SB NEWS @ AMSAT $SPC0502
* SpaceNews 02-May-94 *
 
 
BID: $SPC0502
 
 
                               =========
                               SpaceNews
                               =========
 
 
                           MONDAY MAY 2, 1994
 
 
SpaceNews originates at KD2BD in Wall Township, New Jersey, USA.  It is
published every week and is made available for unlimited distribution.
 
 
* AO-27 OPERATING NOTES * 
=========================
AO-27 has had its FM transponder in operation on the weekends when the
spacecraft is in sunlight.  The transponder on AO-27 receives on an uplink 
frequency of 145.850 MHz FM, and downlinks on 436.800 MHz FM.  As of yet, 
no official operating schedule has been announced, but that hasn't stopped 
amateur experimenters from communicating with others through the satellite.
 
As an example, John, N8QGC, has been working stations on AO-27 all the way 
from his Detroit area QTH to as far away as Mexico City, Mexico, Baffin 
Island, and the North West Territories.  N8QGC usually works AO-27 from a
mobile station using 10 watts of transmitter power from his Kenwood TM-731A 
and a homebrew 1/4 wave antenna.  Even with his low power and small antenna 
system, John has no problem securing a strong signal into the satellite.  
He has even tried accessing the satellite with his ICOM IC-U2AT running 
2.5 watts and a rubber duck antenna and also had a good uplink signal 
(especially during periods when larger stations were not clobbering the 
satellite uplink with excessively strong signals).  Due to the extreme
sensitivity of this satellite, uplink ERP should be kept below 25 watts.
 
AO-27 control station Mark, N4TPY, has reported that the satellite has a
transponder output power of between 2 and 3 watts at the present time, and
as such, is nearly impossible to receive on a HT with a rubber duck.  
Omni-directional antennas have provided only limited results.
 
N8QGC uses a 6 element KLM 440-6X yagi rated at 8.9 dB gain to copy AO-27's 
downlink signals.  He aims it out his car window and receives the satellite 
well.  The doppler shift experienced when communicating through this 
satellite can be quite high.  John usually starts listening for AO-27 at
436.805 MHz, and tracks it down to 436.790 MHz at LOS.  
 
Santoyo V. Ramon, XE1KK, of Mexico City has reported hearing Spanish 
speaking stations through AO-27 with very strong signals.  They are not 
hams, nor are they hearing the satellite downlink.  He believes they are 
located in the Caribbean zone, probably Cuba or Puerto Rico, and have been 
heard talking about union elections.  He is actively tracking down the 
source of these signals.
 
[Info via N8QGC, XE1KK, and ANS]
 
 
* KEPLERIAN DATA AVAILABLE *
============================
Up-to-date Keplerian data in the NASA 2-line format is available via the 
Internet at archive.afit.af.mil (129.92.1.66) using anonymous ftp.  Files 
such as amateur.tle, glonass.tle, gorizont.tle, gps-ops.tle, gps.tle,
tvro.tle, visual.tle, and weather.tle are located in the /pub/space 
subdirectory at this site.
 
 
* OSCAR-11 NEWS *
=================
The Digitalker has been activated on the UoSAT-OSCAR-11 satellite.  UO-11
has an FM downlink on 145.826 MHz, and the voice messages are interspersed
with telemetry and news bulletins sent at 1200 bps using AFSK modulation.
 
 
* MIR NEWS *
============
James, G1HJH, of Shoreham by Sea, West Sussex, England provides the 
following listing of messages contained on the Mir Personal Message System
on 18-Apr-94:
 
Msg # Stat Date     Time  To     From   @ BS  Subject
 2273 PR   04/17/94 10:34 ALL    N6JLH         MIR Keps 4-14 UTC
 2272 P    04/16/94 11:33 R0MIR  N7YRV         Hi
 2271 P    04/16/94 11:31 W6KZW  WD6GYU        Hello de Manton!
 2270 P    04/16/94 10:59 VK3CFI VK3ZGL        hello maggie
 2269 P    04/16/94 09:58 N7QME  N7TTQ         hi hhere
 2268 PR   04/16/94 09:57 R0MIR  N7TTQ         greetings from Tigard, OR
 2267 P    04/15/94 23:05 R0MIR  F1OKN         ** DOBRI VIETCHERE **
 2266 PR   04/15/94 14:18 R0MIR  KB2MVN        School Greetings
 2265 P    04/15/94 14:10 R0MIR  KD6CLO        QSL CARD
 2264 PR   04/15/94 12:44 ALL    KB2MVN        CALLING CQ.....
 2265 P    04/18/94 01:05 R0MIR  G1HJH         HOPE ALL IS FINE
5449 Bytes free
Next message Number 2274
 
 
* OSCAR-13 SCHEDULE * 
=====================
The following is the latest AO-13 operating schedule:
 
M QST *** AO-13 TRANSPONDER SCHEDULE ***  1994 Apr 07-Jul 11
Mode-B  : MA   0 to MA 170 |
Mode-BS : MA 170 to MA 218 |
Mode-S  : MA 218 to MA 220 |<- S beacon only
Mode-S  : MA 220 to MA 230 |<- S transponder; B trsp. is OFF
Mode-BS : MA 230 to MA 250 |        Blon/Blat 230/-5
Mode-B  : MA 250 to MA 256 |
Omnis   : MA 250 to MA 120 |  Move to attitude 180/0, Jul 11
 
[Info via G3RUH]
 
 
* FO-20 SCHEDULE *
==================
The Fuji-OSCAR-20 satellite will be operating in Mode JA between 11-May-94  
at 06:54 UTC through 18-May-94 at 07:20 UTC.  The packet mailbox is active
at other times.
 
[Info via Kazu Sakamoto, JJ1WTK]
 
 
* FEEDBACK/INPUT WELCOMED *
===========================
Mail to SpaceNews should be directed to the editor (John, KD2BD) via any
of the following paths:
 
FAX      : 1-908-747-7107
PACKET   : KD2BD @ N2KZH.NJ.USA.NA
INTERNET : kd2bd@amsat.org
 
MAIL     : John A. Magliacane, KD2BD
           Department of Engineering and Technology
           Advanced Technology Center
           Brookdale Community College
           Lincroft, New Jersey  07738
           U.S.A.
 
 
       <<=- SpaceNews: The first amateur newsletter read in space! -=>> 
 
/EX
