SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-280.01 MIR Information HR AMSAT NEWS SERVICE BULLETIN 280.01 FROM AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD October 6, 1996 TO ALL RADIO AMATEURS BT BID: $ANS-280.01 The following is provided as a synopsis of MIR information presented over the past few months. SAFEX Experiment SAFEX II, the Space Amateur Funk EXperiment, is an Amateur Radio repeater which has recently been activated aboard the Russian MIR Space Station Complex. The equipment has been powered on since July 12, 1996. The first hardware tests involved the station*s digital speech recorder. Pre-recorded messages from the MIR crew were copied by many groundstations on 437.925 MHz. The messages have even been received with simple 70 cm hand-held radios. The following message was copied of US astronaut Shannon Lucid, who recently returned from her stay aboard MIR: "Thanks for the radio SAFEX. We just turned it on. And best wishes from the crew of MIR 21. Hope this is of use to you. Many thanks for the experiment." Joerg Hahn, DL3LUM, the SAFEX-International Coordinator, reported that the repeater was operational on July 19. A short contact was achieved by Matt Bordelon, KC5BTL, operating as W5RRR (the call sign of the NASA Johnson Space Center ARC) with one of the MIR cosmonauts. The first use of the repeater to establish a ground-to-ground QSO was performed between DF0VR, IV3WLQ, and LY3BH. Dave Larsen, N6JLH, performed the first ground-to-ground QSO in North America with Scott Avery, WA6LIE. SAFEX II is a project of the German Amateur Radio Club (DARC), and managed by the Ham Radio Group, DF0VR, at the German Aerospace Research Establishment (DLR) in Oberpfaffenhofen. The project is supported by DARC, DLR, NPO Energia (Russia*s equivalent of NASA) and Russian radio amateurs. The equipment was built by SAFEX Principal Investigator, Thomas Kieselbach, DL2MDE. Installation on MIR began during the EuroMir 95 mission. That crew included German astronaut Thomas Reiter, DF4TR (European Space Agency) and Russians Sergei Avdeev and Yuri Gidzenko. The three arrived at MIR on September 5, 1995, and remained aboard the space complex for 180 days. Reiter operated as DP0MIR throughout his stay, but SAFEX equipment problems and a power supply failure kept the repeater off the air. The SAFEX team installed new equipment in the Priroda module, which was launched to become part of the MIR Space Station complex on April 23, 1996. The new equipment was powered-on by the MIR-21 crew, which included Shannon Lucid, and cosmonauts Yuri Onufrienko, and Yuri Usachev. The current (MIR-22) crew includes Valery Korzun (Commander), Aleksandr Kaleri (Flight Engineer), and John E. Blaha, KC5TZQ (Mission Specialist). SAFEX II expands the existing 2-meter operations that have taken place from MIR for the past couple of years. SAFEX II is primarily a FM repeater with 70 cm uplinks and downlinks. The 30 kilogram payload is supported by three external antennas. The new capabilities address the busy work schedule of the cosmonauts by permitting Amateur Radio activity from MIR without active crew operation. SAFEX II also addresses the team*s commitment to future technologies. There are plans to improve the station by adding a 23 cm to 13 cm transponder capable of broad-bandwidth modes (such as amateur television). The repeater operates under the call sign RR0DL. CTCSS tones are required to communicate through the SAFEX II experiment. After the repeater has been activated by someone with CTCSS, other stations without CTCSS can also work through the repeater. It is even possible to use the repeater to contact the MIR crew if one of them is at the microphone. In order to involve the largest numbers of amateurs, SAFEX contacts should be kept as short as possible. Operators should adjust their frequency to account for the plus/minus 10 KHz Doppler shift. The following are the SAFEX 70 cm frequencies for the three SAFEX operating Modes. Mode 1: FM repeater with CTCSS sub-tone 141.3 Hz. Downlink 437.950 MHz Uplink 435.750 MHz CTCSS Mode 2: 9600 Baud (G3RUH compatible) Packet Operation. Downlink 437.975 MHz Uplink 435.775 MHz No CTCSS Mode 3: Pre-recorded digital voice beacon, and may be used for contacts with the MIR crew. Downlink 437.925 Uplink 435.725 CTCSS The 2-meter frequencies used for MIR (preferably in split-mode operation) are 145.800 MHz (uplink), 145.200 MHz (downlink), and 145.550 MHz (up/downlink). These frequencies were adopted for MIR and Shuttle activities at the IARU session of the 1995 AMSAT-UK Colloquium. The SAFEX II team is very interested in reception reports, and any technical measurements or oscilloscope plots of the repeater*s signals. Send reports to Joerg, DL3LUM, joerg.hahn@dlr.de on email or DL3LUM@DB0AAB.#BAY.DEU.EU on packet. Special thanks goes to DL3LUM, DL2MDE, DB2OS, DF5DP, N6JLH, WF1F, AMSAT and AMSAT News Service Bulletins, and SpaceNews (published by John Magliacane, KD2BD) for information used to assemble this report. MIR QSL Cards Dave Larsen, N6JLH, is the US MIR QSL manager for contacts made with MIR crew members. QSL cards 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 (PMS), 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). QSLs should be sent to: David G. Larsen, N6JLH PO Box 1501 Pine Grove, CA 95665 USA MIR and Third-Party Rules Russian rules have historically permitted unlicensed MIR crew members to operate using the Russian club call sign R0MIR. Amateurs are reminded that there are, however, some limitations for hams in the US. The US does not currently have a third party traffic agreement with Russia. The lack of this agreement means that Amateur Radio stations in the US may talk to Russian licensees aboard MIR, but they may not involve unlicensed third parties in these communications. This agreement does not affect MIR crew members, but it does affect US Amateur Radio stations. ARRL gives special thanks to DL3LUM, DL2MDE, DB2OS, DF5DP, N6JLH, WF1F, AMSAT and AMSAT News Service Bulletins, and SpaceNews (published by John Magliacane, KD2BD) for information used to assemble this report. ANS thanks Bob Inderbitzen, NQ1R Assistant to the Manager Educational Activities Department at ARRL for compiling and providing this information. /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-280.02 R0MIR-1's Personal Message System HR AMSAT NEWS SERVICE BULLETIN 280.02 FROM AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD October 6, 1996 TO ALL RADIO AMATEURS BT BID: $ANS-280.02 The following is provided for those interested in MIR's BBS commands. Timing is important. If one monitors the 145.550 MHz and sees a disconnect message from R0MIR-1, then it is time to call. There are many stations calling, so the fastest, and just on time, gets the contact. It is noted that many stations seems to be calling all the time even R0MIR-1 is already contacted to one station. This makes a lot of QRM and busy-messages and wastes time. Markku Korhonen, OH8UV, says that the best opportunity to make a contact is to be QRV on that time when everybody is sleeping. He reports making a 6 minute QSO a few nights ago. It helped that there were no other stations QRV at the time as MIR was flying over Russia and not visible from western Europe. He logged on and back came the answer: Logged on to R0MIR=B4s Personal Message System CMD(B/H/J/K/KM/L/M/R/S/SR/V/?)> These commands mean: B(ye) B (Enter) disconnects you from PMS. H(elp) H (Enter) or ? (Enter) displays this help file J(log) J (Enter) displays a list of callsigns heard (optional date/time) K(ill) K n (Enter) deletes message number n (only to/from your callsign). KM(ine) KM (Enter) deletes all READ messages addressed to your callsign. L(ist) L (Enter) lists the 10 latest messages. M(ine) M (Enter) lists the 10 latest messages to/from your callsign. R(ead) R n (Enter) reads message number n. S(end) S (callsign) (Enter) begins a message addressed to (callsign). Subject: ending with (Enter) Text: End each line with (Enter). End message by typing /ex (Enter) or CTRL-Z (Enter) at the beginning of a new line. SR(eply) SR n (Enter) Sends a reply to message n prompting only for text. V(ersion) V (Enter) displays the software version of the PMS system. F.ex. Command j gives a list like this: 09/27/96 23:41 EB1HLI 09/27/96 23:33 EA1EFD-8 09/27/96 23:33 F1PAO 09/27/96 23:32 etc Markku believes that this should be enough for a QSL. he further notes that if you have a message ready on your disc it's better to send it first and then get a message number. You should put it on your QSL. Markku says that during the week he has been lucky enough to get QSOs with R0MIR-1 almost every night as well as FM voice contacts with Valery R0MIR on three nights. His rig is n FT225RD with a 130 Watt amplifier and a 2 x 14 el. Cue Dee antenna. He notes that no elevation control is needed as his location is so far north that MIR never gets to an elevation of more than 9 degrees. The grid is KP34VJ. ANS thanks Markku Korhonen, OH8UV, of PALTAMO, Finland for this instructive information. He can be reached at: oh8uv@paltamo. /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-280.03 STA-79 Photos Available HR AMSAT NEWS SERVICE BULLETIN 280.03 FROM AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD October 6, 1996 TO ALL RADIO AMATEURS BT BID: $ANS-280.03 The Johnson Space Center has released the 'quick-pick' photos for the STS-79 mission, and made them available electronically in record time. Those interested in downloading these photos may use the following web site: http://shuttle.nasa.gov/sts-79/images/postflight/ There are plenty of Shannon Lucid (of course), and at least one of Jay Apt using SAREX in the Configuration-M mode, the first photo of any astronaut using the MIR radio for SAREX. ANS thanks Philip Chien KC4YER for this information. /EX