SB NEWS @ AMSAT $SPC0828 * SpaceNews 28-Aug-95 * BID: $SPC0828 ========= SpaceNews ========= MONDAY AUGUST 28, 1995 SpaceNews originates at KD2BD in Wall Township, New Jersey, USA. It is published every week and is made available for unlimited free distribution. * GERMAN COSMONAUT QRV ABOARD MIR * =================================== German Cosmonaut Thomas Reiter, DF4TR, will be QRV aboard the space station Mir signing DP0MIR during the ESA EUROMIR 95 mission starting 02-Sep-95. He will use the 2-meter ham radio rig aboard MIR during the 135 days of his flight. Primary frequencies to be used (preferably in split mode) are 145.800, 145.550, and maybe 145.200 MHz (as adopted for Mir and Shuttle activities at the IARU session of this year's AMSAT-UK Colloquium). The QSL info is DP0MIR, and QSLs will be handled via the usual German DARC QSL bureau. 70 cm equipment called SAFEX II and built by Thomas Kieselbach, DL2MDE, (who also arranged DF4TR's activity together with Sergej Samburov, RV3DR), will be installed at the Mir spacecraft permanently in the course of future missions. This will primarily be an FM repeater with downlinks at 437.925, 437.950, and 437.975 MHz, and an uplink in the lower part of the 435 MHz space segment. SAFEX II will later be improved adding a 23 cm to 13 cm transponder, capable of broad-bandwidth modes (e.g. ATV). [Info via Norbert, DF5DP, DARC Coordinator Satellites and Space Projects] * SUNSPOT HINTS NEW CYCLE * =========================== Astronomers at the California Institute of Technology say they have identified the first new sunspot in the next sunspot cycle. Scientists at Caltech's Big Bear Solar Observatory in Big Bear City, California, photographed the spot on August 12th. "This makes up happy", said Hal Zirin, Professor of Astrophysics at Caltech and director of the Big Bear facility. "The sun is a lot more interesting to study when things are going on". Early in the 11-year sunspot cycle, sunspots appear rarely and at relatively high solar latitudes around 30 to 35 degrees, then increase in frequency and appear at lower latitudes until they reach sunspot maximum, Caltech said. After this peak in activity, the number of sunspots slowly declines, and they appear ever closer to the sun's equator until they reach a relatively quiet phase called sunspot minimum. The sun has been in a quiet period through much of 1994 and this year, with a few spots showing up near the equator. The new sunspot found on August 12th appeared at a solar latitude of 21 degrees, and its magnetic polarity is opposite to that seen over the last decade, a key to identifying it as "the manifestation" of the start of a new cycle, Caltech said. Scientists at Caltech said they expected an early beginning to cycle 23, but not this early. "Sunspots in the new cycle should rapidly become more common and reach a high level of activity in 1998 or 1999", Caltech said. [Info via ARRL] * WEBERSAT NEWS * ================= WEBERSAT (WO-18) completely operational once again. The operating system has been reloaded along with the old attic code, and the spacecraft is now sending telemetry, photos, weekly whole orbit data (WOD), and light spectra of the Sun or Earth on Mondays. The new attic software for the experiments (camera, spectrometer, etc.) continues to be debugged and will "patched" in as it becomes available. The satellite continues to have a weak and relatively steady tone of about 1200 Hz in the downlink signal, which can cause reception problems with some modems. If this problem occurs, a ground-based solution is to adjust the IF-shift of the receiver to suppress the carrier into the skirts of the IF filter. Night reception seems to be better than in the daytime. The satellite's digipeater is NOW ON and can be accessed on 145.900 MHz. Using a terminal program connected to your TNC/PSK modem, try connecting to yourself via WEBER-1. If successful, try setting your unproto address to CQ VIA WEBER-1 and try calling CQ. WOD collection and broadcast will adhere to the following schedule: 21 August/Week3: BCR, 21 22 29 2F 33 36 28 August/Week4: Temperatures and impact detector, Ch# 14 2F 30 35 3B 40 4 September/Week1: Array currents, Ch# 26 27 28 29 2A 2B 11 September/Week2: User requested channels, Ch# ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? 18 September/Week3: BCR, 21 22 29 2F 33 36 [Info via AR Education News by Tom Davis, IK3WVJ] * FEEDBACK/INPUT WELCOMED * =========================== Comments and input for SpaceNews should be directed to the editor (John, KD2BD) via any of the paths listed below: FAX : 1-908-747-7107 FTP : pilot.njin.net cd to /pub/SpaceNews WWW : http://www.njin.net:80/~magliaco/ 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