SB NEWS @ AMSAT $SPC0529 * SpaceNews 29-May-00 * BID: $SPC0529 ========= SpaceNews ========= MONDAY MAY 29, 2000 * ARISS UPDATE * ================ According to the ARRL and AMSAT-NA's Frank Bauer, KA3HDO, a new chapter in the history of Amateur Radio will begin later this year when amateur radio equipment is installed aboard the International Space Station for the first time. KA3HDO reports that three major events must happen before the first amateur radio contact is made from the ISS, however. First, the Russian-built Zvezda Service Module is scheduled for launch this summer, providing the living quarters for the first ISS crew. Then, the initial amateur station hardware will be sent to the ISS aboard shuttle mission STS-106 in August. Finally, the initial crew of US astronaut Bill Shepard, KD5GSL, and Russian cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev, U5MIR, (along with cosmonaut Yuri Gaidzenko) will be launched in October from Russia aboard a Soyuz spacecraft for what's expected to be a long-duration mission. Amateur Radio will be available to the first crewmembers once the equipment has been installed temporarily aboard the Zarya Functional Cargo Block module. Earlier plans had called for the initial station gear, primarily VHF and UHF hand-held transceivers, to be put aboard the Service Module. Launch delays forced the change, however. The amateur gear likely will be transferred to the Service Module next year. The initial station will use existing antennas on the Functional Cargo Block. The system is being adapted to support Amateur Radio operation on 2-meters but not on 70-cm. A Russian station license and call sign, RZ3DZR, has been granted for the ISS ham station. Long-term plans call for obtaining an international call sign for the ISS station to recognize the cooperative nature of the ARISS project. With assistance from the International Amateur Radio Union, efforts are under way to request a specific ISS call sign block from the ITU. ARISS team members also continue to pursue licenses in their respective countries. A German call sign, DL0ISS, has been issued, and a US call sign has been applied for. [Info via the AMSAT-NA News Service] * KITSAT-OSCAR-23 NEWS * ======================== The KITSAT-OSCAR-23 control station reports that the satellite is currently passing through a maximum eclipse period, and this combined with poor battery performance is causing poor and unpredictable operation of the satellite. Poor performance is expected to continue through June 11. [Info via HL0ENJ] * FM SATELLITE STATUS * ======================= Here is a beginner's one line summary of currently active FM birds that you can receive on your Mobile FM rig and mobile vertical whip antenna. Two new items of significance: 1) SUNSAT now operates APRS digipeating on all non-voice sked passes! 2) Kenwood announced an upgrade to THD7 HT to rec/display 9600 baud APRS. Thus it can monitor these satellite downlinks in your hand. SAT DOWNLNK UPLINK S MODE COMMENTS ---- ------- ------- - --------------- ---------------------------- MIR 145.985 145.985 9+FM crew voice Voice and SSTV activity reported UO11 145.825 4 FM Bell-202 ASCII Telemetry and news bulletins UO14 435.070 145.975 5 FM Voice rptr lots of fun every pass AO27 436.795 145.850 3 FM Voice rptr days only but fun SO35 145.825 436.290 8 FM Voice rptr on scheduled passes only SO35 145.825 436.290 8 9600 bd FSK digi ON for APRS on non-voice passes UO22 435.120 145.900 3 9600 bd FSK BBS ON KO23 435.170 145.900 4 9600 bd FSK BBS ON but with probs in eclipse KO25 436.500 145.980 3 9600 bd FSK BBS ON TO31 436.925 145.925 5 9600 bd FSK Images ON Between the hours of about 6 AM to noon and 6 PM to midnight local SUN time there is usually one of these birds in view for a few minutes to keep you entertained while traveling. UHF requires +/- 5 or 10 kHz Doppler tuning. The "S" column is a subjective signal strength assessment. A 20" vertical whip in the center of your car roof will give you success as shown below. This acts as a 3/4 wave on UHF giving almost 8 dBi above 30 degrees over a good groundplane. SIG RECEIVE RANGE --- ------------------ As a rough approximation consider this table 9 Horizon to Horizon which was subjectively determined after 3 8 5 deg and above months of daily monitoring. Home stations 7 10 deg and above with 50' of RG 8 should subtract abt 3 from 6 15 deg and above the signals and 5/8 or dual band, or "gain" 5 20 deg and above antennas should also subtract about 2. 4 25 deg and above 3 30 deg and above The PACSATs do not currently digipeat UI 2 3 ele beam required packets, but you can still see status and 1 6 ele beam required telemetry and the USER lists on your Kenwood data radios or any radio with 9600 baud TNC. For more info on mobile satellite operations see http://web.usna.navy.mil/~bruninga/astars.html [Info via Bob Bruninga, WB4APR] * RS-15 NEWS * ============== Tony, AB2CJ reports hearing surprisingly strong downlink signals from the RS-15 satellite late last week. The downlink peaked at S-8 signal levels, and was still at S-3 out to 4100 km with the usual fading. The telemetry beacon was also active. Tony used a 4 element Yagi for the downlink, and also checked the signal on a dipole antenna. He found the dipole to be just a few S-units behind the yagi. His uplink power was 35 watts to a 22 element M^2 yagi antenna. Tony cautions that RS-15 doesn't always perform this well, and CW is still the mode of choice on this satellite. * 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