SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-223.01 UNAMSAT LAUNCH DELAYED HR AMSAT NEWS SERVICE BULLETIN 223.01 FROM AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD, AUGUST 10, 1996 TO ALL RADIO AMATEURS BT BID: $ANS-223.01 The launch of UNAMSAT-B has been delayed from the previously announced date to early September. The launch will still take place in Plesetsk, Russia. The launch teem is departing for Mexico on the 14 of august and will spend some time there performing the vibration and thermocycle tests. Then they will travel to Plesetsk on a yet-to-be-determined date to integrate the satellite to the rocket. UNAMSAT will be the last spacecraft to be mounted on the rocket. The launch team promises to keep the world informed via E-Mail and ANS will pass along news as it becomes available. [ANS thanks David Liberman, XE1TU, for this information.] /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-223.02 MORE DETAILS ON JAS-2 HR AMSAT NEWS SERVICE BULLETIN 223.02 FROM AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD, AUGUST 10, 1996 TO ALL RADIO AMATEURS BT BID: $ANS-223.02 Eric Rosenberg WD3Q reports that he called the Washington NASDA office and obtained one of the JAS-2 press kits. He says that it is loaded with information - a 207 page book, on the "H-II Launch Vehicle and Tracking & Control of the Advanced Earth Observing Satellite (ADEOS), August 1996. There are 7 pages on JAS-2. The launch date is August 17, with the window from 10:29 - 10:54 (presumably local time). The "reserved dates", apparently to launch date window, is August 18 to Sept. 30th. JAS-2 will be separated at launch + 37:53, at a distance of 11,867 km and an altitude of 825 km. This is over Antarctica, roughly over the Japanese Showa Base. The mission track shown takes the vehicle on a north-northwest track over eastern South America and then the eastern USA. Eric says that the book is fascinating, filled with information on NASDA, the H-II launch vehicle, ADEOS (the primary payload), and JAS-2. He adds that there was no hesitation on sending out the press kit. The press kits are available from the following NASDA offices: NASDA Los Angeles Office 633 West 5th Street, Suite 5870, Los Angeles, CA 90071 Phone: 213-688-7758 Fax: 213-688-0852 NASDA Washington Office 1301 K Street, N W Suite 560-E Washington D C 20005 Phone: 202-333-6844 Fax: 202-333-6845 NASDA Houston Office 1335 Regents Park Dr. Regents Park II Bldg., Suite 250 Houston, TX 77058 Phone: 713-280-0222 Fax: 713-486-1024 NASDA Huntsville Office 1500 Perimeter Parkway, Suite 285, Huntsville, AL 35806 Phone: 205-837-8667 Fax: 205-837-8734 NASDA Paris Office 3, Ave.Hoche 75008, Paris, France Phone: 1-4622-4983 Fax: 1-4622-4932 NASDA Bonn Office H 1201 Bonn-Center Bundeskanzlerplatz 2-10 53113 Bonn, Germany Phone: 49-228-914350 Fax: 49-228-9112150 NASDA Bangkok Office BB building #1312 54 Asoke Road, Sukhumbit 21, Bangkok 10110, Thailand Phone: 66-2-260-7026 Fax: 66-2-260-7027 [ANS thanks Eric Rosenberg , WD3Q, for this information. ] /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-223.03 CENTRAL STATES VHF SOCIETY HONORS AMSAT's TOM CLARK W3IWI HR AMSAT NEWS SERVICE BULLETIN 223.03 FROM AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD, AUGUST 10, 1996 TO ALL RADIO AMATEURS BT BID: $ANS-223.03 At the 30th annual Central States VHF Society meeting held in the Twin Cities July 26th and 27th, the prestigious John Chambers Memorial Award was presented to AMSAT-NA Director and President Emeritus Tom Clark W3IWI for his many continuing contributions to VHF/UHF/Microwave technology and to the Amateur Satellite program. The award is given annually in honor of W6NLZ who made the first trans-Pacific VHF contacts. Pervious AMSAT principals who have been recipients of the Award include W3GEY, W0PN, W0LER and KH6CP. The Central States VHF Society also presented AMSAT-NA President Bill Tynan W3XO with a check for $500 as a contribution to the Phase 3D Project. The Society has made a similar donation to AMSAT every year for a number of years. [ANS thanks Bill Tynan, W3XO, for providing this bulletin.] /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-223.04 AMSAT-UK PROCEEDINGS AVAILABLE HR AMSAT NEWS SERVICE BULLETIN 223.04 FROM AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD, AUGUST 10, 1996 TO ALL RADIO AMATEURS BT BID: $ANS-223.04 There seems to be considerable interest in the "Proceedings" book from the Amsat-UK Colloquium. Anyone in North America who would be interested in obtaining a copy, should contact Martha at the AMSAT-NA office. She can be reached by telephone at 301-589-6062 or via E-Mail at martha@amsat.org. [ANS thanks Martha Saragovitz for this information.] /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-223.05 BIG PLANS FOR MIR HR AMSAT NEWS SERVICE BULLETIN 223.05 FROM AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD, AUGUST 10, 1996 TO ALL RADIO AMATEURS BT BID: $ANS-223.05 Recently Karen, RA3APW, and Leo, UA3CR, were invited by Serge Krikalev, U5MIR, and Serge Samburov, RV3DR, to visit the Russian Space Control Center. U5MIR is currently the deputy chief of Russian space flights and RV3DR is the manager of the Russian space amateur radio program. They were able to have a long talk about future amateur experiments in space, particularly relating to digital radio networking. Karen brought up the possibility of marrying the existing PACSAT protocols and hardware with amateur TCP/IP networking protocols. He suggested that if this combination were put into place on the Orbiter and also at amateur Internet/satellite gateways around the world, perhaps one in each time zone, it could be possible to maintain full-time IP connectivity with the orbiting MIR. In addition to offering continuous IP access to MIR from anywhere in the amateur world, such an experiment might be useful for discovering and developing necessary protocols for mobile IP operation; an area where amateurs might have considerable interest and one where we may be able to contribute significantly to the state of the art. Because much, if not all, of the required hardware is already in use, the bulk of the initial task would seem to be in adapting software to allow running IP over PACSAT. Karen and other Russian amateurs are interested in this project. U5MIR and RV3DR, are supportive of the concept and there would be licensed amateurs aboard the spacecraft. U5MIR is scheduled to be on board the next generation of spacecraft, the ALPHA, which is an international space project. He is interested in applying this idea to ALPHA flights. A group of Russian amateurs have begun to design low cost satellite groundstation hardware for use at the gateways. They are seeking comments on the idea and others to help in making it a reality. Clearly the project will require the help and cooperation of amateurs worldwide. Anyone interested in helping to further develop this project are asked to contact Karen, RA3APW, at: karen@gw.ra3apw.ampr.org or sysop@ampr.demos.suor via KO-23, KO-25 satellites Also, anyone knowing of someone else who might be interested and able to help, are asked to forward this note to them. This note was written and posted for RA3APW by N6GN. [ANS thanks Eric Rosenberg for forwarding this information.] /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-223.06 WEEKLY SATELLITE REPORT HR AMSAT NEWS SERVICE BULLETIN 223.06 FROM AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD, AUGUST 10, 1996 TO ALL RADIO AMATEURS BT BID: $ANS-223.06 MIR The SAFEX II equipment onboard MIR's PRIRODA module has been powered on . RS-12: Operating normally. RS-10: Operating normally. DO-17:(DOVE) Dean Shutt, AL7CR, monitored a pass of DO-17 n Anchorage (7/22/96, 20:50Z). He is happy to report the S band beacon is operational. KO-23: Returned to service, without loss of messages, on 19 July, 1996. KO-25: Operating normally. AO-27: Operating normally. AO-10: As of 0215 UTC early in the orbit of AO-10 with a range of only about 8,000 km, the beacon tone on AO-10 could be heard. No activity was heard across the passband... OSCAR-11 Is now transmitting. Telemetry nominal. WOD dated 26 June chans 1,2,3,61 magnetometers. New bulletin (No 71) dated 22nd June, about Ariane 5, and IO-26. Dean Shutt, AL7CR, is pleased to report that he received the beacon at his QTH in Anchorage during the 00:40Z pass on 7/23/96. The most similar pass for which he have recorded data was at 1740Z on 10/3/94. He recorded a max signal strength of S3 for that pass and the same for the most current pass. AO-13: The eclipse season has ended and AO-13's transponder has been restored to normal operation. The schedule has the addition of an S-beacon interval from MA 210-212 to allow squint angle/attitude determination. This will have virtually no effect on the northern hemisphere users. *** AO-13 TRANSPONDER SCHEDULE *** 1996 Jul 28 - Sep 02 Mode-B : MA 0 to MA 140 | Mode-BS : MA 140 to MA 210 | S-beacon: MA 210 to MA 212 | Mode-BS : MA 212 to MA 240 | Mode-B : MA 240 to MA 256 | Alon/Alat "220/0" Omnis : MA 250 to MA 140 | Move to attitude 180/0, Sep 02-??? The higher powered engineering beacon 145.985 MHz is currently ON for two periods: MA 250-40 and MA 160-170. The command team is currently discussing using the engineering beacon full time. WEBERSAT-OSCAR-18: (WO-18) has experienced many software crashes recently. Efforts are underway by the command team to identify the cause, and make the appropriate corrections. Controllers all hope that WO-18 will be operational again very soon sending telemetry, photos, weekly whole orbit data (WOD), and light spectra of the Sun or Earth. ITAMSAT-OSCAR-26 returned to the air on 01-Jun-96. The satellite was copied on Friday 07-Jun-96 at KD2BD in New Jersey transmitting telemetry, WOD, LSTAT, BCRXMT, TIME, and STATUS frames. In addition, the satellite was sending the following text message: IY2SAT-1AMSAT