--------- SpaceNews --------- MONDAY DECEMBER 26, 1988 SpaceNews originates at KD2BD in Wall Township, NJ, and is available on packet radio bulletin board stations across the North America and around the world on the MTTBS telephone BBS at (201) 494-3649, and the Unix USENET News Network. * MIR NEWS * ------------ The joint mission of six Cosmonauts on board MIR has come to an end as Cosmonauts Musa Manarov, Vladimir Titov and Jean Loup Chretien returned safely to earth early on the morning of 22 December. The two Soviet Cosmonauts have spent 80 minutes short of one year in space. The last few months had some big surprises for the Amateur Radio community around the world, when U1MIR, U2MIR and U3MIR suddenly came on the air, thanks to the effort of Musa Manarov. U3MIR, Dr. Valeri Poliakov, will remain in space, but he speaks only Russian. Rumors indicate that the 2-meter rig on MIR will be upgraded to provide an output power of 10 watts, compared with 2.5 watts at present. * OSCAR-9 NEWS * ---------------- UoSAT-OSCAR 9 Weekly Operating Schedule : TUE : Diary reload occurs. VHF-FM beacon is OFF the air. WED : CCD Video transmission - 1200 baud synchronous data. THU : Digitalker sends telemetry in English until 14:00 UTC. After 18:00, the Diary will transmit a sequence of TELEMETRY, BULLETIN and WOD using 1200 baud ASCII until next Tuesday, when a reload occurs. The 145.825 MHz NBFM General Data Beacon is ON the air according to the above schedule. In addition, the 14.002 and 21.002 MHz beacons are curr- ently active sending Morse telemetry and A0 using 100 mW of power. The 2.4 GHz FM beacon is OFF the air. * OSCAR-10 NEWS * ----------------- Ian, ZL1AOX recently reset OSCAR-10's IHU and has given approval for QRP satellite use, except during the following parts of the orbit, or when the spacecraft is "FMing". Please keep your TX power as low as possible. DO NOT USE AO-10 : MA 30 to 90 Nov 29th to Dec 28th. Listen to the AO-13 beacon for further updates. * OSCAR-11 NEWS * ----------------- * SCHEDULE for Thursday..Tuesday 145.825 MHz FM * Telemetry : 40 seconds Digitalker : 20 seconds Computer Status : 15 seconds News Bulletin : 105 seconds Digitalker : 10 seconds DCE Message Titles : 60 seconds * SCHEDULE for Wednesdays 145.825 MHz FM * From 0000 to 1400 UTC: Telemetry : 150 seconds Digitalker : 10 seconds Whole Orbit Data (WOD) Surveys will be transmitted continuously from 1400 to 2359 UTC every Wednesday. * Digital Store & Readout (DSR) Data * Sundays : 0000 to 1200 UTC Wednesdays : 0600 to 1800 UTC ...using 4800 baud on 435.025 MHz FM. * OSCAR-12 NEWS * ----------------- After a month of silence, OSCAR-12 is working normally again. Some months ago, problems were found in the power system, and later some malfunctions in the command system occurred. In an attempt to remedy these conditions, ground control decided to halt operation for a month in order to invest- igate possible causes and adjust power conditions. After a month of rest, FO-12 is able to operate normally again. As power generation from the solar cells and storage capacity of the batteries is decreasing with age, more recovery time will be required in the future to expand the life-time of the spacecraft. Intermittent operation is unavoidable. The current operating schedule for FO-12 is as follows: Mode Until Date Time ----+-------+----- D : 25Dec : 0217 JD : 30Dec : 2254 D : 31Dec : 0002 JA : 03Jan : 2322 D : 04Jan : 2228 ------------------ Mode D : All transponders are OFF. Mode JA : Analog transponder is ON. Mode JD : Digital transponder is ON. * OSCAR-13 NEWS * ----------------- This operating schedule should remain in effect until 06Jan89. No Mode S operations are expected until later this month. OSCAR 13 Operating Schedule : Mode Mean Anomaly ----+-------------- OFF : 241 to 003 B : 003 to 175 JL : 175 to 200 B : 200 to 241 ------------------- Bahn coordinates for OSCAR-13: Date BLON BLAT --------+-------+------- 27Dec88 : 209.9 : -6.4 03Jan89 : 210.1 : -6.9 ------------------------ * FEEDBACK WELCOMED * --------------------- Feedback regarding SpaceNews can be directed to me (John) via the following paths: UUCP : ucbvax!rutgers!petsd!tsdiag!ka2qhd!kd2bd PACKET : kd2bd@nn2z * NEW PATH! * ------------- This week's SpaceNews can also be found under the USENET newsgroup of sci.space.shuttle. If it is of interest, I will continue to post SpaceNews weekly on this newsgroup also. All comments/suggestions are welcomed. * JOIN THE RANKS! * ------------------- Amateur Satellite operations can be very educational, rewarding and fun, but in order to communicate through any one of our "OSCAR"s, you must first have an Amateur Radio license. For information on the requirements for earning an Amateur Radio license in the U.S., write: THE AMERICAN RADIO RELAY LEAGUE 225 MAIN STREET NEWINGTON, CONNECTICUT 06111 * SOURCES * ----------- Some of the news contained in this SpaceNews issue was obtained via OSCAR-9, OSCAR-11 and the KA2QHD and NN2Z PBBSs. * BID$ * -------- SpaceNews is available for UNLIMITED distribution. Please use Bulletin ID: SPC881226 when posting this bulletin on packet radio BBSs that support bulletin IDs. Thank you. * NOEL * -------- Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to ALL! >> SpaceNews is a production of KD2BD Software. All rights reversed. <<