AMSAT UK MONTHLY SATELLITE REPORT (6 Nov 2005):

As compiled by PAUL 2E1EUB.Inclusions to be included in this monthly report to reach me by the 25th of each month please, at: 2E1EUB@AMSAT.ORG.  This report can also be found at www.uk.amsat.org and on packet Radio

Or may be heard live on 3.780mhz +/- QRM  on the last Sunday of each month around 10.00 local time. The next takes place every Sunday.

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 traffic (!) and plenty of new comers, lets hope it stands the pace,I've 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. STATIONS WORKED INC:SM0LQB SP1HLA SP6DCO

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

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 WORKED ON MODE L/S:IW4DVZ ON5SA IZIIRR F6HCC.OZ1MY
Echo Operating Schedule for:
6 Nov (Saturday night)
38k4 Digital Downlink, V/U, PBP BBS (Pacsat Broadcast Protocol BBS)
Uplink: 145.860 mhz FM, 9k6 PBP Digital
Downlink: 435.150 MHz FM, 38k4 PBP Digital

10 Nov (Wed Night)
FM Repeater, V(ssb)/U (Experimental)
Uplink: 145.880 MHz USB
Downlink 435.300 MHz FM

14 Nov
FM Repeater, V/S
Uplink: 145.920 MHz FM, 67hz PL Tone
Downlink 2401.200 MHz FM

21 Nov
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

5 Dec
FM Repeater, L/U
Uplink: 1268.700 MHz FM
Downlink 435.300 MHz FM

8 Dec (Wed Night)
9k6 Digital, V/U, High Power, PBP BBS (Pacsat Broadcast Protocol BBS)
Uplink: 145.860 MHz FM, 9k6 PBP Digital
Downlink: 435.150 MHz FM, 9k6 PBP Digital

12 Dec
FM Repeater, V/S
Uplink: 145.920 MHz FM, No PL Tone
Downlink 2401.200 MHz FM

19 Dec
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

Russian callsigns RS0ISS, RZ3DZR

USA callsign NA1SS

Packet station mailbox callsign RS0ISS-11

Packet station keyboard callsign RS0ISS-3

The 12th international space station crew turned its attention this week to experiment work aboard their microgravity home and laboratory. They captured spectacular images of Hurricane Wilma (available on the Web and NASA TV) and prepared for a spacewalk.
Expedition 12 Commander Bill McArthur and Flight Engineer Valery Tokarev began reviewing procedures for the first station-based spacewalk using U.S. suits since 2003.
During the November 7, five and one half hour spacewalk, they will install a new video camera on the far end of the station's P1 (port) truss. They also will remove a probe that measured the electrical potential around the station from the top of the P6 truss
Yesterday, the station's atmosphere was repressurized with oxygen from storage tanks on the docked Progress supply ship. Russian specialists are preparing a troubleshooting plan for the Elektron, the primary oxygen generation system on the station. It stopped working late last week.
Russian technical specialists are examining what caused the abort of a planned altitude reboost Tuesday using Progress fuel and thrusters. Mission managers believe Russian navigation computers properly shut down the thrusters when they lost information about how they were performing. A planned test firing of the thrusters Wednesday will gather more data for Russian engineers.
McArthur checked out a system to analyse exhaled gases inside the station. The Pulmonary Function System took more than eight years of design, development and testing on Earth by U.S. and European Space Agency scientists. It was delivered to the station by the shuttle Discovery in July. McArthur and Tokarev conducted the first of three sessions with the Renal Stone experiment. They collected urine samples for return to Earth and logged all food and drink consumed during a 24-hour period.
This ongoing experiment investigates whether potassium citrate can be used to reduce the risk of kidney stone formation for space travelers. The citrate minimizes kidney stone development on Earth.
Since urine calcium levels are typically much higher in space, astronauts are susceptible to an increased risk of developing kidney stones. An understanding of the crew's diet during the urine collection timeframes will help researchers. They will determine if the excess calcium in the urine is due to diet or a response to the microgravity environment. The payload operations team at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala., coordinates U.S. science activities on the station.
During their six-month mission, McArthur and Tokarev will conduct at least two spacewalks and oversee the arrival of the next Progress supply vehicle in December. They also will relocate their Soyuz spacecraft to free the Russian Pirs docking port for a later spacewalk. Pirs doubles as an airlock and docking module.
For information about crew activities, future launch dates, and station sighting opportunities on the Web, visit:

1. Upcoming School Contacts
Tomioka Elementary School of Urayasu in Urayasu City, Chiba, Japan has been scheduled for an ARISS contact. It will take place on Friday, October 28 at 10:36 UTC.

2. Article on Fort Hamilton High School Contact
On Thursday, October 6, students from Fort Hamilton High School in Brooklyn, New York enjoyed a contact with Greg Olsen, KC2ONX. The New York Daily News covered the event in a story, “Students get an astro-dinary call.” See:
<http://www.nydailynews.com/10-07-2005/news/local/story/353274p-301193c.html>

3. JOTA 2005
Bill McArthur, KC5ACR, wowed scouts and other hams as he participated in the 2005 Jamboree on the Air (JOTA) held on October 15-16. Stations from New York and South Carolina reported contacts with the ISS. This annual event encourages both Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts to become involved in amateur radio.

4. Astronaut Training
Astronauts Nicole Stott and Garrett Reisman were scheduled to attend an amateur radio license training session on October 18.

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....stations worked this month inc:VA2JML UY5UZ  K3SZH N8BBQ S57LM HB9DSU N1MIW.

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!

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'.

stations heard this week, STATIONS WORKED:OE5CTL K3SZH N8BBQ N1MIW

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.!INC: GU1OCN/P ON5NY

UO-11 OSCAR-11…semi operational

During the period 24 September to 25 October 2005 the VHF beacon on 145.826 MHz. resumed transmissions, as expected, on 30 September, sometime between 06:05 and 06:42 UTC passes. Reasonable signals were also captured on the 17:44 pass, later that day. However by the 16:49 UTC pass on 02 October, the beacon had switched OFF. Transmissions resumed on 21 October, and should continue until around 31 October. The on-board clock continues to show a very large error. Currently it is 19.2394 days slow, having lost six hours while the beacon was last OFF, ie. between 02 October and 21 October. When the beacon is ON, the clock is stable to within a few seconds. All the analogue telemetry channels, 0 to 59 are zero, ie they have failed. The status channels 60 to 67 are still working. 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. The watchdog timer appears to be operating on the 20 day cycle, ie. approximately ten days ON followed by 10 days OFF. It appears to be unaffected by problems of the on-board clock. However, poor solar attitude, and battery problems, may be combining to produce a low line voltage. This causes the beacon to switch OFF prematurely, and resets the watchdog timer cycle. The Beacon frequencies are - VHF 145.826 MHz. AFSK FM ASCII Telemetry UHF 435.025 MHz. OFF S-band 2401.5 MHz. OFF Listeners to OSCAR-11 may be interested in visiting my website which contains an archive of news & telemetry data. It also contains details about using a soundcard or hardware demodulators for data capture. There is software for capturing data, and decoding ASCII telemetry. The URL is www.users.zetnet.co.uk/clivew/

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 Academ

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

SSETI EXPRESS NEWS

The SSETI Express satellite launched at 06:52 UTC on Thursday, 27 October 2005 on board a Kosmos 3M launcher. One hundred and three minutes later, exactly on schedule, the first signals were heard form the groundstation in Aalborg, and two-way communication was established. In addition to several successful communication sessions with SSETI Express, two of the Cubesat passengers, UWE-1 and Xi-V, have been heard by amateur radio operators around the world as well as by their ground control stations.
The European Space Agency reported that on Thursday evening, 27 October SSETI Express went into a safe mode due to an under voltage caused by battery charging problems. The operations team is working actively to resume nominal operations of the satellite and is receiving tremendous help in the process from the amateur radio community. At the time of the anomaly many mission milestones had already successfully been met."
For the past day no reliable reports of any signals from SSETI have been received and the teams are reviewing all the telemetry already received to fully understand what is happening on board. Initial review suggests that there is a significant chance that the power supply problem may correct itself.
Graham Shirville, G3VZV, a member of the SSETI team, said, "If it does not recover then it will be a sad end to a wonderful mission." Shirville said ground controllers were going to attempt a blind command of the satellite in an effort to revive the satellite, which carries an Amateur Radio package and three CubeSat picosatellites. The spacecraft had been transmitting AX.25 telemetry at 9k6 bps on 437.250 MHz.
Amateur Radio operators are encouraged to continue monitoring for signals from SSETI. ESA and the SSETI Association greatly value the input that we are providing. Amateurs around the world are requested to continue to check for signals on 437.250 MHz at the appropriate pass times. These signals may be short bursts of 9k6 data every 18 secs or bursts of pulse telemetry every 30 secs. Signal reports that match the above should be e-mailed to missioncontrol@sseti.org

Ncube-2

The Norwegian student satellite, Ncube-2 is an experimental spacecraft that was developed and built by students from four Norwegian universities. Data transmissions and digipeater use 1200 and 9600 bps.

Downlink 437.305 @ 1.5 watts. The first transmissions will be 20 minutes after separation from SSETI Express. The message: "DE LA1CUB NCUBE2 FF LA1CUB" will be sent in morse at 26 words per minute using a 2400Hz tone.

At the end of the message an unnumbered AX.25 packet is sent containing the string: DE LA1CUB NCUBE2 NORWEGIAN CUBESAT - WWW.NCUBE.NO . The AX.25 header will include Callsign: NCUBE, and Destination: EARTH.

UWE-1

The UWE-1 spacecraft is a registered Pico-satellite of Julius Maximilians Universitaet Wuerzburg, Germany. Its research aim is to test IP based telecommunications protocols in space.

Downlink 437.505 @ 1.0 watts. The communication protocol is AX25. The satellite will transmit for about 1 sec every 1 minute.

XI-V

The XI-V satellite is a Pico-satellite of the University of Tokyo, Intelligent Space Systems Laboratory.

Downlink (telemetry) 437.345 @ 0.8 watts sending AFSK AX.25, 1200bps
Downlink (beacon) 437.465 @ 0.08 watts CW repeating every 30 seconds

This months awards:

This week, congrats go out to all of the following. Marc Sanchez, KD5MSS, Satellite Communicators Club Award David Stanley, WI4L, Satellite Communicators Club Award Dan Hart, WD8PFS, Satellite Communicators Club Award Wadhah Al-Tailji, AE6QG, Satellite Communications Achievement Award #422 Masahiro Arai, JN1GKX, 51 on 51 Award #35 Chris Martin, KG7EZ, 51 on 51 Award #36 Bob Lacey, KF4GTA, 51 on 51 Award #37

P3E NEWS:

Peter Guelzow, DB2OS, President AMSAT-DL and the P3-E Project leader wrote a report to update radio amateurs about the progress of the satellite:
First of all I have to apologize for the little information about the P3-E progress over the last few months. Updates were provided during presentations at the recent AMSAT-UK Colloquium. We also publish news in the AMSAT-DL magazine which is also then reprinted in the AMSAT-NA Journal. To accommodate the delays inherent in these publishing media we will provide information via the AMSAT-DL website and e-mail such as the AMSAT-BB.
To improve communications with our membership and worldwide audience, AMSAT-DL decided to improve the information flow on our website using a new content management system (CMS, Mambo). Unfortunately this took much longer than anticipated, but the new portal should be available to the public by December.
The CMS itself is almost fully functional, but we have to transfer and re-edit all the information from our old website. As you can probably imagine, this is still a lot of work. However, once it is running, we hope to put more information on-line and also have a news section with more regular updates. Indeed, because of this, we almost stopped updating the old website.
So far, AMSAT P3-E is making good progress, but slowly. Some modules have already arrived in Marburg for integration, but other module builders are making use of the additional time due to the yet unknown launch date.
The wiring harness is defined and will be built and integrated into the spacecraft soon. Thanks to the CAN-bus and our CAN-DO module controllers, it will be not such a big beast as on previous P3 satellites.
Additional radiation testing has been performed on the CAN-DO. The CAN DO module and other selected electronic components for P3-E and P5-A were exposed to protons with an energy of 60 MeV. The CAN-DO module stopped operating at 61 krad, which is good for a projected mission duration of more than 10 years. Since the CAN-DO module is one of the most critical parts on P3-E and P5-A, this gives us a better feeling that it should not suffer from radiation induced failure. A radiation test is also planned for the IHU-3 within the next couple of weeks.
Very good progress was also reported from the development teams of the new IHU-3, both in terms of hardware and software. While a big step forward was made, the full integration and testing of the operational IPS software and all it's functionality (including the turbo codes and software defined modems) is the next step.
In addition to the analog transponders flying on P3-E, we will also look into the possibility to have an SDT (software defined transponder) flying on P3-E for the first time. The recent developments on Software Defined Radio technologies and STELLA, may give us completely new ideas. While this is quite late and various details must still be discussed, the necessary RF interfaces are already available in the module space. Expect to hear more about this in the future updates.
An extremely critical step was taken a few days ago when Ariane 5 scored a double success for Arianespace with the successful launch of Syracuse 3A and Galaxy 15 on-board flight V168.
While we do not yet have an official launch manifest, we are in full contact with our partners at Arianespace. Everyone is working hard to find a suitable slot for P3-E to the benefit of both sides. While the year 2005 is almost over, our target to get P3-E into orbit is still 2006 and will remain so. Clearly, the continuing success of the new Ariane 5 will help us too. Initial arrangements for environmental testing, including vibration and thermal vacuum testing are already made.
Indeed, we still need a lot of support for P3-E and donations. But with all the contributions we are receiving, P3-E will be truly another international satellite. I'm in particular delighted, that AMSAT-NA joined and supports the P3-E project. We have excellent personal relationship between our organisations and apart from the fun, things are developing really good to the benefit of EAGLE, P3-E and all the projects on the horizon.

SuitSat Readies for Operation
on 145.990 MHz

Now is the time to begin preparing your amateur radio station to receive signals from SuitSat, the most unusual Amateur Radio satellite ever orbited. SuitSat amateur radio equipment will be installed inside a surplus Russian Orlan spacesuit. It will become an independently orbiting satellite once it is deployed by the crew of the International Space Station during an extravehicular activity, tentatively planned around December 8, 2005.

Running only on internal batteries within the spacesuit, SuitSat will have a limited, but interesting lifetime beaming down special messages and an SSTV image as it floats in space. Having no external thrust to adjust its orbit after it is hand-deployed during the EVA, SuitSat will be in a free-floating, but decaying orbit around Earth. It is expected to remain in orbit up to 6 weeks after being deploy

The image on the left shows SuitSat in it's flight configuration. You can see the electronics control panel on the top of the helmet along with the SuitSat antenna. A new handle has been added around the midsection of the suit (black stripes). The handle is an important addition that will allow the astro/cosmonaut launching the suit to move it safely. [Photo credit to Steve Bible N7HPR - Thanks Steve!]

SuitSat's transmissions will include special international voice messages, spacesuit telemetry, and a pre-programmed SSTV picture on its 145.990 MHz FM downlink. If you have already received the packet station or heard the ISS crew on 2-meter voice, then you already have most of what you need. Amateur radio signals from the ISS can be received with a 2 meter vertical antenna so an elaborate tracking system is not necessary. The SSTV signal can be decoded with personal computer SSTV software after you connect your computer to the speaker output of your radio.

See the complete article including additional SuitSat photographs at:
<http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/articles/SuitSat/>

 PAUL . 2E1EUB. (AMSAT UK 6236)