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AMSAT NEWS SERVICE
ANS-201


The AMSAT News Service bulletins are a free, weekly news and
information service of AMSAT North America, 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 communicating through analog and
digital Amateur Radio satellites.

The news feed on http://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 dot org.


In this edition:

* AMSAT Board of Directors Election Packages Mailed July 14
* HO-107 is Back!
* First Call for Papers - Virtual 2020 AMSAT Annual Meeting and
Space Symposium
* New D-STAR Reflector for AMSAT Use
* SpaceX to Launch AMSAT-EA EASAT-2 and Hades Satellites
* DARC Finds Unauthorized Transmissions in 144 MHz Satellite Band
* 1240-1300 MHz Discussed at CEPT SE-40 Meeting
* IARU Coordinates Two New Satellites
* Upcoming Satellite Operations
* Hamfests, Conventions, Maker Faires, and Other Events
* ARISS News
* Satellite Shorts from All Over


SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-201.01
ANS-201 AMSAT News Service Weekly Bulletins

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 201.01

From AMSAT HQ KENSINGTON, MD.

July 19, 2020
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-202.01


AMSAT Board of Directors Election Packages Mailed July 14

Brennan Price, N4QX, AMSAT Secretary reports that the ballots,
candidate statements, and return envelopes for the 2020 AMSAT Board
of Directors Election were prepared by Paladin Commercial Printing of Newington, Connecticut. Paladin mailed the packages from Hartford,
Connecticut, on Tuesday, July 14, to members of record on July 1.

Non-US addresses were sent first class (the only option for
overseas). US addresses were sent pre-sorted standard, which is
routine for mail that requires a two-way response time measured in
weeks, as this does.

Allowing for postal delivery standards and guard time, the Secretary
will not consider a ballot as lost in post any earlier than August 12
(four weeks after the mailing). This timing permits a replacement
ballot to be mailed first class in both directions, even
internationally, with time to spare under prevailing postal delivery
standards.

Paladin has shipped materials for 100 blank election packages to
Price.
Price will use these materials to assemble and mail replacement or
substitute packages as necessary. These requests and packages will be
tracked and accounted against the voter list and returned ballots to
guard against duplicates, and will be identifiable against the package

mailed by Paladin for further verification and accounting by the
tellers. Members desiring a replacement ballot package should contact
Price no earlier than August 12.

The package is clearly labeled as election-related and contains:

1) An instruction and ballot sheet, with the ballot perforated,
2) A sheet of candidate statements, and
3) A No 9 return envelope, which bears the address to which ballots
should be returned and the member's name and address for
verification against the voter list and any replacement ballot
requests.

Secrecy at the time of counting will be maintained by separating the
ballot from the envelope without inspection, placing the ballot in a receptacle, and scrutinizing the ballots after all have been
separated from the envelopes.

Ballots should be returned in the return envelopes provided to arrive
at the designated Post Office Box in Vienna, Virginia, by 5 p.m.
Thursday, September 15, 2020. Separation of the ballots from the
envelopes and counting will occur as soon thereafter as practicable,
and no later than September 30.

Brennan can be reached at brennanprice@verizon.net for a query about
membership status at any time or a replacement ballot after
August 12.

[ANS thanks Brennan Price, N4QX, AMSAT Secretary for the above
information.]

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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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HO-107 is Back!

On the evening of July 17, 2020, Vlad Chorney, EU1SAT, tweeted
"Husky-1 ACTIVE!" with a screenshot from FoxTelem showing that he had
received telemetry from HO-107 (HuskySat-1) which had been silent for
nearly two months. About an hour after EU1SAT's tweet, the satellite
passed over the eastern United States and AMSAT command stations
KO4MA and N8MH copied telemetry. On subsequent passes, the satellite
was successfully commanded.

Please continue to copy telemetry in FoxTelem. If you have removed
HO-107 from your tracked satellites during its period of inactivity,
please add it back. The transponder remains disabled while AMSAT
Operations evaluates the telemetry from the satellite.

[ANS thanks AMSAT Operations for the above information]

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First Call for Papers - Virtual 2020 AMSAT Annual Meeting and
Space Symposium

This is the first call for papers for the Virtual 2020 AMSAT Annual
Meeting and Space Symposium to be held on October 17, 2020. Proposals
for papers and symposium presentations are invited on any topic of
interest to the amateur satellite community. Further details
regarding the virtual event will be announced shortly. We request a
tentative title of your presentation as soon as possible, with the
final copy to be submitted by October 5, 2020 for inclusion in the
Symposium Proceedings. Abstracts and papers should be sent to
Dan Schultz at n8fgv(at)amsat.org

[ANS thanks Dan Schultz, N8FGV, for the above information]

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AMSAT's GOLF Program is about getting back to higher orbits, and it
all begins with GOLF-TEE - a technology demonstrator for deployable
solar panels, propulsion, and attitude control. Come along for the
ride. The journey will be worth it!

https://tinyurl.com/ANS-GOLF

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New D-STAR Reflector for AMSAT Use

It has been nearly two years since Walter Holmes, K5WH and friends
created the AMSAT DMR Talkgroup 98006 and has been working with great
success. About one year ago they created a YSF US AMSAT Reflector
11689 to pull in others using Yaesu System Fusion digital radios. As
these were working so well, they decided to bridge the two systems
together so it would longer matter which of these digital
technologies users had. Users could cross communicate between all
users of both systems.

After success with the DMR talkgroup and the YSF reflector for more
than a year, there was plenty of interest in adding D-STAR capability
to the same system.

Walter is happy to announce the creation of a new D-STAR reflector
for that purpose. It supports four different reflector names such as
XLXSAT, XRFSAT, DCSSAT, and REFSAT that are all linked together so
that all of these work the same. As most people that are familiar
with D-STAR reflectors know, they usually have numbers for the
reflectors, but it seemed more appropriate to switch from the number
system to the Alpha name like SAT to make it easier to find in the
list.

For those using hotspots, they will need to refresh or update their
Pistar or BlueDV host files to see these entries before they will see
this one in the pull-down list.

Walter adds, "We recommend that users use module C for the AMSAT
conversations but several other modules are available if we find a
need to stretch out a bit. But, the C module is the one also linked
to a few other repeaters.

"The D-STAR SAT reflector is not currently bridged into the system as
are the DMR and YSF reflectors, but we hope to have that linked in
very soon after a little more testing.

"If you have D-STAR capability, we invite you to give it a try and
see how it works for you."

[ANS thanks Walter Holmes, K5WH for the above information]

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SpaceX to Launch AMSAT-EA EASAT-2 and Hades Satellites

Spain's national amateur radio society URE says SpaceX expect to
launch the EASAT-2 and Hades satellites in December 2020.

AMSAT-EA, the URE satellite group, is building the satellites
together with the European University of Madrid. The launch has been
managed through the space broker Alba Orbital based in Glasgow.

EASAT-2 and Hades will be launched into a sun-synchronous orbit
between 500 km and 600 km and their main function is to act as analog
and digital repeaters for radio amateurs. There is also a camera for
SSTV transmissions provided by the Czech Republic that has already
flown on the United States Marine Academy PSAT-2 satellite, and has
now been adapted to fit into the PocketQube satellites.

Both satellites are based on the PocketQube 1.5P (7.5 x 5 x 5 cm)
architecture and represent an evolution of the previous GENESIS
platform, whose GENESIS-L and GENESIS-N satellites are expected to
fly before the end of the year with Firefly, in a joint collaboration
with Fossa Systems and LibreSpace, which also launch their own
satellites, all of them within the Picobus dispenser, developed by
the latter.

IARU has coordinated these frequencies:
- Hades - uplink 145.925 MHz, downlink 436.888 MHz
- EASAT-2 - uplink 145.875 MHz, downlink 436.666 MHz

[ANS thanks AMSAT-UK 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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DARC Finds Unauthorized Transmissions in 144 MHz Satellite Band

The DARC reports unauthorized transmissions are taking place in the
144 MHz satellite segment of the 2M amateur radio primary allocation.

A translation of the DARC post reads:

"In the 144.010 MHz to 144.020 MHz range, illegally operated
transmitters are increasingly being operated as "water vitalizers"
or "water energizers". The manufacturer specifies 144.015 MHz as the transmission frequency in its product description.

"The DARC EMC department asks for further information with location
information about conspicuous signals in this frequency range, in
preparation for collective complaints.

"The devices apparently generate fields with considerable field
strength and a long range. The signals appear increasingly in the
morning or in the evening. The illegal transmitters are typically in
operation for 5 to 60 minutes (integer multiples of 5 minutes). The
signal is generally very stable in frequency, but occasionally shows
short-term fluctuations of up to a few 100 Hz. Otherwise the carrier
is not further modulated.

The frequency range 144.000 MHz to 146.000 MHz is assigned to the
Amateur Radio service in Germany as the primary exclusive user."

A video of the interference caused by these devices and a map showing
some of the cases so far detected in Germany can be seen at https://www.darc.de/der-club/referate/emv/

[ANS thanks AMSAT-UK for the above information.]

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1240-1300 MHz Discussed at CEPT SE-40 Meeting

The 69th meeting of CEPT ECC Working Group SE-40, held June 23-25,
discussed the Amateur Radio 1240-1300 MHz band, the meeting documents
are now available.

Several contributions were received for the ECC Report dealing with
the coexistence between the radionavigation-satellite service and the
amateur service in the frequency band 1240 - 1300 MHz. The
contributions were incorporated in the draft ECC Report. The CPG
arrangements for the preparation of WRC-23 for AI 9.1 topic b) was
noted.

The Russian Federation noted:
- 1240-1260 MHz is by the GLONASS system
- 1260-1300 MHz are used by EU's Galileo, Beijing's Beidou, Japan's
QZSS and is planned to be used by Korea's KPS.

Among the documents available in Input, Info and Minutes are:
- SE40(20)052 Amateur Repeaters - IARU-R1
- SE40(20)051 Section 2 update WI_39 - IARU-R1
- SE40(20)050 Annex Draft report RNSS Amateur - Russian Federation
- SE40(20)049 Suggestions for RNSS and Amateur Service Compatibility,
Russian Federation
- Info 1 Amateur repeaters 23 cm - IARU-R1
- Info 3 Letter to SE40 chairman on updated of ITU-R M.1092 -
European Commission
- Minutes
- SE40(20)56A3 (1) Draft Report Amateur vs RNSS

Download the meeting documents from https://tinyurl.com/ANS-201-CEPT.

[ANS thanks AMSAT-UK for the above information.]

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IARU Coordinates Two New Satellites

- HIAPO
HIAPO is a 1U CubeSat mission that is a unique platform being
used to provide engaging meaningful hands-on STEM curriculum for
Hawaii students K-12. Part of this curriculum involves obtaining data
about solar flares solar particle events and the disturbances of the
Earth's magnetic field. The students can also collect data on solar
events with relation to the propagation of radio waves reflected or
refracted back towards the Earth from the ionosphere. During the
lifespan of this mission that data will be available for amateur
operators to download directly from the satellite.

The Hawaii Science & Technology Museum was awarded a no-cost flight
of the launch and a limited resources will not allow the development
of an Amateur Radio digipeater. However if the launch date slips they
plan to work with resources at AMSAT to develop a digipeater.
Proposing a UHF downlink using 9k6 FSK with AX25. Planning a Firefly
launch from Vandenberg in July 2020 into a 300 km orbit with 137
degree inclination together with Serenity and Spinnaker 3. A downlink
on 437.225 MHz has been coordinated.

- VZLUSAT-2
VZLUSAT-2 is 3U CubeSat project of the University of West Bohemia in
Pilsen and Czech Aerospace Research Centre. Students from four Czech
technical universities are involved along with members of an Amateur
Radio community from The Czech Republic.

The primary payload is the experimental Earth observation camera with
an expected resolution around 30 to 50 m GSD. Secondary payloads of
the mission are Radiation Orbital Monitor, Gama Ray Burst detector,
X-ray detector and other sensors. This mission is fully open to Radio
Amateurs who were also involved in the development of the satellite.

The space segment uses two Amateur bands for communication: An S-band
for payload data downlink (DVBS2 ETSI EN 302 307 standard, 2 MBd,
QPSK), and UHF downlink beacon (GMSK 1200 Bd), telecommand uplink (
GMSK, 1200 Bd - 9600 Bd) and telemetry downlink (GMSK 4800, 9600 Bd).
All the information is in an open format and everything needed for
decoding is or will be published at: https://www.pilsencube.zcu.cz/vzlusat2/transmission.pdf.

Planning a launch from Cape Canaveral in the time window from
December 2020 to March 2021 into SSO 500-600 km. A downlink on
437.325 MHz has been coordinated.

[ANS thanks the IARU 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

Quick Hits:

- Need Hawaii? On AO-7 Most days. NH7WN for a schedule.

- EN85, 86 and maybe 75 and 76, July 11-25. @AA8CH for a schedule.

- FN44/54, 7/22 - 7/31, KQ2RP: Just like last time, FM only.

- FN11+21 then 12+22 grid lines, 7/25, @NS3L Steve is heading out to
these lines. Schedule to come.

- EN20/30 Line, July 28-31, @KX9X Sean is moving quickly towards
his VUCC/R award by heading out again for two more grids. Watch his
Twitter for details.

- DM97/98 & EM08/09: Super Rover @AD0DX is heading out for the Kansas
QSO party and N0E. More to come.

Major Roves:

- @WY7AA is heading out again!
Mon 7/20 DN67/68. All SSB and FM passes from about 1600-0400.
Tue 7/21 DN57/58. All SSB and FM passes from about 1600-0400.
Wed 7/22 Travel day no sats.
Thu 7/23 DN55/56. All SSB and FM passes from about 1600-0400.
Fri 7/24 DN65/66. All SSB and FM passes from about 1600-0400.
Watch his QRZ page for details and updates.

[ANS thanks Robert Bankston, KE4AL for the above information.]

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Hamfests, Conventions, Maker Faires, and Other Events

No events posted.

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ARISS News

No pending school operations.

[ANS thanks Charlie Sufana, AJ9N for the above information.]

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Shorts from All Over

- Sean Kutzko, KX9X To Present "Working Satellites" at DXE Virtual
Hamfest and DX Academy July 25, 2020

Join Sean on Saturday, July 25, 2020 at 10:15 EDT for his thirty-
minute presentation on Amateur Radio satellites. Sean's presentation
is part of the DX Engineering Virtual Hamfest and DX Academy. The
event is free and open to all. Register at
https://tinyurl.com/ANS-201-Sean

- Behind Scenes SpaceX Crew Dragon Mission You Haven't Seen

NASA has just released a new video. It starts with "You saw history
made with the first crewed launch and docking of the SpaceX Crew
Dragon, but you didn't see the flurry of activity on board the
International Space Station...until now.

"Join Expedition 63 Commander Chris Cassidy and his crew mates as
they prepare their cameras to document the DM-2 launch, and look over
their shoulders to witness the new American spacecraft dock to the
station and deliver their new crew mates."

Watch the twelve minute video at https://tinyurl.com/ANS-201-Dragon.

[ANS thanks http://spaceref.com for the above information.]


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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.

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
student rate for a maximum of six post-secondary years in this
status.

Contact Martha at the AMSAT office for additional student
membership information.

73,
This week's ANS Editor,
Frank Karnauskas, N1UW
n1uw 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 member? Join now to support the amateur satellite
program!

Subscription settings: http://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb




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

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