SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-272.01 LAST ZRO TEST DATE HR AMSAT NEWS SERVICE BULLETIN 272.01 FROM AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD, SEPTEMBER 28, 1996 TO ALL RADIO AMATEURS BT BID: $ANS-272.01 The first two tests of the current ZRO activity via AMSAT-OSCAR-13 went very well. Don't miss the last tests scheduled for Sunday October 6th at 0300 UTC. Note that the test takes place on Saturday night - local time here in the U.S. The downlink frequency continues on 145.840 MHz. Signals have been very good and we expect to complete the schedule without problems. Send all reception reports to Andy MacAllister, WA5ZIB, 14714 Knights Way Drive, Houston, TX 77083-5640 [ANS thanks Andy MacAllister WA5ZIB for this information and for his service to the amateur satellite community by conducting the ZRO tests over the years.] /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-272.02 CRITICAL MILESTONE IN THE LIFE OF SEDSAT PASSED HR AMSAT NEWS SERVICE BULLETIN 272.02 FROM AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD, SEPTEMBER 28, 1996 TO ALL RADIO AMATEURS BT BID: $ANS-272.02 Dennis Wingo, KD4ETA, reports that as of Sunday September 22 the SEDSAT satellite has passed a very crucial and important milestone. The students (Rob Hillman, Curt Hartung, Mark Conrad, and Chris Bond) have SCOS loaded on the satellite, have tasks running and have successfully connected over the Mode L transponder. [ANS thanks Dennis Wingo, KD4ETA, of the SEDSAT Project for this information.] /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-272.03 SAREX QSL CARD STATUS HR AMSAT NEWS SERVICE BULLETIN 272.03 FROM AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD, SEPTEMBER 28, 1996 TO ALL RADIO AMATEURS BT BID: $ANS-272.03 Frank H. Bauer, KA3HDO, told ANS that at this point, the STS-78 QSL cards have not yet been distributed. It usually takes about six months to develop the QSL art work, get the QSL approved by the astronauts, print them up, and send them out. [ANS thanks Frank H. Bauer, KA3HDO; AMSAT V.P. for Manned Space Programs for this update.] /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-272.04 STS-79 SAREX MISSION SUMMARY HR AMSAT NEWS SERVICE BULLETIN 272.04 FROM AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD, SEPTEMBER 28, 1996 TO ALL RADIO AMATEURS BT BID: $ANS-272.04 The space shuttle Atlantis has returned to Earth. The three hams aboard the shuttle--Jay Apt, N5QWL, Carl Walz, KC5TIE, and John Blaha, KC5TZQ--spoke with students at two schools in the Midwest and a third in England during their mission, which ended Thursday, September 26. Blaha replaced Shannon Lucid aboard the space station Mir, where he'll spend 120 days. Lucid had been living on Mir for the last six months. The shuttle had docked with the station last week to make the exchange and to drop off food, water, equipment and supplies at Mir. STS-79 carried the Shuttle Amateur Radio EXperiment (SAREX) payload in configuration M (voice-only operations). While still docked with Mir, the Atlantis crew successfully completed three prearranged SAREX contacts. The first was on Friday, September 20, with Immaculate Conception Elementary School in Celina, Ohio. Pupils there made a very successful SAREX contact with astronaut Carl Walz, KC5TIE. Eleven-year-old Steven Eizensmits, KC8ENC, of Mendon, Ohio, initiated the 6 1/2-minute contact, and pupils got answers to nine questions as some 400 of their classmates and media representatives looked on (9 TV and cable stations, 2 radio stations and one newspaper sent reporters). Also among the crowd were the mayor of Celina and a couple of members of the Ohio legislature. After the contact, the pupils got a congratulatory telephone call from retired astronaut and US Sen. John H. Glenn Jr.--the first American to orbit the Earth. Crew members spoke with two schools on Sunday, September 22. Students at the Royal School For Girls in Haslemere, Surrey, England, got answers to four questions during the QSO. Audio quality was reported as "somewhat poor," but students thought the event was "pretty keen." Some 150 people showed up for the occasion, including representatives from the BBC and local television. The last SAREX contact was with Andover Middle School in Andover, Kansas. Students and administrators at the school called the contact a "once-in-a-lifetime" opportunity. Audio quality was adequate, and students asked [two] dozen questions, most of them fielded by Jay Apt, N5QWL. At the school itself, some 200 people and media representatives turned out. After the Kansas contact, the crew members turned their attention to personal contacts. The ARRL has received dozens of reports from amateurs who made successful contact with the crew throughout the mission. We even got reports from hams in [northern] Canada and Finland. After Atlantis and Mir separated, John Blaha, KC5TZQ, was heard working ground stations on the East Coast on 145.55 MHz. "Good strong signal as Mir passed over Knoxville," reported Greg Williams, KE4HSM. QSL cards and reports for STS-79 should be sent to: ARRL EAD, STS-79 QSL, 225 Main St., Newington, CT 06111-1494. Include the following information in your QSL or report: STS-79, date, time in UTC, frequency and mode. Include a stamped, self-addressed business-size envelope if you wish to receive a card (non-US stations should include one IRC). The Bergen Amateur Radio Association in New Jersey has graciously volunteered to manage the mailing for this mission. Space shuttle Columbia will carry the next SAREX payload during mission STS-83 in March 1997. [ANS thanks the ARRL and Pat Kilroy , WD8LAQ, for this summary.] /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-272.05 AMSAT-DC LIST OPENING HR AMSAT NEWS SERVICE BULLETIN 272.05 FROM AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD, SEPTEMBER 28, 1996 TO ALL RADIO AMATEURS BT BID: $ANS-272.05 AMSAT members who live, work or visit in the greater Washington, D.C. area are invited to subscribe to the amsat-dc@amsat.org mail list. The amsat-dc list is designed to maximize participation in projects local to this area and to minimize the "QRM" on the global amsat-bb forum. The next semiannual local AMSAT-DC meeting will beheld on Sunday afternoon, October 20 at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center visitor center auditorium starting at 1 o'clock. In addition to a few brief presentations to be given, plans will be laid for an educational simulated- satellite balloon experiment and efforts to support AMSAT-NA goals in bigger and better ways. This gathering is a "gotta-be-there" for those planning to attend the 1996 AMSAT-NA Annual Meeting and Space Symposium in Tucson, AZ in November. This event is also a "gotta-be-there" for those who can't make it to Tucson this year! The AMSAT-DC meetings are open to all radio amateurs, experimenters, builders, organizers, educators and students. To subscribe to the AMSAT-DC mailing list, send a message with your request to listserv@amsat.org. Be sure to include your call sign (if any), your correct e-mail address, and the proper name of the mailing list you wish to receive (AMSAT-DC). Your request will be processed manually for now, so the format of your request is not important. To unsubscribe from the mailing list, send another message with your request to listserv@amsat.org. AMSAT-DC wishes to thank Paul Williamson KB5MU and the several others in AMSAT-North America who make this e-mail service happen. [ANS thanks the ARRL and Pat Kilroy , WD8LAQ, for this information.] /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-272.06 WEEKLY SATELLITE REPORT PT 1. HR AMSAT NEWS SERVICE BULLETIN 272.06 FROM AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD, SEPTEMBER 28, 1996 TO ALL RADIO AMATEURS BT BID: $ANS-272.06 FO-29 (Fuji OSCAR 29) FORMERLY JAS-2 is reported to be in good condition. Last week, the JARL Command Team tried the digitalker, and it went well. The problem, they commented, 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. The digitalker has reported on and saying "this is JAS-2" in English. 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. Also KC5TZQ, John Blaha, is using his own call on MIR. RS-12: Operating normally. With strong downlink signals reported both on 2 and 10 meters. 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-272.07 WEEKLY SATELLITE REPORT PT 2 HR AMSAT NEWS SERVICE BULLETIN 272.07 FROM AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD, SEPTEMBER 28, 1996 TO ALL RADIO AMATEURS BT BID: $ANS-272.07 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: 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. 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 In addition, a number of reports have been received about the good conditions on AO-13 over the past few days. Many are taking advantage of possibly the final period of good conditions on this old friend. 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