************************************************************************** * * * THIS IS THE WD0GML-AMSAT-ST.LOUIS BBS 24HR 7DAY AT (314)447-3003 * * 300/1200/2400 BAUD * * Mike Parisey WD0GML SYSOP * * Norm Newman NZ0Z Co-SYSOP * * * ************************************************************************** SB ALL @ AMSAT $ANS-042.01 MICROSAT LOGO DESIGN NEEDED HR AMSAT NEWS SERVICE BULLETIN 042.01 FROM AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD FEBUARY 11, 1989 TO ALL RADIO AMATEURS BT MicroSat "Logo" Ideas Being Solicted For A New AMSAT-NA Patch AMSAT-NA is solicting ideas for the design of a "logo" for the four new MicroSats which will be launched this summer on a Ariane rocket. The new "logo" will be then turned into a beautiful patch which can be affixed to hats, windbreakers, etc. If your idea is picked, it is possible that it may also become part of the decal which will be affixed to the side of the Ariane rocket. It is being planned that the new patch will be ready by the Dayton Hamfest. Submit your ideas for the MicroSat "logo" to John Champa, K8OCL, AMSAT-NA Executive VP, 7800 Hartwell St., Dearborn, MI, 48126. The final choice will be made by the AMSAT-NA Board of Directors. The deadline will be March 15, 1989. So submit your idea today and perhaps you will have a chance to watch it literally fly into space! /EX SB ALL @ AMSAT $ANS-042.02 SHORT BURSTS HR AMSAT NEWS SERVICE BULLETIN 042.03 FROM AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD FEBUARY 11, 1989 TO ALL RADIO AMATEURS BT Short Bursts OSCAR satellite enthusiasts are reminded that the new AMSAT "Novice/Technican" Net commences this weekend on Sunday, Febuary 12th, at 19:00 UTC on a frequency of 28.460 MHz. This weekly Net will have as its NCS Vinnie Banville, WB2YGA. This Net is being "geared" towards beginners and is intened to be tuitorial in nature. If you know a novice or a technican class licensee who is interested in OSCAR satellites, please inform them about this Sunday afternoon Net. A new AMSAT Net Directory is being compiled and if you conduct an AMSAT Net that is currentyly not registered, contact Wray Dudley, W8GQW, at (602) 398-9380. If you are interested in starting a VHF/UHF Net in your local area, help and information are available from W8GQW. /EX FLASH! FLASH! FLASH! FLASH! FLASH! FLASH! FLASH! FLASH! FLASH! FLASH! THE FOLLOWING ADDED BY WD0GML-AMSAT-ST.LOUIS (314) 447-3003 24hr 7day 300/1200/2400 baud. This section may have additions through the week! SB ALL @ AMSAT < W3IWI $16778_W3IWI TAPR ANNUAL MEETING R:890203/0541z 16778@W3IWI [Balto/Wash MD/DC/VA/DE] Z:21029 TAPR ANNUAL MEETING - FEB. 25th AND 26th - MEMBERS AND NON-MEMBERS INVITED 9 to 5 on Sat. the 25th 9 to 1 on Sun. the 26th Tucson, AZ - The Inn at The Airport - 7060 South Tucson Blvd - 800-772-3847 Special rates including breakfast and late afternoon cocktail hour. Arrangements have been made for lunch and a Western style dinner right at the hotel. The meals will be in an area adjacent to the conference facility. This will permit attendees much more time to visit together, compare notes, discuss new developments and see new equipment demos on display. Friday night pizza bash at Peter Piper Pizza, 432 W. Valencia Road (same as prior years), 6:30 pm, hosted by TAPR. A full agenda of speakers is anticipated. Business session will be held to a minimum. Developers desiring an agenda time slot call the TAPR office (602) 323-1710 or (719) 598-8373 for Andy, N0CCZ. /EX MIR UPDATE: The Unmanned space freighter Progress-39 was undocked form the MIR space station at 09:46 Moscow time on Tuesday. The Space Freighter will be put on a descent trajectory on Tuesday evening and then reenter the dense layers of the Atmosphere and cease to exist. This usually happens over the West coast of the USA so watch for reports of the deorbiting of Progress-39 this evening. john K1KSY MORE HF PACKET IN LESOTHO: Thanks to all those who responded to HF packet project announcement in Sudan. Start-up still pending and all will be notified when further details available. Following is announcement of another project in Lesotho (southern Africa). All those who responded for Sudan will also be considered for this assignment, unless I am notified to contrary. Gary Garriott, VITA, 1815 N. Lynn St., Arlington, VA 22209 (703) 276-1800. In my absence, please contact David Callihan, above. Re Lesotho assignment: Looking for someone with both radio (voice, packet, RTTY, AMTOR, VHF, HF, space) expertise and appropriate computer expertise. Someone with personality/capability to sensitive/train both operators and users of system experimenting with various communcation modes. Someone interested in the technology, its application and development issues. Someone interested in assignment more from personal/professional/development perspective rather than purely consultancy/contract/financial perspective. Individual would: facilitate installation of equipment both at telecom in Maseru and user sites in Maseru and rural areas; train operators; acquire and bring appropriate reference material for project; participate actively in initial training/sensitization/project design workshop; assist in design of evaluation strategy; and travel to Lesotho for a period of 2-4 weeks (flexible - a second visit 12-18 months later might be necessary/appropriate). I hope this information facilitates the identification of an appropriate individual. I am also checking within the Canadian amateur community. Best rgds. HELP! US SUPPLIERS FOR UOSAT BITS: I am preparing the late late edits for an article about UoSAT for the special issue of 73 Magazine, and wanted to list some US suppliers of such things as the G3RUH UoSAT modem and the UoSAT Data booklets. Any assistance would be appreciated. I was also wondering which TNCs have the ability to copy straight through Bell-202 asynchronous (e.g. UoSAT) data? I remember that someone had done this recently. Thanks, Jeff NO-CODE; AN OPEN LETTER FROM W2RS I posted the following to our local packet BBS in response to some misinformed "hate mail" about NoCode that has been appearing there: An Open Letter to "The Committee to Fight No-Code" Gentlemen: Since I am not a director of AMSAT, I did not vote on its proposal for a code-free UHF license. However, I am an officer of AMSAT and was present at the meeting when the matter was considered. In the belief that you may have been misinformed about what we are and are not proposing, please allow me to help separate fact from fiction. What AMSAT is proposing is a new class of Amateur license which would allow operation only in the bands above 220 MHz. There would be no Morse Code requirement, but there would be a written test consisting of the present Technician Class exam plus a new element covering Amateur satellite, digital and microwave techniques. The hope is that Amateur Radio can thus attract technically qualified newcomers to increase our occupancy of portions of the spectrum which are currently underutilized and thus in danger of being reallocated to other services as in the recent 220-222 MHz case. AMSAT satellites have been used by foreign no-code Amateurs since AMSAT-Oscar 6 in 1972. With the single exception of Japan, we have found no difference in operating ability or ethics between satellite users who have passed code tests and those who have not, other than the use of CW. Listen to AMSAT-Oscar 10 or AMSAT-Oscar 13 and judge for yourself. Our proposed examination would require more knowledge than the tests which most of these people took. Japan is a unique case. A Fourth Class license may be obtained through the JARL by anyone, without a code test, who passes a simple Novice-type written exam. Most of these licensees use 2-meter FM. As one might expect, problems of undisciplined operation are very common. That is one reason why AMSAT is NOT supporting a Japanese-type license in the United States. Once again, let me say that AMSAT's proposal would not allow 2-meter privileges to no-code licensees. The written test which we are suggesting would be more difficult than that required of VHF/UHF licensees in most European countries. On a more personal note, I simply do not understand, and do not accept, any inference that AMSAT as an organization, or I as an officer of AMSAT, might have a "conflict of interest" in this matter. AMSAT is a not-for-profit organization all of whose income goes to build and operate satellites, develop technology and inform users about them, entirely for the benefit of Amateur Radio. Whether or not you or any Amateurs choose to make use of these services is up to you; I hope you do and would be happy to see you as active participants in AMSAT. However, please do not make your decisions for reasons which are not factually correct. Incidentally, since its founding 20 years ago AMSAT has fully supported the ARRL. The AMSAT Board, at its recent meeting, unanimously reiterated that position and stated specifically that AMSAT does not wish to be associated with NARA. I hope that this letter has been helpful to you in developing your views on this important matter affecting all of us as dedicated Amateurs. 73, Ray Soifer, W2RS Vice President, AMSAT /EX OSCAR 13 MODE S: Gentleman, sorry for the delay in the Mode-S operation this period. Due to further experiments with the RUDAK device, it is currently not possible to run Mode-S at the same time together with the RUDAK test software. It is expected that the Mode-S transponder (beacon only) will be switched on within the next 2 weeks after finishing RUDAK experiments. So far, no success with RUDAK. Although, there is a little hope since another device which failed since launch, the BCR-in current sensor, returned to operation last month. More later.. 73's Peter DB2OS OPERATION FROM MIR: During this morning's SA AMSAT net (Sunday 09h00 UTC) several stations reported having worked U4MIR. Z21EK in Harare reported that he had a QSO with MIR. The contact took place on Tuesday February 7 at 19h54 UTC on 145,650 MHz. 145,650 is a very busy repeater frequency and far from ideal for space communication. ZS2DD in Port Elizabeth reported that he worked U4MIR on Saturday evening at 19h44 UTC (Feb 11) on 145,550 simplex. A Johannesburg station reported that he heard U4MIR calling on 145,550 MHz at 19h15 UTC. Now that the news is out that MIR is active again we expect many stations to be calling MIR. 73 Hans. U4MIR COMES TO LIFE: Stations around the world have been reporting hearing and working U4MIR. According to Hans, ZS6AKV, stations in southern Africa worked the new MIR station as early as Thursday, Feb. 9. Pat, G3IOR, worked U4MIR on Friday the 10th. By Saturday, Feb. 11, many stations in eastern Canada and in Europe were reporting contacts, including Bill, VE3EFX, and his XYL VE3HIR. W2RS had one at 1938 UTC on Sunday, Feb. 12, and another the same day at 2113 UTC. VE3EFX reports that the new operator's name is Alexander. His English is quite poor and he does seem to be having some trouble with call signs. But he is trying, so please speak slowly and distinctly, sticking to standard ICAO phonetics. Most of these contacts, including that of W2RS, were made on 145.550 simplex. Alexander also seems to be using 145.650 as a secondary frequency; several simplex contacts were made there as well. So far at least, Alexander seems to be keeping the same general hours as did Musa, U2MIR, in that most contacts are being made at about 1900 UTC or later, in the period between the cosmonauts' dinner hour and lights-out. Mir's operations schedule is on Moscow time, which is three hours ahead of UTC. Pat, G3IOR, reports that a new crew will be going up in April, and is receiving Amateur Radio instruction on the ground. We look forward to more Amateur operation from the spacecraft as time goes on. No new QSL information has been received, so until further notice cards should probably still go via Boris Stepanov, UW3AX, P.O. Box 679, Moscow 107207, USSR. Please continue to report information concerning MIR to AMSAT net control stations so that it may be passed on to others. 73, Ray, W2RS