• [ANS] ANS-023 AMSAT News Service Weekly Bulletins

    From Frank Karnauskas via ANS@21:1/5 to All on Sun Jan 23 10:37:22 2022
    XPost: rec.radio.info

    AMSAT NEWS SERVICE
    ANS-023

    The AMSAT News Service bulletins are a free, weekly news and information 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 communicating 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@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: https://mailman.amsat.org/postorius/lists/ans.amsat.org/


    In this edition:

    * Visit AMSAT at Orlando Hamcation
    * EASAT-2 and HADES Updates
    * AMSAT EA Receives Two OSCAR Designations: SO-114 & SO-115
    * Amateur Operation in 3.45 – 3.5 GHz Must Cease by April 14, 2022
    * Launch of a Wooden Satellite Still Pending
    * Changes to AMSAT-NA TLE Distribution for January 20, 2022
    * ARISS News
    * Upcoming Satellite Operations
    * Hamfests, Conventions, Maker Faires, and Other Events
    * Satellite Shorts From All Over


    ANS-023 AMSAT News Service Weekly Bulletins

    To: All RADIO AMATEURS
    From: Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation
    712 H Street NE, Suite 1653
    Washington, DC 20002

    DATE 2022 Jan 23

    Visit AMSAT at Orlando Hamcation

    Hamcation 2022 is scheduled for February 11 - 13, 2022 at the Central Florida Fairgrounds and Expo Center in Orlando, FL. You are invited to visit the
    AMSAT booth located at the far west end of West Hall. There you can see the SatPC32 and CubeSat Sim demos, ask questions, or just say "Hi." In addition, AMSAT President, Robert Bankston, KE4AL, AMSAT President, will host An AMSAT forum in Classroom 1 on Saturday at 3:00 PM. For more information about Hamcation 2022, including directions, operating hours, vendors, and a
    complete forum schedule, please visit https://www.hamcation.com/.


    If you are interested at volunteering at the AMSAT booth, contact Dave
    Jordan, AA4KN, at aa4kn at amsat dot org.


    [ANS thanks Dave Jordan, AA4KN, for the above information.]

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    Join the 2022 President's Club!
    Score your 2" 4-Color Accent Commemorative Coin.
    This gold finished coin comes with
    Full Color Certificate and Embroidered Iron-on AMSAT Logo Patch
    Donate today at
    https://www.amsat.org/join-the-amsat-presidents-club/
    You won't want to miss it! +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+

    EASAT-2 and HADES Updates

    Felix Paez, EA4GQS, AMSAT-EA Mission Manager provided the last information on their satellites as of January 18, 2022.


    "We confirm the reception of both EASAT-2 and HADES, as well as the decoding
    of telemetry and the FM recorded voice beacon with the callsign AM5SAT of the first one. EASAT-2 appears to be working well except for the deployment of
    the antennas, something that apparently has not yet occurred and causes weak signals. However, the AMSAT-EA team confirms that, based on the reception of FSK, CW, the FM voice beacon and the telemetry data that has been decoded, it can be said that the satellite is working perfectly. In the event of low battery or system malfunction, the on-board computer would not transmit CW messages or the voice beacon-callsign, as it would be in a 'safe' state with only fast and slow telemetry transmissions.


    "These signals that have been able to confirm the operation of both
    satellites were received by Dr. Daniel Estévez EA4GPZ at 18:07 UTC on Saturday, January 15, using two antennas from the Allen Telescope Array. The TLEs used were obtained from the radio amateur community, with Doppler observations from the Delfi-PQ satellite, deployed together with EASAT-2 and Hades.


    "TLEs used were these ones: https://github.com/AMSAT-EA/easat2-tle-lottery/blob/main/satnogs-2022-01-16-DELFI-PQ.tle

    Daniel, EA4GPZ, performed a preliminary analysis using just one polarization
    of one of the satellite dishes. EASAT-2 has been detected with a relatively strong signal, close to the Delfi-PQ signal, obtaining said recorded voice FM beacon transmissions and FSK, FSK-CW at 50 baud.


    "The CW beacon clearly shows the message: VVV AM5SAT SOL Y PLAYA, which is
    one of several that both satellites emit, although the callsign AM5SAT
    confirms that it is EASAT-2.


    "In the recording made by Daniel EA4GPZ there is also a faint trace confirmed to be from Hades and stronger packets probably from the IRIS-A satellite.


    "HADES, like EASAT-2, is transmitting weak signals, weaker than the ones of EASAT-2, most likely because the on-board computer has not yet managed to deploy the antennas either, although it will continue trying regularly. The reason the signals are suspected to be weaker at Hades is that the antennas
    are more tightly folded than those of EASAT-2. In any case, this is great
    news, since the transmission pattern confirms the proper functioning of the satellite. In the observations you can see the FSK tones with a deviation of about 5 kHz interspersed with the FM carrier corresponding to the voice
    beacon of the satellite, which has callsign AM6SAT. The AMSAT-EA team is working to try to decode the telemetry signals and obtain more detailed information on the state of the satellite.


    "We kindly ask you, if you have very high gain antennas, to try to receive them, specially Hades. If we could decode telemetry it would be very helpful for us.


    "Until antennas are deployed it will be very difficult to use their repeaters or to receive any SSTV camera images from Hades, but we hope that this will happen sooner or later, at least because even if the computer doesn't succeed applying heat to the resistor where the thread is attached, with time, the thread should break due to the space environment conditions.


    Details of the decoded telemetry and voice, as well as more details in: https://www.amsat-ea.org/ (Texts are In Spanish)

    And in the following Twitter threads:

    EASAT-2 transmissions:
    https://twitter.com/ea4gpz/status/1482457631566487553
    EASAT-2 decodings by Gabriel Otero: https://twitter.com/gaoterop/status/1482758196037050382
    HADES transmissions:
    https://twitter.com/ea4gpz/status/1482696274797338625."


    [ANS thanks Felix Paez, EA4GQS, AMSAT-EA Mission Manager for the above information.]


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    AMSAT EA Receives Two OSCAR Designations: SO-114 & SO-115

    On January 13, 2022, the EASAT-2 and HADES satellites were launched on a
    Falcon 9 launch vehicle from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Developed
    by AMSAT-EA, both satellites carry FM and digital repeater payloads to
    provide services to amateur radio enthusiasts around the world.


    At the request of AMSAT-EA, AMSAT hereby designates EASAT-2 as Spain-OSCAR
    114 (SO-114) and HADES as Spain-OSCAR 115 (SO-115). We congratulate AMSAT-EA, thank them for their contribution to the amateur satellite community, and
    wish them continued success on this and future projects.



    [ANS thanks Drew Glasbrenner, KO4MA, AMSAT VP Operations/OSCAR Number Administrator 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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    Amateur Operation in 3.45 – 3.5 GHz Must Cease by April 14, 2022

    The FCC has established April 14, 2022, as the date by which amateur radio transmissions must stop in the upper 3.45 – 3.5 GHz segment of the amateur secondary 9-centimeter band. Secondary operations are permitted to continue indefinitely in the remainder of the band, 3.3 – 3.45 GHz, pending future
    FCC proceedings.


    On January 14 the FCC released DA 22-39, which announces the results of
    Auction 110 for the 3.45 – 3.55 GHz band. Release of this notice triggered FCC rules adopted last year requiring that amateur radio operations between 3.45 GHz and 3.5 GHz cease within 90 days of the public notice.


    In October 2021, ARRL President Rick Roderick, K5UR, urged Congress to direct the FCC to preserve Amateur Radio’s secondary use of the 3 GHz band in a written statement responding to H.R. 5378, the Spectrum Innovation Act of
    2021, before the US House Commerce Communications and Technology
    Subcommittee.


    A chronology of actions responding to amateur access on the 3.5 GHz band can
    be found on the ARRL website.


    [ANS thanks the ARRL for the above information.]

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    Launch of a Wooden Satellite Still Pending

    Two spacecraft comprised of wood or using wooden framing are hoping to launch this year and next. One will carry an amateur radio payload.


    WISA Woodsat, a Finnish spacecraft that planned to include an amateur radio payload, was forced to postpone its announced launch target from 2021 to 2022 after the International Amateur Radio Union (IARU) Amateur Satellite
    Frequency Coordination system turned away its request to use amateur radio frequencies.


    “I regret to inform you that IARU is not in a position to support the WISA Woodsat Coordination request,” the coordinator said. “The main reason is that the primary mission doesn’t seem to be an amateur mission.”


    As announced last year, WISA Woodsat was designed to accommodate multiple missions — from materials science, space education, and awareness to promoting and facilitating amateur radio communication with and via
    satellites. No transponder was on board, but the satellite’s sponsors said they had the support of Finland’s IARU member-society, SRAL, to use amateur radio frequencies. They are now reworking the spacecraft to use commercial radio frequencies.


    “To our great disappointment, we can’t serve the radio amateur community with the LoRa-repeater mission as we had hoped and planned. We will continue
    to share the pictures and data online, but the technical aspect has been diminished due to this decision,” said WISA Woodsat’s Chief Engineer
    Samuli Nyman of Arctic Astronautics.


    Meanwhile, LignoSat, a 1U-sized CubeSat with an outside structure mainly composed of wood, has applied for IARU frequency coordination and hopes to launch from the ISS in 2023. Built by students at Japan’s Kyoto University, LignoSat includes a unique amateur radio payload but not a transponder.


    The LignoSat application for IARU Satellite Frequency Coordination in
    December said the CubeSat would carry amateur radio equipment that will
    extract call signs of amateur radio stations from uplinked FM packet signals and respond to them via the CW downlink and the sender’s call signs to
    convey thank you messages. The plan proposes UHF downlinks for CW and FM.


    The satellite’s development team, comprised of Kyoto University and
    Sumitomo Forestry Company, said it’s aiming to harness the environmental friendliness and the economy of wood in spacecraft development. They say a satellite with a wooden exterior would burn up upon re-entering Earth’s atmosphere at the end of its mission, lessening its burden on the
    environment. The wooden framework also will permit the satellite’s antennas to be inside the spacecraft. A plan is under way to use an experimental apparatus on the International Space Station to hold wooden sheets of varying hardness, taken from several tree species, attached. These would remain
    exposed to the space environment for about 9 months to determine their deterioration.


    The team is headed by Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut
    Tako Doi. Now a Kyoto University professor, Doi was the first JAXA astronaut
    to take part in spacewalks from the shuttle Columbia in 1997. He said the concept, if successful, could lead the way to “allowing even children who
    are interested in space to make a satellite.” LignoSat would be deployed
    from the ISS in July 2023.


    [ANS thanks the ARRL for the above information.]

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    Changes to AMSAT-NA TLE Distribution for January 20, 2022

    The following satellite has been added to this week's AMSAT TLE Distribution:

    - DELFI-PQ - NORAD Cat ID 51074 (Thanks to Nico Janssen, PA0DLO for the identification)

    - Still waiting for the SpaceTrack Catalog ID for Tevel-1 thru Tevel-8, EASAT-2, and Hades to be identified.

    As always, the latest Keps data can be found at https://mailman.amsat.org/hyperkitty/list/keps@amsat.org.


    [ANS thanks Ray Hoad, WA5QGD, AMSAT Orbital Elements Manager, 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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    ARISS NEWS

    Amateurs and others around the world may listen in on contacts between
    amateurs operating in schools and allowing students to interact with
    astronauts and cosmonauts aboard the International Space Station. The
    downlink frequency on which to listen is 145.800 MHz worldwide.


    + Quantorium Children's Technopark, Komsomolsk-on-Amur, Russia, direct via
    TBD.

    The ISS callsign is presently scheduled to be RSØISS.
    The downlink frequency is presently scheduled to be 145.800 MHz.
    The scheduled crewmember is Anton Shkaplerov.
    Contact is go for January 25, 2022 at 08:45 UTC

    + Amur State University, Blagoveshchensk, Russia, direct via TBD.
    The ISS callsign is presently scheduled to be RSØISS.
    The downlink frequency is presently scheduled to be 145.800 MHz.
    The scheduled crewmember is Pyotr Dubrov.
    Contact is go for February 2, 2022 at 08:45 UTC


    The latest information on the operation mode can be found at https://www.ariss.org/current-status-of-iss-stations.html


    The latest list of frequencies in use can be found at https://www.ariss.org/contact-the-iss.html


    [ANS thanks Charlie Sufana, AJ9N, one of the ARISS operation team mentors 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

    + 4A90, MEXICO (Special Event). Members of the Federacion Mexicana de Radio Experimentadores (FMRE)[Mexican Society]are celebrating their 90th
    anniversary during January, February and March 2022 promoting each of the 31 States and Mexico City with the following 32 different special event
    callsigns and 4A90FMRE:

    - January 16-30: 4A90MOR, 4A90NAY, 4A90PUE, 4A90QRO, 4A90TLX and 4A90VER
    - January 31-February 14: 4A90AGS, 4A90BAC, 4A90BCS, 4A90COA, 4A90CHH and 4A90DGO

    - February 15-March 1: 4A90NLE, 4A90SLP, 4A90SIN, 4A90SON, 4A90TAM and
    4A90ZAC

    - March 2-16: 4A90CAM, 4A90CHI, 4A90GRO, 4A90OAX, 4A90QUI, 4A90TAB and
    4A90YUC


    Activity will be on various HF bands using CW, SSB, RTTY, FT8/FT4 and the satellites. Awards are available (see QRZ.com for details). For more details
    on the event, see: http://fmre90.puebladx.org


    + N5BO – 1/22-26/2022
    Justin travels five days to see how many #pota he can activate with a minimum of 50 QSOs at each stop. He will also look to add EL88/87 to his SAT /R at
    some point.


    [ANS thanks Paul Overn, KE0PBR, AMSAT rover page manager, for the above information.]


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    Hamfests, Conventions, Maker Faires, and Other Events

    + ARRL National Convention
    February 10-13, 2022
    DoubleTree by Hilton Orlando at SeaWorld
    10100 International Dr, Orlando, FL 32821

    + Orlando HamCation
    February 11-13, 2022
    Central Florida Fairgrounds and Expo Park
    4603 West Colonial Drive
    Orlando, Florida 32808

    + CubeSat Developers Workshop
    April 26–28, 2022
    San Luis Obispo, CA

    + Hamvention 2022
    May 20, 2022 to May 22, 2022
    Greene County Fairgrounds and Expo Center
    210 Fairground Road
    Xenia, Ohio 45385
    https://www.hamvention.org

    + 2022 Rocky Mountain ARRL Division Convention
    October 7, 2022 - October 9, 2022
    Event Center at Archer
    3921 Archer Pkwy
    Cheyenne, Wyoming 82007
    https://wyhamcon.org/site.

    [ANS thanks Paul Overn, KE0PBR, AMSAT Events page manager, for the above information.]


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    Satellite Shorts From All Over

    + The January operating schedule shows one remaining date in January for
    FO-29 operation. That will be January 29 from 00:03 UTC until battery exhaustion.

    FO-29 will be in full sunshine from January 28 to the end of April. During
    that time, continuous operation can be expected.

    [AMSAT thanks Akira Kaneko,JA1OGZ, for the above information.]

    + The SpaceX Smallsat Rideshare program offers a viable and affordable option to launch up to 200 kg into a sun-synchronous, low Earth orbit. That is why, along with approximately 80-90 other satellites, USC’s Dodona satellite—it’s third ever—hitched a ride on SpaceX’s latest mission, Transporter 3 this week. Dodona is a project out of USC’s Space Engineering Research Center. Part of SERC’s mission is creating hands-on opportunities for students and faculty to build and test advanced space technology, in addition to integrating, launching and operating small satellites. Dodona
    takes advantage of the space focused curriculum through analysis tools and techniques that are taught at USC through the Astronautical Engineering Department. The complete story can be found at https://www.isi.edu/news/45250/usc-launches-its-3rd-satellite-into-space/.

    [AMSAT thanks Information Sciences Institute for the above information.]

    + The very first Svalbard QO-100 Satellite DX-Pedition will take place April 22-24, 2022 from Kapp Linné – Isfjord Radio at 78° North. They will
    operate two QO-100 satellite stations under the callsigns JW0W and JW100QO, while JW0X will be used by another team for contacts on shortwave. With
    QO-100 only 3° above the horizon, Kap Linné was the only suitable place in the area with Svalbard at the edge of the satellite footprint. Looking for a suitable location to stay and getting there, is one of the biggest challenges and cost drivers for the team. More information at https://amsat-dl.org/en/svalbard-qo-100-satellite-dx-pedition/.

    [AMSAT thanks AMSAT-DL for the above information.]

    + The University of Cambridge has announced the creation of the Raspberry Pi Computing Education Research Centre. With computers and digital technologies increasingly shaping all of our lives, it’s more important than ever that every young person, whatever their background or circumstances, has
    meaningful opportunities to learn about how computers work and how to create with them. The Raspberry Pi Computing Education Research Centre wants to increase understanding of what works in teaching and learning computing, with
    a particular focus on young people who come from backgrounds that are traditionally underrepresented in the field of computing or who experience educational disadvantage. MOre information can be found at tinyurl.com/ANS-023-Cambridge.

    [AMSAT thanks Raspberrypi.org for the above information.]

    ---------------------------------------------------------------------
    Join AMSAT today at https://launch.amsat.org/

    In addition to regular membership, AMSAT offers membership to:

    * Societies (a recognized group, clubs or organization).
    * 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 6 post-secondary years in this status.

    * Memberships are available for annual and lifetime terms.

    Contact info [at] amsat.org for additional membership information.

    73 and remember to help Keep Amateur Radio in Space!

    This week's ANS Editor, Frank Karnauskas, N1UW
    n1uw at amsat dot org



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