amsat admin Marc Franco, N2UO, provided these photos showing the mechanical prototype of the 5.7 GHz LNA that AMSAT is developing for the P5 (lunar) and P4B (geosynchronous) satellites.
(Unfortunately, due to ITAR restrictions, we cannot share any more details.)
The RadFxSat (Fox-1B) launch date has been moved, and is now scheduled for March 16, 2017.
RadFxSat will ride as one of the ELaNa XIV secondary payloads aboard the NASA JPSS-1 launch on a ULA Delta II rocket.
The launch will be at Vandenberg AFB, California. It is one of only two remaining Delta II planned to be launched.
The RadFxSat mission is a partnership with Vanderbilt Institute for Space and Defense Electronics (ISDE) that will study space radiation effects on commercial off the shelf memory. The experiments are carried aboard the AMSAT Fox-1B CubeSat and experiment data will be carried in the subaudible telemetry stream of the Fox-1B FM repeater along with the CubeSat telemetry data. The telemetry can be decoded and displayed with the AMSAT FoxTelem software.
[ANS thanks Jerry Buxton, N0JY AMSAT Vice President, Engineering
for the above information]
A few reminders regarding upcoming AMSAT-NA Events:
1. Ballots for the Board of Directors election are due at the AMSAT-NA office in one week (September 15, 2016). Please mail your ballots in today. Ballots that arrive after the close of business on September 15th will not be counted.
2. The 2016 AMSAT-NA Space Symposium and General Meeting will be held aboard the Carnival Liberty November 10th – November 14th. If you have not yet booked your cruise and plan on attending, please do so as soon as possible. See here for further information:
http://www.amsat.org/wordpress/?page_id=3667
3. If you have already booked your cruise, please remember to register for the Symposium. You can register via the AMSAT online store here:
http://store.amsat.org/catalog/index.php?cPath=39
4. If you plan to attend the Symposium and wish to bring radios to operate, please remember that the Carnival Liberty is registered in Panama. US licensed amateur operators wishing to operate at sea must obtain an IARP from the ARRL. Details are available at the following site:
Unfortunately, obtaining a license for operation in Mexico or within Mexican territorial waters is likely not possible at this time.
5. If you wish to contribute a paper to the Symposium Proceedings and/or present at the Symposium, please email Dan Schultz (n8fgv at amsat.org) with a proposed title as soon as possible, preferably by September 15th. Final papers must be submitted by October 15th for publication in the printed Proceedings.
Ballots have been mailed to AMSAT-NA members in good standing, and must be returned to the AMSAT-NA office by September 15, 2016 in order to be counted. Those sent outside North America were sent by air mail. If you have not received your ballot package in a reasonable time for your QTH, please contact the AMSAT-NA office. Your completed ballot should be sent as promptly as possible, and those from outside North American preferably by air mail or other expedited means.
This year there are five candidates:
Tom Clark, K3IO
Clayton Coleman, W5PFG
Mark Hammond, N8MH
Bruce Paige, KK5DO
Paul Stoetzer, N8HM
The three candidates receiving the highest number of votes will be seated as voting Board Members with two year terms. The two candidates receiving the next highest number of votes will be non-voting Alternate Board Members with terms of one year. Please vote for no more than three candidates.
Please take the time to review the candidate statements that accompany the ballot and determine who you wish to see on the Board. Election of Board members is both an obligation as well as an opportunity by our membership to help shape the future direction of AMSAT-NA.