Satgen 28 11th Oct 89 Packsat preparations The easiest way to answer most questions is to describe a typical IHJ test session on Fuji Oscar 12. At 2152 ut on 6 Oct 89 I was looking for Fuji and sending out the occasional C 8J1JAS on 145.85 FM FSK packet 10w up to a 5XY yagi ( not enough ). Hearing PSK on the 435.915 downlink, I tuned and locked it. My computer screen came alive with :- 8J1JAS>HB9... :JAS> 8J1JAS>BEACON :JAS-1 RA 89/10/10 21:51:58 000 679 661 663 718 872 883 858 001 325 641 000 553 587 589 585 571 577 684 000 652 698 734 681 664 669 916 534 005 000 010 001 100 000 100 000 001 100 000 000 8J1JAS>BEACON :JAS-1 M0 89/10/10 21:52:00 Mailbox available. Software loaded at 89/10/10 20:30:00 Mode JD Transmitter will be toggled ON/OFF every two hours using this epoch. 8J1JAS>HB9... :JAS-1 Mailbox ver. 1.11 commands [B/F/H/M/R/U/W} Use H command for help When HB9 had finished, I called c 8J1JAS , to access using 10w to 5XY ( it was getting near my closest approach ). I tried several mailbox commands then hearing my received signal going down I lost it. I was using a 70cm co linear with masthead 1.3dB pre amp, but twice during the 18 min pass I lost signal in short deep fades. My reception lock was also less than perfect with 100Hz hunting every second or so - not dead beat, on my ICOM 451E . Summary. I am still nowhere near a perfect operating situation. I have lots of things which need improving. Fuji is much stronger than Polar Bear 435.974 , but it is not as strong as UFO 432.881. Both these latter are good Rx tracking tests.Please note though Fuji was published as 2000 to 0800 op, power problems had forced Jamsat to revert to 2hr on 2hr off, and that Fuji use F command instead of bbs L , to list files/msgs. U= present users, M= headers of msgs for current user(s), W= write a file, and end it with . .For more cogent advice readers should consult G3RUH's old GATEWAY bulletins. MIR The cosmonauts are using open microphones left on , almost continuously around the world. So there is usually a 143.625 FM signal even when they are far from the USSR. On this downlink, they can be heard talking to one another, tuning their radios ( and rebroadcasting half Europe ), to the accompaniment of some very interesting spacecraft machinery noise. 73 de John GM4IHJ@GB7SNE 11th Oct 89.