AMSAT NEWS SERVICE
ANS-220

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/postorius/lists/ans.amsat.org/

In this edition:

• Debugging AO-109: An Update
• AO-92 Returned to Service for Daylight Operations Only
• VUCC Awards-Endorsements for August 1, 2021
• ARISS News
• Upcoming Satellite Operations
• Hamfests, Conventions, Maker Faires, and Other Events
• Satellite Shorts From All Over

ANS-220 AMSAT News Service Weekly Bulletins

To: All RADIO AMATEURS
From: Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation
712 H Street NE, Suite 1653
Washington, DC 20002

DATE 2021 Aug 08

Debugging AO-109: An Update

Introduction

At the end of our article in the May/June AMSAT Journal, we said “By the time you read this, AO109 may be opened for general amateur use.” The opening announcement, in fact, came on July 19, just shortly after the Journal was available. Very shortly after that, we started getting reports that some SatNOGS stations had seen telemetry signal from AO-109 as early as May 2021. Chris, G0KLA managed to partially decode one frame from SatNOGS. It was hard work and there were too many errors for our Forward Error Correction algorithm to fix, but by ignoring errors, we could see some data; however we had to guess which data was wrong.

We asked for more people to try to get telemetry, and we were pleased to receive 29 frames over several days from W7KKE, W7FWF, and K8DP. Thanks so much to all of them! Thanks to them we can now say a few more things about the AO-109 situation.

What we have seen and learned from telemetry

First the telemetry we have received confirms what we inferred from our earlier experiments:

• The antenna telemetry shows that they are open (more on that later)
• AO-109 is in transponder mode
• AO-109 does receive commands successfully, especially from a strong command station

In addition, telemetry shows some other anomalies that let us make better hypotheses for other behavior that we have seen.

• First the telemetry IS working, which tends to exonerate the telemetry modulator and software.
• The transmitter is sending telemetry with power output between 6 and 8 mW. You can compare this to our pre-launch testing which showed power output of somewhat over 100mW, as designed.
• The power amplifier current is higher than expected based on pre-launch testing.
• The min/max telemetry shows that the maximum power output since launch was about 440mW implying that the transmitter was likely working immediately after launch. (During the attempted early commissioning period, we tried both transponding, and increasing the telemetry gain, which could explain the relatively high power output.)
• It is even more clear seeing the telemetry downlink on a waterfall that the signal
strength varies cyclically. The period seems to be around 25 seconds.

After a discussion with Dan W9EQ, one of our transmitter engineers, we believe a reasonable hypothesis for the low power is that one of the dual power amplifier chips has failed shorted. This not only increases the current to the PA, but reduces the power available to the other PA chip. Dan also hypothesizes that running high power into a poorly deployed antenna might cause the blowout, although it is still hard to understand why we initially had no reception at all. Note that even if the 70cm antenna was not fully deployed, it does not cross over itself to make it electrically shorter even when stowed.

Since getting this telemetry, we commanded higher output from the telemetry modulator into the mixer and power amplifier, but saw essentially no change in the output power telemetry. According to W9EQ, this is to be expected with a shorted PA. (It may imply that 8mW is the highest to expect from the transponder as well).

As we hypothesized in the last paper, the cyclic strength of the telemetry beacon could be explained by the antenna being only partly released and blocked by the satellite part of the time as the satellite rotates. Similarly, if the receive antenna were only partly released, it would make commanding difficult for the same reason.

One further hypothesis: Carl, N3MIM proposed that the Nitinol wire used for our antennas was too cold to fully restore to its original shape after it was released. This could explain why both receive and transmit have problems, but does not explain why this satellite in particular should have problems that the other Foxes did not.

Vanderbilt University Experiment Data

As we said in the previous article, one of our goals is to provide data for the Vanderbilt University COTS radiation experiment. This experiment not only funded the AO-109 flight but also will, in the long term, provide great information for satellite builders who can only afford common off-the-shelf parts in their birds. We are happy to say that we have been able to provide some data for Vanderbilt. Of course, more data over a longer period will be that much better, but at least Vanderbilt is getting something.

Where is the data?

The data from AO-109 is on AMSAT server at the same location as all Fox data. You can see the entire dataset by using FoxTelem and downloading Fox-1E (the latest versions of FoxTelem do not require you to download all the other satellites.) You will see that despite having only 29 frames, there are a lot more health records than that in the WOD tab. This is because of AO-109’s new capability: Whole Orbit Data, which captures a full set of health data every 60 seconds, stores it in memory, and transmits several of these WOD data payloads in each frame. Similarly, Vanderbilt data is stored as WOD, so more science information than you might expect is also available.

In addition, you can see the AMSAT web page for AO-109 health at https://www.amsat.org/tlm/health.php?id=5&port=

Telemetry Reception

Unfortunately, it seems that it requires a fairly “hefty” station to receive AO-109 telemetry. A normal end-mounted M2 LEO Pack, for example, is not enough. Everyone we have seen who has been successful has had a longer yagi, a preamp, and short coax. One person felt that the ability to reverse circular polarity also helped. Several SatNOGS stations have received a signal, but so far we have not been able to cleanly decode any of them.

Both for Vanderbilt University and for our own engineering testing, we would really appreciate even a few frames of telemetry that any stations can receive. One way to do this is to use FoxTelem directly via a Fun Cube Dongle Pro Plus (FCDPP) and an antenna as mentioned above. Another way that we know works is to record the IF or AF from an ICOM 9700 that is being doppler corrected during an AO-109 pass. The best chance for useful frames may be to record IQ using SDR# or HDSDR with something like an FCDPP or Airspy SDR Dongle, and then playing it back into FoxTLM.

We continue to thank all of our supporters and data collectors around the world! Please keep trying!

[ANS thanks Burns Fisher, WB1FJ, AMSAT Flight Software, and Mark Hammond, N8MH, AMSAT Director and Command Station Operator, for the above information]

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Join the 2021 President’s Club!
Score your 2″ 4-Color Accent Commemorative Coin.
This gold finished coin comes with
Full Color Certificate and Embroidered “Remove Before Flight” Key Tag
Donate today at
https://www.amsat.org/join-the-amsat-presidents-club/
You won’t want to miss it!
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AO-92 Returned to Service for Daylight Operations Only

On August 1, 2021 at about 16:30 UTC, AO-92 was commanded into carrier operated repeater mode. In this mode, AO-92 operates as a simple FM repeater. The IHU and experiments are disabled and there is no telemetry transmitted.

As the battery condition is poor, please only use the satellite when it is illuminated by the sun. The satellite may shut off even while illuminated if the bus voltage drops below a point at which the transmitter cannot operator.

[ANS thanks Mark Hammond, N8MH, AMSAT Director and Command Station 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-category/hardware/

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VUCC Awards-Endorsements for August 1, 2021

Here are the endorsements and new VUCC Satellite Awards issued by the ARRL for the period July 1, 2021 through August 1, 2021. Congratulations to all those who made the list this month!

Congratulations to Michael McCoy KC9ELU on acheiving the AMSAT GridMaster.

CALL July August

KO4MA 1783 1786
N8RO 1096 1100
NS3L 697 702
K9UO 631 653
N9FN 550 561
AF5CC 525 547
MI6GTY 461 462
WA4HFN 413 454
S57NML 291 409
DL6IAN 154 335
EA2AA 280 314
KQ4DO New 306
AB1OC 285 291
KE8RJU 101 256
NA1ME 225 250
N3CAL 204 214
N5EKO 152 207
KC5TT 100 135
WD9EWK (DM45) 127 135
W3FGP 100 130
K6SFO New 129
KB3IAI New 103
DL6GBM New 100
KE4IP New 100

If you find errors or omissions. please contact me off-list at <mycall>@<mycall>.com and I’ll revise the announcement. This list was developed by comparing the ARRL .pdf listings for the two months. It’s a visual comparison so omissions are possible. Apologies if your call was not mentioned. Thanks to all those who are roving to grids that are rarely on the birds. They are doing a lot of the work!

[ANS thanks Ron Parsons, W5RKN for the above information]

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AMSAT’s GOLF Program is about getting back to higher orbits, and it all
begins with GOLF-TEE – a technology demonstrator for deployable solar
panels, propulsion, and attitude control, now manifested for launch on
NASA’s ELaNa 46 mission. Come along for the ride. The journey will be
worth it!

https://tinyurl.com/ANS-GOLF

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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.

Notre Dame Jogakuin Junior and Senior High School, Kyoto, Japan, direct via 8N3ND

The ISS callsign is presently scheduled to be NA1SS
The downlink frequency is presently scheduled to be 145.800 MHz
The scheduled astronaut is Thomas Pesquet KG5FYG
Contact was unsuccessful: Tue 2021-08-03 11:10:15 UTC 77 deg (***)
ARISS is working to understand the issue. (***)
Watch for livestream at https://youtu.be/4uL-kHi1Bsw

1st Ono Group Hyogo Council Scout Association of Japan, Ono, Japan, direct via 8J3ONO (***)

The ISS callsign is presently scheduled to be NA1SS
The downlink frequency is presently scheduled to be 145.800 MHz
The scheduled astronaut is Shane Kimbrough KE5HOD
Contact is go for: Wed 2021-08-11 08:05:06 UTC 82 deg (***)

Next mode change is expected to take place in late August 2021.

The latest information on the operation mode can be found at https://www.ariss.org/current-status-of-iss-stations.html

The latest list of frequencies in use can be found at https://www.ariss.org/contact-the-iss.html

[ANS thanks Charlie Sufana, AJ9N, one of the ARISS operation team mentors for the above information]

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AMSAT, along with our ARISS partners, is developing an Amateur
Radio package, including two-way communication capability, to
be carried on-board Gateway in lunar orbit.

Support AMSAT’s projects today at https://www.amsat.org/donate/

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Upcoming Satellite Operations

VE7KPM: CN78, upcoming. 9/2 approx.
EA8/EA4NF: Phillippe will be on the Fuerteventura island and Gran Canary island SAT DXpedition. He will use Linear & FM satellites August 1-14, 2021. IL27, IL28, IL38
KE2QI: Will be roving FN44 Sunday. Both FM and linear. He will try to maximize the RS-44 apogee passes for Europe.
EN56, 57, 67: N8MR will be in EN57, EN67 and EN56 from Aug 7 thru Aug 14. Using an Icom 9700, Arrow antenna and SatPC32 to control uplink and downlink for Doppler.
EN12, EN13: W0AAE will be roving in the EN12-13 grids this upcoming week from August 1-6. He will be doing both linear and FM satellites
VE7KPM: CN78, upcoming. 9/2 approx.

Trans-Nevada Rove.

David AD7DB is planning a rove starting August 16 on FM satellites.

Mon 8/16 DM09 in Reno area.
Tue 8/17 DN00, DN10 & 11 later, near Lovelock and Winnemucca.
Wed 8/18 DN10, DN20 & 21 later, near Elko.
Thu 8/19 DN21, DN20 & 30 later, near Wells and Wendover.
Fri 8/20 DN20 and 30, near Wendover.
The actual satellite passes and times are still being worked out but plans are for AO-91, AO-92, SO-50, AO-27 and PO-101.
You can go to twitter.com/ad7db for the latest updates during the rove.

Wl7T – August 21-27:

BP44, BP45, BP46, BP47, BP54, BP55, BP57, BP58, BP59, BP64, BP65, BP75, BP84, BP85

[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.

AMSAT Ambassador Clint Bradford, K6LCS, has online Zoom presentations scheduled in coming weeks with amateur groups in

New Jersey
Central New Hampshire
North Carolina
Conejo Valley CA
Sonoma County CA
Massachusetts
Antelope Valley CA

Contact Clint to arrange other events:
Clint Bradford K6LCS, AMSAT Ambassador; ARRL instructor
http://www.work-sat.com
Email: clintbradford AT mac DOT com
(909) 999-SATS (7287) – voicemail/message

[ANS thanks Paul Overn, KE0PBR, AMSAT Events page manager, 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_gear

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Satellite Shorts From All Over

+ The newly revised, printable Amateur Satellite Frequency Guide is now available for AMSAT members at https://launch.amsat.org/Member_Resources

+ NU1U has posted a tutorial on YouTube for running WSJT-X and SatPC32 simultaneously with an Icom IC-9700 in order to make satellite QSOs using FT4. The video can be found at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QhfUSRUP910

+ The first SSB QSO has been reported via AO-109. Doug Papay, K8DP, and John Papay, K8YSE, completed two QSOs via CW and two QSOs via SSB between EN62 and EN91 between July 31st and August 3rd.

+ On July 30th at 19:40 UTC, F4DXV and A65GC completed a record 5,300 km QSO via JO-97. This is the longest claimed QSO completed on any of the FUNcube transponders.

+ A new distance record has been set on the QO-100 narrowband transponder. PR8KW in GI27pn49rs worked YC5YC in OJ00rl66we at 23:06 UTC on 10-Jul-2021, covering a distance of 17,378 km. More records can be found at https://www.amsat.org/satellite-distance-records/

+ AMSAT Rover Award #60 was issued to Larry, KF6JOQ. For more information on the AMSAT Rover Award, visit https://www.amsat.org/amsat-rover-award/ (Thanks Bruce Paige, KK5DO, AMSAT Director of Contests and Awards)

+ The ARRL has released TQSL config file version 11.15. This update allows QSOs on AO-109 and UVSQ-SAT (as UVSQ) to be uploaded. TQSL should prompt you to update your config file when launching the application.

+ Three videos from the AMSAT-SA Space Symposium, held July 10th, have been uploaded to https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLA7TGecJAILXTwm9HSQ4cw/videos. Other talks will be uploaded later (Thanks to AMSAT-SA and AMSAT-UK)

+ A video of John Brier, KG4AKV, operating portable via RS-44, filmed and edited by W4MPS, has been posted to YouTube at https://youtu.be/8xg5VLrcttU

+ The first call for papers has been issued for the 39th AMSAT Space Symposium to be held on the weekend of October 29-31, 2021 at the Crowne Plaza AiRE hotel in Bloomington, Minnesota. Proposals for symposium presentations are invited on any topic of interest to the amateur satellite community. We request a tentative title of your presentation as soon as possible, with final copy submitted by October 18 for inclusion in the symposium proceedings. Abstracts and papers should be sent to Dan Schultz, N8FGV at n8fgv at amsat.org.

+ Registration is open for the 39th AMSAT Space Symposium and Annual General Meeting, to be held Friday through Sunday, October 29-31, 2021, at the Crowne Plaza AiRE in Bloomington, Minnesota. Crowne Plaza AiRE is located at 3 Appletree Square, Bloomington, MN 55245. For more information, visit https://www.amsat.org/39th-annual-amsat-space-symposium-and-annual-general-meeting/

———————————————————————

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,

Paul Stoetzer, N8HM
n8hm at amsat dot org

AMSAT NEWS SERVICE
ANS-192

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: [email protected]

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/postorius/lists/ans.amsat.org/

In this edition:

• AMSAT CubeSatSim First Official Release – v1.0
• AMSAT FoxTelem Version 1.11 Released
• AMSAT Pacsat Ground Station Version 0.43 Released
• FalconSat-3 Status
• Field Day Score Deadline – Friday, July 16th
• MIR-SAT1 Gold Award Winners
• Long Live PCSAT (NO-44) (and PCSAT-11)
• Changes to AMSAT TLE Distribution for July 8, 2021
• ARISS News
• Upcoming Satellite Operations
• Hamfests, Conventions, Maker Faires, and Other Events
• Satellite Shorts From All Over

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 192.01
To: All RADIO AMATEURS
From: Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation
712 H Street NE Suite 1653
Washington, DC 20002

DATE 2021 Ju1 11

Join the 2021 President’s Club!
Score your 2″ 4-Color Accent Commemorative Coin with Polished Gold Finish,
Full Color Certificate and Embroidered “Remove Before Flight” Key Tag
By donating today at
https://www.amsat.org/join-the-amsat-presidents-club/
You won’t want to miss it!

AMSAT CubeSatSim First Official Release – v1.0

I am very pleased to announce the first software release of the CubeSatSim software v1.0! Along with the first hardware release v1.0 last month, this is an important milestone for this AMSAT educational project.

All the CubeSatSim software and hardware is fully open source. The v1.0 release info is available on GitHub here: https://github.com/alanbjohnston/CubeSatSim/releases/tag/v1.0 and the v1.0 hardware info including gerber files is available here: https://github.com/alanbjohnston/CubeSatSim/tree/v1.0/hardware/v1.0

Thanks to Bruce Paige, KK5DO, we have CubeSatSim blank PCB sets and CubeSatSim Raspberry Pi SD cards available on the AMSAT Store. For the moment, they are only available to ship to US addresses. In a post-COVID future, we hope to offer worldwide shipping.

The CubeSatSim Raspberry Pi SD Card is a 16 GB micro SD card with Raspberry Pi OS Lite and all the CubeSatSim software installed and configured on it. It is available at the AMSAT Store for $20 https://www.amsat.org/product/amsat-cubesatsim-raspberry-pi-sd-card/ You can also download the image and flash it to your own SD card using these instructions https://github.com/alanbjohnston/CubeSatSim/wiki/2.-Software-Install Here is the readme file for the CubeSatSim software https://cubesatsim.org/download/cubesatsim-readme.pdf

With the 3 board sets of blank PCBs, you can order the parts and solder your own CubeSatSim. They are available at the AMSAT Store for $35 https://www.amsat.org/product/amsat-cubesatsim-pcb/

I want to take this opportunity to thank the team that has been working on the CubeSatSim Project including Pat Kilory, N8PK, Jim McLaughlin, KI6ZUM, and David White, WD6DRI. In addition, Chris Thompson, G0KLA/AC2CZ has been instrumental in helping me get the FSK/BPSK transmit code working and has added support for the CubeSatSim to FoxTelem. Yesterday’s release of FoxTelem v1.11 has full CubeSatSim support.

And of course, thank you to the AMSAT Board of Directors and the AMSAT membership who have supported this project for many years.

P.S. AMSAT has CubeSatSim Loaners available to ship to your event or presentation or STEM outreach activity – just contact me if you have an upcoming event.

[ANS thanks Alan Johnston, KU2Y, AMSAT Vice President – Educational Relations, for the above information]

AMSAT FoxTelem Version 1.11 Released

I am releasing version 1.11 of FoxTelem. This primarily supports new features needed for GOLF-TEE development and the CubeSatSim. If you are using FoxTelem in the lab or classroom then this release should be installed. It also fixes several bugs that will help with live decoding of AO-95. It is not a mandatory upgrade but it is recommended.

Specifically it addresses the following:

• Fixes a bug where Costas decoding can stop if audio is being monitored
• Supports all the latest features needed for the CubeSatSim
• Better warnings for tracking and Find Signal errors
• Supports all the latest GOLF-TEE layouts
• Fixes a bug where strong signals may not be tracked correctly
• Supports math expressions in telemetry conversions
• Better handles USB device errors

You can download FoxTelem here:
http://amsat.us/FoxTelem/windows/FoxTelem_1.11g_windows.zip
http://amsat.us/FoxTelem/linux/FoxTelem_1.11g_linux.tar.gz
http://amsat.us/FoxTelem/mac/FoxTelem_1.11g_mac.tar.gz

Feel free to reach out to me with questions or comments.

[ANS thanks Chris Thompson, G0KLA/AC2CZ, AMSAT FoxTelem Developer, for the above information]

AMSAT Pacsat Ground Station Version 0.43 Released

I’m releasing an update to the Pacsat Ground Station. This version:

• Parses the MO-112 FailSafe beacons and saves them for analysis.
• Fixes a bug where FalconSat-3 telemetry data could not be downloaded from the server
• Defaults FalconSat-3 to not check Pacsat File Header checksums. This was annoying for partially downloaded files.

You can download it here:
https://www.g0kla.com/pacsat/index.php

[ANS thanks Chris Thompson, G0KLA/AC2CZ, AMSAT Pacsat Ground Station Developer, for the above information]

FalconSat-3 Update

I had sufficient WiFi to check out FalconSat-3 around 1200 UTC 8 July 2021. Thankfully, only the TX had gone off and a reload right now isn’t necessary. If I can make the time, I’ll look over the telemetry logs and see if we had a low voltage trip or something, but not sure.

Users—until further notice, please limit the size of your uploaded files to around 10k or less. Just before the bird went silent, numerous large files were being uploaded and downloaded. I cannot say for sure if this is related to the recent issue, but let’s call it a hunch.

In the meantime, FalconSat-3 is again open for BBS and digipeater use – please limit file upload size to 10K or less.

[ANS thanks Mark Hammond, N8MH, AMSAT Director and Command Station, for the above information]

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-category/hardware/

Field Day Score Deadline – Friday, July 16th

The deadline for submission of AMSAT Field Day scores is 11:59 P.M. Central Time on Friday, July 16, 2021. I am going to be out of town the week of July 12th. I will still try to acknowledge when I get your score in my inbox.

It would be nice to get some pictures and a short note about how your Field Day was. I always like to share the stories in the AMSAT Journal article.

The submission form is located at https://www.amsat.org/field-day/

[ANS thanks Bruce Paige, KK5DO, AMSAT Director of Contests and Awards, for the above information]

MIR-SAT1 Gold Award Winners

On behalf of the Mauritius Amateur Radio Society (MARS) I am pleased to inform you that the MIR-SAT1 Gold Award winners are:

WO3T
SatNOGS# 2134 / WesternMA Yagi
VU2LBW
PA5OXW
JA6PL
KB6LTY
1062-CCERES Ground Station
3B8FA
SP7THR-UHF / 2012
EU1XX
JH4DHX/3
PY2SDR
BX1AD
MAUFOX
F6HDW
W7KKE
KC9ELU
LU1KCQ
VK2PET
YC5ABK

Congratulations to them all.

Now there are 30 Silver Awards at stake, to remind the rules: one must have uploaded at least one full valid MO-112 frame to Satnogs and apply for the award by submitting their participation to MARS (link: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdCAAKTMtTmARDwrjIE_Coai1WR9b2zUFjBPFbOghMe63gqdg/viewform ).

Good luck to all for the Silver Award.

Thanking all for sending to Satnogs the TLM’s which is really appreciated and really useful to us.

[ANS thanks Jean-Marc Momple, 3B8DU, MIR-SAT1 (MO-112) Team, for the above information]

Long Live PCSAT (NO-44) (and PCSAT-11)

Some (current) APRS Amateur Satellite history:

CONSTRUCTION: For what it is worth, After 20 years, both PCSAT side A and B transponders (digipeaters) remain semi-operational as the longest running student project satellites in space. Further they were built desk-top style using simple off-the-shelf Kantronics KPC-9612 TNC’s and Hamtroncs kit TX/RX boards. All parts are COTS and chips are in sockets. Batteries are AA NiCd’s. There are no CPU’s on board. All command/control/telemetry is just what is inherent in the TNC’s. Only thing we did was replace all electrolytic caps with tantalums. Having no clean room, we just used kem wipes and alcohol to wipe off all the fingerprints and dust before bagging for delivery.

NOTE: No one should be so cavalier if their mission is REAL and costing great amounts of expectations and money. Back then it was just a free ride with no expectations other than student involvement.

SAFE MODE (NOT): The only thing wrong was stupid thinking on the power budget. As our first satellite, we put on dual A/B systems AND additional 9600 baud DUAL UHF backup link receivers so that we had QUAD backup command RX capabilities in case of failures. The problem was we decided that all systems must come up on power-up in order to have access to all the redundant backup reset and command capabilities if needed and (DUH!), if all was OK, we would turn off the unnecessary backup-UHF receivers and un-crossconnect the transmitters.

TOO-COMPLEX LOGON: That is what kills it (on every orbit). If the reason it reset is because of low battery, then the last thing you want is for EVERYTHING to be ON when you are coming into the sun and trying to charge back up. There is not yet enough power to get the command in to command off the unnecessary systems! Further, the commands required a full two-way AX.25 connection requiring 5 packets to exchange the password challenge and password response. All of which fully loaded the cross-connected XMTRs while trying to recover power.

NO CPU or OPERATING SYSTEM: PCSAT had no programmable CPU. Just two-dual-port TNCs and 2 VHF XMTrs and 2 VHF RCVRS, and 2 UHF 9600 baud RCVRS. There was nothing in which to put SMART-safe-mode power-up thinking. Hence the fatal flaw to just power up everything and command later… duh…

WITH LUCK: But luckily, the orbit occasionally has short eclipses and longer sun side (about 1 hour) which gives it enough time to sometimes have enough power to do a few user digipeats. Though after only a few, that usually kills the battery for the rest of the orbit. We long since gave up trying to go through the entire secret logon process to try to turn off the extra UHF receivers, only to have it last another’ 10 minutes or so until the next eclipse and so that is why it just does its thing and sometimes people are successful, or not.

MISSION: Side A of PCSAT (AKA W3ADO-1) remains operational on 145.825 digipeating when power permits. Same for side B which has a digipeater with a 144.39 MHz downlink for use over North America which at the time was thought would be useful for communicating *TO* normal 144.39 travelers who may be traveling outside of range of the terrestrial network for a while.

TODAY (June 8, 2021), one of our sysops tested the side “B” and confirmed it remains operational. That is why you might occasionally see PCSAT-11 in the APRS logs. Although within the rules at the time of launch, in the last decade, the IARU has officially made notice that operation of satellite downlinks in the old 144.30-144.40 range are no longer authorized. Besides, we never came up with a good use of the side B anyway. (Broadcast an APRS message to all North American mobiles, or special traffic to a specific mobile).

Of course, we learned those lessons and had 6 successful follow-on APRS satellites with only the last two (PSAT and PSAT2) had programmable CPUs (BASIC Stamps). See http://aprs.org/sats.html

[ANS thanks Bob Bruninga, WB4APR, for the above information]
———————————————————————

Changes to AMSAT TLE Distribution for July 8, 2021

The following satellite has been added to this week’s AMSAT TLE Distribution:

TUBIN – NORAD Cat ID 48900 (Thanks to Nico Janssen, PA0DLO for the identification.)

The following satellite has been deleted from this week’s AMSAT TLE Distribution:

STAR-Me Mother – NORAD Cat ID 43640 (Decayed June 26, 2021)

Drew Glasbrenner, KO4MA (OSCAR Number Administrator) announced July 3, 2021 in AMSAT News Service Bulletin ANS-185 that MIR-SAT1 has been designated MIRSAT-OSCAR 112 or MO-112.

Thus, MIRSAT1 (NORAD Cat ID 48868) is now shown as MO-112 in this week’s TLE distribution.

[ANS thanks Ray Hoad, WA5QGD, AMSAT Orbital Elements Manager, for the above information]

AMSAT’s GOLF Program is about getting back to higher orbits, and it all
begins with GOLF-TEE – a technology demonstrator for deployable solar
panels, propulsion, and attitude control, now manifested for launch on
NASA’s ELaNa 46 mission. Come along for the ride. The journey will be
worth it!

https://tinyurl.com/ANS-GOLF

ARISS News

TBD, Russia, direct via TBD

The ISS callsign is presently scheduled to be RSØISS
The downlink frequency is presently scheduled to be 145.800 MHz
The scheduled astronaut is Pyotr Dubrov

Contact is a go for 2021-07-14 20:10 UTC

Watch for possible operation mode change sometime after ARRL Field Day. Exact date and time TBD but it will probably be after the week of 2021-07-12 to 2021-07-18.

Current Status of ISS Stations

IORS (Kenwood D710GA) – STATUS – ACTIVE. supporting cross band repeater operation (145.990 up [67 Hz tone] /437.800 down MHz). Next mode change to packet operations targeting after Field Day.
Supporting USOS scheduled voice contacts, packet and voice repeater ops.

Service Module radios:
Kenwood D710E – STATUS – Radio usually off.
Supporting ROS scheduled voice contacts and SSTV.

The latest information on the operation mode can be found at https://www.ariss.org/current-status-of-iss-stations.html

The latest list of frequencies in use can be found at https://www.ariss.org/contact-the-iss.html

[ANS thanks Charlie Sufana, AJ9N, one of the ARISS operation team mentors, for the above information]

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_gear

Upcoming Satellite Operations

Quick Hits:

VP2V/K3TRM: I will be operating from Tortola, BVI as VP2V/K3TRM on July 4-17, 2021. Activity will be on 40-6M SSB & digital, and satellite.

EN57/67: @SeanKutzko KX9X and @Nancy_N9NCY will celebrate Sean’s birthday in the Michigan’s Keweenaw Peninsula July 15-19. Look for them on FM and SSB satellites, with the possibility of some Parks On The Air activity as well. They will also hit EN57/67 on 7/14&19 on the Yooper Rove.

K0JM, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday (July 12-14) I’ll be on the north shore of Lake Superior. I hope to get in at least one pass in each of the grids: EN36, EN46, EN47, EN48, EN57 and EN58. But this will be holiday style, so no guarantees. Mostly linears, but some FM perhaps.

Major Roves:

WY7AA:

July 11 DN25 daytime passes
July 12 DN27 with a guest Gridmaster hopefully
July 13-16 DN28 holiday style
July 17 DN38 holiday style
July 18 DN47/48 daytime passes
July 21-23 DN54 holiday style
July 25-27 DN64 holiday style
July 30-31 DN63 holiday style

July 11 & 18 will all be planned trips just for Sat passes FM and SSB. I will try to publish passes ahead of time on Twitter and QRZ. The remainder of the trip will be camping in remote areas with little to no internet or Twitter. I will get info out as I can, but I won’t be able to setup skeds ahead of time. Lots of POTA activations on Sats and HF as well.

Please submit any additions or corrections to Ke0pbr (at) gmail.com

[ANS thanks Paul Overn, KE0PBR, AMSAT rover page manager, for the above information]

Hamfests, Conventions, Maker Faires, and Other Events

AMSAT is pleased to announce that the 39th Annual AMSAT Space Symposium and Annual General Meeting will be held in late October at the Crowne Plaza Suites: MSP Airport – Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota. The Crowne Plaza Suites is conveniently located adjacent to the American Blvd station on the Metro Blue Line, providing easy access to the Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport, downtown Minneapolis, and the Mall of America. The AMSAT Board of Directors will meet prior to the Symposium. Further details, including final dates, hotel reservation details, tours, and other events will be shared in the coming months.

Want to see AMSAT in action or learn more about amateur radio in space?

AMSAT Ambassadors provide presentations, demonstrate communicating through amateur satellites, and host information tables at club meetings, hamfests, conventions, maker faires, and other events.

AMSAT Ambassador and ARRL registered instructor Clint Bradford, K6LCS, is certainly keeping busy! He reports a long list of completed online presentations. Think a 90-minute lively, informative, and fun “How to Work the Easy Satellites” Zoom presentation would be appropriate for your convention or club? Always includes are overviews of the ARRL, AMSAT, and ARISS … and pre-presentation questions are solicited and welcome. Send Clint an email or call!

Clint Bradford K6LCS
http://www.work-sat.com
909-999-SATS (7287)

Tom Schuessler, N5HYP, has put out a call for assistance for an upcoming event:

Hi all,

In person events are back! The Frontiers of Flight Museum in Dallas, TX is this year returning to their in-person “Moon Day” space themed STEM event on July 24th. I have signed up for AMSAT and Amateur Radio in Space as an exhibito, as we have in past years. I will have the AMAT Cubesat Simulator and the Fox Engineering model to show off to the kids attending and will use iPad apps and SatPC32 to show orbits/footprints and such. There even are a couple AO-91 passes during the event.

I have already a few volunteers for the event but if you live in the DFW area and enjoy communicating with young people, I would love to hear from you.

Event details:

Location: Frontiers of Flight Museum, Love Field, Dallas, TX

Time: Setup 7:30-9:45AM, Event 10:00AM through 3PM, teardown to follow.

Drop me an email, and I will give you more details.

73

Tom Schuessler, N5HYP at amsat.org

[ANS thanks the AMSAT Symposium Committee, Tom Schuessler, N5HYP, and Paul Overn, KE0PBR, AMSAT Events Page Manager, for the above information]

Satellite Shorts From All Over

+ Congratulations to Mike McCoy, KC9ELU, on completing the AMSAT GridMaster Award for working and confirming QSOs with all 488 grid squares in the continental United States. Mike is the 32nd recipient of AMSAT’s GridMaster Award. More details about the GridMaster Award can be found at https://www.amsat.org/gridmaster/ [Thanks to Bruce Paige, KK5DO, AMSAT Director of Contests and Awards]

+ Several new products are available on the AMSAT Zazzle store, including a set of coasters, a watch, a t-shirt featuring the AMSAT round logo, and more. Check out the new items! 25% of the purchase price goes towards Keeping Amateur Radio in Space. https://www.zazzle.com/amsat_gear

+ All issues of The AMSAT Journal dating back to 2014 are now available to AMSAT members on AMSAT’s new membership portal. The 1969-2013 archive will be added at a later date. All editions of AMSAT’s Symposium Proceedings are also available for members. If you’re a current AMSAT member, get logged on today. If you are not yet a member, consider joining today at https://launch.amsat.org/

+ The 2020 edition of AMSAT’s Getting Started with Amateur Satellites is available on the AMSAT store. A perennial favorite, Getting Started is updated every year with the latest amateur satellite information, and is the premier primer of satellite operation. The book is presented in DRM-free PDF format, in full color, and covers all aspects of making your first contacts on a ham radio satellite. The digital download is available for $15 at https://tinyurl.com/2020GettingStarted. The print edition is $30 plus shipping and is available at https://tinyurl.com/GS2020Print

 

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. President’s Club donations may be made at https://www.amsat.org/join-the-amsat-presidents-club/

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.

Join AMSAT today at https://launch.amsat.org/

73 and remember to help Keep Amateur Radio in Space,

This week’s ANS Editor,

Paul Stoetzer, N8HM
n8hm at amsat dot org

AMSAT and ARRL Field Day are this upcoming weekend (June 26-27). Satellites that should be available for communication, along with frequency information, are listed below.

Linear Transponder Satellites

Make as many QSOs as possible. Note that for ARRL Field Day, you may only contact the same station once on any satellite for points. For AMSAT Field Day scoring, you may contact any station once per mode on each satellite, so you may work the same station up to two times on each satellite (once in voice and once in CW).

AO-7 Mode B – U/v Inverting Analog SSB/CW
Uplink LSB	432.125 MHz	through	432.175 MHz
Downlink USB	145.925 MHz	through	145.975 MHz
Active only in sunlight. Beacon 145.975 MHz. May flip into Mode A or off due to high utilization.
AO-73 (FUNcube-1) – U/v Inverting Analog SSB/CW
Uplink LSB	435.130 MHz	through	435.150 MHz
Downlink USB	145.950 MHz	through	145.970 MHz
1k2 BPSK 145.935 MHz telemetry. Currently in full-time transponder mode and should be active for Field Day. See FUNcube Data Warehouse for current status. Note that the AO-73 transponder frequency is not stable and you may have to tune a significant amount away from the nominal frequency.
XW-2A (CAS-3A) – U/v Inverting Analog SSB/CW
Uplink LSB	435.030 MHz	through	435.050 MHz
Downlink USB	145.665 MHz	through	145.685 MHz
CW Beacon 145.660 MHz. Digital Telemetry 145.640 MHz 9.6/19.2kbps, GMSK
XW-2B (CAS-3B) – U/v Inverting Analog SSB/CW
Uplink LSB	435.090 MHz	through	435.110 MHz
Downlink USB	145.730 MHz	through	145.750 MHz
CW Beacon 145.725 MHz. Digital Telemetry 145.705 MHz 9.6/19.2kbps, GMSK
XW-2C (CAS-3C) – U/v Inverting Analog SSB/CW
Uplink LSB	435.150 MHz	through	435.170 MHz
Downlink USB	145.795 MHz	through	145.815 MHz
May be intermittent (2 seconds on, 5 seconds off) and difficult to use. CW Beacon 145.790 MHz. Digital Telemetry 145.770 MHz 9.6/19.2kbps, GMSK
XW-2D (CAS-3D) – U/v Inverting Analog SSB/CW
Uplink LSB	435.210 MHz	through	435.230 MHz
Downlink USB	145.860 MHz	through	145.880 MHz
May be intermittent (2 seconds on, 5 seconds off) and difficult to use. CW Beacon 145.855 MHz. Digital Telemetry 145.835 MHz 9.6/19.2kbps, GMSK
XW-2F (CAS-3F) – U/v Inverting Analog SSB/CW
Uplink LSB	435.330 MHz	through	435.350 MHz
Downlink USB	145.980 MHz	through	146.000 MHz
CW Beacon 145.975 MHz. Digital Telemetry 145.955 MHz 9.6kbps, GMSK
EO-88 (Nayif-1 / FUNcube on Nayif-1) – U/v Inverting Analog SSB/CW
Uplink LSB	435.015 MHz	through	435.045 MHz
Downlink USB	145.960 MHz	through	145.990 MHz
FUNcube on Nayif-1 1.2kbps BPSK telemetry 145.940 MHz. Transponder only operational when satellite is in eclipse. Likely only usable in the southern parts of North America for Field Day.
CAS-4A – U/v Inverting Analog SSB/CW
Uplink LSB	435.210 MHz	through	435.230 MHz
Downlink USB	145.860 MHz	through	145.880 MHz
CW Beacon 145.855 MHz. Digital Telemetry 145.835 MHz 4.8kbps GMSK
CAS-4B – U/v Inverting Analog SSB/CW
Uplink LSB	435.270 MHz	through	435.290 MHz
Downlink USB	145.915 MHz	through	145.935 MHz
CW Beacon 145.910 MHz. Digital Telemetry 145.890 MHz 4.8kbps GMSK
JO-97 (JY1Sat) – U/v Inverting Analog SSB/CW
Uplink LSB	435.100 MHz	through	435.120 MHz
Downlink USB	145.855 MHz	through	145.875 MHz
Transponder currently active full-time
TO-108 (CAS-6) – U/v Inverting Analog SSB/CW
Uplink LSB	435.270 MHz	through	435.290 MHz
Downlink USB	145.915 MHz	through	145.935 MHz
Transponder currently intermittent, operating for a few minutes at a time. CW Beacon 145.910 MHz. 4.8k GMSK telemetry 145.890 MHz. Beacons currently carrier only.
RS-44 – V/u Inverting Analog SSB/CW
Uplink LSB	145.935 MHz	through	145.995 MHz
Downlink USB	435.610 MHz	through	435.670 MHz
Significant fading is expected as the satellite is attached to the upper stage of the launch vehicle, but should be very reliable for Field Day use. CW Beacon 435.605 MHz
FO-99 (NEXUS) – V/u Inverting Analog SSB/CW
Uplink LSB	145.900 MHz	through	145.930 MHz
Downlink USB	435.880 MHz	through	435.910 MHz
Scheduled to be activated for 30-45 minutes at 22:55 UTC and 00:28 UTC on Saturday evening for Eastern North America. The activation at 22:55 UTC will primarily benefit the northeast United States and Maritime provinces. The 00:28 UTC activation should provide service for most of Eastern North America. The schedule can be found at https://www.jamsat.or.jp/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/nexus202106.jpg
© 2021 AMSAT

Digital Satellites

NO-84 and NO-104’s HF-to-UHF PSK31 transponders should be available for Field Day use. Their digipeaters may also be available. For more information, visit http://aprs.org/psat.html for NO-84 information and http://aprs.org/psat2.html for NO-104 information.

FalconSAT-3 is currently offline.

GRBAlpha has a 9k6 unproto digipeater at 437.025 MHz simplex and could be used for Field Day QSOs. Digipeat via OM9GRB.