[jamsat-news:863] ANS 200

[Dan James <nn0dj@means.net>]

AMSAT NEWS SERVICE	
ANS 200	

SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-200.01
NEW SATELLITES DOING FINE

HR AMSAT NEWS SERVICE BULLETIN 200.01 FROM AMSAT HQ
SILVER SPRING, MD, JULY 19, 1998
TO ALL RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-200.01

After one week in space, ANS is pleased to report the two newest Amateur 
Radio digital satellites --TMSAT-1 and TechSat-1B -- are responding very 
well to flight commands from ground control stations. The two 
micro-satellites were successfully launched from the Russian Baikonur 
Cosmodrome on July 10th.

Chris Jackson, G7UPN / ZL2TPO tells ANS the initial part of the flight 
software is now running on TMSAT, and the on board computer system has been 
switched to the downlink.  "Users familiar with the current digital 
satellites will now be able to observe TMSAT data using standard ground 
station software," said Jackson.

G7UPN further reports "the satellite callsign is TMSAT1, transmitting on 
436.923 MHz. Presently it may be 3 kHz high in frequency due to the 
internal spacecraft temperature being quite cold. In addition, the 
transmitter is currently only being switched on over Bangkok while we 
perform some of the commissioning tests." Current output power is 
approximately 1.7 to 2 watts.

Jackson also stated the official control station for TMSAT would be HS0AM, 
reporting that he is doing the commanding for the initial commissioning 
phase of the mission, after which it will be handled by HS0AM.

G7UPN is still requesting that stations please refrain from attempting to 
uplink to the spacecraft at this time.

TechSat-1B is also responding well to flight commands. Shlomo Menuhin, 
4X1AS informs ANS the TECHSAT downlink frequency was recently changed to 
435.225 MHz with the satellite transmitting in telemetry mode. The 
satellite does not have a continuos beacon, but does transmit a 9600-baud 
burst every 30 seconds (for about 3 seconds in length). Menuhin estimates 
that it will be several weeks before the initial in-orbit testing is 
completed. In the meantime TechSat will continue its present burst-mode 
transmission format.

The Jerusalem Post featured a nice article about the satellite and the 
launch team, entitled 'Beaming Technion Starts Work On New Satellite'. The 
story, by David Rudge, may still be available at the following URL:

http://www.jpost.com/News/Article-7.html

The TechSat team has also constructed a new home page about the TechSat 
bird, and promise they will add more information in the next few weeks. To 
view the new site, point your web browser to:

http://techsat.internet-zahav.net/

Stations around the world continue to report receiving signals from the two 
new satellites. At Arizona State University, Assi Friedman, 4X1KX / KK7KX 
reports TMSAT had a very nice signal and the TechSat frequency change 
"improved the signal." Rick, KB0VBZ also reports good signals from TechSat 
in DM79 near Aurora, Colorado. John, LA2QAA monitored a pass of TMSAT-1, 
reporting a "very strong downlink signal." CT1EAT adds, "for a person who 
recently joined the digital satellite world, the fact of seeing two new 
birds come alive is really a unique experience!"

[ANS thanks Chris Jackson, G7UPN / ZL2TPO and Shlomo Menuhin, 4X1AS for 
this information]

/EX

SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-200.02
AMSAT-NA MAILING LISTS AUTOMATED

HR AMSAT NEWS SERVICE BULLETIN 200.02 FROM AMSAT HQ
SILVER SPRING, MD, JULY 19, 1998
TO ALL RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-200.02

Paul Williamson, KB5MU, AMSAT-NA Vice President/Electronic Publishing, 
tells ANS the AMSAT-NA mailing lists have been automated. "This change has 
numerous advantages and only a few disadvantages," said KB5MU.

The new procedure starts with subscribe or unsubscribe requests, which 
should now be sent to the following (new) e-mail address:

majordomo@amsat.org.

 Paul notes you must use the exact syntax the main computer is requesting 
with this procedure. Subscribe and unsubscribe operations will be very 
quick.  Subscribe operations will also be more secure and new subscribers 
will now get a welcome message.

A digest service is now available for the discussion mailing lists: 
AMSAT-BB, AMSAT-DC, AMSAT-NE, and SAREX. This means that instead of getting 
a bunch of individual messages every day, a subscriber would get only one 
message each day, containing a list of all the messages from that day. In 
addition, archives will now be available for the discussion lists. If on 
vacation, a subscriber could easily catch up by reading the list archives 
when they returned.

Other advantages include many of the bogus subscribe and unsubscribe 
messages will be automatically caught before they go out to the entire 
mailing list, extraordinarily long messages will be caught and reviewed 
manually, a note on how to unsubscribe will be attached to the bottom of 
each message and the subject of each message sent to a non-digest list will 
be prefixed with the name of the list in square brackets. This will make it 
easier to find messages that came from a particular list. An important 
change will be posting to the discussion mailing lists -- this will be 
restricted to subscribers of the list only.

KB5MU also reports that mailing list privacy is still strictly enforced. 
"There should still be no way for anybody to get a list of who subscribes 
to any of the mailing lists, in order to circumvent mailing list 
restrictions," said Williamson.

Future plans include a web-based interface to subscribe and unsubscribe, 
along with indexing, searching and possibly hypertext retrieval for the 
mailing list archives.

Paul is very interested in how these new changes have been received. Please 
send your comments directly to:

kb5mu@amsat.org.

[ANS thanks Paul Williamson, KB5MU, AMSAT-NA Vice President/Electronic 
Publishing for his hard work and dedication to the AMSAT-NA mailing lists]

/EX

SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-200.03
ANS IN BRIEF

HR AMSAT NEWS SERVICE BULLETIN 200.03 FROM AMSAT HQ
SILVER SPRING, MD, JULY 19, 1998
TO ALL RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-200.03

ANS news in brief this week includes the following:

** G3RWL reports there have been a few changes to the AMSAT-UK Colloquium 
program. Watch http://www.uk.amsat.org for updates. The major change is 
that NASA astronaut Don Thomas can not attend, however, Ron Parise has 
kindly agreed to fill the 'space'. There are still a few delegate vacancies 
should anyone suddenly decide they want to come to AMSAT-UK's best 
Colloquium yet (with only 2 weeks to go).
--AMSAT BB

** The Phase 3D Integration Lab web site featured two great photos this 
week. A Phase 3D Self Portrait and satellite Rear View were the pictures 
posted during the week of July 13th. To view the site and see the 
photographs of P3D (including those from pervious weeks), point your 
browser to http://www.magicnet.net/~phase3d/. --NN0DJ

** Ray Hoard, WA5QGD reports the NASA BBS that he has used to downloaded 
raw Keplerian data from since 1993 has shut down. The bulletin board has 
moved to the Internet in order to improve service.  Ray has started using 
the new web site. The data format for both AMSAT and NASA 2-Line files are 
exactly the same, however the order in which the satellites will appear in 
the data has changed. The satellites are now in descending order by NASA 
catalog number. Ray reports this should pose no problem for QuikTrak, 
InstantTrack, Nova 32, STSPlus or any of the popular tracking programs. 
--WA5QGD

** Joe, KC6SZY who has successfully received signals from the Lunar 
Prospector, has now posted information about his signal detection work on 
his web site. Point your browser to the following URL:
http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/Hangar/8389/lunar.html
--MOON-NET

** The final report investigating the causes of the Japan H2 second stage 
LE-5A engine failure has been submitted by the National Space Development 
Agency of Japan to a technical assessment subcommittee of the Space 
Activities Commission. The report was unable to detail the exact cause of 
the failed February launch that resulted in the Communications and 
Broadcasting Engineering Test Satellite being stranded in an elliptic 
orbit. The satellite was unable to be transferred to a GEO orbit. --Japan 
Space Briefs

** Tom, KB8MFV is on an extended camping trip in western Pennsylvania and 
will be attempting to work the satellites from a fairly rare grid location 
- FN01. Tom plans to be on as many analog birds as possible. --KB8TJX

** ANS welcomes aboard John, N4NAB. John is a long time ham but a newcomer 
to satellite operation. John has not made a QSO via satellite yet, as he is 
hard at work on antennas. Showing good satellite practice, John reports 
"until I get good, solid copy -- I don't plan to transmit."
--NN0DJ

/EX

SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-200.04
WEEKLY SATELLITE REPORT PT 1

HR AMSAT NEWS SERVICE BULLETIN 200.04 FROM AMSAT HQ
SILVER SPRING, MD, JULY 19, 1998
TO ALL RADIO AMATEURS BT
BID: $ANS-200.04

MIR/SAFEX
SAFEX II 70 cm Repeater
Uplink 435.750 MHz FM w/subaudible tone 141.3 Hz	
Downlink 437.950 MHz FM 	
Semi-operational.

SAFEX II 70 cm QSO Mode
Uplink 435.725 MHz FM w/subaudible tone 151.4 Hz	
Downlink 437.925 MHz FM	
Semi-operational.

PMS
Uplink/Downlink 145.985 MHz FM  1200 Baud AFSK 	
Operational.

The current crew onboard Mir are Talgat Musabayev and Nikolai Budarin. They 
speak and read Russian only. Any messages addressed as personal to R0MIR 
will not be understood unless it is in Russian. MIREX is again allowing 
R0MIR-1 for store-and-forward message traffic.

WA6LIE reminds all stations that in order to send Personal Mail to other 
stations you must address it to a valid callsign. Any personal mail 
addressed to a non-amateur callsign can not be read by anyone and is a 
waste of TNC memory. WA6LIE asks all stations to please read your TNC 
manual on how to address messages.

The PBBS is running a Kantronics KPC-9612 + V.8.1 TNC. The commands are 
similar to most PBBS and BBS systems.

MIREX has announced an on going APRS School Days Test. MIREX is allowing 
schools to use APRS for position and status reports via R0MIR. Non-school 
stations are asked to refrain from using APRS type transmissions or beacons 
via R0MIR.

[ANS thanks Scott Avery, WA6LIE, and the MIREX team for Mir status 
information]

RS-12
Uplink 145.910 to 145.950 MHz CW/SSB Uplink 21.210 to 21.250 MHz CW/SSB	
Downlink 29.410 to 29.450 MHz CW/SSB	
Operational, mode KA.

Dick, N3DV reports working G4CUO on a low elevation pass (7 degrees above 
the horizon) with an R-7 and a Kenwood TS-950. Dick says G4CUO and G4ZHG 
are listening intently for stateside hams on both RS-12 and RS-15. Jon, 
N0JK reports working KG4OX in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba via RS-12 recently.

RS-15
Uplink 145.858 to 145.898 MHz CW/SSB	
Downlink 29.354 to 29.394 MHz CW/SSB 	
Semi-operational.

The RS-15 TLM beacon has apparently started working again, although 
intermittently. OZ1MY reports on a recent pass the beacon was on for app  
roximately 10 seconds and then of for the same period, with no modulation 
noted. John, G7HIA also repots hearing the beacon, adding "the beacon has 
been off for a few weeks but it seems to be back with short bursts of 
steady tone, not the regular CW." Ron, N4WYR also
reports observing similar beacon conditions.

Mike, N1JEZ reports RS-15 performed well recently. N1JEZ was able to 
complete 13 QSO's over 4 passes, all voice. Mike says "if you haven't tried 
RS-15 in a while, give it a shot. You may be pleasantly surprised."

RS-16
The 435 MHz beacon (only) is operational. Attempts to command the Mode A 
transponder on have been unsuccessful.

AO-10
Uplink 435.030 to 435.180 MHz CW/LSB	
Downlink 145.975 to 145.825 MHz CW/USB	
Operational.

DX continues to be heard and worked as good downlink signals are still 
being received from the satellite. NN0DJ worked CU8AAC while preparing the 
ANS bulletins. CT1EAT reports Naoki, JE7RJZ will be active from Guam as 
WH2M, July 24 - 28.

Stacey Mills, W4SM, has more information about the satellite at the 
following URL:

http://www.cstone.net/~w4sm/AO-10.html

[ANS thanks Stacey Mills, W4SM for his AO-10 status information and web 
site]

AO-27
Uplink 145.850 MHz FM	
Downlink 436.792 MHz FM	
Operational.

AO-27 TEPR States are currently:
    4  = 36 = 18 Minutes
    5  = 72 = 36 Minutes

This means AO-27's transmitter turns on 18 minutes after entering the Sun 
and stays on for 18 minutes. AO-27's transmitter is turned off at all other 
times during the orbit. N4USI reminds stations that this happens on every 
orbit, approximately 14.2 times a day. The current TEPR settings will cause 
the satellite to be on during the daytime at northern latitudes.

[ANS thanks Michael Wyrick, N4USI, AO-27 Control-op for this update]

FO-20
Uplink 145.900 to 146.00 MHz CW/LSB	
Downlink 435.80 to 435.90 MHz CW/USB	
Operational.      FO-20 in mode JA continuously.

[ANS thanks Kazu Sakamoto, JJ1WTK for his FO-20 status reports]

FO-29
Voice/CW Mode JA	
Uplink 145.900 to 146.00 MHz CW/LSB	
Downlink 435.80 to 435.90 MHz CW/USB	
Operational.

Digital Mode JD	
Uplink 145.850   145.870  145.910 MHz FM	
Downlink 435.910 MHz FM 9600 baud BPSK	
Not operational, the satellite is in JA (voice) mode.

Kazu, JJ1WTK, tells ANS that OBC bit errors were again detected and 
investigation of the error continues.

The FO-29 command station is now asking for reports from radio amateurs who 
can confirm the value of channel 2A, the 5th item transmitted in CW after 
'HI HI'. The normal value of channel 2A is
'00'. Reports will be appreciated (in e-mail) addressed to:

lab@jarl.or.jp.

[ANS thanks Kazu Sakamoto, JJ1WTK, for this report]

/EX

SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-200.05
WEEKLY SATELLITE REPORT PT 2

HR AMSAT NEWS SERVICE BULLETIN 200.05 FROM AMSAT HQ
SILVER SPRING, MD, JULY 19, 1998
TO ALL RADIO AMATEURS BT
BID: $ANS-200.05

KO-23
Uplink 145.900 MHz FM 9600 Baud FSK	
Downlink 435.175 MHz FM	
Operational. The telemetry is nominal.

[ANS thanks Jim Weisenberger, AA7KC for this report]

KO-25
Uplink 145.980 MHz FM 9600 Baud FSK	
Downlink 436.50 MHz FM	
Operational. The telemetry is nominal.

[ANS thanks Jim Weisenberger, AA7KC for this report]

UO-22
Uplink 145.900 or 145.975 MHz FM 9600 Baud FSK	
Downlink 435.120 MHz FM	
Operational.

More information on the satellite is available at the following URL:

http://www.ee.surrey.ac.uk/EE/CSER/UOSAT/

[ANS thanks Chris Jackson, G7UPN/ZL2TPO, Operations Manager of UO-22 for 
this report]

OSCAR-11
Downlink 145.825 MHz FM, 1200 Baud PSK	
Beacon 2401.500 MHz	
Operational.

A potential problem occurred at the end of June, after a long period of 
uneventful operation. The status blocks showed that the spin period was 
steadily increasing. Ground control reset the counters on July 1st, and 
started a new WOD survey of the magnetometer channels. After three days, 
the spin period had returned to its nominal value.

During the period June 15th to July 14th reasonable signals have been 
received from the 145.826 MHz beacon. Telemetry has been nominal. The 
battery voltage has been low, averaging 13.5 volts, with 13.4 volts 
observed on several occasions. The internal temperatures have remained 
constant and are now 1.8C and 0.4C for battery and telemetry electronics 
respectively.

Reports of Mode-S beacon reception have been received from K9EK, VE7SME and 
WL7BQM. Beacon reception reports should be sent to:  g3cwv@amsat.org.

In response to many requests for information about methods of decoding 
OSCAR-11 signals, a package of hardware information has been added to the 
satellite web site. The site also contains some software for capturing 
data, decoding ASCII telemetry and WOD information.
The URL is  http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/clivew/

[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	
Operating normally.

The AO-16 command team has authorized an APRS experiment on AO-16 to 
explore the use of the 1200-baud PACSAT for APRS position/status reporting. 
The test periods will run each Tuesday from 0000 to 2359 UTC.

The telemetry is nominal.

Time is Sat Jul 18 12:12:40 1998 uptime is 1399/06:39:53
+X (RX) Temp	6.654 D   	RX Temp	-4.842 D	
Array V 	20.413 V   	+5V Bus	 4.937 V	
+8.5V Bus    	  9.089 V   	+10V Bus   	11.250 V	
BCR Set Point	31.381 C   	BCR Load Cur    0.328 A	
BCR Input Cur	  0.388 A   	BCR Output Cur 0.330 A	
Bat 1 Temp	  0.603 D   	Bat 2 Temp         0.603 D	
Baseplt Temp   	  0.603 D   	RC PSK TX Out  0.472 W	
RC PSK BP Temp  3.024 D   RC PSK HPA Tmp  3.024 D	
+Y Array Temp      -5.448 D   PSK TX HPA Tmp   1.209 D	
+Z Array Temp      18.151 D	
Total Array C= 0.304 Bat Ch Cur= 0.002 Ifb= 0.085 I+10V= 0.243
TX:010B BCR:87 PWRC:59E BT: A WC:25 EDAC:33

General information and telemetry WOD files can be found at:

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	
Currently non-operational.

The 145.825 MHz and 2401.220 MHz downlinks are off the air. No
additional information is available at this time.

WEBERSAT (WO-18)
Downlink 437.104 MHz SSB  1200 Baud PSK AX.25	
Currently non-operational.

WO-18 is in MBL mode after a software crash. No additional information is 
available at this time.

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 Jul 18 12:41:20 1998 uptime is 1123/22:36:10
+X (RX) Temp  	   -0.430 D  RX Temp	-0.430 D	
BCR Set Point 	123.754 C   BCR Load Cur    0.189 A	
BCR Output Cur    0.110 A   Bat 1 Temp        -0.991 D	
Bat 2 Temp           -0.430 D   Baseplt Temp    -0.991 D	
RC PSK TX Out    0.782 W   RC PSK BP Temp  2.374 D	
RC PSK HPA Tmp 4.057 D   +Y Array Temp      -4.917 D	
PSK TX HPA Tmp  0.692 D   +Z Array Temp       2.374 D	
Total Array C= 0.131 Bat Ch Cur=-0.079 Ifb= 0.047 I+10V= 0.142
TX:017 BCR:38 PWRC:444355 BT:5C WC: A

General information and telemetry samples can be found at:

http://www.arrakis.es/~ea1bcu/lo19.htm

[ANS thanks Miguel Menendez, EA1BCU, 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	
Semi-operational.

Telemetry is reported as being downloaded on 435.822 MHz at 1200 baud PSK. 
No additional information is available at this time.

TMSAT-1
Downlink 436.923 MHz  	

The TMSAT-1 micro-satellite was successfully launched from the Russian 
Baikonur Cosmodrome on July 10, 1998 and has now completed its first full 
week in space. The satellite is in an 821km sun-synchronous orbit. Current 
output power is approximately 1.7 to 2 watts.

Stations that can capture telemetry from the satellite are asked to send a 
report to;

C.Jackson@ee.surrey.ac.uk

A brief overview of the TMSAT satellite and commissioning plan is available 
at the following URL:

http://www.ee.surrey.ac.uk/EE/CSER/UOSAT/amateur/tmsat/tmsat_commissioni  
ng_plan.html.

[ANS thanks Chris Jackson, G7UPN / ZL2TPO, for this report]

TechSat-1B
Downlink   435.325    435.225 MHz 	
HDLC telemetry framed so a TNC in KISS mode will decode it 	

The TechSat-1B micro-satellite was successfully launched from the Russian 
Baikonur Cosmodrome on July 10, 1998 and has now completed its first full 
week in space.

The satellite does not have a continuos beacon, but does transmit a 
9600-baud burst every 30 seconds (for about 3 seconds in length), currently 
on 435.225 MHz.

The TechSat team has also constructed a new home page about the TechSat 
bird, and promise they will add more information in the next few weeks. To 
view the new site, point your web browser to:

http://techsat.internet-zahav.net/

[ANS thanks Shlomo Menuhin, 4X1AS for this information]


--ANS END---


Please send any amateur satellite news or reports 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 EN28iv	
Warroad, Minnesota U.S.A.	
e-mail:  nn0dj@amsat.org	

Michelle Ervin	
AMSAT News Service Assistant Bulletin Editor	
Amateur callsign: KA9FUL	
Grid Square EM89du	
Springfield, Ohio U.S.A.	
e-mail: ka9ful@amsat.org	






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