ANS-124
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:
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In this edition:
* New AMSAT Membership Portal Launched, March/April 2020 Edition of The
AMSAT Journal Now Available
* AMSAT President Hails Launch of Wild Apricot Membership Portal
* Call for Nominations - 2020 AMSAT Board of Directors Election
* RS-44 Transponder Now Active
* Virginia Tech Camera on AO-92 Takes Stunning Photos, Additional
Passes Planned Tuesday, May 5th
* Redesigned AMSAT CubeSat Simulator Launched
* Changes to AMSAT TLE Distribution for April 30, 2020
* FCC Adopts Updated Orbital Debris Mitigation Rules
* VUCC Awards-Endorsements for April 2020
* Space Apps COVID-19 Challenge Virtual Hackathon, May 30-31
* On-Line Student STEM: TI Codes Contest 2020
* First Guatemalan Satellite Deployed from the ISS
* Former AMSAT Area Coordinator, Prominent DXer Herb Schoenbohm,
KV4FZ, SK
* During the COVID-19 Pandemic, ARISS to Begin Experimental Demonstra-
tions of School Contacts using a Multipoint Telebridge Amateur Radio
Approach
* Hamfests, Conventions, Maker Faires, and Other Events
* Upcoming Satellite Operations
* Satellite Shorts from All Over
SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-124.01
ANS-124 AMSAT News Service Weekly Bulletins
AMSAT News Service Bulletin 124.01
From AMSAT HQ KENSINGTON, MD.
DATE May 3, 2020
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-124.01
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Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the AMSAT office
is closed until further notice. For details, please visit
https://www.amsat.org/amsat-office-closed-until-further-notice/
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New AMSAT Membership Portal Launched, March/April 2020 Edition of The
AMSAT Journal Now Available
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the closure of the AMSAT office, the
March/April 2020 edition of The AMSAT Journal will not be printed and
mailed to members. Instead, a full-color PDF is being made available
on the AMSAT website. The issue can be downloaded below:
https://tinyurl.com/ANS-MarAprJournal
This issue includes detailed information about AMSAT's new online
membership portal, now active at https://launch.amsat.org. AMSAT
members are encouraged to review this article, which includes detailed
instructions on accessing your membership account. Stay tuned for
more features, including members-only content coming soon.
Articles in the March/April 2020 edition of The AMSAT Journal:
* Apogee View - Clayton Coleman, W5PFG
* Engineering Update - Jerry Buxton, N0JY
* Treasurer's Report - Robert Bankston, KE4AL
* AMSAT's New Member and Event Portal - Robert Bankston, KE4AL
* amsatLink — Proposed Wireless Communications Network - Robert
Bankston, KE4AL
* Educational Relations Update - Alan Johnston, KU2Y
* A New Design for the AMSAT CubeSat Simulator - Alan Johnston, KU2Y;
Jim McLaughlin, KI6ZUM; David White, WD6DRI; Pat Kilroy, N8PK
* For Beginners — Amateur Radio Satellite Primer IV - Keith Baker,
KB1SF/VA3KSF
* PSAT 1U — A Low-Cost, EasyBuild 1U CubeSat - George Downey, Robert
Bruninga, WB4APR
* Gridmaster Heat Map - Paul Overn, KE0PBR
[ANS thanks the AMSAT office for the above information]
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AMSAT President Hails Launch of Wild Apricot Membership Portal
Friday, May 1, 2020 brings a significant change to AMSAT's member
experience. The launch of our Wild Apricot-based member portal on this
date retires the dBase database system launched in the early 1980s by
then-President Dr. Tom Clark, K3IO (then W3IWI) and is the result of a
process authorized by the Board of Directors in 2016. Members now have
control over the own profiles. Member communications will be handled
via email, resulting in significant cost reduction.
Wild Apricot will not only serve AMSAT as our member management plat-
form. Other capabilities will be released in the future such as event
management, communications, and access to member-only content. Stay
tuned for new capabilities being launched over the coming months.
As this is a totally new system for AMSAT, we may face challenges
ahead. I ask for your patience as the User Services team works through
these challenges to provide our members the best user experience poss-
ible. Ultimately, Wild Apricot is the right solution moving AMSAT for-
ward both technologically and operationally.
This effort would not have been possible without the hard work and
leadership of Robert Bankston, KE4AL, in his position as Vice Pres-
ident of User Services at AMSAT. Significant hours were put into this
project. I applaud and congratulate Robert for a successful launch.
73,
Clayton
W5PFG
AMSAT President
[ANS thanks Clayton Coleman, W5PFG, AMSAT President, for the above
information]
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Call for Nominations - 2020 AMSAT Board of Directors Election
AMSAT solicits nominations for the 2020 AMSAT Board of Directors
election, to be held in the third quarter of the year. The seats of
the following three incumbent Directors expire in 2020 and will be
filled by this year's election: Tom Clark, K3IO; Mark Hammond, N8MH;
and Bruce Paige, KK5DO. Further, up to two Alternate Directors may be
elected for one-year terms.
A valid nomination for Director must be written and requires either
one Member Society or five current individual members in good standing
to nominate an AMSAT member. Written nominations, with the nominee’s
name, call sign, and contact information, as well as the nominators'
names, call signs, and contact information, should be sent to the
AMSAT Secretary:
Brennan Price, N4QX
300 Locust St SE, Unit E
Vienna VA 22180-4869
brennanprice@verizon.net
A copy should be sent to AMSAT Manager, Martha Saragovitz, at
martha@amsat.org.
The AMSAT bylaws require that the nomination be written and in the
form specified by the Secretary. In light of the ongoing pandemic and
the resulting closure of the physical office, the Secretary has
elected to accept written nomination materials in electronic form,
including e-mail or electronic image of a paper document. Fax trans-
missions cannot be accepted due to the closure of the office.
No matter what means are used, petitions MUST be received by the
Secretary no later than June 15th. The Secretary will verify the qual-
ifications of candidates and nominating members or Member Societies as
petitions are received, and will notify candidates whether their nom-
inations are in order by the end of June.
[ANS thanks Brennan Price, N4QX, AMSAT Secretary, for the above
information]
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RS-44 Transponder Now Active
The amateur satellite world was surprised to wake up to the news on
April 30th that a new transponder was activated for testing and open
for use by amateurs worldwide
Constructed by specialists at Information Satellite Systems and
Students at Siberian State Aerospace University, DOSAAF-85 was
launched on a Rockot/Breeze-KM launch vehicle from Plesetsk Cosmo-
drome on December 26, 2019. The satellite apparently failed to
separate from the upper stage of the launch vehicle and remains
attached. The satellite’s name commemorates the 85th anniversary of
the Voluntary Society for the Assistance to the Army, Aviation, and
Navy (DOSAAF), the organization responsible for the military training
of Soviet youth.
Designated RS-44, or Radio Sputnik 44, the satellite carries a 60 kHz
wide V/u linear transponder and a CW beacon. With an orbit of 1511 km
x 1175 km and an inclination of 82.5 degrees, this is the highest
orbiting functioning amateur satellite available worldwide. Due to the
1511 km apogee, regular DX contacts should be easy to make. The first
claimed DX record came from Joe Werth, KE9AJ, and Jérôme LeCuyer,
F4DXV, who reported a 6,993 km trans-Atlantic QSO between EN50gn09 in
Illinois and JN04iu40 in France. This was quickly eclipsed less than
24 hours later when Casey Tucker, KI7UNJ, and Tetsurou Satou, JA0CAW,
reported the first trans-Pacific QSO between CN93jw (Oregon, USA) and
PM97nw (Niigata, Japan), a distance of 7,859 km. The theoretical max-
imum range for QSOs via RS-44 is 7,942 km.
The NORAD ID is 44909, object 2019-096E.
Initial reports from the first days of operation suggest that the
transponder is very sensitive and easily workable with low power and
handheld antennas, however significant periodic fading is reported,
likely due to the fact that the satellite remains attached to the
upper stage of the launch vehicle and is unable to deploy its gravity
gradient boom to stablize itself.
The satellite is planned to remain continuously available for testing
purposes until May 11th at which time a decision on further operations
will be made.
The Keplerian elements for RS-44 have been added to the AMSAT and
CelesTrak distributions, as well as several popular tracking apps.
The ARRL has released version 11.10 of the TQSL configuration file to
add support for RS-44 to LoTW.
RS-44 – V/u Inverting Analog SSB/CW
Uplink (LSB) 145.935 MHz through 145.995 MHz
Downlink (USB) 435.610 MHz through 435.670 MHz
CW Beacon 435.605 MHz
[ANS thanks Dmitry Pashkov, R4UAB, Igor Blinov, RW3XL, Nico Janssen,
PA0DLO, the ARRL, and others for the above information]
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Virginia Tech Camera on AO-92 Takes Stunning Photos, Additional Passes
Planned Tuesday, May 5th
The Virginia Tech camera on board AO-92 was activated on two passes
over North America on Tuesday, April 28th. Several great photos were
taken, captured by amateur stations running FoxTelem, and uploaded to
the AMSAT Central Scrutinizer. All of the photos taken by AO-92 can be
viewed on the AMSAT website at the link below.
The Virginia Tech camera will be activated again on Tuesday, May 5th
during morning passes over the United States. The camera remains
active for 45 minutes after being enabled by a ground station.
Stations in the United States, the Caribbean, Mexico, Central, and
South America are encouraged to set their stations up to receive and
upload high speed telemetry in FoxTelem. FoxTelem downloads and
instructions can be found at https://www.g0kla.com/foxtelem/index.php
AO-92 Camera Image Archive:
https://www.amsat.org/tlm/showImages.php?id=4
[ANS thanks Drew Glasbrenner, KO4MA, AMSAT Vice President - Operations
for the above information]
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Redesigned AMSAT CubeSat Simulator Launched
A new design for the CubeSatSim, the AMSAT CubeSat Simulator is now
available on GitHub (http://cubesatsim.org/code). The CubeSatSim is a
Raspberry Pi Zero W-based functional model of a “1U” CubeSat nano-
satellite for demonstrations and educational outreach. It has a 3D-
printed frame structure and is designed to act, as reasonably as poss-
ible, as one flying in Low Earth Orbit (LEO). The simulator runs on
rechargeable battery power and solar panels and transmits its authentic
voltage, current, and temperature telemetry on the UHF Amateur Radio
band. The CubeSatSim has been presented at the AMSAT Space Symposium
the past two years and at Hamvention last year.
The new design was developed to reduce the cost to build and to im-
prove functionality. Jim McLaughlin, KI6ZUM, and David White, WD6DRI,
are prominent STEM advocates and school mentors in the San Diego area.
They offered to help redesign the hardware and collaborated with Alan
Johnston, KU2Y, AMSAT VP Educational Relations, and Pat Kilroy, N8PK,
over the past nine months. The resulting design has reduced the cost
to build in half (from around $400 to around $200) and added a new
Fox-1 emulation mode. In addition to the AFSK (Audio Frequency Shift
Keying) and 1200 bps APRS (Automatic Packet Reporting System) telemetry
in AO-7 format of the original design, the new version supports DUV
(Data Under Voice) FSK (Frequency Shift Keying) 200 bps telemetry com-
patible with Fox-1A through Fox-1D and BPSK (Binary Phase Shift Keying)
1200 bps telemetry compatible with HuskySat-1 and the upcoming Fox-1E.
Chris Thompson, G0KLA/AC2CZ, the author of AMSAT’s FoxTelem satellite
telemetry software, has put out a testing version 1.09 of the software
that supports the CubeSatSim. Instructions on how to download and con-
figure this test version are on the GitHub Wiki.
http://cubesatsim.org/wiki
Also new to the CubeSatSim is a STEM Payload board with a STM32F103C8T6
“Blue Pill” Arduino compatible microcontroller. The board also has a
built-in BME-280 Temperature Humidity Barometric Pressure Sensor and
an MPU-6050 (GY-521) 3-Axis Accelerometer and Gyro. Also new is a tape
measure dipole or monopole or SMA antenna, an integrated Band Pass
filter, and a sturdy new 3D printed frame and more powerful solar
panels.
A new Twitter account @CubeSatSim has also been launched. Follow to get
the latest updates on the CubeSatSim including videos and photos. Links
to all CubeSatSim resources are at CubeSatSim.org.
More details on the redesigned CubeSatSim can be found in the March/
April 2020 edition of The AMSAT Journal, available at
https://tinyurl.com/ANS-MarAprJournal
The CubeSatSim team wishes to thank the AMSAT board, President, and all
AMSAT members for their ongoing support of this educational project.
[ANS thanks Dr. Alan Johnston, KU2Y, AMSAT Vice President - Educational
Relations for the above information]
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Changes to AMSAT TLE Distribution for April 30, 2020
The following satellites have decayed from orbit and have been
removed from this week's AMSAT TLE Distribution:
ALMASAT-1 - NORAD Cat ID 38078 (Decayed from orbit April 25, 2020).
nSIGHT1 - NORAD Cat ID 42726 (Decayed from orbit April 25, 2020).
The following satellite has been activated and added to this week's
AMSAT TLE Distribution:
RS-44 - NORAD Cat ID 44909.
Per Nico Janssen, PA0DLO concerning RS-44:
"The new amateur payload DOSAAF 85 (RS-44) appears to work very well.
Doppler measurements confirm that it is indeed object 44909,
2019-096E. The satellite identifies itself as "RS44" (i.e. Radio
Sputnik 44) on its CW beacon on 435.6043 kHz. The passband is
about 63 kHz wide. It may also have a downlink between 2400 and
2485 MHz. The frequencies of RS44/DOSAAF 85 have not been IARU
coordinated. The satellite is in an elliptical orbit with a perigee of
1175 km, an apogee of 1511 km and an inclination of 82.5 degrees.
The payload is apparently attached to the Breeze-KM upper stage of
a Rokot launch vehicle that launched three Gonets satellites on
December 26, 2019. It was originally expected to launch in 2015.
It is based on the Yubileiniy platform."
[ANS thanks Ray Hoad, WA5QGD, AMSAT Orbital Elements Manager, 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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FCC Adopts Updated Orbital Debris Mitigation Rules
On April 23rd, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) adopted a
Report and Order (R&O) and Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking
(FNPRM) updating rules on orbital debris mitigation for the first time
since 2004. The newly adopted regulations increase the disclosure re-
quirements for pre-space notifications submitted for amateur space
stations.
In the draft version of the R&O, released in early April, the FCC had
included the adoption of additional requirements regarding indemni-
fication and maneuverability. AMSAT, ARRL, university researchers, and
satellite industry groups opposed certain aspects of these rules. In
response, the Commission moved those provisions to a FNPRM for further
comment.
In addition to maneuverability and indemnification requirements for
amateur space stations, the Commission also seeks comment on a disposal
bond requirement for certain spacecraft. AMSAT is evaluating the FNPRM
and will file comments expressing our views of the proposed regula-
tions.
The adopted R&O / FNPRM can be found at
https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/FCC-20-54A1.pdf
[ANS thanks Paul Stoetzer, N8HM, AMSAT Executive Vice President, for
the above information]
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VUCC Awards-Endorsements for April 2020
Here are the endorsements and new VUCC Satellite Awards issued by the
ARRL for the period April 1, 2020 through May 1, 2020.
Congratulations to all those who made the list this month!
CALL Apr May
KO4MA 1750 1753
K7TAB 531 600
AE5B 442 450
ND0C 301 346
N4DCW 201 300
KC9UQR 252 275
WA9JBQ 225 250
W4DTA 217 240
WI6K New 200
S57NML 126 179
DL4ZAB 150 172
KS1G 134 170
YO2CMI 100 168
KE0WPA 108 152
ZS5LEE New 105
VE3CGA New 100
If you find errors or omissions. please contact me off-list at
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]
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Space Apps COVID-19 Challenge Virtual Hackathon, May 30-31
NASA, ESA (European Space Agency) and JAXA (Japan Aerospace Explora-
tion Agency) are inviting coders, entrepreneurs, scientists, designers,
storytellers, makers, builders, artists, and technologists to partici-
pate in a virtual hackathon May 30-31 dedicated to putting open data
to work in developing solutions to issues related to the COVID-19 pan-
demic.
During the global Space Apps COVID-19 Challenge, participants from a-
round the world will create virtual teams that - during a 48-hour per-
iod - will use Earth observation data to propose solutions to COVID-
19-related challenges ranging from studying the coronavirus that
causes COVID-19 and its spread to the impact the disease is having on
the Earth system. Registration for this challenge opens in mid-May.
"There's a tremendous need for our collective ingenuity right now,"
said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for NASA's Science Mis-
sion Directorate. "I can?t imagine a more worthy focus than COVID-19
on which to direct the energy and enthusiasm from around the world with
the Space Apps Challenge that always generates such amazing solutions."
The unique capabilities of NASA and its partner space agencies in the
areas of science and technology enable them to lend a hand during this
global crisis. Since the start of the global outbreak, Earth science
specialists from each agency have been exploring ways to use unique
Earth observation data to aid understanding of the interplay of the
Earth system -- on global to local scales -- with aspects of the COVID-
19 outbreak, including, potentially, our ability to combat it. The
hackathon will also examine the human and economic response to the vi-
rus.
ESA will contribute data from the Sentinel missions (Sentinel-1, Sent-
inel-2 and Sentinel-5P) in the context of the European Copernicus pro-
gram, led by the European Commission, along with data from Third Party
contributing Missions, with a focus on assessing the impact on climate
change and greenhouse gases, as well as impacts on the economic sector.
ESA also is contributing Earth observation experts for the selection
of the competition winners and the artificial-intelligence-powered
EuroDataCube.
"EuroDatacube will enable the best ideas to be scaled up to a global
level," said Josef Aschbacher, director of Earth Observation Programm-
es at ESA. "The pandemic crisis has a worldwide impact, therefore in-
ternational cooperation and sharing of data and expertise with partners
like NASA and JAXA seems the most suitable approach."
JAXA is making Earth observing data available from its satellite mis-
sions, including ALOS-2, GOSAT, GOSAT-2, GCOM-C, GCOM-W, and GPM/DPR.
"JAXA welcomes the opportunity to be part of the hackathon," said JAXA
Vice President Terada Koji. "I believe the trilateral cooperation among
ESA, NASA and JAXA is important to demonstrate how Earth observation
can support global efforts in combating this unprecedented challenge."
Space Apps is an international hackathon that takes place in cities
around the world. Since 2012, teams have engaged with NASA's free and
open data to address real-world problems on Earth and in space. The
COVID-19 Challenge will be the program's first global virtual hacka-
thon. Space Apps 2019 included more than 29,000 participants at 225
events in 71 countries, developing more than 2,000 hackathon solutions
over the course of one weekend.
Space Apps is a NASA-led initiative organized in collaboration with
Booz Allen Hamilton, Mindgrub, and SecondMuse. The next annual Space
Apps Challenge is scheduled for October 2-4.
For more information about NASA Space Apps Challenges, visit:
https://www.spaceappschallenge.org/
[ANS thanks NASA for the above information]
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On-Line Student STEM: TI Codes Contest 2020
Texas Instruments and NASA have announced the "TI Codes Contest 2020".
This STEM activity invites student teams to connect and learn together
remotely to let their imaginations reach new heights by solving this
unique challenge during the 20th anniversary of humans on the Inter-
national Space Station (ISS):
Propose a way to automate or optimize a process or product for
living and working on the ISS. Then use coding and Texas Instru-
ments (TI) technology to design and build a model of the solution.
Stage 1: Pitch your idea - is running now. Teams connect virtually
with up to five students, ages 13–19, plus an adult sponsor. (A spon-
sor can be a teacher, parent or other adult who can mentor students
remotely.) Then, determine which process or product your team wants
to automate or optimize that would help the International Space Station.
The deadline for submissions: May 21, 2020, at 11:59 p.m. Central time.
Access full contest rules, prize lists, NASA STEM resources, and enter
your team at: https://education.ti.com/en/promotion/codescontest
[ANS thanks Texas Instruments and NASA for the above information]
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First Guatemalan Satellite Deployed from the ISS
Guatemala’s first satellite, a small CubeSat called QUETZAL-1, was de-
ployed from the International Space Station (ISS) on Tuesday, April 28,
2020.
Its primary mission is to test a sensor for remote data acquisition for
natural resource management, which could be used to monitor water qual-
ity in inland water bodies.
QUETZAL-1 LogoThe satellite is part of the Japanese Kibo cubesat pro-
gram, a product of the cooperation between, among others, the United
Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA), Universidad del Valle
de Guatemala (UVG), and more institutions. The operational frequencies
were chosen through cooperation from Guatemalan radio amateurs and the
International Amateur Radio Union (IARU).
Downlink 4800 bps GMSK on 437.200 MHz.
The Quetzal-1 project team director is Guatemalan engineer José Bagur,
TG8JAV, a graduate from mechatronics engineering at Universidad Del
Valle.
Source: IARU Region 2 https://iaru-r2.org/
IARU Quetzal-1
http://amsatuk.me.uk/iaru/finished_detail.php?serialnum=653
Quetzal-1 Telemetry info https://uvg.edu.gt/cubesat-en/
Quetzal-1 Telemetry decoder http://www.dk3wn.info/p/?page_id=75524
Follow Quetzal-1 on Twitter https://twitter.com/quetzal1_uvg
[ANS thanks AMSAT-UK for the above information]
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Former AMSAT Area Coordinator, Prominent DXer Herb Schoenbohm, KV4FZ,
SK
Herb Schoenbohm, KV4FZ, became a silent key on Wednesday, April 29th
at his home in the U. S. Virgin Islands. A prominent contester and
DXer, Herb served as an AMSAT Area Coordinator in the Caribbean in the
1970s and 1980s. Activating Anguilla as VP2EFZ, he gave Pat Gowen,
G3IOR, the last country he needed on OSCAR 7 to complete the first
DXCC via satellite.
[ANS thanks The Daily DX, QRZ.com, and former AMSAT Vice President -
Operations Rich Zwirko, K1HTV, for the above information]
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During the COVID-19 Pandemic, ARISS to Begin Experimental Demonstra-
tions of School Contacts using a Multipoint Telebridge Amateur Radio
Approach
Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) is pleased
to announce the first use of a concept called Multipoint Telebridge
Contact via Amateur Radio, allowing school contacts for Stay-At-Home
students and simultaneous reception by families, school faculty and
the public.
During the last several weeks, efforts to contain the spread of the
COVID-19 virus have resulted in massive school closures worldwide. In
addition, the Stay-At-Home policies invoked by authorities, initially
shut down opportunities for ARISS school contacts for the near future.
To circumvent these challenges and keep students and the public safe,
ARISS is introducing the Multipoint Telebridge Contact via Amateur
Radio concept. First operation of this experimental system occurred
during a contact with a group of Northern Virginia Students located
in Woodbridge, VA on Thursday, April 30 at 13:35 UTC (9:35EDT). During
this event, an ARISS telebridge radio ground station linked to the
astronaut on the International Space Station (ISS)ham radio station
and each Stay-At-Home student and their teacher was individually
linked to the telebridge station. Under the teacher’s direction, each
student, from their home, takes a turna sking their question of the
astronaut.
Quoting ARISS Chair Frank Bauer, “This approach is a huge pivot for
ARISS, but we feel it is a great strategic move for ARISS. In these
times of isolation due to the virus, these ARISS connections provide a
fantastic psychological boost to students, families, educators and the
public. And they continue our long-standing efforts to inspire, engage
and educate students in STEAM subjects and encourage them to pursue
STEAM careers.”
An archive of the April 30th contact can be viewed at
https://youtu.be/Cu8I9ose4Vo.
About ARISS:
Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) is a
cooperative venture of international amateur radio societies and the
space agencies that support the International Space Station (ISS). In
the United States, sponsors are the Radio Amateur Satellite Corp-
oration (AMSAT), the American Radio Relay League (ARRL), the ISS
National Lab, and National Aeronautics and Space Administration
(NASA). The primary goal of ARISS is to promote exploration of science,
technology,engineering, and mathematics (STEAM) topics by organizing
scheduled contacts via amateur radio between crew members aboard the
ISS and students in classrooms or public forms. Before and during
these radio contacts, students, educators, parents, and communities
learn about space, space technologies, and amateur radio. For more
information, see www.ariss.org
[ANS thanks Dave Jordan, AA4KN, ARISS PR, 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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Hamfests, Conventions, Maker Faires, and Other Events
AMSAT Ambassadors provide presentations, demonstrate communicating
through amateur satellites, and host information tables at club
meetings, hamfests, conventions, maker faires, and other events.
Due to COVID-19, many hamfest and events around the United States have
been canceled or postponed. While we make every effort to ensure the
information contained below is correct, there may be some that we
missed.
We wish all of you safekeeping and hope to be at a hamfest near you
soon.
Current schedule:
June 12-13, 2020, Ham-Com, Plano, TX
The following events scheduled to have an AMSAT presence have been
CANCELED:
May 8-9, 2020, Prescott Hamfest, Prescott, AZ
May 15-17, Hamvention, Xenia, OH
[ANS thanks Robert Bankston, KE4AL, AMSAT Vice President - 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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Upcoming Satellite Operations
AD0DX has announced a tentative activation of DL88 in Big Bend Nat-
ional Park for Sunday, May 31st. At this time, the park remains closed
but the team hopes it will reopen soon. Doug Tabor, N6UA, will join
him for this activation. Details about the plans can be found on the
K5Z QRZ.com page: https://www.qrz.com/db/K5Z
[ANS thanks Robert Bankston, KE4AL, AMSAT Vice President - User
Services, for the above information]
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Satellite Shorts From All Over
+ The May 2020 issue of Aerospace America, the monthly magazine of the
American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) features
an article entitled "Cosmic GPS" describing the emerging use of GPS
on spacecraft flying beyond the GPS constellation altitude and,
eventually, to the moon. Above-constellation use of GPS was first
demonstrated on AMSAT-OSCAR 40. AMSAT Vice President - Human Space-
flight Frank Bauer, KA3HDO, is extensively quoted in this article.
Read it at https://aerospaceamerica.aiaa.org/features/cosmic-gps/
+ AMSAT's Zazzle store has added a few new products, including a water
bottle, car flag, and fanny pack. A wide variety of other products
are also available, including the popular new OSCAR t-shirt. Check
out the store at https://www.zazzle.com/store/amsat_gear. 25% of the
purchase price of each product goes to AMSAT to help Keep Amateur
Radio in Space.
+ Scientists from NASA, the United States Geological Survey (USGS) and
the Lunar Planetary Institute have created a detailed new map of the
lunar surface in stunning color. Called the Unified Geological Map of
the Moon, it marries decades of surveys of the moon’s surface going
as far back as Armstrong and Aldrin’s Apollo mission, with more re-
cent data from NASA and JAXA. It doesn’t just look pretty — the map
will greatly help NASA and other organizations plan future landing
sites optimized for scientific missions. NASA's Artemis project could
take humans to the moon as early as 2024. AMSAT, along with ARISS,
partners, is developing an amateur radio package, including two-way
communication capability, to be carried on-board Gateway in lunar or-
bit as part of an Artemis precursor initiative. The digital map is
available for the public at: https://on.doi.gov/2YnZGAO
+ Scott Chapman, K4KDR, is featured in Scott Manley's new video about
the Iranian Noor satellite. https://youtu.be/SPTz7Ig9RQE
+ As another part of the RSGB "Get on the air to care" campaign, the
May edition of RadCom is being made available to radio amateurs
around the world to read online as a sample edition. A number of
IARU national societies have taken a similar step and the RSGB is
happy to join those societies in supporting the worldwide amateur
radio community during these difficult times:
https://www.rsgb.org/sampleradcom
+ In a Public Notice released on April 30th, the FCC confirmed that
amateur license examinations may be conducted remotely. The full
Public Notice can be found at the link below:
https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/DA-20-467A1.pdf
+ The AMSAT Folding@home team continues to climb the rankings. Now in
the top 2,500 of all teams at the time of this writing, the team has
grown to 37 members with 70 active CPUs within the past 50 days and
includes five members in the top 100,000 of all users. Alex Free,
N7AGF, is our top contributor with over 21,000,000 points credited
to AMSAT's team. For more information about the Folding@home project
and how you can contribute to scientific research, including the
fight against COVID-19, see https://foldingathome.org/. AMSAT's team
number is 69710: https://stats.foldingathome.org/team/69710
+ In advance of their move to a new headquarters location, the FCC has
updated their offical seal. The new seal includes a satellite and
ground station, reflecting the increasing importance of space
communications. https://twitter.com/FCC/status/1255882365936775171
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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,
Paul Stoetzer, N8HM
n8hm 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-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program!
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