Posted: Sat Oct 29, 1988 12:29 PM GMT Msg: CGII-3798-8989 From: DLOUGHMILLER To: is Subj: ans.303 SB ALL @ AMSAT $ANS-303.01 Amateur Radio Operations From Mir Space Station HR AMSAT NEWS SERVICE BULLETIN 303.01 FROM AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD OCTOBER 29, 1988 TO ALL RADIO AMATEURS BT Amateur Radio Operations From Aboard Mir Said To Be Imminent AMSAT-NA has learned that amateur radio operations from the Soviet space station Mir are about to commence. Reliable western European sources report that a 2 watt 2 meter FM transceiver has been placed aboard Mir, possibly during a recent resupply mission. Sources also indicate that the crew has placed a 1/4 wavelength ground-plane antenna on the outer surface of the space station. U1MIR will be the call sign used by the Mir cosmonauts during these amateur radio communications. Amateur operations are expected to begin the first week of November. A meeting was to be held in Moscow on Friday October 28th with Soviet authorities to resolve schedule and frequency issues related to this activity. It is anticipated that a split frequency operation will be utilized to avoid potential QRM problems on U1MIR's downlink frequency. Reports indicate that U1MIR will most probably be active for the duration of the stay of the current cosmonaut team aboard Mir. It is thought that when the current team of cosmonauts is replaced with a relief crew that a 10 watt 2 meter FM transceiver will be placed aboard Mir and the call sign of the operation changed to U0MIR. Observers feel that operations from U1MIR/U0MIR will most likely involve amateur radio contacts on an international scale and not be limited to Soviet amateur radio operators alone. AMSAT will provide further information as it becomes available. Watch AMSAT News Service Bulletins for late breaking details. Below is NASA element set 460 for Mir as provided by W0RPK : Satellite: mir Catalog number: 16609 Epoch time: 88291.64513306 Element set: 460 Inclination: 51.6150 deg RA of node: 158.4827 deg Eccentricity: 0.0024915 Arg of perigee: 202.3449 deg Mean anomaly: 157.7286 deg Mean motion: 15.74171102 rev/day Decay rate: 3.3749e-04 rev/day^2 Epoch rev: 15311 ***NOTE TO NCS*** Additional late breaking information on this activity is expected later in the weekend. Watch for a later up-date of this bulletin during the course of the weekend. We are posting this information at this time so that the various nets which meet early in the weekend will have the basic information available for their net sessions.-de KO5I /EX SB ALL @AMSAT $ANS-303.02 AMSAT Space Symposium Nov 11,12 and 13 HR AMSAT NEWS SERVICE BULLETIN 303.02 FROM AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD OCTOBER 29, 1988 TO ALL RADIO AMATEURS BT Sixth Annual AMSAT Space Symposium Scheduled for November 11,12,13 AMSAT-NA along with the Atlanta Radio Club (ARC) are putting the finishing touches on the preparations for the Sixth Annual AMSAT Space Symposium. This year there will be an impressive line up of papers to be presented, and, they are the best ever. The topics this year include AMSAT's Phase IV studies, MicroSat/PACSAT, advances in Digital Signal Processing and what it means for OSCAR users, NOAA-11 Weather Satellite picture processing, and many more excellent papers. Also, the ARC has arranged a tour of the facilities of the Cable News Network (CNN) for AMSAT Symposium attendees for Friday, November 11 at 5:00 PM EDT. For XYL's who wish, the ARC has arranged for them a "Ladies Shopping Tour" to several shopping malls on Saturday. For those attending the AMSAT Banquet Saturday evening, AMSAT is proud to have as its keynote speaker this year Geoffrey Perry of England's Kettering Group. The world famous Kettering Group has been quite busy observing and cataloging man-made space objects for the past three decades. Also, Leo Labutin, UA3CR, is planning to attend the Symposium and he will be discussing his experiences during the Polar SKITREK Expedition which occurred earlier this year. And, as in past years, there will be door prizes to be given away. So if you would like to register, please contact Martha at AMSAT Headquarters at (301) 589-6062. For additional information, send a S.A.S.E. to AMSAT Space Symposium Box 29221 Atlanta, GA 30359 /EX SB ALL @AMSAT $ANS-303.03 Midwest Balloon Flight HR AMSAT NEWS SERVICE BULLETIN 303.03 FROM AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD OCTOBER 29,1988 TO ALL RADIO AMATEURS BT Midwest Packet Balloon Mission a Big Success Bill Brown , WB8ELK and Phil Frazier, KA8TEF conducted the most successful amateur radio balloon launch to date from the Midwest on Sunday October 23. The package consisted of an Icom 2AT and Pac-Comm TNC. The package lifted off at about 9:30 AM EDT and provided 2 hours of energetic packet activity before the balloon burst and a parachute gently lowered the package back to earth. Some amateurs were satisfied with a simple connection with the balloon while others, running high power levels were able to work as many as eight states with the balloon serving as digipeater. Unfortunately, as we in satellite communications well know, the hi-power operators kept many from enjoying the mission who would have otherwise made connects. The flexibility of packet operation did allow many stations to serve as gateways to the balloon for the low power local operators. All in all, the enthusiasm over packet operations was high and showed that the packet operating mode is here to stay. The range of operations extended out to 400 miles from the launch site at Findlay, OH. WB8ELK reported that as of Monday October 24th the package had not been found but the search area had been narrowed down with eventual recovery of the package expected. /EX SB ALL @AMSAT $ANS-303.04 Short Burst Items HR AMSAT NEWS SERVICE BULLETIN 303.04 FROM AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD OCTOBER 29,1988 TO ALL RADIO AMATEURS BT Short Bursts AO-13 Telemetry Decoding Program Available Have you ever wondered what the PSK telemetry from AO-13's General Beacon was saying? Well now there is a computer program available from Project OSCAR which, in conjunction with the G3RUH 400 bps PSK modem, will let you decode the telemetry of OSCAR-13. Thanks to AMSAT-Australia, they have published P3C.EXE and Telem-13. P3C.EXE is for IBM PC compatibles and Telem-13 is for the Commodore C-64 computer. If you would like to obtain information about program availability, contact: PROJECT OSCAR P.O. BOX 1136 LOS ALTOS, CA 94023-1136 Ross Forbes, WB6GFJ, President of Project OSCAR, is in need of a copy of the "Proceedings of the ARRL Technical Symposium on Space Communica- tions," Reston, VA, September 1973 published by ARRL. Ross is in need of a original copy because he needs a reference copy for the Project OSCAR Museum. If you have a copy of these proceedings and wish to donate it, please forward it to: AMSAT/OSCAR Archives c/o Project OSCAR, Inc. P.O. Box 1136 Los Altos, CA 94023-1136 AMSAT Technical Journal Editor Bob Diersing, N5AHD reports that the next edition of the ATJ is now in the production process and will be available for distribution in a few weeks. Additional Net Control stations are needed in support of the Space Education Network which conducts nets via AMSAT-OSCAR 13. There is an immediate need for Mode L equipped stations. If you would like to volunteer please contact K.O. Learner, K9PVW at P.O. Box 5006, Kokomo, IN 46904 or via packet radio @KD9QB. Your help with this most worthy cause would be most appreciated. UA3CR points out that October 26th marks the 10th anniversary of the launch of RS-1 and RS-2. This event marked the entry of Soviet amateurs into the international arena of amateur spacecraft construction and deployment. RS-1's beacon may still be heard from time to time on 29.401 Mhz. AMSAT-NA extends congratulations to our UA colleagues on their 10 years of fine contributions to the world-wide amateur space program. We look forward to hearing of future projects from AMSAT-U. Reports indicate that Fuji-OSCAR 12 will not be available until the 15th of November. OSCAR-12 has been placed in the recharge mode until that time. AMSAT-NA wishes to point out that this is time change weekend in the US. International nets originating in the US will retain the same UTC starting time (such as 19:00 UTC for the 20 meter net), while regional nets will observe the same local starting time (such as 9:00pm EST for the 75 meter East coast AMSAT net). /EX