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AMSAT NEWS SERVICE
ANS-254
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:
* 2005 AMSAT Symposium is Cancelled
* AMSAT-NA Reschedules Key Meetings
* 2006 AMSAT Symposium Plans Announced
* ESA Award for SSETI Express telemetry download competition
* SSETI Express Mission Pages Updated
* ARISS Status for Week of September 5, 2005
* Heads Up - Alderney DXpedition May Include Satellite Activity
* Software Updates Available for Satellite Programs
* AMSAT Awards
SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-254.01
2005 AMSAT Symposium is Cancelled
AMSAT News Service Bulletin 254.01
From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.
September 11, 2005
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-254.01
The AMSAT-NA Board of Directors in special session held September 6
via teleconference has made the decision to cancel the 2005 AMSAT
Symposium which was scheduled to take place in Lafayette, LA
October 7-9.
While Hurricane Katrina spared Lafayette in terms of physical damage, the
city is now the home to thousands of evacuees who left the Gulf Coast and
are now housed in Lafayette's hotels and other accommodations for the near
future.
Over the past week AMSAT-NA has been looking into the possibility of
relocating the Symposium to an alternative site. A number of options were
explored (such as Baltimore-Washington, Pittsburgh, Cleveland,
Cincinnati, Orlando, Tampa, San Francisco, and Tulsa) as several AMSAT
teams investigated if the Symposium could be relocated on short notice.
This required finding appropriate hotel facilities and putting local host
committees together to coordinate Symposium at each potential location. It
became obvious that with less than five weeks before the Symposium was
scheduled to take place, there would be insufficient time to make a suc-
cessful change in location. Altering the Symposium dates was not viewed as
practical since many attendees have to schedule their vacation time well
in advance and most individuals already have commitments for later weekends.
"We regret that Symposium will not be held this year," says AMSAT-NA
President Rick Hambly, W2GPS. "Our thoughts and prayers go out to the
victims on the Gulf Coast who are now relocated to Lafayette and sur-
rounding states." Rick went on to note that the Board was concerned that
attempting to relocate on such short notice would impact the quality of the
Symposium. "The task of hosting a Symposium would potentially strain the
host committee tasked with handling the Symposium with less than 30 days
notice."
"Many thanks to our AMSAT members who stepped forward to identify
potential locations. Clearly, these volunteers have worked very hard
to find an alternative site and would have done their best to host a
Symposium. Unfortunately, time is working against us" notes Barry Baines,
WD4ASW AMSAT's VP-Marketing & User Services.
The Board also wishes to thank Nick Pugh, K5QXJ for the extensive work
that he has done to plan for the Lafayette Symposium and to his team for
organizing what would have been an excellent Symposium in Louisiana.
The Board also noted that donations are needed to assist the relief
efforts on the Gulf Coast. Given that this year's Symposium is cancelled,
the Board hopes that individuals will decide to donate a portion of their
funds to be used to cover their cost of attending the Symposium to an
organization (such as American Red Cross) aiding the relief effort on the
Gulf Coast.
AMSAT-NA Office Manager Martha Saragovitz will handle the process of
providing refunds for registration fees already collected. Checks will
be sent to those whose fees had previously been processed. In some cases,
registrants had completed the registration process on the AMSAT web site
by their credit cards. These charges will be destroyed. Checks covering
registration that have been sent by mail and not processed will be returned
to the sender.
Attendees holding reservations at the Holiday Inn should cancel their reser-
vations prior to the scheduled arrival date in order to avoid first night
room charges. The Holiday Inn in Lafayette has been experiencing telephone
problems, so it may be best to contact the Holiday Inn Reservation Center
(888-HOLIDAY) or use the Holiday Inn website:
http://www.holiday-inn.com
if the individual has their confirmation number for their reservation.
[ANS thanks Barry Baines, WD4ASW, and the AMSAT Board of Directors for the
above information]
/EX
SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-254.02
AMSAT-NA Reschedules Key Meetings
AMSAT News Service Bulletin 254.02
From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.
September 11, 2005
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-254.02
With the cancellation of the 2005 AMSAT Symposium in Lafayette, LA due
to Hurricane Katrina, the AMSAT Board of Directors Meeting will now be
held on Thursday and Friday, October 6 & 7 at the Wyndham Pittsburgh
Airport Hotel.
Following the BOD Meeting which is expected to end by noon on Friday,
the Eagle Team will have their meeting starting around 1400 on the 7th
and conclude late Saturday. However, if discussions are continuing,
provisions have been made to allow the Eagle Team to continue meeting on
Sunday morning, October 9.
In addition, in order to comply with AMSAT Bylaws that require that an
AMSAT Annual Meeting be held in October or November of each year, this
meeting will take place on Friday evening as well, though the specific
time has not yet been finalized. AMSAT is also investigating the feasi-
bility of using various teleconference methods to allow AMSAT members
to participate who are not on site.
With the exception of when the Board of Directors is in Executive Session,
all three meetings are open to those who wish to attend. Information on
the Wyndham Hotel where these meetings are taking place may be found at:
http://www.wyndhampittsburghairport.com
The IARU meeting that was scheduled for Sunday morning, October 9 in
Lafayette, LA has not been rescheduled.
[ANS thanks Barry Baines, WD4ASW, and the AMSAT Board of Directors for the
above information]
/EX
SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-254.03
2006 AMSAT Symposium Plans Announced
AMSAT News Service Bulletin 254.03
From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.
September 11, 2005
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-254.03
Recognizing that most of the 2005 Symposium attendees had already purchased
non-refundable airline tickets to fly to Lafayette, Baton Rouge, or New
Orleans, the Board also made a decision on the location for the 2006 AMSAT
Symposium. 'Non-refundable' means the airline will not return the airfare
to the individual due to cancellation but the value of the reservation may
be applied to a future flight as long as cancellation occurs prior to the
original flight. Other restrictions on making changes to non-refundable
reservations may also apply. Some airlines have waived 'change fees' for
altering a reservation associated with current reservations into New
Orleans, Baton Rouge, and Lafayette.
The AMSAT Board of Directors voted September 6 nigh to accept an offer
from Project OSCAR to host the 2006 Symposium in the San Francisco Bay
area in the month of October. Emily Clarke, W0EEC will serve as host
chairperson and will coordinate the Symposium.
"San Francisco is a great place to hold the Symposium," says Emily. "The
roots of the Amateur Satellite Service can be found here as Project OSCAR
began building the first amateur satellites in the Bay Area." Emily also
notes the allure of the area for both 'geeks' and families alike. "We have
everything from beaches to mountains, cities and wine country - so come to
the Symposium and plan your vacation, too!"
In addition to the AMSAT Symposium, San Francisco is planned as a joint
meeting with the ARISS International Delegates. "We're looking forward
towards another successful joint meeting with AMSAT" says ARISS
International Chairman and AMSAT VP-Human Space Flight Frank Bauer,
KA3HDO.
Details about exact dates and hotel for the 2006 Symposium will be announced
via ANS and posted on the AMSAT website later this month as they become
available. Individuals holding airline reservations into Lafayette should
hold off making changes until the dates and exact location of the 2006
Symposium are announced. In the meantime, AMSAT-NA looks forward towards an
outstanding Symposium in October 2006 in the Bay Area.
[ANS thanks Barry Baines, WD4ASW, and the AMSAT Board of Directors for the
above information]
/EX
SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-254.04
ESA Award for SSETI Express telemetry download competition
AMSAT News Service Bulletin 254.04
From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.
September 11, 2005
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-254.04
The Education Department of ESA, the European Space Agency, is
delighted to announce details of the award that will be offered
to the amateur radio community in relation to the downloading of
telemetry from their SSETI Express student built satellite. The
award will be given to the amateur who submits the largest number
of valid telemetry and payload packets regardless of which band
it is received on.
SSETI Express is scheduled for launch on September 27th from Plesetsk
in northern Russia at approx 06:52 UTC. It will downlink telemetry and
payload data in AX25 format at 9k6 on 437.250MHz and at 38k4 on
2401.835 MHz. It will later also be available for radio amateurs to
use as a single channel FM transponder.
All radio amateurs around the world are encouraged to download the
necessary software from the www.sseti.org/express website (this will
be available starting approximately September 12) and to use the
SERACC system to forward the telemetry and payload data to SSETI
Express Mission Control. Submissions will be automatically recorded
and the leaderboard will be shown on the website.
The winner will be offered the opportunity to visit the STEC06
Conference and Exhibition in Germany in Spring 2006. STEC, the Student
Technology Education Conference, follows previous events in 2004 in
Lausanne in Switzerland and in 2005 in Aalborg in Denmark.
The three day event is similar to the AMSAT-NA Symposium and the
AMSAT-UK Colloquium but with more breakout technical sessions in
addition to the Keynote Speeches. The meetings are always interesting
and thought provoking and great enthusiasm and passion is shown by all
the attendees. The post meeting attitude adjustment sessions have also
proven to be exciting.
The winner will also be encouraged to present a paper on how he/she
achieved their success - but this is not mandatory!
In addition to attending the STEC 06 Conference, the winner will be
invited to visit ESA's Mission Operations Centre - ESOC - near Darmstadt
in Germany where they will be given a private escorted tour of the facil-
ities. ESOC currently controls the many exciting orbital and deep space
ESA missions and will be responsible for the European Columbus module
when it joins the International Space Station
For more information on the STEC events - check
http://www.stec2005.space.aau.dk/ to see what this year's event included and
for a few details of the ESOC facility, visit
http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/ESOC/
The winner will be the amateur at the top of the leaderboard at 00:00 on
January 1, 2006. The prize will include economy class travel from your
home location, accommodation and a "small" daily subsistence allowance.
AMSAT-UK wishes to congratulate and thank ESA for their generous prize,
a first in the field, and is confident that it will add to the great
enthusiasm for the SSETI Express project which already exists within the
amateur radio community. It will be a great opportunity for us to
demonstrate that the amateur radio groundstation "network" is a valuable
resource for satellite projects which are able include useful amateur
payloads.
[ANS thanks Graham, G3VZV for the above information]
/EX
SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-254.05
SSETI Express Mission Pages Updated
AMSAT News Service Bulletin 254.05
From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.
September 11, 2005
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-254.05
The SSETI Express Mission Pages at:
http://sseti.gte.tuwien.ac.at/WSW4/MOPWS/news.php
has a short report with some photos of the work being done at the
assembly facility at the Plesetsk Cosmodrome assembly facility.
Both the UHF and S band units have been tested and all appears ok so far.
Please continue to keep those fingers crossed for us
[ANS thanks Graham, G3VZV for the above information]
/EX
SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-254.06
ARISS Status for Week of September 5, 2005
AMSAT News Service Bulletin 254.06
From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.
September 11, 2005
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-254.06
1. World Expo 2005 Contact Successful
The Japan Amateur Radio League (JARL) set up a radio station at
the 2005 World Expo in Aichi, Japan. On Friday, September 2,
twenty-one students, ranging in ages from 6 - 15, came from
Aichi and the surrounding county to take part in this ARISS
contact. John Phillips, KE5DRY, answered all twenty-one ques-
tions posed to him by the students, as approximately 150 people
looked on. Eight newspapers and one television station provided
media coverage of the event. Photos, video and audio of the
contact may be found on the following website:
<http://jk1zrw.dyndns.org/expo2005.html.en>
2. Upcoming School Contacts
The Matthew J. Kuss Middle School in Fall River, Massachusetts,
has been scheduled for a contact on Friday, September 16 at
1824 UTC. Kuss is a 2003 NASA Explorer School and has established
its own radio club.
3. ARISS Videos Posted on AMSAT Website
ARISS participated in the Dayton Hamvention 2005 held over the
May 20 - 22 weekend. ARISS Chairman Frank Bauer and ARISS Deputy
Program Manager Mark Steiner attended, giving a presentation
entitled, "Human Spaceflight Update: ARISS, the Moon and Mars,ö
at the AMSAT Forum. Videos of the ARISS presentation and of the
Hamvention activities are available on the AMSAT website.
AMSAT and ARISS members also participated in Space Day at the
Udvar Hazy Center on May 5, 2005. A video clip which includes
coverage of the exhibition booth and an interview with Frank Bauer
is also available for viewing.
For all videos, see:
<http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/information/videoNews.php>
4. Progress 19P to Include SuitSat and SSTV
The SuitSat hardware and the SSTV system will be launched on
Progress 19P, which was scheduled to fly on September 8. The
Russian EVA to deploy SuitSat is expected to take place in
early December.
5. Cosmonaut Receives Birthday Wishes
Sergei Krikalev, U5MIR, made several general contacts during the
last weekend of August. Stations from several countries spoke with
the cosmonaut, wishing him a happy birthday. The contacts were made
by operators in Kuwait, Malaysia, Columbia, Thailand, Argentina,
U.S., Brazil, Australia, Puerto Rico, and Chile. Krikalev turned
47 on Saturday, August 27. To listen to a sample of the contacts,
go to: <http://pd0rkc.mine.nu/>
6. Astronaut Training Status
Astronaut Sandy Magnus is preparing to take her amateur radio exam
in the near future. Astronaut Nicole Stott is scheduled for a ham
radio training session at JSC on Tuesday, September 6.
[ANS thanks Carol Jackson, KB3LKI for the above information.
/EX
SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-254.07
Heads Up - Alderney DXpedition May Include Satellite Activity
AMSAT News Service Bulletin 254.07
From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.
September 11, 2005
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-254.07
The Alderney DX Team announced plans for a DXpedition to be on the air
Wednesday, October 12 to Wednesday, October 19, 2005. This is a group
of four amateur radio operators from around the U.K. who will be oper-
ational on all HF bands, 6 meters, VHF APRS, VHF/UHF SSB and hope-
fully, some satellite activity, from the Island of Alderney, the
most northerly island of the Channel Islands group.
The first calls are planned to be made during the evening of
October 12 most probably on 40 and 80 meters.
Additionally, Worked All Britain and Lighthouse activity may take
place, depending on the availability of portable power supplies or
a generator.
Further information available from: dave at g1ocn dot com
Skeds are welcomed and encouraged.
QSL route(s) are:
GU5XW via G5XW
GU1OCN via G5XW
MW0JZE via G5XW
MU3SDE via M3SDE
Further information available under individual call signs on
QRZ.COM. A further updates will be sent prior to departure.
[ANS thanks the Alderney DX Team for the above information]
/EX
SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-254.08
Software Updates Available for Satellite Programs
AMSAT News Service Bulletin 254.08
From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.
September 11, 2005
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-254.08
* Simon Brown, HB9DRV, announced FT-847 support has been added into the
Ham Radio Deluxe software and is working well. Still to be added are
further updates for proper same-band Doppler support. See:
http://www.ham-radio.ch/forums/viewtopic.php?p=15785#15785
* Stefano Bravi, an SWL in Italy, announced a new version (1.2) of his
PCSAT2 Telemetry Decoder program is available for download. See:
http://fc.retecivica.milano.it/~stefano.bravi/pcsat2dec_12.zip
* Erich Eichmann DK1TB has released version 12.4 of the popular
satellite tracking program SatPC32. The program has two significant
new features. First is automatic internet download of Keplerian elements
such as the amateur.txt file from celestrak.com. Second is an improved
user interface for initial configuration of user location, radio and
rotor interfaces, etc. The program may be downloaded from the author's
personal web site:
http://www.dk1tb.de/indexeng.htm
Click the "downloads" button on the left frame, then choose the appro-
priate "SatPC32 Demo" version (9.7 MB download). The demo version is
fully functional except that the user must enter their lat/lon every
time when launching the program. If you already have a SatPC32 regis-
tration code you may use that code to make the 12.4 version fully
functional. If you have never purchased SatPC32 you may purchase a
registration code from the AMSAT online store:
http://www.amsat-na.com/item.php?id=100020
DK1TB has generously donated SatPC32 to AMSAT-NA, AMSAT-UK, and
AMSAT-DL. If you use SatPC32, please purchase a registration code
from one of these groups. All of the purchase price will go to
support amateur satellite programs.
[ANS thanks Simon, HB9DRV, Stefano, Wayne, W9AE, and Erich, DK1TB for
the above information]
/EX
SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-254.09
AMSAT Awards
AMSAT News Service Bulletin 254.09
From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.
September 11, 2005
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-254.09
Bruce Paige, KK5DO, AMSAT Director Contests and Awards, announces this week
congratulations go out to John Sagi, N3YZ, for earning the Satellite Commun-
icators Club Award and also a new member of AMSAT.
Reminder: There is still time to earn your AMSAT 51 on 51 Award which
is good for contacts between January 1, 2005 and December 31, 2005.
To see all the awards visit http://www.amsat.org
[ANS thanks Bruce, KK5DO for the above information]
/EX
73,
This week's ANS Editor,
JoAnne Maenpaa, WB9JEJ
WB9JEJ at amsat dot org
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