SB NEWS @ AMSAT $SPC0320 * SpaceNews 20-Mar-00 * BID: $SPC0320 ========= SpaceNews ========= MONDAY MARCH 20, 2000 * OSCAR-11 NEWS * ================= OSCAR-11 has clocked up another year in orbit, and celebrated its 16th Birthday on March 1st. Despite a few minor problems which have arisen during its long existence in the very harsh environment of space, the satellite still remains in good working order. Congratulations to the UoSAT team! During the period 15 February to 16 March 2000 good signals have been received from the 145.826 MHz beacon, although on one occassion signals were rather weak, and had to be decoded manually. There has been another increment in the dates displayed by the satellite. The date in the hardware generated telemetry is now three days advanced, and the software generated dates are now one day advanced. This glitch occurred between 26 to 29 February. Possibly it's a leap year problem in the hardware chip used to generate the date. Ground control may be able to correct the software generated dates, but not the hardware generated date. The battery voltage during daylight passes is unchanged. The average value observed was 13.8, with a range of 13.4 to 14.1 volts. The internal temperatures have decreased by one degrees C. They are now 3.8C and 2.2C for battery and telemetry electronics respectively. A single WOD survey of channels 10, 20, 30, 40 (+Y, -X, +X solar array currents, array voltage), dated January 06 has been transmitted. Note the year of this WOD survey is incorrectly displayed as 99. This survey clearly shows the solar eclipses, and a spin period of 340 seconds. The operating schedule is unchanged. ASCII status (210 seconds) ASCII bulletin (60 seconds) BINARY SEU (30 seconds) ASCII TLM (90 seconds) ASCII WOD (120 seconds) ASCII bulletin (60 seconds) BINARY ENG (30 seconds) The ASCII bulletin is currently a static message, detailing modes and frequencies of all the amateur radio satellites. There are additional status blocks after each bulletin is transmitted, and between ASCII TLM and WOD. The Mode-S beacon is ON, transmitting an unmodulated carrier, but telemetry indicates that it has partially failed, and delivering half power. This beacon is a useful test source for those testing Mode-S converters, prior to the launch of P3-D. However, the signals are very weak, and there is a lot of Doppler. Users should also note that the polarisation of OSCAR-11 is LHC. Even if you can't hear OSCAR-11, your equipment may still be suitable for P3-D reception. Any reports of reception on 2401 MHz would be most welcome, and should be directed to Clive Wallis at: g3cwv@amsat.org. The 435.025 MHz beacon is normally OFF. However, it can sometimes be heard when the satellite is being commanded by ground control, ie. within range of Guildford, UK. When the 435 MHz beacon is transmitting, the 145 MHz beacon is normally OFF. The data transmitted is mainly binary. Listeners to OSCAR-11 may be interested in visiting a web site dedicated to this satellite. The site contains details of hardware required and some software for capturing data, and decoding ASCII telemetry and WOD. There is an archive of raw data (mainly WOD) for analysis, which is continually being expanded, as new data is captured. Also included are some audio files, examples of each type of data transmitted by OSCAR-11, each one plays for about ten seconds. There are also examples of Mode-S reception. All the audio files are zipped, so that they can be played off-line. These should help listeners identify the various types of data, and give an indication of the signal quality required for successful decoding. The URL is: http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/clivew/ [Info via Clive Wallis, G3CWV] * PB/PG VERSION 1.4 FOR LINUX * =============================== Bent Bagger, OZ6BL, has released version 1.4 of PB and PG for Linux, and has uploaded the release to metalab.unc.edu. The file name is pbpg-1.4.tar.gz, and should be found in the /pub/linux/apps/ham subdirectory shortly. The file may also be downloaded from ftp://ftp.amsat.org/amsat/software/Linux/pbpg-1.4.tar.gz. The updated documentation is found in the file named README. The following changes have been made since version 1.3: * The programs are no longer installed SUID. This removes a security hole that existed in previous versions. * The build process is based on the use of the ax.25 library (ax25lib). Use version 1.3 if you are on a version of Linux that does not support ax25lib. If you want to remove the security hole from earlier versions, change the two lines in the Makefile that install the programs to read: install -g root -o root -m 0755 -s pb /usr/local/bin install -g root -o root -m 0755 -s pg /usr/local/bin The following is (still) believed to be an incorrectness: Sometimes PB will send requests for directory fills when it is not needed. Bent has only seen this with AO-16 but it has been reported to occur with KO-25 as well. PB and PG for Linux are program used for download from and upload to digital satellites (Pacsats) supporting the FTL0 protocol. This software allows you to directly communicate with the Microsat series of satellites. It provides a Curses (Ncurses) based user interface. It features automatic directory fill requests and simple, rules based file download requests. Version 1.4 will work with kernel revisions 2.2.13 or higher. [Info via Bent Bagger, OZ6BL] * SUNSAT NEWS * =============== Due to an improvement in its power budget, Sunsat's Mode B repeater will now also be enabled on most weekday evenings. A schedule of the active passes can be found at . GPS data is currently collected on Mondays. It takes as much as twelve hours to fully recover the state of charge after these experiments. Hence the repeater will not be active on Mondays. This service will continue if it does not affect daily housekeeping activities or the functioning of other payloads. Please note that a software update will take place soon and that the GPS schedule is being reviewed. Weekday activations might be cancelled without prior warning. However, weekend schedules will be adhered to as before. A summary of Sunsat's modes and frequency allocations is available at . As indicated, specific modes may be scheduled for special events. Please make the arrangements well in advance. [Info via Johann Lochner] * AMSAT-NA CALL FOR PAPERS * ============================ AMSAT-NA 2000 Symposium Chairman George Caswell Sr., W1ME, has released the first call to authors who wish to submit papers for presentation and publication in the proceedings of the 2000 Symposium. The 18th AMSAT Annual Meeting and Space Symposium will be held October 27-29, 2000 (Friday-Sunday) at the Holiday Inn West, in Portland, Maine. Topics covering the diverse aspects of Amateur Radio satellite disciplines are sought from throughout the entire AMSAT community. If authors do not wish to present a paper, but have a topic of interest, they are asked to submit the topic and arrangements can be made for presentation and publication in the proceedings. With the imminent launch of Phase 3D, it is expected that many of the topics will center around AMSAT's most ambitious satellite project. Key deadline dates for authors are: May 1, 2000: Tentative call due. Authors should submit the name and title of their paper to W1ME via e-mail or postal mail. June 1, 2000: Final due date for one-page abstracts. When submitting abstracts, authors should include a time preference for when they want to actually present their paper. Authors will be advised by e-mail or postal mail shortly after June 1, 2000 regarding whether their paper has been accepted or not. August 1, 2000: Camera ready copy due. This is the final due date for authors to submit camera-ready copy of papers (authors are urged to submit their papers in advance of this deadline). Upon receipt, papers will only be superficially edited and will generally be printed as submitted. Authors are asked to refer to past proceedings for a grammatical layout of papers. Authors are also requested to provide an electronic copy (preferably in any version of MS Word or WordPerfect) in the event a disaster is spotted and can be corrected at the last minute. In September, authors will be provided with a tentative Symposium agenda that will provide an agenda for presentations. Each presentation will be limited to approximately 20 minutes. Please send abstracts and papers to Symposium Chair: George Caswell Sr., W1ME 16 Westwood Avenue Scarborough, Maine 04074 E-mail: w1me@amsat.org More information is available at the following URL: http://www.amsat.org/amsat/symposium [Info via the AMSAT-NA News Service] * AMSAT-UK CALL FOR PAPERS * ============================ The 15th AMSAT-UK Colloquium, "Amsat Space 2000", will be held at Surrey University, Guildford, Surrey, U.K., from Friday 28 July to Sunday 30 July 2000. AMSAT-UK invites authors to submit papers, about amateur radio space and associated activities, for this event and for the "Proceedings" document which will be published at the same time. Organizers normally prefer authors to present the papers themselves rather than having someone else read them in the authors' absence, but they also welcome "unpresented" papers for the document. Offers of Papers should be submitted as soon as possible; the final date for full documents to be received is mid-June 2000 in order that the "Proceedings" document be available to participants. Submissions should be sent *ONLY* to G3RWL, via the following routes: Internet e-mail: g3rwl@amsat.org Packet Radio: G3RWL @ GB7HSN.#32.GBR.EU Terrestrial mail: R W L Limebear G3RWL 60 Willow Road Enfield EN1 3NQ United Kingdom. (no fax available) AMSAT-UK also invites anyone with requests for Program Topics to submit them as soon as possible to G3RWL. Obviously, organizers are hoping for many presentations about the new Phase 3D satellite, but they *still* want to hear about other activity areas. Additionally, AMSAT-UK will be running sessions specifically for beginners to amateur satellite operating on the Saturday; volunteers are requested to speak to these sessions. Other information can be found on Amsat-UK's Colloquium web pages at: http://www.uk.amsat.org/colloquium.htm [Info via Richard, G3RWL] * 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