SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-337.01 RSGB MAKES GRANT TO PHASE 3D HR AMSAT NEWS SERVICE BULLETIN 337.01 FROM AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD DECEMBER 3, 1995 TO ALL RADIO AMATEURS BT BID: $ANS-337.01 According to a GB2RS bulletins sent Sunday December 3rd, that at the RSGB Annual Meeting yesterday, the 2nd of December, the President, Clive Trotman, GW4YKL, presented a cheque for 25,000 Pounds to Ron Broadbent, G3AAJ, for the AMSAT Phase 3D satellite project. In addition, it was announced that the Society's Council has agreed to make a further contribution of 25,000 on condition that AMSAT-UK raises a similar amount from other sources. On behalf of the Phase-3D Team, AMSAT-NA President Bill Tynan W3XO expressed sincere thanks to the RSGB for its generosity. He said that, like all contributions to this cause, this significant RSGB donation will be instrumental in assuring that the satellite is completed and launched. He also acknowledged the help and support of Ron Broadbent G3AAJ The Honorable Secretary of AMSAT- UK for his work on behalf of the International Phase 3D Project. /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-337.02 THE INTERNATIONAL EARTH ROTATION SERVICE ADDS A LEAP SECOND HR AMSAT NEWS SERVICE BULLETIN 337.02 FROM AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD DECEMBER 3, 1995 TO ALL RADIO AMATEURS BT BID: $ANS-337.02 Tom Clark W3IWI passes along the information that International Earth Rotation the Service (IERS) has announced the introduction of a "leap second" to occur at the end of December 1995. The announcement says that the Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) will sequence as follows: 31 Dec 1995 23 hours 59 minutes 59 seconds 31 Dec 1995 23 hours 59 minutes 60 seconds 1 Jan 1996 0 hours 0 minutes 0 seconds The message goes on to state that before the leap second GPS-UTC is 10 is ahead of UTC by 10 seconds and that after the addition of the leap second it will be ahead by 11 seconds. Tom notes that most GPS receivers use the continuous GPS time internally and only convert to UTC for user-interface output. He continues that there are several ways to accomplish this, some better than others. Therefore he invites everyone who is interested and has a GPS receiver to a party starting a few minutes before UTC New Years (i.e. 19:00 EST, 16:00 PST etc) to count down the New Year and report what their receivers do. He expresses the hope that nobody has any of the receivers that don't make the conversion in the optimum way in critical applications! Participants may send their results to w3iwi@amsat.org. ANS thanks Tom Clark W3IWI for this interesting information and invitation. /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-337.03 LONGTIME FRIEND OF THE AMATEUR SPACE PROGRAM A SILENT KEY HR AMSAT NEWS SERVICE BULLETIN 337.03 FROM AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD DECEMBER 3, 1995 TO ALL RADIO AMATEURS BT BID: $ANS-337.03 Tome Clark W3IWI reports that it was with much personal sadness that he noted in Tuesday's Washington Post the passing of Bernard (Barney) Oliver. For many years, Barney was Vice President for Research and Development at Hewlett-Packard. Before he retired from HP, he was a significant friend and supporter of AMSAT's technical programs. He is remembered (among many of his other achievements at HP) as the "mover" behind HP's development of the first scientific/engineering calculator, the HP35. Barney will also be remembered as a significant supporter of the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI). In the early 1970's he hosted the NASA Ames Summer Study that proposed Project Cyclops, a large array of radio telescopes to look for intelligent life in the universe. Tome notes that, although Barney never was an amateur, he was our friend. He concludes with "For those of us who had the pleasure to meet and work with him, he made a profound impact on our lives. He was friend and supporter of AMSAT. He will be missed!" ANS thanks Tom Clark W3IWI for this sad note. /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-337.04 HOUSTON AMSAT NET NOT YET BACK ON SATELLITE HR AMSAT NEWS SERVICE BULLETIN 337.04 FROM AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD DECEMBER 3, 1995 TO ALL RADIO AMATEURS BT BID: $ANS-337.04 Bruce Paige KK5DO passes along the information that the Teck Talk Network has not be able to secure time on Galaxy 6 as first thought, so there will be no Houston AMSAT Net until the end of December. He says that negotiations are taking place for a satellite with Hawaii & Alaska coverage but that the Christmas season is not the best time to be negotiating. He promises to keep us posted as to when the Houston Net will be back on the air. In the meantime, Bruce says that he looking into ways of putting the net on the Internet using True Speech. Stay tuned. For those that would like to receive information about the Net, Bruce has started a remailer on the Internet. Those who would like to subscribe (manual operation), may send him a message and simply say "subscribe houston amsat net in either subject line or message line. ANS thanks Bruce Paige, KK5DO for this information. /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-337.05 SATELLITE STATUS HR AMSAT NEWS SERVICE BULLETIN 337.05 FROM AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD DECEMBER 3, 1995 TO ALL RADIO AMATEURS BT BID: $ANS-337.05 James Miller G3RUH provides the following information on AO-13. for 1996. The planned attitude schedule for Oscar 13 during 1996 is: Date [Mon] Alon/Alat Weeks -------------------------------- 1996 Jan 01 220/0 13 1996 Apr 01 180/0 10 1996 Jun 10 220/0 t.b.a. -------------------------------- The session beginning 1996 June 10 will also last for about 3 months. After that, 1996 September, perigee height will be 170 km and re-entry effects will already be noticeable. This will be an interesting time, and the command team welcomes suggestions which we could implement to make use of this unique opportunity to observe an amateur spacecraft at re-entry. Full details of re-entry, around December 5 to 19, 1996 can be found in: - Proceedings of the 12th Annual AMSAT Space Symposium, Orlando, Florida, USA, 1994. 4 pages. - OSCAR News (UK) 1994 Oct No. 109 p 16-20 - JAMSAT Newsletter (JA) No. 166, 1995 March 25. p1-4 - AMSAT-DL Journal (D), Jg. 22, No. 1, Mar/May 1995. - AMSAT OZ Journal (OZ) No. 37, 1995 May - The Amsat Journal (USA) Vol 18 No.3, May/June 1995. The article and regularly updated program listing is available via the Internet by anonymous FTP: Site: ftp.amsat.org File: /amsat/articles/g3ruh/a114.zip (Article) File: /amsat/satinfo/ao13/decaykep.zip (Decay Keplerian elements) Mode Schedule ------------- TRANSPONDER SCHEDULE ** 1995 Dec 02 - 1996 Jan 01 Mode-B : MA 0 to MA 70 | Mode-BS : MA 70 to MA 110 | Omnis : MA 230 to MA 25 Mode-S : MA 110 to MA 112 |<- S beacon only Mode-S : MA 112 to MA 135 |<- S transponder; B trsp. is OFF Mode-S : MA 135 to MA 140 |<- S beacon only Mode-BS : MA 140 to MA 180 | Alon/Alat 182/0 Mode-B : MA 180 to MA 256 | Move to attitude 220/0, Jan 01 Please note that the higher powered engineering beacon 145.985 MHz is ON for two periods: MA 0 - 20 and MA 100-110. Provisional Schedule -------------------- TRANSPONDER SCHEDULE *** 1996 Jan 01 - Apr 01 Mode-B : MA 0 to MA 140 | *** P R O V I S I O N A L Mode-BS : MA 140 to MA 240 | Mode-B : MA 240 to MA 256 | Alon/Alat 220/0 Omnis : MA 250 to MA 140 | Move to attitude 180/0, Apr 01 James reminds us that continuous up-to-date information about AO-13 operations is always available on the beacons, 145.812 MHz or 2400.664 MHz, in CW at 0 & 30 minutes past the hour, RTTY at 15 & 45 minutes past the hour and 400 bps PSK otherwise. These bulletins are also posted to Internet, ANS, Packet, PacSats etc, and many international newsletters. A 400 bps PSK decoder is available from G3RUH and several DSP products; display software P3TLM, WINSAT, P3C.EXE (MS-DOS); !TLM13 (RiscOS) etc from Amsat groups. Internet users wanting the latest AO-13 information should always check: ftp://ftp.amsat.org/amsat/satinfo/ao13/http: //www.amsat.org/amsat/ Telemetry is archived at: ftp://ftp.amsat.org/amsat/satinfo/ao13/telemetry/ Jame concludes with the note that the active command stations welcome constructive feedback and questions regarding AO-13 operations. These stations are: Peter DB2OS @ DB0FC.#NDS.DEU.EU James G3RUH @ GB7DDX.#22.GBR.EU Graham VK5AGR They may also be reached via Internet (callsign@amsat.org) and KO-23. He advises those corresponding to please remember to state clearly a return address. ANS thanks James Miller G3RUH for this information. /EX