AMSAT NEWS SERVICE
ANS-098

ANS is a free, weekly, news and information service of AMSAT North
America, The Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation. ANS 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.

Please send any amateur satellite news or reports to:



In this edition:

* AMSAT Eagle Satellite Team Commences UHF Receiver Build
* AMSAT Activities at Dayton
* Amateur Satellite Beginners Article
* Satellite Shorts From All Over
* ARISS Status Report for the Week of April 2, 2007

SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-098.01
AMSAT Eagle Satellite Team Commences UHF Receiver Build

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 098.01
From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.
April 8, 2007
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-098.01

Jim Sanford, WB4GCS, Eagle Project Manager has authorized expenditure
of funds for purchase of components and construction of four proto-
types of the Eagle UHF receiver designed by John Stephenson, KD6OZH.

The boards will be distributed as follows:
+ One to Juan Rivera, WA6HTP, for acceptance testing followed by
limited vacuum and thermal testing.
+ One to be demonstrated at Dayton.
+ One to the SDX folks for their development.
+ One to be put through the ATP either by Jim, or wherever anyone
else wants to evaluate. This will then become available as needed
for demonstrations or SDX development.

Events leading to this decision:
+ Design by John and Peer review.
+ Development of ATP by Juan and peer review.
+ Assembly of a procurement, construction, and test team of Project
Oscar members under Juan's leadership.
+ PCBoard layout by John. Peer review of schematic to board correl-
ation in progress.
+ Development of costed Bill of Materials (BOM) by the Project Oscar
team. This was a LOT of work, and actually resulted in some tweaks
to the design and component selection.
+ Peer review of the BOM in progress.

To get an idea of the thoroughness that each module for the satellite
will undergo, look at Juan's action list on Eaglepedia:
http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/eagle...e:70cmRX_Actio
n_Items.pdf

[ANS thanks Jim, WB4GCS, Eagle Project Manager, for the above information]

/EX


SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-098.02
AMSAT Activities at Dayton

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 098.02
From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.
April 8, 2007
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-098.02

AMSAT will have many activities for the Amateur Satellite enthusiast
during the 2007 Dayton Hamvention. We invite you to join us at all
of the events. See the AMSAT web site for additional information
and directions:
http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/hamve...Dayton2007.php

Thursday 17 May 2007 1830-2200 EDT Pizza and Suds Party at Marion's Piazza

Friday 18 May 2007 0900-1800 EDT AMSAT Booth opens, Eagle area with
operating components and outdoor
Satellite Operating Demonstrations

1115-1400 EDT AMSAT Forum in Room 1
1700-1745 EDT IMAX movie "Space Station" special
showing at the Air Force Museum
1800-2200 EDT AMSAT/TAPR Banquet at the Air Force
Museum (order tickets from the AMSAT
web site)

Saturday 19 May 2007 0800-1700 EDT AMSAT Booth opens, Eagle area with
operating components and outdoor
Satellite Operating Demonstrations

Sunday 20 May 2007 0800-1300 EDT AMSAT Booth opens, Eagle area with
operating components and outdoor
Satellite Operating Demonstrations

Those wishing to help at the AMSAT booth during Hamvention please send
Gould, WA4SXM an email ) stating your availablity. We
need volunteers for 2 hour shifts Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Also
looking for volunteers to setup the booth Thursday afternoon and take
down the booth Sunday afternoon.

[ANS thanks Gould, WA4SXM for the above information]

/EX


SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-098.03
Amateur Satellite Beginners Article

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 098.03
From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.
April 8, 2007
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-098.03

The March 2007 issue of the RSGB magazine RadCom features a superb
article entitled "Getting Started on Amateur Radio Satellites" by
John Heath G7HIA. It is an excellent introduction to the exciting
world of Amateur Satellite Communications.

The Radio Society of Great Britain and the author have generously
agreed to allow AMSAT-UK to put the PDF of the article on the web
and it can be seen at http://www.uk.amsat.org/

Click on "How Do I Start" on the left hand side of the home page
then click on "Getting Started on Amateur Satellites (RSGB article)"

Note the article is Copyright 2007 Radio Society of Great Britain.
For personal use only - no copying, reprinting or distribution without
written permission from the RSGB http://www.RSGB.org/

[ANS thanks Trevor, M5AKA for the above information]

/EX


SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-098.04
Satellite Shorts From All Over

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 098.04
From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.
April 8, 2007
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-098.04

Ray Hoad, WA5QGD, AMSAT-NA Orbital Data Manager reported this week,
"I am pleased to announce that AMSAT's request to re-distribute AFSPC
Keplerian elements from Space-Track has been approved for another year.
Our USSTRATCOM Form 1 request to distribute the Keps was approved as
of April 5, 2007. Thanks to Mayor Matchett and his group. We are 'good
to go' for another year."

Clive, G3CWV, said, "OSCAR-11 switched ON early 01 April, as expected.
Good steady signals on the 145.826 MHz downlink. This is the last ten
day operational period before eclipses start on 20 April. The eclipses
continue until 23 August. If the satellite behaves as it did last year,
it is unlikely to be heard for any length of time, during the eclipse
period."

A press release by Charles Simonyi, KE7KDP, the next ISS Space Tourist
scheduled for launch on April 7 reported, "In further support of the
ARISS program, Dr. Simonyi additionally will perform maintenance on
various pieces of ham radio equipment on the ISS. This work will include
testing one radio set to isolate an antenna problem with the equipment
and reprogramming the default settings on a second unit to correct a
configuration problem." (via G0SFJ) The configuration problem is thought
to be "one that can be reloaded from a computer via a serial port on
the front of the radio, without disassembling anything. All that is
needed is the computer, crew training, and scheduled crew time to do
it. (via W8AAS)

[ANS thanks everyone for the above information]

/EX


SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-098.05
ARISS Status Report for the Week of April 2, 2007

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 098.05
From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.
April 8, 2007
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-098.05

1. ISB School Contact Successful

On Tuesday, March 27, students attending the International School
of Brussels (ISB) in Belgium participated in an ARISS contact via
the telebridge station NN1SS in Greenbelt. An audience of 200 students,
parents and teachers watched as sixteen students posed one question
each to Sunita Williams, KD5PLB. ARISS delegate Gaston Bertels, ON4WF,
gave a presentation on amateur radio and the ISS to the students who
showed much enthusiasm. At least two of the children asked numerous
questions on how to become an amateur radio operator.
ISB audio as well as pictures are available on:
http://www.ariss-eu.org/2007_03_27.htm

An ARISS contact was completed with St. Michael's Primary School in
Daceyville, New South Wales, Australia on Monday, April 2. Approximately
180 children in grades K-6 are enrolled at St. Michael's. National
television and newspaper coverage is expected.

Glenden State School in Glenden, Queensland, Australia completed an ARISS
contact on Wednesday, April 4, 2007. The school will incorporate the
contact into the science, social studies, art and math curricula for
students in Preschool - Grade12. All students will contribute to a space
museum by designing space art, posters and travel brochures. They may
also design a space station and robotics for a space vehicle or write
letters to NASA concerning careers available in the space industry.
Parents and the community will be invited to Space Week to observe the
products of these activities. Nights of star gazing and poetry contests
will also be held.

2. Upcoming School Contacts

Salt Creek Primary School in Salt Creek, Australia has been approved for
an Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) contact on
Thursday, April 12 via the telebridge station W6SRJ in California, USA.
Salt Creek is a small rural school with an enrollment of twenty students
located 80 km north of Kingston in South Australia. The school serves
the sheep and cattle farmers in the area. Audio from this contact will
be fed into the EchoLink AMSAT (101 377) and JK1ZRW (277 208) servers,
as well as into the IRLP Discovery Reflector 9010.

3. Astronaut Training Status
On Tuesday, March 27, Paolo Nespoli received the basic ISS Ham school
contact training in preparation for anticipated school contacts to be
conducted while he is visiting the ISS during the STS-120 (10A) mission.
He was familiarized with both the Ericsson system located in the FGB
and the Kenwood system located in the Service Module. Nespoli will be
operating under his Italian amateur radio call IZ0JPA.

4. McArthur to Attend ARRL Expo 2007

The American Radio Relay League (ARRL) ran a web story covering Bill
McArthur's attendance at the ARRL Expo at the Dayton Hamvention 2007
which will be held May 18-20.
See: http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2007/03/27/100/?nc=1

[ANS thanks Carol, KB3LKI for the above information]

/EX

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.


73,
This week's ANS Editor,
JoAnne Maenpaa, K9JKM