SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-006.01 John Browning W6SP, SILENT KEY HR AMSAT NEWS SERVICE BULLETIN 331.01 FROM AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD JANUARY 6, 1996 TO ALL RADIO AMATEURS BT BID: $ANS-006.01 ANS sadly reports the passing of John W. Browning, W6SP. He succumbed to kidney cancer Wednesday evening, January 3, 1996. John had fought an heroic battle with his illness for three years since being diagnosed. According to his wife, Mrynie Browning, the end came peacefully at the Torrance Memorial Medical Center, California with family at his side. W6SP was elected Chairman of the Board of AMSAT in 1982 and led the organization in the period when the first Phase 3 satellites were being developed. He had also been prominent in many California DX associations and was an avid HFer from Palo Alto and later Los Angeles. John had been a consultant to aerospace since his retirement from the Air Force in 1982 working for firms such as COMSAT and Sundstrand under his own company, Altaspace. He was also active in AFCEA, the Armed Forces Communications Electronics Association, a trade group, where he was Regional Vice President and was a member of SCAPR, the Southern California Association of Professional Representatives. Funeral arrangements are pending. Burial will be in Arlington National Cemetery on a date to be determined. The family wishes that in lieu of flowers, donations be sent in John's memory to the Torrance Memorial Medical Center. John is survived by his wife, Myrnie of Rancho Palos Verdes, a daughter Marilyn of West Virginia and a brother residing in Los Angeles. Vern Riportella WA2LQQ, a past President of AMSAT-NA voiced the following found remembrance of W6SP: John W. Browning, W6SP, b. May 18,1924, d. January 3, 1996. Between the "b" and the "d" was lived a splendid life. Somehow, sandwiched in his nearly four decade distinguished military career, he found time to be many things to many people, including being AMSAT's Chairman. Self-deprecating but invariably generous in praising others, he subtly motivated many proteges becoming, essentially, the wind beneath their wings. Using humor as foil, mirror and defuser, he seldom was lost for words or an inspired approach to untenable situations. As a very young WWII B-24 pilot blasted from the Italian skies by a Nazi 88 and later flying F-86 Sabre jets over Korea, this decorated warrior saw his role in clear, unambiguous terms. He flew the steady course in personal and professional arenas. And, oh, what he achieved. In the early Sixties he joined some brilliant space pioneers on programs that some historians now conclude probably averted nuclear war with the Soviets. Working in the super-secret domain of "Special Programs" (one of the several esoteric connotations of his W6SP callsign), John was part of an elite team giving space borne eyes to our national leaders under the recently declassified "Corona" program. President Johnson said these space "assets", then called "national technical means" were the most important tools we had for knowing the true scope of the Soviet threat; it was much less than some alarmists had postulated. Had the alarmist view prevailed, a nuclear exchange might very well have been precipitated by some relatively minor incursion or misstep. For his role in SP and his later leadership role in the communications satellite field (as the "father of MILSTAR" for example), upon retirement as a Colonel in 1982, John received the Distinguished Service Medal, the highest peacetime medal awarded in the U.S. His prior combat medals include the Legion of Merit with one oak leaf cluster, the Distinguished Flying Cross, Meritorious Service Medal, Air Medal with two oak leaf clusters, the Air Force Commendation Medal with one oak leaf cluster and the Purple Heart. He wore the Master Missileman's Badge. John was thoroughly a gentlemen whose grace and manner were wholly admired by all who knew him. He was gifted with a swift intellect combined with steel-girded discipline tempered, no doubt, by his mountaineer, West Virginia, heritage. He had the same "Right Stuff" that fellow West Virginian, General Chuck Yeager, wrote about. John Wayne Browning was a hero in the idiom of the American pioneer; the genuine True Grit character his given names suggest. A certain quiet, determined, pioneering spirit melded in a totally undiluted sense of integrity and character. If two words summed him up, surely they would be integrity and character. John was many things to many people: husband, father, leader, teacher, friend, colleague, mentor, role model. And "W6SP" has been articulated with many phonetics: W6 South Pacific, Space Program, Space Philosopher, et al. Add Special Person to the list. I was privileged to know and work with John for over 15 years and consider him a pillar of a man. As the end approached recently I mused how two of John's many friends might fondly recall him after his imminent passing. One chap asked the other how he thought John stacked up against other people he had known over the decades. "How would you rate him?" The answer was succinct and telling: "Heck, that's no kind of question!" replied the other fellow. "John is simply the frame of reference for all the other people I have ever met. He IS the standard of excellence in every regard!" ANS is indebted to Vern Riportella WA2LQQ for this sad information and this inspiring eulogy. /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-006.02 PHASE 3D FUNDING REPORT HR AMSAT NEWS SERVICE BULLETIN 331.01 FROM AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD JANUARY 6, 1996 TO ALL RADIO AMATEURS BT BID: $ANS-006.02 AMSAT-NA President Bill Tynan W3XO priovides the following rundown on recent Phase 3D fundraising initiatives. The Hoover Foundation's promise to match all contributions from last June until the end of the year up to a total of $50,000 was responsible for the best results yet, Bill said. During that period, AMSAT-NA's fundraising activity resulted in the raising of a total of over $106,000. Although this far exceeds the amount that the Hoover Foundation agreed to match, Herbert Hoover III W6ZH, informed Bill that all of it will be matched. "I think that everyone will agree that W6ZH and the Hoover Foundation have given Phase 3D a very significant boost", W3XO commented. "It is difficult to thank him, and the foundation he represents, enough". Tynan said that there was also a $10,000 donation from the Downing Foundation and $15,000 from another foundation which wishes to remain anonymous as well as $1,000 from the Stoner Foundation run by Don Stoner W6TNS. Fundraising activity from abroad has produces very positive results as well, W3XO added. From Great Britain, $76,580 has been sent our way from the AMSAT-UK Phase 3D fund. And, AMSAT Italy has sent $1,000 to help in the effort. Bill emphasised however, that despite these successes, we continue to look for additional sources of funding to guarantee the completion and launch of the Phase 3D spacecraft. If there is sufficient money available after the satellite is built and tested, the purchase of launch insurance will definitely be perused, he concluded. "So, no money will go to waste". Bill thanked all who have helped make 1995 such a successful year for securing funds for Phase 3D and expressed the hope for great things in 1996. /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-006.03 DOVE TELEMETRY SOUGHT HR AMSAT NEWS SERVICE BULLETIN 331.01 FROM AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD JANUARY 6, 1996 TO ALL RADIO AMATEURS BT BID: $ANS-006.03 Jim White WD0E says that the DOVE command team has been setting up to work their way through the reload process following the crash December 29. But, he notes that it will take a while. As part of the trouble shooting process Jim says that he would appreciate receiving telemetry recorded on 12/29/95 from 04:28 UTC until the crash at about 04:33 UTC. He notes that for a station to have recorded the last packets sent, they will need to be in extreme north central U.S. or in Canada. KISS preferred but ASCII is OK. Please email to wd0e@amsat.org. If KISS send as an enclosed file. TLM for other times is not needed. Only 04:28 to 04:33. ANS thanks Jim White WD0E for this information. /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-006.04 EURO KEP MIRROR VIA FTP HR AMSAT NEWS SERVICE BULLETIN 331.01 FROM AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD JANUARY 6, 1996 TO ALL RADIO AMATEURS BT BID: $ANS-006.04 Destined to the Satellite radio-Amateurs Service, Amateur Astronomers, Radio Astronomers, professional Astronomers, from Mecanic and Acoustic laboratory (LMA), a French public scientific research center, that has open a keplerian mirror Internet FTP anonymous service. This new service open the Oct-27-95, to offer: Kelso database (2Lines amateur, weather, synchro, manspacecraft) Molczan database (1300, 2Lines satellites) NASA database (2Lines MIR and exotic satellites) AMSAT database (2Lines Shuttles) SpaceNews (KD2BD news) ANS (Amsat.org, bulletins in English and French language) Ephemerid (Solar planetary satellites (expected)) Access via: Internet ftp anonymous (tcp/ip) Address: alphalma.cnrs-mrs.fr (192.134.96.21) Login: anonymous Password: your e-mail address or call, please. Directory name: astro You can also connect by WWW at: ftp://alphalma.cnrs-mrs.fr (not http) The alternate European ftp anonymous access to another independent database is: ftp.physics.ox.ac.uk /pub/sat ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sysops: fb1rci@lma.cnrs-mrs.fr piraux@lma.cnrs-mrs.fr ANS thanks Sysop FB1RCI for this bulletin. /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-006.05 PICO SAT PROJECT INFO HR AMSAT NEWS SERVICE BULLETIN 331.01 FROM AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD JANUARY 6, 1996 TO ALL RADIO AMATEURS BT BID: $ANS-006.05 The second phase of the Picosat project is starting. This includes: 1. Making the picosat system like a simple global phone system providing each user with an ID number, centrally allocated to be used when accessing the system and for automatic linking between two ham radio stations; 2. Improving the capability by offering intra-picosat communications for global communications capability; and more. Please sign up to learn more and help create the 2nd edition of the Picosat manual. To sign up, send a message to me, peter at kc1qf@amsat.org Instructions will be provided on how to sign up to the mailing list which is run on Stanford University's system. ANS thanks Peter Veknis KC1QF for this bulletin. /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-006.06 HUBBLE IMAGES ON THE WEB HR AMSAT NEWS SERVICE BULLETIN 331.01 FROM AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD JANUARY 6, 1996 TO ALL RADIO AMATEURS BT BID: $ANS-006.06 Hopefully everybody on the World Wide Web already knows about the Hubble Space Telescope web page at http://www.stsci.edu/public.html which carries press releases and public release HST images from the Space Telescope Science Institute public affairs office. There are two lesser known web pages that you might wish to check out also. The "HST Nuggets" page at: http://scivax.stsci.edu/~hamilton/nuggets/hst_nuggets.html contains unpublished images from the public domain data archives at the Science Institute. It is largely the work of one person, Forrest Hamilton, who goes through the data archives and pulls out images that have not been previously published, but which are now in the public domain because the one year proprietary period has expired. Another page is at http://planxty.stsci.edu:1024:/hdf/hdf.html this page provides data on the recent HST deep field survey in which we spent 8 whole days (and nights) staring at one single spot in space to see what we could find at the edge of the universe. The data from that survey is due for public release on January 15. ANS thanks Dan Schultz N8FGV for this bulletin. /EX