News
ANDE Voice - GOOD BYE ANDE AND THANK YOU
April, 2008
UK radio amateurs receive ANDE Deorbit Award
One aspect of Amateur Satellite operating that has been growing in popularity is capturing telemetry data from the many Amateur satellites now in orbit. It's a lot of fun and Amateurs can provide invaluable research data that would otherwise be lost.
Recently Henk PA3GUO and Mike DK3WN sponsored an ANDE award to encourage reception of telemetry during the last few weeks of life of the Amateur Radio satellite ANDE.
ANDE was build by students from the US Naval Academy and deployed from the Space Shuttle (STS-116) on a return mission from the International Space Station (ISS) on 21 December 2006. Due to it's low orbit it had a short lifetime and re-entered the earths atmosphere just over a year later on 25 December 2007.
It operated an APRS AX25 packet digipeater on 145.825 MHz as well as a Voice Synthesizer and other communications experiments.
The ANDE award was awarded to anyone who made QSOs via ANDE or received telemetry during its final 10 days in space. Amongst the list of international participants there was a good showing from the UK with reports submitted by G4HYG, G0BHX, G0SJF, G7THL, G0ISW and G7HIA.
One of the proud recipients of the award is AMSAT-UK member John Heath G7HIA (pictured left with his award). On receiving his award John said "Trying to capture the very last telemetry frames from ANDE as it de-orbited was a lot of fun. Chasing the award made it even more exciting."
March 1, 2008
Now our ANDE-DEORBIT project has come to an end, and all requested certificates
(up to now 50) have been shipped, we would like to make up the promise we made:
"All of the left-over money to be spend on an AMSAT project". Many of the participants donated much more as the required printing & shipping cost. We have rounded the amount and made a donation of 150 Euro to P3E. Soon you should see the three new pixels "MAA" appear on the P3E website: http://www.p3e-satellite.org.
We would like to again say "thank you" to all that participated in the project.
It was a great experience and we have made many new friends world-wide,
that's HAM SPIRIT !
73 and THANKS !
Mike, DK3WN
Henk, PA3GUO
January 31, 2008
It seems, that Luis, LU8YY heard the very last telemetry packet. He checked his data and noted that the data sent are in local time (UTC-3). Therefore the telemetry corresponds to 23:06:34UTC. So this is the last packet:
ANDE-1>BEACON [24/12/07 23:06:34]::T#001,145,175,169,181,178,10101111,000
January 25, 2008
The awards are printed and first were sent today. Thanks a lot to all for your great support. I look forward to your answers :-)
Europe 22 awards World 19 awards
73, Mike - DK3WN
December 29
Dear all,
ANDE (NO-61) has de-orbited last week - after spending ~370 days in space.
During its short life many radio amateurs used the satellite. Most of them found it initially a challenge to hear the downlink. Yet, over time more and more stations joined. Many stations improved their antenna systems and got to hear ANDE. In the very last days, while the passes got even shorter, there were up to 8 stations actively digipeating via the satellite in a single pass.
We have seen more and more HAMS enhancing their satellite radio-stations and set-up a SatGate (= automated internet forwarding of all data received on 145.825 MHz, the 2mtr APRS downlink of multiple satellites). During December up to 78 stations world wide non-stop forwarded data they received !
A great achievement, providing value also after ANDE. Radio amateurs have proven to be able to get their act together on very short terms and set up dedicated digital communication links using very small satellites. Note that all of this has been fully operational for a period of 4 weeks non-stop.
All systems on-board ANDE have been functioning fine until de-orbit. We did not observe any major deviation in the telemetry data (eg in temperature).
Just a few hours before the decay in the morning of Dec 25, JA0CAW received his last telemetry packet (2007/12/24 22:27:43) and W6MSU was still able to digipeat (2007/12/24 21:14:13). That whole last day of Dec 24 many stations around the world used the tiny APRS satellite... which was running its entire life on batteries only ! ANDE has succesfully completed its mission and served as a great APRS satellite.
Now - back to the competition & fun part: the AWARD !
Many radio amateur stations from around the world participated in the special ANDE de-orbit event and have received and forwarded valuable telemetry of the satellite during its last days in space. For everyone that participated we have made available a special AWARD.
Everyone that made QSOs via ANDE or received telemetry during its final 10 days in space can submit his/her achievements and apply for the AWARD.
On the AWARD your callsign and achievements will be mentioned. Of course your participation is what counts most, not the final score !
We ask 4 euro for submissions in Europe and 6 euro outside Europe. This is only for printing & shipping the awards, any surplus will be donated to an AMSAT satellite project.
For all details on submission/payments/status etc see . On this website we have maintained there an overview of all stations that participated and forwarded data. There is also an overview of all the telemetry since Nov 14, when we started this event. A draft version of the award itself can been pre-viewed as well! Have a look yourself !
We would like to thank all radio amateur stations world wide that have contributed and participated in the event. Without your help this would not have been possible. Its has been a lot a fun! Looking forward to your submissions & feedback on the website !
73's
Mike, DK3WN
Henk, PA3GUO
DECAYED DECEMBER 25, 2007
Latest TLE
ANDE MAA SPHERE 1 1 29664U 06055F 07359.16654419 .14620719 12705-4 12723-3 0 7381 2 29664 051.6179 150.0690 0003189 248.8461 111.8136 16.51627846 58777
Archive ANDE TLE since launch (total 942 record)
TIP Reports for Object 29664, ANDE MAA SPHERE 1
FINAL REPORT
Predicted Decay Time 2007-12-25 07:24:00 UTC +/- 15 min Predicted Decay Location 44.5° N, 74.6° E Direction descending Inclination 51.6° Revolution Number 5878last radar observation by SPASUR at 0443 UTC
ANDE website: http://web.ew.usna.edu/~bruninga/ande.html
ANDE OPERATIONS website: http://web.ew.usna.edu/~bruninga/ande-ops.html
December 25
Nothing heard from ANDE during the 1132z, December 25th pass over eastern Canada.
[Terry, VE3DIJ]
Nothing heard from FN02ox. I believe she has returned home. Merry Christmas.
[John, KB2HSH]
Nothing heard in both european morning passes. [Mike, DK3WN]
last ANDE telemetry Dec 24, 2227 UTC
[recorded by JA0CAW, thanks Tetsu]
This is the last packet received by JA0CAW - Dec 24, 2007 Fm ANDE-1 To APRS1 Via SGATE <UI pid=F0 Len=72 >[22:27:08] :BLN1ANDE :ANDE-1 only wakes up 1 of evry 15s for users. Pse conserve. Fm ANDE-1 To BEACON <UI pid=F0 Len=39 >[22:27:43] T#001,145,132,135,135,137,10101111,000
December 24
Merry Christmas
ANDE Voice - MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL
Okay, looks like frictional heating is finally happening. It's 14:02z right now on 12/24. Heating started about two hours ago.
ANDE is a very low 102 statute miles, or 164 km. It was falling somewhere between .5 to 1 mile per hour the past day.
Can't say when and where it'll fall, but it'll be down in less than a day.
[Ron, AH6RH]
I wish you a merry christmas, and for the new year a continuously sparkling, never drying well of ideas, visions, and solutions, health, luck and success - and peace, also for your families, friends and the whole crowd...
[Mike, DK3WN]
December 23
Team,
Just as I thought I saw about seven hours ago -- that frictional heating of ANDE is now taking place. ANDE is about 108 sm altitude and dropping fast. It was at 117 earlier in the day. It will deorbit very soon, in a matter of hours. Keep track of ANDE, and see if you can pull in the final minutes of telemetry.
[Ron, AH6RH]
December 21
Happy Birthday ANDE !!!
Fm KD8ATF-2 To CQ Via ANDE-1*[08:19:58] HAPPY BIRTHDAY ANDE ZL1TYF>APRS,ANDE-1* :Happy Birthday ANDE HA2RD-1]APU25N,ANDE-1*,qAo,EI7IG:=4702.98N/01752.78E`HAPPY BIRTHDAY ANDE ! ! ! F1SRC]APRS,ANDE-1*,qAO,EA4EKH-6:=4731.10N/00308.06W- 73 to all, salut ANDE - f1src(at)free.fr DL8DR]APRS,ANDE-1*,qAO,PA3GUO:=5328.17N/00949.92EyHappy Birthday and Good Bye , ANDE! DK3WN-1]APU25N,ANDE-1*,qAo,SP7THR:=4943.90N/00857.30EyHappy Birthday ANDE de DK3WN
December 21, 2006 - 1823UTC - Discovery's crew launched the ANDE (Atmospheric Neutral Density Experiment) microsats for the Naval Research Laboratory, which were designed to measure the density and composition of the low Earth orbit atmosphere in order to help better predict the movements of objects in orbit, but one of the satellites failed to emerge from its launch canister....
December 20
ANDE is getting warmer and warmer (now 35°C). Tomorrow it's ANDE's birthday - one year in space.
[Mike, DK3WN]
December 19
ANDE is warming. But the temperature is also rising because each day, ANDE's orbit is precessing into more and more sun. But it looks to me like the solar beta angle maximizes on the 19th and then eclipses start increasing in length again. SO any heating after the 19th is re-entry heat.
[Bob WB4APR]
December 13
Yes, looks like ANDE will be a re-entry Xmas present.
I will be in Alabama with aged parents and so will not be at my ground station. I hope others will capture that last data. I just updated the ANDE-OPS web page with the latest I have. Plus a plot of temperature and battery voltage here.
Warming temps at this point are due to increasing beta angle probably and not detectible frictional heating yet.
[Bob, WB4APR]
December 12
...I plot the current height of ANDE in the graph. One might conclude from this that from 220km to de-orbit the graph shows ~12 days, so de-orbit today + ~12 days = ~24 Dec
[Henk, PA3GUO]
December 12
Looks like she is headed down hill a bit faster now. I show her at 215 km. That is down 5 km more from your posting just about 24 hours ago.
[Kenneth - N5VHO]
November 30
ANDE RE-ENTRY: Possibly as early as December 18th!
[Bob, WB4APR]
November 27
The ANDE-MAA satellite (Nav Oscar - 61) will de-orbit in the next few weeks but is fully operational. We encourage activity, because while it is in use (2m packet up/down), then it is awake and sending telemetry. We want to capture the most telemetry to see if we can catch the thermal changes as re-entry approaches.
Who can capture the last telemetry frame?
The most important telemetry is that which is fed live by IGate into the APRS-IS system. Because that is automatically logged and time stamped. You can verify your data got in by looking at the http://pcsat.aprs.org web page after each pass.
If you manually capture any packets, Please take special care to accurately LOG the TIME of any packets received especially in the final day prior to re-entry.
ANDE is coming over the northern latitudes in the afternoons and evenings local sun time, but this pattern moves earlier by 14 minutes per day. Just monitor 145.825 MHz.
Enjoy! [Bob, WB4APR]
November 22
Space-Track.Org updated the re-entry date to December,
2th.
It's important for us to know, who will support us in collecting
telemetry. So please send us an short e-mail or use the online form and say "yes, I'am in the
game"...[DK3WN]
November 18
ANDE RE-ENTRY is possibly as early as December 16th! Stay tuned and activate your ground station so that we can collect as much final telemetry as possible ! [WB4APR]
Website online and e-mail ande@amsat.org active. [DK3WN]
