Satgen 155 Talking to the Cosmonauts and Astronauts by GM4IHJ 15 Mar92 On 17th March 92, a Soyuz Taxi 121.75 MHz , should launch from Baikonur en route to Mir carrying a relief crew and a visiting German Cosmonaut , Klaus DP1MIR. So we can expect quite a bit of Amateur Radio traffic on 145.55 FM voice simplex, and, possibly , on a digital speech repeater which will listen for 1 minute then . play back what it has heard for 1 minute. Klaus should be in Mir by 1300 ut on 19th March but it may be a day or two before he starts transmitting. He will return to earth with the old crew on 25/26th March. The new Mir crew going up with Klaus have been receiving Amateur Radio training from UA3CR , so hopefully Mir activity is assured until well into the summer. Since satgen152 was published Mir has fired its engines and has a new orbit higher in altitude and later in timing. So on March 23rd when Shuttle STS 45 is due to join Mir in space , Mir passes of UK look like being near 1156, 1331,1506, 1642 and 1818 ut AOS approx. If STS 45 launches on time it will have AOS times of approx 1317, 1450 and 1624 ie ahead of Mir. So this will not be as good as the forecast in satgen 152, unless we are lucky and STS 45 launches about 15 minutes or more late. As G3IOR has pointed out Shuttle will use 145.55 as downlink , but uplinks will be 144.91, 144.95 and 144.97 FM voice at least over USA. W3XO is aware of the clash with the Region 1 band plan and has suggested uplinks of 144.7, 144.75, 144.8 and reserve 144.85 while STS 45 is over Europe. Whether this will happen is anyones guess. I would scan all these uplinks and priority channel 145.55 to make sure I hear any local who gets a contact. Equally important . Please remember FM CAPTURE EFFECT , whereby the Shuttle or Mir only hears the strongest FM signal. I do not wish to encourage high power usage on the uplink. But it is self evident that the best chance for UK users will be those orbits caught as they come in from due west and slightly north of west of UK. Catch them as they come over the UK horizon using say 100 watts to a 5 or 8 element yagi and you may get your QSO. Be aware however that as you pick them up, they may still be talking to stations to their west in USA and Canada, the awkward point where they may or may not suddenly switch to listen on the prefered Region 1 uplinks. If at any time you hear STS 45 in contact with Mir , please do not interupt them .Shuttle orbits get roughly 7 minutes later each successive day. By contrast Mir orbits are about 40 minutes later each successive day. So in two or three days any UK pass time misalignment can change considerably. Which might if we are lucky put them at nearly similar AOS times and therefore possibly in contact when they come near UK, on at least one or perhaps two separate days. 73 de John GM4IHJ @ GB7SAN