SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-132.01 PLANS SET FOR AMSAT AT DAYTON HAMVENTION '96 HR AMSAT NEWS SERVICE BULLETIN 132.01 FROM AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD, MAY 11, 1996 TO ALL RADIO AMATEURS BT BID: $ANS-132.01 A new date marks the Dayton Hamvention this year, and once again, AMSAT will be there in force. The event is now less than a week away, set for May 17-19, 1996 at Hara Arena in Dayton, Ohio, USA. One of the highlights for AMSAT at Dayton this year is that AMSAT-NA President, Bill Tynan, W3XO, is being honored by the Dayton Amateur Radio Association (DARA) as the Hamvention "Ham of the Year". Bill and his loving wife Mattie, are now set to be honored both at a series of receptions and meetings arranged by DARA during this year's activities, as well as during Bill's actual award presentation at the grand banquet on the Saturday evening of Hamvention. Speaking of Bill's award, AMSAT-NA Executive Vice President Keith Baker, KB1SF, recently noted that, "The Dayton Hamvention "Ham of the Year" award is undoubtedly one of the most prestigious awards one can receive as a Ham. It is with great pride that I join with other AMSAT members in offering our sincere congratulations to Bill for an award that is both richly deserved and long, long overdue." The AMSAT booth will once again be in its regular place in the inside exhibit area in booth numbers 445-448. AMSAT booth activity this year will be under the expert guidance of Barry Baines, WD4ASW, AMSAT-NA's VP for Field Operations. AMSAT forums are now slated for Friday, May 17th at 1-3 PM in Room 1, and will feature both a SAREX forum and a satellite beginner's forum. On Saturday at 1 PM in Room 5, the very latest on the Phase 3-D satellite will be outlined in a panel discussion of key members of the Phase 3-D development team, followed by a discussion on how to get ready to exploit the planned microwave capabilities of the Phase 3-D satellite. As in the past, a Friday evening AMSAT dinner is being planned. This year it will be at the Amber Rose Restaurant in East Dayton. Dayton area AMSAT members Ed Collins, N8NUY and Gerd Schrick, WB8IFM, have been working very hard behind the scenes to help insure the evening will be a memorable one. The event is set to kick off on Friday evening, May 17th with a social hour beginning at 6:30 PM. A buffet-style dinner will follow at 7:30 PM. All in all, Hamvention '96 is shaping up to be another banner year for both AMSAT and Amateur Radio with lots of formal and informal AMSAT activities planned during the event. [ANS thanks Keith Baker, KB1SF, for the information contained in this bulletin item.] /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-132.02 NASA SETS MAY 19 AS LAUNCH DATE FOR MISSION STS-77 HR AMSAT NEWS SERVICE BULLETIN 132.02 FROM AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD, MAY 11, 1996 TO ALL RADIO AMATEURS BT BID: $ANS-132.02 [ANS EDITOR'S NOTE: This is a non SAREX mission.] At the conclusion of a flight readiness review meeting today, NASA managers set May 19, 1996 as the official launch date for the agency's next Space Shuttle mission, designated STS-77. The original target date of May 16 was not available on the Eastern Range schedule. NASA's fourth Shuttle mission of 1996 will involve Shuttle Endeavour and a six-person crew performing microgravity research aboard the commercially owned and operated SPACEHAB Module. The crew also will deploy and retrieve a research satellite and perform rendezvous operations with a test satellite. Launch of Endeavour on May 19 is scheduled for 6:30 a.m EDT at the opening of a 2 1/2 hour available launch window. The STS-77 mission is forecast to last just over 10 days. Mission Control in Houston will be closely monitoring power consumption and cryogenic fuel reserves associated with the Shuttle's power system during the flight. Mission managers will have an option of shortening the mission one day if necessary. An on-time launch and nominal mission duration would result in a landing on May 29 a little after 7 a.m. EDT at Kennedy Space Center's Shuttle Landing Facility. The STS-77 crew is commanded by John Casper, making his fourth Shuttle flight. The pilot for the mission, Curt Brown is making his third flight. There are four mission specialists assigned to the flight. Andrew Thomas, serving as Mission Specialist-1, is making his first flight. Mission Specialist-2 is Dan Bursch who is making his third flight. Mario Runco, serving as Mission Specialist-3 also is making his third flight. Mission Specialist-4 is Canadian astronaut Marc Garneau, who is flying in space for the second time. STS-77 will be the 11th flight of Endeavour and the 77th mission flown since the start of the Space Shuttle program in 1981. [ANS thanks Ed Campion of the NASA HQ Public Affairs Office for this bulletin.] /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-132.03 SATELLITE STATUS HR AMSAT NEWS SERVICE BULLETIN 132.03 FROM AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD, MAY 11, 1996 TO ALL RADIO AMATEURS BT BID: $ANS-132.03 RS-12: Operating normally RS-10 : Operating normally FG5GI has been on RS10 and RS12 towards the end of pass. AO-27: Operating normally [ANS thanks Rusty Hack, NM1K, Amsat Area Coordinator for Connecticut for this information about RS-10 ,12 and AO-27] AO-10: Reportedly, AO-10 shut down almost immediately after the solar panels were no longer providing charge. The shutdown occurred at 14:37 UTC on May 9th, which is just a couple of minutes after the tracking program showed there was no longer an intersection of the satellite's footprint and the terminator. [ANS thanks Chris Hill, VK6KCH, for this news on AO-10.] AO:13: A partial eclipse of the Sun by the Moon will deprive Oscar-13 of solar power on 1996 May 17 [Fri] from 0030 to 0225 utc, Orbit 6068, MA 151-195. Maximum obscuration is 73% at 0135 utc, MA 175. This event will be visible (in the telemetry) from South Africa, India, S.E. Asia, and Australia as a substantial drop in solar panel temperatures, and reduced power production. The transponders will be OFF during the eclipse period. Details are also illustrated by a GIF drawing in the Internet file: ftp://ftp.amsat.org/amsat/satinfo/ao13/moonecl.zip (15k) Otherwise, AO-13 is operating normally. South Pacific stations have been active recently on AO-13 and some on AO-10. Tada, C21/JA1WPX, is QRV on Nauru and Aki, TE9RLI, is on Cocos. Both have had 55+ signals. Yves, FO3PJ, has also been on from Raiatea. He's a high school teacher there, not a DXpedition. He doesn't have an amplifier so listen carefully for him. These stations are often heard calling CQ with no one coming back to them. It's a lot of work to put a satellite station on from remote locations, and many times the operators must get up in the middle of the night so we can work them. KC6DIJ urges, "Let's show them that we appreciate it." [ANS thanks James Miller G3RUH for the AO-13 eclipse information and JC Smith, KC6EIJ, for the AO-10 and AO-13 operating news.] WO-18: Experienced a software crash at 05:50:11 UTC on 17-Apr-96. Initial operating software has been reloaded by groundstation controllers, and the satellite is currently transmitting telemetry, OBC status, and beacon frames on a downlink of 437.102 MHz using right-hand circular polarization. The digipeater is temporarily off the air. [ANS thanks John A. Magliacane, KD2BD, and SpaceNews for this bulletin on Webersat.] LO-19: Continues to provide excellent service to users all over the world. LO-19 is operated by AMSAT-LU and operates with a transmitter output power level of between 0.8 and 1.4 watts with a data rate of 1200 bps. [ANS thanks Miguel A. Menendez, EA1BCU, John A. Magliacane, KD2BD, and SpaceNews for this bulletin on LO-19.] Please send your Satellite reports to bjarts@uslink.net or to wt0n@amsat.org /EX