****************************************************************************** * AMSAT NA News Service Bulletins * * NEWS311A 07Nov87 * * Updated 10Nov87 * * [ Copyright 1987 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) AMSAT Annual Meeting and Space Symposium Held In Michigan 2.(R) Plans Call For AO-10 Return By Mid-November 3.(N) FO-12 Schedule Now Available 4.(R) Transpolar Skitrek May Reckon Its Position Using SARSAT/COSPAS/UoSAT 5.(U) Short Bursts News in brief: 1. The AMSAT Annual Meeting, Space Symposium and Board Meeting is being held this weekend near Detroit. New Board members were announced. Re-elected were W3GEY and W6SP. Newly elected were W3XO and N4HY. The 1988 AMSAT Officers were elected. 2. Spacecraft controllers are confident AO-10 can be released for service in the next few weeks. Caution to avoid the anticipated long eclipses is urged on all would-be satellite users. 3. The FO-12 operating schedule has been distributed for users. 4. The UoSAT OSCAR 11 Digitalker experiment may play a vital role in Project Nordski Comm, a project to provide navigational information to a team skiing across the North Pole late this winter. ****************************************************************************** 1.(N) AMSAT Annual Meeting and Space Symposium Held In Michigan The AMSAT NA Annual Meeting and Space Symposium was held the weekend of November 7th and 8th at the Southfield Hilton Hotel in Southfield, Michigan just north of Detroit. Nearly 200 space enthusiasts attended the meeting which is the high point in the AMSAT NA annual calendar. Highlights of the weekend included a fascinating banquet talk and motion piture by Astronaut Dr. Tony England, W0ORE, and awards to outstanding AMSAT individuals. Tony was among nearly two dozen presenters of papers on various topics of interest to satellite enthusiasts. The 1988 Board of Directors election results were announced as follows: Mr. Jan King, W3GEY, 908 votes (Re-elected) Mr. John Browning, W6SP, 745 (Re-elected) Mr. William Tynan, W3XO, 680 (Elected) Dr. Robert McGwier , N4HY, 606 (Elected) Dr. John Henry, VE2VQ, 578 (First Alternate) Mr. Andy MacAllister, WA5ZIB, 450 (Second Alternate) Dr. John Champa, K8OCL, 425. There being 4 seats up for election, Mssrs King, Browning, Tynan and McGwier are elected. Mssrs Henry and MacAllister are elected First and Second Alternate Director, respectively. The elected Directors will serve two year terms of office. Awards for meritorious achievement were presented to Doug Loughmiller, KO5I, Al Brinckerhoff, WB5PMR, Keith Pugh, W5IU and Jack Crabtree, AA0P for their outstanding Field Operations work. Tom Clark, W3IWI, Bob McGwier, N4HY and Dick Jansson, WD4FAB, received achievement awards for their outstanding work in Engineering. Bob Diersing, N5AHD, receiving an award for his work in excellent work in publishing the AMSAT Technical Journal. (Keith Pugh accepted the award for Al Brinckerhoff and Andy MacAllister accepted on behalf of Bob Diersing.) Dr. Junior DeCastro, PY2BJO, won the ICOM 275A radio for having the highest score in the member recruitment contest. Junior brought in 51 new AMSAT members all from Brazil. Winner of the ICOM 475A Grand Banquet prize was Greg Barr of the National Space Society. Prize donors, in addition to ICOM, included Advanced Receiver Research, Henry Radio, Advanced Electronic Applications, Cushcraft and ARRL. The winner of the drawing for the autotracking system prize raffle for member renewal was Fred Rollyson, WB6CNO, or Moorpark, California. Fred had renewed for 2 years and won an autotracking system worth over $1,000 including computer, interface, antennas and rotors. The remainder of the winners will be announced in next week's news and in ASR. In the Autumn Board of Directors Meeting held Sunday and Monday, major actions were taken on several fronts. Officers elected included: Vern Riportella, WA2LQQ, President John Champa, K8OCL, Executive Vice President Jan King, W3GEY, Vice President, Engineering Ralph Wallio, W0RPK, Vice President, Operations Bill Tynan, W3XO, Vice President, Manned Space Projects Doug Loughmiller, KO5I, Vice President, Field Operations Art Feller, KB4ZJ, Treasurer Martha Saragovitz, Secretary All were incumbents except Doug Loughmiller, KO5I. Doug was formerly Vice President of Operations and returned to active status in Field Operations this year. A major Bylaws review was accomplished by Ray Soifer, W2RS. The Board reviewed Ray's recommendations favorably and asked that his suggestions be fine tuned for final approval by the Board as soon as possible. The Board concluded a dues increase in 1988 would be necessary to offset increasing costs of member service and appointed a committee to recommend the new dues structure for Board approval. The Board felt it important member dues accurately reflect the costs of member service particularly as regards overseas members. Progress on getting Phase 3C launched was reviewed. Best guess launch date now appears to be March 15, 1988. Fund raising efforts need to be emphasized the Board agreed. An AMSAT Launch Information Network Service (ALINS) will provide live coverage of the Phase 3C launch. Progress on Phase 4 was reviewed. A March 1988 design review milestone was established. There was considerable discussion about the joint AMSAT-TAPR Digital Signal Processing (DSP) project. In a major move, the Board authorized $50,000 be expended in 1988 for the development of advanced digital technology for a target of opportunity launch of a PACSAT packet radio satellite in the Amateur Satellite Service on very short notice. A full report of the Symposium, the Annual meeting and the Board of Directors meeting will be presented in next week's news and, together with photos, in an upcoming ASR. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 2.(R) Plans Call For AO-10 Return By Mid-November Chances are excellent AMSAT OSCAR 10 will be released for general use in a few weeks according to the satellite command team. Tests conducted by VK5AGR on October 25 suggest the satellite is in relatively good condition. AO-10 has been unavailable for use since early August. Evaluation of the satellite's condition has been accomplished by VK5AGR, ZL1AOX and DB2OS. Based on their analysis, AO-10's battery is in good condition and the Mode B transponder is functioning normally. However, they caution that jumping the gun, that is, using the satellite prior to its release in mid-November could seriously jeopardize the spacecraft. All users are strongly encouraged to await the official release date. That date has now tentatively been set at November 16. A further caution has been issued by the command team. During the next few months AO-10 will be experiencing solar eclipses up to 99 minutes every orbit. In order to avoid damage to the battery, users must studiously avoid using the satellite while it's in eclipse. This had been the case previously but the eclipses then tended to occur around perigee. In the next few months, however, very long eclipses occur well after perigee. Here is the tentative AO-10 operating schedule for the balance of 1987. This schedule is subject to change if the satellite is subject to excessively high loading or by its use during eclipses. (Tentative) AMSAT OSCAR 10 Transponder Operating Schedule ========================================================= +---------------------+--------------------------------+ | Time Frame (1987) | Mode B Operating Times in MA | +---------------------+--------------------------------+ | Nov 16 thru Nov 23 | 0 thru 59 and 131 thru 255 | | Nov 24 thru Nov 30 | 0 thru 69 and 141 thru 255 | | Dec 01 thru Dec 07 | 0 thru 89 and 161 thru 255 | | Dec 08 thru Dec 14 | 0 thru 99 and 171 thru 255 | | Dec 15 thru Dec 21 | 0 thru 109 and 191 thru 255 | | Dec 22 thru Dec 28 | 0 thru 119 and 201 thru 255 | | Dec 29 thru Jan 04 | 0 thru 139 and 221 thru 255 | +---------------------+--------------------------------+ If sum, then, unless plans change at the last minute, AO-10 will be available for use beginning November 16, UTC, on the schedule just announced. Please do not use the satellite prior to that time. Unauthorized use prior to November 16 may jeopardize the schedule and postpone the satellite's availability if additional recovery time is required. When released for general use, please insure your operations are in close accord with the official operating schedule. Stay in close contact with official news sources so you are aware of the latest operating conditions and schedule changes if any. And, as always, please insure you use the lowest uplink power levels so as to insure satellite health as well as good communications. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - [Following table not suitable for voice nets] AO-10's eclipse schedule for the next two months is as follows (computed by DB2OS) AO-10 Eclipses +-------------+----------+----------------+ | 1987 | Sunangle | Eclipse-Data | | Date | Illumin. | MA MA Dura.| | Mondays | SA ILL% | in out Min.| +-------------+----------+----------------+ |1987 Nov 9 |-51 64 | 61 93 86 | |1987 Nov 16 |-44 73 | 74 106 88 | |1987 Nov 23 |-36 80 | 86 119 90 | |1987 Nov 30 |-29 87 | 100 134 93 | |1987 Dec 7 |-22 93 | 114 149 96 | |1987 Dec 14 |-15 96 | 127 164 99 | |1987 Dec 21 | -8 99 | 141 178 101 | |1987 Dec 28 | -1 100 | 153 190 99 | +-------------+----------+----------------+ * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 3.(N) FO-12 Schedule Now Available Here is the operating schedule for FO-12 for the next few days: Operating schedule for the FUJI/FO-12 Mode From (UTC) To (UTC) -------------------------------- JD Nov 4 11:37 -- 5 10:43 JD 7 08:55 -- 8 10:02 JA 10 10:16 -- 11 9:22 JA 12 8:28 -- 13 7:34 JA 14 8:41 -- 16 6:53 JD 18 9:09 -- 19 6:13 JD 20 7:21 -- 21 6:26 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- [Following not suitable for voice bulletins] Mode From (UTC) To (UTC) -------------------------------- JD 22 5:32 -- 23 6:40 JA 26 6:00 -- 27 5:05 JA 28 4:11 -- 29 5:19 JD Dec 1 03:31 -- 2 06:42 JD 3 03:45 -- 4 04:53 JD 5 03:58 -- 6 05:07 JA 8 01:16 -- 9 02:24 JA 10 01:30 -- 11 02:38 JA 12 05:51 -- 14 01:57 JA 15 03:06 -- 16 06:19 JA 17 05:25 -- 18 06:33 JD** 19 22:34 -- 20 00:37 JD 20 04:44 -- 21 05:52 JD 22 04:58 -- 23 04:04 JD 24 01:06 -- 25 06:19 JD 26 03:24 -- 27 04:32 JD 28 03:38 -- 29 02:43 JD 31 02:57 -- Jan 1 04:04 JD Jan 2 03:11 -- 3 02:17 JA 5 02:30 -- 6 01:36 The transponders will be off at other time. The schedule may be changed at any time due to unexpected power situations. ** Note: On December 19 from 22:34 through 0:34 UTC, a special telemetry software package will be loaded to permit telemetry transmission every 2 seconds instead of every minute. No mailbox functions will be available during this period but the digipeater will be operational. Reports of received telemetry will be appreciated. Please send them to JARL via the FO-12 mailbox. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 4.(R) Transpolar Skitrek May Reckon Its Position Using SARSAT/COSPAS/UoSAT A combination of space resources may be put to use in support of a joint Canadian-Soviet polar expedition early next year. Currently under discussion is Project Nordski Comm, a plan whereby the polar expedition team will be tracked by a fleet of international satellites and their position reported back to them by UoSAT OSCAR 11's Digitalker experiment. Departing in February from Cape Arktichesky in the USSR, the Transpolar Skitrek expeditionary team will ski across the North Pole arriving at the Cape of Columbia near Ellesmere Island, Canada 90 to 100 days later. Leonid Labutin, UA3CR, is the chief radio operator of the project. Leo will work from one of the support camps to provide radio communications. The team will carry two Emergency Locator Transmitters (ELT). These emit specially coded beacon signals in the 406 MHz range. The signals are picked up by satellites in the international SARSAT/COSPAS program. By analyzing the Doppler shift of the transponded signals, ground personnel can determine the ELT location to within a few miles or better. The addition of direct position feedback to the expeditionary team is the novel part of the plans for the project. If arrangements can be completed and approved by the appropriate authorities, the expeditionary team's position, as determined by the SARSAT/COSPAS Mission Control Center, will be automatically relayed by Telex to the University of Surrey in England. From there the position will be encoded in software which programs the UO-11 Digitalker. Several times per orbit, Digitalker would announce the team's position in plain English. The team would listen for UO-11 on 145.825 MHz on miniature VHF transceivers they carry and thus obtain vital information on their current position. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 5.(U) Short Bursts A major AMSAT News Service (ANS) bulletin format change will be accomplished effective with NEWS.318 released November 14. The format change will be designed to improve compatibility with packet BBS as well as voice nets. Bulletins in general will be shorter and less detailed. Details formerly provided in ANS stories will now be found exclusively in ASR. *** AMSAT members are urged to dig in and support the Phase 3C Insurance Fund Campaign as explained in ASR 160. AMSAT urgently needs to raise $10,000 to insure Phase 3C and assure this most powerful of Amateur satellites does not fly unprotected. Please help now. Read ASR 160 and support this effort now. *** Arianespace intends to launch its next mission, V-20, November 18. If this is accomplished and the V-21 launch is accomplished in January as scheduled, AMSAT's Phase 3C, manifested aboard V-22, could be launched as early as February of next year. *** The main UoSAT command station at the University of Surrey, England, was taken off the air in early October when a devastating storm raked the United Kingdom. Hundred mile an hour winds, the most severe in three centuries, did their worst as UoSAT's famous antenna arrays were launched into an indeterminate trajectory. UoSAT operations were carried forth from the home QTH of G3YJO whilst repairs were undertaken at the University. All was back in order by late October and normal UoSAT commanding has resumed at the main station. ***************************************************************************** END