************************************************************************** * * * 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 * * SEASONS GREETINGS AND HAPPY HOLIDAYS * * * ************************************************************************** SB ALL @ AMSAT $ANS-359.01 AO-13 HANDBOOKS AVAILABLE NOW HR AMSAT NEWS SERVICE BULLETIN 359.01 FROM AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD DECEMBER 24, 1988 TO ALL RADIO AMATEURS BT OSCAR 13 Handbook Now Available From PROJECT OSCAR AMSAT-UK, in collaboration with AMSAT-DL, have completed the first OSCAR 13 Operator's Handbook. This sixty page book provides the user with all the critical data needed to use OSCAR 13 and to understand how it works. The arrival of the Handbook so long after the launch is due to the effort required to make this a complete source of information about OSCAR 13. The main topics discussed in the Handbook are: (1) History of OSCAR 13; (2) Launch and "orbital mechanics" aspects; (3) Bandplan, User Station Requirements, Communicating; (4) Transponders: Modes & Scheduling Considerations; (5) Antenna Systems, Beacons, Doppler Shift; (6) Telemetry Formats and Decoding; (7) S/C Subsystems; This Handbook is available now from PROJECT OSCAR. For information about how to obtain your copy of the OSCAR 13 Handbook send a s.a.s.e. to: PROJECT OSCAR P.O. BOX 1136 LOS ALTOS, CA 94023-1136 /EX SB ALL @ AMSAT $ANS-359.02 U1MIR/U2MIR RETURN HOME SAFELY HR AMSAT NEWS SERVICE BULLETIN 359.02 FROM AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD DECEMBER 24, 1988 TO ALL RADIO AMATEURS BT U1MIR/U2MIR Return Home After A "Record Breaking" Year In Space Cosmonauts Vladimer Titov, U1MIR, and Musa Manarov, U2MIR, returned safely to earth this week on December 21st at 21:57 UTC to end their record breaking year-long stay in outer space. In addition to their breaking the world's record for the longest space flight, Vladimer and Musa made amateur radio history as the first operators to have a station aboard an orbiting space station, Mir. With reports from AMSAT affiliates still coming in from around the world, it appears that the number of contacts made by terrestrial stations with U2MIR is in the hundreds. The first North American station to make contact with U2MIR was Byron Lindsey, W4BIW, in Atlanta during the AMSAT-NA Space Symposium Conference this November. On December 19th, Orbit 16305, Musa said farewell to all amateur radio operators as he was preparing for his departure. Musa did say that the 2M FM station would remain aboard Mir and it would be operated by Dr. Valeri Poliakov using the call U3MIR. Since Musa's departure from Mir, W2RS has reported that he has heard Valeri on 145.550 MHz (simplex) only once. However, it appears that Valeri speaks only Russian. At this time AMSAT-NA has no further information about the operating times of U3MIR. All of us at AMSAT-NA wishes to thank Musa and Vladimer for making this historic "first" in amateur radio possible. We especially applaud Musa's initiative and determination in getting a station aboard Mir and getting licensed -- all done while in space. Through Musa's efforts he has opened up a new "dimension" to amateur radio. /EX SB ALL @ AMSAT $ANS-359.03 PORTABLE UO-11 DCE STATION TESTED HR AMSAT NEWS SERVICE BULLETIN 359.03 FROM AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD DECEMBER 24, 1988 TO ALL RADIO AMATEURS BT Portable Experimental UOSAT OSCAR-11 Station Tested The Digital Communication Experiment (DCE) aboard the University of Surrey UO-11 satellite was designed to be a technology demonstration of the "store-and-forward" concept utilizing low-earth orbiting satellites. This experiment is the forerunner to the soon to be launched MicroSat/UOSAT satellites late next year. The concept of storing messages and then having another station across the world retrieve them has been successfully demonstrated with UO-11 and the various DCE stations around the world. Jeff Ward, K8KA/G0, has reported that a new experiment using the DCE has shown that a completely portable station, free from commercial power and fixed antenna structures, has further demonstrated the usefulness of the DCE and future MicroSat/PACSAT satellites. This portable station was built by University of Surrey engineer Victor van der Zel and has been operated sucessfully on several occasions. The station consists of a Kenwood 721, transmitting on 2 meters and receiving on 70 cm, and a G3RUH demodulator. With the built in digital RS-232C interface on the 721, Victor has been able to interface it with a Toshiba 1100 laptop computer to control frequency to allow for doppler shift. The antennas are homebrew 3 element quads which are manually pointed and are designed to be easily assembled. With this station it is now possible to investigate the emergency communications possibilities of the future series of MicroSat/PACSAT/ UOSAT satellites from remote locations. The information learned from this experimental station and the DCE experiment will help designers of future amateur radio satellites. /EX SB ALL @ AMSAT $ANS-359.04 NEW AO-13 OPERATING SCHEDULE SOON HR AMSAT NEWS SERVICE BULLETIN 359.04 FROM AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD DECEMBER 24, 1988 TO ALL RADIO AMATEURS BT OSCAR-13 Operating Schedule Change Starting January 6, 1989 AMSAT-DL Ground Command Station, DB2OS, has announced that there will be a spacecraft attitude change performed on OSCAR-13 around January 6, 1989. This reorientation of AO-13 is necessary inorder to efficiently manage battery charging. Because the attitude change will result in a change in "squint" angles around apogee, Mode L operating times will be adjusted so that the antennas will point directly toward the earth's center at that point in the orbit. The following is the schedule which will be become effective on January 6, 1989: OSCAR-13 Operating Schedule: V5.0 Effective 06Jan89 |------|-----------|----------|----------------------| | Mode | From | Thru | Remarks | | | (Inclus) | (Inclus) | | |======|===========|==========|======================| | Off | MA 240 | MA 003 | Solar Eclipse Window | | B | MA 003 | MA 100 | | | L | MA 100 | MA 150 | Mode JL Optional | | B | MA 150 | MA 240 | | |======|===========|==========|======================| The Bahn Coordinates after the attitude change on January 6th will be: Bahn Latitude=0.0 degrees, Bahn Longitude=180.0 degrees. Mode S operational times will be announced later on the AO-13 beacon. This schedule will remain in effect until March 15, 1989. At that time the schedule again be adjusted to account for solar eclipse periods. /EX SB ALL @ AMSAT $ANS-359.05 Short Burst Items HR AMSAT NEWS SERVICE BULLETIN 359.05 FROM AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD DECEMBER 24, 1988 TO ALL RADIO AMATEURS BT Short Burst Items Since Christmas falls on a Sunday this year, The 20 Meter International Satellite Nets which are held on Sundays at 19:00 UTC will be "optional" that day. WD0HHU request that if there are any AMSAT Net "regulars" who might be operating their station during that time to please inform the waiting stations that there will be no formal Net operations. There will be a return to the usual Net operations on New Year's Day. AO-13 users are reminded that they can earn ZRO Test "endorsement stickers." All satellite enthusiasts are invited to participate in these ZRO Tests. The downlink frequency will be 145.840 MHz. At this time, no Mode L ZRO Tests have been scheduled. All transmissions will use CW at 10 WPM. No voice operation will occur with ZRO Test Control Station. The following dates have been choosen for participant convenience and fairness: Saturday January 14, 1989 at 16:00 UTC Saturday Febuary 4, 1989 at 15:30 UTC Saturday Febuary 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 as soon as possible. If you would like to receive your copy of the ZRO Test brochure, write to: Andy MacAllister, WA5ZIB 14714 Knightsway Dr. Houston, TX 77083 Please include a s.a.s.e with two units of postage. AMSAT users are reminded of the WD0GML/AMSAT BBS which always contains the latest AMSAT NEWS SERVICE Bulletins. The WD0GML/AMSAT BBS is in operation 24 hours a day and can be reached at (314) 447-3003. Also, the Dallas Remote Imaging Group, DRIG, wishes to invite all those AMSAT members who are interested in processing weather satellite pictures to check into their DRIG BBS at (214) 394-7438. /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! THIS BBS: This BBS will be shut down SUNDAYS from about 1730UTC untill 1900UTC due to RFI troubles. I presently help WD0HHU Dave with the 20mtr AMSAT NET during this time period. When I XMIT on HF the board is very eradict and in an effort to prevent disconnections to the users I thought it best to just turn the BBS off. I am sorry for any inconvience to you the users. The 20mtr AMSAT NET conviens at 1730 UTC @ 14.282+/- QRM the first 1 1/2 hrs is informal and you are most welcome to check in to say Hi or field questions. The bulletins will be transmitted at 1900 the first 30min EAST the second WEST. Both Dave and myself look very much forward to meeting you on 20. Thank you 73 Mike WD0GML FO-12 OPERATING SCHEDULE: JAN-FEB cmd:*** CONNECTED to 8J1JAS CONNECT 8J1JAS 8J1JAS>BEACON:JAS-1 RA 88/12/06 22:22:58 016 666 620 621 673 868 882 853 001 274 641 001 425 455 467 457 461 471 683 000 755 767 737 709 707 670 918 698 01B 000 010 101 100 000 100 000 001 110 111 000 8J1JAS>BEACON:JAS-1 M0 88/12/06 22:23:00 Mailbox available. Software loaded at 88/12/06 05:12:00 Mode JD Transmitter will be toggled ON/OFF every two hours using this epoch. Software loaded at 88/12/06 05:12:00 Mode JD Transmitter will be toggled ON/OFF every two hours using this epoch. NO. DATE UTC FROM TO SUBJECT 005 12/06 22:29 WB6LLO ALL WHATEVER AGAIN 004 12/06 22:21 WB6LLO ALL WHATEVER 003 12/06 07:09 JJ1ZUT ALL XMAS CARD 002 12/06 07:06 JJ1ZUT ALL Operating schedule for the FO-12 001 12/06 06:56 JH3EXG ALL HELLO JAS> F* B : List file headers addressed to ALL F : List latest 15 file headers F* : List latest 50 file headers F : List file headers posted on day H : Show this message K : Kill a file numbered M : List file headers addressed to current user R : Read a file numbered U : List current user(s) W : Write a file JAS>R 002 NO. DATE UTC FROM TO SUBJECT 002 12/06 07:06 JJ1ZUT ALL Operating schedule for the FO-12 ********************************************** Operating schedule for the FUJI/FO-12 ********************************************** Mode From (UTC) Mode From (UTC) -------------------- -------------------- JA 1/ 3 23:22 JA 2/11 06:24 D 4 22:28 D 12 07:33 JA 7 13:35 JA 15 04:49 D 8 14:43 D 16 05:58 JD* 14 13:22 JA 18 04:09 JD 14 19:32 D 19 05:58 D 15 12:28 JD 25 01:54 JD 17 12:41 D 26 05:06 D 18 11:47 JD 28 07:24 JD 20 12:01 D 3/ 1 06:30 D 21 13:10 JD 25 09:32 D 26 10:40 JA 29 10:00 D 30 09:05 There are three modes of operation as follows: JA : analog transponder on, The transponders will be off at other time. The schedule may change due to unexpected power situations! JD : digital transponder on, every two hours using this epoch D : transponder off. Note: *On January 14 from 13:22 through 15:22 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(JJ1ZUT) via the FO-12 mailbox. *Periods of very low power generation often occurrs recently, so mode DI is replaced by mode D. *Operation is subject to change out of the schedule, due to power condition. When power condition recover, operation will go back to the Fearest schedule. *Please do not use when the bus voltage of the satellite is less than 13 Volts, which is obtained from telemetry data of JA. Battery voltage is shown by 1A of JA telemetry frame, and by #2 of JD telemetry frame. *Also please read telemetry item of 5A, 500 means operation being on schedule and 520 means operating out of schedule, though JA is on. Please use in case of 500 only. Japan Amateur Radio League P.O. BOX 377 Tokyo Central 73 de WB6LLO Dave SOYUZ TM7: I found it interesting to note that the Soyuz TM7 spacecraft was re-docked today from the Kvant Module to the docking ball. The TM-7 detached itself from the orbital complex at 09:45 MSK then following the orders of on-board instruments, the orbital complex (MIR) made a 180 degree turn and took its bearings using a manual control system, the cosmonauts moved the TM-7 closer to the MIR complex and at 09:59 MSK docked to the airlock. What I found interesting was the fact the MIR rotated the 180 degrees, I would have though that the TM-7 would fly around MIR and then redocked.... jb MIR, U3MIR Valeri, U3MIR, was heard here on 23 December. He made one transmission on 145.55 MHz at 1755 UTC, only signing his call (in Russian) and coming back to nobody. He did not appear on the following orbit. Evidently, the language barrier is strong. Incidentally, Mir now appears about 10 minutes early based on the last set of Keps with epoch date of 349. Please report any further reception or QSO details to this bulletin board. 73, Ray, W2RS