Subj : Amateur Radio Newsline (A) To : All From : Daryl Stout Date : Thu Feb 04 2021 22:34:11 Amateur Radio Newsline Report 2258, for Friday, February 5, 2021 Amateur Radio Newsline Report Number 2258 with a release date of Friday, February 5, 2021, to follow in 5-4-3-2-1. The following is a QST. In Canada, a microwave solution for EmComm needs. Restoration begins on wartime code machines -- and the space station contact that wasn't. All this and more, as Amateur Radio Newsline Report Number 2258, comes your way right now. *** BILLBOARD CART ** TECHNICAL TROUBLES FOIL ARISS SCHOOL CONTACT JIM/ANCHOR: January 28th was supposed to be a day to remember for students in Newcastle, Wyoming: They had an on-air date with the International Space Station. It never happened due to technical troubles, however, making it a day to remember for the crew and the ARISS program. Paul Braun, WD9GCO explains. PAUL: As students at Newcastle High School in Wyoming waited for their chance for radio contact with the ISS, Jan, (YON) ON7UX, the Telebridge station in Belgium, called as ON4ISS as the spacecraft came up on his horizon -- but only noise came back. Several minutes passed as Jan kept trying; still nothing. Science teacher Jim Stith, KI7URL, had helped prep the students on radio protocol in anticipation of their questions to Mike Hopkins, KF5LJG. Ultimately, however, that contact never happened. ARISS executive director Frank Bauer, KA3HDO, said in a press release later that a technical problem had apparently taken the ISS radio out of service. He said additional troubleshooting was needed but possibilities point to trouble with the new external RF cable recently installed or related to the interior coax cable. The press release said that NASA has opened a Payload Anomaly Report for the issue. In the meantime, ARISS has asked Sergey Samburov, who heads the Russian team, whether the Russians' radio can be used for school contacts until the problems can be resolved. The Wyoming students have been told that their contact will be rescheduled. For Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Paul Braun, WD9GCO. (ARISS, YOUTUBE) ** FRENCH AMATEUR RADIO SATELLITE PART OF SPACEX RECORD LAUNCH JIM/ANCHOR: The SpaceX launch late last month set records for the number of satellites aboard but hams are especially interested in one, as Jeremy Boot, G4NJH, tells us. JEREMY: When a record number of small satellites left earth aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on Sunday January 24th, France's UVSQ-SAT satellite carrying an FM amateur radio transponder was among them. The satellite is focusing on broadband measurements of Earth Radiation Budget and on Solar Spectral Irradiance in the Herzberg continuum. Amateur radio operators are being encouraged to contact the satellite as well. Toward this end, AMSAT-Francophone is providing hams with software to receive,interpret and upload telemetry to the AMSAT-F server or the SatNOGS database. The software runs on both Linux and Windows platforms. The satellite, designed by LATMOS, has had its frequencies coordinated by the IARU. The Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines Radio-Club F6KRK was also involved in the project. It was among the 143 satellites carried on SpaceX's first dedicated SmallSat Rideshare Program mission, which broke the previous record of 104 simultaneous launches aboard an Indian Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle in 2017. For Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Jeremy Boot, G4NJH. (SPACEFLIGHT NOW, AMSAT, LATMOS) ** DEVICE PREVENTS 'SPACE JUNK' BY ALTERING SATELLITE ORBITS JIM:/ANCHOR: Let's face it, no one likes clutter: not in the shack and certainly not out in space where CubeSats and other amateur radio satellites keep us connected. Well, help with cleanup has arrived. Neil Rapp, WB9VPG, has the details. NEIL: It's called the Iodine Thruster, and it hates "space junk" so much that it's helping prevent it, using an unconventional, nontoxic propellant: Iodine. The electronic thruster is being used to control a satellite's height above the Earth. That means that when a satellite reaches the end of its mission, it can be sent down into the atmosphere where it can safely burn up rather than add more dead clutter to the skies. The device has already proven its worth: It successfully changed the orbit of a commercial research nanosat that was launched last November. Iodine is seen as an ideal propellant to use for this technology because it is solid at room temperature and pressure, becoming gas when it's heated without having to liquefy first. It also only takes up a small space onboard on the satellite. This technology isn't just for dead and dying satellites, however; experts speculate it can help small CubeSats extend their mission lifetimes before dying because the thruster can raise the satellites' orbits if they start to drift back toward earth. For Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Neil Rapp, WB9VPG. (SOUTHGATE) --- SBBSecho 3.11-Win32 * Origin: The Thunderbolt BBS - tbolt.synchro.net (618:250/33) .