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[jamsat-news:774] ANS 053 Bulletins
Daniel (Dan) James NN0DJ
AMSAT News Service Editor
SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-053.01
NEW SATELLITE HANDBOOK
HR AMSAT NEWS SERVICE BULLETIN 053.01 FROM AMSAT HQ
SILVER SPRING, MD, FEBRUARY 22, 1998
TO ALL RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-053.01
AMSAT is pleased to announce the arrival of the new Satellite Handbook,
authored by Dr. Martin Davidoff, K2UBC. This brand new edition contains
valuable information on satellite operating, types of antennas including 'how
to' articles on building your own, software, satellite Internet sites, profiles of
all the current active satellites and much more. This new edition is over
375 pages in length and is filled with information, including how to prepare for
the new Phase 3D satellite.
The new Satellite Handbook is available from AMSAT headquarters, contact
AMSAT-NA secretary Martha Saragovitz for more information.
[ANS thanks AMSAT-NA secretary Martha Saragovitz for this information]
/EX
SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-053.02
FOUR SCHOOLS SCHEDULED FOR MIR CONTACTS
HR AMSAT NEWS SERVICE BULLETIN 053.02 FROM AMSAT HQ
SILVER SPRING, MD, FEBRUARY 22, 1998
TO ALL RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-053.02
The SAREX Working Group has announced that four schools have been
tentatively scheduled for school-to-MIR contacts in the very near future.
If all goes as planned, students at the selected schools soon will be able
to talk with US astronaut Andy Thomas, KD5CHF/VK5MIR. Thomas arrived
aboard the Russian space station in late January.
The school contacts will be a new experience both for the pupils on
Earth and for Thomas aboard MIR. So far, Thomas has just barely used the
spacecraft's Amateur Radio equipment, mainly because of the crew's very
busy schedule.
Schools on the ''prime'' contact list include; Shell Beach Elementary
School, in Pismo Beach, California, Prairie Hills Elementary School,
Colorado Springs, Colorado, Buist Academy, Charleston, South
Carolina and Carey Junior High School, Cheyenne, Wyoming.
Arranging the contact schedule has taken several months and was
complicated by equipment problems aboard MIR and (more recently)
the change in crews.
Sources at NASA say the contacts could happen within the next two
weeks, and possibly as early as next week.
The schools involved have been given tentative QSO dates, but these
could change. ''There is always a possibility of a delay with these
schedules,'' warns ARRL Educational Programs Coordinator Glenn
Swanson, KB1GW. ''Such is the nature of any experiment.''
A typical MIR pass lasts approximately ten minutes, during which
students will interview the spacecraft's crew by asking prepared
questions. Also aboard MIR are two Russian cosmonauts who are
also hams; Talgat Musabayev, RO3FT, and Nikolai Budarin, RV3FB
(ex-RV3DB/R4MIR).
Thomas, 41, will remain aboard MIR until early simmer. It's not yet been
decided if another US astronaut will succeed him on the Russian
space station.
[ANS thanks the ARRL, the SAREX Working Group and AMSAT Vice President
for Manned Space Programs, Frank Bauer, KA3HDO for this information]
/EX
SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-053.03
NEW AMSAT FAQ SITE
HR AMSAT NEWS SERVICE BULLETIN 053.03 FROM AMSAT HQ
SILVER SPRING, MD, FEBRUARY 22, 1998
TO ALL RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-053.03
AMSAT Vice President for Electronic Communications, Paul Williamson, KB5MU
tells ANS that he has just completed and published a set of FAQ's, or frequently
asked questions, for the satellite tracking program called InstantTrack. This
program is widely used by many satellite operators around the world. You can
find the FAQ site on the world wide web using the URL:
http://www.amsat.org/amsat/intro/itfaq.html
Paul also reports that this information is also available as a downloadable
document using the AMSAT FTP site, the file is about 40 Kbytes long.
[ANS thanks AMSAT Vice President for Electronic Communications, Paul
Williamson, KB5MU for this information]
/EX
SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-053.04
SVALBARD DXPEDITION
HR AMSAT NEWS SERVICE BULLETIN 053.04 FROM AMSAT HQ
SILVER SPRING, MD, FEBRUARY 22, 1998
TO ALL RADIO AMATEURS BT
BID: $ANS-053.04
Carlos Ferreira, LA9PJA, is currently planning amateur activity from
Svalbard (JQ78), late this month. Using the callsign JW9PJA,
satellite, 6 meter and high frequency operation is scheduled. Single
side band, RTTY and SSTV modes will be utilized during the operation.
Operational dates have been confirmed as February 25th through 28th.
During satellite operation, RS-12 will be the featured, but Carlos reports
others are possible, including AO-10. More information is available at the
following URL:
http://home.sol.no/~la9pja/
[ANS thanks Carlos Ferreira, LA9PJA, for this information]
/EX
SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-053.05
WEEKLY SATELLITE REPORT PT 1
HR AMSAT NEWS SERVICE BULLETIN 053.05 FROM AMSAT HQ
SILVER SPRING, MD, FEBRUARY 22, 1998
TO ALL RADIO AMATEURS BT
BID: $ANS-053.05
MIR/SAFEX
SAFEX II 70 cm Repeater
(Uplink 435.750 MHz FM w/subaudible tone 141.3 Hz
Downlink 437.950 MHz FM)
Not operational. The SAFEX II repeater is temporarily turned off.
MIR/SAFEX
PMS (145.985 MHz FM, 1200 Baud AFSK)
MIREX sysops have been having daily discussion with the crew about the amateur
radio equipment aboard MIR. MIREX would like the stations monitoring the PMS
to please be patient while adjustments are made. MIREX has created an Internet
web page containing information regarding MIR and the various ham radio
experiments taking place from the space station. URLs are:
http://www.ik1sld.org/mirex.htm
http://www.geocities.com/~ik1sld/mirex.htm
[ANS thanks the MIREX team for this information]
RS-12
(Uplink, 21.210-21.250 MHz and 145.910-145.950 MHz, CW/SSB
Downlink 29.410-29.450 MHz, CW/SSB).
Operational, mode KA. The 15m ROBOT is operational.
RS-15 has been seeing recent heavy activity and good DX possibilities.
Jon, N0JK reports seeing '7Q7SB CQ RS-12' listed on several DX packet
clusters in his area.
[ANS thanks Jon Jones, N0JK for this report]
RS-15
(Uplink 145.858-145.898 MHz CW/SSB
Downlink 29.354-29.394 MHz CW/SSB)
Operational. CW appears to be the most successful mode on RS-15.
RS-16
At this time only the beacons are operational.
Transponder information on RS-16.
Uplink = 145.915 - 145.948 MHz
Downlink = 29.415 - 29.448 MHz
Beacons = 29.408 and 29.451 MHz
Pwr 29 MHz Down = 1.2W /4W
Beacon 1 = 435.504 MHz
Beacon 2 = 435.548 MHz
Pwr 435 MHz Beacons = 1.6W
RS-17 Sputnik Jr.
Not operational, RS-17 has been officially declared dead.
AO-10
(Uplink 435.030-435.180 MHz CW/LSB
Downlink 145.975-145.825 MHz CW/USB)
Operational. Despite brief moments of deep QSB, AO-10's downlink
signals have been excellent even at apogee. Activity on AO-10 has been
increasing with many DX stations heard. NN0DJ recently worked CT1DYX
in Portugal with good signals.
AO-10's apogee has continued to move into the northern hemisphere.
Apogee will continue to rise higher to the north for the rest of 1998,
peaking in December.
W4SM has updated his AO-10 web page, use the following URL:
http://www.cstone.net/~w4sm/AO-10.html
[ANS thanks Stacey Mills, W4SM, and Dan James, NN0DJ for this update]
AO-27
(Uplink 145.850 MHz FM
Downlink 436.792 MHz FM)
Operational. Widely used especially during weekend passes. Mike, N1JEZ
reports on a recent Atlantic pass he worked Pat, G3IOR in England and Pedro,
KP4SQ from Puerto Rico.
[ANS thanks Michael Wyrick, N4USI, AO-27 Control-op, and Mike Seguin,
N1JEZ for this update]
FO-20
(Uplink 145.900-146.00 MHz CW/LSB
Downlink 435.80-435.90 MHz CW/USB)
Operational. FO-20 in mode JA continuously. Mike, N1JEZ recently
worked Dermot, EI4ESB on FO-20. Mike reports good signals during
his early morning 1300 UTC European pass, hearing PE, ON, OZ, IK,
D, and G prefix stations coming through on the bird.
[ANS thanks Kazu Sakamoto, JJ1WTK and Mike Seguin, N1JEZ for this
for this information]
FO-29
Voice/CW Mode JA
(Uplink 145.900-146.00 MHz CW/LSB
Downlink 435.80-435.90 MHz CW/USB)
Digital Mode JD
(Uplink 145.850, 145.870, 145.910 MHz FM
Downlink 435.910 MHz FM 9600 baud BPSK)
Operational. Currently in mode JA. Kazu, JJ1WTK, reports an
error has occurred in the digital operating platform and FO-29
has been returned to JA status for now. No operational schedule
or status update has been listed on the JARL Web site for the
satellite.
[ANS thanks Kazu Sakamoto, JJ1WTK, for this report]
/EX
SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-053.06
WEEKLY SATELLITE REPORT PT 2
HR AMSAT NEWS SERVICE BULLETIN 053.06 FROM AMSAT HQ
SILVER SPRING, MD, FEBRUARY 22, 1998
TO ALL RADIO AMATEURS BT
BID: $ANS-053.06
KO-23
(Uplink 145.850, 145.900 MHz FM 9600 Baud FSK
Downlink 435.175 MHz FM)
Operational. Jim, AA7KC, reports KO-23 operating normally.
[ANS thanks Jim Weisenberger, AA7KC, for this report]
KO-25
(Uplink 145.980 MHz FM 9600 Baud FSK
Downlink 436.50 MHz FM)
Operational. Jim, AA7KC, reports KO-25 operating normally.
[ANS thanks Jim Weisenberger, AA7KC, for this report]
OSCAR-11
(Downlink 145.825 MHz FM, 1200 Baud PSK)
Beacon 2401.500 MHz
Operational. During the period of January 14th to February 16, 1998, Clive,
G3CWV reports good signals have been received from the 145.826 MHz
beacon. Three reports of the S-band beacon reception have been received.
Masa, JA0BES, reports signals of one S point above the noise, using a 34
element beam and Maki-Denk1 converter. Joe, KC6SZY, using a 76cm dish
with a 2.5 turn helical feed into an SSB converter, reports S-3 signals.
Joe sent G3CWV an audio file of his received S-band signals, which have been
added to the G3CWV web site. Ken, G8VR, also reports hearing S-band
OSCAR-11 and DOVE signals. Any reports of reception on 2401 MHz should
be sent to g3cwv@amsat.org.
The telemetry is nominal.
After a slight fall the internal temperatures have stabilized at around at 5.4C
and 3.0C for battery and telemetry electronics respectively. The change in
temperature is due to variations in solar eclipse times. In recent years the
satellite has been subjected to long periods of continuous sunlight which has
produced fairly high internal temperatures. Eclipses are expected throughout
1998, which should result in lower temperatures, with fairly small variations.
A single WOD survey has been transmitted during the period dated 06
January. Channels 10, 20, 30, 40 (+Y, -X, +X array currents, array voltage)
all showed the effect of solar eclipses on array currents and voltage.
The operating schedule is unchanged.
ASCII status (210 seconds)
ASCII bulletin (60 seconds)
BINARY SEU (30 seconds)
ASCII TLM (90 seconds)
ASCII WOD (120 seconds)
ASCII bulletin (60 seconds)
BINARY ENG (30 seconds)
-----------------------------------------------
[ANS thanks Clive Wallis, G3CWV, for this information]
AMSAT-OSCAR-16 (PACSAT)
(Uplink 145.90, 145.92, 145.94, 145.86 MHz FM, 1200 bps Manchester FSK
Downlink 437.0513 MHz SSB, 1200 bps RC-BPSK 1200 Baud PSK)
Beacon 2401.1428 MHz
Operational. The S band transmitter is off.
The telemetry is nominal.
Time is Fri Feb 20 23:57:22 1998 uptime is 1251/18:27:16.
Bat 1 V 1.256 V Bat 2 V 1.192 V
Bat 3 V 1.266 V Bat 4 V 1.323 V
Bat 5 V 1.263 V Bat 6 V 1.270 V
Bat 7 V 1.294 V Bat 8 V 1.276 V
+10V Bus 10.275 V RC PSK TX Out 0.818 W
Total Array C= 0.000 Bat Ch Cur=-0.458 Ifb= 0.175 I+10V= 0.306
TX:010C BCR:1E PWRC:59F BT: A WC:25 EDAC:D6
General information and telemetry WOD files for Oscar 16 can
be found at the following URL:
http://www.arrakis.es/~ea1bcu/wod.htm
[ANS thanks Miguel Menendez, EA1BCU, for this report]
----------------------------------------------------------
DO-17 (DOVE)
(Downlink 145.825 MHz FM, 1200 Baud AFSK)
Beacon 2401.220 MHz
Operational. The DOVE S band beacon is on. The 2 meter
transmitter is on (145.825 MHz). Telemetry is being sent about
every 30 seconds. A scanned image of Dove's QSL is available
at the 425DXNews web site:
http://www-dx.deis.unibo.it/htdx/
[ANS thanks Jim White, WD0E, for this update]
WEBERSAT (WO-18)
(Downlink 437.104 MHz SSB, 1200 Baud PSK AX.25)
Not operational. WO-18 is in MBL mode after a recent software
crash. Attempts are being made to find and correct the cause of the
suspected seasonal crashes. MBL stands for Microsat Boot Loader.
In this mode, the satellite waits for commands to be sent by the command
station (upload data block, download data block, send TLM block, etc.)
and occasionally sends out a primitive block of telemetry.
This is a recent block of decoded MBL 02150921.mbl 10:23:38 15-Feb-98
BCRi349.13mA bplt 3.134C TxPw 0.194W 5 V 5.848V 8.5V 9.904V 10V 13.729V
BCRi349.13mA bplt 3.134C TxPw 0.183W 5 V 5.742V 8.5V 9.851V 10V 13.653V
[ANS thanks the WO-18 Command Team for this news]
LUSAT-OSCAR-19
(Uplink 145.84, 145.86, 145.88, 145.90 MHz FM 1200 bps Manchester FSK
Downlink 437.125 MHz SSB, 1200 bps RC-BPSK)
Operating normally.
The telemetry is nominal.
Time is Sat Feb 07 1998 11:45:33 uptime is 962/21:40:23
+X (RX) Temp -1.552 D RX Temp -0.430 D
Bat 1 Temp 2.935 D Bat 2 Temp 3.496 D
Baseplt Temp 2.935 D RC PSK BP Temp -0.991 D
RC PSK HPA Tmp 0.131 D +Y Array Temp 4.057 D
PSK TX HPA Tmp -0.991 D +Z Array Temp -3.796 D
RC PSK TX Out 0.847 W
Total Array C= 0.212 Bat Ch Cur= 0.006 Ifb= 0.062 I+10V= 0.152
TX:100 BCR:34 PWRC:134AA BT:55 WC: 0
General information and telemetry samples can be found at:
http://www.arrakis.es/~ea1bcu/lo19.htm
[ANS thanks Miguel Menendez, EA1BCU, for this report]
UO-22
(Uplink: 145.900 or 145.975 MHz FM 9600 Baud FSK
Downlink 435.120 MHz FM)
Operational. Chris, G7UPN reports UO-22 is operating normally.
[ANS thanks Chris Jackson, G7UPN/ZL2TPO, Operations Manager
of UO-22, for this report]
IO-26 (ITAMSAT)
Uplink 145.875, 145.900, 145.925, 145.950 MHz FM 1200 Baud PSK
Downlink 435.822 MHz SSB)
No report is available at this time.
Please send any amateur satellite news or repots to
ans-editor@amsat.org or to ANS Editor Dan James, NN0DJ,
at nn0dj@amsat.org.
/EX
Daniel (Dan) James
AMSAT News Service Bulletin Editor
Amateur callsign: NN0DJ
Grid Square EN-28iv
Warroad, Minnesota U.S.A.
e-mail: nn0dj@amsat.org
ANS