Text 1388, 305 rader
Skriven 2006-11-28 21:36:00 av Holger Granholm (2:20/228)
Ärende: amsat weekly bulletin 330
=================================
AMSAT NEWS SERVICE
ANS-330

ANS is a free, weekly, news and information service of AMSAT North
America, 
The Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation. ANS 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.

Please send any amateur satellite news or reports to:

ans-editor@amsat.org

In this edition:
* Unique Donation Opportunity Through The Pension Protection Act
* AMSAT at the Tampa Hamfest
* OSCAR-11 Report ˙20 November 2006
* ARISS Status - 20 November 2006

SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-330.01
Unique Donation Opportunity Through The Pension Protection Act

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 330.01
˙From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.
November 26, 2006
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-330.01

Recent legislation passed by Congress and signed by President Bush can
help 
AMSAT raise the funds needed to build Eagle. The law, called the
Pension 
Protection Act (PPA), includes
a provision enabling AMSAT to raise substantially more money than might
have 
been previously possible. ˙However, time is short to take full
advantage of 
this unique opportunity.

Serious construction work must be funded this year to have Eagle ready
to 
orbit by the target of 2009.

Basically, here's the story on how the new law can help Eagle fly!

The PPA provides that U.S. taxpayers with IRAs who have reached the age
of 
70-1/2, may contribute to qualified charities, part or all (up to
$100,000 
per year or $200,000 for married couples filing jointly), of
the money they 
must annually withdraw from their IRAs.

Thus, many AMSAT members and other supporters of the amateur radio space
 program have a marvelous opportunity to keep the Eagle project on
track.

If you must withdraw a certain amount from your IRA each year, there is
a big 
advantage to making such withdrawals as direct contributions to
AMSAT rather 
than merely receiving the distributions and then
contributing in the usual 
manner. Under PPA, the amount you contribute
directly is NOT counted as 
income and thus may put you into a lower tax
bracket. It may also reduce ˙the 
percentage of your Social Security
income subject to taxation.

Key provisions of the new legislation to keep in mind:

1. Donors must hold either a conventional or Roth IRA.

2. Donors must be at least 70-1/2 years of age.

3. Contributions must be made directly from the IRA to the charitable 
organization not to a donor- advised fund, private foundation, gift
annuity 
or trust.

4. Donations may be made this year and next only, and must be made by
December 
31, 2006 and December 31, 2007.

5. The maximum amount a contributor may donate each year is $100,000.

6. Direct contributions to qualified charities from IRAs, in accordance
with 
the PPA provisions, are NOT counted as taxable income.

If you are 70-1/2 or older and have an IRA, you are in a position to
take 
advantage of this potential windfall for the Eagle project. AMSAT
urges you 
to first check with your tax advisor for specifics regarding
your individual 
situation, then ask your IRA custodian to transfer to
AMSAT part or all of 
what you are required to withdraw. Be sure to have
this transfer completed 
before December 31st.

Let's all of us do our part to get Eagle into orbit.

* Have your IRA custodian call the AMSAT office to get information on
how to 
transfer your contribution. The number 301-589-6062. Office
hours are 10 AM 
to 6 PM EST.

[ANS thanks BIll, W3XO, for the above information]

/EX


SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-330.02
AMSAT at the Tampa Hamfest

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 330.02
˙From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.
November 26, 2006
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-330.02

The Tampa Bay Hamfest, which will be held this year over the weekend of
2-3 
December, is the largest amateur radio trade show on ˙Florida's
west coast. 
AMSAT will be well represented at the hamfest with a booth,
live satellite 
demonstrations and an expanded forum session.

The hamfest will be held at the Manatee Civic Center in Palmetto, which
in 
located in the south Tampa Bay Area - about halfway between downtown
St. 
Petersburg and downtown Sarasota.
Additional hamfest info is available at http://www.fgcarc.org/

[ANS thanks Lee, KU4OS, for the above information]

/EX


SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-330.03
OSCAR-11 Report ˙20 November 2006

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 330.03
˙From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.
November 26, 2006
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-330.03

During the period 30 October to 20 November, the satellite was heard
from 07 
to 17 November. Good signals steady signals have beeen heard on
all passes, 
and excellent copy of telemetry obtained.

The date/time stamp has been of interest. ˙Since the satellite was heard
on 18 
October the on-board clock has maintained accurate time, to
within two 
seconds over a period of 30 days. This compares with the
average gain of five 
seconds per month, recorded when the satellite was
fully operational.

The date counter appears to be incrementing correctly, but the day of
the 
month is not reset to one, at the end of each month, and is not
incrementing 
the month counter correctly. During the OFF period the
month counter changed 
from '0=' to '10'. On 17 November the date was
shown as 51 October. However, 
the day of the week counter appears to be
incrementing
correctly.

If the satellite watchdog timer continues to operate normally, the
beacon 
should switch ON around 29 November. If the satellite is not
heard around 
this time, it may be worth listening around 09 December.

I am indebted to Peter ZL3TC, for his reports, which helped me determine
when 
the satellite last switched ON. Many thanks.

The current status of the satellite, is that all the analogue telemetry 
channels, 0 to 59 are zero, ie they have failed. The status channels 60
to 67 
were still working. The spacecraft computer and active attitude
control 
system have switched OFF, ie. the satellite' attitude is
controlled only by 
the passive gravity boom gradient, and the satellite
is
free to spin at any speed. When telemetry was last received it showed
that one 
of the solar arrays had failed, and there was a large
unexplained current 
drain on the main 14 volt bus. After 22 years in
orbit the battery has 
undergone around 100,000 partial charge/discharge
cycles, and observations 
suggest that it cannot power the satellite
during eclipses, or sometimes during periods of poor solar attitude.

The watchdog timer now operates on a 20 day cycle. The ON/OFF times have
 tended to be very consistent. The average of many observations show
this to 
be 20.7 days, ie. 10.3 days ON followed by 10.4 days OFF.
However, poor solar 
attitude may result may result in a low 14 volt
line supply, which may cause 
the beacon to switch OFF prematurely, and
reset the watchdog timer cycle. 
When this occurs, the beacon is OFF for
20.7 days.

The Beacon frequencies are -

VHF 145.826 MHz. ˙AFSK FM ˙ASCII Telemetry

UHF 435.025 MHz. ˙OFF

S-band 2401.5 MHz. OFF

Listeners to OSCAR-11 may be interested in visiting my website. If you
need to 
know what OSCAR-11 should sound like, there is a short audio
clip for you to 
hear. The website contains an archive of news &
telemetry data. It also 
contains details about using a soundcard or
hardware demodulators for data 
capture. ˙There is software for
capturing data, and decoding ASCII 
telemetry. ˙The URL is
www.users.zetnet.co.uk/clivew/

If you place this bulletin on a terrestrial packet network, please use
the 
bulletin identifier $BID:U2RPT127.CWV, to prevent duplication.

73 Clive G3CWV ˙ xxxxx@amsat.org (please replace xxxxx by g3cwv)

[ANS thanks Clive, G3CWV, for the above information]

/EX

SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-330.04
ARISS Status - 20 November 2006

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 330.04
˙From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.
November 26, 2006
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-330.04

Astronaut Training Status

ESA astronaut Christer Fuglesang has been scheduled for an Amateur Radio
 training session on Monday, November 20. Fugelsang will fly on the
Shuttle 
STS-116 mission scheduled to launch on December 7, and plans to
participate 
in an ARISS contact during his flight.

[ANS thanks Carol, KB3LKI 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 additional
benefits. Application forms are 
available from the AMSAT Office.

73, This week's ANS Editor,
Lee McLamb, KU4OS
ku4os at amsat dot org

_______________________________________________
Via the ANS mailing list courtesy of AMSAT-NA
http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/ans


73 de Sam, OH0NC

---
 ū MR/2 2.30 ū Amateur Radio Chicken Dinner -- Ham and Eggs


 * Origin: Coming to you from the Sunny Aland Islands. (2:20/228)