SB NEWS @ AMSAT $SPC0819 * SpaceNews 19-Aug-96 * BID: $SPC0819 ========= SpaceNews ========= MONDAY AUGUST 19, 1996 SpaceNews originates at KD2BD in Wall Township, New Jersey, USA. It is published every week and is made available for non-commercial use. * A NEW STAR IS BORN! * ======================= A Japanese H-II rocket carrying the ADEOS satellite, along with the Japanese amateur satellite JAS-2, was successfully launched by NASDA, the Japanese Space Agency, from their Tanegashima Space Center in southern Japan at 10:54 JST (01:54 UTC) on Saturday, August 17, 1996. Several stations in South America and the eastern USA also reported hearing JAS-2's CW telemetry beacon soon after it separated from the launch vehicle over Antarctica during its first orbit. One of those stations was manned by AMSAT-NA's Executive Vice President, Keith Baker, KB1SF. "Being one of the very first to hear signals from a brand new Amateur Radio satellite has to be one of the biggest thrills one can have as a Ham," Keith said. "I know many of us also shared some really tense moments until we finally heard those first CW beacon signals from the new 'baby' coming through loud and clear in our headphones!" he noted. Keith went on to say, "On behalf of Bill Tynan, our AMSAT-NA President, I offer warm congratulations to our good friends at the Japan Amateur Radio League (JARL) for their hard work in providing the amateurs of the world with yet another highly advanced Amateur Radio satellite." Keith also thanked Tak Okamoto, JA2PKI, JAMSAT's President and his team for their very strong support of the JARL in this effort and also for their minute-by-minute reports via AMSAT-BB on the developments leading up to JAS-2's successful launch. The JAS-2 command team has now asked for all stations to continue to copy CW telemetry frames on the new satellite's 435.795 MHz beacon downlink and to forward those reports to: jamsat-bb@iijnet.or.jp They also ask that stations *not* attempt to communicate through any of JAS-2's transponders, even though they may appear to be powered on, until they can do a complete checkout of the new satellite. JAS-2 is similar to OSCAR 20, although it offers some interesting twists. As soon as testing is completed and the satellite is open for general use (approximately three days), hams will have access to an easy-to-use packet BBS. Unlike most digital satellites which function as file servers and require specialized ground station software, JAS-2 provides a BBS that operates much like a terrestrial system. The only software required is a terminal program to "talk" to your TNC. Connecting to the BBS is as simple as sending a connect request to 8J1JCS. Hams who own PSK TNCs can connect to JAS-2 at 1200 baud, but unlike OSCAR 20, JAS-2 can handle 9600-baud FM FSK as well. A digital voice-storage unit (called the "Digitalker") will be used to transmit announcements, bulletins on the condition of the satellite and so on. It's similar to the unit presently being heard from the Mir space station. JAS-2 also features a linear transponder for SSB and CW communication. At this time there has been no word from the Japan Amateur Radio League concerning an operating schedule for the transponder vs the BBS. The satellite has also not yet received its OSCAR designation. Congratulations to JARL and JAMSAT on the successful launch of JAS-2. The following are frequencies used by the JAS-2 satellite: Uplink (MHz) Downlink (MHz) Mode 145.850 435.910 1200-baud PSK 145.890 145.910 145.870 435.910 9600-baud FM FSK --- 435.795 CW telemetry (12 WPM) --- 435.910 Digitalker 145.90 -> 146.00 435.80 -> 435.90 Analog linear transponder [Info via ANS and the ARRL] * ESTIMATED JAS-2 KEPLERIAN DATA * ================================== The following is estimated keplerian data set #4 for JAS-2 by Ken Ernandes, N2WWD. This data is based on radio observations made by DF5DP, G3RUH, N2WWD, and OE1VKW. It should work fairly well until an official data set is released by NASA/NORAD/Space Command: JAS-2 1 99992U 96230.10478009 .00000030 00000-0 30537-4 0 49 2 99992 98.3542 305.2179 0357266 251.3806 3.8553 13.52535111 14 The corresponding Keplerian elements in AMSAT format are: Satellite: JAS-2 Catalog number: 99992 Epoch time: 96230.10478009 Element set: 4 Inclination: 98.3542 deg RA of node: 305.2179 deg Eccentricity: 0.0357266 Arg of perigee: 251.3806 deg Mean anomaly: 3.8553 deg Mean motion: 13.52535111 rev/day Decay rate: 3.02230e-07 rev/day^2 Epoch rev: 1 Checksum: 278 Any comments or questions should be directed to: Ken Ernandes, N2WWD n2wwd@amsat.org * SPACE IP FOLLOW-UP * ====================== A mailing list has been created to discuss the SPACE-IP communications subject mentioned in last week's issue of SpaceNews. To subscribe tot he mailing list, please send a message to: majordomo@usa.healthnet.org On the first line of the message's body, include the statement: subscribe space-ip There are almost daily discussions on channel 178 of the convers network. Anyone interested is invited to participate. A Web site describing the project is also under construction. The URL should be available soon. [Info via Edson Pereira, N1VTN, PU1JTE] * 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