****************************************************************************** * AMSAT NA News Service Bulletins * * NEWS058 27Feb88 * * [ Copyright 1988 by AMSAT NA, The Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation. ] * * [ Permission is granted for unlimited redistribution by electronic or ] * * [ other means provided credit is given to AMSAT NA News Service (ANS). ] * * [ Edited for AMSAT NA by WA2LQQ. ] * * [ (N)=New story; (U)=Updated story; (R)=Reprieved story ] * * [ This edition was forwarded by the W0RPK-AMSAT Bulletin Board System ] * * [ operating on 515-961-3325 24-hours Ralph Wallio, W0RPK SYSOP ] * ****************************************************************************** Headlines: 1.(N) Phase 3C Launch Campaign Update: 89 Days and Counting 2.(N) Transpolar SKITREK Progress Report #5 3.(N) New Publications Emphasize Technical Aspects 4.(N) SA AMSAT Holds Networking Conference 5.(N) JAMSAT Elects New Officers ****************************************************************************** 1.(N) Phase 3C Launch Campaign Update: 89 Days and Counting AMSAT's Phase 3C spacecraft edged closer to launch this week as Arianespace has fixed the launch dates for the next three launches. A launch date of May 26 has been announced for the launch of Phase 3C, less than three months from now. In addition to announcing the launch date for the Ariane-4 launcher, Arianespace, the marketing arm of the European Space Agency, has added a new launch in the sequence and renumbered the mission that will carry Phase 3C. The new sequence is as follows: V-21 with SPACENET IIIR/GEOSTAR R01 and TELECOM 1C is scheduled for March 11. V-22 with Intelsat V is scheduled for May 11. V-23 with AMSAT Phase 3C, METEOSAT and PANAMSAT is scheduled for May 26. AMSAT launch support preparations will swing into high gear in early April with the dispatch to the launch site in Kourou, French Guiana, of support teams from AMSAT DL and AMSAT NA. If all goes well and the launch takes place as scheduled, the satellite may be available for general use towards the end of June. Springtime this year would thus me a great time to get your stations ready for the most powerful and capable OSCAR ever! A reminder is in order too. Many of the technical details of Phase 3C are being published in Amateur Satellite Report. ASR is a member service so you'll want to insure your membership is current. If you haven't renewed, you should do so immediately so you wont miss out on any of the information crucial to your getting your Phase 3C station up and running and ready for the commencement of operations. Renew you AMSAT membership today. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 2.(N) Transpolar SKITREK Progress Report #5 (Issued February 26, 1988) This week the UO-11 beacon on 145.825 MHz has displayed a great deal of activity including a test and preview of the NORDSKI COMM Transpolar Skitrek Position Report via the Digitalker. On Saturday, February 27th, the Digitalker said the following, "Number 00, Priority 000, Date 26 of February, Time 19 hours and 20 minutes GMT. You are at 00.00 degrees N and 123.45 degrees E. 73's." This data is what teachers and students around the world will use to plot the skiers' progress on their classroom maps. Four hundred AMSAT teacher's guides to the expedition have been mailed to interested teachers and hams in all corners of the world. They in turn have copied the guides and insured still further field distribution. Skitrek Guides are in use in Brazil, Venezuela, Australia, New Zealand, India, nearly all the countries of western Europe and nearly all provinces of Canada and all of the United States. A special center of interest is South Africa, where Hans Van de Groenendaal, President of Southern Africa AMSAT, has involved more than a hundred classrooms. Hundreds of thousands of students world-wide will be following the trek across the ice via the Digitalker and learning about Amateur Radio in the process. The Canadian Communications Support Base team has found that getting to Resolute Bay, N.W.T. is not easy. Bill Hardie, VE3EFX, was not able to go due to illness and has been replaced by Garth Hamilton. The first trip north February 23rd was aborted when bad weather prevented air traffic into Resolute. This was not unexpected as flights had not made it into this arctic outpost for several weeks. The team finally arrived safely on the evening of February 26th. Communications from Resolute are now expected on the 20 and 40 meter bands using the call CI8C. The expedition continues on track for a start date around March 1st. Since communications via HF radio with the Russian team have been hampered by poor propagation, the actual departure may be known first via the UO-11 Digitalker. Monitor UO-11 during its 8:30-11:30 AM and 8:30-11:30 PM (local time) passes for an early indication the Skitrek is actually under way. Skitrek/Nordski progress reports are issued weekly by AMSAT's Science Education Advisor, Rich Ensign, N8IWJ. A continuing series of Progress Reports like this one may be accessed via packet BBS, AMSAT Nets and the main educator source, the W0RPK AMSAT Bulletin Board (1-515-961-3325). Comments and questions about the reports should be addressed to Rich Ensign, 421 N. Military, Dearborn, MI 48124, U.S.A. Progress Report #6 will be issued when the expedition begins on or about March 1, 1988. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 3.(N) New Publications Emphasize Technical Aspects According to Bob Diersing, N5AHD, Editor of the AMSAT Technical Journal, Volume 2 of the Technical Journal is coming off the presses. Articles in Volume 2 include Spacecraft Technology Trends by WD4FAB, Phase 3 Propulsion Systems by W4PUJ, Phase 4 Spaceframe Design by WD4FAB, Initial Phase 3D Radio Link Concepts by DJ4ZC, RUDAK Traffic Control by DK1YQ, PSK Interface for the TNC-1 by DB2OS, NUSAT Software by WA3PSD, Antennas for Low Earth Orbit Missions by N5BF and the Phase 3 IHU by KE3D. Orders for the AMSAT Technical Journal, Volume 2, may now be placed with AMSAT Headquarters. AMSAT Headquarters has received a limited supply of the UK IERE publication containing detailed UoSAT OSCAR 11 papers. This publication may also be obtained now directly from AMSAT HQ. Back issues of Amateur Satellite Report are also available. All issues going back to number 1 in 1981 are available to complete your library. Inquire at AMSAT HQ for prices on these back issues. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 4.(N) SA AMSAT Holds Networking Conference SA AMSAT held a successful networking conference on February 20 according to its President Hans Van de Groenendaal, ZS6AKV. The conference was attended by several Johannesburg Amateurs as well as George Hunt, 7P8DL, Ed Douglas 7P8DX and Phil Gray, KA7TWQ, who is working for CARE in Maputo. The Lesotho Pilot Packet Radio Project was reviewed and it was decided to continue with the 2 meter link to the Johannesburg-based DCE Gateway. Initial tests showed an additional digipeater is necessary. Later this will be replaced by a 9600 bps 70 cm link. Further discussions addressed linking PBBS's in Southern Africa. An HF gateway is also now linked to ZS6SAT, the SA AMSAT PBBS. The callsign is ZS6KE. The question of amateur operation from Maputo was discussed. Phil Gray is returning to the U.S. for vacation but says he will seek permission from the Maputo government to operate upon his return. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 5.(N) JAMSAT Elects New Officers JAMSAT has announced the election of its officers. The new president is Masao Tanikawa, JR1HAL. Harry Yoneda, JA1ANG, did not seek re-election as JAMSAT president. Mr. Yoneda continues to serve on AMSAT NA's Board of Directors. JAMSAT Vice Presidents elected included Mori Ohara, JK1VXJ, and Kimio Maekawa, JA9BOH. The full list of officials elected will appear in ASR #171. AMSAT NA joins with other AMSAT-affiliated organizations in congratulating the new officers and wishing them success. ***************************************************************************** RECENT NEWS IN REVIEW ===================== Headlines: 6.(R) Surrey To Build New UoSAT For 1988 Launch 7.(U) FO-12 Operating Schedule 8.(U) Short Bursts ****************************************************************************** 6.(R) Surrey To Build New UoSAT For 1988 Launch The UoSAT Spacecraft Engineering Research Unit at the University of Surrey (UK) is now building a third UoSAT OSCAR spacecraft: UoSAT-C. NASA has agreed to provide a launch for UoSAT-C on a DELTA launch vehicle currently scheduled for late 1988. The DELTA should place UoSAT-C into a 43 degree inclination, 500 km circular orbit. UoSAT-C will carry experimental engineering, science and communications payloads developed in close collaboration between international professional engineering and Amateur Radio communities. The Store-&-Forward Communications experiment will probably be of greatest interest to the Amateur Radio community. UoSAT-C will carry the PACSAT Communications Experiment (PCE) which will be easily accessible to Radio Amateurs operating with 2 m uplinks and 70 cm downlinks (Mode J). Among the other payloads planned for UoSAT C are a Radiation Studies Experiments and Satellite Technology Experiments. Like UO-9 and UO-11, UoSAT OSCAR-C will support a world-wide user community of engineers, scientists, educators and communicators. If all goes according to plan, UO-C will provide spacecraft housekeeping telemetry, long-term telemetry surveys, results from on-board experiments, news bulletins and communications facilities on a single downlink through packet-radio techniques. Surrey will finalize and publish communications modem and protocol details as soon as possible, to allow ground stations to equip themselves. Whilst numerous international teams are already collaborating on UO-C, UoSAT is interested in hearing from others interested in possible collaboration, especially in the area of user ground station support. Further details of UoSAT-C plans may be found in ASR #170. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 7.(U) FO-12 Operating Schedule JARL has announced the new FO-12 operating schedule as follows: Mode From (UTC) -------------------- [Net stations may include DI Feb 28 07:20 as many lines of this JD Mar/ 1 05:31 schedule as is appropriate] DI 2 04:36 JD 5 01:53 D 6 03:01 JA 8 01:13 D 9 04:25 JA 12 01:41 D 14 01:55 JD 17 05:22 DI 18 06:30 JD 19 03:33 DI 20 04:42 JD 21 03:47 DI 22 04:55 JD 23 04:01 DI 24 05:09 JD 26 03:21 D 27 04:28 JA 30 01:46 D Mar/31 02:54 Mode JA : Linear Transponder Mode JD : Mailbox Mode D : Charging mode Mode DI : Charging mode with CPU/MEMORY kept ON The transponders will be off at other times. This schedule may be changed at any time due to unexpected power situations. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 8.(U) Short Bursts Mir watchers in the Denver area report having seen a close companion to the Russian Mir space station February 9 according to AMSAT Regional Coordinator Jack Crabtree, AA0P. At first it was thought the companion was a Progress cargo ship but this has been disputed. A strong glint from the Mir companion lasting 1 to 2 seconds may indicate solar panels and slow rotation. Meanwhile the National Space Society has established a "Mir Watch" hotline which provides observation window predictions for major cities. The telephone number is 202-546-6010. *** With Soviet officials pressing commercial launch opportunities aboard their Proton rocket for all paying customers, what they didn't need was another launch failure. Unfortunately that's just what they got February 18 when the third Proton failure in 13 months took three satellites to an early demise. Some debris reportedly reentered near Australia. The failure has been attributed to a faulty fourth stage. The fourth stage was also cited as the cause for the prior two losses. Analysts suggest the losses will have only minimal effects of the broad-based Soviet launch capability, however. *** AMSAT OSCAR 10 was withdrawn from service on February 6 due to poor performance attributed to sagging sun angles. Severe FMing of the passband had been noticed for several days prior to the decision to shut it down. AO-10 will return to service in approximately three months. *****************************************************************************