[ANS] ANS-324 AMSAT News Service Weekly Bulletins

[Mark Johns, K0JM]

AMSAT NEWS SERVICE
ANS-324

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:
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In this edition:

* OMOTENASHI is Struggling to Carry Amateur Radio to the Moon
* Amateur Radio Operators and More Will Track NASA's Artemis 1
* New Groundstation Software Available for GreenCube
* Release Date of CAS-10/XW-4
* U.S. High School CubeSat to be APRS Relay
* CAPSTONE Arrives to Orbit at the Moon
* Changes to AMSAT-NA TLE Distribution
* ARISS News
* Upcoming Satellite Operations
* Hamfests, Conventions, Maker Faires, and Other Events
* Satellite Shorts From All Over


ANS-324 AMSAT News Service Weekly Bulletins

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

DATE 2022 NOV 20


OMOTENASHI is Struggling to Carry Amateur Radio to the Moon

OMOTENASHI, a project of the JAXA Ham Radio Club, was a secondary payload
aboard NASA's Artemis 1 mission, launched on November 16. It plans to land
on the surface of the moon, and to transmit a beacon in the amateur 70cm
band.

Controllers have reported OMOTENASHI is tumbling, making it difficult for
the spacecraft to charge its batteries and communicate with the ground. Of
the ten cubesats flown as secondary payloads, seven are operation, two have
not been heard from, and OMOTENASHI is struggling. Controllers are
continuing recovery attempts.

OMOTENASHI is derived from Outstanding MOon exploration TEchnologies
demonstrated by NAno Semi-Hard Impactor. Omotenashi is also a Japanese word
for hospitality.

JAXA Ham Radio Club planned to utilize the flight demonstration opportunity
of the OMOTENASHI mission to conduct the following amateur radio missions:
(i) To conduct technological research with respect to receiving ultra-weak
UHF signal from a space probe toward the moon
(ii) To conduct an outreach activity providing amateur radio operators all
over the world with an opportunity to try to receive signals from moon
region.

OMOTENASHI is a 6U-CubeSat with external dimensions of 239 x 366 x 113mm
and an approximate mass of 14 kg.

OMOTENASHI consists of three modules: orbiting module, retro motor module,
and surface probe. During the moon transfer orbit, these modules are
integrated. When OMOTENASHI arrives at the moon, the surface probe will be
separated and conduct semi-hard landing.

If control is regained, OMOTENASHI will be actively controlled by
ultra-small attitude control system including star tracker, sun sensor,
IMU, reaction wheel, and cold gas jet thruster. During the moon transfer
orbit, OMOTENASHI may be spin-stabilized due to the strict resources. For
further details, please see:
https://www.isas.jaxa.jp/home/omotenashi/JHRCweb/jhrc.html

There will be UHF CM/PSK/PM/PSK31 beacons, with 1 watt RF, on both the
orbiting module and the surface probe. CisLunar explorer, MIT KitCube and
Lunar IceCube are expected to share the same launch.

Orbiting Module DOWNLINK

Frequency: 437.31 MHz
Antenna: SRR antenna
Polarization: Linear
Modulation: beacon, PSK31 Sync Word C1 (ASCII code)
Power: 30dBm

Surface Probe DOWNLINK

Frequency: 437.41 MHz
Antenna: invert-F antennax4
Polarization: LHCP(, RHCP)
Modulation: FM, PSK31, PCM-PSK/PM Sync Word C1 (ASCII code)
Power: 30dBm

JAXA Ham Radio Club had announced prior to launch that amateurs can
constantly access the newest TLE from https://bit.ly/3wyopTr This file is
to be overwritten when the next TLEs are calculated. However, the site
appears to still display pre-launch keps at this time.

The JAXA Club posts updates at
https://www.isas.jaxa.jp/home/omotenashi/JHRCweb/jhrc.html

[ANS thanks JAXA Ham Radio Club and parabolicarc.com for the above
information]

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The 2022 AMSAT President's Club coins have arrived!
To commemorate the 50th anniversary of its launch on
October 15, 1972, this year's coin features
an image of AMSAT-OSCAR 6.
Join the AMSAT President's Club today and help
Keep Amateur Radio in Space!
https://www.amsat.org/join-the-amsat-presidents-club/
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Amateur Radio Operators and More Will Track NASA's Artemis 1

Amateur radio operators will join a powerful international network tracking
NASA's Orion spacecraft.

NASA officials announced that a network of 18 volunteers, organizations and
space agencies will assist with tracking Artemis 1, which will send an
uncrewed Orion spacecraft to orbit around the moon after blasting off from
Earth atop a Space Launch System (SLS) rocket. Launch occurred on Nov. 16.

The selected volunteers, including two individuals in the amateur radio
community, will "demonstrate whether they can receive Orion's signal, and
use their respective ground antennas to passively track and measure changes
in the radio waves transmitted by Orion," NASA officials said in a
statement Oct. 31.

NASA collected the proposals in a Request for Information released in
August. Data the participants pick up will be sent to the agency's Space
Communications and Navigation (SCaN) program. The goal is to improve
tracking information for future deep-space missions, NASA officials stated.
NASA, of course, will also gather its own tracking data on Orion.

Selected volunteers from the amateur radio community include:
Non-profit: CAMRAS, Netherlands
Academic institutions: Space Systems Design Laboratory, Georgia Tech
Research Institute, U.S.
Private citizens: Scott Chapman, K4KDR (U.S.) and Scott Tilley, VE7TIL
(Canada)

[ANS thanks space.com for the above information]

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New Groundstation Software Available for GreenCube

As of Nov. 18, a total of 135 stations digipeated via the Italian GreenCube
satellite. These stations represent 31 DXCC entities. Stations now report
using various combinations of software to operated through the satellite.
One constant is using SatPC32ISS for antenna tracking and doppler
correction.

The S5Lab GreenCube team software is a bit more complicated and at the
beginning that was all that was available. It used three programs,
including GNURadio, GreenCubeTNC and GreenCubeDigi.

However, UZ7HO quickly created the digi app and custom soundmodem after the
S5Lab release, most everyone has migrated to UZ7HO now. Note: UZ7HO has
updated the program from time to time, so download it again once in a while
to get the updates. It is available at: https://uz7.ho.ua/greentnc.zip
(There are both FM and SSB soundmodems included in the package, but the FM
one can ignored, as all are using USB-D for both uplink and downlink.) Note
matching the rig bandpass filter with the Soundmodem one (900-2100 Hz)
helps to have a better S/N particularly if you have local QRM.

The radio will interface with soundmodem via a soundcard or virtual audio
cable. Soundmodem.exe is located in the \greentnc\usb directory, and is a
separate program. This program needs to be configured to connect with your
radioā€™s audio interface. The digipeater software is in the client
directory, called GreenCubeDigi.exe. GreenCubeDigi automatically connects
to soundmodem via TCP. So you should have two programs running, one the TNC
and the other the digi ā€ terminal.ā€¯

Ops may add GetKISS+ software, by Mike Rupprecht, DK3WN, in order to
upload received packets to SatNOGS. This isnā€™t necessary, but it do
es help
add coverage for telemetry. This software is a bit tricky to get working,
but once you have one of Mikeā€™s programs running other programs wil
l work
without any issues. Mikeā€™s software can be found here:
https://www.satblog.info/software/

Doug Papay, K8DP, recommends installing GetKISS+ v1.4.1 (he could not get
v1.4.2 to work). It requires VB6 runtime, which should already be
installed, and the ActiveX OCX controls need to be registered. See:
https://www.pe0sat.vgnet.nl/decoding/tlm-decoding-software/dk3wn/ for
instructions on how to do this. Make sure to run the command prompt as
Administrator when performing the regsrv32.exe commands. Also, do not
delete or move the OCX files after registering them. (The OCX files should
be placed in C:\Libraries\OCX folder)

Mike also has a GreenCube Telemetry Decoder that you can downloadā€”i
t is a
nice program that graphically displays the telemetry. He has also added a
digipeater message display and list of unique callsigns heardā€”a nic
e
feature.

The config.ini files will need to be updated to reflect your station
details. These files are located in the folder where you keep GetKISS+ and
GreenCube Telemetry Decoder.

GetKISS+ and GreenCube Telemetry Decoder connect via TCP to the soundmodem
all using the same IP (localhost) and port number.

Some have been confused by the lack of an ACK message after transmitting a
packet to the satellite. It is sent only if the Tx delay is used. However,
it is better to use Tx delay 0 for real-time QSOs to avoid unnecessary
transmission by the bird (saving on-board power). With Tx delay 0 you will
receive your own message as an acknowledgement.

[ANS thanks Doup Papay, K8DP, and Jean Marc Momple, 3B8DU, 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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Release Date of CAS-10/XW-4

AMSAT-China, or CAMSAT, http://www.camsat.cn, has announced December 18 as
the release date for CAS-10/XW-4. Photos of this satellite may be seen at:
https://twitter.com/bd5rv/status/1592978613204586496 and
https://twitter.com/bd5rv/status/1593693879798497285

As previously reported by ANS, CAMSATā€™s CAS-10/XW-4 satellite was l
aunched
on November 12, 2022, carried on the Tianzhou 5 cargo spacecraft to the
Chinese Space Station. The satellite will be active immediately upon
deployment into its own 400 km orbit with an inclination of 42.9 degrees.
CAS-10 carries a VHF uplink and UHF downlink linear transponder with a
bandwidth of 30kHz. Downlink frequencies for VHF/UHF linear transponder
435.180 MHz, for UHF CW telemetry beacon 435.575 MHz and for GMSK telemetry
435.725 MHz. Also an uplink for the transponder 145.870 MHz have been
coordinated.

[ANS thanks Michael Chen, BD5RV/4, for the above information]

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U.S. High School CubeSat to be APRS Relay

TJREVERB, a 2U CubeSat built by Thomas Jefferson High School for Science &
Technology, has been frequency coordinated to operate as an APRS relay on
145.825 MHz. It is scheduled for launch on the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and
Dragon spacecraft set to deliver additional science, crew supplies, and
hardware to the International Space Station next week. The satellite will
be released from ISS at a later time.

The first U.S. high school to send a CubeSat to space back in 2013, Thomas
Jefferson High School for Science and Technologyā€™s Research and Edu
cation
Vehicle for Evaluating Radio Broadcasts satellite aims to study the use of
iridium as a primary radio communication method. Additionally, the
satellite will demonstrate using a passive magnet onboard and the Earthā
€™s
magnetic field for stabilization rather than using an attitude
determination and control system for pointing accuracy and stabilization
for iridium. What makes this satellite even more notable is that it was a
systemā€™s engineering project. The students selected space-grade par
ts,
wired the electronics for the satellite, wrote the drivers to control the
different systems, and coded the flight software.

ā€ Whatā€™s special about TJREVERB isnā€™t necessarily th
e mission, itā€™s what we
did. These kids literally built a satellite the way the industry would
build a satellite; we selected parts from vendors and got those parts to
work together,ā€¯ said Kristen Kucko, robotics lab director and the s
choolā€™s
space faculty advisor. ā€ This is an engineering feat.ā€¯

[ANS thanks NASA Blogs and IARU for the above information]

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CAPSTONE Arrives to Orbit at the Moon

The CAPSTONE mission operations team confirmed that NASAā€™s CAPSTONE
spacecraft arrived at its orbit at the Moon Sunday evening. The CubeSat
completed an initial orbit insertion maneuver, firing its thrusters to put
the spacecraft into orbit, at 12:39 UTC on Nov. 13.

CAPSTONE is now in a near-rectilinear halo orbit, or NRHO. This particular
NRHO is the same orbit that will be used by Gateway, the Moon-orbiting
space station that will support NASAā€™s Artemis missions. CAPSTONE i
s the
first spacecraft to fly an NRHO, and the first CubeSat to operate at the
Moon.

In the next five days, CAPSTONE will perform two additional clean-up
maneuvers to refine its orbit. After these maneuvers, the team will review
data to confirm that CAPSTONE remains on track in the NRHO.

CAPSTONE ā€“ short for Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technol
ogy
Operations and Navigation Experiment ā€“ is a precursor to the Gatewa
y
project to establish a crewed space station in orbit around the moon.
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.

[ANS thanks NASA 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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Changes to AMSAT-NA TLE Distribution

Two Line Elements or TLEs, often referred to as Keplerian elements or keps
in the amateur community, are the inputs to the SGP4 standard mathematical
model of spacecraft orbits used by most amateur tracking programs. Weekly
updates are completely adequate for most amateur satellites. TLE bulletin
files are updated Thursday evenings around 2300 UTC, or more frequently if
new high interest satellites are launched. More information may be found at
https://www.amsat.org/keplerian-elements-resources/

No changes for this week.

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

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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.

Ural State University, Yekaterinburg, Russia, direct via TBD. The ISS
callsign is presently scheduled to be RSĆ ISS. The scheduled crewmember
is
Sergey Prokopyev. Contact is go for Mon 2022-11-21 15:20 UTC

St. JosephĀ´s Convent Secondary School, Castries, St Lucia, multi-point
telebridge via IK1SLD. The ISS callsign is presently scheduled to be
OR4ISS. The scheduled crewmember is Josh Cassada, KI5CRH. Contact is go
for: Tue 2022-11-22 17:40:36 UTC 42 degrees maximum elevation. Watch for
Livestream at: https://www.ariotti.com/

Five Bridges Junior High School, Stillwater Lake, NS, Canada, telebridge
via IK1SLD. The ISS callsign is presently scheduled to be OR4ISS. The
scheduled crewmember is Josh Cassada, KI5CRH. Contact is go for: Wed
2022-11-23 16:52:06 UTC 58 degrees. Watch for Livestream at
https://www.youtube.com/c/ARISSlive and https://nslive.tv/five-bridges-aris
s
and https://www.ariotti.com/

Amur State University, Blagoveshchensk, Russia, direct via TBD. The ISS
callsign is presently scheduled to be RSĆ ISS. The scheduled crewmember
is
Sergey Prokopyev. Contact is go for Mon 2022-11-28 08:20 UTC

School TBD, Saint Petersburg, Russia, direct via TBD. The ISS callsign is
presently scheduled to be RSĆ ISS. The scheduled crewmember is Anna Kik
ina.
Contact is go for Wed 2022-11-30 14:25 UTC.

School TBD, Kaliningrad, Russia, Russia, direct via TBD. The ISS callsign
is presently scheduled to be RSĆ ISS. The scheduled crewmember is Anna
Kikina. Contact is go for Wed 2022-11-30 16:00 UTC

School TBD, Aznakayevo, Republic of Tatarstan, Russia, direct via TBD. The
ISS callsign is presently scheduled to be RSĆ ISS. The scheduled crewme
mber
is Anna Kikina. Contact is go for Thu 2022-12-01 08:20 UTC.

School TBD, Vologda, Russia, direct via TBD. The ISS callsign is presently
scheduled to be RSĆ ISS. The scheduled crewmember is Anna Kikina. Conta
ct is
go for Thu 2022-12-01 08:20 UTC

The crossband repeater continues to be active. If any crewmember is so
inclined, all they have to do is pick up the microphone, raise the volume
up, and talk on the crossband repeater. So give a listen, you just never
know.

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

KX9X Will be in EM47 with Ward N0AX the weekend of November 19 for
the @arrl Phone Sweeptakes. Heā€™ll take some satellite gear and do a
few
passes. Sats arenā€™t the priority this trip but he will hand out the
grid.

KC1MEB: Rove trip vacation style. FN53 Nov. 18 into 19, FN56 Nov. 19 into
20, FN57 Nov. 20 through 22.

W7WGC Snow-bird rove from 11-02-2022 thru 11-22-2022-ish. In travel order:
Oregon grids: CN82 and DN02
Nevada grids: DN01, DN10, DN21, DN20, DM29 & 19, DM28 & 18, DM27, DM26.
Arizona grids: DM36, DM46, DM45, DM35, DM44, DM34, DM33, DM32.
Email (QRZ) with desired grid in subject line for updates. Wayne ā€“
W7WGC

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

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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.

None currently scheduled.

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

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Satellite Shorts From All Over

+ The latest episode of the ARRL On the Air podcast features details from
avid satellite operator Sean Kutzko, KX9X, about how to get started on the
amateur satellites -- an activity that's available to hams of all license
classes. Sean's article, "Ham Radio Satellites: Reliable, Accessible, and
Enjoyable" is also the cover piece of the November/December issue of ARRL's
"On the Air" magazine. (ANS thanks ARRL Letter for the above information)

+ A cargo spacecraft successfully docked with the International Space
Station Nov. 9, despite making its two-day trek through space with only one
functioning solar panel. The Cygnus spacecraft, which was carrying 8,200
pounds of science experiments and supplies for the astronauts on board the
ISS, lifted off from NASAā€™s launch site in Wallops Island, Virginia
, atop
an Antares rocket on Nov. 7. A few hours after Cygnus reached orbit, one of
the spacecraftā€™s two solar arrays failed to deploy, NASA announced.
NASA
and Northrop Grumman, which designed and built the Cygnus capsule, opted to
abandon efforts to open the array in order to focus on carrying out a safe
rendezvous with the ISS, noting that the spacecraft already had sufficient
power to finish its journey. (ANS thanks CNN Space & Science for the above
information)

+ SpaceX launched one of its reusable Falcon 9 rocket boosters for the last
time Saturday on a rare expendable mission for Intelsat, devoting all of
the launcherā€™s propellant toward placing a pair of television broad
casting
satellites into orbit. Intelsat says it paid SpaceX an additional fee for
the expendable mission. The Falcon 9 rocket lifted off at 11:06 a.m. EST
(1606 GMT) Saturday after a four-day delay caused by Hurricane Nicole. The
booster debuted March 2, 2019, with the first unpiloted test flight of
SpaceXā€™s Crew Dragon capsule. The booster was not fitted with Space
Xā€™s
recovery hardware, such as titanium grid fins or landing legs. And SpaceX
did not deploy one of its drone ships for the expendable mission. (ANS
thanks SpaceflightNow for the above information)

+ AROW, the Artemis Real-Time Orbit Website, is a fun, interactive display
of the Orion capsule and the Artemis 1 mission is provided by NASA at:
https://www.nasa.gov/specials/trackartemis/ (ANS thanks NASA for the above
information)


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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, Mark Johns, K0JM
k0jm at amsat dot org

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