AMSAT UK MONTHLY SATELLITE REPORT:
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.amsatuk.org and on packet Radio or may be heard live on 3.780mhz +/- QRM on the last Sunday of each month
VO52/HAMSAT
The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) has announced that HamSat was launched aboard the PSLV-C6 launched at 4:45z on May 5 2005. After launch, the primary payload (CartoSat) was deployed, followed 40 seconds later by HamSat. Both the satellites have been placed in polar Sun Synchronous Orbit (SSO) at an altitude of 632 x 621 km with an inclination of 97.8 deg with respect to the equator.
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! Congratulations to PE1RAH the builder of the Dutch transponder, I had a qso with him this week on ao7 (mode b) he was telling me what a wonderful sight it was to see the launch in person.
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
Echo Operating Schedule for:
June 2005 Amsat Kid's Day on AO-51
Amsat-NA and the AO-51 Operations Team will sponsor the second Kid's Day on AO-51 or 2005 on June 11. The event will run from approximately 1420 utc 11 June until 0450 utc 12 June. The event is open to all kids, worldwide. We ask all amateur radio stations to give this short time window to promote satellite operations with kids, by actually showing a kid how to make contacts via AO-51, providing a station to contact, or stepping aside to allow others to make contacts with the kids. During the event, please limit contacts to stations that are operating with kids at the microphone. This should allow the kids to have a nice QSO and pass some information. Kids can tell their name, age, who is helping them operate on AO-51, where they live, and other information about themselves. A certificate is available from the AO-51 Team to any kid making a successful Kid's Day contact. Please check the Amsat Web Site, AO-51 Control Team Page, and other Amsat news outlets for details on the award.
AO-51 will be configured in the following mode during the event. Please note the change in the uplink frequency for the event.
Uplink: 145.880 mhz FM voice, 67hz tone
Downlink: 435.300 mhz FM voice
The digital transponder on 435.150 will be turned off during the event.
Kid's Day Certificate
The AO-51 Operations Team, made up of the Amsat VP-Operations, AO-51 Command Team, and AO-51 Operations Group are sponsoring a certificate for kids making a contact during Kid's Day on June 11, 2005. The award is free, and is supported and administrated by KE4AZN. The certificate is available to any kid that makes a contact with another amateur radio station during the Kid's Day Event. The contacted station does not have to be operated by a kid. To receive your certificate, please mail a confirmation of contact to the following address:
Kid's Day Certificate
c/o Michael Kingery - KE4AZN
1251 County Road 445
Enterprise, AL 36330
U.S.A.
Your confirmation can be a QSL card from you or the amateur control station, a note on a piece of paper, or anything you can come up with. Use your imagination! Please add a short note (couple of paragraphs) about your experience talking through an operational amateur radio satellite. Some of the best cards and notes will be used for a future Amsat Journal article. Also, digital pictures and notes can be sent to ke4azn@amsat.org for potential inclusion in the Journal article. The certificate is free, and no SASE is required. The certificate is available to any kid, anywhere in the world.
Have fun and enjoy AO-51
June 2005 AO-51 (Amsat Echo) Schedule
All dates are UTC. The mode change occurs normally between 0100 and 0400 utc on the date shown. The mode will be active from the date shown until the next Mode Change date listed. Mode Configurations are listed below the schedule. If for some unplanned reason we need to work with Echo and deviate from the plan I will post a note to the this Echo page on AMSAT.ORG.
If a specific transmitter or mode is not listed on a given day then it will be off. For example, if TXB (435.300) is not listed during a 38k4 digital mode period then the FM repeater will be off.
1 June
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
8 June - QRP Repeater Experimenter Wednesday
FM Repeater, V/U, High Power Mode
QRP Requirements for the Uplink, see info on this page
Uplink: 145.880 mhz FM, 67 hz PL Tone
Downlink 435.300 mhz FM
9 June
FM Repeater, V/U, High Power Mode
Uplink: 145.920 mhz FM, 67 hz PL Tone
Downlink 435.300 mhz FM
11 June (1420 utc to 0450 utc 12 June)
AO-51 Kid's Day Special Event
See the write-up on this page or in ANS for details
Please follow the Event requirements, note the uplink frequency
Certificate available for Kid's making a contact
FM Repeater, V/U, High Power Mode
Uplink: 145.880 mhz FM, 67 hz PL Tone
Downlink 435.300 mhz FM
12 June (at conclusion of Kid's Day)
FM Repeater, V/U, High Power Mode
Uplink: 145.920 mhz FM, 67 hz PL Tone
Downlink 435.300 mhz FM
15 June (2 day session)
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
17 June
FM Repeater, V/S (Field Day Configuration)
Uplink: 145.920 mhz FM
Downlink 2401.200 mhz FM
27 June
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
Expedition 10 Crew Debrief
Sergey Samburov had a debrief session with the Expedition 10 crew members. He received positive remarks about the ARISS program, with some suggestions for improvement. The U.S. team will tentatively meet with Leroy Chiao for his debrief the last week of June.
School Selection Committee Meeting Held
The ARISS Educational Outreach/School Selection Committee meeting was held on Thursday, May 12. The minutes will be posted to the ARISS website in the near future.
ARISS International Teleconference
The next ARISS International Meeting will be held on Tuesday, May 17 at 11:30 UTC
Hosokawa Junior High School, in Ikeda, Osaka, Japan experienced an ARISS contact on Monday, May 9, 2005. Twelve students were able to ask 22 questions of John Phillips, KE5DRY, before the ISS went over the horizon. Approximately four hundred students, teachers, and parents were present. Among the media covering the event were two newspapers, and one local cable television station. A video of the contact will be available later this week.
On May 4, Albany Hills State School in Brisbane, Australia participated in a contact with astronaut John Phillips, KE5DRY. The ARISS team received a report from the school’s coordinating teacher, Cheryl Capra, who praised the program and those who volunteered their time and effort to make the contact such a success. Photos of John Phillips speaking to the Albany Hills students from space can be found on the NASA website. See: <http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/gallery/images/station/crew-11/ndxpage15.html>
John Phillips’ first school crew pick, Iroquois Middle School in Niskayuna, New York had an ARISS contact. It took place on Monday, May 16 at 17:50 UTC via the telebridge station, VK5ZAI, in Australia. The audio for this event will be available on the Internet at the
following URL:
https://e-meetings.mci.com
Conference number: 7032958
Password: SPACE STATIO
Phillips’ second crew pick, Village Elementary School, in Coronado, California, had a contact. on Thursday, May 26 at 16:39 UTC via the telebridge station NN1SS.
Both of the above contacts were fed through the Echolink AMSAT (101377) and EDU_NET (77992) servers and IRLP reflector 9010.
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....
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 Let’s 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,TM380,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!
UO-11 OSCAR-11…semi operational:
25 May 2005 This report covers the period 18 April to 24 May 2005. OSCAR-11 resumed transmissions on April 28, after its ten day period of silence. The telemetry showed that ALL the analogue channels were zero, although the status channels were normal. The on-board clock was five hours slow. Signals were fairly good, ! Good signals were also received on 30 April, with all the telemetry channels showing zero values. The on-board clock was 4.45 hours slow. Sometime between 30 April and 02 May the satellite switched OFF. This coincided with the start of the solar eclipse season, which started on 27 April, reaching 10% of the orbit time by 02 May. Nothing heard on 18 May when the satellite might have been expected to resume transmissions. However, on 19 May Gustavo LW2DTZ (located near Buenos Aries) reported hearing good signals at 22:11 UTC. Many thanks Gustavo for that report. It is possible that the satellite may still be controlled by the watchdog timer, 10.3 days ON followed by 10.4 days OFF. Perhaps the eclipses may cause the satellite to switch OFF early, after a day or two, when the battery voltage is too low to operate the system. If this theory is correct, the satellite might resume transmissions around 08 June, for a day or two. Commands from ground control could also affect operation times. The solar eclipses should reach maximum duration of 23% orbit time in mid-June. The eclipses should finish in mid-August, when the satellite enters a period of continuous sunlight for the remainder of the year. Any reception reports would be appreciated. Please send to me direct g3cwv@amsat.org, or post to post to AMSAT-BB. The Beacon frequencies are - VHF 145.826 MHz. AFSK FM ASCII Telemetry - Occasional operation? UHF 435.025 MHz. OFF S-band 2401.5 MHz. OFF Here is a sample frame of telemetry from the 05:46 pass on Thursday 28th. UOSAT-2 0505024014454 000000010001020002030003040004050005060006070007080008090009 100001110000120003130002140005150004160007170006180009190008 20000221000322000023000124000625000726000427000528000A29000B 30000331000232000133000034000735000636000537000438000B39000A 40000441000542000643000744000045000146000247000348000C49000D 50000551000452000753000654000155000056000357000258000D59000C 60800E615FC1620141633341644402651E0C6630A967000168000E69000F
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
Amateur Radio Station on Columbus
AN AMATEUR RADIO STATION ON COLUMBUS
November 2002, ARISS Europe extended a request to ESA Directorate for Manned Space Flight and Microgravity, asking for ham radio facilities on Columbus, the European ISS laboratory presently under construction. In 2003 ESA's Columbus division agreed on the principle. The project is to install amateur radio antennas on the nadir of Columbus, i.e. underneath the module, facing the earth. The antennas will be installed before launch. Columbus will be transported in the bay of an American Shuttle. Therefore, since little room is left between the module and the Shuttle bay, the ARISS antennas will be patch antennas, flat planes a few millimetres thick. The patch antennas will be fixed to the Meteorite Debris Panels (MDP) protecting the hull of Columbus. On the conical end of the module, where it attaches to the ISS main structure, feedthroughs have been installed for the ARISS antennas and coax cables are run from the feedthroughs to the nadir. The development of the antennas is presently taken care of by the Institute of Telecommunications and Acoustics of the Wroclaw University of Technology. The proposed Columbus antennas will work on UHF, L-band and S-band. For VHF, the surface available on the Meteorite Debris Panels is not sufficient.
BENEFITS OF ADDING ARISS ANTENNAS TO THE COLUMBUS MODULE
The existing ARISS antennas on the Service Module are shared through diplexers and will not be especially effective on the microwave bands. Using the dedicated antennas on Columbus will, for the first time, permit viable ARISS operations on these useful bands.
With the Columbus module being located at some considerable distance from the other two ARISS stations, this will permit parallel operations on the new bands at the same time as the existing operations. The availability of these new frequencies will enable us to establish wideband and video operations for the first time. This facility will provide ATV facilities for School contacts and, additionally, continuous transponder operation. The Columbus module is designed to undertake experiments but may also be used as temporary sleeping accommodation for the European astronauts. It is anticipated that most, if not all of them, will be licensed amateurs.
Different sleep patterns of the astronauts can restrict the existing operations so this "remote" facility would overcome this constraint. To summarise, the addition of these new antennas will provide greatly enhanced opportunities for amateur radio operations on the ISS and an additional emergency communication facility for the astronauts.
FUNDING THE ARISS ANTENNAS ON COLUMBUS
The construction of Columbus has reached its final stage. The ARISS antennas shall be installed in the Autumn 2005. A most important aspect has to be solved: funding.
The installation cost of the ARISS antennas on Columbus exceeds 100.000 euro (coaxial feedthroughs, coax cables on the hull of the module, etc.) ESA initially offered to support 50.000 euro of this amount. Presently ESA HAS DECIDED TO COVER THE INSTALLATION COST COMPLETELY.
This is most welcome since the development and manufacturing of the antennas will cost 80.000 euro. Half of this sum has to paid by ARISS in June 2005. The other 40.000 euro can be paid by the end of the year.
CALL FOR DONATIONS
SSETI EXPRESS NEWS:
We have just heard from ESA that the launch date for SSETI Express and the three cubesats UWE-1, Xi-V and NCube II has now been confirmed as Thursday August 25th 2005 with the next day 26th as a back-up. Pre-launch keps are expected to become available within the next few weeks and will published as soon as possible. The satellite has now completed all its pre-launch tests and is presently back in the clean room where everything is having a final checkout and where the cubesats are currently being "loaded” into their T-POD launchers. Current plans show that the satellite will be packed and ready for despatch to the launch site during the last week of June. The webcam <http://sseti.gte.tuwien.ac.at/WSW4/webcam.htm> remains available and other photos and the integration logbook ( 27+MB) can be found at <http://sseti.gte.tuwien.ac.at/WSW4/express_downloads.htm> SSETI Express will automatically downlink general telemetry at 9k6 on 70cms and it will also be possible for radio amateurs to request specific downloads. In addition it is planned that the 38k4 telemetry transmitter on 2.4GHz will also be available for amateur voice operation as a Mode U/S transponder after initial tests on the satellite have been completed.
AMSAT-UK at The Space Technology Education Conference The Space Technology Education Conference (STEC2005) took place at Aarlborg university in northern Denmark over the 6-8th of April and consisted of various keynote presentations and over 40 technical workshops. Over one hundred university students attended from many European countries and many came as a result of direct ESA sponsorship that they received having submitted papers to ESA for assessment. There was an exhibition and display area and one evening was spent performing seriously detailed checks on the specific gravity of the various Danish beers. The organisation at Aarlborg rested upon a team of students and was largely members of the Groundstation and OBC teams that have been formed for the SSETI Express project. This was done very well and during the conference we even got to see the "control room" for SSETI Express. Two members from AMSAT-UK had attended the 2004 conference and decided that AMSAT needed some more robust representation than last year so we were delighted when Jan King, VK4GEY/W3GEY, agreed to do a keynote on "The lessons we have learnt over 50 Oscars" - this was well received and he was also able to briefly introduce his new suite of link/power/mass budget spreadsheets. These are, without doubt, wonderful tools for satellite developers to use to verify their own calculations in these vital areas of system design. Presently his presentation and these spreadsheets can be downloaded from <http://lmts.epfl.ch/page10433.html.> Graham Shirville, G3VZV, was also able to give a short presentation on the IARU Satellite Coordination Group and described the process that has to be followed to ensure that the right sort of satellites use "our" allocations and what else has to be done in addition. In addition Ib, OZ1MY, the Chairman of AMSAT-OZ, was also in attendance and as he is already known to a good number of the student fraternity in Denmark this was especially helpful. He provided some AO-51 demonstrations and helped Jim, G3WGM, setup and man the AMSAT stand in the exhibition arena. We were also asked to chair the "Communications" technical workshop during the Conference where a number of RF associated papers were presented. Other keynote presentations included one from Prof Bob Twiggs - the father of the cubesat family and also licensed as KE6QMD so there was a considerable amount of AMSAT input. This was a great event that enabled these enthusiastic students to learn about the AMSAT experience and skills and for us to be able to discuss with them their ideas and problems. We have a lot to offer them and their enthusiasm lays the ground for the future generation of amateur satellite builders. One of the projects described during the Conference is called Delfi-C3 and is a triple cubesat i.e. 300x100x100mm. This project comes from the University of Delft in the Netherlands and will hopefully include a U/V linear transponder as part of its payload. See <http://www.delfic3.tudelft.nl/> for full details. A number of the speakers at STEC2005 have expressed a desire to attend our AMSAT-UK Colloquium in July and to give us updated presentations on their projects so the interaction is set to continue in a positive way.
Suitsat Status
SuitSat’s voice greeting will celebrate the 175th anniversary of the Bauman Moscow State Technical University. Other voice messages to be included on SuitSat are being discussed and will need to be finalized in the near future. It has been suggested to use five two part messages. Five languages would be used, each delivering a standard greeting, and the second part of each message would vary, determined by the participating ARISS partners. Students would have the opportunity to interpret each message.
The U.S. team has suggested a plan where schools worldwide might participate in SuitSat by submitting something on an 8.5x11 inch paper, which represents the school, to the ARISS team. All papers would be scanned, put on a DVD and deployed in the Orlan suit. The proposal has been written up and distributed to the international delegates for their comments. Once this plan has been finalized, it will be forwarded to the NASA Education Office for distribution.
Changes to our hobby:
As you may know or not know Ofcom have a consultation period, with questions and ideas put forward by them to the way in which our hobby goes forward. It is important to you that you are aware of these possible changes, and make your view to safe guard our hobby, you may contact Ofcom for your free copy on 0845 456 3000 of the consultation booklet, this is a local rate number. Also Ofcom have commissioned Mori to research the licensing issue in the form of a questionnaire sent to all UK licence holders.
PAUL . 2E1EUB. (AMSAT UK 6236)