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:
* GOLF-TEE Reaches Major Milestones
* ARISS Contact
Opportunity Call for Proposals February 1, 2020 to March 31, 2020
*
Satellite Status and Tracking API's Added to AMSAT Website
* Qarman Beacon
Telemetry Information Released
* China Telecoms Regulator Proposing to Delete
Some Current Amateur Allocations
* Memorial Service for Brian Kantor,
WB6CYT
* Upcoming Satellite Operations
* ARISS News
* Satellite Shorts
from All Over
SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-019.01
ANS-019 AMSAT News
Service Weekly Bulletins
AMSAT News Service Bulletin 019.01
From AMSAT
HQ KENSINGTON, MD.
January 19, 2020
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID:
$ANS-019.01
GOLF-TEE Reaches Major Milestone
A group of
GOLF-TEE (Greater Orbit Larger Footprint - Technology
Evaluation
Environment) satellite prototype boards transmitted
telemetry for the first
time on Tuesday, January 14, 2020. The boards
are laid out on a bench as a
"flat-sat" with interconnecting wires,
bench power supplies, and a dummy
load on the transmitter. The
interconnected boards include:
- An
early RT-IHU (Radiation Tolerant Internal Housekeeping Unit
(i.e.
computer) prototype,
- A CIU (Control Interface Unit) prototype, and
- A
set of spare boards from HuskySat-1 that act as prototypes for
the LIHU
(Legacy IHU) and legacy VHF/UHF RF components.
Now that the development
team has reached this point, it has RF to
use as a basis for developing a
GOLF-TEE decoder for FoxTelem, the
ground telemetry receiver
software.
Thousands of hours of work by many AMSAT volunteers have gone
into
the hardware and software that got GOLF-TEE this far, with much work
yet to be done before flight units are ready.
GOLF-TEE is designed as
a Low Earth Orbit (LEO) testbed for
technologies necessary for a successful
CubeSat mission to a wide
variety of orbits, including MEO(Medium Earth
Orbit) and HEO (High
Earth Orbit).
To help support the GOLF program,
please consider volunteering or
donating today.
https://www.amsat.org/volunteer-for-amsat/
https://www.amsat.org/donations/amsat-golf-program-donations/
[ANS
thanks Burns Fisher, WB1FJ, AMSAT Flight Software, and the
entire GOLF team
for the above
information]
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ARISS
Contact Opportunity Call for Proposals February 1, 2020 to
March 31,
2020
The Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) Program
is seeking formal and informal education institutions and
organizations,
individually or working together, to host an Amateur
Radio contact with a
crew member on board the ISS. ARISS is happy to
announce a proposal window
which will open February 1, 2020 for
contacts that would be held between
January 2021 and June 2021. Crew
scheduling and ISS orbits will determine
the exact contact dates. To
maximize these radio contact opportunities,
ARISS is looking for
organizations that will draw large numbers of
participants and
integrate the contact into a well-developed education plan.
The proposal window for contacts between January 2021. and June 2021
will open on February 1, 2020 and close on March 31. 2020. Proposal
information and documents can be found at www.ariss.org. Two ARISS
Introductory
Webinar sessions will be held on two different date and
times. The first is
at January 23 at 2100 ET and the second is at
January 27 at 1800 ET. The
same material will be covered during both
sessions, so choose the session
that best fits your schedule. The
Eventbrite link to sign up is
https://ariss-proposal-webinar-spring-2020.eventbrite.com
The Opportunity
Crew members aboard the International Space
Station will participate
in scheduled Amateur Radio contacts. These radio
contacts are
approximately 10 minutes in length and allow students to
interact
with the astronauts through a question-and-answer session.
An ARISS contact is a voice-only communication opportunity via
Amateur Radio between astronauts and cosmonauts aboard the space
station
and classrooms and communities. ARISS contacts afford
education audiences
the opportunity to learn firsthand from
astronauts what it is like to live
and work in space and to learn
about space research conducted on the ISS.
Students also will have an
opportunity to learn about satellite
communication, wireless
technology, and radio science. Because of the nature
of human
spaceflight and the complexity of scheduling activities aboard the
ISS, organizations must demonstrate flexibility to accommodate
changes
in dates and times of the radio contact.
Amateur Radio organizations
around the world with the support of NASA
and space agencies in Russia,
Canada, Japan and Europe present
educational organizations with this
opportunity. The ham radio
organizations' volunteer efforts provide the
equipment and
operational support to enable communication between crew on
the ISS
and students around the world using Amateur Radio.
For More
Information
For proposal information and more details such as
expectations,
proposal guidelines and proposal form, and dates and times of
Information Webinars, go to www.ariss.org.
Please direct any
questions to ariss.us.education@gmail.com .
[ANS thanks ARISS 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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Satellite
Status and Tracking API's Added to AMSAT Website
Thanks to an initiative
by Heimir, W1ANT, AMSAT added Application
Programming Interfaces (APIs) to
the AMSAT web site to make it easy
for developers to write apps for mobile
devices and the Internet of
Things (IoT). For example, the satellite status
page
www.amsat.org/status does not
work well on small screens. By
accessing the status data directly
developers can easily present the
data in a way appropriate for their
screens.
These APIs also make it easy for IoT homebrewers to do things
like
build next pass reminder gizmos so they can beep out notices in CW.
The developers have set a goal of February 15, 2020 to finalize the
APIs, and consider them operational on March 1, 2020. Developers
are
encouraged to send suggestions or questions to
www.amsat.org/webmaster-contact/
For details of API use
visit www.amsat.org/status/api/ and www.amsat.org/track/api/
[ANS
thanks Joe Fitzgerald, KM1P for the above
information.]
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Qarman
Beacon Telemetry Information Released
QARMAN, a nano-satellite designed
and built at VKI, was launched to
the International Space Station on
December 5, 2019. Deployed is
expected to take place in the week of February
12, 2020.
QARMAN (Qubesat for Aerothermodynamic Research and Measurements
on
AblatioN) is the world's first CubeSat designed to survive
atmospheric re-entry. Work on it started in 2013 at the von Karman
Institute for Fluid Dynamics (VKI).
The aim of the QARMAN mission is
to demonstrate the usability of a
CubeSat platform as an atmospheric entry
vehicle. Spacecraft
descending towards a planet with an atmosphere
experience very harsh
environment including extreme temperatures (several
thousand
degrees).
Information about Qarman's 437.350 MHz 9600 bps
GMSK AX.25 beacon has
now been released by the team.
Download the
Qarman Beacon Definition QARMAN_BCNdef_v1.1 at
https://ukamsat.files.wordpress.com/2020/01/qarman_bcndef_v1.1.pdf
Download
the Beacon Decoder spreadsheet QARMAN_BCNdecoder at
https://ukamsat.files.wordpress.com/2020/01/qarman_bcndecoder.xlsx
Reports
can be sent to operations@qarman.eu
[ANS thanks AMSAT-UK 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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China
Telecoms Regulator Proposing to Delete Some Current
Amateur
Allocations
China's telecommunications regulator has proposed amending
the
Measures for the Administration of Amateur Radio Stations, and some
amateur bands are in danger of being eliminated. Lide Zhang, BI8CKU,
told ARRL that the proposal would prohibit amateur operation on the
2200-meter band as well as on 146 - 148 MHz, 1260 - 1300 MHz,
3400 -
3500 MHz, 5650 - 5725 MHz, and all bands above 10 GHz.
Radio
communications engineer and Chinese Amateur Satellite Group
(CAMSAT) CEO
Alan Kung, BA1DU, told ARRL that government efforts to
eliminate some
amateur bands are nothing new, but proposals that have
been aired for a
while now are on the regulatory agency's schedule.
Kung said he does not
anticipate that all of the bands proposed will
be taken away, but he
conceded that the climate will "undoubtedly"
become increasingly more
dangerous for China's amateur radio
community.
"The attempt to crowd
out the amateur radio bands has a long history
throughout the world," he
said, "but it may never have become so
urgent for the amateur radio
community as it is today. We all
understand that radio spectrum resources
have become a bottleneck for
further development." He said today's radio
communication industry
"is working hard to share spectrum resources." Kung
characterized
spectrum as "the soil on which amateur radio
depends."
[ANS thanks the ARRL for the above
information.]
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Memorial
Service for Brian Kantor, WB6CYT
Phil Karn, KA9Q shares the following
announcement:
"As you know, Brian Kantor, WB6CYT passed away suddenly on
November 21, 2019. We will hold a memorial service for Brian on
Saturday, Feb 1 2020 at 1:30 PM in La Jolla, CA (part of San Diego).
Please see this link for details:
https://tinyurl.com/ANS-019-Kantor-Memorial
"Please
bring any photos, mementos and (above all) stories and
anecdotes about Brian
to share. Brian wasn't exactly a highly formal
person who stood on ceremony,
so we'll keep this informal. If you
have a story to tell, it's up to you
whether you stand up and relate
it to the whole group or just a few others
at a time. There will be
plenty of time for both.
"Everyone who knew
Brian is welcome. His friendships spanned at least
three distinct social
circles, and I know he'd be very happy to see
everyone meet and enjoy
everyone else's company. Even if he'd be a
little embarrassed that we were
doing it in his honor.
"Free snacks and refreshments will be provided, so
please RSVP
through the evite link so we can tell the hotel how much to make
available. If you have special dietary needs, please say so; the
hotel
has a menu we can choose from.
"Please forward this email to anyone you
think might be interested.
Hope to see you on the 1st."
[ANS thanks
Phil Karn, KA9Q 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
New Orleans, LA (EL49, EL58, EM59, EM40, EM50, EM60)
January 14 -
February 1, 2020
Adam, KC3OBS, will be roving EM40, EM50,
EL49, EL59, January 14 -
Feb 1. In between, Adam will be EL58, January 18 or
19
depending on weather, and in EM60 January 29. Adam will announce
passes and updates on Twitter: https://twitter.com/sparky_husky
Labrador
(GO11 +) January 19-27, 2019
Chris VE3FU, Dave VE9CB, and Frank VO1HP will be
active as VO2AC in
the 2020 CQ160 CW contest, January 24-26, from Point
Armour
Lighthouse, in Labrador. If time permits before the contest, they
may be active on FM satellites from GO11 as VO2AC or VO2AAA.
Depending on
weather and timing of passes, you might catch them on
FM satellites as they
make their way from FO93 to GO-11, passing
through FO92, GO02, GO13, GO12,
and GO22 along the way, but no
promises. They will also make the reverse
trek on January 27.
Montserrat (FK86) January 26 - February 2,
2020
Mel, W8MV, will be in Montserrat 26 January until 2 February,
operating under the call sign VP2MCV on FM Sats. QSL via
LOTW.
Antigua (FK97) February 2 - 9, 2020
Mel, W8MV, will be in
Antigua 2-9 February. Mel is waiting for his
operating license. Will
update as soon as it arrives. FM only.
QSL via LOTW
Isla Perez,
Mexico (EL52, EL50, EL51) February 11 - 17, 2020
Members of Radio Club Puebla
DX will be active as 6F3A from
Isla Perez, Mexico, between February 11-17.
The operators mentioned
are Patricia/XE1SPM (Team Leader), Ismael/XE1AY,
Rey/XE1SRD and
Ricardo/XE1SY. Activity will be on 80/40/20/17/15/12/10/6
meters, and
include the ARRL DX CW Contest (February 15-16). QSL via XE1SY.
Ismael, XE1AY, reports that he doing CW and the satellites, and will
also TX from EL50 and XE1AY/mm from EL51.
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
[ANS
thanks Robert Bankston, KE4AL for the above
information.]
--------------------------------------------------------------------
ARISS
News
(Editor's Note: See school contact opportunity story
above.)
+ Upcoming Contacts
Morita Junior High School, Fukui,
Japan, direct via 8J9MO
The ISS callsign is presently scheduled to be NA1SS
The scheduled astronaut is Luca Parmitano KF5KDP
Contact is go for: Wed
2020-01-22 08:00:46 UTC 27 deg
Ontario Science Centre, Toronto, Canada,
telebridge via IK1SLD
The ISS callsign is presently scheduled to be
OR4ISS
The scheduled astronaut is Luca Parmitano KF5KDP
Contact is go for:
Wed 2020-01-22 17:21:36 UTC 32 deg
[ANS thanks Charlie Sufana, AJ9N 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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Shorts
from All Over
+ ARISS-US Educators Review Processes for US Proposal
Window
A team of educators who are members of the ARISS-US Education
Committee is finalizing the last few processes related to the late
2019
ARISS-US Proposal Window. The team had ranked the education
proposals and
then sent a list to the ARISS-US leaders of the top
schools and education
groups recommended for hosting an ARISS
contact. A news release is in draft
stage. The organizations selected
will be in the queue for scheduled ARISS
contacts during the second
half of 2020. A new ARISS-US Proposal Window
will open soon and
details on this will be forthcoming.
[ANS thanks
ARISS for the above information.]
+ WIA 2020 Annual Conference
Presentations
The Wireless Institute of Australia Annual Conference will
be held in
Hobart, Tasmania May 8-10 2020 and registrations are
open.
On the Saturday afternoon a wide range of presentations are
organized
to showcase the conference theme which is the "Antarctic
Gateway".
Following lunch there will be two presentation streams which
can be
categorized as the "Antarctic" stream and the "Radio" stream.
Complete information can be viewed at:
https://www.wia.org.au/newsevents/news/2020/20200111-3/index.php
[ANS
thanks the Wireless Institute of Australia for the above
information.]
+ AMSAT Argentina Celebrates LO-19 30th
Anniversary
On Feb-22-1990 LUSAT/LO-19 was launched along with AO-16,
DO-17,
WO-18, UO-14 & UO-15. It was the first Argentina Satellite, and
one
of first to use PACSAT protocol. LUSAT is still calling home with
its carrier at +/-437.125.
Members of AMSAT Argentina (LU7AA)
celebrate the 30th anniversary of
the LUSAT (LO-19) satellite between Jan.
18 and 26 on HF on SSB,
FT8, CW. An award is available as well. QSL via
LU7AA (d), eQSL.
Find complete information at:
http://lu4aao.org/lu7aa/cert_30_aniv_lusat_2020.htm
and
http://amsat.org.ar/certlusat30.htm
[ANS
thanks the DARC DX Newsletter and AMSAT-LU for the above
information.]
+ AMSAT-SA Announces A New Date Fre Their Space
Symposium
The annual AMSAT SA Space symposium date has changed to
Saturday, 11 July 2020. While the call for papers is ongoing till the
end of February, AMSAT SA is pleased to announce that Burns Fisher,
WB1FJ, of AMSAT NA will delivery two papers at the symposium:
Fox-in-a-box: Fox telemetry reception using an inexpensive
Raspberry Pi
and a J-pole antenna including a discussion on the
optimal positioning for a
J-pole antenna for satellite reception and
an overview of what is in orbit
currently and expected in the near
future and their features. Prospective
authors are invited to
propose other papers by submitting a brief synopsis
to
admin@amsatsa.org.za before 28
February 2020.
+ Cardiff Microwave Roundtable Saturday, March 7,
2020
The Cardiff University ARS will host a meeting of the UK Microwave
Group on Saturday March 7, 2020 at our campus in Cardiff. This one
day
event is a mix of talks, measurements, and socializing about
activities in
the GHz frequencies.
GNU Radio Workshop
On the following day, Sunday
March 8, there will be a hands on
Introduction to GNU Radio and Software
Defined Radio. More info
coming soon, please send an email to officers@cardiffars.org.uk
if
you are interested.
[ANS thanks the UK Microwave Group for the above
information.]
+ Lockheed Martin Launches First Smart Satellite
Enabling Space
Mesh Networking
Recently, Lockheed Martin launched
the Pony Express 1 mission as a
hosted payload on Tyvak-0129, a
next-generation Tyvak 6U spacecraft.
Pony Express 1, an example of rapid
prototyping, was developed, built
and integrated in nine months. Some of
the key technologies being
flight-tested include:
- Software
validates advanced adaptive mesh communications between
satellites, shared
processing capabilities, and can take advantage,
of sensors aboard other
smart satellites,
- A software-defined radio that allows for high-bandwidth
hosting of
multiple RF applications, store-and-forward RF collection, data
compression, digital signal processing and waveform transmission,
-
3D-printed wideband antenna housing.
Read the full story at
http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=55121
[ANS
thanks Spaceref.com 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
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