AMSAT NEWS SERVICE
ANS-322

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 Maryland Lab Progress Report
* ISS Amateur Radio Summary
* ANDE De-Orbit Award
* Arthur Z. Rowe, N1ORC Silent Key
* Satellite Shorts From All Over
* ARISS Status Report for the Week of November 12, 2007

SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-322.01
AMSAT Maryland Lab Progress Report

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 322.01
From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.
November 18, 2007
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-322.01

Recently, at the 2007 AMSAT Space Symposium, Robert Davis, KF4KSS, AMSAT

Lab Manager and Assistant Vice-President of Engineering discussed the
progress of building out the new AMSAT Satellite Integration Laboratory
in Pokomoke, Maryland.

This laboratory is a collaborative effort between AMSAT and the Hawk
Ins-
titute for Space Sciences (HISS), a division of the Maryland Hawk
Corpor-
ation which is a 501(c)(3) non-profit educational organization
affiliated
with the University of Maryland Eastern Shore (UMES). HISS is located in

Pocomoke, Maryland, on the eastern shore of the Chesapeake Bay. This
facility is about two and a half hours southeast of Washington, D.C. and

is also near the NASA Wallops Facility.

The clean room walls have been cleaned and are currently being
assembled.
The contractor for the fire sprinkler system is expected to complete
work
in early November. The office walls have been completed and the
laboratory,

electrostatic workstations, soldering equipment, and machine shop are
near-
ing final stages of construction.

The 5000 square foot facility will also house a satellite earth station
expected to be installed in February, 2008. The laboratory will begin
to be used with a university Cubesat project in accordance with
AMSAT’s
agreement. The Eagle satellite will be built and integrated at this
facility also.

AMSAT’s Lab was also utilized for a university student project called
the
HAWK High Altitude Student Platform (HASP). This was an
interdisciplinary
program with fourteen students which built and launched a balloon
project
to 120,000’. The program will continue at the AMSAT Lab in 2008 and
will
be able to handle higher capacity payloads.

[ANS thanks Robert, KF4KSS, AMSAT Lab Manager for the above information]

/EX


SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-322.02
ISS Amateur Radio Summary

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 322.02
From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.
November 18, 2007
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-322.02

Kenneth, N5VHO, ARISS Project Engineer said this week, "Amateur radio
operations on the ISS have had an interesting year. After being unavail-
able for months, the packet system was able to be partially restored
when Suni Williams performed some basic manual reprogramming of the
Kenwood D700 in June."

Since early September, packet has been operational on 145.825 simplex
and will stay there until a complete reprogramming of the D700 system
is performed. A target date for fully restoring the radio has not been
set. It is hoped that the access to a computer on orbit and
certification
of the reprogramming software can be finalized for implementation during

Expedition 17. Basic voice and packet operations are working but the
crossband repeater is not available. Future SSTV operations are on hold
until issues related to the system and the radio can be resolved.

School contacts have had a banner year so far with 74 contacts made
since
January 1, 2007 through October 31, 2007. This is the most ever school
contacts recorded in a calendar year. Expedition 15 set a new school
contact record for most school contacts by an expedition crew with 39.
Suni Williams contributed 16, Fyodor Yurchikhin had 3 and Clay Anderson
finishing out the expedition with 20.

The top 5 individual school contact counts for a single tour a
1) Bill McArthur - 37
2) Suni Williams - 33
3) Leroy Chiao - 23
4) Frank Culbertson - 22
5) Clay Anderson - 21

NASA has stated that the next several months will be extremely difficult

with all the activity on the ISS. During Expedition 16, three new
modules
(Harmony, Columbus and the Japanese pressurized storage module) will be
installed on the ISS. Expedition 16 is planned to have three shuttle
flights, 2 Soyuz flights, 2 progress flights and the maiden launch of
the Automated Transfer Vehicle. No school contacts are planned for the
next several months. Unattended operational support of the amateur radio
equipment will be sporadic. Resumption of amateur radio related
activities
should be possible 2008.

[ANS thanks Kenneth, N5VHO for the above information]

/EX


SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-322.03
ANDE De-Orbit Award

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 322.03
From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.
November 18, 2007
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-322.03

Henk, PA3GUO invites everyone to participate in ANDE's Final Weeks
in orbit special event. He said, "ANDE (NO-61) will de-orbit some-
time in the next 4 weeks. We do not know exactly, but that's the
challenge and the fun!

A special ANDE de-Orbit AWARD can be obtained by everyone who makes
QSOs via ANDE or receives telemetry during its final 10 days in space.
Your callsign and achievements will be listed on the award certificate.

ANDE APRS QSOs:
--------------------------------------------------------------------
1 point for each 2 way APRS QSO over ANDE in its last 10 days of life.
Example:
00:01:31:24:KB1GVR]APU25N,ANDE-1*,qAO,K8YSE-6::KC2PCR :GA Doug
00:01:31:42:KC2PCR]APRS,ANDE-1*,qAO,KB2CEV::KB1GVR:G'Afternoon Mark

ANDE Telemetry Reception:
--------------------------------------------------------------------
10 points for telemetry packets on the last day
9 points for telemetry packets on the last day -1
...
1 point for telemetry packets on the last day -9

In total 55 Telemetry points can be achieved, all to be scored in the
last 10 days.

Bob, WB4APR, will set the official date/time of de-orbit. The 10 days
before that date then count for the calculation of your achievements.
But you do not know before when those days will be.

Further details such as shipping costs and the submission email address
will be announced in the coming days.

Have fun - and keep ANDE busy in its final exciting days in space !

Bob, WB4APR
Mike, DK3WN
Henk, PA3GUO

For questions on the award please contact PA3GUO (pa3guo @ amsat.org)
For current status of ANDE:
http://www.ew.usna.edu/~bruninga/ande-ops.html

[ANS thanks Henk, PA3GUO for the above information.]

/EX


SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-322.04
Arthur Z. Rowe, N1ORC Silent Key

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 322.04
From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.
November 18, 2007
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-322.04

AMSAT received the sad news this week that Arthur Z. Rowe, N1ORC
became a Silent Key. Many of you may know Arthur from his email
postings on space related topics on the AMSAT and Sarex bulletin
boards. Arthur was a good friend and an avid manned space station
enthusiast. He was well known by many of the Mir and ISS ham crews.
His last Sarex message was posted the day before he became a silent
key.

[ANS thanks Miles, WF1F for the above information]

/EX


SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-322.05
Satellite Shorts From All Over

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 322.05
From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.
November 18, 2007
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-322.05

+ Clive, G3CWV is requesting OSCAR-11 reception reports. Please send
reception reports to his callsign @amsat.org or post to them to the
amsat-bb. Clive's website at http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/clivew/
has additional information of this satellite which transmits on
145.826 MHz. Eclipses have now started and are expected to continue
until mid January 2008. Although the maximum duration of the current
eclipses is less than those earlier this year, it is doubtful whether
the satellite will be heard for any sustained period. While in
contin-
uous sunlight during September and October the satellite was unable
to support continuous operation.

+ Cor, PD0RKC invites interested readers to visit his Ham Radio In Space
website at http://pd0rkc.ontwikkel.nl. He features a video showing
Brazilian astronaut, Marcos Pontes, PYØAEB using the ARISS radio
gear.

+ John, G7HIA and Robert, G8ATE will award the SPUTNIK certificate to
any Amateur Radio Station who worked SPUTNIK-1 special event station
GB5OSO an any of the following satellites AO7, AO27, SO50, AO51, and
AO52. Details are available at http://www.turlington.supanet.com.

+ Wouter Jan Ubbels, PE4WJ released a beta version of Warbler, a JAVA
1200bit/s BPSK AX.25 soundcard demodulator to copy the signals from
AO-16 and IO-26. See: http://home.casema.nl/b.ubbels/Warbler.htm

[ANS thanks everyone for the above information]

/EX


SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-322.06
ARISS Status Report for the Week of November 12, 2007

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 322.06
From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.
November 18, 2007
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-322.06

1. Amateur Radio Day Includes ARISS Program

The Ontario County Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Services (RACES)
planned
a few events in honor of local native Pam Melroy’s STS-120 mission.
Mid-
lakes Intermediate School in Clifton Springs, New York was one of eight
schools that participated in a video Web conference with Sandy Magnus,
KC5FYE, on October 31 which was viewed by 3447 students and 160
teachers.
The conference received television and newspaper coverage.

On November 2, the school held an “Amateur Radio Day” in which
nearly 300
students and 25 teachers participated. The day began with an assembly,
followed by a number of activities. Local amateur radio operators gave
an ARISS and satellite presentation. They provided an outdoor antenna
exercise, demonstrated tracking software and covered wave theory with a
signal generator and oscilloscope. There was also an outdoor transmitter

hunt, a special event HF station and a “Send your name in Morse
Code”
exercise. An Internet Radio Linking Project (IRLP) contact was made
through
node 5400 in Manchester, England. Media outlets reported on the event.
Students and teachers requested information on how to get licensed. The
radio club will supply Technician License Manuals to the school’s
library.

2. DLN ARISS Module

Johnson Space Center is developing a module on the ARISS program for the

Digital Learning Network (DLN). The module will incorporate ARISS lesson

plans. Thousands of school children are reached through DLN each year.

[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