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Silent Key .
Dr. Charles E.
"Chuck" Brady Jr, N4BQW
Retired space shuttle astronaut and DXer Chuck Brady, N4BQW, of Oak Harbor,
Washington, died July 23 following a lengthy illness. He was 54. During his
years as an active astronaut in the 1990s, Brady was among the pioneers of
SAREX (Shuttle Amateur Radio EXperiment). An ARRL member, he was active on
ham radio during the 16-day STS-78 shuttle mission in 1996, then the longest
ever. ARRL Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) liaison
Rosalie White, K1STO, says Brady saw into the future of ham radio in space.
"And he predicted that Amateur Radio would be a very important means for
astronauts to feel as though they were in touch with the world while staying
on-orbit for months on end-and so it is," White said. "During his shuttle
flight, he spent more hours on the ham airwaves than probably he should
have, much to the pleasure of hams worldwide."
Following his career as an active astronaut,
Brady went on to take part in several popular DXpeditions. According to The
Daily DX and QST "How's DX?" Editor Bernie McClenny, W3UR, Brady activated
some of the rarer American Pacific islands including Kure Island, Palmyra
and Jarvis Island, Midway Island, Wake Island, Baker and Howland
Island and Kingman Reef.
"Probably Chuck's most notable operation was that of 3Y0C from Bouvet
Island," McClenny recounts. "This one was kept totally secret until he
showed up on the air in January 2001. Later that year Chuck was the dinner
speaker at the Dayton DX Dinner."
"Chuck will surely be missed by his many friends around the world, and many
will remember him as a kind a loving human being," McClenny said.
A physician, Brady held the rank of captain in the US
Navy. The North Carolina native packed a lot of activities into his
all-too-short lifetime. In addition to ham radio, he enjoyed canoeing,
kayaking, tennis, and cycling.
He received training as a flight surgeon after joining the US
Navy in 1986, and he was flight surgeon for the Blue Angels Navy flight
demonstration squadron from 1989 until 1990. In 1992, NASA selected Brady as
an astronaut candidate, and he qualified as a mission specialist for shuttle
flights, ultimately logging more than 405 hours in space.
Survivors include Brady's fiancé Susan, their four-year-old son Charlie, and
a sister. A military service is planned.
Extract from ARRL Apace News ARLS005
Amateur Radio “CubeSat” launch disaster:
An attempt to launch 15
CubeSats from 11 universities and one private company failed July 26.
Fourteen of the CubeSats, now lost, carried Amateur Radio transmit-only
payloads.
The Dnepr-1LV rocket lifted off from Russia's Baikonur Cosmodrome
in Kazakhstan at 1943 UTC on July 26. Space Launch Report cites payload
users as reporting that the mission went awry sometime after first-stage
separation. An Interfax, report said an emergency shutdown of the rocket's
main engine initiated 86 seconds after launch, shortly before the first
stage would have completed its burn. Gazeta.kz reported the vehicle fell to
Earth almost 190 km from the launch site.
Originally set for June 28, the launch had been postponed until
July 26. The CubeSat project was a collaboration between California
Polytechnic State University-San Luis Obispo and Stanford University's Space
Systems Development Laboratory. All of the CubeSats were designed and built
by students at various universities in the US and elsewhere in the world.
Thirteen of the satellites were to have downlinks in the Amateur
Radio satellite allocation between 435 and 438 MHz, and one was to operate
on 145.980 MHz. None of the spacecraft carried a transponder. Transmitter
power outputs ranged from 10 mW to 2 W.
According to Satellite Launch Report, the original Dnepr
launcher was replaced by a different one in June after a problem was
detected in the original vehicle's digital flight control system.The Dnepr
vehicle is a repurposed SS-18 "Satan" three-stage intercontinental ballistic
missile.
Extract from ARRL Apace News ARLS005
Amateurs work on Mars
Orbiter
The Amateur Radio Mars Orbiter
P5-A being built by Amsat-DL will deploy a balloon craft called Archimedes.
The craft, being built by the privately financed German Mars Society, will
hover close to the surface of Mars taking crisp, full-colour images. This is
yet another example of radio amateurs teaming up with other technical
experts on pioneering projects.
The
radio amateurs building the Mars Orbiter Spacecraft have gained considerable
expertise from the construction of previous amateur radio satellites
including the recently launched Oscar-40. They will be testing some of the
technologies to be used on the Mars Orbiter on their latest amateur
satellite, P3-E, due to be launched shortly. The Mars Orbiter will feature a
10GHz beacon that should be receivable by well-equipped amateur radio
stations.
Peter Guelzow, DB2OS,
president of Amsat-DL, will be attending the Amsat-UK International Space
Colloquium on 28 to 30 July at the University of Surrey in Guildford to give
a presentation on the P3-E satellite. For further information about the
colloquium, visit
www.uk.amsat.org/Colloquium. For more details about the Mars Orbiter,
visit the P5-A website at
www.amsat-dl.org/p5a
Amateur Radio “CubeSat” launch postponed:
The launch and deployment of 13 Amateur Radio "CubeSats," originally set for
June 28 has been
delayed after a problem was found with the rocket booster.
A Dnepr-1LV rocket is scheduled to carry the
CubeSats into space from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in
Kazakhstan on
26th July with a backup date of July 27.
If the launch goes ahead successfully, it will be
the largest ever deployment of amateur radio satellites. The satellites will
be put into a 500 by 566km orbit with an inclination of 97 degrees. Each
satellite, measuring just 10cm cubed, is packed with a battery, transmitter
and various experiments. Twelve of the satellites have downlinks in the
amateur radio satellite service allocation between 435 and 438MHz and one
will operate on 145.950MHz. None of the spacecraft
will carry a transponder. Transmitter power outputs range from 10 mW to 2 W.
All of the CubeSats were designed and built by students at various
universities in the
US
and elsewhere in the world.
One of the
satellites was built by students at the Nihon
University in Japan. It contains a CW
beacon, Digi-Talker and other experiments. After launch, it will operate a
CW beacon on 437.485MHz using the callsign JQ1YGU.
A fourteenth satellite in
the package will not carry an Amateur Radio payload.
For further information on amateur radio satellites, including advice
on how to build one, visit website
www.cubesatkit.com .
An extract from The ARRL Letter Vol. 25,
No.24, June 16, 2006
ARISS space station contact at
Tintenbar School
(updated 31st May,2006)
NASA indicates that we have been allocated an evening during the week
beginning Monday 7 August 2006.
Can't get more accurate at this stage as
detailed orbit predictions are not known so far in advance. For the same
reason it is not known whether it will be a direct contact or telebridged
via a remote ground station. More details as it gets closer. However the
Summerland ARC have been invited to attend this major publicity event. Local
and national media will be there, a documentary will also be made of the
event.
Detail is at
http://www.abc.net.au/rn/science/ss/default.htm.
More info at
www.bcr.randwick.syd.catholic.edu.au/home/space/
73, John Alcorn, VK2JWA, SARC14
- Treasurer, Summerland ARC.
Bordertown Primary School
talks to the International Space Station
The crowd and students wait with anticipation as Tony Hutchison operates the
satellite connection.
At
exactly 8:36pm on Tuesday the 14th of May, a group of students from
Bordertown Primary School made contact with three American astronauts aboard
the International Space Station
Becoming only the 2nd school in Australia to do this,
many of the teachers, parents and students who filled the library were
relieved when the telephone link-up was successful and completed.
Tony Hutchison, one very proud
ex-student, now the Australian ARISS (Amateur Radio on the International
Space Station) Co-ordinator was on hand to ensure a smooth linkup with the
space station.
Tony is based in the Riverland and is one of only
eight people worldwide authorised by NASA to arrange communications between
earth and space.
http://www.abc.net.au/southeastsa/stories/s562382.htm
An excerpt from Jonathan Atkins
recent presentation on the ABC's South East SA report on the web
(24th may, 2006)
"your gateway to ABC Regional Radio and the South Eastern region"
http://www.abc.net.au/rn/science/ss/default.htm.
New ISS crew making contacts
Expedition 13 ISS Flight Engineer Jeff
Williams, KD5TVQ has only been aboard the International Space Station for
less than a month but he has already been making amateur radio contacts from
NA1SS. Over the Easter weekend, Williams made "a handful of random
contacts," according to ISS ham radio project engineer Kenneth Ransom,
N5VHO. Amateurs will be hoping that Williams and Expedition 13 Commander
Pavel Vinogradov, RV3BS, will be as active on the amateur bands as
Expedition 12 Commander Bill McArthur, KC5ACR, who recently returned to
earth.
P3E satellite images available on the web
Information and pictures of the new
amateur radio P3E satellite can now be downloaded from the web. P3E will be
the first amateur satellite to make use of the amateur 47GHz band but,
according to P3E project leader Peter Guelzow, DB2OS, its most popular
feature will be its 70cm-to-2m 150kHz bandwidth linear transponder. Thanks
to the satellite's highly elliptical orbit, the transponder will provide
worldwide communications for many hours each day. Peter said it would make
“the top end of the 2m band sound like 20m”.
See Amsat-dl website
http://www.amsat-dl.org for further information and pictures.
A selected extract from the
text of the GB2RS News for Sunday 7th May 2006
Webmaster comment: Most of this site is displayed in German language, you
will need to delve down into the "P3" area for some Ozzie text. Look for the
info with
 next to
them. Lots of info on the forthcoming P5A Mars mission if only I could read
it !.
New space station crew
Expedition 12
Commander Bill McArthur, flight engineer Valery Tokarev and Marcos
Pontes, Brazil’s first astronaut, returned to Earth on Sunday 9 April
aboard a Soyuz spacecraft. They landed in central Kazakhstan, around 30
miles north east of Arkalyk, and were reunited with their families at
Star City, near Moscow early on Monday.
Bill and Valery will remain in Star City for
post-flight debriefings before returning to Houston later this month.
Together, they had spent six months aboard the International Space
Station. In this time, they orbited Earth more than 3,000 times,
conducted two spacewalks and relocated their Soyuz spacecraft twice.
While on the International Space Station, Bill – whose
callsign is KC5ACR – made numerous contacts with radio amateurs on
earth. He and Valery also played a key role in one of the highest
profile amateur radio events of recent years. They helped prepare and
launch SuitSat – a Russian space suit converted into a radio transmitter
– in February. SuitSat sparked a frenzy of activity on earth as radio
amateurs sought to detect the weak signals it was transmitting.
In the days before he returned to Earth, Bill sent out
a message of thanks to all the amateurs he had made contact with during
his time aboard the International Space Station. “I would like to
express my deep gratitude to the world-wide amateur radio community for
your participation in this great adventure,” he said.
The information above is an excerpt from an
article appearing on the [RSGB]
GB2RS Weekly News Bulletin
http://www.rsgb.org/
Ham Astronaut to leave NASA
Astronaut Eileen Collins completes career of space firsts
May1, 2006
Astronaut Eileen Collins, KD5EDS, is
leaving NASA.The first woman to command a space shuttle and the leader
of the shuttle Discovery return-to-flight mission last year, Collins
plans to pursue private interests and spend more time with family.
"Eileen Collins is a living, breathing example of the best that our
nation has to offer," said NASA Administrator Michael Griffin. A veteran
of four space flights, Collins' career at NASA has been punctuated by
firsts. She was the first woman selected as a pilot astronaut, the first
woman to serve as a shuttle pilot and the first woman to command a US
spacecraft. Mike Coats, director of NASA's Johnson Space Center called
Collins "a true pioneer in space and on Earth." Collins was selected as
an astronaut in 1990. She served as the shuttle pilot on Mir space
station rendezvous missions in 1995 and 1997. In addition to the 2005
Discovery mission, Collins commanded the shuttle Columbia on the 1999
flight that launched the Chandra X-Ray Observatory. NASA Flight Crew
Operations Director Ken Bowersox, KD5JBP, described Collins as "a gifted
leader who knows what it takes to get a team through the most difficult
of times."
This item was contributed by Chris VK2QV who sourced it from the ARRL
"Amateur Radio News" 1/5/06.
http://www.arrl.org/
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