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-OSCAR 85 Declared End of Mission
* HuskySat-1
Update
* Update from AMSAT President Clayton Coleman, W5PFG
* Free Digital
Copy of "Getting Started with Amateur Satellites"
Available for New or
Renewing Members
* Apogee View - January/February 2020
* 5 Tips on
Etiquette and Good Manners on the FM Ham Radio Satellites
* Changes to
AMSAT-NA TLE Distribution for February 13, 2020
* Upcoming ARISS
Contacts
* Upcoming AMSAT Events
* Upcoming Satellite Operations
*
Satellite Shorts From All Over
SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-047.01
ANS-047
AMSAT News Service Weekly Bulletins
AMSAT News Service Bulletin
047.01
From AMSAT HQ KENSINGTON, MD.
DATE February 16, 2020
To All
RADIO AMATEURS
BID:
$ANS-047.01
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AMSAT's GOLF-TEE satellite recently reached a major milestone
when
prototype boards transmitted telemetry for the first time.
Help support
AMSAT's path back to HEO by donating today!
https://www.amsat.org/donations/amsat-golf-program-donations/
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AMSAT-OSCAR
85 Declared End of Mission
After a long decline in the health of its
batteries, AO-85 has gone
silent. Having not been heard throughout the most
recent period of
full illumination, it is reasonable to believe the batteries
have
deteriorated to the point of no longer being able to power the
trans-
mitter. Should some future event cause a cell to open, it is
possible
the satellite may be heard again, but for now it is time to
declare
end-of-mission.
AO-85 was conceived as the first AMSAT
cubesat, and was designed to be
a successor to the popular AO-51 microsat.
Accepted into the NASA
CubeSat Launch Initative in February 2012, AO-85 was
launched October
8, 2015. AO-85's success led to further Fox satellites
AO-91, AO-92,
AO-95, and RadFxSat2 / Fox-1E which will be launched later this
year.
The Fox-1E transponder was also spun off into a radio system now
in
orbit onboard HuskySat-1, and soon to be in several other
university
cubesats.
Development continues on GOLF-TEE and GOLF-1,
which will include a
legacy V/u linear transponder and a SDR-based multiband
uplink and 10
GHz downlink radio system. Your continued support of AMSAT by
member-
ship and donations will help us Keep Amateur Radio in
Space.
[ANS thanks Drew Glasbrenner, KO4MA, AMSAT Vice President -
Operations
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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HuskySat-1
Update
Students in the Husky Satellite Lab at the University of
Washington
have been celebrating successes since HuskySat-1, a student built
sat-
ellite weighing about 9 lbs, deployed into space on Friday,
January
31st:
• After being deployed, HuskySat turned on, deployed the
antennas on
the first attempt, and start transmitting in a designated "safe
mode".
• On the first active pass over Seattle, just 2 hours after
deploy-
ment, students used the UW ground station to command the satellite
to
change operational modes.
• With help from AMSAT and the network of
amateurs across the globe,
the HuskySat team has been able to closely track
the health of the
satellite. Health data includes temperatures, battery
charge state,
and solar panel charging.
• Over the weekend, the camera
payload took and transmitted the first
pictures from space! The camera
included collaboration with Raisbeck
Aviation High School and nonprofit
Quick2Space.
Commissioning of the satellite systems is still underway.
The sat-
ellite has actually been in space inside a Nanoracks deployer
since
launch on Nov 2nd. The main research goal of satellite is to
demon-
strate the new propulsion and communication technologies on the
sat-
ellite. At the completion of the research phase, the satellite will
be
utilized as an amateur transponder.
The mission of the UW program,
housed in the Department of Earth and
Space Sciences, is to foster
interdisciplinary student participation
in space systems research, to inspire
and train future space scien-
tists and engineers, and to advance spacecraft
capabilities at the
University of Washington.
On February 15th, AMSAT
Vice President - Engineering Jerry Buxton,
N0JY, hosted a Twitch stream to
discuss the AMSAT Linear Transponder
Module (LTM-1) and HuskySat-1. You can
see a replay of the livestream
at https://www.twitch.tv/videos/552209241
[ANS
thanks Paige Northway of the HuskySat-1 team and Jerry Buxton,
N0JY, AMSAT
Vice President - Engineering, for the above
information]
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Update
from AMSAT President Clayton Coleman, W5PFG
I am humbled by the greetings
and congratulatory messages received
over the past ten days since becoming
the President of AMSAT. Please
join me in expressing gratitude to our
immediate past president Joe
Spier, K6WAO, for his dedication to AMSAT’s
mission of Keeping Amateur
Radio in Space.
It was a pleasure to speak
with many of our members at the Orlando
Hamcation last weekend. Attending
Hamcation afforded me the opportun-
ity to meet with many of our volunteers
and reach out to other organi-
zations in amateur radio such as the ARRL and
the Dayton Amateur Radio
Association.
My priority, now underway, is to
ensure all Directors have equal
access to AMSAT resources to perform their
duties. AMSAT complies with
Section 29-413.05 of the District of Columbia
Nonprofit Corporation
Act of 2010. Most of the information Directors use to
perform their
duties are already publicly available on the Internet on our
website,
published in the AMSAT News Service (ANS), and often in print as
part
of The AMSAT Journal. These resources are not password protected
and
can be viewed by members and non-members alike.
Once I’ve had an
opportunity to speak individually with the Directors,
I will convene a Board
of Directors teleconference to address out-
standing business. At any time,
three Directors may call on the Pres-
ident to schedule a Board of Directors
meeting, per our bylaws Article
II, Section 5, Paragraph
A.
73,
Clayton
W5PFG
AMSAT President
[ANS thanks Clayton
Coleman, W5PFG, AMSAT President, for the
above
information]
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Free
Digital Copy of "Getting Started with Amateur Satellites" Avail-
able for New
or Renewing Members
While HuskySat-1 completes it's scientific mission,
check out the best
resource for learning how to work through linear
transponder sat-
ellites (and other types of amateur satellites). For a
limited time,
AMSAT is making the "Getting Started With Amateur Satellites"
book
available as a download with any paid new or renewal
membership
purchased via the AMSAT Store. This offer is only available
with
purchases completed online, and for only a limited time. A
perennial
favorite, Getting Started is updated every year with the
latest
amateur satellite information, and is the premier primer of
satellite
operation. The book is presented in PDF format, in full color,
and
covers all aspects of making your first contacts on a ham
radio
satellite.
Please take advantage of this offer today by visiting
the AMSAT store
at https://www.amsat.org/shop/ and selecting
any membership option.
While there, check out AMSAT's other items, including
the M2 LEOpack
antenna system, Arrow antennas, AMSAT shirts, and other swag.
Be sure
to view your cart before going to checkout. If you add a
membership
and then go directly to checkout, you'll never see an option to
add
your free gift.
If you have trouble selecting your free gift,
please see this YouTube
video to see the steps necessary. https://youtu.be/oRqk5Am-UzE
[ANS
thanks the AMSAT Office for the above
information]
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Apogee
View - January/February 2020
Happy New Year! 2020 promises to be an
exciting year filled with new
satellites to work and significant progress
towards our next genera-
tion of satellites. By the time you read this,
HuskySat-1 should be in
orbit and completing its science mission before being
turned over to
AMSAT for amateur radio use. I want to congratulate all those
involved
with this project both at the University of Washington and on
AMSAT’s
Engineering and Operations teams who worked to make this
mutually
beneficial partnership happen. More details about HuskySat-1 and
our
partnership with the Husky Satellite Lab at the University of
Washing-
ton can be found elsewhere in the January/February 2020 issue of
The
AMSAT Journal.
While we look forward to the completion of
HuskySat-1's primary miss-
ion, we also await the launch of the final Fox-1
satellite, RadFxSat-2
/ Fox-1E, which is currently scheduled to launch no
earlier than the
first quarter of this year on the ELaNa XX mission. The
ELaNa XX miss-
ion will fly on the second flight of Virgin Orbit's
LauncherOne ve-
hicle.
As the Fox project wraps up its series of five
1U CubeSats, progress
continues on GOLF, the next generation of AMSAT
satellites. A group of
GOLF-TEE (Greater Orbit Larger Footprint – Technology
Evaluation En-
vironment) satellite prototype boards transmitted telemetry
for the
first time on Tuesday, January 14th. During the test, the boards
were
laid out on a bench as a "flat-sat" with interconnecting wires,
bench
power supplies, and a dummy load on the transmitter. The
inter-
connected boards included:
• 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 team has reached this point, AMSAT
Engineering has RF to
use as a basis for developing a GOLF-TEE decoder for
FoxTelem, our
ground telemetry receiver software. Thousands of hours of work
by many
AMSAT volunteers have gone into the hardware and software that got
us
this far, with much work yet to be done before the assembly of
flight
units. The GOLF-TEE satellite 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).
The work on GOLF is intended for our CubeSat
missions to higher
orbits. However, much as the Fox-1E linear transponder was
adapted as
a payload for HuskySat-1, components developed for GOLF, such as
the
RT-IHU and the microwave SDR transponder, can be adapted to serve
as
the basis for a hosted payload on a commercial or government
sat-
ellite in geostationary orbit or perhaps an educational CubeSat
des-
tined for MEO or GTO. Should an opportunity arise, the work being
done
on GOLF means that we will be ready to build such a hosted
payload.
While we continue our work on these satellites, we face the
prospect
of regulatory roadblocks. Last year, we submitted comments on
the
Federal Communication Commission's Notice of Proposed Rulemaking
re-
garding the mitigation of orbital debris. The proposed rules as
worded
would severely limit the type of missions AMSAT could pursue.
While
the Commission has not yet issued final rules, we are hopeful
that
the near-unanimous opposition of commenters to the more harmful
as-
pects of the rules, such as the requirement for satellite operators
to
indemnify the United States Government for any potential claims
regarding
their satellites, will limit the negative impact.
Another serious concern
is our access to spectrum. While international
threats that arose in the
months before the 2019 World Radiocommunica-
tion Conference to the 144 MHz –
146 MHz and 1260 MHz – 1270 MHz ama-
teur satellite service bands have
subsided for the time being, other
threats appear on the horizon. This past
December, the FCC issued a
Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that would delete
the amateur alloca-
tion at 3.3 GHz – 3.5 GHz, including the amateur
satellite service
allocation at 3.4 GHz – 3.41 GHz. While that band has not
yet been
used for any amateur satellites as it is not available in ITU
Region
3 (Asia & Oceania), it is still a potentially useful resource for
a
future amateur geostationary payload over the
Americas.
Additionally, we know that many AMSAT members also use this
band for
other purposes, such as mesh networking, contesting, and EME
commun-
ications. Access to microwave spectrum is crucial for many of
our
planned activities, including GOLF and amateur radio on the
Lunar
Gateway, and we must vigorously defend our spectrum allocations.
AMSAT
is currently drafting comments opposing this proposed rule,
and,
working alongside the ARRL, we continue to monitor potential
legis-
lative and regulatory actions that could limit or even preclude
some
of our current and planned activities.
On a final note, I wanted
to let the membership know that AMSAT's ser-
vers will be migrating to a new
operating system and a new hosting
service later this year. This is necessary
as the operating system
currently running AMSAT's servers will reach its end
of life in Nov-
ember. While AMSAT's capable IT team led by Joe Fitzgerald,
KM1P, will
do their best to minimize any disruptions to AMSAT services, this
type
of transition can often result in unforeseen problems. Continue
to
monitor the AMSAT-BB and AMSAT's Twitter and Facebook accounts for
any
updates.
[ANS thanks Paul Stoetzer, N8HM, AMSAT Executive Vice
President, 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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5
Tips on Etiquette and Good Manners on the FM Ham Radio Satellites
The DX
Engineering blog On All Bands recently published an article en-
titled "5
Tips on Etiquette and Good Manners on the FM Ham Radio Sat-
ellites" by Sean
Kutzko, KX9X.
The article can be found at:
https://www.onallbands.com/ham-radio-satellite-operating-etiquette/
[ANS
thanks Sean Kutzko, KX9X, and DX Engineering for the above
infor-
mation]
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Changes
to AMSAT-NA TLE Distribution for February 13, 2020
The following Amateur
Radio satellite's name and NORAD CAT ID have
been changed:
1. HuskySat 1
satellite name is now HuskySat-1.
2. Based on changes in Space-Track TLE
data, HuskySat-1's new NORAD
CAT ID is now object 45119.
(Thanks to
Nico Janssen, PA0DLO, for satellite identification.)
[ANS thanks Ray
Hoad, WA5QGD, AMSAT Orbital Elements Manager for the
above
information]
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Upcoming
ARISS Contacts
Maple Dale Elementary School, Cincinnati, OH, direct via
K8SCH
The ISS callsign is presently scheduled to be NA1SS
The scheduled
astronaut is Drew Morgan KI5AAA
Contact is go for: Thu 2020-02-20 18:20:28
UTC 48 deg
The ARISS webpage is at https://www.ariss.org/
Note that there are
links to other ARISS websites from this site.
The main page for Applying
to Host a Scheduled Contact may be found at
https://www.ariss.org/apply-to-host-an-ariss-contact.html
Note,
all times are approximate. It is recommended that you do your
own orbital
prediction or start listening about 10 minutes before the
listed
time.
All dates and times listed follow International Standard ISO
8601
and time format YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS
[ANS thanks Charlie Sulfana,
AJ9N, ARISS Operations, 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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Upcoming
AMSAT Events
Want to see AMSAT in action or learn more about amateur
radio in
space?
AMSAT Ambassadors provide presentations, demonstrate
communicating
through amateur satellites, and host information tables at
club
meetings, hamfests, conventions, maker faires, and other
events.
Current schedule:
+ March 6, 2020, Irving Hamfest, Irving,
TX
+ March 14-15, 2020, Science City on University of Arizona, Tuscon,
AZ
+ March 21, 2020, Midwinter Madness Hamfest, Buffalo, MN
+ March 21,
2020, Scottsdale Amateur Radio Club Hamfest, Scottsdale,
AZ
+ March 28,
2020, Tucson Spring Hamfest, Tucson, AZ
+ March 29, 2020, Vienna Wireless
Winterfest, Annandale, VA
+ May 2, 2020, Cochise Amateur Radio Association
Hamfest, Sierra
Vista, AZ
+ May 8-9, 2020 Prescott Hamfest, Prescott,
AZ
+ May 15-17, Hamvention, Xenia, OH
+ June 12-13, 2020, Ham-Con, Plano,
TX
A copy of the AMSAT hamfest brochure is available for download
at
https://tinyurl.com/ANS-026-Hamfest
This
color brochure is designed to be printed double-sided and folded
into a
tri-fold handout.
To include your upcoming AMSAT presentation and/or
demonstration,
please send an email to ambassadors (at) amsat (dot)
org.
[ANS thanks Robert Bankston, KE4AL, AMSAT Vice President - User
Serv-
ices, for the above
information]
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Upcoming
Satellite Operations
Satellite Shorts
Feb 13-16 DM22 AD7DB and
N7JY FM
Feb 15 CN78 ADODX FM and Linear (Twitter @ad0dx)
Mar 14-15
DN26/36 KC7JPC Linears (and possibly FM)
#SnowBirdRove (EL79) – February
1-29, 2020
Joe, KE9AJ, will cross the border into Florida, seeking
climatical
asylum in EL79 for the entire month of February. Since he will
be
there for an extended period, with both FM and linear gear,
keep
an eye on Joe’s Twitter feed for specific pass announcements:
https://twitter.com/KE9AJ
St.
Barthelemy Island (FK87) February 15-22, 2020
Operators Pat/N2IEN,
Ray/W2RE, Rockwell/WW1X, and Lee/WW2DX will
be signing FJ/homecalls from
St. Barthelemy (NA-146) between Feb.
15 and 22. QRV holiday-style on 160
to 6m and via satellite on CW,
SSB, and digital modes. QSL cards for all
calls via NR6M.
Vidalia, LA (EM41) February 28 – March 1, 2020
Brian, KG5GJT, will will be operating from the bank of the Miss-
issippi
river in Vidalia, La. (EM41), where Jim Bowie was serious-
ly wounded in
the Sandbar Fight on September 19, 1827. This will
be vacation style, so
keep an eye on Brian’s Twitter feed for up-
dates: https://twitter.com/KG5GJT
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, AMSAT Vice President - User Serv-
ices, for
the above information]
Operators Alex/VE1RUS and Pierre/VE3TKB will once
again be active as
VY0ERC from the Eureka Weather station between now and
March 28th.
This station is operated by the Eureka Amateur Radio Club
[probably
the most northerly located amateur radio club in the world]
from
Eureka, Nunavut, Canada. The suggested bands are 40 and 20
meters
possibly 80m), as well as FM satellites (from ER60, EQ79) using
SSB,
the Digital modes (FT8 and RTTY) and very slow CW. Activity will
be
limited to their spare time. QSL via M0OXO, OQRS or direct. For
up-
dates, see: https://twitter.com/vy0erc
[ANS
thanks The Ohio/Penn Dx Bulletin 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
+ The Nanoracks deployment of several CubeSats has
been delayed until
no earlier than February 17 due to delays with the launch
of Cygnus
NG-13. CubeSats scheduled to deploy are RadSat-u, Phoenix,
QARMAN,
CryoCube, AztechSat-1, SOCRATES, Argus-02, HARP, and SORTIE.
+
AMSAT-UK OSCAR News Editor Slade Stevens, 2E0SQL, is soliciting
articles for
the next issue. Send submissions to 2E0SQB at amsat.org
+ The AMSAT-UK
shop is now stocking a 5 watt 2.4 GHz amplifier kit for
use with the QO-100
geostationary satellite. For more details, see
https://tinyurl.com/ANS-047-QO-100
+
The first crewed mission of the SpaceX Crew Dragon may launch on May
7th. https://tinyurl.com/ANS-047-SpaceX
+
Wouter Weggelaar, PA3WEG, recently released a composite video show-
ing all
currently orbiting FUNcube family satellites being launched:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DdjXzPEsuxw
+
The EIRSAT-1 CubeSat has passed both environmental and
vibration
testing:
https://twitter.com/EIRSAT1/status/1225810684065259520
+
Spaceflight Industries recently signed a deal to sell its satellite
rideshare
launch business Spaceflight, Inc. to Mitsui & Co., in part-
nership with
Yamasa Co., Ltd. AMSAT purchased the launches for AO-92
and AO-95 from
Spaceflight, Inc.
https://tinyurl.com/ANS-047-Spaceflight
[ANS
thanks everyone for the above
information]
---------------------------------------------------------------------
/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
