AMSAT News

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)

Frank Karnauskas, N1UW, Elected AMSAT Vice President – Development

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On June 18th, the AMSAT Board of Directors elected Frank Karnauskas, N1UW, Vice President – Development. This position carries the responsibility for fund raising, marketing and public relations for AMSAT programs. In addition to enhancing the AMSAT and ARISS brands within their traditional spheres, this position is expected to broaden the appeal of its activities to a wider market. This includes the educational, corporate and philanthropic sectors.

AMSAT President Joe Spier explains, “The cost of planning, building and launching satellites has risen exponentially over the past years. It is essential that we not only raise the Amateur Radio community’s financial participation in these programs, we need to enlist the support of outside entities. We can only do this by demonstrating the value that Amateur Radio satellites bring to society’s best interests. This is especially true for youth and educational programs where AMSAT’s and ARISS’s growth lies.”

Frank comes to this position with a forty-five year career as a sales and marketing executive in the consumer and industrial markets. He was first licensed in 1963 and has been a long-term member of AMSAT and the ARRL. Frank also contributes to AMSAT as an AMSAT News Service Rotating Editor.

Frank Karnauskas, N1UW

AMSAT President Joe Spier, K6WAO, Awarded Russian E.T. Krenkel Medal

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AMSAT President Joe Spier, K6WAO

AMSAT President and ARRL Life Member Joe Spier, K6WAO, has been awarded the Russian E.T. Krenkel Medal, a prestigious award granted to individuals and organizations for outstanding global contributions to Amateur Radio.

Joe Spier, K6WAO is a long time supporter of Amateur Radio in Space and international cooperation. K6WAO is the President of the Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation (AMSAT). He has also served AMSAT as Executive Vice President, and Vice President, Educational Relations.

He is a long term supporter of Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) and scientific, technical, engineering, and mathematics education. Spier is an AMSAT Life Member. He also is a Life Member of American Radio Relay League (ARRL) and the Society of Amateur Radio Astronomers (SARA).

The award’s namesake, Ernst Teodorovich Krenkel, was a radio amateur who, over the years, used the call signs RAEM, U3AA, and UA3AA. Born in Poland, Krenkel was an Arctic explorer who took part in the first Soviet “drifting station,” North Pole-1. He was made a “Hero of the Soviet Union” in 1938 for his exploits.

Krenkel’s son, T.E. Krenkel, is among the four signatories to the award certificate. The younger Krenkel, a professor at the Moscow Technical College of Telecommunication and Informatics, said his father was an avid radio amateur who served as the first chairman of the Central Radio Club in the USSR.

Krenkel’s image appears on postage stamps from the USSR and Russia, and he authored a biography entitled My Callsign is RAEM. In the era when all radio amateurs received QSL cards via Box 88, Moscow, Krenkel was allowed to have his own postal address on his QSLs and was issued the non-standard RAEM call sign.

Information about the Krenkel Medal can be found at: http://krenkelmedal.org/index.php?id=49

[ANS thanks the Russian National Academy of Researches and Discoveries for the above information]

The E.T. Krenkel Medal