AMSAT UK MONTHLY SATELLITE REPORT (deadline 4 Sep 05):

As compiled by PAUL 2E1EUB. Inclusions to be included in this monthly report to reach me by the 25th of each month please, at: E1EUB@AMSAT.ORG.  This report can also be found at www.amsatuk.org and on packet Radio under the heading SAT or may be heard live on 3.780mhz +/- QRM  on or near the last sunday of each month

VO52/HAMSAT

AMSAT India has applied for and has been granted an OSCAR number for HAMSAT. In the future HAMSAT will be referred to as VUSat-OSCAR 52 or VO-52 for short.

For additional information about HamSat please see:
<http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/satellites/sat_summary/hamsat.php>

This bird has heavy trafic! and plenty of new comers, lets hope it stands the pace, Ive already noticed weaker signals than first noted. The foot print is not massive and it moves quick ,but its possible to work the USA just about.

HAMSAT frequencies: ------------------- Indian transponder: Uplink : 435.225MHz to 435.275MHz LSB/CW Downlink: 145.875MHz to 145.925MHz USB/CW Beacon : 145.940MHz continue carrier signal Dutch transponder: Uplink : 435.225MHz to 435.275MHz LSB/CW Downlink: 145.875MHz to 145.925MHz USB/CW Beacon : 145.860MHz 12WPM with CW message

Hi All One of the members of the Mission Management Board at ISTRAC called me this afternoon to enquire about the latest feedback on Hamsat usage around the globe. I request you to kindly send in your feedback reports to reports@amsat.in as this will help the MMB ISTRAC to compile the latest reports & payload evaluation in time before their meeting scheduled for 29 Aug 2005. Best 73 Pop VU2POP Sec Amsat India

AO-51 ECHO

Status: operational//

modes l/s and v/s working well, but takes some tracking! still problems with the qrm level on mode v uplink. The new modes this month went down well ,v/ssb u/fm was very different! A few stations all at once could have qso's just about. Reports welcome from stations using the digital side of ao51. Some improvements have been made after studying the latest data! PLEASE NOTE: The bbs call sign has now been changed to: PECHO-12 and the broadcast call is :PECHO-11. Stations heard: sm5ylg/p, 2w0idg, jw/g6lvb/p, oz1my, g0mrf, pd5df
Echo Operating Schedule until further notice:
AO-51 is currently running at 1/2 watt output power on TXB. The PBBS is open for users.
FM Repeater, V/U
Uplink: 145.920 mhz FM, 67 hz PL Tone
Downlink 435.300 mhz FM
9k6 Digital, V/U, PBP BBS (Pacsat Broadcast Protocol BBS)
Uplink: 145.860 mhz FM, 9k6 PBP Digital
Downlink: 435.150 mhz FM, 9k6 PBP Digital

INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION (ISS) - ARISS

Status: Operational

Current Mode: Packet

Digipeater: Active/WITH VOICE REPEATER sometimes

Russian callsigns RS0ISS, RZ3DZR

USA callsign NA1SS

Packet station mailbox callsign RS0ISS-11

Packet station keyboard callsign RS0ISS-3

The iss voice relay has seen action again this month.

The story of the birthday wishes sent by Maryam 9K2MD in Kuwait to Sergei Krikalev U5MIR on the International Space Station can now be seen on the web at: <http://www.southgatearc.org/news/aug2005/sergei_kuwait.htm>

The crew of the International Space Station (ISS) completed 20 weeks in space, focused on an upcoming cargo ship exchange and computer software transition.
Expedition 11 Commander Sergei Krikalev and NASA Flight Engineer and Science Officer John Phillips packed the docked ISS Progress 18 supply ship with items no longer needed on the Station. The unpiloted cargo craft undocks from the Zvezda module at 6:23 p.m. EDT, Wednesday, Sept. 7. The Progress will burn up in Earth's atmosphere above the Pacific Ocean.
A new supply ship, ISS Progress 19, launches from the Baikonur Cosmodrome at 9:08 a.m. EDT, Thursday, Sept. 8 and docks at 10:50 a.m. EDT, Sept. 10. It will deliver approximately 5,000 pounds of food, water, fuel, clothing and other supplies. It will also deliver a new liquids unit for the Elektron, a primary oxygen-generating system, and spare parts for the Vozdukh carbon dioxide removal system.
Krikalev and Phillips prepared new laptop computers for a software upgrade. They also conducted a routine rehearsal of emergency procedures, simulating an emergency departure from the Station in the Soyuz. The crewmembers also checked out new blood pressure and electrocardiograph equipment delivered by the Space Shuttle last month.
On Monday, Phillips conducted an interview with Oregon Public Broadcasting for a series celebrating the bicentennial of the exploration of the American West. Phillips talked about the similarities and differences of space exploration and the journey of Lewis and Clark.

 ARISS Student Pursues Astronaut Career
Stephanie Radcliff was a student at Davies County High School (DCHS) in Owensboro, Kentucky when the school experienced an ARISS contact on May 31, 2001. She had prepared three questions to ask astronaut Susan Helms, KC7NHZ, that day, including one concerning future space explorations.

Four years later, on August 12, 2005, Stephanie returned to her alma mater to speak to the students there. She is now a graduate of Emory-Riddle University, and holds a degree in the aerospace field. She has taken the first steps toward becoming an astronaut and hopes to be accepted for astronaut training. Harold Wilson, the coordinating teacher of the DCHS - ARISS contact, remarked that it was the ARISS contact which inspired Stephanie to pursue this career choice.

2. PCSAT2/MISSE5 Status
The PCSAT2 PSK-31 transponder was turned on. It uses an uplink on 29.402 +/- 1 KHz and downlink on 435.275 +/- Doppler using FM . For more information, see: <http://www.ew.usna.edu/~bruninga/pec/pc2ops.html>

3. ARISS International Meeting
ARRL ran a story on the ARISS International face-to-face Meeting held at the University of Surrey. The article, entitled, "ARISS Delegates Urged to Cast Eye on Future of Ham Radio in Space," may be found on their website. See: <http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2005/08/12/106/?nc=1>

ARISS delegate Rosalie White is currently working on the minutes of the U.K. meeting. They will be posted on the ARISS and AMSAT websites in the near future.

The next ARISS International Teleconference will be held on Tuesday, 23 August 2005.

4. Australian News Article on Astronaut's Father
The Australian newspaper, The Age, ran a story on Adrian Thomas. Thomas, father of astronaut Andy Thomas, was waiting apprehensively for word of Discovery's landing. A ham friend of his had been listening to NASA's channel, and called to let him know that the shuttle was heading for a safe landing in California. "Ham radio call ends father's anxious wait," may be found at:
<http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/ham-radio-call-ends-fathers-anxious-wait/2005/08/10/1123353330011.html>

5. Astronaut to Visit ARISS School
Astronaut Leroy Chiao, KE5BRW, plans to visit Fairview Elementary School in Mount Prospect, Illinois. Chiao visited the school in May, 2004, before his space flight, and. he exchanged e-mails and photos with the school, and participated in an ARISS contact with the children on 10 February 2005 during his Expedition 10 increment. The date for his visit has not yet been set, but 7 September 2005 is being considered. Fairview has posted on their website photos of Chiao's first visit, and the audio and questions from the ARISS contact. See:
<http://fairview.dist57.org:16080/spacewebsite/fvspacecontact.html>

6. Teaching from Space Teleconference Held
A teleconference was held on Thursday, August 10 between ARISS-U.S. members and the Teaching from Space Office at JSC. Education Specialist Jonathan Neubauer will be the point of contact for ARISS and the Education Office. ARISS extends a welcome to Jon!

AO-7 AMSAT OSCAR 7

Status: Semi-operational in sunlight.

Return to active status: June 21,2002

Emily, W0EEC has created a website to allow the users of AO-7 to record

contacts, observations and use of the satellite more effectively at:

http://www.emilyshouse.com/experthams/ao7/main.php

This includes the ability to log contacts.

Mostly in mode B, ! with dx stations heard regularly, with some qrm on the 2m down link. But still plenty of traffic, showing that the old mode b transponder is  much liked and rated. Tending to disappear or change modes part way through passes, perhaps due to poor solar lock.?

ao7 seems to be changing its trend its spent a lot of time in mode A this month...why not try CW or phone ....100w eirp l/h circular uplink.......2/6db linear antenna on the down link are the requirements !its poss to work mode A with less....A FEW STATIONS IVE WORKED THIS MONTH ARE:N4ZQ/P,K3SZH,DJ1KM,VE3VC,VE6EGN,AJ9K,OO7EQ,N8BBQ,OO7APG.

AO-27 AMRAD   *******

Status:semi Operational( On!)

Evening time uk/europe,FM repeater on first part off each pass.

The latest information on AO-27  can be found at:

http://www.ao27.org

An AO-27 question-and-answer page is available on the AMSAT-NA web

Site. I’ve used ao27 in the last few days and worked dx on the bird and it sounds great, with a good down link signal, lets hope its ok ,a big thank you to the control team for bringing ao27 back to life!

AO-27 has been put back in operation by the control team for the ascending nodes. They report that they have placed a new schedule on-board but the Orbital Time from the satellite seems to be about two minutes early compared to the website and my control software. They really need any reports of any unexpected or off-schedule times when the transponder changes mode. They ask that you try to get as close to the second as you can and make sure your clock is calibrated closely to GPS or some other time source. Please let the control team know how good you think your clock is. Times in UTC will help.

The control team has lowered the watchdog timers in order to keep the on times longer but with the current way the satellite is timing they don't know for sure. Remember that the satellite is in it's time of greatest eclipse this time of year.

FO-29 JAS-2

Status: Operational

working well, with strong downlink signals at times.

Voice/CW Mode JA

Please send the reception reports to lab2@jarl.or.jp . Please use the

subject line: 'FO-29reception report'. I’ve noted signals dropping off  on some late evening passes? Stations heard this month, F0EMH, IW4DVZ, SP1WSR, W4MVB, K3SZH, OO7EQ....

SO-50 SAUDISAT-1C

Status: Operational.

Uplink: 145.850 MHz

There have been unconfirmed reports on the amsat-bb emailer that So-50 has shifted downlink frequency as much as 5khz up.

To switch the transmitter on, you need to send a CTCSS tone of 74.4 Hz.and then ctcss of 67hz to keep the bird open. Its nice to see a bit more traffic on this bird this month! My own report on so50 is some times it will not switch on, even with the command tone? Also some times it just disappears, before it should? Any one else noticed these effects?

UO-11 OSCAR-11…semi operational

OSCAR-11 is back! I received the good news, on Saturday morning, while at the AMSAT-UK Colloquium. This was entirely unexpected! On Sunday morning Bob G4VRC played me a recording of an early morning pass received that day. During the period 21 July to 14 August 2005 consistent signals have been heard from 30 July to 08 August. Signals seem to be weaker than usual, confirmed by the many reports received. However, since I last heard the satellite on 30 April, I've reinstalled my antennas , which makes comparisons difficult. Many thanks for all the recent reports of OSCAR-11 including those from KB2M (who heard it first), VK6XH, KU7Z, HK7MKE, KA2UPW, JE9PEL, G1OCN, HB9SKA and G8OQM. All the analogue telemetry channels, 0 to 59 are zero, ie they have failed. The status channels 60 to 67 are still working. One bit in channel 62, DSR mode, has changed from WRITE to READ. DSR is the Digital Store & Readout experiment. This could be significant if the experiment is still drawing current, but the other status bit indicates that it is switched OFF. The on-board clock is now showing a very large error. It has lost approximately 19 days since 30 April. During the recent data collection period, the clock error has been changing at a decreasing rate. The size of the clock error and the rate at which it is changing is similar to the duration of the solar eclipse periods. This suggests that the clock might have been switching OFF during eclipses. The eclipses have now ended, and the satellite should be in continuous sunlight for the remainder of this year, and well into next year. This should help the satellite to continue transmitting, although continuous sunlight can cause problems due to excessive temperatures. If the watchdog timer is still operating on a 20 day cycle, ie. approximately ten days ON followed by 10 days OFF, then the VHF beacon should resume transmissions around 18 August. The Beacon frequencies are - VHF 145.826 MHz. AFSK FM ASCII Telemetry UHF 435.025 MHz. OFF S-band 2401.5 MHz. OFF

AO-16 PACSat

Status: Semi-operational, the digipeater command is on and open for

APRS user

Broadcast Callsign: PACSAT-11

BBS: PACSAT-12

GO-32 TECHSAT-1B

Status: Operational

Roni, 4Z7DFC, reports:

 Techsat1b BBS's is back ..but still having problems...

Uplink freq. ; 145.859, 145.890, 1269.800

More information of GO-32 can be found at:

http://www.iarc.org/techsat/techsat.html

NO-44 PCSAT 1

Status: Operational-in sunlight

PCSat is a 1200-baud APRS digipeater

http://pcsat.aprs.org

The APRS-equipped PCSat was built by midshipmen from the U.S. Naval Academy

PCSAT2

UI Digipeater 145.825 MHz FM 1200 Baud AFSK TLM and PSK Downlink 435.275 MHz FM 1200 AFSK or PSK-31 PSK-31 Uplink 29.4 MHz PSK-31 Aux Downlink 437.975 MHz FM 1200 and 9600 Baud AFSK Voice Repeater Downlink 437.975MHz FM Deployed 3 August 2005

PCSAT2 has been through a critical 4 days of experiences and commanding. But hopefully we are back to OPS-normal. Here is a summary: 1) A re-configuration for the Monday ARISS School contact 2) A random reset Monday night 3) Recovery taking most of Tuesday due to not having primary ground station access for 14 more hours 4) Rising temps and overcharging due to ISS change in station keeping attitude 5) All day Wednesday management of battery volts by turning on everything including 1.8 amp shunts. 6) Got everything back to normal that night but were starting to get reports from PSK-31 users that the uplink receiver was dead. 7) Followed by a second 1 AM random RESET. Working backwards, all events have now been explained and all anomalies traceable to a series of events complicating our learning experience on this new bird (attached to a big object in space over which we have no control as to attitude)! And oh-by-they-way, surviving a Solar Storm! >"AURORA STORM: It's over. A geomagnetic storm >that began on August 24th when a coronal mass >ejection hit Earth has subsided.... Thus, the RESET was caused by an SEU, which we survived well. AND The lack of PC2PSK uplink receiver was because the Solar Storm cause the ionosphere to block uplinks on 29 MHz... As far as all the work on the temps and battery, we have been operating around, things are starting to come back down now. This was all caused by ISS going from YVV to XPOP attitude to account for the changing beta angle... We will anticipate this next time and just shut down the PC2PSK transponder for a week to avoid the temperature extremes (30C ambient plus, fully charged batteries (16v), yielded XMTR PA temps of 75C which was pushing Junction temps up to near 150C which is the max for our transistors.) So after 4 days of critical operations, looks like all is explained, understood and learned and OPS are now NORMAL. Next mode change will be for the 2 Sept ARISS voice contact over Japan. Enjoy! the 29 MHz CW/PSK-31 narrowband transponder! <http://www.ew.usna.edu/~bruninga/pec/pc2ops.html> Bob Bruninga, WB4APR

SSETI NEWS:

The launch date of September 27th and a lift-off time of 06:52:26 UTC now looks pretty certain for the Cosmos 3 rocket carrying SSETI Express with its three cubesat passengers and four other satellites into orbit. Updated pre-launch keps will be made available in a few days time and there are a number of webpages being developed to enable amateurs to locate SSETI Express, receive and download the telemetry and to forward it to Mission Control for their evaluation. Later in the mission it will also be possible for amateurs to transmit so-called "friendly" commands to request particular telemetry or thumbnail pictures. Obviously we also expect to be able to use the receiver part of the onboard 70cms transceiver and the S band transmitter as a single channel FM U/S transponder! The SSETI team and ESA - The European Space Agency, are very keen to recruit as many radio amateurs as possible around the world to capture the telemetry . Our worldwide "virtual groundstation network" is a unique facility which we can use to our benefit as well as theirs. By showing how well our network can substitute for their expensive professional one, we will really encourage them to include amateur transponder systems in their future missions. ESA will be offering a very significant prize for the amateur who sends them the largest amount of telemetry during the mission and is also offering a unique "I heard it first" T shirt to the station that sends them the first report. This is actually likely to be one of the three Stations that we hope to having listening for SSETI Express in Antarctica - an ideal item of clothing for their forthcoming winter season! The main mission site is being finalised and can already be accessed at www.sseti.net -click on the "express mission operation website" link. This has full details of the mission, the software, present orbital position and a host of other information. There is also a Mission Control website at <http://www.express.space.aau.dk/?language=en&page=home> which will include a webcam of the control room and eventually the antennas and radio equipment. AMSAT-UK will shortly be publishing the first edition of the SSETI Express Handbook which has been kindly edited by Richard G3RWL . This will be available as a downloadable pdf file or, for a small fee, in a full colour printed version by post.

In recognition of the effort put in by AMSAT-UK into the SSETI Express mission, I am delighted to announce that interested parties from the amateur satellite community have been invited to attend the launch event in London at the Institute of Mechanical Engineers at 1 Birdcage Walk, SW1H 9JJ on the morning of 27 September 2005. There will be live video feeds from the launch site as well as an attempt to receive signals from the satellite itself, due to overhead and transmitting (if luck is on our side!) about 2.5 hours after launch. Although the launch is scheduled at 06:52:26Z (07:52:26 local BST), there will be replays of the launch during the morning. Best of all, it's free! If you would like to attend, please let me know by Wednesday 7 September so I can give the organisers the numbers interested. 73, Howard G6LVB

Next shuttle mission:

NASA is targeting March for the next Space Shuttle mission (STS-121). The mission will be the second test flight to the International Space Station in the Shuttle Return to Flight sequence.

NASA's Space Shuttle Discovery ferry flight departs no earlier than Friday morning, Aug. 19, and arrives at KSC no earlier than 5:30 p.m. EDT, Saturday

GB5FI on satellite
Barry Amateur Radio Society (South Wales - UK)  made their annual trip to Flatholm Island located in the Bristol Channel - UK. The visit paid homage to the occasion when Marconi made a historic radio transmission and prove that radio waves would travel across water. The special event call sign for the club station is GB5FI (Flatholm Island) Date of operation: 26th -30th AUGUST 2005 WAB square: ST26 Locator: IO81K EU 124 Also a Lighthouse ref: Wales 0007 for those collecting QSL contacts. Location: N51 deg 29.69 minutes, W003 deg. 33.59 minutes. This is also now a very rare Dx location as the ref. point is only activated by the teams visit each year. Operations are in general on the HF bands - However I will be taking with me my portable equipment which includes an Arrow antenna to try to make contacts via the amateur satellites that are active during this period. QSL information: Direct via GW0ANA or via your Radio Society normal routes Good Luck and I hope that we have success in short QSO. Ken Eaton GW1FKY

SVALBARD ISLAND on satellite

Howard G6LVB was heard and worked this month on Svalbard island, north of Norway, and in the Arctic circle, he signed JW/G6LVB/P on AO51 ,F029 GO32, he tried AO7 but found it difficult to work.

 PAUL . 2E1EUB. (AMSAT UK 6236)