SB NEWS @ AMSAT $SPC1030 * SpaceNews 30-Oct-95 * BID: $SPC1030 ========= SpaceNews ========= MONDAY OCTOBER 30, 1995 SpaceNews originates at KD2BD in Wall Township, New Jersey, USA. It is published every week and is made available for unlimited free distribution. * EUROMIR 95 - FAX FROM DP0MIR * ================================ The following fax from Thomas, DP0MIR (DF4TR) was received on 12-Oct-95 by Thomas, DL2MDE, of the Ham Radio Group at Deutsche Forschungsanstalt. Here he describes the actual situation onboard concerning ham-activities, and comments by the German Ham Radio Group are also included. "Now HAM-radio: this is a sad story! The old station" (Icom 228) "is working, but only in simplex mode. Apparetly there is a way of channel- switching (i.e. one frequency for transmitting and another one for receiving), but I have no clue how to select or activate this - and of course, there is NO F...DOCUMENTATION ON BOARD, neither for the old station nor for the new one!!!" (TM733) We from DF0VR try to send several information on board but have problems with packet radio (see below) !! Direct ways also do not solve the difficulties !! "Two weeks ago on Sunday I installed the new station and a few days later the new power supply (everything extremely improvised - cables hanging around, cables I soldered together...)." He does whatever is possible, several stations from W, VK, ZL, G confirmed this fact to us. Sometimes Thomas also switched on the digital voice memory. "The new station is working in the voice mode, but the modems cannot be initialized- one of the new modems has a connector for the 2nd serial port of the computer, which doesn't fit (two "mamas"); There is an antenna switch supposed to be onboard - we can't find it; There is a 'duplexer-box', which allows to run the new station in the two frequency bands (145+430 MHz) over one antenna - we can't find it; Radio Amateurs already ask us since we are here, when the new station will be installed and when we can run in duplex mode and when they can use the 70 cm band (430 MHz) and, and, and... Then the guys in Oberpfaffenhofen request a special frequency for making packet-transfer, but Sergei and Juri don't like to change the frequency which is almost the whole day (145.55), because the whole rest of the world is communication with us - or better - with the packet-controller on this frequency". Skeds between DP0MIR and DF0VR on dedicated frequencies are needed to transmit special information for the installation of equipment, international frequency agreements, ham operation onboard, skeds for school stations... If you should listen to such a contact please don't try to speak with Thomas. This information transfer is of interest for all of us!!!!!! "Last week I had a contact with a guy in southern Germany- not one of the OBI-guys" (OBI = call of radio beacon from Oberpfaffenhofen)", who seemed to be already a little bit embarrassed, because the new equipment is not yet running. And then he asked me, if I am feeling better in the meantime! I told him, that I feel absolutely great, and asked why I should feel better. He told me, he had heard that I was quite ill, but am on my way of recovery! No comment on this s*** (sorry!). For some nights we had selected the frequency which was requested by OBI- I even set up a message for Kieselbach" (Thomas, DL2MDE) "on the controller - but they say, they cannot connect! The whole world can connect to our station, but apparently the signals from Germany are reflected or attenuated in a magic way. I am feeling bad for these guys, because they seem to have some expectations, which we can't fulfill yet. I think it would be certainly good to have the uplink-capability from OBI, but at the moment it looks not so bright." In the last time visibility of MIR for DF0VR was only in the night time (TsUP-time). We tried to connect to R0MIR-1, but at this time we only heard the packet beacon from MIR. Connecting was not possible. We have information that tonights the AF level onboard is reduced. In our opinion this AF level is not sufficient to connect to the BBS. Presently we try to inform Thomas about this fact. [Info via Thomas, DL2MDE, and Joerg, DL3LUM] * STS-73 NEWS * =============== The Space Shuttle "Columbia" continues to perform well in earth orbit. During the 16-day STS-73 mission, the longest ever, the crew will grow protein and semiconductor crystals, study fluids, set controlled fires and tend to potato plants. Researchers say these crystals could lead to improved medications and faster computers. The mission is due to end with a landing at Kennedy Space Center on 05-Nov-95. The next mission, STS-74, will dock with the Mir space station. All the astronauts on STS-74 will carry Amateur Radio licenses, and will operate Amateur Radio equipment from the platform of the U.S. Space Shuttle. * SATLINK SOFTWARE NEWS * ========================= Jesse Buckwalter, NZ3F, has released version 951023 of his SatLink program. Satlink is a Pacsat ground station program written for execution under the MS-DOS operating system. It performs both file uploads and downloads and serves as replacement for PG and PB programs. The source code for Satlink is also available. Satlink is available via anonymous FTP from the AMSAT-NA FTP file server on the Internet. The associated files are: sl951023.zip -- SatLink executable sls51023.zip -- SatLink source code satlink.txt -- brief description of SatLink The source code is C++ that will compile using Borland C++ 1.0 and 4.02 compilers. Jesse hopes to release a DOS-based Pacsat server in the near future. The server will work with any ground-station software that operates in the KISS mode. With the server, users can connect the serial ports of two PCs together and upload and download files using SatLink, WISP, PB (not PG), PE1CHL's NOS, etc. This can be helpful in testing ground-station software setup when a satellite is not available. It might also be useful as a software testbed for experimenting with new protocols. The server will not provide all the various multicast messages that the satellites do, but it will provide those necessary for store and forward message processing. At some point, Jesse will release the code for the server as well so others can experiment with it and add whatever they want. [Info via Jesse Buckwalter, NZ3F] * OSCAR-13 SCHEDULE * ===================== QST ** AO-13 TRANSPONDER SCHEDULE ** 1995 Oct 30 - 1996 Jan 01 Mode-B : MA 0 to MA 70 | Mode-BS : MA 70 to MA 110 | Omnis: MA 230 to MA 25 Mode-S : MA 110 to MA 112 |<- S beacon only Mode-S : MA 112 to MA 135 |<- S transponder; B trsp. is OFF Mode-S : MA 135 to MA 140 |<- S beacon only Mode-BS : MA 140 to MA 180 | Alon/Alat 180/0 Mode-B : MA 180 to MA 256 | Move to attitude 225/0, Jan 01 [Info via G3RUH/DB2OS/VK5AGR] * FEEDBACK/INPUT WELCOMED * =========================== Comments and input for SpaceNews should be directed to the editor (John, KD2BD) via any of the paths listed below: FAX : 1-908-747-7107 FTP : pilot.njin.net cd to /pub/SpaceNews WWW : http://www.njin.net:80/~magliaco/ PACKET : KD2BD @ KS4HR.NJ.USA.NA INTERNET : kd2bd@amsat.org, magliaco@pilot.njin.net 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