SB NEWS @ AMSAT $SPC1023 * SpaceNews 23-Oct-00 * BID: $SPC1023 ========= SpaceNews ========= MONDAY OCTOBER 23, 2000 * SATELLITE DEMO PLANNED * ========================== On Monday, Oct 23rd, John Santillo, N2HMM, will be demonstrating satellite communications to the 5th and 6th grade students of Lounsberry Hollow Middle School. The school is located in Sussex County New Jersey, grid square FN21rf. Plans call for operating on: AO-27 ~9:01AM AOS EDT UO-14 ~10:23AM AOS EDT * AO-27 ~10:39AM AOS EDT * FO-20 ~11:48AM AOS EDT UO-14 ~12:02PM AOS EDT * The AOS times above are for the schools QTH. Passes with the " * " are favorable passes for the school. The other passes are questionable due to hills just to the east. John did a satellite demonstration like this last year and it was a tremendous success. A few hundred students and almost the entire school staff witnessed the demo. Stations from Maine to Florida and as far West as Utah were successfully contacted. Questions should be dircted to John via e-mail at: n2hmm@warwick.net [Info via John Santillo, N2HMM] * AMSAT WEB SEARCH FACILITY * ============================= Have you ever wanted to find something you *know* is on the website but just couldn't hit it? Frustrating. Well, fret no more. AMSAT-UK has announced an AMSAT website search facility which will help you find that elusive, but vital, piece of info on (currently) either the AMSAT-UK or the AMSAT-NA websites. Our search software (HT/Dig) isn't perfect yet (e.g. it can't find exact phrases because it uses "fuzzy" logic) but we hope it will be a useful tool for all of the web-based satellite users. More information about the searcher can be found in the help files. The searcher can be found at http://www.uk.amsat.org/search/. [Info via Richard W L Limebear, G3RWL (g3rwl@amsat.org)] * OSCAR-11 REPORT * =================== During the period 16 September to 17 October 2000, excellent signals have been received from OSCAR-11's 145.826 MHz NBFM beacon. The satellite is currently experiencing favourable solar conditions and this should continue until the end of the year. Ground control operations on 05-October reset the magnetorquer counters, and the spin period has now started to slowly return to it's nominal value, after drifting to -227 seconds. The battery voltage observed during daylight passes has continued to increase. The average value observed was 14.0, with a range of 13.9 to 14.1 volts. The internal temperatures have increased by a further 2.7C during the month. They are now 5.8C and 4.2C for battery and telemetry electronics respectively. This rise in temperature is expected to continue as the solar eclipse times become shorter. The single WOD survey of channels 10, 20, 30, 40 (+Y, -X, +X solar array currents, array voltage), dated 06-January has now been replaced by a new survey of channels 1, 2, 3, 61 (X, Z, Y magnetometers & status) dated 06-October-2000. The Mode-S beacon has recently been heard by Victor OE1VKW. Signals were heard at three degrees of elevation, and at higher elevations were up to 10 dB above the noise. Victor uses a 1.2m dish with RHCP helix. Receiver is an ICOM IC-970D with UX-98 module for 2.4 - 2.45 GHz and a DX2320/1 broad band pre-amp. Victor is concerned about the temperature stability of mast-head down converters, and is experimenting with all the equipment located inside his shack. OSCAR-11's operating schedule is unchanged: 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) The ASCII bulletin is currently a static message, detailing modes and frequencies of all the amateur radio satellites. There are additional status blocks after each bulletin is transmitted, and between ASCII TLM and WOD. The Mode-S beacon is ON, transmitting an unmodulated carrier, but telemetry indicates that it has partially failed, and delivering half power. This beacon is a useful test source for those testing Mode-S converters, prior to the launch of P3-D. However, the signals are very weak, and there is a lot of Doppler shift. Users should also note that the polarization of OSCAR-11 is LHC. Even if you can't hear OSCAR-11, your equipment may still be OK for P3-D. Any reports of reception of OSCAR-11 on 2401 MHz would be most welcome, and should be directed to Clive Wallis via e-mail at: g3cwv@amsat.org. OSCAR-11's 435.025 MHz UHF beacon is normally OFF. However, it can sometimes be heard when the satellite is being commanded by ground control, ie. within range of Guildford, UK. When the UHF beacon is transmitting, the VHF beacon is normally OFF. The data transmitted is mainly binary. Listeners to OSCAR-11 may be interested in visiting a web site dedicated to this satellite. The site contains details of hardware required and some software for capturing data, and decoding ASCII telemetry and WOD. There is an archive of raw data (mainly WOD) for analysis, which is continually being expanded, as new data is captured. Also included are some audio files, examples of each type of data transmitted by OSCAR-11, each one plays for about ten seconds. There are also examples of Mode-S reception. All the audio files are zipped, so that they can be played off-line. These should help listeners identify the various types of data, and give an indication of the signal quality required for successful decoding. The URL is: http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/clivew/ [Info via Clive Wallis, G3CWV (g3cwv@amsat.org)] * FEEDBACK/INPUT WELCOMED * =========================== Comments and input for SpaceNews should be directed to the editor (John, KD2BD) via any of the paths listed below: WWW: http://www.njin.net/~magliaco/ MAIL: John A. Magliacane, KD2BD Department of Engineering and Technology Brookdale Community College 765 Newman Springs Road Lincroft, New Jersey 07738 U.S.A. PACKET: KD2BD @ WB2COP.NJ.USA.NA INTERNET: kd2bd@amsat.org, magliaco@email.njin.net SATELLITE: KITSAT-OSCAR-25 <<=- SpaceNews: The first amateur newsletter read in space! -=>> <<=- Serving the planet (and beyond) since 1987 -=>> /EX