SB NEWS @ AMSAT $SPC1013 * SpaceNews 13-Oct-97 * BID: $SPC1013 ========= SpaceNews ========= MONDAY OCTOBER 13, 1997 SpaceNews originates at KD2BD in Wall Township, New Jersey, USA. It is published every week and is made available for non-commercial use. * MIR NEWS * ============ During the month of October, there may be a few times when the Amateur Radio equipment on board the Mir space stations is temporarily shutdown. People should not panic if they should find the 2-meter station turned off for a few days. The new crew is very busy storing the tons of supplies delivered by the STS-86 Shuttle last week. Also, the Progress mission to Mir delivered even more supplies during the first week of October including a scale model of the original Sputnik satellite. The exact date this spacecraft will be deployed from Mir is not yet known. Some reasons for temporary shutdowns of the 2-meter Amateur Radio station include: 1. The crew is Busy. Making Amateur Radio contacts is not their primary mission in space. 2. Docking/undocking. When there is a planned docking or undocking of any module, all un-used radio equipment is turned off for the duration of the docking/undocking cycle. 3. Power rationing. Some experiments require large amounts of power. Low priority experiments such as the Amateur Radio station will sometimes be turned off for several hours during these periods. 4. While using the PMS. It is easier to edit the mail in the PMS mailbox when the 2-meter transceiver is turned off, allowing the crew member to concentrate on replying to mail sent over the PMS. Help out the crew my limiting your packet access to Mir. For the month of October, let's try to voluntarily limit the use of the Mir PMS using the suggestions below. It is not a good idea to overwork the crew by sending hundreds of messages to them and asking for replies. The crew members do not have very much free time to spend at the keyboard answering packet mail. It has been suggested that we break in the new crew members gently by following these simple guidelines: 1. Keep all messages short (there is only 13k of mail storage). 2. Send your message as a one way messages, such as greetings, introductions, etc. and do not try to ask questions requiring a reply. 3. Don't complain if you do not get any response from the crew. More than one astronaut / cosmonaut has remarked that they do not like to make voice contacts because groundstations are too impatient to wait their turn. The Mir crew members are NOT CONTESTERS! When the crew is on voice, please follow these guidelines: 1. Listen for CQ 2. Listen for CQ 3. The crew members like to chat for 3-8 minutes per contact. If you are listening, you must wait for the CQ from the crew member before you transmit. 4. Do not transmit until the crew member has completely signed with the ground station. For example, "Thank you very much, this is KC5VPF clear with NA1UZN. CQ/QRZ?" 5. Do not bother the crews about QSL cards. N6CO is the QSL manager for all Russian and America crew members "living" on Mir. Note, N6CO does not do QSL for Shuttle missions or for other guests on Mir. Remember, Mir is our stepping stone to the stars. Let's tread lightly. [Info via Miles, WF1F] * W3XO HONORED * ================ AMSAT-NA President Bill Tynan, W3XO, has been elected a Fellow of the Radio Club of America. Bill is scheduled to receive his award at the Club's annual dinner, to be held 21-Nov-97 in New York. The Radio Club of America, founded on 02-Jan-09, is the world's oldest radio communications society. The Club provides grants in aid to educational institutions and other worthy causes related to radio communications, as well as sponsoring technical meetings and publishing a journal, Proceedings. Its membership includes many leaders in amateur, commercial and government communications. Bill has been a member of the Club since 1992. [Info via Ray Soifer, W2RS] * FODTRACK 2.4 RELEASED * ========================= Manfred, XQ2FOD, reports releasing version 2.4 of his FodTrack program just two days after releasing version 2.3. Version 2.4 adds an additional feature allowing it to perform Doppler tracking on the Yaesu FT-736 transceiver even for satellites that have uplink and downlink in the same band (like MIR). FodTrack 2.4 was uploaded to KO-23 two weeks ago, and is available via the Internet from the AMSAT FTP server and Web site (ftp.amsat.org, www.amsat.org). * SPOUTNIK-40 NEWS * ==================== Spoutnik-40, the official name for the Sputnik model to be deployed from the Mir space station is tentatively scheduled to begin operations between 18-Oct-97 and 20-Oct-97. Some reports indicate it may be deployed on 12-Oct-97. Spoutnik-40's purpose is to help celebrate the 40th anniversary of the launch of the original Sputnik spacecraft (Sputnik-1) in October 1957. Spoutnik-40 carries a 2-meter FM CW/telemetry beacon on 145.800 MHz, and should be fairly easy to copy with a minimal satellite groundstation. A handheld receiver and a whip antenna may be suitable in many cases. * RS-12 NEWS * ============== Reports from users of the RS-12 satellite indicate thath the satellite remains in Mode A and is relaying distorted signals within its downlink passband. Some desense from the VHF commercial navigation transmitter flying along with the RS-12 transponder may also be the cause of some problems. Not all satellite users appear to be happy with RS-12's switch from Mode KT to Mode A. Then again, not too many satellite users are pleased with the loss of RS-10. It is not clear whether RS-12's switch to Mode A was an error in commanding the satellite or was an intentional operational change. Users should keep tabs on the satellite, monitor telemetry transmissions, and listen to downlinks on 10 and 2 meters to help determine which mode the satellite is operating in. * 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, KITSAT-OSCAR-25 <<=- SpaceNews: The first amateur newsletter read in space! -=>> /EX