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Ham Satellite news

PC SAT

PCsat is still working just fine in the afternoons and early evening.

AND in about a week she will be entering a two week period of full sun and therefore full operations at any time it is in view, so if you plan any special travels or events,PCsat should work fine for you.

And since We put it up there for fun, and we have no real pressing need to run the GPS, we may even allow some BBS activity. PCSAT has two fully functional BBS s (just like ISS), but since they are so much less efficient than UI
digipeating, they were never part of the PCSAT mission
and we never planned on using them. But if someone has a special event or experiment they would like to try, let us know.

PCSAT has amazed us, because with the loss of 16% of its solar arrays on launch, it runs into a negative power budget most of the time, and so it has been deep-cycling its NICD s to near zero volts every orbit, 14 times a day, for over 5000 cycles. yet when it is in the sun, it is alive.This will cease as soon as one of the cells shorts or reverses, so use her while you can, she wont last long…..(knock on wood)….

Klla: amsat

Categories
Ham Satellite news

Rymdfärjan Columbia

(ARISS teamet skriver)

The world has lost 7 great heroes today. The catastrophic loss of the Space Shuttle Columbia and her crew was a shock to everyone world-wide.

On behalf of the entire AmateurRadio on the International Space Station (ARISS) team, I would like to extend our
deepest expressions of sympathy to the friends and family of the STS-107 crew.

Today s events clearly demonstrated the challenging and sometimes sobering aspects of space travel. Space travel is not easy. It is hard. We do our best to ensure there are adequate safety nets in place to ensure mission success.

But sometimes something goes wrong and we are not successful.Unfortunately, this is what we all experienced today.

It is essential that we learn from what happened from today and use this information, and our new heros spirit, to springboard us to new, safer levels of space travel.Our
quest for space must continue despite these tragic
losses…just like the sailing and arctic explorers of old.

It should be noted that 3 of the 7 crew members on STS-107 were amateur radio operators: Mission Specialists David M. Brown, KC5ZTC, Kalpana Chawla, KD5ESI and LaurelClark KC5ZSU

On a personal note, Kalpana Chawla or KC as she affectionately called, worked closely with the ARISS team for several years as our astronaut liaison. She stepped down from this position when she began preparations for the STS-107 shuttle flight. We will deeply miss her tremendous support, positive attitude, and heroism.

This is a difficult time for all of us. Let s work together to keep the torch of space travel alive in the hearts and spirits of humans worldwide.And most importantly please keep the astronauts, their family and friends in your thoughts and prayers.

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

Klla: amsat

Categories
Ham Satellite news

AO-40 QSO Party

Ett QSO-party gr av stapeln mellan den 24 – 27 januari. Hr r bulletinen frn ANS:

The operating period for the first AO-40 QSO Party has been extended to 4 days in order to give more operating windows to Amateur stations world wide.
The QSO Party will begin at 0000 UTC on 24 Jan 2003 and conclude at 2400z on 27 Jan 2003. Currently stations from over 30 countries have indicated their intention to participate in the AO-40 QSO Party.

1. Objective:
To encourage more and more Amateur Radio Station to have two way communication via AO-40, especially during the good condition of the satellite.

2. Rule Of Operation:
* All Rules from Local / International Organization is take precedence of this rule.
* Any station can participate, as long as, it has its own facility (both uplink and downlink). No relay / repeater use in any kind is permitted.
* One station is only valid for one entry.
* Station can be a single operator with his/her own call, or a group of operator with a club station call, providing only use ONE set of radio is used (multi op with single radio).
* Use only electronic Log-Sheet (A Software called Logger is available as freeware and downloadable for free at: http://www.qsl.net/kc4elo ).
* Avoid LEILA, keep the power as low as possible, below threshold (if you hear slightly de-sensing when transmit, reduce the transmit power).
* To lock-up the TX and RX frequency, it is suggested to fix the TX and find it by sweeping your RX and call with your call-sign like this YB0KTQ on AO-40 . Never use a continuous tone. And never sweep your TX. (A software for calculating the TX-RX frequency is available on:
http://www.isibrno.cz/~kasal/AO-40Fqcalc.htm )
* If you can not hear your return signal, do not call.

3. Suggested Frequency:
Downlink: S-band, USB
Uplink: U-band LSB OR L-band LSB (only one band per station is allowed during the event)
Mode: SSB Only

Keep +/- 10 kHz from MB always clear.

4. Venue:
Event will be commenced in January 24, 25, 26 and 27 2003 UTC. Starting and ending MA is in accordance with the availability of pass-band.

5. Award
* Special Certificate will be issued, for those who have minimum 20 QSO with different station, and sending their electronic log sheet via email, also sending SASE and US$ 5 via post office.
* Special award will be given to the station with the biggest number of DXCC Countries and number of QSO (DXCC countries is take precedence), provided that they send their electronic log sheet via email.

6. email address:
For receiving the above mentioned award, electronic worksheet in the following format: ASCII text, ADIF, Microsoft Excel, should be sent to:
ReinhardSual@TheTempoGroup.Net

The closing date for electronic log-sheet submission is 31 January 2003.

7. Post Office Address:
To get Special Certificate as per point 5 above, SASE and US$ 5 should be sent to:

Reinhard Sual – YB0KTQ
Pulo Gebang Permai G1/9
Jakarta Timur 13950
Indonesia

8. Website:
All information on this AO-40 QSO Party is available on Internet with this URL address:
http://202.158.39.236/AO40QSOParty2003.asp

9. Acknowledgement:
This event is coordinated by YB0KTQ, and by no means related to any organization, locally or internationally. However, I have discussed most of this matter with friends especially with AO-40 enthusiast from more than 15 countries, which support this event to happen.

[ANS thanks Reinhard, YB0KTQ, for the above information]

Klla: ANS 019

Categories
Ham Satellite news

Årsmötet blir den 30 mars!!!!

P.g.a. kollision med annan amatraktivitet mste rsmtet flyttas till den 30 mars. Dock r lokalen densamma: Telemuseum.
Detaljer kommer.
73 Henry / SM5BVF

Klla: SM5BVF

Categories
Ham Satellite news

Moon Bounce

Hej!

Hr r en adress med massa lnkar och operatrstips fr dom som r intresserade av att kra svaga signaler.

Mycket av informationen kan skert vara anvndbar fr satellitkontakter, eller varfr inte testa ett EME JT44 QSO med en rep yagi? ls vidare!

http://www.bigskyspaces.com/w7gj

73 Hkan SM7WSJ

Klla: sm7wsj

Categories
Ham Satellite news

SO-43

Farewell SO-43 — SK tonight

Tonite sees the re-entry of a very interesting amateur satellite — SO-43(21 Jan 2003 @ 04:37 UTC, in the Pacific west of Costa Rica).

Many of you who were at the AMSAT meeting in Portland,Maine a couple of years ago remember a paper presented by Gil Moore, N7YTK describing the STARSHINE program — Disco Ball mirror satellites that were designed to foster interest in Space Science by the youth. Students all around the world polished the individual mirrors for the
satellites. Gil — who looks like a pirate with a black patch over his left eye — told us that STARSHINE-3 would carry a small amateur telemetry beacon on 145.825 MHz. The satellite,along with PCSAT NO-44 was launched on the first successful Agena launch from Kodiak Island in late September, 2001. The story is told at

http://www.onr.navy.mil/events/starshine/default.htm,
www.azinet.com/starshine/starshine3.html and
http://science.msfc.nasa.gov/headlines/y2001/ast09oct_1.htm.

When STARSHINE-3 was placed into orbit, it became Starshine Oscar-43 as
documented on the AMSAT web site at
http://www.amsat.org/amsat/sats/n7hpr/history.html:

Klla: amsat