SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-344.01 G3XWH ELECTED TO RSGB COUNCIL HR AMSAT NEWS SERVICE BULLETIN 344.01 FROM AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD DECEMBER 10, 1994 TO ALL RADIO AMATEURS BT BID: $ANS-344.01 G3XWH Elected To Radio Society of Great Britian Council (RSGB) AMSAT-NA congratulates AMSAT-UK member and active SAREX participant Richard Horton (G3XWH) on his election as an ordinary member of the RSGB Council, which was announced in this week's GB2RS News Bulletin. The Council is RSGB's equivalent of the ARRL Board of Directors; its ordinary members are chosen by ballot of the full RSGB membership. Richard, who is Head of Physics at Harrogate Ladies' College, a private high school for girls in Yorkshire, runs an active amateur radio program at the school which made the first QSO with British cosmonaut Helen Sharman (GB1MIR) aboard the Mir space station in 1992, and also made the U.K.'s first school contact with SAREX STS-45 in 1993. Both efforts received full coverage on British television, which Richard showed at the SAREX/MIR session of the 1993 AMSAT-UK Colloquium. RSGB's newsletter, the RadCom, reports that over 40 YL students so far have become licensed amateurs through Richard's efforts. /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-344.02 AO-13 ZRO TEST SCHEDULE HR AMSAT NEWS SERVICE BULLETIN 344.02 FROM AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD DECEMBER 10, 1994 TO ALL RADIO AMATEURS BT BID: $ANS-344.02 The AO-13 ZRO Tests Schedule For December '94 Until Febuary '95 The ZRO Memorial Technical Achievement Award Program, or just "ZRO Test" has a new schedule for December 1994 through February 1995, via AO-13. This activity is a test of operating skill and equipment performance. During a typical ZRO run, a control station will send numeric code groups using CW at 10 words-per-minute. At the beginning of the run, uplink power >From the control station is set to match the general beacon downlink strength. This is level "zero." The control operator will send and repeat a random five-digit number, then lower his uplink power by 3 dB (half power) and repeat the procedure with a new random number (level "1"). This will continue to a level 30 dB below the beacon (level "A"). A participating listener monitors the downlink signals until he can no longer copy the numbers. Those who can hear the beacon will qualify for the basic award by copying the code group heard at level "zero". The challenge is to improve home-station performance to a point where the lower-level downlink signals can be copied (levels 6 through A). To date, only one station, Darrel Emerson (AA7FV) has successfully copied level "A". The following schedule of Mode "B" tests were chosen for convenient oper- ating times and favorable squint angles. The tests can be heard on 145.840 MHz. Andy (WA5ZIB) will conduct all the tests. Mode "JL" tests are no longer possible due to the failure of AO-13's 70-cm transmitter. Day Date (UTC) Time Areas covered Saturday Dec. 31, 1994 2045 UTC E. NA, SA, Europe, Africa Sunday Jan. 8, 1995 0030 UTC NA, SA Sunday Jan. 15, 1995 0400 UTC NA, Japan, E. Australia Saturday Jan. 21, 1995 2030 UTC NA, SA, Europe, Africa Saturday Feb. 11, 1995 2000 UTC NA, SA, W. Europe & W. Africa Note that the dates and days are shown in "UTC", thus the second test occurs at 6:30 PM CST Saturday evening (the 7th). Any changes will be announced as soon as possible via the AMSAT HF and AO-13 Operations Nets. All listener reports with date of test and numbers copied should be sent to Andy MacAllister WA5ZIB, AMSAT V.P. User Operations, 14714 Knights Way Drive, Houston, TX 77083-5640. A report will be returned verifying the level of accurate reception. An S.A.S.E. is appreciated but not required. Information about the AMSAT Awards Program can be found on page 197 of the "Proceedings of the AMSAT-NA Tenth Space Symposium" (1992). This paper, covering all the AMSAT-NA awards including specifics on the ZRO Test, was reprinted on page 10 in the March/April 1993 issue of "The AMSAT Journal." The ZRO Test information provided in the article covers test procedures, means for obtaining certificates and gives some historical background about the program. Reprints of the article can be obtained for an S.A.S.E. to WA5ZIB at the address above. /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-344.03 AMSAT QSL BUREAU REQUEST HR AMSAT NEWS SERVICE BULLETIN 344.03 FROM AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD DECEMBER 10, 1994 TO ALL RADIO AMATEURS BT BID: $ANS-344.03 AMSAT QSL Bureau Needs Envelopes For QSL Cards There a large number of of radio amateurs who have QSL cards on file with the AMSAT QSL Bureau. The QSL Bureau requests that those amateurs please send one (or more) 5x7 envelopes, addressed, and stamped with at least two units of postage, to the following: AMSAT QSL Bureau c/o Walt Rader (WA3DMF) 3702 Allison St. Brentwood, MD 20722 A list of the stations for which these envelopes are needed is VERY long and will not be repeated in this ANS bulletin. However, if you feel that there is a chance that a DX station may have sent you a QSL card, it would be to your advatage to send WA3DMF some s.a.s.e's. Also, if you are quite active on any of the analog "birds," again, it would be to your advantage to send in a few of your QSL cards and envelopes. AMSAT-NA respectively ask that you help WA3DMF accomplish his volunteer job as the AMSAT QSL Manager. /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-344.04 WEEKLY OSCAR STATUS REPORTS HR AMSAT NEWS SERVICE BULLETIN 344.04 FROM AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD DECEMBER 10, 1994 TO ALL RADIO AMATEURS BT BID: $ANS-344.04 Weekly OSCAR Status Reports: 10-DEC-94 AO-13: Current Transponder Operating Schedule: The Mode Schedule from 19-DEC-94 until 20-FEB-95 will be: Mode-B : MA 0 to MA 100 |Omnis : MA 230 to MA 25 Mode-BS : MA 100 to MA 130 | Mode-S : MA 130 to MA 132 |<- S beacon only Mode-S : MA 132 to MA 155 |<- S transponder; B trsp. is OFF Mode-S : MA 155 to MA 160 |<- S beacon only Mode-BS : MA 160 to MA 180 | Blon/Blat 180/0 Mode-B : MA 180 to MA 256 | Move to attitude 230/0, Feb 20 [G3RUH/DB2OS/VK5AGR] KO-25: After last week's S/W crash, KO-25 On-Board Computer (OBC)was successfully recovered and reloaded. KO-23: KO-23 crashed again after S/W reload was performed last week. The KAIST is monitoring KO-23 operation using 1200 bps AFSK telemetry mode and also probing "dumped" binary image. After some checkout, KO-23 will be reloaded. The users of KO-23 are asked that if you see any "suspicious" downlink messages from KO-23 to please report to them and the KAIST will investigate the situation. Send your reports to KAIST on INTERNET to the following address: hskim@casaturn.kaist.ac.kr MIR: N6DD reports that Dr. Valeriy Poliakov replied to his call on 145.5502 MHz FM last week signing R0MIR "from the space station Mir." N6DD had been listening to a lot of packet activity from the station while watching it through a thin cloud cover on a near overhead pass at 14:00 UTC at his Los Angeles QTH. N6DD wants to thank his friend N6RUM for alerting him to voice transmissions half-way through the pass while N6DD was outside watching! A fast antenna update and quick call resulted in a full quieting signal exchange. [n6dd@amsat.org] AO-10: KR8L/7 reports that AO-10 has been excellent lately. [KR8L/7] RS-10: NM1K reports some excellent DX and lots of activity on RS-10 this past week with PJ2MI coming in with a good signal but with a small "window" of opportunity. Also the RS-10 ROBOT is working well. [NM1K@WA1TPP.MA.USA.NA] The AMSAT NEWS Service (ANS) NEEDS YOUR HELP! The ANS looking for volunteers to contribute weekly OSCAR status reports. If you have a favorite OSCAR which you work on a regular basis and would like to contribute to this bulletin, please send your observations to WD0HHU at his CompuServe address of 70524,2272, on INTERNET at wd0hhu@amsat.org, or to his local packet BBS in the Denver, CO area, WD0HHU @ N0QCU. Also, if you find that the current set of orbital elements are not generating the correct AOS/LOS times at your QTH, PLEASE INCLUDE THAT INFORMATION AS WELL. The information you provide will be of value to all OSCAR enthusiasts. /EX