Satgen35 29th Nov 89 Shuttle, NASA Keps, Salyut/1686, UFO

Listening to the Shuttle. Most communications are microwave narrow beam to
and from TDRS relay sats. Some frequencies are :- 2106.46; 2205; 2215
;2217.5; 2250 and 2287.5 MHz. Shuttle also uses UHF 296.8 ; 259.7 ;243
emergency and 279 MHz for EVA.
Most flight have inclinations of 28.5 degs and heights of about 260kms.
which results in a seen/heard corridor 28.5 + 20 =48.5 N or S latitude,
so shuttle is often in range between lat 40N to 40S, less often up to 48N
or S. Shuttle UHF is used at launch and landing and may be used to 
emergency landing fields and on EVAs. For 1990 several flights go beyond
this narrow corridor. Presently scheduled ( dates may change ) :-
1 Feb 90 STS 36 a military launch which may go to any inc up to 57degs.
26 Mar 90 STS 31 28.5 inc but 500km high covering 50N to 50S
This flight may feature EVA traffic as Hubble Telescope is released.
7 June 90 STS 40 39 inc covers 55N to 55S ( Eg up to Yorkshire )
9 July 90 STS 38 military may go may go to any inc up to 57 degs
11 Nov 90 STS 39 57inc covers 72N to 72S

Keplerian Elements. Recently a radio amateur claimed that his friends 
software gave sat acquisition times accurate to one second.This is
nonsense. He is forgetting Atmospheric refraction,Local horizon elevation
,diffraction and the fact that NASA carefully warn you not to treat their 
predictions as absolute. The following example may show the true state of 
the art ? Latest NASA Keps show MIR, KVANT and SOYUZ TM8 as having
respective Mean Motions of 15.556072, 15.556276 and 15.556281.Which
indicates that Mir is separating from the other two by about 8 kms per
day. As all 3 are presently docked together, I wonder if the onboard
Cosmonauts have noticed this? Elastic docking latches ?

Because of this discovery that NASA give different elements for attached
vehicles. Suggest we do not assume that different Keps for Salyut 7 and
Cosmos 1686 mean they have separated. On 24 Nov at 1740 ut, a big vehicle
reflecting the usual "Salyut amount of sunlight "went across Scotland
synchronous with a beacon on 19.955 sending slow PDM. No other vehicle was
seen near this orbit plus or minus 5 minutes. I suggest vehicle I saw was
Salyut plus Space tug 1686 . Good to have this useful beacon back on.

UFO 432.881 has not been heard for sometime now. ZL1TRE suggested to G3RUH
that Object 83 - 60C a supplementary payload on a Big Bird launch , may be
UFO.He reports it goes on and off.Polar Bear 435.974 is on almost every
day. Fuji modem terrestrial tests at IHJ progressing well. More later.

Oscar 13 has been quite good copy lately. 73 de GM4IHJ@GB7SNE 29 Nov 89