SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-217.01 CHANGES IN AMSAT KEPS HR AMSAT NEWS SERVICE BULLETIN 217.01 FROM AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD AUGUST 5, 1995 TO ALL RADIO AMATEURS BT BID: $ANS-217.01 Several Inactive Weather Satellite Keplerian Elements To Be Dropped It has come to Ray Hoad's attention that many of the weather satellites that he includes in the AMSAT Weekly Keplerian Bulletins are no longer active. Since he does not collect pictures from the weather satellites, he was unaware of this problem until recently. Starting next week he plans to include in the AMSAT Keplerian Bulletin only the following active weather satellites: NOAA-9, NOAA-14, METEOR-2/21, and METEOR-3/5. Unless Ray hears a great "out-cry" of pain, he will drop the following satellites: NOAA-10, NOAA-11, NOAA-12, METEOR-2/17, METEOR-2/18, METEOR-2/19, METEOR-2/20, METEOR-3/2, METEOR-3/3, METEOR-3/4, METEOR-3/6, and FY-1/2. This will save space and reduce the load on the INTERNET and also on packet radio. Please send Ray a reply ONLY if you wish to retain a certain satellite. He will assume that a no response means everything is fine and nobody will miss these inactive weather satellites. On another topic, NASA seems to have returned to the normal Two Line Element (TLE) format with checksum. No dropping of the checksum or changing of the format seems to be forthcoming at the present. /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-217.02 ARRL HQ STAFFER HONORED HR AMSAT NEWS SERVICE BULLETIN 217.02 FROM AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD AUGUST 5, 1995 TO ALL RADIO AMATEURS BT BID: $ANS-217.02 ARRL HQ Staffer Honored ARRL Senior Laboratory Engineer Zack Lau, KH6CP, was given the John T. Chambers Award by the Central States VHF Society at its Conference held in Colorado Springs, July 28-30. The award is for Zack's many contributions to the art of VHF, UHF and microwave communciation. KH6CP has been a continuing and ardent supporter of AMSAT's efforts over the years, including many articles of value to amateurs attempting to build their own satellite station equipment. His work can be expected to be of increasing value as Phase 3D, with its higher frequency modes, comes into use. The Chamblers Award honors John T. Chambers W6NLZ and was instituted by the Central States VHF Society in 1970 to honor John Chambers W6NLZ for his work with KH6UK during the 1960s proving the existence of West Coast to Hawaii tropospheric ducting. A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, Lau has been licensed since 1978 and an ARRL staff member for nine years. The Central States VHF Society has between 200 and 300 members members in 39 states and several foreign countries. It was founded in 1967 and has held a conference devoted to VHF, UHF and microwave techniques each year since. The ARRL publishes the Proceedings of the Society's conferences. The 1995 Proceedings are now available from League Headquarters. [The AMSAT News Service (ANS) would like to thank the Central States VHF Society for this bulleitn information.] /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-217.03 TIPS ON RECEIVING UO-11 HR AMSAT NEWS SERVICE BULLETIN 217.03 FROM AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD AUGUST 5, 1995 TO ALL RADIO AMATEURS BT BID: $ANS-217.03 John A. Magliacane (KD2BD) Provides Tips On Copying UO-11 "I have used several methods of receiving and decoding UO-11 transmissions. I started out almost 8 years ago with an indoor yagi, a Yaesu "Memorizer" 2-meter FM transceiver, a homebrew pre-amp (BFQ-85), a simple demodulator from an old QST article carrying an article on decoding UoSAT transmissions by Dr. Bob Diersing, a cassette tape recorder, and a Commodore 64. Over time, I developed a better demodulator using an XR2211 AFSK chip, and more robust software for the C64. I donated my software to AMSAT-NA several years ago, and the documentation describes the XR2211 demodulator I used. It's really neat software in that it decodes DCE frames from UO-11. The DCE (Digital Communications Experiment) isn't used much anymore now that we have Pacsat satellites that offer store-and-forward communication capabilities. I have since built a G3RUH UoSAT demodulator and use it with a 486-based PC. Any terminal software configured for 1200 baud 7E1 or 7E2 will allow capture of UO-11's ASCII transmissions. It is sometimes helpful to tape record the transmissions and play them back through the demodulator if the computer generates RFI. I like to copy the news bulletins and decode the ASCII telemetry transmissions. Software for telemetry analysis is homebrew. It's written in 'C' and was originally designed to operate on the C64. It has since been ported to MS-DOS, and most recently, to Linux. Some samples of UO-11 decoding will be shown in the September/October issue of Satellite Times magazine. Since most of what I've done has been the result of home- brewing, I can't personally recommend the purchase of specific pieces of hardware or software." [The AMSAT News Service (ANS) would like to thank KD2BD for this information.] /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-217.04 GENERAL ANNOUNCEMENT HR AMSAT NEWS SERVICE BULLETIN 217.04 FROM AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD AUGUST 5, 1995 TO ALL RADIO AMATEURS BT BID: $ANS-217.04 AMSAT The Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation ATTN all in the Greater Washington, D.C. Metro Area Local Meetings: Semiannual in March and September. VHF FM Net: Sundays at 9 p.m. on 146.835 MHz FM, WA3NAN/R, Greenbelt, MD except on government holiday weekends. Information: NCS Pat Kilroy, WD8LAQ. Contact by Internet: wd8laq@amsat.org or during weekly net. Looking for new home PBBS and packet list server BBS for local AMSAT individuals. Local AMSAT Meeting Announced Amateur Radio satellite enthusiasts will meet on Sunday afternoon, September 24, 1995 in Greenbelt, Maryland. All amateurs are invited! Beginners are welcome. The event will take place in the Visitor Center Auditorium at the NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center. Enter from Soil Conservation Road, just north of Greenbelt Road (MD193). Talk-In will be on WA3NAN/R, 146.835- MHz FM. All topics relate to amateur radio and the amateur space program. The format will be a combination of presentations and informal "show 'n' tell" demonstrations, as well as a social period. Special welcome to teachers! Presenter and demonstration spots are still open. If you have something to talk about or something to show then contact me as soon as possible! PLEASE SPREAD THIS INFORMATION THROUGH YOUR CLUB NEWSLETTER, AT HAMFESTS, AT SCHOOLS, AND ON YOUR CLUB NET. A key agenda item will be to identify a local project. A special splinter meeting will be scheduled to get the project off the ground. Bring your ideas! Advance registration is NOT required for general admission. Advance registration IS required for each presentation or demonstration. A donation of at least $3 is requested per person to help defray the associated meeting costs. Extra Attractions: The GSFC Visitor Center will be open to the public on this meeting day, 10 a.m. - 4 p.m. including the Satellite Museum, Gift Shop and Picnic Area. There will be a tour at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. of NASCOM (NASA Communications), the Hubble Space Telescope facility, a life-size space shuttle mockup, the world's largest cleanroom and a satellite being built. So bring the family! Visitor Center phone: 301-286-8981. OPEN TO ALL! BRING A FRIEND! PASS THE WORD!!! 73, Pat WD8LAQ AMSAT Area Coordinator H: 301-249-3396 (before 9 p.m.) W: 301-286-5910 (anytime) /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-217.05 WEEKLY OSCAR STATUS REPORTS HR AMSAT NEWS SERVICE BULLETIN 217.05 FROM AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD AUGUST 5, 1995 TO ALL RADIO AMATEURS BT BID: $ANS-217.05 Weekly OSCAR Status Reports: 08-AUG-95 AO-13: Current Transponder Operating Schedule: QST *** AO-13 TRANSPONDER SCHEDULE *** 1995 Jul 31 - Oct 30 Mode-B : MA 0 to MA 140 | Mode-BS : MA 140 to MA 240 | Mode-B : MA 240 to MA 256 | Alon/Alat 225/0 Omnis : MA 250 to MA 140 | Move to attitude 180/0, Oct 30 [G3RUH/DB2OS/VK5AGR] The AMSAT NEWS Service (ANS) NEEDS YOUR HELP! The ANS looking for volun- teers 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