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[jamsat-news:1089] * SpaceNews 17-May-99 *
SB NEWS @ AMSAT $SPC0517
* SpaceNews 17-May-99 *
BID: $SPC0517
=========
SpaceNews
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MONDAY MAY 17, 1999
* W1AW SPECIAL EVENT *
======================
The ARRL celebrates its 85th anniversary May 18, 1999. To mark the
event, Maxim Memorial Station W1AW will operate as special event
station W1AW/85 during the week of May 17-23. Some W1AW/85
operation will include PSK31. The American Radio Relay League was
founded in 1914 by Hiram Percy Maxim, later 1AW, and Clarence Tuska,
later 1AY.
ARRL President Rod Stafford, W6ROD, encouraged participation from
all segments of the Amateur Radio community. "We hope everyone,
member and nonmember alike, will join in celebrating the League's
first 85 years and the beginning of the next 85," he said.
Volunteer staff members will handle on-the-air duties at W1AW/85,
which will take place before and after regular daily W1AW
transmissions. Plans call for W1AW/85 to operate 160-10 meters plus
6 and 2 meters and 70 cm, 25 kHz inside subbands on CW, plus SSB,
RTTY, PSK31, SSTV, satellite, Novice bands, etc. Additionally,
W1AW/85 will transmit bulletins using PSK31 as a secondary digital
mode (time permitting) for the last digital bulletin of each day
that week.
A special QSL will be available.
[Info via Steve Ford]
* OSCAR-16 MILESTONE *
======================
The AMSAT-OSCAR-16 satellite passed a milestone last week when it kernel
uptime reached 1700 days on 15-May-99. This means the satellite has not
required a software reload, on-board computer reboot, nor has it experienced
a single interruption in service in over 1700 consecutive days.
* RS-13 NEWS *
==============
Tony, AB2CJ reports that the RS-13 ROBOT is currently operational using
an uplink on 145.840 MHz and a downlink on 29.504 MHz.
When operational, the ROBOT can be heard sending "CQ CQ DE RS-13 QRU
145.840 kHz AR" in morse code.
To work the ROBOT, use the following example:
send "RS 13 de (your call) AR"
The ROBOT will respond with a QSO number for a QSL. It repeats
the number twice, so if you miss it the first time you get a second
chance.
Here's an example of how the Robot responds:
"AB2CJ DE RS13 QSL NR0137 OP ROBOT TU SW QSO NR0137 73 SK"
You may have to tune your uplink frequency slightly to center it within
the ROBOT's passband.
* UoSAT-12 NEWS *
=================
Chris Jackson, G7UPN posted a UoSAT-12 telemetry configuration file and an
updated version of DTLM (satellite telemetry decoding program) to the web
site below. To display UoSAT-12 telemetry using this version of DTLM,
you need to add the command line option /mc to the end of the command
line. DTLM uses a TNC in KISS mode to decode the data.
To download the ZIP file, point your browser at:
http://www.ee.surrey.ac.uk/EE/CSER/UOSAT/amateur/uosat-12/
Chris also reports that UoSAT-12 commissioning is proceeding well, although
things are slowing slightly as the passes over Surrey get earlier.
Additionally, the power budget is decreasing rapidly as the satellite
sees longer eclipses, and this reduces the number of payloads that
controllers can have on at any time.
UoSAT-12 recently was granted an OSCAR number, and now may also be referred
to as UoSAT-OSCAR-36 or simply UO-36. The correct object number for this
satellite is 25693.
* SOFTWARE DEMODULATOR AVAILABLE *
==================================
Late last year, Phil Karn, KA9Q, wrote a demodulator and decoder program
in C for the real-time solar wind data from the ACE spacecraft. He did
this for NOAA so they could afford to add enough ground stations to
provide 24hr/day coverage (the hardware decoders they had been using
cost something on the order of $50K each!).
Phil recently placed his program on his web page for anyone to examine
and work with. The telemetry format follows the CCSDS standards which
includes some pretty strong forward error correction (interleaved
concatenated Reed-Solomon and Viterbi-decoded convolutional). The
demodulator as-is is pretty specific to ACE, and it assumes there's
a PSK receiver tracking the residual carrier and providing baseband
audio to the PC's sound card. Phil plans a separate PSK receiver program
that would do this same function in software on an "offset carrier" signal
like that provided by a SSB receiver (assuming it can be tuned to keep
the signal somewhere inside the receiver passband).
Phil would like to get people experimenting with these techniques on
our analog transponders since he feels they have a lot of promise.
AO-10, for example, would be a good challenge.
See http://people.qualcomm.com/karn/code/acedemod/ for more information.
* FEEDBACK/INPUT WELCOMED *
===========================
Comments and input for SpaceNews should be directed to the editor
(John, KD2BD) via any of the paths listed below:
WWW : http://www.njin.net/~magliaco/
PACKET : KD2BD @ KS4HR.NJ.USA.NA
INTERNET : kd2bd@amsat.org, magliaco@email.njin.net
SATELLITE : AMSAT-OSCAR-16, KITSAT-OSCAR-25
<<=- SpaceNews: The first amateur newsletter read in space! -=>>
<<=- Serving the planet (and beyond) since 1987 -=>>
/EX
--
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- John A. Magliacane, KD2BD -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Internet : kd2bd@amsat.org | Voice : +1.732.224.2948
Satellite : AO-16, LO-19, KO-25 | Morse : -.- -.. ..--- -... -..
Packet : KD2BD @ KS4HR.NJ.USA.NA | WWW : http://www.njin.net/~magliaco/
Video : 426.250 MHz/439.250 MHz | FAX : +1.732.224.2060
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