SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-230.01 JAS-2 LAUNCH SUCCEEDS; FIRST SIGNALS HEARD HR AMSAT NEWS SERVICE BULLETIN 230.01 FROM AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD, AUGUST 17, 1996 TO ALL RADIO AMATEURS BT BID: $ANS-230.01 A Japanese H-II rocket carrying the ADEOS satellite, along with the Japanese amateur satellite JAS-2, was successfully launched by NASDA, the Japanese Space Agency, from their Tanegashima Space Center in southern Japan at 10:54 JST (01:54 UTC) on Saturday, August 17, 1996. Several stations in South America and the eastern USA also reported hearing JAS-2's CW telemetry beacon soon after it separated from the launch vehicle over Antarctica during its first orbit. One of those stations was manned by AMSAT-NA's Executive Vice President, Keith Baker, KB1SF. "Being one of the very first to hear signals from a brand new Amateur Radio satellite has to be one of the biggest thrills one can have as a Ham," Keith said. "I know many of us also shared some really tense moments until we finally heard those first CW beacon signals from the new 'baby' coming through loud and clear in our headphones!" he noted. Keith went on to say, "On behalf of Bill Tynan, our AMSAT-NA President, I offer warm congratulations to our good friends at the Japan Amateur Radio League (JARL) for their hard work in providing the amateurs of the world with yet another highly advanced Amateur Radio satellite." Keith also thanked Tak Okamoto, JA2PKI, JAMSAT's President and his team for their very strong support of the JARL in this effort and also for their minute-by-minute reports via AMSAT-BB on the developments leading up to JAS-2's successful launch. The JAS-2 command team has now asked for all stations to continue to copy CW telemetry frames on the new satellite's 435.795 MHz beacon downlink and to forward those reports to: jamsat-bb@iijnet.or.jp They also ask that stations *not* attempt to communicate through any of JAS-2's transponders, even though they may appear to be powered on, until they can do a complete checkout of the new satellite. Stay tuned to ANS for further JAS-2 information. [ANS thanks JA2PKI, JR1NVU, JJ1WTK, JH2PRZ, JE3UYI and KB1SF for the information that went into this bulletin item.] /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-230.02 1996 AMSAT SYMPOSIUM PAPERS DUE HR AMSAT NEWS SERVICE BULLETIN 230.02 FROM AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD, AUGUST 17, 1996 TO ALL RADIO AMATEURS BT BID: $ANS-230.02 This is a reminder that papers for the 1996 AMSAT Symposium Proceedings are due shortly. The original deadline date for submissions was 15 August, but Dave, WD8KRV, extended the deadline one week to 22 August 1996. Please submit your papers as soon as possible. If you have any questions about submission, formats, etc., please contact Dave at wd8krv@amsat.org. If you have already sent your submission, thank you very much. Dave will confirm receipt of your paper as soon as he receives it. [ANS thanks Dave Burnett, WD8KRV, for this update.} /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-230.03 HOUSTON AMSAT NET NEWS HR AMSAT NEWS SERVICE BULLETIN 230.03 FROM AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD, AUGUST 17, 1996 TO ALL RADIO AMATEURS BT BID: $ANS-230.03 If you think that the Houston AMSAT Net is only a North American Net, think again. The Net received a check-in last Thursday (note: the net was on *Tuesday* evening!) on the phone from Mohamed, A71EY in Qatar! Mohamed did not know if it was a live 2-way net or what, but he still called Marty, WD5DZC to check in. In the course of the conversation that followed, net managers could not have been more pleased to also learn that Mohamed is an AMSAT member! If you have a chance, and would like to also listen to the Houston AMSAT Net via the Internet, the URL is http://www.phoenix.net/~paigecom/ for the Real Audio feed. The Houston AMSAT Net meets each Tuesday Evening at 8PM Central on SBS 6, T13B, 6.2 Audio 74 Degrees (Next to Galaxy 6). The net can also be heard on 1.860Mhz AM in the USA at that same time. [ANS thanks Bruce Paige, KK5DO, Houston, Texas AMSAT Area Coordinator for this news about the Houston AMSAT Net.] /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-230.04 SATSKED'S 2 SOFTWARE UPDATED HR AMSAT NEWS SERVICE BULLETIN 230.04 FROM AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD, AUGUST 17, 1996 TO ALL RADIO AMATEURS BT BID: $ANS-230.04 Wayne Roth has changed SatSked's 2 line checksum calculations to handle "+" signs. The new algorithm essentially ignores them. Wayne is now planning to upload the new SATSKED.EXE to KO-23 sometime Saturday (8/17/96) morning USA time. Later, it should also be available via the "amsat.org" Internet server. Watch future ANS bulletins for details. [ANS thanks Wayne Roth , WA2N/5, for this news item.] /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-230.05 Windows 3.1 MSGMAKER UPDATED HR AMSAT NEWS SERVICE BULLETIN 230.05 FROM AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD, AUGUST 17, 1996 TO ALL RADIO AMATEURS BT BID: $ANS-230.05 The updated version of the Windows 3.1 MSGMAKER has now been uploaded to UO-22. It has also been uploaded to the AMSAT ftp site as file MSGMKR12.zip. You can find it at ftp.amsat.org in the /amsat/software/windows/wisp directory. This file is version 1.20 and it was issued to correct a problem that was found associated with all previous Windows 3.1 versions of WiSP in which it could be possible (in some cases) to overwrite memory in the WISP directory. Again, this exists in previous Windows 3.1 versions of MSGMAKER. All users are encouraged to upgrade to this version as soon as possible. Note this information is *just* for the Windows 3.1 version of MSGMAKER, not the Windows 95 version! [ANS thanks Roy Welch, W0SL, for this information.] /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-230.06 TAPR OFFERS MOTOROLA EVM56002 HR AMSAT NEWS SERVICE BULLETIN 230.06 FROM AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD, AUGUST 17, 1996 TO ALL RADIO AMATEURS BT BID: $ANS-230.06 TAPR and Motorola have now agreed on a special group purchase of the Motorola DSP56002 Evaluation Modules (EVM) for a limited time. The DSP56002 EVM is a general purpose DSP board with "on board" peripherals and software for assembling and debugging code. For more information on the DSP56002EVM, those interested are invited to visit the TAPR web page at http://www.tapr.org. [ANS thanks Greg Jones for this news.] /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-230.07 WEEKLY SATELLITE REPORT HR AMSAT NEWS SERVICE BULLETIN 230.07 FROM AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD, AUGUST 17, 1996 TO ALL RADIO AMATEURS BT BID: $ANS-230.07 JAS-2 CW telemetry beacon heard at many locations. MIR: The SAFEX II equipment onboard MIR's PRIRODA module has been powered on. RS-12: Operating normally. RS-10: Operating normally. DO-17:(DOVE) Dean Shutt, AL7CR, monitored a pass of DO-17 in Anchorage, AK (7/22/96, 20:50Z). He reports the S band beacon is operational. KO-23: Operating normally KO-25: Operating normally. AO-27: Operating normally. AO-10: As of 0215 UTC and early in the orbit of AO-10 with a range of only about 8,000 km, the beacon tone on AO-10 could be heard. No activity was heard across the passband.. OSCAR-11: Now transmitting. Telemetry nominal. WOD dated 26 June chans 1,2,3,61 magnetometers. New bulletin (No 71) dated 22nd June has been posted. IO-26: Dean Shutt, AL7CR, is pleased to report that he received the beacon at his QTH in Anchorage during the 00:40Z pass on 7/23/96. The most similar pass for which he have recorded data was at 1740Z on 10/3/94. He recorded a max signal strength of S3 for that pass and the same for the most current pass. AO-13: The eclipse season has ended and AO-13's transponder has been restored to normal operation. The schedule has the addition of an S-beacon interval from MA 210-212 to allow squint angle/attitude determination. This will have virtually no effect on the northern hemisphere users. *** AO-13 TRANSPONDER SCHEDULE *** 1996 Jul 28 - Sep 02 Mode-B : MA 0 to MA 140 | Mode-BS : MA 140 to MA 210 | S-beacon: MA 210 to MA 212 | Mode-BS : MA 212 to MA 240 | Mode-B : MA 240 to MA 256 | Alon/Alat "220/0" Omnis : MA 250 to MA 140 | Move to attitude 180/0, Sep 02-??? The higher powered engineering beacon 145.985 MHz is currently ON for two periods: MA 250-40 and MA 160-170. The command team is currently discussing using the engineering beacon full time. WEBERSAT-OSCAR-18: (WO-18): Has experienced many software crashes recently. Efforts are underway by the command team to identify the cause, and make the appropriate corrections. Controllers all hope that WO-18 will be operational again very soon sending telemetry, photos, weekly whole orbit data (WOD), and light spectra of the Sun or Earth. [Please send your Satellite reports to bjarts@uslink.net or to wt0n@amsat.org] /EX