SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-292.01 Satellite contacts in ARRL's LoTW AMSAT News Service Bulletin 292.01 From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. October 19, 2003 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-292.01 The ARRL has recently updated the QSO matching requirements for the Logbook of the World (LoTW). To match, the two QSO records (yours and the other station's) must have: * Call of each QSO matches own call of the other (including portable identifiers) * The modes are in the same mode group (e.g., SSB and PHONE match because both are PHONE) * The date/time values are the same within 30 minutes (all times are UTC) In addition, if the QSO is a satellite QSO (indicated by the propagation mode): * Both QSOs must be satellite mode * Satellite name must be the same As a result of this change the only unique fields that are needed for satellite QSOs are SAT_NAME and PROP_MODE. Additional information about the Logbook of the World can be found at http://www.arrl.org/lotw/ [ANS thanks the ARRL for the above information] /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-292.02 OSCAR status page AMSAT News Service Bulletin 292.02 From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. October 19, 2003 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-292.02 David Carr, KD5QGR, is currently testing his OSCAR satellite status page http://oscar.dcarr.org It takes less than 15 seconds. to input your data and provides a means to see what other stations are reporting from the various amateur satellites. The site is still under development but the data posted is valid. As more Users input their data the site will be able to provide a clear visual representation of the amateur satellite constellation and will be a good way to see what the trend is of your favorite satellite like SO-50, SO-41. [ANS thanks David, DK5QGR, for the above information] /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-292.03 ARISS Update AMSAT News Service Bulletin 292.03 From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. October 19, 2003 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-292.03 * ARISS Lithograph Finalized Marissa Harper has made the final changes to the NASA developed ARISS lithograph. It is to be submitted for printing on Tuesday, 10/14/03. * Brazilian Aerospace Museum to Install Ham Station ARISS Brazilian team member Tadeu Fernandes is working with the aerospace museum in Afonso Air Base, Brazil to install a ham radio station in the museum. It will be used to listen to ARISS contacts. * Brazilian Astronaut to get Ham Radio License Rosalie White is working with the ARISS Brazilian team to enable astronaut Marcos Pontes to get his U.S. Ham radio license, so that he may fully participate in ARISS. Nick Lance at NASA JSC will lead the U.S. license training for Marcos. * ARISS Team Continues to work on Packet Radio Issues ARRIS Russia was unable to perform testing of Packet Radio System due to a lack of power supplies for their computer systems. It was suggested that U.S. write a proposal giving crew members permission to use U.S. computers for testing. This action is in work. * Upcoming School Contacts ESA astronaut Pedro Duque, who expects to fly on the upcoming Soyuz flight to ISS, is scheduled to initiate ARISS contacts with Ceip Seixalbo School in Ourense, Spain on October 23,2003, and Verbum Casa das palabras in Vigo, Spain on October 26, 2003. The latest ARISS announcement and successful school list is now available on the ARISS web site. Several ways to get there. Latest ARISS announcements and news http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/arissnews.txt Successful school list http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/Successful_ARISS_schools.rtf or http://ariss.gsfc.nasa.gov If the GSFC website is having problems, then go directly to the RAC site. click on English (sorry I don't know French) you are now at http://www.rac.ca/ariss/ click on News In addition you can check out Ed Lu's webpage: http://www.edlu.com/ [ANS thanks Carol Jackson for the above information] /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-292.04 OSCAR-11 Report AMSAT News Service Bulletin 292.04 From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. October 19, 2003 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-292.04 OSCAR-11 REPORT 14 October 2003 During the period 06 September to 13 October 2003 the 145.826 MHz. beacon has been heard transmitting continuous ASCII telemetry from 11 to 21 September, and 02 to 12 October. During this period good signals have been received. Telemetry transmissions are expected to resume around 22 October for about 10 days. Once again I am indebted to Jeff KB2M who has provided telemetry from 13 to 21 September, while I have been on holiday. Many thanks Jeff. On 11 September at 17:11:37 UTC, while searching for a signal, I was particularly fortunate to hear the beacon switch ON. Telemetry showed the 145.826 MHz. beacon temperature rapidly rising, frame by frame, immediately after it had switched ON. The internal temperatures have increased by 12C during the period, indicating that the eclipse times are continuing to decrease. The temperatures are now 17.0C, 14.4C, and 21.4C respectively, for battery, telemetry electronics and command decoder, respectively. The external temperatures have shown less variation than previously reported, and are generally in the range 0 to 30C. Temperatures are expected to increase, reaching a peak in November with higher temperatures than in 2002. The battery voltage observed during daylight passes has increased. Observations have varied between 13.5 and 14.0 volts, with an average value of 13.8 volts. Spin periods of 430 to 720 seconds have been measured from the magnetometer telemetry. This indicates a trend towards normal rotational speeds, and the direction of rotation is normal. The mode-S beacon has been heard by Christian F1AFZ. He reports S3-S4 signals with 85 cm dish, 3.5 turn helix, and AIDC 3733 converter. Many thanks for that report Christian. Users of OSCAR-11 should note that the date in the telemetry is advanced by three days. The time is advanced by 19.0 minutes, and this error is increasing by about one minute per year. OSCAR-11 now operates in a default mode, controlled by the watch-dog timer. The satellite transmits continuous ASCII telemetry for about 10 days on 145.826 MHz., followed by about 10 days of silence. This regular sequence might be interrupted by ground control. The mode-S beacon is ON continuously, even when the VHF beacon is OFF, nominally transmitting an unmodulated carrier on 2401.5 MHz. There is however a VERY low level of AFSK modulation, (now a constant 1200 Hz. audio tone), which has been detected on strong signals. Telemetry indicates that the beacon has partially failed, and is delivering half power. This beacon is a useful test source for those testing mode-S converters, as an alternative to OSCAR-40. However the signals are very weak, and there is a lot of Doppler. 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 OSCAR-40. Any reports of reception on 2401.5 MHz. would be most welcome. Please e-mail g3cwv@amsat.org. The 435.025 MHz. beacon is normally OFF. It can only be heard on the very rare occasions when the satellite is being commanded by ground control, i.e.. within range of Guildford, UK. When the 435 beacon is transmitting, the 145 beacon is normally OFF. The data transmitted is mainly binary. Listeners to OSCAR-11 may be interested in visiting my web site. The web site contains details about using a soundcard for data capture, and also details about using hardware demodulators. There is software for capturing data, and decoding ASCII telemetry and WOD. There is an archive of raw data for analysis, which is continually being expanded, as new data is captured. Originally this was for WOD, but it is now being expanded to include ASCII telemetry. At the present time the telemetry covers 1996 to April 2003. I will add other years as time permits. In parallel there is a news archive which provides an overview of the state of the satellite, at the times when the telemetry was captured. If anyone out there can provide any data, particularly for the 1984 to 1993 years, this would be most appreciated. Please e-mail me with details. However please DO NOT SEND ANY FILES, before further discussion. 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/ If you place this bulletin on a terrestrial packet network, please use the bulletin identifier $BID:U2RPT90.CWV, to prevent duplication. [ANS thanks Clive, G3CWV, for the above information] /EX