AMSAT-UK would like to wish all it’s members and followers a very Merry Christmas,and a prosperous new year. Good Luck in 2012.
Author Archives: m0xtd
Seasons Greetings from ARISS Europe
A seasonal message from ARISS Europe Chairman Gaston Bertels ON4WF.
The year is coming to its end. The arrow of time points to the next cycle, which promises to be as exciting and successful for ARISS as 2011.
In the last twelve months, our organization set up 112 radio contacts with the international space station, offering 120 schools in several continents the privilege of a space talk. The educational benefits of these conversations between students and astronauts cannot be over-emphasized. Teachers take advantage of such events and develop science oriented projects. Schoolchildren and students participate to a once in a lifetime experience and reportedly this often impacts on their studies and career.
2011 was also the ARISSat-1 / Kedr year. A great achievement, a spendid success, even if not all functions could be fully deployed. The AMSAT team which developed and built this innovative satellite deserves full appreciation and praize. Now we have to think about ways to improve the use of this type of satellite, also for educational purposes.
In 2012, ARISS partners will continue their volunteering work and help schools on the way to successful space conversations. In the same time, a team is working on adding video to sound for ARISS school contacts. ESA intends to install a DATV transmitter in Columbus. The project, called HamTV, is progressing and deployment of the system is foreseen in 2013. New challenges are facing us. No doubt, we will be up to this fascinating task.
Dear colleagues, to you and to your families, my best wishes of health and happiness.
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year !
Gaston Bertels, ON4WF – ARISS Chairman
ARISS Europe http://www.ariss-eu.org/
Announcement of Opportunity: CubeSat Mission Concept Studies
The core of the UK Space Agency strategy is to lead and sustain the growth of the UK Space Sector. In support of this the National Space Technology Programme (NSTP) promotes the development of new commercial and scientific applications by offering grant funding for truly novel concepts to be fully explored.
CubeSats offer huge potential to accelerate technology development of sensors and instruments in a miniaturised package for deployment in space. New technology concepts for space missions can be demonstrated on CubeSat payloads, delivering a test bed at low cost and significantly reduced timescales. The CubeSat is a relatively new concept, which is maturing rapidly, in which the UK has existing leading capability.
This NSTP programme is to facilitate the acceleration of space technologies up the Technology Readiness Level (TRL) curve but can also attract new players into the space sector by offering a low cost route to getting flight heritage. To follow, the NSTP Pathfinder studies programme is to be released in early 2012 and will be specifically to develop technology concepts.
FO-29 Test Successful
Amateur Radio Satellite FO-29
On the AMSAT bulletin board Masa JN1GKZ reports that the December 23 command test on the 15 year old amateur radio satellite FO-29 was successful.
FO-29 has been inoperative due to eclipse length and the poor condition of the batteries. It carries a 100 kHz wide 145/435 MHz linear transponder for SSB/CW contacts.
Masa wrote: JTA was on at 1422z. Loud CW telemetry was heard. Unfortunately, the telemetry was shut off by UVC at 1426z.
I put the telemetry MP3 file on the following URL: http://www.ne.jp/asahi/m-arai/gkz/sound/FO29-111223142200-142544z.mp3
The command station announced Dec. 24 sked as starting at 0405z. I guess this is typo. The correct time is 0505z. Transponder will operate until eclipse. East Asia, VK and southern South American stations will chat over FO-29.
FO-29 frequencies and tracking http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/satellites/satInfo.php?satID=5
John Heath G7HIA mentions FO-29 in his article ‘Getting started on amateur radio satellites’. Download the article:
http://www.uk.amsat.org/2011/05/09/getting-started-on-amateur-radio-satellites/
Working the SSB satellites http://www.uk.amsat.org/2011/12/04/working-the-ssb-satellites/
Seven Student CubeSats Ready For Flight
Artists impression of Vega launch
The first student built amateur radio CubeSats to be sponsored by ESA’s Education Office have passed their Final Acceptance Review and have been declared ready for launch on board the maiden flight of Vega, the new ESA launcher.
The launch window for this historic lift-off opens on 26 January and ends in the first week of February 2012.
The seven university-built picosatellites, each weighing only 1 kilogram, were integrated with the devices that will carry them during launch – the P-PODs, or Poly-Picosatellite Orbital Deployers – between late October and mid November. Before they could be cleared for launch, they had to pass a detailed technical examination known as the Final Acceptance Review.
The single-unit CubeSats, whose development represented a highly valuable, if not unique hands-on learning experience for the university students that were involved – were developed by teams from 6 different European countries:
- Xatcobeo (a collaboration of the University of Vigo and INTA, Spain)
- Robusta (University of Montpellier 2, France)
- E-St@r (Politecnico di Torino, Italy)
- Goliat (University of Bucharest, Romania)
- PW-Sat (Warsaw University of Technology, Poland)
- MaSat-1 (Budapest University of Technology & Economics, Hungary)
- UniCubeSat GG (Universitá di Roma ‘La Sapienza’, Italy)
As well as the CubeSats Vega will also carry the Amateur Radio microsatellite ALMASat-1.
Frequencies and links for the satellites can be found at http://www.ne.jp/asahi/hamradio/je9pel/esa9cubf.htm
Read the full ESA story at http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Education/SEMG1C8XZVG_0.html
2007 – AO-51 to switch to V/S 38k4 to support ALMASat ground station testing
http://www.southgatearc.org/news/march2007/ao51_switch.htm
AMSAT-UK publishes a colour A4 newsletter, OSCAR News, which is full of Amateur Satellite information.
Free sample issue at http://www.uk.amsat.org/on_193_final.pdf
Join online at http://tinyurl.com/JoinAMSAT-UK
Last chance to hear ARISSat-1
Sergey Samburov RV3DR with ARISSat-1
The amateur radio satellite ARISSat-1 may have only a few more days to live before it re-enters Earth’s atmosphere. Ken GW1FKY reports it’s putting out a strong signal in the early evening.
On the AMSAT bulletin board Ken writes:
I again monitored and worked into ARISSat-1 during the earlier pass and the final one as it entered eclipse over here in Europe.
The early pass was a low angle from my QTH and screened by buildings so I was not able to access the satellite. However the FM downlink was quite reasonable and I did hear someone active on CW.
The final pass as it moved into eclipse was really remarkable and my downlink and the FM transmissions were booming in . The loudest that I have ever heard from the satellite, in addition I quickly monitored the CW portion and someone was booming in, I could not stay at that end of the band as I was trying to make schedule on SSB. Heard someone calling but not able to confirm whom it was as they were not easy to copy.
Ken was listening in the early evening which seems to be a good time to hear the satellite. The satellite is only operational when its solar panels are illuminated. You can get orbital predictions times by selecting ARISSat-1 on the online prediction tool at http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/tools/
If you hear the satellite on 145.950 MHz FM, you can get a certificate. Depending on what mode you copied, send an e-mail with the information to:
tlmreport@arissat1.org
secretword@arissat1.org
sstvreport@arissat1.org
Details at http://www.southgatearc.org/news/august2011/ arissat_1_reception_certificates.htm
There is also a CW contest if you send in 5 calls heard on the 145.920 MHz CW transmission of notable AMSAT people of the past & present email them to cwreport@arissat1.org
ARISSat-1 CW Contest http://www.uk.amsat.org/2011/10/10/arissat-1kedr-team-announces- cw-contest/
Catch the Last ARISSat-1 Telemetry http://www.uk.amsat.org/2011/11/09/catch-the-last-arissat-1-telemetry/
Get your colour ARISSat-1 Frequency Guide http://tinyurl.com/4t497t2
ARISSat-1 http://www.arissat1.org/
AMSAT-UK 
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