************************************************************************** * * * 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-049.01 10M SATELLITE DOWNLINK QRM HR AMSAT NEWS SERVICE BULLETIN 049.01 FROM AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD FEBUARY 18, 1989 TO ALL RADIO AMATEURS BT 10 Meter Downlink Passband Being "QRM'ed" By FM Stations In recent months there has been a growing awareness among OSCAR satellite users that the 10 Meter downlink spectrum of 29.300-29.500 MHz is being disrupted by 10 Meter FM stations. All radio amateurs are reminded that this spectrum has been set aside by international agreement for use as a downlink passband for Mode A satellites, eg., RS 10/11. By operating within this spectrum, 10 Meter FM stations "wipe-out" a considerable portion of the downlink spectrum and render it useless for RS 10/11 satellite users. All RS 10/11 users who do encounter this situation should politely remind the QRM'ing station about the vital role this portion of the 10 Meter spectrum plays in the Amateur Satellite Service. Amateurs not involved in using OSCAR satellites are requested to honor this "gentlemen's agreement" and avoid using 29.300-29.500 MHz. /EX SB ALL @ AMSAT $ANS-049.02 N8IWJ RECOGNIZED BY ARRL & TEACHERS HR AMSAT NEWS SERVICE BULLETIN 049.02 FROM AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD FEBUARY 18, 1989 TO ALL RADIO AMATEURS BT N8IWJ Is Recognized By ARRL And Fellow Teachers For SKITREK Efforts Rich Ensign, N8IWJ, AMSAT-NA Science Education Advisor, was recently recognized by the ARRL Board of Directors for the outstanding job he did in bringing the world of amateur radio into school class rooms last year. Rich produced the AMSAT Teachers Guide: "Exploring The High Arctic From Your Classroom"; teachers from all around the world used it as a guide in teaching lessons about the North Pole. With the help of amateur radio operators, thousands of school children heard the DIGITALKER aboard UOSAT-OSCAR-11 as it "spoke the position" of the ki-trekers as they made their way across the North Pole. In addition to the the Teachers Guide, Rich also generated a weekly progress report on the status of the trekers and he made sure that the reports arrived in a timely manner to teachers who were involved in this program. The ARRL Board of Directors recently recognized Rich for his efforts in this endeavor. Also, Rich's colleges have likewise recognized him -- he was voted "Teacher Of The Year" at Crestwood Highschool in Dearborn Heights, MI. AMSAT-NA congratulates Rich and feels the recognition he has recieved is very much deserved. /EX SB ALL @ AMSAT $ANS-049.03 U4MIR COMES TO LIFE! HR AMSAT NEWS SERVICE BULLETIN 049.03 FROM AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD FEBUARY 18, 1989 TO ALL RADIO AMATEURS BT 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 19:38 UTC on Sunday, Feb. 12, and another the same day at 21:13 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 those of W2RS, were made on 145.550 MHz simplex. Alexander also seems to be using 145.650 MHz 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 19:00 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 any information concerning MIR to AMSAT Net Control Stations so that it may be passed on to others. [We would like to thank Ray, W2RS, for compiling this information and making it available to the AMSAT-NA News Service.] /EX SB ALL @ AMSAT $ANS-049.04 SEN 019 SCHEDULE HR AMSAT NEWS SERVICE BULLETIN 049.04 FROM AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD FEBRUARY 18, 1989 TO ALL RADIO AMATEURS BT Space Education Net Schedule (SEN019) The next session of the Space Education Net (SEN) has been scheduled for Saturday, February 25, 1989. The Mode B session will run from 15:00 to 16:00 UTC. The downlink frequency will be 145.960 MHz. No Mode L session has been scheduled because of the lack of a Mode L Net Control Station. Slow Scan TV will be transmitted for approximately the first 10 minutes of the bulletins on 145.965 MHz. After the SEN bulletins, an informal SSTV net will convene on the SSTV downlink frequency of 145.965 MHz. Additional Net Control Stations are needed, particularly those which have Mode L capability. Also, stations who can act as NCS for the SEN and who are located on the west coast of the US are especially needed. If you would like to assist the SEN in this important position please volunteer today. Contact K.O. Learner, K9PVW, at P.O. Box 5006, Kokomo, IN 46904 or via packet @KD9QB with your SEN questions or comments or to volunteer to assist the SEN. Check-ins and particip- ants are invited for both net sessions. /EX SB ALL @ AMSAT $ANS-049.05 Short Bursts HR AMSAT NEWS SERVICE BULLETIN 049.05 FROM AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD FEBUARY 18, 1989 TO ALL RADIO AMATEURS BT Short Bursts All AO-13 satellite users are invited to participate in the next ZRO Test and earn "endorsement stickers" by copying test signals sent by WA5ZIB on a downlink frequency of 145.840 MHz. All test signals consist of CW code groups sent at 10 WPM. There will be no voice operation with the ZRO Test Control Station. The following dates have choosen for participant convenience and fairness: Saturday February 25, 1989 at 15:00 UTC Saturday March 4, 1989 at 07:00 UTC If there are any changes to the above list of ZRO Test Times, those changes will be announced immediately. If you would like to receive your copy of the ZRO Test brochure, send a s.a.s.e with two units of postage to: Andy MacAllister, WA5ZIB, 14714 Knightsway Dr., Houston, TX 77083. OSCAR satellite enthusiasts are reminded of the new AMSAT "Novice/Technican" Net every Sunday at 19:00 UTC at 28.460 MHz. This weekly net is conducted by Vinne, WB2YGA. This Net is intended for helping beginners get started on OSCAR satellites. WB2YGA reported for his first session of this "Novice/Technican" Net that he had over twenty check-in! Vinnie requests that those looking for him on Sundays at 19:00 UTC consider the effect that QRM will have on his start-up frequency -- look around 28.460 MHz. All newcomers and "old pro's" are welcomed to join help make this an informative Net for all. /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! U4MIR CONTINUES ACTIVE: U4MIR continues to be very active. On Friday, Feb. 17, he came up on four passes over North America, 17249 through 17252, working stations rapid-fire on 145.55 MHz FM simplex. He was worked here at times ranging from 1533 to 2017 UTC. Contacts generally consist of a simple exchange of call signs, with an occasional "please repeat" or "dos vedaniya" thrown in. When calling U4MIR, best results will be had if you keep calls short, listen frequently and stick to standard ICAO phonetics. He seems to understand those readily although his English is fragmentary at best. As with other manned spacecraft, use of the latest Keplerian elements is generally necessary because of the rapidly-changing orbit. A directional antenna also helps to hear the spacecraft through other callers, as well as immproving your own signal in U4MIR's receiver. Good luck. 73, Ray, W2RS /EX OSCAR-10 Operations: There appears to be some confusion amongst potential users of AO-10's trans- ponder as to whether or not they are allowed to use the transponder after the 15th of February 1989. Therefore, after consulting with Ian Ashley, ZL1AOX (who has been unable to monitor AO-10 due to work commitments) I have uploaded the following K & L blocks to AO-13's beacon which are transmitted at 400 baud PSK. I have also loaded a similar message for transmission on AO-13's Beacon by RTTY and CW. Hopefully these messages will clarify the situation. K de VK5AGR 17Feb89 2005utc QST: Please note that AO-10's trans- ponder is available for use whenever in view. However, please DO NOT USE the transponder when FMing occurs. AO-10 is not affected by eclipses until April 1989 but the solar illumination is drop- ping every day. The estimate of AO-10's attitude (extrapolating from the last known attitude before the IHU failed in December 1986) on 20Feb89 is LON 70 degrees LAT -27 degrees which equates to a solar illumination of 60%. When the solar illumination L> L de VK5AGR 17Feb89 2005utc QST: drops below 70% AO-10's trans- ponder will support only moderate usage. I would expect that by the end of February AO-10 will once again go 'dormant' until about the end of the first week of May when the estimated solar illumination will be greater than 60%. The estimate of AO-10's attitude on 08May89 is LON 63 degrees and LAT -26.4 degrees which equates to a solar illumination of 64%. Please feel free to use AO-10's transponder until signals are FMing. 73s Graham READ MY LIPS-NO MORE HYPE: A plea to prospective authors of articles for the popular Amateur magazines about forthcoming satellites: Please, guys, no more hype!! (I have not read anyone's MICROSAT article, so no one should take this personally). Not too many years ago, AMSAT ran a series of fund-raising ads which trumpeted loudly that "Phase III would be the equivalent of a new band!" Well, when we finally got AO-10, there was a launch accident, the inclination was much lower than expected, an antenna was bent or broken and it was a new band, all right, if you didn't mind limited access time and weak signals. AMSAT lost more credibility with the general Amateur community over those impossible-to-fulfill early promises than over anything we've ever done before or since. The letdown in the VHF/UHF world in the first few weeks of AO-10's operation will never be forgotten by anyone who lived through it. Then, there was FO-12 and the battery problem, not to mention the fact that most hams had been led to believe that they could access Mode JD with a standard TNC-2. Sure, they could, if they had a special modem that to this day is available only in kit form. Dare I mention AO-13 and the "squint angle" problem that means that its maximum effective range is a good deal less than that of AO-10? What about Mode J that was featured in pre-launch publicity and that many Amateurs are now told not to use? Dear reader, I am not complaining about the satellites. They represent the best that their designers and builders could have done under the circumstances. Ours is an experimental, not an operational, service, and all of the above spacecraft were successful experiments from which we have learned things that will help us in the future. Rather, my complaint is about the pre-launch publicity that was based on the designers' hopes and specifications rather than on the actual post-launch performance. As I have illustrated above, we have often misled people about what our products could do for them. We did that with the best of intentions, but the "product liability" we now face is a great deal of skepticism about anything in the way of publicity that comes out with our name on it. Believe me, some of that will come back to bite us on the no-code issue. In an ideal world, I would suggest holding up publication of user-tutorial articles until after satellites are up and running. In this day of 3-5 year useful spacecraft lives, we can afford the luxury of a few months at the outset to see that we get the story straight. Such a policy would not make editors and publishers love us, but I'd rather that their readers learn to trust us again. When that ideal is not possible, let's everyone who writes these things go through his manuscript with a tough eye and take out anything that even so much as smells like a promise of performance. Sure, fewer people will be "motivated" to read the article that way. But, I'd rather they be motivated to trust AMSAT in the future. Then, after the spacecraft has been tested in orbit, we can run a second article about how good it is. Note that I have observed my own rule; I waited at least several billion years before publishing my QST article about Oscar Zero. 73, Ray, W2RS MICROSAT ORBIT TUTORIAL: AMSAT will be launching Microsat spacecraft on an Ariane 4 from Kourou, French Guiana, a French department in South America. This is the large space facility designed by the European Space Agency and operated for Arianespace, its commercial arm. Our satellites will be secondary payloads with the SPOT-2 satellite. This is a French earth resources satellites with a high resolution camera on board capable of resolutions down to a few meters. We will sit on a shelf just below the main payload along with UOSAT-D and E. The SPOT launch is to put a payload into a sun synchronous orbit. This is a familiar orbit to early OSCARs. Indeed, UO-9 and UO-11 were both launched into sun synchronous orbits on a Delta launcher from Vandenburg AFB. These satellites still operate. This is a nearly polar orbit and has the nice feature that gives it some predictability. The earth is not a perfect sphere and thus it perturbs the orbit of spacecraft from their initial one. If you use these perturbations to your advantage, you can almost achieve a fly over of your spacecraft at the same time everyday. This particular launch gives us a 10:30 AM-PM sun synchronous orbit. This means that the best pass of each day will occur around 1030 in the morning and evening LOCAL time everyday. It will vary some, but the average time for the best orbit will be around this time. As it flies over the US, it will be traveling essentially South to North or vice versa. See the table below for a listing of the orbital elements for this satellite. These elements are good only if the satellite is launched on June 15, 1989. There is an easy modification to make to this orbital element set valid for any launch date. You will have the elements no matter when the launch takes place. The only caveat is that the launcher must perform the insertion as planned! Nothing changes with the exception of the right ascension of the ascending node (RAAN) and the date (not the time). RAAN is the longitude of the place on on the orbital plane on the celestial sphere coordinate system where the orbit crosses the earth's equator going from south to north. As the earth revolves about the sun, this number must change in a predictable way to maintain the overhead passes occuring in a fashion that is synchronous with the sun. Elements for a 06/15/89 launch Epoch 06/15/89 014213 UTC (time of launch) Inclination 98.7376 deg RAAN 240.17746 deg (changes with day of launch) Eccentricity 0.001338 Arg. of Peri. 108.2 deg Mean Anomaly 257.5 deg Mean Mot. 14.19889 Drag 0.0000001 RAAN = 77.50451 + 0.98561228 T degrees where T is the number of days between 01/01/50 at 0h UTC and the date of the launch. This will be a night time launch. The valves on the first stage are scheduled to be opened at 014213 UTC . The launch window is a short ten minutes. It might be possible that this vehicle and the satellites will be visible from the east coast of the United States during its ascent. In central New Jersey, the spacecraft is above the horizon and in the sunlight while the sun is more than ten degrees below the horizon for us on the ground. It will be dark during part of the ascent and during seperation of the satellites. It will get up to thirty degrees above the horizon in NJ. The satellite will higher above the horizon and it will be darker in New England. Seperation is to occur while the satellites are not far from overhead on St. Pierre et Miquelon (Canada). It will be worth looking at to see if you can see the third stage and the satellites. We will also be able to hear from the satellites soon after launch rather than having an agonizing delay of hours wondering if `we made it.' Excerpted from an upcoming article in QST by KO5I and N4HY