Satgen 112  Juno Times, Southern Shuttle, Receivers for Space  18May 91

Mir Juno launches today 18th 1152 approx  Comms 121.75 Soyuz  and 143.625
Mir both FM. Expect docking 20th at about 1430 ut. Juno comms with
selected schools , on 145.55 FM from 22nd to 25th. Pass times AOS GM :-
18th    1628  1801  1937  2112  2247 utc     ( to get BST add 1 hour )
19th    1525  1658  1833  2008  2144  2321   Note.. These are Scottish
20th    1424  1555  1729  1905  2040  2216   start of pass AOS times .
21st    1453  1626  1801  1937  2112         G times may be up to 2 min
22nd    1351  1523  1658  1833  2008  2145   different. Cosmonauts do
23rd    1420  1555  1729  1905  2040         not always talk till 4 min
24th    1318  1451  1626  1801  1937  2113   after start UK pass, and they
25th    1348  1522  1658  1833  2009         may not talk after 2100 utc

Drag from Solar activity may bring Mir timing several minutes earlier

Shuttle STS 40 should launch this week . It will just be audible on the
horizon in England and Wales only, not Scotland. Comms on 259.7 AM may
perhaps be heard but this is unlikely. Main payload is the Space
Laboratory, minor payloads include 12 "Get Away Special" experiments.

Receivers for Space Listening.  There is an enormous choice. The follow
-ing is a personal view based on my own limited experience. I want SSB/CW
and FM. Memories and Scanning are not serious considerations. I want
CW/SSB for weak signal and doppler work. I want FM for voice , Digitalk
and Packet. So over last 15 years have acquired :-

FRG 7 HF receiver fitted with DIY FM reception , fed by 435/28 , 144/28,
136/28, 70/28, and 50/28 converters . FRG tunes roughly 25 to 33MHz ie
roughly 8MHz on each converter. This was a good start in 70s/80s when no
other VHF/UHF receivers were available , but its tuning is awful.

Trio R2000 with VHF converter. Very good but limited coverage ( it is a
lousy HF receiver ).

FRG 9600 , 60 to 904 MHz SSB FM. Not very sensitive but super perform
anywhere device with very few false signals.

ICOM R7000 25 to 2000MHz SSB, FM. Could be the perfect answer noting that
it can also be used as a tunable IF for monitoring 3GHz to 12.5GHz with
suitable LNB front ends. Unfortunately , its phase locked loop , has more
spurious frequency prickles than a hedgehogs back. So it suffers badly
from self generated false signals. It is also very expensive.

If I did it all over again , my first choice would definitely be the FRG
9600 WITH A GOOD WIDEBAND PREAMP ahead of it. What would your choice be ?
Let me know if you have a VHF/UHF receiver you like, then it will help me
answer the queries I get on the subject. 73 from GM4IHJ @ GB7SAN