AMSAT NEWS SERVICE
ANS-154

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-NA Board of Directors Nomination Deadline
* AMSAT Symposium, Conference, and Colloquium Opportunities
* June AO-51 Schedule Includes Kid's Day, Field Day, and Mode V/S
* RAFT Satellite Mission Ends
* Satellite Shorts From All Over
* ARISS Status Report for the Week of May 28, 2007


SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-154.01
AMSAT-NA Board of Directors Nomination Deadline

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 154.01
From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.
June 3, 2007
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-154.01

It is time to submit nominations for the upcoming open seats on the
AMSAT-NA Board of Directors. A nomination requires either one Member
Society or five current individual members to nominate an AMSAT member
for the position. A director serves for a period of two years.

Four directors' terms expire this year: Barry Baines, WD4ASW; Emily
Clarke, N1DID; Rick Hambly, W2GPS; and, Gunther Meisse, W8GSM.

Written nominations must be sent by regular mail and must be received
at the AMSAT office no later than 12 June 2007.

Nominations MUST be in writing and mailed to:
AMSAT
850 Sligo Ave #600
Silver Spring, MD 20901

/EX


SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-154.02
AMSAT Symposium, Conference, and Colloquium Opportunities

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 154.02
From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.
June 3, 2007
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-154.02

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. The Symposium Committee requests
a one-page abstract of proposed papers and presentations by early
June. Abstracts and papers should be sent to: Daniel Schultz N8FGV
by e-mail to: . The Symposium web page will be up-
dated as more information becomes available:
http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/symposium/2007/index.php

The Southern Africa Amateur Radio Satellite Association will be
holding its annual space communications conference in Gauteng on
Saturday 23 June 2007. The theme of the conference is "Space: New
Frontiers" The theme relates to South Africa's latest satellite
project "SumbandilaSat. More information can be found at:
http://www.amsatsa.org.za/

The dates for the 2007 AMSAT-UK Colloquium are 20 through 22 July 2007.
It is being held a week earlier than normal to avoid clashing with
the Central States VHF Event. Venue is to be the University of Surrey,
as per previous years. Offers of talks should be submitted as
soon as possible; the final date for full documents to be received
is mid-June 2007. Submissions should be sent *ONLY* to G4DPZ, via
"dave at g4dpz.me.uk".

[ANS thanks AMSAT-NA, AMSAT-SA, and AMSAT-UK for the above information]

/EX

SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-154.03
June AO-51 Schedule Includes Kid's Day, Field Day, and Mode V/S

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 154.03
From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.
June 3, 2007
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-154.03

Drew, KO4MA AMSAT-NA VP Operations released the AO-51 Echo Satellite
schedule for June 1 until June 30.

June 1 - June 15

FM Repeater, V/U
Uplink: 145.920 MHz FM, NO PL Tone
Downlink: 435.300 MHz FM
9k6 Digital, V/U, Telemetry Only
Downlink: 435.150 Mhz FM, 9k6 Telemetry

June 16
ARRL Kid's Day
(QSOs by or with Kid's Day stations ONLY please)

FM Repeater, V/U
Uplink: 145.880 MHz FM, NO PL Tone
Downlink: 435.300 MHz FM

June 17 - June 25
AMSAT/ARRL Field Day (June 23-24)

FM Repeater, V/U
Uplink: 145.920 MHz FM, NO PL Tone
Downlink: 435.300 MHz FM

FM Repeater, L/U
Uplink: 1268.700 MHz FM, NO PL Tone
Downlink: 435.150 MHz FM

June 26 - June 30

FM Repeater, V/S
Uplink: 145.880 MHz FM, NO PL Tone
Downlink: 2401.200 MHz FM

Full details are available on-line at:
http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/echo/CTNews.php

[ANS thanks Drew, KO4MA for the above information]

/EX


SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-154.04
RAFT Satellite Mission Ends

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 154.04
From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.
June 3, 2007
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-154.04

The US Naval Academy's RAFT Satellite reached the end of its
orbital life this week. Data compiled from stations monitoring
its 145.825 MHz downlink indicates that RAFT's de-orbit occurred
between 0200-0300 UTC on MAY 30, 2007. Its final beacon was
heard at 01:45 UTC that day.

Prior to de-orbit the University of California, Irvine satellite
(UCISAT) team was able to activate the XP-217 transponder aboard
the satellite and detected the NAVSPASUR radar net on 05/27/07 at
0602 UTC. The UCISAT team has a website with the audio recording
files and audio spectrum analysis of the transponder tone from
the successful pass. See: http://ucisat.eng.uci.edu/RAFT.php.

The US Naval Academy RAFT web page has a doppler plot of the radar
fence signal and details of the final days in orbit. See:
http://www.ew.usna.edu/~bruninga/craft/save-raft.html.

Henk, PA3GUO programmed a special goodbye voice-message from RAFT
which can be heard at:
http://home.vianetworks.nl/users/ham...ce_goodbye.mp3

[ANS thanks the US Naval Academy Satellite Lab; Bob, WB4APR; Matt,
KF6RTB; and Henk, PA3GUO for the above information.]

/EX


SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-154.05
Satellite Shorts From All Over

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 154.05
From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.
June 3, 2007
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-154.05

+ AMSAT member Joe, K0NEB has produced videos of the Dayton Hamvention
for several years. His work can be viewed on-line at YouTube.com.
His releases for Dayton 2007 a

"Radio Gaga": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1icBxSF-yV4

"You Might Think I'm Crazy": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SL1sB3fBGuQ

Search on YouTube.com with his callsign K0NEB to find a list of all
of Joe's videos.

+ Congratulations to ARISS for reaching the milestone of 300 contacts.
The first contact occurred on 12/21/2000 with much progress in the
6.5 years since then. Thank you all ham astronauts!

+ The AMSAT-UK webserver is being powered off around the weekend of
June 2 for essential electrical maintenance to the building hosting
the server. AMSAT-UK plans to restore service as soon as possible.

[ANS thanks everyone for the above information]

/EX


SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-154.06
ARISS Status Report for the Week of May 28, 2007

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 154.06
From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.
June 3, 2007
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-154.06

1. Successful School Contacts

On Monday, May 21, Toyon Elementary School in San Jose, California,
experienced an ARISS contact. Sunita Williams, KD5PLB, answered 13
questions put to her by 13 children. Approximately 470 students
attend the school. Toyon Elementary is a 2004 NASA Explorer School
with minorities making up 87% of the school population.

EFLS Sainte-Marie SUARLEE in Suarlee, Namur, Belgium had an ARISS contact
on Tuesday, May 29 via the telebridge station W6SRJ in California. The
Sainte Marie School is located in Suarlee, a village in Wallonia, the
French speaking region of Belgium. Sixty-five children, ages 3 - 12 attend
the school. There are nineteen 10 - 12 year olds in the class who will
participate in the question and answer session with the ISS. The students
were excited to be participating in this contact and have been studying
the distances between the planets of the solar system. They have also
been using the Internet and newspapers to gather information about recent
space activities.

NASA Johnson Space Center (Gilruth) Teacher to Teacher Workshop had an
ARISS contact on Thursday, May 31 via the telebridge station WH6PN in
Hawaii. Approximately 250 K-12 teachers from across the country parti-
cipated in many sessions throughout the two day workshop including
Constructive Chaos, Correcting Misconceptions in Science, Engineering
Your Way to the Moon, Mars, and Beyond-CEV, Hooked on Math, NASA STS-118
Engineering Challenge, NCLB: Past, Present, and Future, Analogical Reason-
ing: Real-World Examples for Scientific Concepts, Engineering Design
Challenges Program, NASA in Every Child's World, Robotics, and many more.
The event is a partnership between NASA and the U.S. Dept. of Education.

2. ARRL Covers ARISS Activities

Published in the American Radio Relay League (ARRL) QST June issue (p. 24)
is a letter to the editor about how John Spasojevich, K9COE, radio contact
coordinator of the Boulder Hill Elementary School's ARISS contact, is still
getting letters commending him on the event, from the school board, village
officials, and parents. In addition, the children who participated in the
contact are still wearing their ARISS t-shirts. The event took place on
March 6, 2007.

ARRL's June QST (p. 78) also ran a column about space participant Charles
Simonyi, KE7KDP, and his ARISS work. The article included a photo of him
with cosmonauts Oleg Kotov and Fyodor Yurchikhin.

3. Kenwood Radio Status

On Monday, May 21, Sunita Williams, KD5PLB, was able to restore a few
commonly used configurations in the Kenwood radio. One of the modes that
was partially restored was the packet system, although the operations will
be on 145.825 simplex. Configurations of general voice communications and
those used to support school contacts were also saved. A full restoration
of the radio is required for a fully functional radio system. This requires
access to a computer system and certification of the required software.

[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