Category: Ham Satellite news

Hi AMSATs,

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has
informed me that the best way to work HAMSAT is with
linear antennas.ISRO who made the satellite has designed the HAMSAT with circular up and downlink.

With the use of linear antennas the loss with be always 3dB, even with polarization changes due to faraday rotation.

When the ground station uses circular polarization the
losses will be in the order of 0 to 20dB.

0 dB when polarization is same, and up to 20dB when
polarization changes totally.

When using circular polarization the groundstation need to be able to change between RHCP and LHCP.

Because this is not in the power of most hams, a
linear antenna is a very good option.It will give only a 3dB loss over a more high-tech switcheable station.

With the high level downlink signals, and the
sensitive uplink the 3dB loss should be not a problem
at all.

Klla: amsat

Den 29:e juni var det ett r sedan Echo AO-51 kom upp. Fljande kan vi lsa frn ANS:

June 29th will mark the 1-year anniversary of the Launch of Echo. On June 29, 2004, Echo, now AO-51, was launched from Baikonur, Kazakhstan, on top of a Dnepr launch vehicle. Echo was one of 8 satellites which were placed into Sun Synchronous Orbit during this launch. After approximately a month of commissioning and testing, the satellite was placed into amateur radio service.

Much more information about the history of Echo is available in Gould Smith s (WA4SXM) book, AO-51 Development, Operations, and Specifications, available from AMSAT-NA.

I hope everyone has enjoyed the first year of Echo s in-orbit life, the wide variety of modes and experiments that have been operated to date on the satellite, and are looking forward to many more opportunities with Echo in the years ahead. If you use and enjoy Echo please consider joining AMSAT-NA, or your Country s AMSAT organization. It is one way that we can continue to do what we enjoy; make contacts via Amateur Radio Satellites.

Klla: ANS, Mike, KE4AZN

Hr kommer frsta keplerdata fr SSETI:

SSETI1
1 33001U 05066C 05237.44790000 -.00000001 00000-0 10000-4 0 16
2 33001 98.1900 134.5000 0000001 0.0000 0.0000 14.60830000 00013

Dessa kan dock komma att ndras nrmare startdatum.

P deras hemsida kommer det lggas ut information hur man tar emot telemtrin frn satelliten.

SSETI hemsida

Klla: ANS

Nu r det nra fr SSETI Express att komma upp:

The launch date for SSETI Express and three cubesats
has now been confirmed as 25 August, with the next day,
the 26th, as a back-up.

The satellite has now completed all its pre-launch tests
and is presently back in the clean room where everything
is having a final checkout and where the cubesats are being
loaded into their launchers.

Current plans show that the satellite will be packed and
ready for despatch to the launch site during the last week
of June.

SSETI Express will automatically downlink general telemetry
at 9K6 on 70cm and it will also be possible for amateurs to
request specific downloads.

It is planned that the 38K4 telemetry transmitter on 2.4GHz
will also be available for amateur voice operation as a Mode
U/S transponder after initial tests on the satellite have been
completed.

AMSAT-UK provided the 2.4GHz transmitter for the satellite
and a presentation on SSETI Express will be given at the
AMSAT-UK Space Colloquium to be held from 29 to 31 July at
the University of Surrey in Guildford. All amateurs and SWLs are welcome to attend.

Klla: ANS-163

Delivery of Suitsat Hardware to NASA JSC

All,

I am proud to announce that today the ARISS-US team has delivered their portion of the Suitsat hardware to the NASA Johnson Space Center.

NASA is in the process of shipping this hardware to Energia in Russia where it is expected to be certified and
integrated with the Russian team s Suitsat equipment for eventual launch on the 19P Progress launch vehicle in the August/September 2005 timeframe.

The Suitsat amateur radio system, coupled with a school artwork DVD project that will be delivered later this month, is planned to be installed in an outdated Russian Orlon spacesuit in late September.It will then be deployed from the ISS during an Extra Vehicular Activity (EVA, or spacewalk).

The Suitsat amateur radio system will beam down special messages and an SSTV image from within the Orlon space suit as it floats in space.

Suitsat radio system will allow hams and students to track the suit and decode specialinternational messages, space suit telemetry, and a pre-programmed Slow Scan TV image through its specially-built digital voice messaging system and amateur radio transmitter.

As built, Suitsat will be a transmit-only capability that will run on the space suit s battery power.

The idea for Suitsat was first conceived by the ARISS-Russia team, led by Sergey Samburov, RV3DR, and was extensively discussed at the joint AMSAT Symposium/ARISS International Partner meeting in October 2004. The
project, also called Radioskaf or Radio Sputnik in Russia, is being led by project manager A. P. Alexandrov and Deputy Project Manager A. Poleshuk from RSC Energia, located in Korolev (Moscow area) Russia.

On the US side, the hardware project development was led by Lou McFadin, W5DID.

Since October the Suitsat design concept matured and evolved due to the challenging development time
constraints.A joint NASA letter, allowing the ARISS team to proceed forward with the Suitsat project was signed on
May 10, 2005.

In the four short weeks since that letter was signed, the US project team, has designed, built and tested a simple, yet fully featured system that we hope will inspire hams and students around the world.

On behalf of the ARISS International team, I want to congratulate the Suitsat hardware development team for their Can Do spirit and ability to deliver the Suitsat hardware on such a very challenging schedule.

Congratulations!!!!!

Frank H. Bauer, KA3HDO
ARISS International Chairman
AMSAT V.P. for Human Spaceflight Programs

Klla: www

Now members of AMSAT-SM can download AMSAT-OZ Journal from our homepage for free!