SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-077.01 AMSAT PRESIDENT NAMED "HAM OF THE YEAR" BY DAYTON AMATEUR RADIO ASSOCIATION HR AMSAT NEWS SERVICE BULLETIN 077.01 FROM AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD March 17, 1996 TO ALL RADIO AMATEURS BT BID: $ANS-077.01 William A. (Bill) Tynan, W3XO, has been named HamVention 1996 Amateur of the Year by the Dayton Amateur Radio Association. Bill has championed the cause of VHF/UHF enthusiasts, worldwide. He had been contributing editor for QST Magazine's "World above 50 MHz" column for eighteen years, providing a medium to nurture new communication techniques, encourage DX performance and improve contesting rules on the VHF/UHF bands. He pioneered the establishment of the Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation (AMSAT). From the founding days of the first OSCAR-6 launch to his present post as President of AMSAT-NA, Bill has sacrificed much of his personal time, talent and resources to the promotion and development of the amateur satellite program. His vision continues with the advent of the Phase 3-D project, scheduled for launch in December, ushering in an entirely new dimension of amateur radio operation. /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-077.02 TAPR/ARRL DIGITAL CONFERENCE SET FOR SEPTEMBER IN SEATTLE HR AMSAT NEWS SERVICE BULLETIN 077.02 FROM AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD March 10, 1996 TO ALL RADIO AMATEURS BT BID: $ANS-077.02 1996 ARRL/TAPR Digital Communications Conference will be held September 20 through 22 in Seattle, Washington. This is considered the premiere annual event in amateur radio digital communications. This year's Conference is being supported by The Puget Sound Amateur Radio TCP/IP Group and Boeing Employees Amateur Radio Society (BEARS). The ARRL and TAPR Digital Communications Conference is an international forum for radio amateurs and experts in digital communications, networking, and related technologies to meet, publish their work, and present new ideas and techniques for discussion. Presenters and attendees will have the opportunity to exchange ideas and learn about recent hardware and software advances, theories, experimental results, and practical applications. This year marks the first year in which the ARRL Digital Communications Conference and TAPR Annual General Meeting have joined into one conference! Anyone interested in digital communications is invited to submit a paper for publication in the Conference Proceedings. Presentation at the Conference is not required for publication. Papers are due by July 23, 1996, and should be submitted to Maty Weinberg, ARRL, 225 Main St. Newington, CT 06111 U.S.A. or via Internet at lweinberg@arrl.org. Please contact Maty for detailed format requirements. ARRL and TAPR especially welcome papers from full time students to compete for the first annual student papers award. Two $500 travel awards will be given, one in each of the following categories: a) best technical/theory-oriented paper by a student, and b) best educational or community-oriented application paper by a student. The paper should relate directly to a wireless digital communication topic (see guidelines for more information). Papers co-authored by educators or telecommunications professionals are also eligible for this award, as long as a student is the first author. First year awards have been funded through a grant by The ARRL Foundation, Inc. Deadline for receipt of finished student paper manuscript is June 11, 1996. Note that this deadline is different than the general conference submission date. For full details and paper guidelines, contact TAPR or check http://www.tapr.org. The current lineup includes student papers plus workshops on subjects such as: APRS packet-location software, Utilization of Part 15 Radios for Ham Applications and Wireless Networking using WA4DSY 56K RF modem technology and its accessories. The advanced registration form available at http://www.tapr.org has more details. For additional information on the Conference, registration, and hotel reservations, contact TAPR at: TAPR Office: 8987-309 E. Tanque Verde Rd. #337 Tucson, AZ 85749-9399 Phone: (817) 383-0000 Fax: (817) 566-2544 Internet E-Mail: tapr@tapr.org Internet Web: http://www.tapr.org ANS thanks TAPR for this information. /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-077-03 SHUTTLE LINUX USE HR AMSAT NEWS SERVICE BULLETIN 077.03 FROM AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD March 17, 1996 TO ALL RADIO AMATEURS BT BID: $ANS-077.03 Discussions heard between Space Shuttle "Columbia" and mission control on NASA TV during STS-75 indicate that computers running under the Linux operating system. Linux is powerful 32-bit multi-user, multi-tasking operating system similar to Unix in many ways except cost and licensing. Linux can run on most 386, 486, and Pentium-based personal computers in addition to Amiga and Atari computers. It is currently being ported to the ARM, MIPS, PowerPC, and PowerMac computers, and a 64-bit version is available for the DEC Alpha. Linux was designed a few short years ago by Linus Torvalds, a graduate student at the University of Helsinki in Finland who took his first courses in `C' and Unix in the Fall of 1990. By October 1991, Linux version 0.02 was announced and this attracted the attention of thousands of programmers and software developers on the Internet. International collaboration in the development of Linux has resulted in a very powerful operating system whose capabilities are growing faster than those of commercial operating systems. Part of the enthusiasm behind Linux development is rooted in the fact that like Unix, the Linux operating system is hardware independent. As a result, it is possible to author software for Linux that will operate equally well under many hardware platforms, whether they be a powerful mainframe or a small laptop. Its growth and development are reminiscent of the telecommunication innovations brought to the world through the efforts of Amateur Radio Operators over the years. Linux also supports a wide variety of networking protocols, including AX.25 used on Amateur Packet Radio, at the kernel level, a feature not many other operating systems can claim. There already exists quite an extensive list of Amateur Radio and Amateur Satellite related software applications for the Linux operating system. That list will grow later this week with the release of the following programs written by KD2BD: predict: A multi-user satellite orbital prediction program that also provides optical visibility information dove : A simple DOVE-OSCAR-17 telemetry decoding program uo11 : A simple UoSAT-OSCAR-11 ASCII telemetry decoding program kepgen : A program that allows the creation of Keplerian data files in the NASA 2-line format from data entered through the keyboard These programs are free for the asking and must be used for non-commercial purposes only. They were written in `C' and compiled using the highest level of optimization possible from GCC compiler version 2.5.8. The resulting executable files are in an a.out binary format. These programs will be made available via anonymous FTP at pilot.njin.net in the /pub/SpaceNews/linux subdirectory or uploaded to the AMSAT-OSCAR-16 or LUSAT-OSCAR-19 satellites by request. All programs include on-line manual pages with the exception of "predict" which contains a built-in help option. Further information on the Linux operating system may be obtained through the World Wide Web at: http://sunsite.unc.edu/mdw/linux.html and many other sites around the world. A link to a HAM-HOWTO page describing other free Amateur Radio software available for Linux may also be accessed through this site. Incidentally, the Linux operating system has been used exclusively for the creation and circulation of SpaceNews since the release of "Windows 95" in August of 1995. Perhaps SpaceNews can also be referred to as the first Amateur newsletter edited and circulated entirely under Linux. ANS thanks John Magliacane KD2BD of SpaceNews for this information. /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-077.04 MIR EVA AND SHUTTLE NEWS AMSAT NEWS SERVICE BULLETIN 077.04 FROM AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD March 17, 1996 TO ALL RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-077.04 1st Spacewalk (EVA) for the MIR 21 Crew: MIR Cosmonauts Onufriyenko and Usachov performed a 5 hour, 51 minute EVA on March 15, 1996. The hatch of the Module-D airlock was opened at 0104 UTC and closed at 0655 UTC. During the EVA, the cosmonauts accomplished all tasks including: a. Installing a second Strela crane on the Basis Block. Since this EVA, the new Strela has been tested and found operational. b. Connecting cables and electrocontacts to the outer surface of Kvant-1 (Module-E) for the near future installation of a solar battery on that module. A second EVA by the MIR 21 Crew is not scheduled before May 1996. STS-76, Atlantis: The launch of Atlantis is still planned for March 21, 1996 at 0835 UTC; docking with MIR 43 after launch. Atlantis will remain docked at MIR for 5 days; landing on KSC scheduled for March 30, 1996 at 1305 UTC. During the period in which Atlantis and MIR docked, 1 or 2 EVA's will be made by American astronauts. (NASA speaks about 1 EVA; the Russians about 1 or 2). ANS thanks Chris van den Berg, NL-9165/A-UK3202 for this valuable information. /EX