SB NEWS @ AMSAT $SPC1202 * SpaceNews 02-Dec-96 * BID: $SPC1202 ========= SpaceNews ========= MONDAY DECEMBER 2, 1996 SpaceNews originates at KD2BD in Wall Township, New Jersey, USA. It is published every week and is made available for non-commercial use. * INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION NEWS * ==================================== On November 4-5, an international conference was held at the NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, to map out plans for a permanent amateur radio station on the International Space Station. Delegates from eight member nations (Russia, Japan, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Canada, France and the United States) attended this meeting. From the United States, members of the SAREX working group, officials from NASA, U.S. representatives from the MIR Amateur Radio Experiment and members from the Johnson Space Center Amateur Radio Club attended the meetings. This historic meeting laid a firm foundation for the future of crew-tended Amateur Radio in space. The international delegates jointly developed a draft Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to promote the development of Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS). The primary goals of the ARISS international group is to provide for the planning, coordination and performance of amateur radio projects on the Space Station. This group will coordinate activities on Space Station similar to how the SAREX Working Group currently coordinates amateur radio activities on the Space Shuttle. The Memorandum of Understanding is to be reviewed by the AMSAT and IARU organization in each of the eight countries for review and approval. In the United States, this includes AMSAT-NA and the ARRL. On November 11 at the Board of Directors meeting in Tucson, the AMSAT-NA Board unanimously approved the Memorandum of Understanding. Once a final copy is generated, the AMSAT-NA President (Bill Tynan) has been given authority by the board to sign the MOU. This Memorandum, once signed, will solidify amateur radio's permanent presence in crew-tended space activities. On behalf of AMSAT-NA, Frank Bauer, KA3HDO, the V.P. for Manned Space, wishes to extend his heartiest of congratulations to the ARISS international team for a job well done! We look forward to a truly cooperative international venture on the International Space Station. [Info from Frank H. Bauer, KA3HDO, via the AMSAT News Service] * OSCAR STATUS * ================ AMSAT-OSCAR-16 continues to perform well in Pacsat service. The satellite has now been running over 800 days without the need for a software reload. The following beacon frames were copied from AO-16 at KD2BD in New Jersey on 30-Nov-96: PACSAT-1>TIME-1 : PHT: uptime is 804/11:32:24. Time is Sat Nov 30 16:52:02 1996 PACSAT-1>AMSAT : June 1996 PACSAT AO-16 Owned and Operated by AMSAT-NA Command Team WJ9F, WD0E, VK7ZBX, KB5MU AO16 Command Team With the demise of AMSAT-OSCAR-13, AMSAT-OSCAR-16 is seeing new activity from some old friends. For example, Doug, KG5OA, was seen sending test messages to the satellite this past weekend. Published reports indicated that WEBERSAT-OSCAR-18 was functional once again with its digipeater active and its color CCD camera providing images of the Earth. Reception of the WO-18 beacon last week and again this past weekend, however, showed the satellite was in MBL (Microsat Boot Loader) mode. WO-18 and AO-16 are currently tracking close to one another, and as such, share very similar footprints and acquistion times. FUJI-OSCAR-29 was functional in analog mode this past weekend with many stations using the Mode J transponder. AMRAD-OSCAR-27 was observed in FM repeater mode. DOVE-OSCAR-17 was not copied on 145.825 MHz. James, G3RUH, pointed out that last week's report indicating a solar panel broke loose from AMSAT-OSCAR-13 during perigee was incorrect. Although telemetry showed the charging current from one solar panel dropped to zero, there was no indication that the solar panel in question actually broke free of the spacecraft. ITAMSAT-OSCAR-26 is currently transmitting telemetry and OBC status information on its 435.822 MHz downlink using BPSK modulation and the AX.25 protocol at a rate of 1200 bits per second. On Saturday 30-Nov-96, the satellite was reporting an uptime of nearly 182 days. The following beacon frames containing text information were received from IO-26 by KD2BD in New Jersey on 30-Nov-96: ITMSAT-1>TIME-1 : PHT: uptime is 181/22:00:49. Time is Sat Nov 30 17:47:33 1996 IY2SAT-1>AMSAT : A good friend is leaving the space after years of great service to all the amateur community. AO-13 is about to re-enter the earth atmosphere and to cease the operations. We will miss you! LUSAT-OSCAR-19 continues to perform well. The following beacon frames copied on 30-Nov-96 at KD2BD show an uptime of over 529 days. As can be seen, the beacon text was last updated in March: LUSAT-1>TIME-1 : PHT: uptime is 529/03:53:10. Time is Sat Nov 30 17:58:20 1996 LUSAT-1>AMARG : March 8 - 1996. BBS is open to users. Digipeater is off. El BBS esta disponible. El digipeater no esta operativo. Norberto - LU8DYF. * MIR FAN CLUB * ================ A Mir fan club has been created in Italy for those with an interest in communicating with the Mir space station via Amateur Radio. Membership in the club is available at no cost or obligation by sending a request via packet radio to Rudy, IW2BSF @ IW2GUR.ILOM.ITA.EU. Packet radio messages containing Mir orbital data, SAFEX module and QSL card status, as well as "alligator awards", proudly awarded to those who habitually hog Mir communication frequencies to the detriment of all other groundstations wishing to work the satellite, are sent to all members of the Mir Fan Club on a regular basis. Membership in the Mir Fan Club reached 50 only 10 days after its creation. Those who have shown to lack the true spirit of Amateur Radio and have been identified as being "alligators" will not be awarded membership. A World Wide Web page for the dissemination of Mir Fan Club news via the Internet is currently under active consideration. * 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