Saturday, November 09, 2019

AMSAT NEWS SERVICE ANS-314

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