SB NEWS @ AMSAT $SPC1031 * SpaceNews 31-Oct-94 * BID: $SPC1031 ========= SpaceNews ========= MONDAY OCTOBER 31, 1994 SpaceNews originates at KD2BD in Wall Township, New Jersey, USA. It is published every week and is made available for unlimited free distribution. * ITAMSAT NEWS * ================ Due to heavy workload and the desire to turn to different interests, Alberto I2KBD, appointed Gianluigi IK2VOO as main command station and Stefano IK2OYD as backup for the ITAMSAT-OSCAR-26 satellite. After some training on the 20th of October, IK2VOO succesfully turned on ITAMSAT and exercised some onboard functions. Both transmitters (435.867 MHz and 435.822 MHz) were commanded on and some telemetry was collected. The spacecraft was found to be in good shape with the battery well charged and the main operating parameters in nominal status. After a week of tests, with the main purpose of better training in the commanding procedures, IO-26 was reset in preparation to the main software reload. [Info via Alberto E. Zagni, I2KBD, of the ITAMSAT Command Team] * FO-20 NEWS * ============== On 16-Oct-94, the initial software loader was successfully uploaded to FO-20 by ground command stations. On 19-Oct-94, software reloading was completed by 0300 UTC and digital (Mode JD) transponder operation resumed. The FUJI-OSCAR-20 satellite was launched four and a half years ago. Its storage battery performance is still better than FO-12 in its early days. The characteristics of batteries have changed gradually, and the setting of battery volatage of power control unit (PCU) has changed to level 3. [Info via Kazu Sakamoto, JJ1WTK] * MIR NEWS * ============ During the night between 11-Oct-94 and 12-Oct-94, the power supply voltage on the Mir space station sharply decreased. This is believed to be due to insufficient battery charging by the solar panels on Mir. All systems in the base block discontinued functioning and it became impossible to control the attitude of the MIR-complex. It also became impossible to aim the communications antenna toward the geostationary relay satellite for contact with mission control. During this period, a listeners in Europe were able to monitor quite a bit of activity on 143.625 MHz. Problems onboard Mir were reported and discussed, and the opinions of Russian specialists were varied. The VKS (Russian space force) spoke of a very complicated situation. Deputy Flight controller Blagov of TsUP blamed the age of the station, which has been in orbit since the beginning of 1986, while the PRO of TsUP sounded rather optimistic. He stated that the Euromir94 expedition will remain on schedule dispite the problems on Mir. Amateur communications have taken place over Europe, and it is hoped that this activity will become more widespread once the power problems on Mir are solved. During the evening hours between 12-Oct-94 and 13-Oct-94, Viktorenko and Kondakova remained on duty and available if necessary. Meanwhile, a lot of recharging occurred and specialists hoped to be able to adjust the attitude of the complex in such a way that the solar arrays would function as efficiently as possible so that communications via the relay satellite would be restored. The cosmonauts did not panic during this period. Viktorenko and Kondakova even joked about the fact that the exchange rate of the dollar on board MIR remained stable, which could not be said about the voltages of their power supply systems. [Info via Chris v.d. Berg, NL-9165/A-UK3202] * DP3MIR UPDATE * ================= German Astronaut Ulf Merbold, DP3MIR, has been active from the Russian space station MIR over Europe during last week during the evening hours. Unfortunately the power supply problem aboard MIR has prevented Ulf from using the Digital Voice Memory and this obviously reduces his activity to only a few passes a day over Europe. Precise information about this problem is not available, as all questions and answers regarding the HAM activity of DP3MIR have to be relayed via the Moscow control centre, which turns out to be very complicated. DP3MIR will stay aboard MIR until about 03-NOV-94. It is hoped he will be active over other continents too. The QSL info is: DP3MIR via the usual German (DARC) QSL Bureau. [Info via Norbert, DF5DP, DARC Coordinator Satellites and Space Projects] * WEBERSAT-OSCAR-18 NEWS * ========================== WEBERSAT-OSCAR-18 controllers have noticed that the satellite has become increasingly more difficult to copy ovr the past several months. There is a weak but relatively steady tone of about 1200 Hz in the demodulated signal. A hypothesis suggests that this tone is due to a partial loss of carrier suppression in the Raised Cosine BPSK transmitter. Reception of this transmitter (437.102 MHz +/- doppler) can be improved by adjusting the IF-shift of the downlink receiver. It is believed this improves recption by shifting the insufficiently suppressed carrier into the skirts of the IF filter, suppressing the carrier on the ground. Controllers are trying to find ways of fixing this, or working around it. They may also switch to the straight-PSK transmitter, 437.077 MHz, on occasion, which may now give better copy. [Info via Bob Argyle, KB7KCL] * RS-12 NEWS * ============== Karsten Hansky, DL3HRT, reports that Ron, 7Q7RM is very active on RS-12. He can be heard regularly, especially on the weekends. His usual operating mode is CW, and his QSL manager is G0IAS. Karsten worked 7Q7RM two weeks ago, sent his QSL directly to G0IAS, and received a quick reply last weekend. In the reply, G0IAS wrote that Ron typically calls CQ 15 minutes after LOS of RS-12. Then he usually has about 5 minutes to work into Europe when there is some skip on 21 and 28 MHz. Karsten heard Ron very strong on the 21 MHz RS-12 uplink from Germany, and his signal on the downlink was good as well (559). G0IAS wrote that 5Z4FM follows the same procedure to work into Europe, but DL3HRT has not heard him as of yet. Gary, C53HG, reported that he works RS-12 at times as well. Last month, DL3HRT worked JW, 4X, EA8, OY, and 9H on RS-12. He is also looking for contacts into the East Coast of the United States via RS-10. [Info via Karsten, DL3HRT] * FEEDBACK/INPUT WELCOMED * =========================== Mail to SpaceNews should be directed to the editor (John, KD2BD) via any of the following paths: FAX : 1-908-747-7107 PACKET : KD2BD @ N2KZH.NJ.USA.NA INTERNET : kd2bd@ka2qhd.de.com -or- kd2bd@amsat.org SATELLITE : AMSAT-OSCAR-16, LUSAT-OSCAR-19 MAIL : John A. Magliacane, KD2BD Department of Engineering and Technology Advanced Technology Center Brookdale Community College Lincroft, New Jersey 07738 U.S.A. <<=- SpaceNews: The first amateur newsletter read in space! -=>> /EX