Paul Stoetzer

Amateur Radio Digital Communications (ARDC) Awards Generous Grant to ARISS

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Amateur Radio Digital Communications (ARDC) has awarded a very generous grant to ARISS for the Next Generation radio system. ARDC is  the owner and manager of the Internet network known as the AMPRNet. In June of 2019, ARDC initiated a philanthropic endeavor to provide monetary grants to organizations, groups, projects, and scholarships which have significant potential to advance the state of the art of Amateur Radio, and digital communications in general.

The ARISS Next Generation radio system (or Inter Operable Radio System – IORS) will support easier radio mode transition, to enable new, exciting capabilities for hams, students and the general public including:

  • New amateur radio communication and experimentation capabilities, including an enhanced voice repeater and updated digital packet radio (APRS) capabilities.
  • Slow Scan TV (picture up and downlinks) in both the US and Russian segments of ISS.
  • New multi-voltage power supply will support present and future radio capabilities and allow wireless experiments to be conducted.

In July, the Inter Operable Radio System successfully completed a battery of stressful tests required as part of the final certification of the hardware for launch to and operation on the International Space Station. Final assembly of the flight safety certification in preparation for launch is now underway and ARISS is working towards launch ready status by the end of the year.

For more information on the award please see: https://www.ampr.org/g2019-09-01a/

To contribute to ARISS and the IORS please see: https://www.ariss.org/donate.html

ARISS and AMSAT thank ARDC for their generosity in supporting this important project.

[ANS thanks ARISS, the AMSAT office, and ARDC for the above information.]

IORS testing
IORS testing at Johnson Space Center (L to R) Lou McFadin and Kerry Banke

 

50th Anniversary AMSAT Space Symposium Banquet Speakers Announced, Tickets Now Available

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AMSAT is pleased to announce that the AMSAT Symposium Saturday Evening Banquet on Saturday, October 19th will feature a panel of guest speakers presenting “The Foundations of AMSAT” followed by a question and answer period. Guest speakers will include:

Lance Ginner, K6GSJ (Project OSCAR)
George Jacobs, W3ASK (Author, Diplomat)
Dr. Perry Klein, W3PK (Founding President of AMSAT)
Dr. Owen Mace (Australis-OSCAR 5 Builder, University of Melbourne)
Richard Tonkin (Australis-OSCAR 5 Builder, University of Melbourne)
Jan King, W3GEY (Founding member of AMSAT and Australis-OSCAR 5 Project Manager)

The 50th Anniversary AMSAT Space Symposium and General Meeting will be held on Friday through Sunday, October 18-20, 2019, in Arlington, Virginia at The Hilton Arlington. Symposium registration is available for $60 from now until September 15th. Banquet tickets are $55. Tickets are now available on the AMSAT Store at https://www.amsat.org/product-category/amsat-symposium/

Tickets are also now available for the Sunday tour. On Sunday, October 20th, a bus tour will take attendees to the the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, an annex of the National Air and Space Museum. Two large hangars display thousands of aviation and space artifacts, including a Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird, a Concorde, and the Space Shuttle Discovery. Bus capacity is limited to 35 attendees. Tickets are $30 per person. Attendees who wish to drive may also join the tour group. Parking at the Udvar-Hazy Center is $15.

On Monday, October 21st, AMSAT President Joe Spier, K6WAO, will lead a walking tour of the National Mall. No reservations are required. Transportation to the National Mall will be via the Washington Metro.

Additional information, including hotel reservation information is available at https://www.amsat.org/amsat-symposium/

 

DCUdvar-Hazy Center

BRICSAT2 and PSAT2 Designated Navy-OSCAR 103 (NO-103) and Navy-OSCAR 104 (NO-104)

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On June 25, 2019, the United States Naval Academy PSAT2 and BRICSAT2 cubesats were launched on a Falcon Heavy launch vehicle from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. PSAT2 and BRICSAT2 were developed by Naval Academy students in the USNA Satellite Lab and operated in cooperation with the USNA Amateur Radio Club. PSAT2 carries a PSK31 transponder, digipeater, SSTV-downlinked camera images, and a DTMF to voice/APRS system. BRICSAT2 carries a digipeater and thruster experiment. Both satellites are currently active.

At the request of the Naval Academy Amateur Radio Club, AMSAT hereby designates BRICSAT2 as Navy-OSCAR 103 (NO-103), and PSAT2 as Navy-OSCAR 104 (NO-104). We congratulate the owners and operators, thank them for their contribution to the amateur satellite community, and wish them a long mission and continued success on this and future projects.

73,

Drew Glasbrenner, KO4MA
AMSAT VP Operations / OSCAR Number Administrator

NO-103 (BRICSAT2)
NO-104 (PSAT2)

ARISS Next Generation Radio System Completes Critical Flight Certification Tests

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The Interoperable Radio System (IORS), ARISS’ next generation radio system successfully completed a battery of stressful tests required as part of the final certification of the hardware for launch to and operation on the International Space Station.

IORS test bench

During the week of July 8, the IORS, consisting of the JVC Kenwood D-710GA Radio and the AMSAT developed Multi-Voltage Power Supply, successfully completed a series of Electro-magnetic Interference (EMI)/Electro-Magnetic Compatibility (EMC) tests to ensure that the ARISS hardware will not interfere with the ISS systems or other payloads. Testing continued into the following week, where the IORS successfully passed power quality and acoustics testing. These tests verified that the ARISS IORS will not introduce harmful signals back into the ISS power system and is quiet enough to meet ISS acoustic requirements. ARISS Hardware Team members Lou McFadin, W5DID and Kerry Banke, N6IZW were at the NASA Johnson Space Centersupporting this two week battery of tests in concert with the NASA test and certification team.

IORS testing at Johnson Space Center (L to R) Lou McFadin and Kerry Banke

Kerry Banke states, “Since the IORS is being qualified to operate on 120VDC, 28VDC and Russian 28VDC as well as transmitting on VHF or UHF, a lot of test combinations were required to cover all cases. Each input voltage type was also tested at low,medium and high line voltage. Moreover, additional permutations were required to test the IORS under no load, medium load and full load at each voltage level. So it should not be surprising why the tests took two weeks to complete.”

Successful completion of these tests represents a key milestone in preparing the IORS for launch. ARISS can now begin final assembly of the flight safety certification in preparation for launch. ARISS is working towards launch ready status by the end of the year.

About ARISS:

Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) is a cooperative venture of international amateur radio societies and the space agencies that support the International Space Station (ISS).  In the United States, sponsors are the Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation (AMSAT), the American Radio Relay League (ARRL), the ISS National Lab and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The primary goal of ARISS is to promote exploration of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) topics by organizing scheduled contacts via amateur radio between crew members aboard the ISS and students in classrooms or public forms. Before and during these radio contacts, students, educators, parents, and communities learn about space, space technologies, and amateur radio. For more information, see www.ariss.org.

Media Contact:

Dave Jordan, AA4KN
ARISS PR
[email protected]

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