AMSAT NEWS SERVICE ANS-314
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:
ans-editor at
amsat.org.
You can sign up for free e-mail delivery of the AMSAT News
Service
Bulletins via the ANS List; to join this list see:
http://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/ans
In
this edition:
* HuskySat Paving the Way for Cooperation
* WRC-19
Debates Satellite Allocations
* Electron Booster on the Pad for Rocket Lab’s
10th Mission
* 2020 Cubesat Developers Workshop Call for Papers
* Second
Batch of 50th Anniversary "Friends of 50" Certificates Sent
* AMSAT Seeks
Digital Communications Team Members
* NO-83 (BRICSAT-P) Nears Re-Entry
*
Upcoming ARISS Contact Schedule
* Upcoming Satellite Operations
*
Satellite Shorts From All Over
SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-314.01
ANS-314
AMSAT News Service Weekly Bulletins
AMSAT News Service Bulletin
314.01
From AMSAT HQ KENSINGTON, MD.
DATE 2019-Nov-11
To All RADIO
AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-314.01
HuskySat Paving the Way for
Cooperation
As previously reported by ANS, HuskySat-1 achieved orbit last
week
aboard the Cygnus cargo vessel, which docked to the International
Space
Station on Nov. 4. The satellite is scheduled for a boost to
higher
orbit and deployment in January. Following completion of its
primary
mission, it will be turned over to AMSAT for operation of its
linear
transponder sometime in the second quarter of 2020.
Jerry
Buxton, NØJY, AMSAT VP - Engineering, explains that this partner-
ship
presented some regulatory challenges, but has paved the way for
similar
partnerships in the future:
"The Part 97 license that AMSAT will operate
under does not include or
allow the use of any of the experiments on board.
As those experiments
were not able to conform to the Part 97 so called
'educational
exemption', including the K-band radio, that is ultimately why
two
licenses were required. Part 5 Experimental is operated by UW
for
everything including the telemetry downlink of the AMSAT
transponder
module, and the transponder must remain off during that
operation. Part
97 operation by AMSAT will solely be the AMSAT transponder
module.
"This was the first partnership with an educational institution
where
an AMSAT radio was flown on a non-AMSAT (UW in this case) CubeSat.
In
the process of working with the FCC and NASA to obtain a single Part
97
license that was not complicated or restricted by "pecuniary
interest",
the experience developed an understanding with FCC as to how a
mission
such as HuskySat-1 could be fully licensed under Part 97. There
were
delays and difficulties in executing all of the requirements to
qualify
Part 97 and that ultimately carried on up to the mission
deadline
requirement for having a license in hand in order for HuskySat-1 to
be
integrated on the LV. The only way forward at that time, in order
for
UW to make the launch, was to do the separate licensing.
"It was
lots of work and some good frustration along the way. I thank
and commend our
partners at University of Washington as well as the FCC
for their work to
make it happen, and our friends at NASA for giving us
the opportunity to push
for a path to amateur radio licensing for more
of the CubeSat launches they
sponsor. I believe that it has resulted in
a known path toward fully Part 97
licensed educational(e.g. university)
CubeSats. That should in turn offer
more opportunities for AMSAT radios
to fly as the communications package for
a mission as well as an
operating amateur radio satellite, in the same way as
the CubeSats we
produce."
(ANS thanks Jerry Buxton, NØJY, AMSAT VP -
Engineering for the
above
information)
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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
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WRC-19
Debates Satellite Allocations
The Radio Society of Great Britain (RSGB),
International Amateur Radio
Union (IARU), and ARRL have posted updates on
activities at the 2019
World Radiocommunication Conference currently taking
place in Sharm El-
Sheikh, Egypt.
One early agreement was to turn down
requested changes to one of the
amateur satellite allocations. The band 47.0
- 47.2 GHz was allocated
solely to the Amateur and Amateur Satellite Services
by the 1979 World
Administrative Radio Conference (WARC-79). Commercial
wireless broad-
band industries had expressed interest in the band being
designated
for International Mobile Telecommunications (IMT), and there was
some
concern that such a proposal might be made at WRC-19. The fact
that
none was forthcoming was due in part to the work of the IARU at
the
Conference Preparatory Meeting earlier this year and in the six
re-
gional telecommunications organizations. The WRC has agreed to
"no
change" at 47.0 - 47.2 GHz.
One of the most difficult issues
facing WRC-19 is to develop an agenda
for WRC-23. Dozens of proposals for
agenda items have been suggested,
and they cannot all be accommodated. One
proposal being introduced for
the next World Radio Conference in 2023 is
protecting the Radio Navi-
gation Satellite Service (Galileo, etc.) from
secondary amateur usage
in the 23cm band (1.2 GHz -- the amateur satellite
band is between
1260 MHz and 1270 MHz for up-links only).
Future
mobile/IMT (cell phone) allocations were also being discussed
in the 3-18 GHz
range (including our 10 GHz satellite band). Another
item may even affect 241
– 700 GHz. However, it will be a while before
the WRC-23 agenda gets agreed
at this conference, and these items may
or may not be up for debate at the
next conference.
Daily bulletins on the progress of WRC-19 are being
posted at:
https://rsgb.org/main/blog/category/news/special-focus/wrc-19/
During
this period of World Radio Conference, one place to follow the
events and
issues is on The ARRL discussion group for the Interna-
tional Amateur Radio
Union. The group provides a forum for anyone in-
terested in the work of the
IARU. It is open to participants anywhere,
whether or not they are members of
an IARU member-society. Additional
information and a link to join the group
can be found at
https://groups.arrl.org/g/ARRL-IARU
[ANS
thanks Trevor Essex, M5AKA, AMSAT-UK, and ARRL for the
above
information]
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Electron
Booster on the Pad for Rocket Lab’s 10th Mission
Rocket Lab has announced
that its next mission will launch multiple
microsatellites in a rideshare
mission representing five different
countries. The launch window for Rocket
Lab’s tenth flight, will open
November 25, New Zealand time, and take place
from Rocket Lab Launch
Complex 1 on New Zealand’s Mahia
Peninsula.
Onboard this rideshare mission are six spacecraft comprised of
5cm
PocketQube microsatellites from satellite manufacturer and
mission
management provider Alba Orbital. Two of these satellites
include
downlinks in the UHF amateur radio band.
TRSI is a PocketQube
for technology demostration. Its main objective
is to show which
functionality can be achieved with dimensions of
5cm x 5cm x 5cm. It carries
two experiments that are connected to
the amateur-satellite service.
+
First is a waterfall experiment which will show an image in the
waterfall
diagram by hopping the frequency within its transmission
band (image-type
beacon).
+ The second experiment is to analyze RF reception capabilities
from
LEO with a novel detector receiver and a small patch antenna. It
was designed to test if small satellite receivers which don´t need
deployable antennas are feasible. The received signal´s envelope
will be
sampled and forwarded using UHF in MFSK for signal ana-
lysis. During the
experiment phase the satellite will also perform
as an amateur CW repeater,
providing additional RX strength indi-
cation; eg. CW morse signals will be
re-sent in MFSK, showing the
RX amplitude in dBm. A downlink on 437.075 MHz
has been coordinated.
IARU Frequency Coordination information has been
posted at:
http://www.amsatuk.me.uk/iaru/finished_detail.php?serialnum=649
FossaSat-1
PocketQube by AMSAT-EA which has a 5x5x5cm structure and
a total mass of 250
grams. Radio link testing features a new experi-
mental RF chirp modulation
called LoRa which greatly improves the link
budget reducing the power
consumed and reduces the cost of receivers.
The output power from the
transmitter required for the correct recep-
tion during a pass is also very
low at well under 100mW, being spread
spectrum at such low power it poses no
interference risk. It operates
at a considerable level below the noise level
of other systems and
would cause no interference to weak narrowband
signals.
Students & amateurs will be able to receive telemetry from
the satel-
lite with inexpensive hardware, expanding & promoting the
amateur sat-
ellite community with youth. Uplink challenges will also be
carried
out with rewards for amateurs.
The mission is completely open
source with all information regarding
the design of the satellite & how
to decode its information clearly
laid out & hosted by AMSAT-EA. The site
will provide decoding soft-
ware for SDR use in order to allow anyone to
decode LoRa using common
existing hardware & host software for users to
submit telemetry data,
making all data public and rewarding users with
certificates & awards.
The UHF downlink plans on using FSK RTTY 45 BAUD
ITA2, 100mW 183hz
Shift and LoRa 125kHz, Chirp Spread Spectrum Modulation,
180 bps,
100mW. A downlink on 436.700 MHz has been coordinated.
IARU
Frequency Coordination information has been posted at:
http://www.amsatuk.me.uk/iaru/finished_detail.php?serialnum=652
A
commercial payload on board is ALE-2 from a Tokyo-based company
creating
microsatellites that simulate meteor particles. See
http://star-ale.com/en/news/317/2019/01/04/
for more information.
Rocket Labs mission web page can be found at:
https://tinyurl.com/y672rjj5
[ANS
thanks Rocket Labs, IARU, AMSAT-EA, TRSI, and Alba Orbital
for the above
information]
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2020
Cubesat Developers Workshop Call for Papers
The Cubesat Developers
Workshop for 2020 will be held May 4-6 at the
Cal Poly Performing Arts Center
in San Luis Obispo, Calif. The planning
team has announced a call for
abstracts. All abstract and poster appli-
cations will need to be submitted
using the online submission form by
Friday, January 10, 2020. For more
information, visit
http://www.cubesat.org/workshop-information
[ANS
thanks The CubeSat Workshop Team for the above
information]
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Donate
to AMSAT Tax-Free From Your IRA
Are you over 70-1/2 years of age and need
to meet your IRA’s Required
Minimum Distribution for 2019? Consider making a
donation to AMSAT!
Under the Protecting Americans from Tax Hikes Act of
2015, individuals
over 70-1/2 years of age may make direct transfers of up to
$100,000
per year from a traditional IRA to an eligible charity
without
increasing their taxable income. Consult your tax advisor
or
accountant to make certain you are eligible.
AMSAT is a 501(c)(3)
not-for-profit educational and scientific
organization whose purpose is to
design, construct, launch, and
operate satellites in space and to provide the
support needed to
encourage amateurs to utilize these resources. AMSAT’s
federal tax ID
is
52-0888529.
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Second
Batch of 50th Anniversary "Friends of 50" Certificates Sent
A second
batch of 50th Anniversary AMSAT "Satellite Friends of 50 A-
ward"
certificates went out in the mail on Wednesday, November 6.
Chances are you
may have already qualified for this award! The require-
ment is to make
satellite contacts with 50 amateur radio operators on
50 differenton days
during the anniversary year of 2019.(limit of 1
contact per day counted
toward the award). For details, see:
https://amsat.org/amsat-50th-anniversary-awards-program/
[ANS
thanks Robert Bankston, KE4AL for the above
information.]
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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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AMSAT
Seeks Digital Communications Team Members
AMSAT is in the process of
redesigning its website and is looking to
immediately fill key volunteer
member additions to its digital
communications team. Available positions
include a Webmaster,
Content Managers, and an Online Store Co-Manager.
Candidates must
have experience with Word press and be a current AMSAT
member.
Webmaster:
The Webmaster works as an integral member of the
AMSAT Digital
Communications Team in planning, organizing, implementing,
and
supporting strategic web technologies. Under minimal supervision,
the
Webmaster collaborates with the Digital Communications team and
AMSAT
Development to facilitate ongoing content creation, development
of standards,
and overall management of AMSAT's website and member
portal. The primary
objectives of the Webmaster are to ensure that
AMSAT's digital presence
accurately portrays the character, quality
and heritage of AMSAT, provide an
efficient user experience, and
serve to increase recruitment and financial
contributions.
Web Content Managers:
Web Content Managers ensure
AMSAT's website and webpages follow best
content practices and meet the
diverse needs of internal and external
customers. As part of the AMSAT
Digital Communications Team,
Website Content Managers must understand the
organizational needs,
map them to the end-user needs and work with applicable
AMSAT
departments to create content strategy and plan for
individual
webpages.
Online Store Co-Manager:
The Online Store
Co-Manager updates and refreshes the AMSAT Store
when new merchandise becomes
available, deletes merchandise when no
longer available, and updates pricing
and shipping information when
necessary. Experience in WooCommerce is
required.
If you want to be a part of the solution in delivering the
quality
web services AMSAT members deserve, we could sure use your
help.
Please contact the AMSAT VP of User Services at
ke4al (at) yahoo
(dot) com.
[ANS thanks Robert Bankston, KE4AL 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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NO-83
(BRICSAT-P) Nears Re-Entry
NO-83 (BRICSAT-P, CAT ID 40655) is nearing
decay from orbit. Alan Biddle,
WA4SCA, has run the TLEs through the SATEVO
software and a re-entry is
possible on November 9, 2019.
TLEs for
NO-83 remain in this week's TLE distribution.
[ANS thanks Ray Hoad,
WA5QGD, for the above
information]
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Upcoming
ARISS Contact Schedule
An International Space Station school contact has
been planned with
participants at "Alcide De Gasperi" Secondary School: Part
Of The
Istituto Comprensivo Statale "E. L. Corner", Vigonovo, Italy
and
Istituto Comprensivo Di Pederobba, Onigo Di Pederobba, Italy on 11
Nov-
ember. The event is scheduled to begin at approximately 10:10 UTC.
It
is recommended that you start listening approximately 10 minutes
before
this time. The duration of the contact is approximately 9 minutes
and
30 seconds. The contact will be a telebridge between NA1SS and
VK6MJ.
The contact should be audible over Australia and adjacent areas.
Inter-
ested parties are invited to listen in on the 145.80 MHz downlink.
The
contact is expected to be conducted in Italian. Watch for live
stream
from Vigonovo at https://tinyurl.com/y2n3eojw and from
Pederobba at
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLRZahLgMma_2ngllrj9iVg
.
An International Space Station school contact has been planned
with
participants at European High School - Brindisi, Brindisi, Italy
and
I.I.S.S. "Majorana - Laterza", Putignano, Italy on 13 Nov. The
event
is scheduled to begin at approximately 09:18 UTC. It is
recommended
that you start listening approximately 10 minutes before this
time.
The duration of the contact is approximately 9 minutes and 30
seconds.
The contact will be a telebridge between NA1SS and K6DUE. The
contact
should be audible over the east coast of the U.S. Interested
parties
are invited to listen in on the 145.80 MHz downlink. The contact
is
expected to be conducted in Italian.
A reminder that the deadline
to submit proposals for ARISS contacts to
be scheduled between July 1, 2020
and December 31, 2020 is coming up on
November 30, 2019. For more information
visit https://www.ariss.org/
[ANS
thanks Charlie Sufana, AJ9N, and David Jordan, AA4KN, ARISS opera-
tion team
members, 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
Big Bend National Park, TX (DL89) November 10-11,
2019
Glenn, AA5PK, is taking a trip down to Big Bend National Park in
South
Texas and will operate from DL89 on Monday November 11th. In
addition,
Glenn will be transitioning through DM81 (a few good morning
passes) on
the way there and staying in DM80 Sunday night. Watch Glenn’s
Twitter
feed for any pass announcements: https://twitter.com/AA5PK.
Nunavut,
Canada (ER60) November 11 – December 6, 2019
The Eureka Amateur Radio Club,
VY0ERC, will be on station, the Polar
Environment Atmospheric Research
Laboratory, November 6th through Dec-
ember 11th. They have some house
keeping duties to perform on arrival
and just before they leave, not to
mention that it’s wicked cold up
there (-25 to -35C not counting windchill),
so keep an eye on the
VY0ERC twitter feed for announcements on when they plan
to step out-
side: https://twitter.com/vy0erc
EA9
Melilla (IM85) NOVEMBER 18-21, 2019
Philippe, EA4NF, will be operating from
MELILLA as EA9/EA4NF from Nov-
ember 18 to 21, 2019. This very small Spanish
territory located in
Northern Africa, which is a very rare GRID and is listed
as one of the
Most Wanted SAT DXCC. Updates and passes on Philippe’s
Twitter:
https://twitter.com/EA4NF_SAT
New
River Gorge National River, WV (EM98) November 21-24, 2019
Michael, N4DCW, is
visiting New River Gorge National River (with sat
gear) and a swing through
EM97 on his way home. Watch for further an-
nouncements on Michael’s Twitter
feed: https://twitter.com/MWimages
Key
West (EL94) December 3-6, 2019
Tanner, W9TWJ, will be vacationing in Key West
December 3rd – 6th. Key
word is vacation, but he will jump on some FM
satellite passes to act-
ivate EL94 for those that need it or just want to
chat. Watch Tanner’s
Twitter feed for further announcements: https://twitter.com/twjones85
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 VP - User Services, for the
above
information]
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Satellite
Shorts From All Over
+ This week begins the 20th year of continuous human
presence living
off-planet aboard the International Space Station. NASA and
its part-
ners have successfully supported humans living in space since the
Ex-
pedition 1 crew arrived Nov. 2, 2000. A truly global endeavor, the
unique microgravity laboratory has hosted 239 people from 19 coun-
tries,
more than 2,600 experiments from 3,900 researchers in 107
countries, and a
variety of international and commercial spacecraft.
(ANS thanks NASA for
the above information)
+ Talks from this year's PocketQube Workshop are
now available at:
https://tinyurl.com/y2fmszbl Some
slides are available here:
http://www.albaorbital.com/3rd-pocketqube-workshop
(ANS thanks AMSAT-UK for the above information)
+ 27 videos from the Open
Source Cubesat Workshop 2019 held in Athens
Conservatoire in Athens, Greece
are available for viewing:
https://tinyurl.com/y6rd5pzn The
third edition of the workshop
was hosted by Libre Space Foundation.
(ANS thanks https://libre.space for the above
information)
+ Radio amateurs in Sweden are limited to just 100 mW on 2.4
GHz. Yet
an article by Christer, SM0NCL, shows how they can still send CW
and
SSB signals via the QO-100 / Es'hail-2 narrowband transponder!
Read
the article in Google English at https://tinyurl.com/AMSAT-SM
(ANS
thanks Southgatearc.org for the above information)
+ Wonder why that
downlink signal suddenly fades? Since launch of the
amateur radio FUNcube-1
(AO-73) CubeSat in 2013 the team have ob-
served the spin of the satellite
based on the panel temperatures.
The FUNcube team have speculated why the
satellite spins up and down
and occasionally flips the direction of spin. A
fascinating explan-
ation (without math!) of why satellites can flip as
they spin can be
found in a YouTube video at
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1VPfZ_XzisU&feature=emb_title
(ANS thanks R.L. Brunton, G4TUT, for the above information)
+ Hams like
free stuff! So here's a free PDF download of issue #87 of
the MagPi
magazine is available at: Raspberry Pi Weekly Issue #307
https://magpi.raspberrypi.org/issues/87
+
Celebrate #NationalSTEMDay with a @Virgin_Orbit community grant! Fall
applications close on November 20, which means if you reach out now,
you
still have a chance to secure up to $2,500 cash for your local
STEM
education program. Apply at: https://t.co/FySZrXmrKe
+ Instead of
searching many manufacturer sites or calling on companies
to find and
compare designs, now you can search for designs based on
the circuit's
performance using Digi-Key's Reference Design Library.
New designs are
being added weekly and improvements will be made
based on user feedback: https://www.digikey.com/reference-designs/en
(ANS thanks JoAnne Maenpaa, K9JKM, for the above information)
+ The 2019
AMSAT Symposium Proceedings USB flash drives, including the
2019
Proceedings and all previously published Proceedings dating
back to 1986
are back in stock. Backorders will go out soon and more
are available. To
order, visit https://tinyurl.com/yxmnqxew
+
The AMSAT Symposium Engineering Update video is now available at
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWwvhuIaiBA&t=50s
(ANS thanks Paul Stoetzer, N8HM, AMSAT Executive VP, 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
