SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-084.01 NEW AMSAT JOURNAL EDITOR HR AMSAT NEWS SERVICE BULLETIN 084.01 FROM AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD MARCH 25, 1995 TO ALL RADIO AMATEURS BT BID: $ANS-084.01 NEW AMSAT JOURNAL EDITOR NAMED AMSAT President Bill Tynan W3XO announced Saturday March 25th the appointment of Russ Tillman KC4JVB as Editor of the AMSAT Journal replacing John Hansen WA0PTV who is stepping down due to a heavy work schedule. John will continue to write the "Heard on the Downlink" column which appears regularly in the Journal. John Hansen will complete the next Journal, which is hoped will be in the mail sometime in April. Russ Tillman's stint will begin with the issue following that. Bill Tynan expressed the thanks of the organization to John Hansen for the fine work he has done as Editor of the Journal over the past few years. Bill also welcomed Russ Tillman aboard and said that is particularly glad to see new people stepping forward to volunteer for AMSAT positions. We need "new blood" if this organization is to continue into the next century, he said. [The AMSAT News Service (ANS) would like to thank Bill Tynan (W3XO) for the information which went into this bulletin.] /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-084.02 LOCAL AMSAT MEETING A SUCCESS HR AMSAT NEWS SERVICE BULLETIN 084.02 FROM AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD MARCH 25, 1995 TO ALL RADIO AMATEURS BT BID: $ANS-084.02 Local AMSAT Meeting Exclaimed Huge Success DC AREA AMSAT Meeting Proclaimed Huge Success The Washington, D.C. - Area Seventh Semiannual AMSAT Meeting was held Sunday, March 19 and was a huge success. The event took place at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center's Visitor Center auditorium/PAO TV studio. It was probably the best one to date in this area, shy in attendance only of the first one of this series which was held in January 1992. A large number of individuals volunteered their time and talent to make it happen. To recognize a few, first the presenters: Frank Bauer, KA3HDO; Martin Davidoff, K2UBC; Eric Rosenburg, WD3Q; Tom Clark, W3IWI, and Dick Daniels, W4PUJ. And the "show 'n' tell" demos: Jesse Buckwalter, NZ3F; Tom Clark, W3IWI; John Klim, N3KHK; Gilbert MacKall, N3RZN; Will Marchant, KC6ROL; Steve Stephenson, WA5UNA; Joe Novak, K4OVK; Bob Bruninga, WB4APR; and Bob Damrau, WA1LOT. John Bosak, K3IBN, provided some timely video expertise. The sponsors thank all who contributed as well as the 75 or so who attended. And thanks to all who attended, roughly 75 individuals, including those who traveled from afar: George Bourassa, KB2SAE, and his wife (six hours one-way from Albany, NY!); Edward White, WA3BZT, from Delaware; and number from Pennsylvania and Virginia. Special thanks to our WA3NAN/R talk-in station Robert Stafford, N3QPJ; to our Greeter at the door John Tyburski, K2VPR, and thanks to all those who donated refreshments and to those who set up and knocked down tables and chairs. Every little bit helped. What a great group! Through the generosity of the many who contributed a modest donation, it added up! It appears that we can now pay off the small amount that we were in arrears for this meeting and have enough left over for, again, a 400-strong direct mailing campaign towards our next meeting in September. AMSAT members in other areas are encouraged to unite and follow suit! Watch for a description of the meeting highlights soon! [ANS thanks Pat Kilroy, WD8LAQ AMSAT Area Coordinator for Washington, D.C & Suburban Maryland for this information. WD8LAQ can be reached at either the following INTERNET or packet address: wd8laq@amsat.org or WD8LAQ @ WB3V.MD.USA] /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-084.03 PBS TAPES SEGMENT ON OSCARS HR AMSAT NEWS SERVICE BULLETIN 084.03 FROM AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD MARCH 25, 1995 TO ALL RADIO AMATEURS BT BID: $ANS-084.03 PBS Tapes "Signal to Noise" Segment on the Amateur Satellite Program Ken Ernandes N2WWD reports that a PBS tape crew spent a very productive day, Sunday March 19th at the QTH of John Gordon KD2JF preparing material for a forthcoming segment of the program "Signal to Noise", apparently featuring the transition of military systems to other endeavors. During the taping Ken and John made 5 contacts on AO-10 which was doing quite a good job at the time. Stations worked via the satellite included: HB9OBR in Switzerland, Italians IK8MRD and IW5CNU, EA6SA in Spain and N8TDL in Ohio. A live, on-camera, capture of AO-13 telemetry was accomp- lished with Ken doing some voice-overs explaining the purpose of the tele- metry. Some video footage of satellite tracking software was also recorded as well as nice background footage of KD2JF's OSCAR antennas in motion. QSL cards were shown off, including some for SAREX and MIR contacts as well as two-way OSCAR QSOs. Ken was also interviewed concerning his personal views regarding amateur satellites. [ANS thanks Ken Ernandes N2WWD for this interesting bulletin information.] /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-084.04 WEEKLY OSCAR STATUS REPORTS HR AMSAT NEWS SERVICE BULLETIN 084.04 FROM AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD MARCH 25, 1995 TO ALL RADIO AMATEURS BT BID: $ANS-084.04 Weekly OSCAR Status Reports: 25-MAR-95 AO-13: Current Transponder Operating Schedule: The Mode Schedule from 20-FEB-95 until 22-MAY-95 will be: Mode-B : MA 0 to MA 190 |Omnis : MA 250 to MA 140 Mode-BS : MA 190 to MA 218 | Mode-S : MA 218 to MA 220 |<- S beacon only Mode-S : MA 220 to MA 230 |<- S transponder; B trsp. is OFF Mode-B : MA 230 to MA 256 | Blon/Blat 230/0 Note: The Mode-B beacon is ON during the Mode-S transponder operations only. Please do NOT uplink to the B transponder during Mode S only, as it inter- feres with Mode-S operations. [G3RUH/DB2OS/VK5AGR] RS-15: KR8L/7 says that he keeps hearing about how hard it is to hear RS-15 but his experience doesn't support that notion. He works RS-15 easily with the following downlink setup: Butternut HF6V multiand vertical (which he says he can't seem to get below 3:1 SWR at 29.4 MHz, 70 feet of RS-8, a small MFJ tuner, he doesn't recall which model, HB preamp (single 40673 FET) in the shack, Kenwood R-1000 receiver, and a good set of headphones. [KR8L/7] RS-12: RS-12 continues to have an active following on the CW portion of the passband. The evening passes over the US are beginning to come at a reasonable hour for the East Coast and Midwest, 03:00 UTC, so RS-15 users should even see more activity during the week for the next few months. KD0AV has logged over 20 states in the past week, including UT, RI, VT and OK. [KD0AV] UO-22: The OBC-186 aboard UO-22 crashed during the early morning hours of 21-MAR-95. This is the third crash of the '186 in just over a month. While one of the crashes has been completely explained, the other two have not. As a result, ground controllers have spent the passes over the UK on 21-MAR-95 dumping the memory of the flight computer. It is expected that the dump should be completed in time to begin the reload process during the morning passes over the UK on 22-MAR-95. They will attempt to have the reload completed as soon as possible and will post additional information as details become available. [Doug Loughmiller (G0SYX/KO5I) UoSAT Space- craft Operations Manager] AO-27: NM1K worked KG8BG, WB4FWQ, and KB5MKD this week on AO-27 with just 50 watts and Hustler G7 antenna. Also, N2AAM says that he always knew that the receiver on AO-27 was hot, but he never realized how hot it was until he was able to work through the bird using his hand held with 5 watts and with a rubber duck antenna as an uplink. This happened on the 15:38 UTC pass 25-MAR-95. At his QTH in Metuchen, New Jersey the bird achieved a maximum elevation of 60 degrees. While listening to the downlink using his Kenwood TS-811A and KLM-40CX, and with ARR GASFET pre-amp, he transmitted using his portable H/T. N2AAM says that he was able to hear his signal with just a little noise. He then successfully worked a station in "8" land who gave him a good report! [NM1K & n2aam@bagg.overleaf.com] FO-20: NM1K, using FO-20 worked VE3VC, WB5NJL, and N8OHU. NM1K notes that there is lots of activity on daylight passes, both CW and SSB. Also, KF0QS reports that he typically hears 559 and 569 signals routinely on the down- link of FO-20. [NM1K & KF0QS] AO-10: DL1SDX reports that AO-10 is performing very well since beginning of March, with a much stronger downlink with the same uplink signal than AO-13. DL1SDX wonders if anybody has an idea why AO-10 gererally works better via LPC than RCP antennas? As far as he knows it AO-10 uses a simple dual-band ground plane antenna that should give some linear polarization. [DL1SDX @ DB0ULM] AO-13: DL1SDX has observed recently that unfortunately lots of thoughtless stations, particularly on weekends, are "yelling" via AO-13, using a tremendous amounts of uplink ERP, "screaming and shouting and crying like wolfes." DL1SDX points out that four times 20 elements and "100 to 200W" is too much for 12,000 KM range! Downlinks more than 3 dB stronger than AO-13's beacon are the rule, not the exception. On weekends the ALC seems to be activated from perigee to a range of about 30,000 KM. After that the modestly equipped stations just can't hear their own downlinks after a range of 30,000 KM because the of the "lids." DL1SDX has observed another strange habit found on both AO-10 and AO-13: Two or more stations work like in a local repeater QSO. Downlinks are 6 dB or more dB stronger than the beacon, chatting for hours. These gentlemen do not seem to realize that they make it impossible for many other stations to work also. AO-10 does not have a ALC any more so the downlinks sounds totally distorted. But those "OMs" don't seem to care. DL1SDX is asking all AO-10 and AO-13 users to please be aware of the their uplink power ERP and also be considerate of others who are want to use the satellites just like everyone else! [DL1SDX @ DB0ULM] The AMSAT NEWS Service (ANS) NEEDS YOUR HELP! The ANS looking for volun- teers 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 weekly 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