SB NEWS @ AMSAT $SPC0415 * SpaceNews 15-Apr-96 * BID: $SPC0415 ========= SpaceNews ========= MONDAY APRIL 15, 1996 SpaceNews originates at KD2BD in Wall Township, New Jersey, USA. It is published every week and is made available for non-commercial use. * SUNSAT LAUNCH DATE ANNOUNCED * ================================ Reliable sources indicate that the launch date the SUNSAT satellite has been set for 06-Mar-97. SUNSAT is an Amateur satellite sponsored by the University of Stellenbosch, in South Africa. SUNSAT's mission will be closely tied in with education. Three school projects have been accepted for inclusion on the satellite's payload so far, and although final preparations are being made to the spacecraft, time still remains for the inclusion of four additional school projects. One of the more unusual projects riding on SUNSAT is an experiment that will monitor the internal sounds of the spacecraft during the early part of its mission in space. Through this experiment, it should be possible to hear things such as the gravity gradient boom extending and locking into place, "creaking" sounds caused by thermal changes to the spacecraft structure, and sounds from the reaction-wheel assemblies. Sounds from the spacecraft will be available in real-time through a 2-meter FM downlink transmitter, and promise to hold a lot of interest. * SATELLITE STATUS REPORTS * ============================ Both AMSAT-OSCAR-16 and LUSAT-OSCAR-19 continue to perform well. LO-19's digipeater function is currently turned off, while WEBERSAT-OSCAR-18 is providing digipeater service for groundstations using an uplink on 145.900 MHz. The following beacon text was copied from WO-18 by KD2BD on 14-Apr-96: WEBER-1>CAST : 13-Apr-96 *Collecting and Sending WOD Week1: Arrays Ch# 26 27 28 29 2A 2B *Photo 10/14 Chile/Bolivia *Monday, New Spectrum 73, IK3WVJ & KB7KCL The April issue of "Education News" by IK3WVJ reports that the satellite is functioning well. It is currently sending telemetry, photos, weekly whole orbit data (WOD), and light spectra of the Sun or Earth on Mondays. Photo 10/14 of Chile/Bolivia is the current image. It has excellent contrast with very few clouds, and many land features visible. Use WW1.3 to convert the photo to a GIF image, then use your favorite graphics program to size it, and adjust the contrast and brightness slightly. The satellite continues to have a weak and relatively steady tone of about 1200 Hz in the downlink signal, which can cause reception problems with some modems. If this problem occurs, a ground-based solution is to adjust the IF-shift of the receiver to suppress the carrier into the skirts of the IF filter. Night reception seems to be better than in the daytime. WOD collection and broadcast will adhere to the following schedule: 14 April/Week1: Array currents, Ch# 26 27 28 29 2A 2B 21 April/Week2: Battery Voltage Ch# 16 17 18 19 1A 1B 28 April/Week3: BCR, 21 22 29 2F 33 36 05 May/Week4: Temperatures and impact detector, Ch# 14 2F 30 35 3B 40 12 May/Week1: Array currents, Ch# 26 27 28 29 2A 2B Additional information on WEBERSAT may be found in the current edition of "Education News", which is available via the AMSAT-OSCAR-16 satellite where it is stored as file number 87ec, or via anonymous FTP at pilot.njin.net (128.6.7.38) in the /pub/SpaceNews/ education subdirectory. The filename for the current issue is ed_news.106. [Info via Tom Davis, IK3WVJ] * MIR NEWS * ============ Just a reminder that Mir's orbital path is closely following the terminator and is currently visible, at least across North America, after sunset. * SpaceNews AVAILABILITY * ========================== SpaceNews is available regularly on Usenet in the rec.radio.info, rec.radio.amateur.misc, and sci.space.news newsgroups, and on packet radio BBSs worldwide as well as the AMSAT-OSCAR-16 Pacsat satellite. It can also be retrieved using the File Transfer Protocol (FTP) at pilot.njin.net (128.6.7.38) from the /pub/SpaceNews subdirectory. You may also "finger magliaco@pilot.njin.net" for a copy of the latest issue, or access it via the World Wide Web at the following URL: http://www.cs.indiana.edu/finger/pilot.njin.net/magliaco/w. * FEEDBACK/INPUT WELCOMED * =========================== Comments and input for SpaceNews should be directed to the editor (John, KD2BD) via any of the paths listed below: WWW : http://www.njin.net/~magliaco/ PACKET : KD2BD @ KS4HR.NJ.USA.NA INTERNET : kd2bd@amsat.org, magliaco@email.njin.net SATELLITE : AMSAT-OSCAR-16, LUSAT-OSCAR-19 <<=- SpaceNews: The first amateur newsletter read in space! -=>> /EX