SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-265.01 AMSAT-NA BOARD OF DIRECTORS RESULTS ANNOUNCED HR AMSAT NEWS SERVICE BULLETIN 265.01 FROM AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD, SEPTEMBER 21, 1996 TO ALL RADIO AMATEURS BT BID: $ANS-265.01 Martha Saragovitz AMSAT-NA Corporate Secretary has announced the results of the election for the three vacancies occurring this year on the AMSAT-NA Board of Directors. The incumbents whose terms are up this year are Keith Baker KB1SF, Tom Clark W3IWI, and Andy MacAllister WA5ZIB. Joe Holman KA7LDN has been serving as the Alternate. Nominated this year were: Keith Baker KB1SF, Tom Clark W3IWI, Robert Diersing N5AHD, Joe Holman KA7LDN and Andy MacAllister WA5ZIB. Martha has provided ANS with the results from the ballots which were returned to AMSAT Headquarters by the September 16th deadline: A total of 1645 ballots were cast with the following breakdown: Tom Clark W3IWI 1303 Keith Baker KB1SF 1167 Andy MacAllister WA5ZIB 997 Joe Holman KA7LDN 665 Robert Diersing N5AHD 561 Thus Tom Clark, Keith Baker and Andy MacAllister are returned to the Board. Joe Holman continues as the Alternate. [ANS thanks Martha Saragovitz for this information.] /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-265.02 OSCAR-11 REPORT HR AMSAT NEWS SERVICE BULLETIN 265.02 FROM AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD, SEPTEMBER 21, 1996 TO ALL RADIO AMATEURS BT BID: $ANS-265.02 During the last month OSCAR-11 has continued to provide good signals on 145.826 MHz. Starting September 1st. ground control have arranged for the watch-dog timer to be reset automatically, every ten minutes. This appears to have cured the shut-down problem, which has been a feature of recent OSCAR-11 activity. The internal temperatures have continued to rise and are now within about three degrees of the maximum values recorded in January. The increase in 145 MHz. beacon temperature, has reduced its power output, to a level in the uncalibrated range of the power meter. A noticeable reduction in signal strength has been observed. The status telemetry shows that battery charge regulator (BCR) A, is in use. When the watchdog timer was being reset manually, BCR B was usually selected, although BCR A was sometimes active, after the watchdog had been reset. WOD channels 37, 38, 57, 58 (equipment temperatures) dated 9-August continued until September 1st, when they were replaced by channels 0, 10, 20, 30, solar array currents. A further set of solar array data dated 17th September has just started. Analysis of the WOD of September 1st, shows the satellite in continuous sunlight, but there is a once per orbit dip in total current. This is probably due to partial eclipses of the sun. The next WOD should be of interest. AMSAT bulletins by Richard G3RWL have been uploaded each week. Topics have included SAFEX/MIR, AMSAT SA, FO29. The current bulletin is No 082, about UNAMSAT. The operating schedule is unchanged. [ANS thanks Clive G3CWV for this information. He can be reached at g3cwv@amsat.org] /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-265.03 MIR REPEATER TIPS HR AMSAT NEWS SERVICE BULLETIN 265.03 FROM AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD, SEPTEMBER 21, 1996 TO ALL RADIO AMATEURS BT BID: $ANS-265.03 Rafael Garcia, EA4RJ , tells the ANS about the station he uses to contact the UHF repeater on the MIR space station. The power level used is what the FT-736R puts "from factory": 30 watts. If you subtract 14m of RG-213, a pair of triplexers (one in the shack, and the other out near of the antenna), and adds the gain of a 8x8 element RHCP yagi, you will obtain the total EIRP. He says his antennas are fixed RHCP. The antenna is a Cushcraft, model 416TB or something (from AOP-1 package). The gain estimated is about 13 dB. INFO ON THE MIR UHF REPEATER: EA4RJ states his belief that this is the first ever UHF, FM in-band repeater in space. It is analog, and appears different from the digital one on board AO-27. He says that it is not difficult to know if you are entering in. The repeater has a long tail, about a second.. From EA4RJ's own observations, he cannot access the repeater when the space complex approaches him, perhaps due to the wrong antenna polarization of his antenna As noted previously, he can't switch it. When MIR reaches RHCP, relative to his position and until the end of the pass, the signals are quite good, 9+ all the time (with a 15dB mast preamp). There is an ID from time to time which a speech announcing: "RR0DL repeater" Rafael denotes that one must consider the high doppler at UHF (around 20 KHz). One must compensate both at uplink and downlink.. The frequencies are the same that was published: 437.950MHz for receiving, -2.2 MHz offset, and CTCSS 141.3 Hz. [ANS thanks Rafael Garcia, EA4RJ , for this information.] /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-265.04 MIR QSL INFORMATION HR AMSAT NEWS SERVICE BULLETIN 265.04 FROM AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD, SEPTEMBER 21, 1996 TO ALL RADIO AMATEURS BT BID: $ANS-265.04 Dave Larsen, N6JLH, is now the new QSL manager for the USA for all Mir QSL cards for the callsign R0MIR and R0MIR-1. All older callsigns have to go to Russia. Dave has been granted the privilege of acting as QSL manager from Sergji, RV3DR. QSLs must include date, time, and mode of contact. Cards for SWL reports will not be handled by Dave. If a contact is made with the Mir packet radio personal message system, then the message number issued by the PMS should be included on the QSL card. QSLs must be sent along with a business-sized self-addressed stamped envelope (the card will not fit in a regular-sized envelope). A "green stamp" to cover postage would also be appreciated. QSLs should be sent to: N6JLH P.O.B. 1501 Pine Grove, California 95665 U.S.A. (ARRL note: QSLs for previous Mir contacts may be sent to: RV3DR Chief Of Cosmonaut Amateur Radio Department NPO Energia PO 141070 Box 73 Kaliningrad, 10 City Moscow Area Russia) [ANS thanks G. Miles Mann, WF1F, for this news item.] /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-265.05 VISUAL SIGHTING OF THE MIR/SHUTTLE HR AMSAT NEWS SERVICE BULLETIN 265.05 FROM AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD, SEPTEMBER 21, 1996 TO ALL RADIO AMATEURS BT BID: $ANS-265.05 Keith Baker, KB1SF , had an excellent visual sighting of the MIR/Shuttle beginning at about 0955Z this morning (20 Sep) from near Dayton, Ohio, USA. The MIR/Shuttle appeared to be a bright star (Baker estimated a magnitude 1 or 0) moving from Southwest to Northeast. It appeared brightest at about 20 degrees above his western horizon. It was easily visible over the city lights of Dayton, which is located also just to Baker's west. Keith was using N4HY's "Quiktrak" satellite tracking program in the "Track" mode to predict visual passes for the MIR/Shuttle. The visual predictions it gave him were "right on". At about the same time, Keith believed he also heard MIR's packet transponder working on 145.55 MHz, but as he didn't have the computer hooked up to his packet radio, Baker could not confirm that the "packet racket" was, indeed, coming from MIR. [ANS thanks Keith Baker, KB1SF, Exec VP AMSAT-NA for his report.] /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-265.06 WEEKLY SATELLITE REPORT PT 1. HR AMSAT NEWS SERVICE BULLETIN 265.06 FROM AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD, SEPTEMBER 21, 1996 TO ALL RADIO AMATEURS BT BID: $ANS-265.06 SAREX(STS-79) Lots of activity reported over North America as the shuttle passes over the region. Many report strong signals and QSO's. Downlink. 145.840 Uplink; 144.450 Mode: FM voice. FO-29 (Fuji OSCAR 29) FORMERLY JAS-2 FO-29 A number of QSO's on 9/6/96 04:15 UTC. Signal strength was S7 to S9. This is a fine new addition to the OSCAR's. The AMSAT keplerian elements were incorrect on that date.. [ANS thanks Jim Weisenberger, AA7KC, for this report.] It has been reported that FO-29 now in good condition. Last week tried digitalker was for a period, and it went well. The problem is to keep a charming voice for announcements. The 9600 bps packet system is now going to be activated, and some experiments consisting of sending programs are to be attempted. MIR: Several reports have been coming in reporting the reception of MIR on 145.55 voice and packet. Reports show strong signals and much activity over Europe and North America. Other MIR reports indicate that the repeater on 437.950 is back up and going strong. [ANS thanks John W5HUQ for this information.] R0MIR and R0MIR-1(packet bbs) are the calls being used by MIR. RS-12: Operating normally. AA9RN and WT0N worked each other and both gave reports of strong signals in the 5/8 to 5/9 range. RS-10: Operating normally. Very busy and lots of QSO's heard over north America. RS-15 Operating normally. Down link signals are never very strong and there is much deep QSB. Some activity heard on the bird over the past week. DO-17 (DOVE): The S band beacon is operational. KO-23: Operating normally KO-25: Operating normally. [ANS thanks Jim Weisenberger, AA7KC, for the reports on KO-23 and 25.} AO-27: Operating normally. AO-10: Operating normally. There's been some confusion, because AO-10 and 13 have been overlapping over the U.S. in the evenings the last couple of days. /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-265.07 WEEKLY SATELLITE REPORT PT 2 HR AMSAT NEWS SERVICE BULLETIN 265.07 FROM AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD, SEPTEMBER 21, 1996 TO ALL RADIO AMATEURS BT BID: $ANS-265.07 FO-20 FO-20 is also working, and it came just after FO-29s pass on the night of FO-29's launch day, as though it watched the new born brother OSCAR-11: See ANS bulletin number 265.02 for more details. - ASCII status (210 seconds) ASCII bulletin (60 seconds) BINARY SEU (30 seconds) ASCII TLM (90 seconds) ASCII WOD (120 seconds) ASCII bulletin (60 seconds) BINARY ENG (30 seconds) There are also additional status blocks after each bulletin is transmitted. It is possible that the long period of ASCII status blocks may be replaced by binary TLM and WOD. [ANS thanks Clive Wallis, G3CWV, for this update on OSCAR-11.] IO-26 ( ITAMSAT): ITAMSAT, now, is in good shape. Telemetry is every 60 seconds and the digipeater is OFF. The actual beacon is: AO-13: James Miller G3RUH reports that the AO-13 re-entry keps file on the AMSAT ftp site has been updated. The file is: ftp://ftp.amsat.org/amsat/satinfo/ao13/decaykep.zip He says that anyone who downloaded this any time prior to this message, should download the new version to replace the current copy. James expresses thanks to Hardy, DC8TS who spotted a date error, and apologizes for the mistake WO-18 (WEBERSAT-OSCAR-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