SB NEWS @ AMSAT $SPC0918 * SpaceNews 18-Sep-95 * BID: $SPC0918 ========= SpaceNews ========= MONDAY SEPTEMBER 18, 1995 SpaceNews originates at KD2BD in Wall Township, New Jersey, USA. It is published every week and is made available for unlimited free distribution. * ASTRONAUTS VISIT LONG ISLAND * ================================ John Delaney, N2JUX, has the pleasure of meeting the crew of STS-70 on 08-Sep-95 when they visited Monitor Aerospace on Long Island, New York. The astronauts came to Monitor Aerospace to thank the company for their work on the shuttle. Monitor makes the parts that connect the shuttle to the main fuel tank, and John is one of their employees. The crew of STS-70 presented a brief videotape with highlights of their flight in July. John reports that the videotape was very interesting and even featured a scene or two about SAREX. The crew also presented an award to one of the factory managers, Brian Sadlo who received a "Silver Snoopy", an award given out by the astronauts to people in the aerospace industry. After that, the crew had a brief question and answer period, but because of the crowd they decided to come off the stage and talk with people. After they did this it soon became a mob scene with everyone surrounding them for autographs and picture opportunies. John commented that the astronauts were all very polite and considerate and would sign autographs and answer any and all questions. John asked Kevin R. Kregel if he had done anything with SAREX and he replied that he talked to his wife on a few orbits, but Donald Thomas and Nancy Currie were the ones who were really involved with that. John then made his way through the crowd and found Donald Thomas, KC5FVF. Donald was easy to talk to and seemed to be genuinely interested in Amateur Radio. During the course of his conversation with John, Mr. Thomas stated that what one hears on the 2 meter band in space on a SAREX uplink frequency sounds very much like a DX pile-up here on earth. He said that many times only parts of callsigns can be copied and groundstations can always be heard talking on top of each other. At times it is difficult to have a QSO. John then made it across the room and got Nancy Currie's (KC5OZX) autograph, but didn't get much of a chance to talk to her because of the crowd. [Info via John Delaney, N2JUX] * EUROMIR FREQUENCIES * ======================= Uplink and downlink frequencies of the Amateur Radio Station SAFEX II aboard the Russian Space Station MIR during the EUROMIR '95 Mission with the German ESA Cosmonaut Thomas Reiter, DF4TR (SAFEX: Space AmateurFunk EXperiment) 2m-Band ------- Voice: Downlink 145.850 MHz Uplink 145.250 MHz Packet Radio: Downlink 145.550 MHz Uplink 144.625 MHz 145.550 MHz addtional Uplinks: 145.200 MHz 145.225 MHz 144.675 MHz 144.725 MHz 70cm-Band --------- Voice: Downlink 437.925 MHz Uplink 435.725 MHz Packet Radio: Downlink 437.775 MHz Uplink 435.775 MHz additional Uplinks: 435.800 MHz to 436.000 MHz with 25 kHz spacing Orbit Operations: Thomas Reiter, DF4TR Onboard Station Call DP0MIR Ground Operations: Amateur Radio Station R3K at ZUP control center, Kaliningrad, Moscow, Russia Sergej Samburov, RV3DR P.O. Box 73 Kaliningrad-10 City Moscow Area, 141070, Russia Amateur Radio Station DF0VR at GSOC control center, Oberpfaffenhofen, Munich, Germany Thomas Kieselbach, DL2MDE Joerg Hahn, DL3LUM DLR Amateurfunkstation Oberpfaffenhofen P.O. Box 1116 82230 Wessling, Germany Reference: CQ-DL Nr. 8/95 (monthly magazine of German Amateur Radio Club DARC e.V.) [Info via John McKay, WD4HOY] * HAM RADIO TO MARS * ===================== The Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California will be launching a replacement for the ill-fated "Mars Observer", called the "Mars Global Surveyor", in the latter part of 1996. Among the many experiments carried on the spacecraft, the Mars Global Observer will carry a 1.3 watt continuous carrier beacon transmitter on 437.100 MHz. Amateur Radio Operators will have the ability to receive this beacon using their OSCAR satellite groundstations while the spacecraft heads off to Mars. [Info via Michael R. Owen, W9IP] * SABLE ISLAND DXPEDITION PLANNED * =================================== Wayne, VE1CBK; Ken VE1RU; Gary, VE1RGB and Don, VE1AOE will be active as CY0TP from Sable Island October 1 - 10, 1995, weather permitting. Sable Island is located at 60 degrees 2 minutes WEST Long., 43 degrees 56 minutes NORTH Lat with a Maidenhead Locator Square of FN93xw. Don, VE1AOE will be the principle Satellite Operator and will be active on AO-10 and AO-13 along with most of the LEO analog satellites (including Mode K on RS-12/13.) Don expects to be very active on the satellites throughout the whole DXpedition period. Further details on this event will be forthcoming. [Info via Donald Roland, VE1AOE] * MORE WINDOWS 95 NEWS * ======================== In last week's issue of "SpaceNews", a report was presented on a new feature of the Windows 95 operating system called "Registration Wizard" that automatically scans a user's hard disk in response to questions asked when connected to the Microsoft Network. This report was presented because of the large number of PCs that are used by those involved in Amateur space activities, and the number of Amateur Radio Operators who spend considerable amounts of time and effort developing software applications on computers they would like to consider "secure". The Electronic Newsletter "WinNews" published by Microsoft debunked many of the rumors that have been circulating in magazine articles and on the Internet regarding "Registration Wizard". The 05-Jun-95 issue called the report in the May 1995 issue of "Information Week" magazine false. The newsletter pointed out that "Registration Wizard" is not a "virual routine" and that although PC configuration and directory structure information is scanned, NO information is sent to Microsoft without the full consent of the PC user. The information gathered is used to "help Microsoft build better products, as well as offer customers better information on their programs and better product support". What benefit this is to a customer who frequently changes the contents on his hard disk and experiences software conflicts long after having his system scanned by "Registation Wizard" remains to be seen. While the facts surrounding "Registration Wizard" may have become distorted through well-intentioned, but mis-informed news reports, it should be pointed out that both the U.S. Department of Defense and the Military are critical of the "Registration Wizard" routine and are taking the matter seriously. The October 1995 issue of "Linux Journal" reports that U.S. Consumer Advocate Ralph Nader has expressed concern over this matter in a letter to U.S. President Bill Clinton. Regardless of what news reports and magazine articles have to say about "Registration Wizard", anyone with a second computer can determine what information is sent to Microsoft when running the on-line registration routine by monitoring the serial data sent to the modem from the serial port of the PC running Windows 95. Although one report from Germany indicated that a disk directory is actually sent, the report failed to indicate whether or not this occurred after the user explicitly chose to have this information sent to Microsoft. * 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