SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-021.01 MIR-SHUTTLE RENDEZVOUS HR AMSAT NEWS SERVICE BULLETIN 021.01 FROM AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD JANUARY 21, 1995 TO ALL RADIO AMATEURS BT BID: $ANS-021.01 STS-67 & MIR Expected To Rendezvous The shuttle STS-63 mission is scheduled to launch 02-FEB-95 at 05:50:44 UTC. This is the MIR rendezvous mission. The shuttle will fly close to MIR but will not dock. MIR will be visible in the morning sky over much of the US during this flight. Since MIR and the shuttles are individually large and bright, the two of them flying in formation should be a beautiful sight! Normally the shuttle's exact path is not known until after it has been launched. However, MIR's orbit is well established and should remain stable from now until the end of the STS-63 mission. Since the shuttle will fly to MIR, the orbital track of MIR will be a close approximation of that of the Shuttle. It is suggest than anyone who is interested to start keeping tabs on MIR now -- looking for good passes for your area. You'll need a tracking program that can check for VISIBLE passes. For a satellite to be visible, it must be above your horizon and in sunlight while you are in darkness on the ground. One tip: most satellites are so faint that they aren't visible unless the sun is at least ten or twelve degrees below the horizon. MIR and the shuttle, however, are both very bright, so you should set your tracking program to look for passes where the sun is at least 4 degrees below the horizon. The sky can be so bright you can read a newspaper and you'll still be able to see either of these spacecraft. If you spot any good passes, please be sure to tell others where and when to look. And don't forget to monitor 145.55 for ham activity >From either spacecraft! The following are the preliminary keplerian elements for STS-67: Satellite: STS-67 Catalog number: 00067 Epoch time: 95061.32643015 = (02-MAR-95 07:50:03.56 UTC) Element set: 004 Inclination: 28.4675 deg RA of node: 88.9985 deg Space Shuttle Flight STS-67 Eccentricity: .0004519 Prelaunch element set JSC-004 Arg of perigee: 287.7960 deg Launch: 02-MAR-95 06:37 UTC Mean anomaly: 72.2100 deg Mean motion: 15.71297841 rev/day Gil Carman :Decay rate: 1.1689e-04 rev/day^2 NASA Johnson Space Center Epoch rev: 2 Checksum: 304 [The AMSAT News Service would like to thank Dave Mullenix (N9LTD) for the information used in this bulletin. /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-021.02 ANOTHER HIGH HONOR FOR G3AAJ HR AMSAT NEWS SERVICE BULLETIN 021.02 FROM AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD JANUARY 21, 1995 TO ALL RADIO AMATEURS BT BID: $ANS-021.02 A second very high honor has come to Ron Broadbent, G3AAJ, in as many months. This weekend's GB2RS News Bulletin reports that Ron has been elected a Vice-President of the Radio Society of Great Britain. The election was by the RSGB Council; the announcement was made at RSGB's presidential installation dinner on January 14th. In late December, it was announced that Ron had been awarded an MBE in the New Year's Honours List "for services to amateur radio." Ron's investiture ceremony will be held February 14th at Buckingham Palace with Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II presenting the decoration. The AMSAT News Service (ANS) is pleased to again congratulate Ron on another well deserved honor. ANS also thanks Ray Soifer W2RS for this bulletin informaiton. /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-021.03 G3GJW AND G3YGF ELECTED TO HIGH RSGB POSTS HR AMSAT NEWS SERVICE BULLETIN 021.03 FROM AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD JANUARY 21, 1995 TO ALL RADIO AMATEURS BT BID: $ANS-021.03 At the same installation dinner at which Ron Broadbent's election as a Vice-President was announced, it was also made known that T.I. Lundegard, G3GJW, has been elected Executive Vice-President of RSGB for the year 1995. In the normal course of events, G3GJW would then serve as President in 1996. Those of you who attend the AMSAT-UK Colloquium may remember "Smudge" as an active and enthusiastic friend of the amateur satellite program and of AMSAT-UK. In another action, UHF enthusiast Dr. Julian Gannaway G3YGF was elected as a Vice-President of RSGB this year along with Ron. He is a noted amateur microwave operator and a past president of RSGB. /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-021.04 AMSAT OPS NET SCHEDULE HR AMSAT NEWS SERVICE BULLETIN 021.04 FROM AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD JANUARY 21, 1995 TO ALL RADIO AMATEURS BT BID: $ANS-021.04 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 ________________________________________________________ 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 to Keith Pugh (W5IU), AMSAT VP of Operations. /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-021.05 WEEKLY OSCAR STATUS REPORTS HR AMSAT NEWS SERVICE BULLETIN 021.05 FROM AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD JANUARY 21, 1995 TO ALL RADIO AMATEURS BT BID: $ANS-021.05 Weekly OSCAR Status Reports: 21-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] AO-13: AO-13 is working exceptionally well even at poor squint angles. N2HMM has heard a lot of DX as well as state-side activity this past week. [N2HMM] AO-10: AO-10 signals are very weak and the signals are FMing. N2HMM doesn't discount AO-10. It's still worth monitoring. [N2HMM] RS-15: The following keplerian elements are considered to give very accurate predictions for RS-15 and were provided by N2WWD: RS-15 1 23439U 94085A 95018.43232054 -.00000039 00000-0 10000-3 0 216 2 23439 64.8172 137.1826 0167589 287.8288 70.4424 11.27524601 2639 The equivalent elements in AMSAT format are: Satellite: RS-15 Catalog number: 23439 Epoch time: 95018.43232054 Element set: 21 Inclination: 64.8172 deg RA of node: 137.1826 deg Eccentricity: 0.0167589 Arg of perigee: 287.8288 deg Mean anomaly: 70.4424 deg Mean motion: 11.27524601 rev/day Decay rate: -3.90e-07 rev/day^2 Epoch rev: 263 UO-11: G3RWL reports via packet that UoSAT-OSCAR 11 (UO-11) has been up and running for the last several weeks. Reception reports, as always, are welcome; send them to Doug Loughmiller at the University of Surrey at d.loughmiller@ee.surrey.ac.uk [W2RS] 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 weekly 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 SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-021.06 HOUSTON AMSAT NET MOVING SATELLITES HR AMSAT NEWS SERVICE BULLETIN 021.06 FROM AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD JANUARY 21, 1995 TO ALL RADIO AMATEURS BT BID: $ANS-021.06 The Houston AMSAT Net will be moving satellites beginning February 6, >From that date on, it can be heard on Telstar 302 Transponder: 21 on an audio subcarier frequency of 5.8 Mhz. This is the channel on which Skyvision is transmitted. Listen for the Houston Net on this new satellite at 10 PM Central Time. ANS thanks Bruce Page KK5DO for this information. /EX