SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-008.01 FINAL FREQUENCIES SELECTED FOR PHASE 3-D HR AMSAT NEWS SERVICE BULLETIN 008.01 FROM AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD JANUARY 8, 1995 TO ALL RADIO AMATEURS BT BID: $ANS-008.01 Following a series of discussions, a number of iterations and intensive study, the builders of the Phase 3-D communications equipment have made their final selections of the frequencies to be employed on the satellite scheduled to be launched in April 1996. These selections have since been approved by the P3D Project Leader Dr. Karl Meinzer (DJ4ZC). These frequencies were carefully selected to minimize mutual interference with other amateur satellites and have been coordinated with IARU bandplans by the P3D Frequency Coordinator, Freddy de Guchteneire (ON6UG) with assistance from Peter Guelzow (DB2OS) and Werner Haas (DJ5KQ). Crystals have been ordered for all receivers and transmitters to implement these frequencies. In accordance with the Phase 3D design concept, all receivers and transmitters are connected to the IF matrix which allows interconnection of the various receivers and transmitters to create what have been known as transponders on former amateur satellites. The selected Phase 3D frequencies are as follows: UPLINKS BAND DIGITAL (MHZ) ANALOG (MHZ) CENTER (MHz) ------ ------------- ------------ ------------ 15M N/A 21.210 - 21.250 21.230 2M 145.800 - 145.840 145.840 - 145.990 145.915 70CM 435.300 - 435.550 435.550 - 435.800 435.675 23CM(1) 1269.000 - 1269.250 1269.250 - 1269.500 1269.375 23CM(2) 1268.075 - 1268.325 1268.325 - 1268.575 1268.450 13CM(1) 2400.100 - 2400.350 2400.350 - 2400.600 2400.475 13CM(2) 2446.200 - 2446.450 2446.450 - 2446.700 2446.575 6CM 5668.350 - 5668.550 5668.550 - 5668.800 5668.675 DOWNLINKS BAND DIGITAL (MHz) ANALOG (MHz) CENTER (MHz) ---- ------------ ------------ ------------ 10M 29.330 MHz +/-5 KHz (To be used for digitized voice bulletins) 2M 145.955 - 145.990 145.805 - 145.955 145.880 70CM 435.900 - 436.200 435.475 - 435.725 435.600 13CM 2400.650 - 2400.950 2400.225 - 2400.475 2400.350 3CM 10451.450 -10451.750 10451.025 -10451.275 10451.150 1.5CM 24048.450 -24048.750 24048.025 -24048.275 24048.150 All downlink passbands are inverted from the uplink passbands. BEACONS: BAND Beacon-1 Beacon-2 ----- -------- -------- 2M N/A N/A 70CM 435.450 435.850 13CM 2400.200 2400.600 3CM 10451.000 10451.400 1.5CM 24048.000 24048.400 Note: The absence of a 2M beacon is due to strictly to characteristics of the IF matrix and the limited bandwidth available on that band. Studies are underway with the intent of providing a 2M beacon but it is not clear, at this time, that this effort will be successful. The beacons on the other bands are for various purposes including providing spacecraft engineering data to the command stations. All beacons can be modulated with 400 bits per second BPSK and possibly other formats. [The AMSAT News Service wishes to thank Phase 3-D International Satellite Team members Freddy de Guchteneire (ON6UG), Peter Guelzow (DB2OS), Werner Haas (DJ5KQ) and Karl Meinzer (DJ4ZC) for the information that went into this bulletin.] /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-008.02 NEW TAPR TRAKBOX FIRMWARE HR AMSAT NEWS SERVICE BULLETIN 008.02 FROM AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD JANUARY 7, 1995 TO ALL RADIO AMATEURS BT BID: $ANS-008.02 A New Version Of TrakBox Firmware Available To Fix New Year S/W Bug As most active TrakBox users must know by now, there is a bug in firmware versions 3.30a through 3.30h. The problem relates to the the clock settings now that we are in the year 1995. New code is available from various sources for the benefit of those users who have programming capability. The code will be posted on KO-23 and KO-25 as soon as the birds are back in normal service. You can also find the code in DL5 of the HAMNET Special Interest Group (SIG) on Compuserve. TAPR expects it will become available in many more places after that as users spread the word. Speical thanks goes to Sueo Asato, JA6FTL, for providing version 3.30i so quickly. For the benefit of users not having programming capability, TAPR will start taking orders starting on Friday, 06-JAN-95. For more information about how to obtains new ROMs for your TrakBox, please call TAPR head- quarters at: (817) 383-0000. [The AMSAT News Service (ANS) would like to thank Jack Davis (WA4EJR), TAPR TrakBox Manager, for the information which went into this ANS bulletin.] /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-008.03 NEW IARU FREQUENCY COORDINATOR HR AMSAT NEWS SERVICE BULLETIN 008.03 FROM AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD JANUARY 8, 1995 TO ALL RADIO AMATEURS BT BID: $ANS-008.03 The IARU Names A New Amateur Satellite Frequency Coordinator The International Amateur Radio Union International Secretariat in Newington, CT announced December 29, the appointment of Bruce Lockhart, (SM0TER) as the IARU Satellite Frequency Coordinator. His main task as an IARU volunteer will be to provide a service to enable any group to coordinate frequencies and emissions of a planned amateur satellite with existing and any other planned amateur satellites. The appointment was made after consultation with major AMSAT groups in Europe and North America. Bruce's work will also include the maintenance of records of all frequencies and emissions of all operating and planned amateur satellites and to provide advice as to suitable frequencies and modes for all planned amateur satellites, having regard to existing and planned usage of the amateur satellite bands and the IARU band Plans. While this is a technical position, the IARU Satellite Frequency Coordinator has an important role in assisting in the protection of bands allocated to the amateur satellite service. He will work closely with the IARU Satellite Adviser, Hans van de Groenendaal, ZS5AKV. Bruce brings extensive experience to the appointment. Trained as an engineer, professionally he is self employed as an international consultant in the process control industry, doing hardware and soft- ware development. He was first licensed as K3ZAQ in 1963 and has operated on all bands from 1.8 MHz to 2.4 GHz. He is a member and Technical Secretary of AMSAT-SM, is a member of AMSAT-UK and AMSAT-NA, and in the amateur satellite community is known as the original designer of the TrakBox. AMSAT-NA President Bill Tynan (W3XO) expressed pleasure at Bruce's appointment and said that AMSAT-NA looks forward to working with him. ANS thanks the IARU Secretariat for this bulletin information. /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-008.04 AMSAT FILES REPLY COMMENTS TO FCC HR AMSAT NEWS SERVICE BULLETIN 008.04 FROM AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD JANUARY 7, 1995 TO ALL RADIO AMATEURS BT BID: $ANS-008.04 AMSAT Files Reply Comments In FCC Proceedings AMSAT submitted Reply Comments in response to comments sent to the FCC in connection with its Notice of Proposed Rule Making (NPRM) in ET Docket No. 94-32, released November 8, 1994. This NPRM is an important step in a process set up by legislation enacted by Congress in 1993, directing the Government to release 200 Megahertz of spectrum to the private sector. The reason this affects hams is that much of this spectrum has been assigned the Amateur Radio Service on a Secondary basis, sharing with Government. This sharing has been successful for many years, but it is not known if amateurs will be able to share with potential commercial users. The frequencies to be transferred immediately are 2390 to 2400 MHz and 2402 to 2417 MHz, with 2300 to 2310 slated for transfer in 1996. The National Telecommunication and Information Administration (NTIA), in its recommendation to FCC of frequencies to be transferred, specifically exempted 2400 to 2402 MHz citing its use by amateur satellites. Thus, even though none of the frequencies marked for transfer are used by any existing, amateur satellites or for Phase 3D (See ANS-008.01), AMSAT nevertheless feels that their possible loss will severely hamper the future growth of the Amateur Satellite Service. For this reason, it strongly objected to the licensing of any new services on these frequencies. AMSAT found that most of those commenting were not in compliance with the will of by Congress in that their proposals failed to consider the impact on Amateur Radio. Such protection of Amateur Radio is an important part of the legislation. AMSAT's submission maintained that comments not considering the effect on Amateur Radio are non-responsive and that the Commission has no alternative but to dismiss them. In addition, AMSAT found that many of those commenting had very poor technical grounds on which to base their proposals. This was mainly due to a lack of proper understanding of the difficulties inherent in operating in close proximity to microwave ovens which use frequencies in the vicinity of 2450 MHz. AMSAT urged the Commission to follow the recommendations it submitted with its comments of December 19th; namely that amateur radio be afforded a segment in the vicinity of 2304 MHz on a Primary basis for weak signal work, and that it retain access to 2390 to 2400 MHz and 2410 to 2450 MHz and, along with the amateur satellite service, be granted Primary status in the 2400 to 2410 MHz band. AMSAT also said that the amateur satellite service should also retain access to all of the 2410 to 2450 MHz band on at least a secondary basis. AMSAT also expressed general agreement with those advocating the use of 2400 to 2450 MHz, or 2390 to 2450 MHz for unlicensed low power spread spectrum Part 15 devices. AMSAT stated the belief that, with proper equipment design, such use appears to be compatible with the amateur service and the amateur satellite service. Strong disagreement was expressed with those which propose that this spectrum be allocated to new licensed services. AMSAT's reply comments were prepared by Ray Soifer (W2RS) and Bill Tynan (W3XO). Normally Perry Klein W3PK would take the lead in the preparation of such comments, but he was out of town for the Holidays. /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-008.05 AMSAT OPS NET SCHEDULE HR AMSAT NEWS SERVICE BULLETIN 008.05 FROM AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD JANUARY 7, 1995 TO ALL RADIO AMATEURS BT BID: $ANS-008.05 AMSAT Operations Net Schedule To take full advantage of the upcoming "good" phase on AO-13, the following AMSAT Operations Net Schedule will be in place. The primary downlink frequency for all Ops. Nets will be 145.950 MHz. In case a QSO is in progress on that frequency at net time, 145.955 MHz will be used as an alternate. Net control for all of these nets will be Keith (W5IU); however, anyone is welcome to serve as an alternate. Reports on all phases of OSCAR operations are welcome. Guest speakers on special topics will be scheduled as availability permits. Day Date Time Coverage ________________________________________________________ Sun 15-JAN-95 02:30 NA, WSA, Hi, NZ Sat 21-Jan-95 19:00 NA, SA, Eu, Af Sat 28-JAN-95 23:00 NA, SA Sun 05-FEB-95 02:00 NA, JA, NZ, EAus Sat 11-FEB-95 18:00 NA, SA, WEu, Af Sat 18-FEB-95 22:00 NA, SA Note: All times are in UTC; therefore, Sun. dates are actually Sat. evening in USA. Times do not conflict with ZRO Tests. Thanks - Keith, W5IU, AMSAT VP of Operations /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-008.06 UOSAT-22 CURRENT STATUS HR AMSAT NEWS SERVICE BULLETIN 008.06 FROM AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD JANUARY 7, 1995 TO ALL RADIO AMATEURS BT BID: $ANS-008.06 G0SYX Provides Explaination of UO-22's Anomalistic Behavior Over the past couple of weeks numerous reports have been recieved concerning the anomalistic operation of the UO-22 broadcast server. Ground controllers have looked at the activity logs of the spacecraft and have come up with the following conclusions: 1.- The problem that is being observed where the broadcast server stops servicing the user queue is being caused by the file system running out of available directory entries. As users upload files which render the available number of directory entries down to zero, the file system begins to scan the entire directory structure looking for files that can be purged from the system. This process can take several minutes thus result- ing in the lapse of messages from the broadcast server. 2.- The number of files that are available to delete at any given time is very small. Review of the activity logs has shown that the file system only deletes a handful of files at a time and once these entries are reused there are no slots left for new entries, which causes the file system to go off again and spend its time hopelessly scanning its directory for more files to delete. 3.- Ground controllers believe that this situation has been brought about due to the increased UO-22 activity because the other 9600 baud satellites have not been available for use over the past several weeks. As a result the file system on UO-22 has simply become overloaded with the traffic that is being diverted from the other spacecraft. In light of the conclusions listed above, it is highly recommended that users of the UO-22 spacecraft limit the number of files they attempt to upload to the spacecraft until the overload situation is resolved. This may take several days as it will first be necessary for the other spacecraft to come back on line with their store-and-forward communications systems. UoSAT controllers will monitor the situation and inform the user community when the activity level returns to a normal state. Until then, please limit the number of files to be uploaded to the spacecraft. Your cooperation will be greatly appreciated. [The AMSAT News Service (ANS) would like to thank Doug Loughmiller (G0SYX), UoSAT Spacecraft Operations Manager, for this bulletin item.] /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-008.07 WEEKLY OSCAR STATUS REPORTS HR AMSAT NEWS SERVICE BULLETIN 008.07 FROM AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD JANUARY 7, 1995 TO ALL RADIO AMATEURS BT BID: $ANS-008.07 Weekly OSCAR Status Reports: 07-JAN-95 AO-13: Current Transponder Operating Schedule: The Mode Schedule from 19-DEC-94 until 20-FEB-95 will be: Mode-B : MA 0 to MA 100 |Omnis : MA 230 to MA 25 Mode-BS : MA 100 to MA 130 | Mode-S : MA 130 to MA 132 |<- S beacon only Mode-S : MA 132 to MA 155 |<- S transponder; B trsp. is OFF Mode-S : MA 155 to MA 160 |<- S beacon only Mode-BS : MA 160 to MA 180 | Blon/Blat 180/0 Mode-B : MA 180 to MA 256 | Move to attitude 230/0, Feb 20 [G3RUH/DB2OS/VK5AGR] RS-15: A brief reminder for those who have not committed to memory yet the correct frequencies. The following is the bandplan and becon frequen- cies of amateur radio's newest OSCAR: RS-15 Transponder Bandplan Uplink: 145.858 - 145.898 MHz (from Earth to Sat.) - aprox. 100 Watts IERP Downlink: 29.354 - 29.394 MHz (from Sat. to Earth) - up to 5 Watts Beacon 1: 29.352.5 MHz - 0.4/1.2 Watts Beacon 2: 29.398.7 MHz - 0.4/1.2 Watts The AMSAT NEWS Service (ANS) NEEDS YOUR HELP! The ANS looking for volunteers to contribute weekly OSCAR status reports. If you have a favorite OSCAR which you work on a regular basis and would like to contribute to this bulletin, please send your observations to WD0HHU at his CompuServe address of 70524,2272, on INTERNET at wd0hhu@amsat.org, or to his local packet BBS in the Denver, CO area, WD0HHU @ N0QCU. Also, if you find that the current set of orbital elements are not generating the correct AOS/LOS times at your QTH, PLEASE INCLUDE THAT INFORMATION AS WELL. The information you provide will be of value to all OSCAR enthusiasts. /EX