SB NEWS @ AMSAT $SPC0609
* SpaceNews 09-Jun-97 *


BID: $SPC0609


			       =========
			       SpaceNews
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			  MONDAY JUNE 9, 1997


SpaceNews originates at KD2BD in Wall Township, New Jersey, USA.  It
is published every week and is made available for non-commercial use.


* AO-27 NEWS *
==============
The 70-cm downlink signal from AO-27 is slowly drifting lower in frequency
with time.  This drift is due to the natural aging of the transmitter crystal.
Controllers can adjust the downlink frequency slightly to compensate for the
drift, however the frequency change that has occurred to date greater than
the amount that can be compensated for by controllers.  Users are asked to
be aware of this and take this into consideration when monitoring the AO-27
downlink (which is currently 436.792 MHz).

[Info via N4USI]


* MIR NEWS *
============
The Mir space station is currently active on both packet radio and FM voice.
Uplink is on 145.200 MHz.  Downlink is on 145.800 MHz.  PP8KWA in Amazonas,
Brazil downloaded the following list of messages from the Mir personal
message system on-board the space station:

 Msg # Stat Date     Time  To     From   @ BBS  Subject
   103 P    06/04/97 23:53 WORLD  PP8KWA        Hello
   102 PR   06/04/97 22:20 TODOS  PT7WA         Hello Everybody
   101 PR   06/04/97 13:35 N6C0   R0MIR         Frequencies?
   100 PR   06/04/97 12:04 R0MIR  N6CO          TNX
    99 PR   06/04/97 12:03 R0MIR  N6CO          bio
    98 PR   06/04/97 12:02 ALL    N6CO          2 Line MIR Keps 6-03
    97 PR   06/04/97 10:28 R0MIR  A6LIE         Hello Mike and CREW!
    96 PR   06/04/97 10:26 R0MIR  A6LIE         Hello Mike and CREW!
    94 PR   06/04/97 07:26 R0MIR  VE1AMA        Question
    93 PR   06/04/97 07:25 R0MIR  VE1AMA        Hello MIR crew...
 7023 Bytes free
 Next message Number 104

 CMD(B/H/J/K/KM/L/M/R/S/SR/V/?)>

Mir can also be heard on communicating with ground control on 143.625 MHz FM.
Ron Parise, WA4SIR, reports that Mir communicates with groundstations at the
NASA Wallops Flight Facility at Wallops Island, Virginia, and the Dryden
Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base, California.  A third
site at the White Sands Missle Range in New Mexico is expected to become
operational within the next few weeks, and a fourth US site is currently
under consideration.

Keep an eye out for Mir as it is making visible passes after sunset.  In
some cases, Mir is visible on every evening pass, particularly when the
passes occur in the northern sky.


* RS-10 NEWS *
==============
Users of RS-10 are asked to monitor the satellite's downlinks as it may
return to the air shortly.  The reason for its dissappearance remains a
mystery, but may have something to do with experiments carried out by
spacecraft controllers.  Leonid Labutin, UA3CR, remains confident that
the satellite will return to the air and be operational before its 10th
anniversary is celebrated next month.


* 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


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/EX