SB NEWS @ AMSAT $SPC0501 * SpaceNews 01-May-95 * BID: $SPC0501 ========= SpaceNews ========= MONDAY MAY 1, 1995 SpaceNews originates at KD2BD in Wall Township, New Jersey, USA. It is published every week and is made available for unlimited free distribution. * MIR NEWS * ============ It took a few weeks, but the crew finally had time to work on their Personal Mail System (PMS) which allows Amateur Packet Radio messages to be exchanged with Amateur Radio Operators on the ground. The crew thought the problem was with the Lap-top running the TNC. The problem turned out to be some incorrectly set TNC parameters. The TXDELAY parameter was set for zero delay. It should have been 300 milliseconds. Dave Larson (N6JLH), spent many hours waiting for the crew of Mir to come on the air to assist them in adjusting the TNC parameters. The PMS is now working, but the tiny 22 kilobyte mail buffer is filling up fast. The Mir crew found out that Russia and the USA do not have a full time Third Party Agreement. There was a temporary agreement when STS-60 was in space, but that one expired. There are plans to put another temporary Third Party Agreement in place, during the STS-71 mission (the docking of a shuttle with Mir), but this agreement will also expire at the end of the STS-71 mission. Since there are no permanent agreements between the USA and Russia, this will limit some of the message forwarding and telephone patches with the Mir crew and may affect some schedules with school students. A permanent Third-Party agreement would be very advantageous to have in place for future radio contacts with the cosmonauts on the Mir space station. Remember, only 1 station can connect to MIR's PMS at a time, ALL others must wait. [Info via G. Miles Mann, WF1F] * AO-13 SCHEDULE * ================== L QST *** AO-13 TRANSPONDER SCHEDULE *** 1995 May 22 - Jul 31 Mode-B : MA 0 to MA 70 | Omnis : MA 230 to MA 25 Mode-BS : MA 70 to MA 110 | 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 180/0 Mode-B : MA 180 to MA 256 | Move to attitude 225/0, Jul 31 [Info via James Miller, G3RUH] * SOFTWARE ANNOUNCEMENT * ========================= The latest version of WinOrbit (2.4) is now available on oak.oakland.edu (see below). A description of changes, and an overview of the program, are given below: Major Improvements in 2.4 ------------------------- - "View from Space" orthographic projection (slow - not in real time). - Sun and terminator line now move automatically in real time (if displayed) - Fixed European (esp. German) number format bug (","). - "Print to File" option for ephemerides. Program Overview ---------------- WinOrbit is a program for computing artificial Earth-satellite position and visibility, with the Amateur Radio satellite operator in mind. It was written for the Microsoft Windows 3.1 operating system. WinOrbit is FREE (not shareware). The latest version is 2.4. The principal feature of the program is a series of tracking windows, one per satellite, which display the current position of the satellite and the observer on a simple world map, together with information such as footprint, past ground track, bearing (azimuth), distance, and elevation above the observer's horizon. Additional features include: * Real-time, pseudo-real-time, and manual calculation modes. * 4 different orbital calculation algorithms (selectable). * DDE server interface to tracking-antenna hardware controllers. * Simultaneous tracking of up to 20 satellites. * Selectable tracking detail, including doppler shift and free-space path loss, for a single satellite. * Display sun position for eclipse determination, and other observers for mutual visibility. * Tracking data (Keplerian element sets) read directly from standard, off- the-air bulletins in two different formats (up to 200 satellites). No pre-processing is needed. * Propagation of pre-launch keps and other element updates. * Observer (QTH) data (latitude, longitude) may be imported from a simple text database (up to 1000 locations). Entry by grid-square is possible. * Printing of tables of tracking and scheduling data in several formats. Table generation doesn't interfere with tracking. * On-line help, including direct access to text information about Amateur satellites from the tracking windows. * Standard Windows interface for all functions - no commands to memorize. This program is available via internet, by anonymous ftp from: ftp.amsat.org in /amsat/software/windows/tracking/winorb24.zip oak.oakland.edu /pub3/hamradio/pc/satellite/winorb24.zip (as of 4/21/95 only the oak server has been updated) Future enhancements might include (depending upon interest): Bug fixes (when reported by users) Corrected/augmented satellite information supplied by users. Enhanced satellite database maintenance features Additional table formats (as requested by users) Fancier map formats Sun/Moon tracking for EME/antenna calibration Speedups Rotor and rig control interface [info via Carl Gregory] * THANKS! * =========== Thanks to all those who sent messages of appreciation to SpaceNews, especially: ON1EN K2JWD KB2SFD IK5WQO N8HUL * FEEDBACK/INPUT WELCOMED * =========================== Mail to SpaceNews should be directed to the editor (John, KD2BD) via any of the following paths: FAX : 1-908-747-7107 PACKET : KD2BD @ KS4HR.NJ.USA.NA INTERNET : kd2bd@amsat.org -or- magliaco@pilot.njin.net SATELLITE : AMSAT-OSCAR-16, LUSAT-OSCAR-19 MAIL : John A. Magliacane, KD2BD Department of Engineering and Technology Advanced Technology Center Brookdale Community College Lincroft, New Jersey 07738 U.S.A. <<=- SpaceNews: The first amateur newsletter read in space! -=>> /EX