[jamsat-news:1859] ANS-292 AMSAT Weekly Bulletin

AMSAT NEWS SERVICE

ANS-292

ANS is a free, weekly, news and information service of AMSAT North
America, The Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation. ANS 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.

Please send any amateur satellite news or reports to:
ans-editor@amsat.org


In this edition:
*  Satellite contacts in ARRL's LoTW
*  OSCAR status page
*  ARISS Update
*  OSCAR-11 Report


SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-292.01
Satellite contacts in ARRL's LoTW

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 292.01 From AMSAT HQ
SILVER SPRING, MD.  October 19, 2003
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-292.01


The ARRL has recently updated the QSO matching requirements for the Logbook
of  the World (LoTW).

To match, the two QSO records (yours and the other station's) must have:
 *  Call of each QSO matches own call of the other (including portable
     identifiers)
*   The modes are in the same mode group (e.g., SSB and PHONE match because
     both are PHONE)
*   The date/time values are the same within 30 minutes (all times are UTC)

In addition, if the QSO is a satellite QSO (indicated by the propagation
mode):
*   Both QSOs must be satellite mode
*   Satellite name must be the same

As a result of this change the only unique fields that are needed for
satellite QSOs are SAT_NAME and PROP_MODE.

Additional information about the Logbook of the World can be found at
http://www.arrl.org/lotw/

[ANS thanks the ARRL for the above information]

/EX


SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-292.02
OSCAR status page

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 292.02 From AMSAT HQ
SILVER SPRING, MD.  October 19, 2003
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-292.02

David Carr,  KD5QGR, is currently testing his OSCAR satellite status
page http://oscar.dcarr.org

It takes less than 15 seconds. to input your data and provides a means to
see what other stations are reporting from the various amateur satellites.
The site is still under development but the data posted is valid.  As more
Users input their data the site will be able to provide a clear visual
representation of the amateur satellite constellation and will be a good way
to see what the trend is of your favorite satellite like SO-50, SO-41.

[ANS thanks David, DK5QGR, for the above information]

/EX


SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-292.03
ARISS Update

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 292.03 From AMSAT HQ
SILVER SPRING, MD.  October 19, 2003
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-292.03

*  ARISS Lithograph Finalized
Marissa Harper has made the final changes to the NASA developed ARISS
lithograph.  It is to be submitted for printing on Tuesday, 10/14/03.

*  Brazilian Aerospace Museum to Install Ham Station
ARISS Brazilian team member Tadeu Fernandes is working with the aerospace
museum in Afonso Air Base, Brazil to install a ham radio station in the
museum.  It will be used to listen to ARISS contacts.

*  Brazilian Astronaut to get Ham Radio License
Rosalie White is working with the ARISS Brazilian team to enable astronaut
Marcos Pontes to get his U.S. Ham radio license, so that he may fully
participate in ARISS.  Nick Lance at NASA JSC will lead the U.S. license
training for Marcos.

*  ARISS Team Continues to work on Packet Radio Issues
ARRIS Russia was unable to perform testing of Packet Radio System due to a
lack of power supplies for their computer systems.  It was suggested that
U.S. write a proposal giving crew members permission to use U.S. computers
for testing.  This action is in work.

*  Upcoming School Contacts
ESA astronaut Pedro Duque, who expects to fly on the upcoming Soyuz flight
to ISS, is scheduled to initiate ARISS contacts with Ceip Seixalbo School in
Ourense, Spain on October 23,2003, and Verbum Casa das palabras in Vigo,
Spain on October 26, 2003.

The latest ARISS announcement and successful school list is now available on
the ARISS web site.  Several ways to get there.

Latest ARISS announcements and news
http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/arissnews.txt

Successful school list
http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/Successful_ARISS_schools.rtf

or
http://ariss.gsfc.nasa.gov

If the GSFC website is having problems, then go directly to the RAC site.

click on English (sorry I don't know French)
you are now at http://www.rac.ca/ariss/
click on News

In addition you can check out Ed Lu's webpage: http://www.edlu.com/


[ANS thanks Carol Jackson for the above information]

/EX


SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-292.04
OSCAR-11 Report

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 292.04 From AMSAT HQ
SILVER SPRING, MD.  October 19, 2003
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-292.04

OSCAR-11 REPORT   14 October 2003

During the period 06 September to 13 October 2003 the 145.826 MHz. beacon
has been heard transmitting continuous ASCII telemetry from 11 to 21
September, and 02 to 12 October. During this period good signals have been
received. Telemetry transmissions are expected to resume around 22 October
for about 10 days.  Once again I am indebted to Jeff KB2M who has
provided telemetry from 13 to 21 September, while I have been on holiday.
Many thanks Jeff.

On 11 September at 17:11:37 UTC, while searching for a signal, I was
particularly fortunate to hear the beacon switch ON. Telemetry showed
the 145.826 MHz. beacon temperature rapidly rising, frame by frame,
immediately after it had switched ON.

The internal temperatures have increased by 12C during the period,
indicating that the eclipse times are continuing to decrease.  The
temperatures are now 17.0C, 14.4C, and 21.4C respectively, for battery,
telemetry electronics and command decoder, respectively. The external
temperatures have shown less variation than previously reported, and are
generally in the range 0 to 30C.

Temperatures are expected to increase, reaching a peak in November with
higher temperatures than in 2002.

The battery voltage observed during daylight passes has increased.
Observations have varied between 13.5 and 14.0 volts, with an average value
of 13.8 volts.

Spin periods of 430 to 720 seconds have been measured from the magnetometer
telemetry. This indicates a trend towards normal rotational speeds, and the
direction of rotation is normal.

The mode-S beacon has been heard by Christian F1AFZ. He reports S3-S4
signals with 85 cm dish, 3.5 turn helix, and AIDC 3733 converter.  Many
thanks for that report Christian.

Users of OSCAR-11 should note that the date in the telemetry is advanced by
three days.  The time is advanced by 19.0 minutes, and this error is
increasing by about one minute per year.

OSCAR-11 now operates in a default mode, controlled by the watch-dog timer.
The satellite transmits continuous ASCII telemetry for about 10 days on
145.826 MHz., followed by about 10 days of silence. This regular
sequence might be interrupted by ground control.

The mode-S beacon is ON continuously, even when the VHF beacon is
OFF, nominally transmitting an unmodulated carrier on 2401.5 MHz.
There is however a VERY low level of AFSK modulation, (now a constant
1200 Hz. audio tone), which has been detected on strong signals.
Telemetry indicates that the beacon has partially failed, and is
delivering half power.  This beacon is a useful test source for those
testing mode-S converters, as an alternative to OSCAR-40. However the
signals are very weak, and there is a lot of Doppler. Users should
also note that the polarization of OSCAR-11 is LHC. Even if you can't
hear OSCAR-11, your equipment may still be OK for OSCAR-40. Any
reports of reception on 2401.5 MHz. would be most welcome.  Please
e-mail g3cwv@amsat.org.

The 435.025 MHz. beacon is normally OFF.  It can only be heard on the
very rare occasions when the satellite is being commanded by ground
control, i.e.. within range of Guildford, UK.  When the 435 beacon is
transmitting, the 145 beacon is normally OFF.  The data transmitted
is mainly binary.

Listeners to OSCAR-11 may be interested in visiting my web site.

The web site contains details about using a soundcard for data
capture, and also details about using hardware demodulators. There is
software for capturing data, and decoding ASCII telemetry and WOD.
There is an archive of raw data for analysis, which is continually
being expanded, as new data is captured.  Originally this was for
WOD, but it is now being expanded to include ASCII telemetry. At the
present time the telemetry covers 1996 to April 2003.  I will add
other years as time permits.  In parallel there is a news archive
which provides an overview of the state of the satellite, at the
times when the telemetry was captured.

If anyone out there can provide any data, particularly for the 1984
to 1993 years, this would be most appreciated.  Please e-mail me
with details.  However please DO NOT SEND ANY FILES, before further
discussion.

Also included are some audio files, examples of each type of data
transmitted by OSCAR-11, each one plays for about ten seconds.  There
are also examples of mode-S reception.  All the audio files are
zipped, so that they can be played off-line.  These should help
listeners identify the various types of data, and give an indication
of the signal quality required for successful decoding.

The URL is -

      http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/clivew/

If you place this bulletin on a terrestrial packet network, please
use the bulletin identifier $BID:U2RPT90.CWV, to prevent duplication.

[ANS thanks Clive, G3CWV, for the above information]

/EX

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73,
This weeks ANS Editor,
Lee McLamb, KU4OS, ku4os at amsat.org

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