of Reno, Nev., as President
* Paul Stoetzer, N8HM, of Washington, DC,
as Executive Vice President
* Jerry Buxton, N0JY, of Granbury, Texas, as
Vice-President Engineer-
ing
* Drew Glasbrenner, KO4MA, of New Port
Richey, Fla., as
Vice-President Operations
* Frank Bauer, KA3HDO,
of Silver Spring, Md., as
Vice-President Human Spaceflight
* Robert
Bankston, KE4AL, of Dothan, Ala. as Vice-President User Ser-
vices
*
Frank Karnauskas, N1UW, of Burnsville, Minn. as Vice-President Devel-
opment
* Alan Johnston, KU2Y, of Philadelphia, PA as Vice-President
Educa-
tional Relations
* Brennan Price, N4QX, of Vienna, Va., as
Secretary
* Robert Bankston, KE4AL, of Dothan, Ala., as Treasurer
* Martha
Saragovitz of Silver Spring, Md., as Manager
The Board of Directors
appointed officers for the new year at its
meeting in Arlington, Va. on
Wednesday, Oct. 16. Officers are selected
by the Board from among the AMSAT
membership, based on expertise and
experience.
[ANS thanks Paul
Stoetzer, N8HM, Executive Vice President for the
above
information]
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Purchase AMSAT Gear on our Zazzle storefront.
25% of the purchase
price of each product goes
towards Keeping Amateur Radio in
Space
https://www.zazzle.com/amsat_gear
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AMSAT-UK
Colloquium Videos Available
Videos of the presentations given at the
AMSAT-UK International Space
Colloquium, which was held as part of the RSGB
Convention in Milton
Keynes, October 12-13, 2019, are being made available on
YouTube.
The first of the videos is the fascinating presentation on the
WUSAT-3
CubeSat project given by Professor Julia Hunter-Anderson of the
Uni-
versity of Warwick which highlights the potential use of CubeSats
for
wildlife tracking.
Other presentations are expected to be uploaded
in the coming weeks.
The AMSAT-UK videos are located on their YouTube
channel at
https://www.youtube.com/user/AMSATUK/videos
AMSAT-UK
wishes to thank the British Amateur Television Club and Wouter
Weggelaar,
PA3WEG, for their work in recording, editing and uploading
these
videos.
[ANS thanks Trevor Essex, M5AKA, and AMSAT-UK for the above
informa-
tion]
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Cubesat
Simulators Launched
Dr. Alan Johnston, KU2Y, Vice President - Educational
Affairs has
announced the general availability of the AMSAT Cubesat
Simulators.
Speaking at the 37th Annual Space Symposium, Alan reports that
since
the prototype Cubesat Simulators were introduced at Hamvention in
May,
2019, the simulators have undergone testing and final release.
Among
the schools testing the simulators was Bishop O'Connell High School
in
Arlington, Virginia. Science and Engineering teacher Melissa
Pore
presented to the symposium audience her experience with using
a
simulator in one of her engineering clubs and how her student
benefitted
from their use.
A Cubesat Simulator is a self-contained satellite model
that reports
solar cell performance via standard AFSK 1200 BPS AX.25
telemetry.
The telemetry can be decoded with a simple SDR ground station.
A
Cubesat Simulator package consists of the 1U simulator, a halogen
work
light to simulate sunshine, and a motorized rotating turntable
that
mimics the satellite tumbling through space. The four
loaner
packages are packed and shipped in a hard case. The simulator
is
shipped prepaid while the user pays return shipping.
Persons
interested in borrowing a CubeSat Simulator for a local
presentation is
encouraged to contact Alan at KU2Y at amsat dot org.
[ANS thanks Alan
Johnston, KU2Y, AMSAT Vice President -
Educational
Affairs.]
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Need new satellite antennas? Purchase Arrows, Alaskan Arrows,
and M2
LEO-Packs from the AMSAT Store. When you purchase
through AMSAT, a portion of
the proceeds goes towards Keeping
Amateur Radio in
Space.
https://amsat.org/product-category/hardware/
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Changes
to AMSAT-NA TLE Distribution
The following Amateur Radio satellite has
decayed from orbit and has
been removed from this week's TLE
distribution:
TNS 0-2 - NORAD CAT ID 42914 - Decayed 10/15/2019 (per
Space-Track).
Last week a number of "N"s were present in a few TLEs which
caused some
programs to reject those TLEs. Note: Some (but not all) of the
raw TLEs
from SpaceTrack have plus signs (+) which are not necessary. All
plus
signs (+) in the TLEs are routinely changed to a blank
space.
Last week all plus signs were incorrectly changed to the letter
"N".
This was due to a change in the formatting program and a typing
error
that substituted a "N" instead of a single blank space everytime a
plus
sign was present. That problem has been corrected and should not be
an
issue in the future.
[ANS thanks Ray Hoad, WA5QGD, for the above
information]
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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/
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Upcoming
ARISS Contact Schedule
An International Space Station school contact was
completed with par-
ticipants at Science & Technologie e.V. event:
Science Days, Teningen,
Germany on Thursday, Oct. 17. The event lasted
approximately 9 minutes
and 30 seconds, direct between OR4ISS and DN1EME. The
contact was
audible over Germany and adjacent areas on the 145.80 MHz
downlink.
ARISS has received word that the EVA that took place on Friday,
Oct.
18 has caused changes to the schedule. Thus, some contacts now
have
new times.
Istituto Comprensivo Statale “Diego Valeri”,
Campolongo Maggiore,
Italy, direct via IQ3RW and Istituto Comprensivo
Ladispoli1, Ladispoli,
Italy, direct via IKØWGF, the ISS callsign is
presently scheduled to
be IRØISS and the scheduled astronaut is Luca
Parmitano, KF5KDP. The
contact is go for: Saturday, Oct. 19 at 10:27:13 UTC
(26 degrees)
Watch for live stream from IQ3RW side of the contact
at:
https://tinyurl.com/y5pcyr9m
Watch
for live stream from IKØWGF side of the contact directly on the
AMSAT Italia
youtube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkJ8IFmfTO-pUkVFNrUXIcg
Liceo
Scientifico Teresa Gullace, Rome, Italy,direct via IZØDIB and
I.S.I.S. “
Zaccagna - Galilei” sede “G. Galilei”, Carrara. Italy, di-
rect via IQ5VR,
the ISS callsign is presently scheduled to be IRØISS
and the scheduled
astronaut is Luca Parmitano, KF5KDP. Contact is go
for: Thursday, Oct. 24 at
11:13:40 UTC (79 degrees)
I.I.S. “Ciampini-Boccardo”, Novi Ligure, Italy,
direct via I1LJV and
I.T.I.S. "Magistri Cumacini", Como, Italy, direct via
IZ2MCC, the ISS
callsign is presently scheduled to be IRØISS. The scheduled
astronaut
is Luca Parmitano, KF5KDP. Contact is go for: Friday, Oct. 25
at
10:24:39 UTC (83 degrees)
The ARISS webpage is at https://www.ariss.org/
[ANS thanks
Charlie Sufana, AJ9N, of the ARISS operation team for the
above
information]
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AMSAT, along with our ARISS partners, is developing an amateur
radio
package, including two-way communication capability, to
be carried
on-board Gateway in lunar orbit. Support AMSAT's
projects today at
https://www.amsat.org/donate/
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Upcoming
Satellite Operations
St. Lucia, October 19-28, 2019
Jay, AA4FL, will
be in St. Lucia for the J68MD CQWW SSB Contest Team.
Jay will be doing OSCAR
satellite operation as J6/AA4FL, by schedule
as he is visiting vacation style
in varying locations. His schedule
will depend on shifts as a team member of
the CQWW J68MD team. E-mail
per QRZ to coordinate both FM simple SATs and SSB
linear transponder
bird QSO schedules. Radios will be a FT-817ND and
FT-818ND for full
duplex operation using an Arrow II antenna.
Oregon,
DN04, October 21, 2019
KI7UNJ will be QRV on Oct. 21, from 1653z to 1910z, FM
only.
Colombia, through October, 2019
The special event stations
J500LDV, 5J500D, 5J500L, and 5J500V will
commemorate the 500th anniversary of
Leonardo da Vinci's death on the
air until the end of October. QRV on 80 to
10m on CW, SSB, digital
modes, and via satellite. An award program will be
available as well.
QSL via HK3VHZ, LoTW, eQSL.
Texas, EL06, EL16 and
adjacent grids, November 2-9, 2019
Ron Bondy, AD0DX, reports on Twitter that
he will be flying to San
Antonio and hopes to activate as many as 10 south
Texas grids. Watch
Twitter @ad0dx for details.
Hawaii (BK19, BK28,
BK29, BL20) December 21-28, 2019
Alex, N7AGF, is heading back to Hawaii over
Christmas. This will be a
holiday-style activation, with special empahasis on
the grid that got
away – BK28. Keep an eye on Alex’s Twitter feed for further
announce-
ments: https://twitter.com/N7AGF
Please
submit any additions or corrections to ke4al (at) amsat.org
[ANS thanks
Robert Bankston, KE4AL, AMSAT Vice-President of User Ser-
vices for the
above
information]
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Satellite
Shorts From All Over
+ The AMSAT Office will be closed on Monday, October
21 as the AMSAT
Symposium wraps up.
(ANS thanks Martha Saragovitz,
AMSAT Manager, for the above informa-
tion -- you deserve a day off,
Martha!)
+ Astronauts Christina Koch and Jessica Meir carried out
history’s
first all-female spacewalk Friday, floating outside the
Internation-
al Space Station and successfully installing a 230-pound
replacement
battery charger in the lab’s solar power system. The historic
excur-
sion was carried out in a blaze of public interest that rose all
the
way to the White House.
(ANS thanks Spaceflight Now for the above
information)
+ NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine has named Douglas
Loverro as the
agency’s new associate administrator for the Human
Exploration and
Operations Mission Directorate. Loverro succeeds former
astronaut
Kenneth Bowersox, who has been acting associate administrator
since
July. Previously, Loverro spent three decades in the Department
of
Defense and the National Reconnaissance Office developing,
managing,
and establishing national policy for the full range of
national
security space activities.
(ANS thanks spaceref.com for the
above information)
+ SpaceX is seeking approval to add up to 30,000 more
satellites to
its Starlink broadband network, on top of 12,000 spacecraft
already
authorized by U.S. government regulators, according to filings
sub-
mitted to the International Telecommunication Union.
(ANS thanks
Spaceflight Now for the above information)
+ Possibly related to the
previous news item, LeoLabs announced that
they plan to build four
additional radar installations for tracking
space debris. Their current
installations can track objects down to
about a 10 cm diameter, but with
their new installations they’ll
theoretically be able to track objects as
small as 2 cm. In general,
current radar systems tend to be limited on the
lower end to objects
in the 5-10 cm range. Systems like LeoLabs’ and the
U.S. Air Force’s
upcoming Marshall Islands-based Space Fence will improve
coverage,
but still won’t see the 128 million objects from 1 mm to 1 cm,
which
have the potential to disable or completely destroy a satellite.
(ANS thanks The Orbital Index for the above information)
+ Soviet
cosmonaut Alexei Leonov, who became the first person in his-
tory to
spacewalk in 1965, has died aged 85. He went on to become
the commander of
Soyuz-Apollo, the first ever joint US-Soviet mis-
sion in 1975. Leonov died
at Moscow's Burdenko hospital on Friday,
Oct. 11 after a long illness.
(ANS thanks BBC.com for the above
information)
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/EX
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 addi-
tional 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 stu-
dent rate for a maximum of 6 post-secondary years in
this status.
Contact Martha at the AMSAT Office for additional student
membership
information.
73 and Remember to help keep amateur radio in
space,
This week's ANS Editor,
K0JM at amsat dot
org
_______________________________________________
Via the ANS mailing
list courtesy of AMSAT-NA
https://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/ans
