From Newsgroup: rec.radio.amateur.space

In this edition:

* 44th AMSAT Space Symposium and Annual Membership Meeting Announced
* ARISS Solicits School Contacts for 2007
* VUCC & DXCC Standings April 2026
* rCiARISS and AMSAT: On Track to Track Artemis 2
* GridMasterMap Satellite Top 100 Rovers April 2026 Rankings
* Changes to AMSAT TLE Distribution for April 3, 2026
* ARISS Plans SSTV Event for April
* Ambassador Events
* ARISS News
* Satellite Shorts from All Over
*
The AMSAT(R) 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]
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Sign up for free e-mail delivery of the AMSAT News Service Bulletins via the ANS List. Join this list at: https://mailman.amsat.org/postorius/lists/ans.amsat.org/


44th AMSAT Space Symposium and Annual Meeting Announced
Save the dates October 8-11, 2026 for the 44th AMSAT Space Symposium and
Annual Membership Meeting. The site of the meeting will be in Jacksonville, Florida at the Crowne Plaza JAX Airport.


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Credit: Crowne Plaza JAX Airport

While an exact schedule will be available in the weeks ahead, you can tentatively plan on this Symposium and Annual Membership meeting per the customary format:


Thursday, October 8, 0800-1700: Board of Directors Meeting
Friday, October 9, 0800-1100: Board of Directors Meeting
Friday, October 9, 1300-1700: Symposium Presentations
Saturday, October 10, 0800-1500: Symposium Presentations
Saturday, October 10, 1500-1700: Annual Membership Meeting
Sunday, October, 11, 0700-1900: Membership Breakfast

Rooms will be available at a very affordable $109 per night! A link for room reservations will be available shortly. But, no need to wait! Mark your calendar now for the highlight of the AMSAT year with an opportunity to catch up with old friends and make new ones, too. Follow AMSAT News Service for updates as they happen!


[ANS thanks Drew Glasbrenner, KO4MA, AMSAT President, for the above information.]


________________________________

The 2026 PresidentrCOs Club Coin is Now Here!
Help Support GOLF and FoxPlus.
[Presidents' Club 2026 Coin]

Annual memberships start at only $120
Join the AMSAT PresidentrCOs Club today and help
Keep Amateur Radio in Space! https://www.amsat.org/join-the-amsat-presidents-club/

________________________________

ARISS Solicits School Contacts for 2007
The Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) Program is
seeking formal and informal education institutions and organizations, individually or working together, to host an Amateur Radio contact with a
crew member on board the ISS. ARISS anticipates that the contact would be
held between January 1, 2027 rCo June 30, 2027. Crew scheduling and ISS
orbits will determine the exact contact dates. To maximize these radio
contact opportunities, ARISS is looking for organizations that will draw
large numbers of participants and integrate the contact into a well-developed education plan.


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This proposal is due to ARISS by May 22, 2026 at 11:59 PM Pacific Time. Proposal information and more details such as expectations, proposal
guidelines and the proposal form can be found at https://www.ariss.org. An informational webinar will be held at 8 PM ET on April 30. The zoom link for that webinar is
https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/3yid9dxzRkmYfVroIP0nWA .


Crew members aboard the International Space Station will participate in scheduled Amateur Radio contacts. These radio contacts are approximately 10 minutes in length and allow students to interact with the astronauts through
a question-and-answer session.


An ARISS contact is a voice-only communication opportunity via Amateur Radio between astronauts and cosmonauts aboard the space station and classrooms and communities. ARISS contacts afford education audiences the opportunity to
learn firsthand from astronauts what it is like to live and work in space and to learn about space research conducted on the ISS. Students also will have
an opportunity to learn about satellite communication, wireless technology,
and radio science. Because of the nature of human spaceflight and the complexity of scheduling activities aboard the ISS, organizations must demonstrate flexibility to accommodate changes in dates and times of the
radio contact.


Please direct any questions to education@ariss-usa.org<mailto:education@ariss-usa.org> .


[ANS thanks the ARISS-USA for the above information.]

________________________________

AMSAT Remove Before Flight Key Tags Now Available
Yes, These are the Real Thing!

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Your $20 Donation Goes to Help Fly a FoxPlus Satellite
Includes First Class Postage (Sorry rCo U.S. Addresses Only)
Order Today at https://www.amsat.org/product/amsat-remove-before-flight-keychain


________________________________
VUCC & DXCC Standings April 2026
This is the VUCC Satellite Award/Endorsement Change Summary for March 01,
2026 to April 01, 2026.


EA2AA
1170
1206
JH8FIH
505
869
JN1BPM
630
804
JI5USJ
450
505
OH3DP
401
451
JI5RPT/1
200
300
IK0WRB
213
242
W0PR
224
230
WD9EWK (DM22)
200
204
PY3YO
100
160
PP5BY
New
100

Congratulations to new VUCC Satellite holder PP5BY. PP5BY is first VUCC Satellite holder from GG53

No DXCC standings, DXCC-SAT nor any of the other DXCC awards have been
updated since Feb 5, 2026


[ANS thanks Jon Goering, N7AZ, for the above information.]

________________________________

Join AMSAT or Renew Now. . .
Download a Free Getting Started with Amateur Satellites Book!

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Get the latest edition just for doing the right thing!
Visit https://www.amsat.org/membership-specials/ for more details.

________________________________

rCi
ARISS and AMSAT: On Track to Track Artemis 2
When the Artemis 2 mission with four astronauts departs for deep space
sometime in April, a team of ARISS and AMSAT volunteers will be
rCLwatchingrCY from afar. Specifically, our experts will use a multinational network of ground station receivers to capture the Orion capsulerCOs one-way S-band communications with mission control as a secondary means of tracking
the spacecraft.


While NASArCOs Space Communications and Navigation (SCaN) program will depend on the Near Space and Deep Space Network for primary tracking of the Orion during its 10-day mission around the moon and back, it has also selected 34 individuals and groups (including an ARISS and AMSAT consortium) across 14 countries to provide an independent source of tracking data using the radio waves generated by normal communications.


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(Credit: NASA/John Kraus)

The concept works. For Artemis 1, an uncrewed launch into low-Earth orbit in 2022, 10 individuals successfully tracked Orion throughout its mission. Based on lessons learned from that experience, SCaN now has data standards that Artemis 2 passive trackers will use when sending the data to NASA.


Another lesson SCaN learned from Artemis 1 was that there is a lot of
interest in passive tracking. SCaN in August 2025 issued an official request for information (RFI) to government agencies, companies, amateur radio organizations and enthusiasts to participate in Artemis 2 tracking. According to NASA, those chosen through the RFI will use 47 ground assets in 14
countries to help the agency rCLbetter assess the broader aerospace communityrCOs tracking capabilities and identify ways to augment future Moon and Mars mission support.rCY


ARISS and AMSAT are teamed up under the auspices of the AREx (Amateur Radio Exploration) Ground Station Consortium. AREx is a joint ARISS and AMSAT international effort to develop and operate amateur radio systems for deep space, starting at the moon and later to Mars. The team will provide one-way doppler tracking of the S-band signals from space, recording the data and delivering it to SCaN in the proper format.


The AREx worldwide consortium includes teams in the United States (University of Southern California, and Dayton, Ohio); the UK (Goonhilly); Germany, and Poland. Other AREx team members who supported the Artemis I initiative are
also participating separately. ARISS operations team member Daryl Young is serving as the Project Manager for the Artemis 2 tracking project.

rCi
For the latest updates on Artemis 2 and other exciting ARISS news, please follow our Facebook, X, Instagram, BlueSky, Mastodon, LinkedIn, YouTube and Discord social media channels.


[ANS thanks ARISS-USA for the above information.]

________________________________

GridMasterMap Satellite Top 100 Rovers April 2026 Rankings
The April 2026 rankings for the Top 100 Rovers (Mixed LEO/MEO/GEO) in
satellite operations, as determined by @GridMasterMap on Twitter, has been released as of April 3, 2026.


The ranking is determined by the number of grids and DXCC entities activated, taking into account only those grids where a minimum number of QSOs logged on the gridmaster.fr website have been validated by a third party. Grid numbers
do not directly reflect the exact number of activations. Satellite operators are encouraged to upload their LoTW satellite contacts to
https://gridmaster.fr in order to provide more accurate data.


1
ND9M
26
BA1PK
51
K7TAB
76
M1DDD
2
NJ7H
27
KG5CCI
52
KE0WPA
77
N8RO
3
UT1FG
28
KX9X
53
KE0PBR
78
VA7LM
4
JA9KRO
29
DJ8MS
54
XE3DX
79
DL4EA
5
N5UC
30
N5BO
55
WD5GRW
80
SP5XSD
6
F5VMJ
31
K8BL
56
LU4JVE
81
N6UTC
7
DL6AP
32
ON4AUC
57
W7WGC
82
N4UFO
8
DP0POL
33
KE4AL
58
PR8KW
83
VE7PTN
9
WI7P
34
AC0RA
59
JK2XXK
84
PT2AP
10
K5ZM
35
KB5FHK
60
EA4NF
85
VE1VOX
11
OE3SEU
36
PA3GAN
61
EB1AO
86
AA8CH
12
WY7AA
37
JO2ASQ
62
XE1ET
87
KB2YSI
13
LU5ILA
38
F4BKV
63
N6DNM
88
KI7UXT
14
N6UA
39
KI0KB
64
W8LR
89
AF5CC
15
HA3FOK
40
KI7UNJ
65
W1AW
90
KJ7NDY
16
W5PFG
41
VA3VGR
66
SM3NRY
91
BI1MHK
17
OH2UDS
42
VE3HLS
67
KI7QEK
92
PT9BM
18
N9IP
43
BG7QIW
68
KE9AJ
93
FG8OJ
19
AK8CW
44
LA9XGA
69
F4DXV
94
BG5CZD
20
AD0DX
45
HJ5LVR
70
VE1CWJ
95
YU0W
21
AD0HJ
46
VK5DG
71
HB9GWJ
96
PU4CEB
22
DL2GRC
47
BA8AFK
72
AA5PK
97
W8MTB
23
N4AKV
48
N7AGF
73
PU6JBN
98
N4DCW
24
WD9EWK
49
DF2ET
74
AD7DB
99
PS8BR
25
ND0C
50
JL3RNZ
75
KM4LAO
100
WA9JBQ

[ANS thanks @GridMasterMap and Mitch Ahrenstorff, AD0HJ, for the above information.]


________________________________

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Get your AMSAT car flag and other neat stuff from our Zazzle store!

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25% of the purchase price of each product goes towards
Keeping Amateur Radio in Space
https://www.zazzle.com/amsat_gear

________________________________

Changes to AMSAT TLE Distribution for April 3, 2026
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 daily in the first hour of the UTC day. New
bulletin files will be posted immediately after reliable elements become available for new amateur satellites. More information may be found at https://www.amsat.org/keplerian-elements-resources/.


The following satellites have been added to this week's AMSAT TLE
distribution. They have provisional object numbers that will change once official USSF/NORAD numbers are assigned.


HADES-SA/SpinnyONE Provisional ID 71958
LILIUM-4 Provisional ID 71922
PARUS-6U1 Provisional ID 71919
JACK-002 Provisional ID 71927
SAL-E Provisional ID 71904
DISCO-2 Provisional ID 71908

[ANS thanks Joe Fitzgerald, KM1P, AMSAT Orbital Elements Manager for the
above information.]


________________________________

ARISS Plans SSTV Event for April
ARISS is planning for a 70cm (437 MHz) event for the week of April 12, 2026. The ARISS teams are preparing a new series of SSTV transmissions for the
event. The SSTV Series 31 images will pay tribute to Cosmonautics Day, the 100th anniversary of liquid-fueled rockets, the inaugural Space Shuttle
launch and SuitSat.


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Exact times, frequencies and modes will be announced closer to the event. Follow ARISS social media for updates.


[ANS thanks the ARISS-USA for the above information.]

________________________________

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.


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+ Completed Contacts
Aznakaevsky District, Republic of Tatarstan, Russia, direct via RC4P.
The ISS callsign was RS|yISS.
The crewmember was Andrey Fedyaev.
The ARISS mentor was A.R.C. ENERGIA, RV3DR.
Contact was successful on Monday, March 30, 2026 at 11:55 UTC.

Simon Langton Grammar School for Boys The Langton, Canterbury, United
Kingdom, direct via GB4SLS.

The ISS callsign was NA1SS.
The crewmember was Jack Hathaway, KJ5NIV.
The ARISS mentor was Ciaran Morgan, M|yXTD .
Contact was successful on Monday, March 30, 2026 at 13:28 UTC.

Istituto Comprensivo rCLGabriele DrCOAnnunziorCY Lanciano, Chieti, Italy, direct via IQ6LN.

AND
Istituto Comprensivo rCLMohandas Karamchand GandhirCY, Pontedera, Italy, telebridge via IQ6LN.

The ISS callsign was OR4ISS.
The crewmember was Sophie Adenot KJ5LTN
The ARISS mentorwas Francesco De Paolis, IK|yWGF
Contact was successful on Wednesday, April 1, 2026 at 11:56:09 UTC.

Walnut Grove Elementary School, Suwanee, GA, direct via KR4HPC.
The ISS callsign was NA1SS.
The crewmember was Chris Williams, KJ5GEW.
The ARISS mentor was, Daryl Young, K4RGK.
Contact was successful on Thursday, April 2, 2026 at 15:41:23 UTC.

+ Upcoming Contacts
Emporia State University, School of Science & Mathematics, Emporia, KS,
direct via K|yESU.

The ISS callsign is presently scheduled to be NA1SS.
The scheduled crewmember is Sophie Adenot, KJ5LTN.
The ARISS mentor is Ryan Krenzischek, W4NTR.
Contact is go for Wednesday, April 8, 2026 at 14:10:31 UTC.

Lyc|-e du Vimeu, Friville-Escarbotin, France, direct via F6KVJ.
The ISS callsign is presently scheduled to be OR4ISS.
The scheduled crewmember is Sophie Adenot, KJ5LTN.
The ARISS mentor is Joseph Le Moine, F6ICS.
Contact is go for Thursday, April 9, 2026 at 10:27:02 UTC.

Albert Camus Middle School, La Norville, France, telebridge via ON4ISS.
The ISS callsign is presently scheduled to be OR4ISS.
The scheduled crewmember is Jack Hathaway, KJ5NIV.
The ARISS mentor is Joseph Le Moine, F6ICS.
Contact is go for Thursday, April 9, 2026 at 12:04:25 UTC.

Memorial Complex of Soviet Pilot-Cosmonaut A.G. Nikolaev, Chuvashia, Russia. The ISS callsign is presently scheduled to be RS|yISS.
The scheduled crewmember is Sergey Mikaev.
The ARISS mentor is A.R.C. ENERGIA, RV3DR.
Contact is go for Friday, April 10, 2026 at 10 08:10 UTC.

The crossband repeater continues to be active (145.990 MHz up {PL 67} &
437.800 MHz down). 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.


As always, if there is an EVA, a docking, or an undocking; the ARISS radios
are turned off as part of the safety protocol.


Note, all times are approximate. It is recommended that you do your own
orbital prediction or start listening about 10 minutes before the listed
time.


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.]


________________________________

AMSAT Ambassador Activities
AMSAT Ambassadors provide presentations, demonstrate communicating through amateur satellites, and host information tables at club meetings, hamfests, conventions, maker faires, and other events.


[AMSAT Ambassador News Logo]

April 17-19, 2026
Southeastern VHF Society Conference
Holiday Inn Macon North
3953 River Place Dr
Macon, Georgia 31201
https://svhfs.org/wp/2026-2/
W4FCL

April 11, 2026
Tucson Area Spring Hamfest
Radio Society of Tucson
Calvary Tucson Church
8711 East Speedway
Tucson, AZ 85710
https://k7rst.club/
N1UW

May 15-17, 2026
Dayton Hamvention
Greene County Fair and Expo Center
210 Fairground Road
Xenia 45385
https://hamvention.org/
October 8-11, 2026

44th AMSAT Space Symposium and Annual Membership Meeting
Crowne Plaza JAX Airport
14670 Duval Road
Jacksonville, FL 32218
Details to follow

[ANS thanks Bo Lowrey, W4FCL, Director rCo AMSAT Ambassador Program, for the above information.]


________________________________
Satellite Shorts From All Over
+ The two-hour launch window of the Artemis II mission provided a practical example of the effects of space debris and satellite crowding. During the launch window, NASA was required to respect approximately 156 "cuts." A cut
is a period when the rocket could not be launched due to the risk of
collision with a satellite or trackable debris in low-earth orbit. Each cut
can last from one to twenty-three seconds. The NASA-TV commentator noted that it wasn't many years earlier when the number of cuts for this type of mission was only in the forties. [ANS thanks NASA-TV for the above information.]


+ A new version of the Andy UZ7HO SoundModem program for HADES-SA SpinnyONE
is now available, fixing several detected bugs.

You can download it at: https://www.amsat-ea.org/app/download/14224014/UZ7HO_Soundmodem_for_HADES_SA_SpinnyONE.zip.
Additionally, tools for decoding SSDV images and CODEC2 (Windows versions)
are available at:

https://www.amsat-ea.org/app/download/14224021/AMSAT-EA_HADES-SA_SpinnyONE_SSDV_utilities.zip
https://www.amsat-ea.org/app/download/14224194/AMSAT-EA_HADES-SA_SpinnyONE_CODEC2_utilities.zip.
[ANS thanks F|-lix EA4GQS for the above information.]

________________________________

Join AMSAT today at https://launch.amsat.org/

In addition to regular membership, AMSAT offers membership to:


* Societies (a recognized group, clubs or organization).
* Students are eligible for FREE membership up to age 25.
* Memberships are available for annual and lifetime terms.

Contact info [at] amsat [dot] org for additional membership information.

73 and remember to help Keep Amateur Radio in Space!

This week's ANS Editor, Frank Karnauskas, N1UW.
f.karnauskas [at] amsat [dot] org

ANS is a service of AMSAT, the Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation, 712 H Street NE, Suite 1653, Washington, DC 20002.

AMSAT is a registered trademark of the Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation.


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