[HamSat] ANS-177 AMSAT Weekly Bulletins

[Tim Pickett]

AMSAT NEWS SERVICE
ANS-177

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 at amsat.org

In this edition:

* ARISS Status - June 20, 2005
* One Year Anniversary of Echo
* Symposium Registration Now Online
* SSETI Express to Leave Cleanroom
* 2006 Slate of BOD Candidates
* AMSAT Awards

SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-177.01
ARISS Status - June 20, 2005

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 177.01
>From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.
June 26, 2005
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-177.01

1. Canadian School Contact Successful

On Friday, June 17, fifteen students from Ecole De la Source, an elementary
school in Mascouche, Quebec, Canada, spoke to John Phillips, KE5DRY, via ham
radio. Fifteen questions were asked of the astronaut as an audience of
approximately 400 students, parents, and dignitaries, assembled in the
gymnasium, watched via a video link. Two national television stations and
one newspaper covered the event.

2. Upcoming School Contacts

The Mayborn Museum at Baylor University in Waco, Texas has been approved for
a contact via the telebridge station WH6PN in Hawaii. It will take place on
Monday, June 27 at 16:05 UTC.

3. Article on Australian School Contact

On Thursday, June 2, students from Brigidine College in Sydney, New South
Wales, Australia spoke to John Phillips, KE5DRY. An article was written and
posted on the school's website. See:
http://www.bcr.randwick.syd.catholic.edu.au/home/space/

4. SuitSat Educational Project Status

Approximately 200 pieces of artwork have been submitted for the SuitSat
DVDs. It has been noted that Space Camp Turkey, a participant of two ARISS
contacts in the past, sent in their own artwork, taking advantage of yet
another ARISS opportunity.

5. ARISS Software

Sergey Samburov sent to Kenneth Ransom a CD containing Kenwood operations,
SSTV instructions, and other software programs. The U.S. team will review
the contents and provide updates for the software, as needed. Once
finalized, the CD will be sent to the ISS on a future Progress flight.

Mark Steiner contacted QRZ and received an update to the callsign database.
The new database will be shipped to Houston along with the SuitSat
Educational Project CDs, and will be included in the Progress 19P manifest.

6. News of SuitSat Spreads

The ARRL has been fielding questions from reporters about SuitSat, and has
prepared a story for their own Web site.

On June 15, Space.com ran an article entitled, "Old Spacesuit, New
Satellite." See:
http://www.space.com/astronotes/astronotes.html

On June 16, WFMY News 2 also ran an article on SuitSat. See:
http://www.wfmynews2.com/news/technology/tech_article.aspx?storyid=42975

ARRL's own article, "Fall Launch Viewed for 'SuitSat' as ARISS-US Delivers
Hardware," can be found at:
http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2005/06/17/2/?nc=1

7. Astronaut Training

Astronaut John Grunsfeld is tentatively scheduled to attend an ARISS
operations overview session on Friday, July 8. Grunsfeld is the backup for
Expedition 13.

8. ARRL Article on ISS Participation in Field Day

John Phillips, KE5DRY, and Sergei Krikalev, U5MIR, may participate in Field
Day on June 25 - 26. The ARRL article, "ISS Astronauts Could Be on the Air
for Field Day!" includes pass times when the Expedition 11 crew may be
available for a contact. See:
http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2005/06/15/2/?nc=1

9. ARRL Article on John Phillips

Astronaut John Phillips spoke to members of Congress about what living on
the ISS means in terms of future exploration plans. On June 15, the ARRL
covered this story in the article, "Ham-Astronaut testifies before Congress
from space." See:
http://www.arrl.org/

[ANS thanks Carol, KB3LKI for the above information]

/EX

SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-177.02
One Year Anniversary of Echo

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 177.02
>From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.
June 26, 2005
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-177.02

June 29th will mark the 1-year anniversary of the Launch of Echo. On June
29, 2004, Echo, now AO-51, was launched from Baikonur, Kazakhstan, on top of
a Dnepr launch vehicle. Echo was one of 8 satellites which were placed into
Sun Synchronous Orbit during this launch. After approximately a month of
commissioning and testing, the satellite was placed into amateur radio
service.

Much more information about the history of Echo is available in Gould
Smith's (WA4SXM) book, "AO-51 Development, Operations, and Specifications,"
available from AMSAT-NA.

I hope everyone has enjoyed the first year of Echo's in-orbit life, the wide
variety of modes and experiments that have been operated to date on the
satellite, and are looking forward to many more opportunities with Echo in
the years ahead. If you use and enjoy Echo please consider joining AMSAT-NA,
or your Country's AMSAT organization. It is one way that we can continue to
do what we enjoy; make contacts via Amateur Radio Satellites.

[ANS thanks Mike, KE4AZN for the above information]

/EX

SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-177.03
Symposium Registration Now Online

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 177.03
>From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.
June 26, 2005
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-177.03

Registration for the 2005 AMSAT Space Symposium is now available on-line.
The Symposium will be held October 7-9 at the Holiday Inn Holidome in
downtown Lafayette, LA. Information can be found on the Symposium web page
at: http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/symposium/

In addition to downloading the registration form, for the first time
attendees can now register online through the AMSAT store. Registration
forms will also be mailed out with the annual ballots for the AMSAT board of
directors. Please see the AMSAT Store registration for more information:
http://www.amsat-na.com/SymposiumReg.php

Registration for the Annual Banquet, the Friday Night Shrimp Boil and the
Sunday Swamp Tour can all be done at the time you register for the
Symposium.

[ANS thanks Emily, W0EEC for the above information]

/EX

SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-177.04
SSETI Express to Leave Cleanroom

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 177.04
>From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.
June 26, 2005
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-177.04

The SSETI Express flight model is expected to be fully completed before the
end of this week and will then be taken out from the cleanroom and packed
for dispatch to the launch site at Plesestk. This means that the webcam
pictures at http://sseti.gte.tuwien.ac.at/WSW4/webcam.htm will be almost the
last ones available before launch. Presently they are updated every 5
minutes.

SSETI Express is scheduled for launch on Aug 25th and after initial
telemetry and telecommand operations is expected to provide a U/S FM
transponder in the amateur satellite service.

More details of the launch, the telemetry formats, frequencies and available
software will be made available over the forthcoming days/weeks prior to
launch.

ESA (and AMSAT-UK) really hope that as many amateurs around the world as
possible will be willing to download the telemetry (9k6 on 437 MHz and 38k4
on 2.4 GHz), decode it and forward it to the SSETI Control Station over the
internet. This opportunity to participate will enable us to show that the
amateur satellite service groundstation network is a viable system for such
short term projects. This in turn will encourage them and possibly other
launch agencies to actively consider incorporating amateur transponder
equipment in their future projects!

[ANS thanks Graham, G3VZV for the above information]

/EX

SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-177.05
2006 Slate of BOD Candidates

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 177.05
>From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.
June 26, 2005
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-177.05

Nominations for the position of Director for AMSAT, Inc. closed on June
15th. The list of qualified candidates are:

Barry Baines WD4ASW
Emily Clark W0EEC
Richard M. Hambly W2GPS
Bob McGwier N4HY
Gunther Meisse W8GSM
Bruce Paige KK5DO
Lee McLamb KU4OS
Greg Wycoff N0ZHE

Ballot cards will be mailed to members on or about July 15th, and are due in
the AMSAT Office no later than September 15th.

[ANS thanks Steve, W4EPI for the above information]

/EX

SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-177.06
AMSAT Awards

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 177.06
>From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.
June 26, 2005
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-177.06

This week, congrats go out to all of the following. All one of them.

David Bird, KC7USS, 51 on 51 Award #28

Who will earn 51 on 51 Award #100? Remember, this award is only available
until December 31, 2005.

To see all the awards visit http://www.amsat.org or http://www.amsatnet.com

[ANS thanks Bruce, KK5DO 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,
Al Marote, WA1LBG
wa1lbg at amsat dot org