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:
* AMSAT Member Melissa Pore, KM4CZN, Named 2020 Carole
Perry Educator
of the Year
* AMSAT Vice President - Educational
Relations Alan Johnston, KU2Y,
Participates in Hackaday Hack Chat
*
AMSAT to Join ARRL in Opposition to FCC Proposal to Eliminate 3.3 -
3.5 GHz
Amateur Allocation
* Chris Taron, NK1K, Completes Satellite DXCC via LEO
Satellites
* Duchifat3 with V/u FM Transponder to Launch December 11
*
Donate to AMSAT Tax-Free From Your IRA
* AZTECHSAT-1 Cubesat to Transmit
Emergency Traffic using WINLINK
* AMSAT-SA to Shift Main Focus to AfriCUBE, a
Digital SDR CubeSat
* LSF Heads Back to Orbit with the Qubik Mission
*
VUCC Awards And Endorsements for November 2019
* Upcoming ARISS
Activities
* Upcoming Satellite Operations
* Satellite Shorts From All
Over
SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-342.01
ANS-342 AMSAT News Service Weekly
Bulletins
AMSAT News Service Bulletin 342.01
From AMSAT HQ
KENSINGTON, MD.
DATE 2019-Dec-08
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID:
$ANS-342.01
AMSAT Member Melissa Pore, KM4CZN, Named 2020 Carole
Perry Educator
of the Year
The Orlando HamCation has announced that
AMSAT member Melissa Pore,
KM4CZN, is the 2020 receipient of the Carole Perry
Educator of the
Year Award. This award is bestowed upon an individual who has
made an
outstanding contribution educating and advancing youth in
Amateur
Radio. It was first awarded in 2018 to its namesake, Carole
Perry,
WB2MGP, in honor of her work as an educator teaching students
about
ham radio.
Melissa has been an educational professional for over
20 years and
currently teaches at Bishop Denis J. O'Connell High School.
Along with
teaching engineering and computer scienve, she is also involved in
the
school's amateur radio and engineering clubs. Her students held
demon-
strations at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center's Innovation Day. Some
of
her other educational endeavors include working on the first
satellite
to be launched and built by an elementary school and
co-facilitating a
workshop at Space Port Area Conference for Educators
2019.
Melissa has a Technician Class radio license and is a member of
AMSAT,
NASA Goddard Amateur Radio Club and ARRL. She is involved in ARISS
as
an Ambassador on the US Education Team. She will be presenting an
ARISS
Workshop at the Space Exploration Educators Conference 2020.
AMSAT
congratulations Melissa on this well-deserved honor!
[ANS thanks the
Orlando HamCation for the above
information]
---------------------------------------------------------------------
AMSAT
Vice President - Educational Relations Alan Johnston, KU2Y,
Participates in
Hackaday Hack Chat
AMSAT Vice President - Educational Relations Alan
Johnston, KU2Y,
participated in a Hackaday Hack Chat on December 4, 2019.
Built for
about $300 using mostly off-the-shelf and 3D-printed parts,
the
simulator lets satellite builders work the bugs out of their
designs
before committing them to the Final Frontier.
Logs from the
chat are available at:
https://hackaday.io/event/168230-amsat-cubesat-simulator-hack-chat
More
information about the AMSAT CubeSat Simulator project can be
found at http://cubesatsim.com/.
Dr. Johnston
also recently presented at the Radio Club of America's
Technical Symposium.
His presentation, entitled "Designing the AMSAT
CubeSat Simulator: A
Functional Satellite Model for the Classroom" is
available at: https://tinyurl.com/ANS-342-KU2Y
[ANS
thanks Hackaday and Alan Johnston, KU2Y, for the above
information]
---------------------------------------------------------------------
AMSAT
to Join ARRL in Opposition to FCC Proposal to Eliminate 3.3 -
3.5 GHz Amateur
Allocation
At its December 12th open meeting, the Federal
Communications
Commission is expected to adopt a Notice of Proposed
Rulemaking (NPRM)
that proposes to remove the amateur allocation at 3.3 - 3.5
GHz,
including the amateur satellite service allocation at 3.4 - 3.401
GHz.
The ARRL plans to file comments opposing the deletion of the
amateur
allocation. AMSAT also plans to file comments in opposition to
this
proposal and we are coordinating our efforts with the ARRL.
More
information on the FCC proposal can be found on the ARRL's
website at https://tinyurl.com/ANS-342-ARRL.
[ANS
thanks AMSAT Executive Vice President Paul Stoetzer, N8HM, and
the ARRL 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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Chris
Taron, NK1K, Completes Satellite DXCC via LEO Satellites
Chris Taron,
NK1K, recently completed his satellite DXCC award with
all QSOs made using
LEO satellites. His 100th DXCC entity worked came
courtesy of Phillipe
Chateau, EA4NF, who was operating as EA9/EA4NF in
Melilla, on November 19th.
Chris posted a recording of his QSO via
AO-7 at https://chirb.it/90xpzx. The LoTW
confirmation a few days
later left him at 99 DXCCs confirmed. A QSL card
received from VP2V/
DL7VTX on December 5th put him over the top with 100 DXCC
entities
confirmed.
AMSAT congratulates Chris on his great
achievement!
[ANS thanks Chris Taron, NK1K, for the above
information]
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Duchifat3
with V/u FM Transponder to Launch December 11
Duchifat3, carrying a V/u
FM transponder, will launch on the PSLV-C48
mission, currently scheduled for
launch at 09:55 UTC on December 11,
2019 from Satish Dhawan Space Centre SHAR
in India. The planned orbit
is 576 km circular with an inclination of 37
degrees.
Duchifat3 was built by high school students supported by
Herzliya
Science Center in Israel and carries an on-board camera for
earth
imaging. The V/u FM transponder has an uplink of 145.970 MHz and
a
downlink of 436.400 MHz.
Telemetry will be transmitted using 9k6
BPSK with AX.25.
http://www.amsatuk.me.uk/iaru/finished_detail.php?serialnum=586
[ANS
thanks the IARU 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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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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AZTECHSAT-1
Cubesat to Transmit Emergency Traffic using WINLINK
The AZTECHSAT-1
Cubesat travels to the space station on the 19th SpaceX
Commercial Resupply
Services (CRS-19) contract mission for NASA
integrated within a NanoRacks
CubeSat Deployer (NRCSD) and launches from
the JEM Small Satellite Orbital
Deployer (J-SSOD). The J-SSOD is handled
by the Japan Aerospace Exploration
Agency (JAXA) Multi-Purpose
Experiment Platform (MPEP) outside the space
station.
AZTECHSAT-1 has received IARU coordination for a downlink
frequency of
437.300 MHz using 9k6 GMSK or FSK. The cubesat will also carry a
Global-
star radio.
The cubesat will listen for emergency messages in
the 439 MHz frequency
range and then retransmit these messages for amateur
radio operators to
copy on the 437.300 MHz downlink using the WinLink
protocol.
AZTECHSAT-1 will create a Saturation Map of 435-438 MHz by
listening for
the whole orbit and returning captured data to the ground
station using
the 437.300 MHz amateur radio downlink plus a 1600 MHz
Globalstar link.
The emergency messages received via globalstar to the
AZTECHSAT-1 ground
station will be shared on the project's website. A
certificate will be
available for amateur stations receiving the emergency
message(s)
submitted via their website and confirmed by the AZTECHSAT-1
team.
Full details are posted on the AZTECHSAT-1 web:
https://upaep.mx//aztechsat
http://www.amsatuk.me.uk/iaru/finished_detail.php?serialnum=661
[ANS
thanks the IARU and the AZTECHSAT-1 at Universidad Popular
Autonoma del
Estado de
Puebla]
---------------------------------------------------------------------
AMSAT-SA
to Shift Main Focus to AfriCUBE, a Digital SDR CubeSat
The AMSAT-SA
CubeSat development team has shifted their CubeSat devel-
opment focus from
an analogue transponder to a digital SDR based unit.
The development of the
AfriCUBE digital SDR transponder under the
leadership of Anton Janovsky,
ZR6AIC has reached an advanced stage and
will soon be ready to undergo its
first field trials.
The team is not abandoning the development of the
KLETSKous analogue
transponder, which performed well during the BACAR 7
flight on 12
October 2019. Leon Lessing, ZS6LMG has taken the development to
this
point but unfortunately, due to personal commitments, cannot
continue
to work on Kletskous. "I would like to thank Leon for his support
and
wish him well in his future endeavours," Hannes Coetzee, ZS6BZP,
AMSAT
-SA CubeSat project leader said.
During the BACAR flight test it
showed that some further development
is needed to improve the transponder's
receiver sensitivity. "Here is
a great opportunity for young enthusiastic
engineers in the amateur
radio community to take on the challenge. I invite
interested persons
with RF experience to contact me and become part of the
team. While
there is no financial reward, the experience and achieving
something
great that will fly in space outweighs this many times. It
will
certainly look good on anyone's CV", Hannes said.
The EPS
(electronic power system), space frame and stabilisation
system are complete.
The development of the solar panel and antenna
deployment systems are making
good progress. Frik Wolf, ZS6FZ said he
will be ready by mid-January 2020 for
project review and field
testing.
Currently work on a new onboard
control system has been paused while
Fritz Sutherland, ZS6FSJ is working with
Anton Janovsky to get
AfricaCUBE ready for on-the-air trials.
Nico van
Rensburg, ZS6QL will continue work on the documentation
crucial to secure a
launch opportunity and Hans van de Groenendaal,
ZS6AKV will work on frequency
allocations and explore launch oppor-
tunities and the marketing of the
project.
AMSAT-SA is continuing its dialogue with SANSA and its
contractor to
place a transponder on EOSAT-1, a planned high
performance
earth-observation satellite designed to produce data for a broad
range
of earth observation applications. The development of AfriCUBE
will
enhance this opportunity.
JOIN THE AMSAT SA CUBESAT
TEAM
AMSAT SA invites radio amateurs with RF, electronic and
software
experience to join the Satellite Development team and contribute
to
technology and human capital development in South Africa. The
team
meets every alternate Monday on a Skype conference and quarterly
face-
to-face. Send your contact details and your main interest in
the
CubeSat project to admin@amsatsa.org.za. Hannes Coetzee,
ZS6BZP or
another team member will contact you.
[ANS thanks AMSAT-SA
and the South African Radio League for the
above
information]
---------------------------------------------------------------------
LSF
Heads Back to Orbit with the Qubik Mission
Libre Space Foundation is
proud to announce that it is currently dev-
eloping and integrating 2
pocketqube satellites (QUBIK-1 & QUBIK-2)
and supplying a pocketqube
deployer (PICOBUS) to be flown as part of
the DREAM payloads program on the
inaugural Firefly Alpha launch
from Firefly Aerospace.
The project
consists of two 50x50x50mm Pocketcubes each of approx
250g. The project
mission is for the satellites to conduct a series
of telecommunications
related experiments, while at the same time,
ground station analysis of the
received signals will try to exploit
doppler variations in order to perform
orbit determination and satel-
lite identification from radio amateur
stations around the world. The
telecommunication experiments will use several
different modulation,
coding and framing schemes, with the intention to
provide insights
about their performance at nano-pico-satellite missions. In
addition
the frame itself will be organized in such a way so spacecraft
identi-
fication can be performed as early as possible from the PHY
(using
orthogonal or PN sequences). Proposing UHF downlinks using
either
GFSK, GMSK or BPKS at 9k6 or 19k2 bps with QPSK at bit rates of
19k2
or 38k4 bps. Planning a Firefly launch from Vandenberg in March
2020
into a circular 300km 97 degree orbit together with
GENESIS-N,
GENESIS-L, FOSSASAT-1B and FOSSASAT-2 More info at https://libre.space
Frequency coordination
is pending with the IARU:
http://www.amsatuk.me.uk/iaru/formal_detail.php?serialnum=703
[ANS
thanks LibreSpace for the above
information]
---------------------------------------------------------------------
VUCC
Awards And Endorsements for November 2019
Here are the endorsements and
new VUCC Satellite Awards issued by the
ARRL for the period November 1, 2019
through December 1, 2019.
Congratulations to all those who made the list
this month!
CALL 01Oct 01Nov
KO4MA 1694 1701
WA5KBH
738 744
W5RKN 694 702
N3GS 597 601
VE7CEW 478
501
KK4YEL 400 413
AD0HJ 353 375
N7EGY 300
351
W5CBF New 179
N0RSR New 154
N0RC 100
104
EA8CXN New 101
VE2NGO New 100
VU2LBW New
100
If you find errors or omissions. please contact me off-list
at
w5rkn at w5rkn dot com and I'll revise the announcement. This list
was
developed by comparing the ARRL .pdf listings for the two months.
It's
a visual comparison so omissions are possible. Apologies if your
call
was not mentioned. Thanks to all those who are roving to grids
that
are rarely on the birds. They are doing most of the work!
[ANS
thanks Ron Parsons, W5RKN, for the above
information]
---------------------------------------------------------------------
ARISS
Activities
About Gagarin From Space Conducting an amateur radio session
with
students of "Amur State University Blagoveshchensk",
Blagoveshchensk,
Russia, direct via RКØJ (***)
The ISS callsign is
presently scheduled to be RSØISS
The scheduled astronaut is Oleg
Skripochka
Contact is go for Thu 2019-12-05 08:52 UTC
Council Rock
High School South, Holland, PA, direct via KC3NGG
The ISS callsign is
presently scheduled to be NA1SS
The scheduled astronaut is Drew Morgan
KI5AAA
Contact was successful: Thu 2019-12-05 17:56:31 UTC 71 deg
(***)
B. Pascal Institute - Public School, Rome, Italy, direct via
IKØMGA
and Istituto Comprensivo Lipari “S. Lucia”, Lipari, Italy, direct
via
ID9GKS
The ISS callsign is presently scheduled to be IRØISS
The
scheduled astronaut is Luca Parmitano KF5KDP
Contact is go for: Sat
2019-12-07 11:44:00 UTC 45 deg
Greenwood Primary School, Greenwood,
Western Australia, Australia,
telebridge via IK1SLD
The ISS callsign is
presently scheduled to be OR4ISS
The scheduled astronaut is Drew Morgan
KI5AAA
Contact is go for: Tue 2019-12-10 10:55:14 UTC 53 deg
City of
Kursk, Russia and City of Ufa, Russia, direct via TBD
The ISS callsign is
presently scheduled to be RSØISS
The scheduled astronaut is Alexander
Skvortsov
Contact is go for: Tue 2019-12-11 10:10 UTC
Woodridge Middle
School, High Ridge, MO, direct via NØKBA
The ISS callsign is presently
scheduled to be NA1SS
The scheduled astronaut is Luca Parmitano
KF5KDP
Contact is go for: Thu 2019-12-12 15:29:16 UTC 29 deg
[ANS
thanks Charlie Sufana, AJ9N, and David Jordan, AA4KN, ARISS opera-
tion team
members, 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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Upcoming
Satellite Operations
Satellite Shorts:
Dec 12th ND0C EM09 – 1647z on
AO-91 & 1708z on AO-92
Dec 12th ND0C EN00 – 1821z on AO-91 & 1843z
on AO-92
South Florida (EL95, EL96) December 11-15, 2019
James,
K4WPX, will be in EL96/95 December 11th-15th, vacation style,
mostly evening
passes, FM only. James will be staying in EM96 but
~1 mile from the EM95
line, so he can skip over there for some passes,
too. Pass announcements via
Twitter: https://twitter.com/k4wpx
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
Big Bend
National Park (DL88) March 16-17, 2020
Ron AD0DX, Doug N6UA, and Josh W3ARD
will operate from Big Bend
National Park to put grid DL88 on the air.
Details will be added here
as they come available, but you are more than
welcome to keep an eye
on their individual Twitter feeds: https://twitter.com/ad0dx,
https://twitter.com/dtabor, and https://twitter.com/W3ARDstroke5
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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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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Satellite
Shorts From All Over
+ Albert “Al” Noe (81), KL7NO, from Fairbanks
Alaska, passed away
Monday evening, November 25, 21 months after being
diagnosed with
stage 4 Pancreatic cancer. Al was an avid 6 meter operator
just
outside of Fairbanks, Alaska in grid BP54. He was still active on
6
meters up until the very end. For over 40 years Al provided
EME,
AMSAT, and many other contacts on 6, 2, 1.25 meters, 70 & 23
centi-
meters from his Alaska QTH just outside of Fairbanks.
Blanchard
Family Funeral Home in Fairbanks will be handling Al’s services
and
an obituary will be published at a later date.
https://www.blanchardfamilyfuneralhome.com/
(Via
the Central States VHF Society)
+John Toscano, W0JT, passed away
Wednesday, November 27, in San
Antonio. He fought a long battle against many
health problems during
the last several years. Since moving to Texas, he had
almost com-
pleted his dream station (6-m through 10 GHz) at a great location
(20
dB hilltop) and participated in both AMSAT and RMG club
activities.
Previously, while in Minnesota, he was a very active NLRS member
on
the VHF/UHF/SHF bands with fixed, rover and portable stations. As
a
retired pharmacist and U of MN assistant professor, John will
be
remembered for his programming contributions with his 10 GHz
contest
logging/scoring program and his on-line contest activity
spreadsheets.
He also had many interests in astronomy and
astrophysics.
(Via the Central States VHF Society)
+ From Ohio/Penn DX
Bulletin #1442:
FP, ST. PIERRE & MIQUELON (Early Announcement). Eric,
KV1J, will
once again be operating from the Island of Miquelon (NA-032,
DIFO
FP-002 WLOTA 1417, Grid GN17) as FP/KV1J between June 30th and
July
14th, 2020. This is his 14th trip to the island. Activity will be
on
160-10 meters (no 60m - not authorized) using CW, SSB, RTTY,
FT8/FT4
(but primarily SSB, RTTY and FT8/FT4) and the satellites. He
will
generally be on the highest frequency band that is open
(favoring
12/10m). He will be active in the IARU HF World
Championship
(July 11-12th). ADDED NOTE: Eric will usually try to be on as
many
Satellite passes as he can when the WX is good, generally favoring
the
FO-29, XW-2x, AO-7, and possibly the FM birds. Weekends may be
limited
since he will be concentrating on the low(er) bands and contests.
QSL
via KV1J, direct or by the Bureau. Also eQSL and LoTW. For
more
details and updates, check out his Web page at:
http://www.kv1j.com/fp/July20.html
+Issue
78 of CQ DATV is now available at https://cq-datv.mobi/78.php.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
/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,
Paul Stoetzer, N8HM
n8hm at
amsat dot org
_______________________________________________
Via the ANS
mailing list courtesy of AMSAT-NA
https://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/ans
