AMSAT NEWS SERVICE
ANS–247
The AMSAT News Service bulletins are a free, weekly news and information service of AMSAT, The Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation. ANS publishes news related to Amateur Radio in Space including 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.
The news feed on http://www.amsat.org publishes news of Amateur Radio in Space as soon as our volunteers can post it.
Please send any amateur satellite news or reports to: ans-editor [at] amsat.org.
You can sign up for free e-mail delivery of the AMSAT News Service Bulletins via the ANS List; to join this list see: https://mailman.amsat.org/post
In this edition:
- 40th AMSAT Space Symposium and Annual General Meeting, October 21-22
- AMSAT-EA Collaborates With the ROM-2 Mission
- VUCC Satellite Standings September 2022
- Tracking Tools for Artemis I
- New Guide for Tracking and Decoding NOAA Weather Satellites
- ARISS News
- Upcoming Satellite Operations
- Hamfests, Conventions, Maker Faires, and Other Events
- Satellite Shorts From All Over
ANS–247 AMSAT News Service Weekly Bulletins
To: All RADIO AMATEURS
From: Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation
712 H Street NE, Suite 1653
Washington, DC 20002
DATE 2022 Sep 04
40th AMSAT Space Symposium and Annual General Meeting, October 21-22
The 40th AMSAT Space Symposium and Annual General Meeting will take place in Bloomington, Minnesota on Oct. 21-22, 2022. Highlights of all scheduled events include:
– AMSAT Board of Directors Meeting, October 20-21
– 40th AMSAT Space Symposium and Annual General Meeting, October 21-22
– Friday Night Social and Auction, October 21
– AMSAT Banquet and Reception, October 22
– AMSAT Ambassador Breakfast, October 23
A preliminary schedule is available on the AMSAT Member Portal, launch.amsat.org, under the Events tab.
Crowne Plaza is located adjacent to the Minneapolis/St. Paul International Airport and provides complimentary, scheduled shuttle to and from the airport. Nearby attractions include Mall of America with Nickelodeon Universe Theme park, Target Field, and the Minnesota Zoo.
You can make hotel reservations by calling the hotel directly at (952) 854-9000. The group code is ASG (Amateur Satellite Group). Hotel reservations can also be made online at the following link: https://tinyurl.com/ANS-219-Sy
Symposium tickets and banquet reservations may be purchased on the AMSAT Member Portal. Log into https://launch.amsat.org/ and clock on the Events tab.
We at AMSAT, are excited to be able to host an in-person Symposium this year. We hope that you can join us in celebrating Amateur Radio in Space.
[ANS thanks AMSAT for the above information.]
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The 2022 AMSAT President’s Club coins have arrived!
To commemorate the 50th anniversary of its launch on
October 15, 1972, this year’s coin features
an image of AMSAT-OSCAR 6.
Join the AMSAT President’s Club today and help
Keep Amateur Radio in Space!
https://www.amsat.org/join-the
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AMSAT-EA Collaborates With the ROM-2 Mission
AMSAT-EA supports the ROM-2 mission of the Romanian association ROMSpace, which consists of a PocketQube 1P (a cube with a side of 5 cm) designed by students from the International Computing High School in Bucharest aged between 15 and 18 years, in what will be the first Romanian mission of this type. This satellite, which has received engineering support from AMSAT Nepal and ORION Space, will be assembled at the AMSAT-EA facilities in Madrid, a city where it will also be qualified for space, with the assistance of engineers from AMSAT EA and AMSAT Nepal.
The mission of the satellite is to take pictures with a 2 MP camera and send them to radio amateurs who wish to transmit them on their ground stations through the SSDV protocol, tuning to the 436.235 MHz frequency.
Maintenance data is transmitted via CW and SSDV packets are transmitted using GFSK.
Once in orbit, the satellite will become the responsibility of AMSAT-EA, the organization that has registered the satellite internationally and will monitor it during its life in space.
[ANS thanks AMSAT-EA for the above information.]
VUCC Satellite Standings September 2022
| Callsign | 01-Aug | 01-Sep |
|---|---|---|
| K8YSE | 2100 | 2164 |
| WA4NVM | 1579 | 1609 |
| K8DP | 1316 | 1322 |
| N8RO | 1131 | 1139 |
| AA8CH | 819 | 835 |
| WD9EWK(DM43) | 696 | 706 |
| W8LR | 594 | 619 |
| KF6JOQ | 553 | 606 |
| KN2K | 558 | 600 |
| KE8RJU | 568 | 577 |
| EA2AA | 546 | 566 |
| KQ4DO | 508 | 533 |
| KC1MMC | 470 | 532 |
| KI7QEK | 500 | |
| N8MR | 288 | 320 |
| F6GLJ | 220 | 312 |
| VE7PTN | 203 | 294 |
| N5EKO | 234 | 281 |
| A65BR | 226 | 260 |
| JH0BBE | 200 | 206 |
| JK2XXK | 156 | 200 |
| DL8GAM | 152 | 186 |
| VE2NGO | 150 | 175 |
| PA7RA | New | 156 |
| GI4SJQ | New | 110 |
| N8URE(EN61) | New | 102 |
| K8WU | New | 100 |
| KO9A | New | 100 |
| W6AER | New | 100 |
Congratulations to the new VUCC holders!
PA7RA is first Satellite VUCC holder from Netherlands and 1st from JO21
[ANS thanks Jon Goering, N7AZ, for the above information.]
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Need new satellite antennas? Purchase Arrows, Alaskan Arrows,
and M2 LEO-Packs from the AMSAT Store. When you purchase through
AMSAT, a portion of the proceeds goes towards
Keeping Amateur Radio in Space.
https://amsat.org/product-cat
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Tracking Tools for Artemis I
Looking for a way to track OMOTENASHI’s 70CM beacons on its way to the moon? Two hams turn us on to a pair of tracking tools.
Brian Wilkins, KO4AQF, brings our attention to AROW:
During Artemis I, Orion will travel to 40,000 miles beyond the Moon in the first integrated flight test with the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket. Using AROW, almost anyone with internet access can pinpoint where Orion is and track its distance from the Earth, distance from the Moon, mission duration, and more. AROW is available on NASA’s website and on the @NASA_Orion Twitter account.
AROW visualizes data collected by sensors on Orion and sent to the Mission Control Center at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston during its flight. It will provide periodic real-time data beginning about one minute after liftoff through separation of the SLS rocket’s Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage approximately two hours into flight. Once Orion is flying on its own, AROW will provide constant real-time information.
On the web, users can follow AROW to see where Orion is in relation to the Earth and the Moon and follow Orion’s path during the mission. Users can view key mission milestones, and characteristics on the Moon, including information about landing sites from the Apollo program. Also available for download will be trajectory data from the flight, called an ephemeris.
AROW also will provide a set of Orion’s state vectors — data that describes precisely where Orion is located in space and how it moves — for inclusion in these tweets once Orion is flying on its own. These vectors can be used for data lovers, artists, and creatives to make their own tracking app, data visualization, or anything else they envision. For more information read https://www.nasa.gov/feature/t
AMSAT member Joe Fitzgerald, KM1P, adds a second online tool, Horizons:
The JPL Horizons on-line solar system data and ephemeris computation service provides access to key solar system data and flexible production of highly accurate ephemerides for solar system objects (1,227,063 asteroids, 3,819 comets, 211 planetary satellites {includes satellites of Earth and dwarf planet Pluto}, 8 planets, the Sun, L1, L2, select spacecraft, and system barycenters). Horizons is provided by the Solar System Dynamics Group of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
Joe says to use “OMOTENASHI” as the Target Body. You will find the online app at https://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/horiz
[ANS thanks Brian Wilkins, KO4AQF, Joe Fitzgerald, KM1P, NASA and JPL for the above information.]
New Guide for Tracking and Decoding NOAA Weather Satellites
Samual Yanz, N7FNV, has created a detailed 39 page guide about tracking and decoding NOAA low earth polar orbit weather satellites. These satellites are a great way to interest young people in satellite communications. They transmit a powerful signal so that they are easily received an inexpensive radio, a simple antenna and free software. Currently there are three operational polar orbiting NOAA weather satellites that transmit image data in the APT format at 137 MHz. When one of these satellites pass overhead, it is possible to use an RTL-SDR with appropriate antenna and software to automatically receive the satellite weather images they transmit.
The purpose of this guide is to completely install software and configure them to automatically receive incoming NOAA signals and process them into images. While there are many variations of hardware that can be used for this application, Yanz focuses on a simple setup to get anyone on the air. Samual’s guide focuses on the software and shows how to setup Virtual Audio Cable for piping audio between programs, SDR# for receiving the signal, Orbitron for tracking the satellite and WXtoIMG for decoding the image.
Download the PDF guide at https://tinyurl.com/ANS–247-NO
[ANS thanks RTL-SDR.com for the above information.]
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Want to fly the colors on your own grid expedition?
Get your AMSAT car flag and other neat stuff
from our Zazzle store!
25% of the purchase price of each product goes
towards Keeping Amateur Radio in Space
https://www.zazzle.com/amsat_g
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ARISS News
Amateurs and others around the world may listen in on contacts between amateurs operating in schools and allowing students to interact with astronauts and cosmonauts aboard the International Space Station. The downlink frequency on which to listen is 145.800 MHz worldwide.
Colegio Tarbut, Olivos, Buenos Aires, Argentina, direct via LU4AA.
The ISS callsign is presently scheduled to be NA1SS.
The downlink frequency is presently scheduled to be 145.800 MHz.
The scheduled crewmember is Kjell Lindgren, KO5MOS.
Contact is go for: Monday September 5, 2022 at 14:47:39 UTC.
The latest information on the operation mode can be found at https://www.ariss.org/current-
The latest list of frequencies in use can be found at https://www.ariss.org/contact-
[ANS thanks Charlie Sufana, AJ9N, one of the ARISS operation team mentors for the above information.]
Upcoming Satellite Operations
EM85; September 12-16, 2022
N8AJM will be working FM only with no set schedule. He may also activate a few grids on the way down from EN72. He will try to post all passes on hams.at
CN74; September 22-24, 2022
KJ7DZ has a roving trip booked. More info will be posted as time gets closer
[ANS thanks Paul Overn, KE0PBR, AMSAT rover page manager, for the above information.]
Hamfests, Conventions, Maker Faires, and Other Events
AMSAT Ambassadors provide presentations, demonstrate communicating through amateur satellites, and host information tables at club meetings, hamfests, conventions, maker faires, and other events.
+ 41st ARRL and TAPR Digital Communications Conference (DCC)
September 16–18, 2022
Hilton Charlotte Airport Hotel
Charlotte, North Carolina
https://tapr.org
+ Chicago FM Club Radio Expo
September 25, 2022
Boone County Fairgrounds
8791 IL-76, Belvidere, IL 61008
Tom Zimmerman, W9TTY, will host an AMSAT exhibit.
+ 2022 Rocky Mountain ARRL Division Convention
October 7-9, 2022
Event Center at Archer
3921 Archer Pkwy
Cheyenne, Wyoming 82007
https://wyhamcon.org/site
+ 2022 AMSAT-UK International Space Colloquium
October 8–9, 2022
Kents Hill Park Conference Centre
Milton Keynes
https://rsgb.org/main/about-us
+ 40th Annual AMSAT Space Symposium and General Meeting
October 21–22, 2022
The Crowne Plaza Suites
3 Appletree Square, Bloomington, MN
More information to follow.
[ANS thanks Paul Overn, KE0PBR, AMSAT Events page manager, for the above information.]
Satellite Shorts From All Over
+ The NEXUS (FO-99) operation schedule for September, 2022 is available at https://www.jamsat.or.jp/?p=19
+ Space is hard, even for the pros: Intelsat said the Galaxy 15 broadcast satellite that stopped responding to commands earlier this month shut down its payload Aug. 31, reducing the risk of interfering with signals from other spacecraft. However, Galaxy 15 continues to drift out of its geostationary orbit slot at 133 degrees West, and “will soon begin transiting through orbital locations licensed for other satellites,” an Intelsat spokesperson said. “With the payload muted, the focus of this coordination ensures ‘fly-by’ procedures are coordinated so that the spacecraft avoid a physical collision. This is a normal part of spacecraft operations that is regularly executed and poses minimal risk.” Intelsat said it has successfully moved all customers from Galaxy 15 to its Galaxy 23 satellite. SpaceX is slated to launch Galaxy 33, Galaxy 15’s replacement, “on or about Oct. 8, 2022,” the spokesperson added. [ANS thanks SpaceNews for the above information.]
+ But sometimes, things just work: Engineers with NASA have repaired an issue with the space agency’s Voyager 1 spacecraft, but have yet to identify the cause of the problem, officials confirmed on August 27. The probe had been sending garbled data about its status, including information about its health and activities to mission controllers, despite otherwise operating normally. Launched in 1977, NASA’s Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 probes are both still active, exploring deep space. Both are still communicating with NASA, despite being launched 45 years ago. The spacecraft are two of only five space probes from Earth that have left the solar system. Voyager 1 is currently 14.5 billion miles from Earth. [ANS thanks SpaceDaily for the above information.]
+ NASA and Axiom Space said Wednesday, August 28 that they plan to launch a second private astronaut mission to the International Space Station in 2023. The spaceflight, coordinated by the U.S. space agency and the private Houston-based infrastructure developer, will be designated as Axiom Mission 2, or Ax-2 and will launch from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida in the second quarter of 2023. Private Axiom astronauts will travel to the ISS and spend 10 days aboard the space station and participate in in-orbit activities in coordination with ISS crew and flight controllers on the ground. The first Axiom mission, in April 2022, featured extensive amateur radio activity. No word yet about hams aboard Ax-2. [ANS thanks SpaceDaily for the above information.]
+ The AMSAT-DL (Germany) Symposium will be held prior to the General Membership Meeting on Saturday, September 10, 2022 from 10 am to 1 pm. The general meeting will follow at 2 p.m., after a short lunch break during which refreshments will be provided. The events will take place at the Radome of the Bochum Observatory, Association headquarters of AMSAT Germany, Obernbaakstraße 6, 44797 Bochum, Germany. [ANS thanks AMSAT-DL for the above information.]
+ The AMSAT-SA (South Africa) Space Symposium 2022 will be held virtually on 10 September 2022 from 09:00 to 16:30 SAST (07:00 – 14:30 UTC). The theme will be, “Space, the next frontier for expansion of amateur radio.” The event will be virtual on the BlueJeans platform. The programme includes a session for beginners and the people returning to satellite operation. Other papers include “OSCAR100 – the easy way”, “A 70cm – 10GHz transponder”, “Satellite Server: Browser Based Satellite Tracking Software”, “The new AMSAT-NA Fox plus program”, a review of AfriCUBE with a demonstration of the prototype flying on BACAR in early October plus many other interesting topics. Full programme at https://bit.ly/3efNdJJ The event is free but a donation of R40 (about $2.50 U.S.) towards the AfriCUBE fund would be appreciated. [ANS thanks AMSAT-SA for the above information.]
Join AMSAT today at https://launch.amsat.org/
In addition to regular membership, AMSAT offers membership to:
* Societies (a recognized group, clubs or organization).
* Primary and secondary school students are eligible for membership at one-half the standard yearly rate.
* Post-secondary school students enrolled in at least half time status shall be eligible for the student rate for a maximum of 6 post-secondary years in this status.
* Memberships are available for annual and lifetime terms.
Contact info [at] amsat.org for additional membership information.
73 and remember to help Keep Amateur Radio in Space!
This week’s ANS Editor,
Frank Karnauskas, N1UW
n1uw at amsat dot org
