AMSAT NEWS SERVICE
ANS-112

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:
* Dnepr/Cubesat Launch 17 April 2007
* 2007 AMSAT-NA Space Symposium Announcement
* OSCAR-11 Report
* AMSAT Offerings at Dayton
* AMSAT Awards
* Satellite Shorts From All Over
* ARISS Status Report for the Week of April 16, 2007
* ARBONET-2 High Altitude Balloon Flight Set for an April 28th Launch

SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-112.01
Dnepr/Cubesat Launch 17 April 2007

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 112.01
From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.
April 22, 2007
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-112.01

At 0645 UTC April 17, a Dnepr rocket lifted off from Kazakhstan and
sucessfully deployed 7 CubeSats (along with 7 other satellites from Egypt,
Saudi Arabia, and the Ukraine) into orbit. Speaking for the Cubesat teams,
Lori Brooks said, "We offer our sincerest congratulations to everyone on a
successful launch! We offer our special congratulations to Colombia on the
successful launch of their first satellite! Thank you for allowing us to be
a part of this mission! We hope that you all are able to help us track the
satellites. We expect CAPE 1 and Libertad-1 to start beaconing by the time
you receive this email, with CP3 and CP4 turning on 2 hours after launch. We
will update the TLE's on our website, www.cubesat.org, as soon as we receive
them to ensure accurate tracking. Thank you all for your help and support."

[ANS thanks the Cubesat Team for the above information]

/EX


SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-112.02
2007 AMSAT-NA Space Symposium Announcement

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 112.02
From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.
April 22, 2007
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-112.02

The Wireless Association of South Hills Amateur Radio Club would like to
announce that the 2007 AMSAT-NA Space Symposium will be held at the
Pittsburgh Airport Marriott Hotel on Friday, October 26 through Sunday,
October 28, 2007.

This is the same hotel (then known as the Pittsburgh Airport Wyndham Hotel)
that at a moments notice hosted the 2005 AMSAT Board of Directors meeting,
2005 Annual meeting, and Eagle Project meeting in the wake of Hurricane
Katrina.

This year we are focusing efforts to attract local middle and high school
students to the Saturday sessions of the symposium and special programs by
contacting local gifted and science teachers. As part of this there will be
available on site a fully operational satellite station for demonstrations
and use. More will be announced as this program develops.

Our keynote speaker this year will be Mr. Sy Liebergot, a former EECOM
controller responsible for the electrical and environmental systems onboard
the Apollo Command Module. He was part of the team that guided Apollo 13
back to Earth following the explosion which crippled the spacecraft. For
movie buffs, in the Apollo 13 movie, Sy Liebergot was played by Clint
Howard, the brother of director Ron Howard.

The Pittsburgh Airport Marriott Hotel has fine accommodations including
wireless internet access. Shopping and dining venues are easily accessible
from the hotel as well scenic views of downtown Pittsburgh. Marriott has not
yet provided a reservation code but it will be announced as soon as we have
it. An announcement will be issued by mid May 2007 that reservations for
the symposium and hotel will be taken from the 2007 Space Symposium page of
AMSAT.org.

Finally, the Call For Papers announcement will follow shortly.

Basic Information:

Preliminary Symposium Information:
http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/symposium/2007/index.php

Whe
Pittsburgh Airport Marriott Hotel
777 Aten Road (Moon Run exit of PA 60)
Coraopolis, PA 15108

Phone: 1-412-788-8800
Fax: 1-412-788-0743
Toll-free: 1-800-328-9297

http://marriott.com/hotels/travel/pi...port-marriott/

Symposium Rate:
Single $104 per night (this is a special Symposium rate)

When:
October 25, 26, 27, & 28, 2007

Preliminary Agenda:

Thursday, October 25 through Friday noon, October 26, 2007 BOD meeting

Friday, October 26, 2007
Symposium First Session; 1:00 to 5:00 PM Annual meeting; 5:00 to 6:00 PM
Introduction to Amateur Satellites by Gould Smith; 7:30 - 9:00 PM

Saturday, October 27, 2007
Symposium Second Session; 8:00 AM to 12:00 Noon Symposium Third Session;
1:30 PM to 5:00 PM Cocktails & Hors D'ourves; 6:30 PM to 7:30 PM Banquet
(Keynote Speaker Mr. Sy Liebergot); 7:30 PM till ?

Sunday, October 28, 2007
Area Coordinators meeting; 8:00 AM - 9:00 AM Tour (details to be announced);

9:00 AM to ?

The Wireless Association of South Hills Amateur Radio Club and area AMSAT
members are excited and eager for the chance to provide attendees a great
Pittsburgh Pennsylvania experience.

Sincerely,

Kevin Smith, N3HKQ
Pat Sanford, KC4WTT
Co-chairs
2007 AMSAT Space Symposium

/EX


SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-112.03
OSCAR-11 Report

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 112.03
From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.
April 22, 2007
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-112.03

RECEPTION REPORTS REQUESTED!

OSCAR-11 is expected to switch ON around 22:00 UTC 21 April. This is just
after the start of solar eclipses, which may cause the satellite to switch
OFF for 21 days. In the past the satellite has been very sensitive to the
start of eclipse season, although the duration of the eclipses is initially
very short. Please send reception reports to the address below or post to
amsat-bb. If you are able to record the satellite as a WAV file, please do
so, but let Clive know what you have, before sending it!

If you need to hear what the satellite sounds like, please visit
http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/clivew/ The satellite transmits on 145.826
MHz NBFM transmitting AFSK FM ASCII Telemetry.

Clive said, "I am indebted to David G8OQW, Jeff KB2M, Edward BX1AD, Sil
ZL2CIA, Gene WA4UKX and Rik, ON4GJ for their reports. Many thanks."

73 Clive G3CWV (please replace xxxxx by g3cwv)

/EX


SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-112.04
AMSAT Offerings at Dayton

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 112.04
From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.
April 22, 2007
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-112.04

Remember to make your reservations now for the AMSAT/TAPR Banquet at the Air
Force Museum. It will be a fun evening, very good food and great things to
see. Reservations close Monday, May 14th. Go to the AMSAT Store to make
your reservations.

In addition to free gifts with your membership renewal or joining AMSAT, we
will have a number of other offerings at the Dayton AMSAT booth:

Updated Frequency Chart
Updated "2007 Getting Started With Amateur Satellites" book
***New*** Black Computer backpacks with AMSAT logo
***New*** G6LVB computer controlled rotor tracker boards (bare with parts
list)
***New*** White SS Golf shirts with AMSAT logo
***New*** Blue LS heavy tee shirt with AMSAT logo
***New*** Blue baseball cap with AMSAT logo
***New*** AMSAT lanyards with badge clips
***New*** Digital CD with 1200 - 38k4 test signals, WiSP software and other
digital items
***New*** Green medium weight jacket with AMSAT logo and name/callsign
***New*** 2006 San Francisco Symposium Proceedings AMSAT Journal CDs Arrow
Antennas SatPC32, Nova for Windows, SCRAP and IT tracking software AMSAT
clocks Eagle Decals and Patches ARISS Patches
AO-7 QSL cards

The Eagle area will have an operational SDX (Software Defined Transponder)
demonstration, 70cm receiver, 1/2 scale model of the Eagle sturcture, Eagle
power generation system, Ultra cap and NiCd battery and SuitSat 2 hardware.

The outdoor satellite demonstration area will be upgraded and be working FM
and SSB satellites all day, each day.

Gould is also looking for additional volunteers to work 2 hours shifts in
the AMSAT booth on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Email your availability to


Make your plans for the Thursday evening Pizza Party, Friday AMSAT Forum,
Banquet and booth visits, Satellite Demonstrations and Eagle area for the
latest information and hardware.

[ANS thanks Gould WA4SXM for the above information]

/EX


SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-112.05
AMSAT Awards

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 112.05
From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.
April 22, 2007
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-112.05

Burce KK5DO, AMSAT Director Contests and Awards says, Awards this week
include the following who we would like to welcome to the satellite
community:

These amateurs have made their first satellite contact and are now members
of the AMSAT bSatellite Communicators Club/b
Rafael Valdez XE2PWF
Francis Geraci WB1FXX
Edgar Hoey III N1YXW
I. Made Sudarsana YB9AY

bAMSAT Communication Achievement Award/b
Stephen Ayling, SO5AS, #448

To see all the awards visit http://www.amsat.org.

/EX


SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-112.06
Satellite Shorts From All Over

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 112.06
From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.
April 22, 2007
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-112.06
+ Information received from Techsat's Ground Control Station,
4X6EM / 4Z7DFC reports on software upgrades to the GO-32 satellite,
"During next 4 weeks we will try to add some features to the I/O
file System in Techsat1b satellite. GO-32's BBS's services will
be suspended from time to time. In some cases the BBS content will
be lost. We apologize for the inconvenience to all GO-32 BBS's users.
We hope that after we will finish, the system will work again according
to theRadio-Amateurs community's expectations.

+ The Union of Concerned Scientists has published a new version of the
UCS Satellite Database, which includes launches through April 6, 2007.
This has been posted at http://ucsusa.org/satellite_database.

[ANS thanks everyone for the above information]

/EX

SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-112.07
ARISS Status Report for the Week of April 16, 2007

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 112.07
From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.
April 22, 2007
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-112.07

1. Delta Researchers School Contact Successful

Students from 14 Dutch primary schools, visiting ESA’s Space Expo in the
Netherlands, participated in an ARISS contact on Tuesday, April 10.The
contact was arranged through the Dutch Ministry of Education Delta
Researchers School (DRS) Programme. Telebridge station NN1SS in Greenbelt,
Maryland supported the contact as eighteen students posed one question each
to Michael Lopez-
Alegria, KE5GTK, There was extensive media coverage- television,
radio, and newspapers. Audio from this contact was fed into the EchoLink
AMSAT (101 377) and JK1ZRW (277 208) servers which received 13 connections
from the Philippines, Japan, U.S.A., and Thailand; two of these were
repeaters. IRLP Discovery Reflector 9010 received two connections and 6
listened into the Shoutcast audio.
Verizon Conferencing also webcast the event.

2. Successful Contact with Salt Creek, Australia

On Thursday, April 12, sixteen students from Salt Creek Primary School in
Australia spoke to Sunita Williams, KD5PLB, via ARISS.
The telebridge station W6SRJ in California assisted in the contact.
An ARISS member talked to the children prior to the contact about amateur
radio, and presented Mike Fincke’s ISS tour video and the IMAX production,
"The Dream is Alive." Audio from this contact was fed into the EchoLink
AMSAT (101 377) and JK1ZRW (277 208) servers.
Eighteen connections were made from New Zealand, the U.S., Thailand and
Canada, including 4 repeater nodes. Six nodes connected to IRLP Discovery
Reflector 9010 from Canada, the U.S. and Australia and three tied into the
streaming audio. The audio was also webcast by Verizon Conferencing. The
event received television (WIN TV news), local newspaper and national radio
(ABC) coverage.

3. ARISS – Fairborn Contact Successful

Fairborn High School in Ohio experienced a successful ARISS contact on
Thursday, April 12 via the telebridge station VK4KHZ in Australia.
Fifteen students asked a total of 29 questions of Charles Simonyi, KE7KDP.
Audio was fed into the EchoLink AMSAT (101 377) and JK1ZRW
(277 208) servers, receiving 23 connections from the U.S., Thailand,
Australia, the Netherlands, Japan and New Zealand. Two connections were
made to IRLP Discovery Reflector 9010; 6 were made to Shoutcast.
The audio was also webcast, courtesy of Verizon Conferencing.
Channel 2 News reported on the event. The Fairborn Daily Herald and the
Dayton Daily News both ran articles. To view, go to:
http://www.fairborndailyherald.com/m...=124690&Sectio
nID=2&SubSectionID=&S=1
http://www.daytondailynews.com/n/con...007/04/13/ddn0
41307space.html

4. Hungarian School Contact with ISS, a Success

Puskás Tivadar Távközlési Technikum in Budapest Hungary had a successful
ARISS contact with Hungarian born Charles Simonyi, KE7KDP, on Wednesday,
April 12. Six students asked one question each of the space participant.
Six countries made eighteen connections to Echolink.

5. Upcoming School Contacts

Students from Redmond High School in Redmond, Washington, Charles Simonyi’s
home town, plan to participate in an Amateur Radio on the International
Space Station (ARISS) contact on Monday, April 16 via the telebridge station
ON4ISS in Belgium. The ARISS team will feed the audio from this contact into
the EchoLink AMSAT (101 377) and JK1ZRW (277 208) servers, and into the IRLP
Discovery Reflector 9010.
The contact will also be webcast courtesy of Verizon Conferencing.

The Seattle Times ran a press release on the upcoming contact. See:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/htm...imonyi13e.html

An ARISS contact has been slated for Tuesday, April 17 between the Kursk
Technical University in Kursk, Russia and Commander Fyodor N. Yurchikhin,
RN3FI.The school’s radio club, RW3WWW, was founded in 1965 and is a member
of SPORADIC – the regional radio club and of the International Amateur
Radio Union Region 1 Soyuz Radiolyubitelei Rossii (SRR).

An ARISS contact has been planned for Cedar Point Elementary School in
Bristow, Virginia on Tuesday, April 17 at19:12 UTC via the telebridge
station VK5ZAI in Australia. A science encore program will be employed to
teach amateur radio and communication technology to students in grades K-5.
This contact will be held in conjunction with Space Week activities which
will include a visit from an astronaut, science and technology of hot air
ballooning, a Starlab Planetarium, and a Space Traveler trailer with 20
hands on activities related to traveling and living in space and space
exploration. This contact is planned for flight participant Charles Simonyi,
KE7KDP. The audio will be fed into the EchoLink AMSAT (101 377) and JK1ZRW
(277 208) servers, and into the IRLP Discovery Reflector 9010.
The contact will also be webcast courtesy of Verizon Conferencing.

Scuola Europea Varese in Varese, Lombardia, Italy has been scheduled for an
ARISS contact on Monday, April 23 at 14:40 UTC via the telebridge station
VK4KHZ in Australia. The school’s curriculum includes the study of Earth and
the solar system, living organisms, natural forces, gravity and electricity.
Students will visit a planetarium, research books and websites, and watch
related movies. They will write essays, produce plays and create drawings.
Media outlets will cover the event and the school will produce its own
multimedia presentation which will be passed on to other schools in the
area.

Kingston Elementary School in Virginia Beach, Virginia has been scheduled
for an ARISS contact on Monday, April 23 at 18:33 UTC. Students from all
grades will participate in activities in the Science, Math and Language Arts
curricula related to this event which will include the study of space and
weather. Virginia Beach City Public Schools’ Office of Media and
Communication, Virginia Beach television, local newspapers and television
stations, and Ham radio operators have been notified of this event.

An ARISS contact will take place with Christian Life Elementary School in
Rockford, Illinois. This event has been scheduled for Wednesday, April 25.
Christian Life schools have participated in many NASA projects:
the high school participated in the U.S. First Robotics Competition, the
middle school applied to the NASA Explorer Schools, and an elementary
teacher attended a NASA Educator Workshop. Elementary school students study
the History of Flight, learn of NASA’s achievements and will be involved
with robotics as they prepare for their ARISS contact. The team plans on
feeding the audio from this contact into the EchoLink AMSAT (101 377) and
JK1ZRW (277 208) servers and into the IRLP Discovery Reflector 9010.

Students attending the Samuel-von-Pufendorf Gymnasium in Floeha, Germany
will participate in an ARISS contact on Saturday, April 28 at 14:04 UTC.
The school amateur radio club, DL0GYM, was established in 2003 and provides
courses to prepare students for their radio license exams. Students are
introduced to packet radio, satellite communications, Amateur Television
(ATV), and Slow Scan Television (SSTV).

6. Simonyi Makes General Contacts

Charles Simonyi, KE7KDP, made several amateur radio contacts with ground
stations including those in Hawaii and the USA Northern West Coast. The
American Radio Relay League (ARRL) ran an article on his contacts. See:
http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2007/04/11/100/?nc=1

[ANS thanks Carol, KB3LKI, for the above information]

/EX


SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-112.08
ARBONET-2 High Altitude Balloon Flight Set for an April 28th Launch

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 112.08
From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.
April 22, 2007
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-112.08

Members of the ARBONET (Amateur Radio Balloons Over NorthEast Texas)
organization are making final preparations for the April 28th launch
of ARBONET-2. The second in an on-going series of high altitude bal-
loon flights carrying Amateur Radio, ARBONET-2 is being dedicated to
the memory of Kim R. Miles, N9IS SK, a long time contributor to the
central Indiana Windtrax Amateur Radio High Altitude Balloon team who
passed away March 27th at the age of 51.

ARBONET-2 will be launched from the JD Trissell Airport in Clarksville,
TX which is located in the northeast corner of the Lone Star State.
Launch time is scheduled for 9:00 AM CDT on Saturday April 28th. Current
winds aloft forecasts indicate the ground track of the flight will
carry the amateur payloads into the southwest corner of the state of
Arkansas. If ARBONET-2 reaches its expected altitude of 96,000 ft,
radio amateurs in parts of as many as seven states should be able to
monitor the beacons and communicate through the cross band repeater
onboard the near space vehicle.

The compliment of payloads aboard ARBONET-2 include:

A plain language homing beacon that will transmit navigation data
to the ground on 146.560 MHz in plain English thus allowing anyone
with a scanner or 2 meter hand-held in the coverage zone to follow
the progress of the flight without the need for additional equipment
to process the data.

An APRS beacon operating on 144.390 MHz to report vehicle location
data throughout the duration of the flight and to aid in the recovery
of the packages following descent.

A 70 cm Up / 2 meter Down Cross band FM repeater (445.800MHz Up
147.560 MHz Down) will support two way communications during the
duration of the ARBONET-2 flight.

A 10 meter CW beacon experiment produced by the Richardson Wireless
Klub, K5RWK will transmit a 500 milliwatt signal on 28.061 MHZ.

In addition, ARBONET-2 will carry a number of secondary payloads that
will perform remote data collection functions for analysis once the
payloads are recovered. These payloads include a 4 mega pixel digital
camera configured to capture images every 30 seconds through the dura-
tion of the flight, a self contained balloon burst video system design-
ed to capture images of the balloon burst event, a three axis acceler-
ometer and other environmental data loggers.

Operators are encouraged to submit reception reports from the ARBONET-2
flight to team members via the ARBONET web site: www.arbonet.net. A
special commemorative QSL card will be made available to everyone who
submits reception reports to the ARBONET team.

An ARBONET Launch Information HF net will be held on 7.260 MHz ( +/- 10 KHz)
beginning at 8:30 AM CDT to report the progress of flight preparations
and to provide real time coverage of the expected 2 and a half hour flight.

The ARBONET team encourages radio amateurs throughout the flight's coverage
zone to make use of the payloads aboard ARBONET-2.

Additional updates will be posted to the ARBONET web site in the days
leading up to the mission. In the event weather conditions cause a post-
ponement of the launch, the next launch attempt is scheduled for the
following Saturday, May 5th.

[ANS thanks the ARBONET Team for the above information]

/EX

73,
This week's ANS Editor,
Dee Interdonato, NB2F