SB NEWS @ AMSAT $SPC0103 * SpaceNews 03-Jan-00 * BID: $SPC0103 ========= SpaceNews ========= MONDAY JANUARY 3, 2000 * NEW MILLENNIUM? GUESS AGAIN! * ================================= The US Naval Observatory reports on its Web page that despite all the hype made by the media as well as many political and religious leaders, we have NOT entered a new decade/century/millennium with the ushering in of the year 2000! To the contrary, the end of the second millennium and the beginning of the third will be reached on January 1, 2001. This date is based on the now globally recognized (but apparently not globally understood) Gregorian calendar, the initial epoch of which was established by the sixth-century scholar Dionysius Exiguus, who was compiling a table of dates of Easter. Rather than starting with the year zero, years in this calendar begin with the date January 1, 1 AD (Anno Domini, the year of Our Lord). Consequently, the next millennium does not begin until January 1, 2001 AD. Additional information (for those still not convinced) is available from the Royal Greenwich Observatory at: http://www.rog.nmm.ac.uk/leaflets/new_mill.html * LUSAT NEWS * =============== LUSAT-OSCAR-19 is now operating with its raised-cosine PSK transmitter on 437.125 MHz, and the normal PSK transmitter at 437.150 MHz and the CW transmitter OFF. The CW transmitter and normal PSK transmitter is expected to be activiated occassionally until further notice. The BBS is also expected to running again soon. [Info via Gustavo, LW2DTZ] * SUNSAT UPDATE * ================= The SUNSAT team has upgraded the diary software running on-board the SUNSAT satellite. The new software seems to have improved the reliability of the diary and the operating schedule. The team has also uploaded the parrot repeater software. Early tests were satisfactory. It is expected that towards the end of January, the Parrot Repeater will become functional. Packet radio operation is still some 3 months or so away. Here is the schedule for the next few weeks as supplied by Henry Chamberlain ZS1AAZ Times are UTC 1 January 2000 00:24 to 00:38 New Zealand and Australia 08:06 to 08:20 Southern Africa 08:28 to 08:42 Europe 15:04 to 15:18 USA and Canada 2 January 2000 01:00 to 01:14 Japan 09:05 to 09:19 Southern Africa 14:06 to 14:20 South America 16:02 to 16:16 USA/Canada 8 January 2000 Start of the Cape to Rio Yacht Race 00:05 to 00:19 New Zealand and Australia 08:25 to 08:39 Southern Africa 08:46 to 09:00 Europe 13:28 to 13:42 South America 9 January 2000 01:18 to 01:32 Japan 07:45 to 07:59 Southern Africa and Rio race 08:06 to 08:20 Europe 16:20 to 16:34 USA/Canada The Cape to Rio Yacht Race starts on 8 January. One of the SUNSAT students is onboard one of the vessels. Henry is planning to provide some additional passes for the participants of the race. More information will be released ASAP. [Info via Hans van de Groenendaal, ZS5AKV] * OSCAR-22 NEWS * ================= Chris Jackson, G7UPN reports that the uplink receivers on UO-22 have been malfunctioning for a few days surrounding the new year. The problem required a software reload to rectify which was scheduled for soon after the new year. Chris also added that this problem could not be blamed on the "millenium bug". [Info via Chris Jackson, G7UPN] * OSCAR-11 NEWS * ================= Clive Wallis reports that the UoSAT-OSCAR-11 satellite survived the Y2K change-over and is working well, in spite of a few minor problems with the date. Users of OSCAR-11 will know that the date in the ASCII telemetry frames has been advanced by two days for a number of years now, and that the displayed time has been slowly drifting over the years. Clive has therefore been looking at the dates and times on UO-11 during the year 2000 change-over period with interest. On 30 December the date in the ASCII TLM switched over to 00 correctly. On January 01 the year in the ASCII status block was still 99, although the rest of the date was displayed correctly. The day of the week was also correct. The binary ENG & SEU frames also show the year as 99. The time in the ASCII TLM frames is now approx 13.5 minutes ahead of UTC. The time in the ASCII status frames and binary SEU frames is approximately three minutes ahead of UTC. Chris Jackson, the UoS ground controller, reports that the time is derived from a hardware clock set up when the satellite was built and cannot be adjusted. The time errors won't have any effect on the functioning of the satellite. [Info via Clive Wallis, G3CWV] * BEST FIST NOMINATIONS DUE * ============================= Now that the Y2K edition of Straight Key Night on OSCAR is history, all participants are encouraged to nominate the operator with the best fist among those they worked. Please send your nomination to W2RS via e-mail (w2rs@amsat.org), packet radio (W2RS @ WA2SNA.NJ.USA.NA or W2RS @ GB7HSN.#32.GBR.EU, whichever is closer to you) or "snail mail" at W2RS's Callbook address. "Best Fist" nominees will be featured in an AMSAT News Service bulletin in early February, and in the next available issue of The AMSAT Journal. [Info via Ray Soifer, W2RS] * THANKS! * =========== Thanks to all who recently sent messages of appreciation and holiday greetings to SpaceNews, especially: 9H1IF 9M2SS ON4WA K6OYY DG7SGQ All the best wishes to everyone for a healthy and happy holiday season and the best of and health and opportunities in the last year of the millennium! * 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/ MAIL: John A. Magliacane, KD2BD Department of Engineering and Technology Brookdale Community College 765 Newman Springs Road Lincroft, New Jersey 07738 U.S.A. PACKET: KD2BD @ N2TDU.NJ.USA.NA INTERNET: kd2bd@amsat.org, magliaco@email.njin.net SATELLITE: AMSAT-OSCAR-16, KITSAT-OSCAR-25 <<=- SpaceNews: The first amateur newsletter read in space! -=>> <<=- Serving the planet (and beyond) since 1987 -=>> /EX