AMSAT NEWS SERVICE<br />ANS-356<br /><br />ANS is a free, weekly, news and information service of AMSAT North America,<br />The Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation. ANS reports on the activities of a<br />worldwide group of Amateur Radio operators who share an active interest in<br />designing, building, launching and communicating through analog and digital<br />Amateur Radio satellites.<br /><br />SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-356.01<br />DECEMBER PRESIDENT'S LETTER<br /><br />AMSAT News Service Bulletin 356.01 From AMSAT HQ<br />SILVER SPRING, MD. DECEMBER 22, 2002<br />To All RADIO AMATEURS<br />BID: $ANS-356.01<br /><br />Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to everyone.<br />Since I wrote the November Letter, a number of events have taken place which<br />have had an impact on AMSAT. Firstly at the end of November the TRW amateur<br />Radio Club in Los Angeles invited me to be the guest speaker at their awards<br />night. Very generously they paid all the expenses, and I was able to talk<br />about AMSAT and our new projects. One of my Power Point slides showed OSCAR<br />4 which was build at TRW in 1965. Several members of the Team that built<br />that satellite were present at the awards night meeting.<br /><br />Earlier this month the Amateur Radio on the International Space Station<br />(ARISS) team held one of their semi-annual meetings at Goddard Space Flight<br />Center (GFSC) near Washington D.C. with International Delegates from the US,<br />Canada, Japan, Europe and Russia. The objective of this meeting was to<br />review the progress being made with new Amateur Programs, to try and solve<br />any problems, to co-ordinate future programs, and to see that they meet the<br />IARU amateur requirements.<br /><br />On this occasion the elections for ARISS officers took place and the results<br />were as follows, Chairman - Frank Bauer KA3HDO, Vice Chairman Gaston<br />Bertels ON4WF, Secretary Rosalie White WA1STO. Congratulations to all<br />three. The three day meeting was considered a success and approval was<br />given to Bob Bruninga to incorporate an APRS transceiver into a US Navy<br />solar cell experiment which is to be launched in the middle of next year<br />(2003)<br />and which will be attached to ISS for one year. Details of Bob's PCSat2 may<br />be found elsewhere on the web.<br /><br />For those of you who wish to follow the events of ISS closely, you can<br />subscribe to Sarex@amsat.org. This is easily done by sending a one line<br />message to Majordomo @amsat org the one line being subscribe<br />sarex@amsat.org<br /><br />During the Christmas Shopping rush, it occurred to me that many of us often<br />wish we were buying ourselves a suitable present! well now is your chance<br />to do that and show that you are an AMSAT supporter - Why not become a<br />donor to the AMSAT President's club? - get the Lapel pin and put it on your<br />club Jacket - they sure look good at a club meeting! - The President's Club<br />donor form is now available on the AMSAT web page.<br /><br />Once more may I wish a Happy Holiday to everyone<br /><br />73,<br />Robin Haighton VE3FRH<br />President AMSAT-NA<br /><br />[ANS thanks Robin, VE3FRH, for the above information]<br /><br />/EX<br /><br />SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-356.02<br />DNEPR LAUNCHES SAFIR-M<br /><br />AMSAT News Service Bulletin 356.02 From AMSAT HQ<br />SILVER SPRING, MD. DECEMBER 22, 2002<br />To All RADIO AMATEURS<br />BID: $ANS-356.02<br /><br />The german amateur radio satellite SAFIR-M was launched by a converted<br />Russian ballistic missile into orbit Friday, December 19, 2002, with a<br />cluster of five other satellites for a variety of organizations around the<br />world.<br /><br />The Dnepr booster blasted out of its missile silo from the Baikonur<br />Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at approximately 1700 GMT (12:00 p.m. EST).<br />Initial reports indicate that the payloads achieved their intended orbits of<br />400 miles high with an inclination of 65 degrees.<br /><br />SAFIR-M is a project of a group called Arbeitskreis Amateurfunk und<br />Telekommunikation in der Schule, or AATiS e.V. Its English transla-<br />tion means "Working Group for Amateur Radio and Telecommunications<br />in Schools."<br /><br />SAFIR-M was developed in close cooperation with the University of<br />Applied Sciences in Pforzheim, Germany under the leadership of Henning<br />Rech DF9IC and his team. The main purpose of the satellite is to give<br />students easy access to space communications. It will have a downlink<br />at 145.825 MHz with AX.25, 9k6 packet as well as an optional voice mes-<br />sage beacon. The uplink is at 435.275 MHz (AX.25, 1k2), offering Mode B<br />operation. The callsign will be DP0AIS.<br /><br />SAFIR-M is designed as a "store and broadcast" system for APRS<br />based messages, dedicated for the use of schools in combination<br />with the existing WX-Net and planned buoy experiments in Germany.<br />It extends German space educational activities to an European and<br />global base.<br /><br />Details on SAFIR-M can be found on http://amend.gmxhome.de. Informa-<br />tion about AATiS e.V. is available under http://www.aatis.de. The<br />SAFIR-M homepage is still in German, but work is underway to add the<br />information in English.<br /><br />[ANS thanks Oliver DG6BCE (DG6BCE@aatis.de) for the above information.]<br /><br />/EX<br /><br />SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-356.03<br />PCSAT STATUS<br /><br />AMSAT News Service Bulletin 356.03 From AMSAT HQ<br />SILVER SPRING, MD. DECEMBER 22, 2002<br />To All RADIO AMATEURS<br />BID: $ANS-356.03<br /><br />PCSat is still fully functional and so the "Priority" store-and-forward test<br />to let HT or Mobile users anywhere in the remotest areas of the planet to<br />report their position and status has been continued.<br /><br />To use this function, a wilderness traveler simply sets his TH-D7 or TMD-700<br />APRS radio to select a "PRIORITY" or "SPECIAL" or "CUSTOM" flag in their<br />position/status packet. Then set their beacon to once every 3 minutes on<br />the special travelers un-published PCsat uplink frequency.<br /><br />Any special, priority, emergency, or custom position/status report will be<br />stored and repeated once every 3 minutes on the 144.39 downlink. When<br />PCsat flies over the USA with dozens of IGates listening on 144.39, then<br />the network will capture it to the http://pcsat.aprs.org web page for all<br />to see.<br /><br />If you live OUTSIDE of Europe or USA in a remote area of the world and<br />just happen to have an APRS HT (D7 or D700 mobile) and can participate in<br />this test, please let us know.<br /><br />[ANS thanks Bob, WB4APR, for the above information]<br /><br />/EX<br /><br />SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-356.04<br />AO-40 Q&A<br /><br />AMSAT News Service Bulletin 356.04 From AMSAT HQ<br />SILVER SPRING, MD. DECEMBER 22, 2002<br />To All RADIO AMATEURS<br />BID: $ANS-356.04<br /><br />Stacey Mill, W4SM, recently took some time to answer a few questions<br />recently posted via the AMSAT-BB email reflector.<br /><br />Q: Why is LEILA only switched into the U-band uplink when stations on<br />L-Band are much stronger? Is there a technical problem with LEILA?<br /><br />A: There are no technical problems, per se. Everything related to Leila<br />works as it should, as far as I know. However, if you review the telemetry<br />specs. you will see that U-band can be connected to either Leila-1 or<br />Leila-2. L1 can only be connected to Leila-1 and L2 can only be connected<br />to Leila-2. Therefore, we have several options. We can run L1 and U<br />through Leila-1 and disconnect L2, we can run L2 and U through Leila-2 and<br />disconnect L1, or we can run both LEILAs. Because LEILAs are not perfect<br />and they often chase "ghosts" having both LEILAs connected means twice as<br />many false alarms on the passband, disrupting QSO's and draining transmitter<br />power for the siren. The command team would prefer not to pursue this<br />option at the moment.<br /><br />The huge AGC suppressions on U-band (I saw -23 dB last night!) mandate that<br />Leila remain active on this band. Otherwise, a few powerful signals will<br />suppress the U-band AGC to the point that others cannot use the passband.<br />This is a major cause of the "fades" heard on the downlink from time to<br />time. The AGC on L-band shows little or no response to the uplink signals,<br />so signals on L-band are not suppressing L-band receiver sensitivity. They<br />may ultimately affect the S2 ALC, but I see no evidence of that in the<br />recent telemetry. Nonetheless, it is likely that as L-band use grows Leila<br />will need to be added to this uplink from time to time. To do so will<br />require shutting down one of the L-band links and it will also mean that<br />Leila will be spread "thinner" in the sense of having two uplinks to police.<br />This means that while Leila is notching out a strong L-band signal which is<br />not suppressing the L-band AGC or affecting the S2 ALC, other U-band signals<br />may be severely depressing the U-band AGC.<br /><br />Leila is not a cure all, and is no substitute for common sense and good<br />operating practices. Fortunately, the great majority of AO-40 operators<br />are very good in this regard. However, telemetry capture is still hampered<br />by occasional individuals who insist on zero beating the beacon or<br />repeatedly swishing through it. Although S2 has 250 kHz of passband, from<br />time to time someone feels the need to tune directly on top of another QSO.<br />Leila cannot affect these occasional poor operating practices. Leila does<br />not treat all signals the same. CW signals stronger than the beacon are not<br />uncommon and will escape LEILA's attention. SSTV signals are relatively<br />immune to Leila. Even the tone of ones voice seems to affect LEILA's<br />"attention." LEILA's current sensitivity setting seems about optimal.<br />Turning the sensitivity up will result in too many false alarms, decreasing<br />sensitivity would lead to even more AGC suppression. Leila, like<br />everything else in life, is a com!<br />promise.<br /><br />Q: How long we can remain at ALON/ALAT = 0/0?<br /><br />A: We can hold this position until early March 2003, at which point we must<br />begin slowly moving ALON toward 35+ degrees, running ahead of the sun. This<br />will allow some time for the sun to move up the ecliptic. In mid- to late<br />April, we can then raise ALAT to about +25 deg, drift past the sun for a<br />couple of weeks, drop ALAT back to 0 at ALON ~325, then chase the sun back<br />to 0/0, as before.<br /><br />[ANS thanks Stacey, W4SM, for the above information]<br /><br />/EX<br /><br />SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-356.05<br />AO-40 RUDAK STATUS<br /><br />AMSAT News Service Bulletin 356.05 From AMSAT HQ<br />SILVER SPRING, MD. DECEMBER 22, 2002<br />To All RADIO AMATEURS<br />BID: $ANS-356.05<br /><br />RUDAK report Dec 14, 2002<br /><br />The RUDAK window was used tonight to load the kernel and initial<br />housekeeping task into both processors to reduce power consumption. The<br />short window allowed only the main housekeeping task to be loaded and<br />started in the B processor. The A load remains to be completed during the<br />next visible window. After that all task software will be loaded into A in<br />order to begin testing of new command software. In the process we will<br />test the experiment hardware including the DSPs to assure it all still<br />works.<br /><br />[ANS thanks Jim for the above information]<br /><br />/EX<br /><br />SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-356.06<br />WEEKLY OPERATING NEWS<br /><br />AMSAT News Service Bulletin 356.06 From AMSAT HQ<br />SILVER SPRING, MD. DECEMBER 22, 2002<br />To All RADIO AMATEURS<br />BID: $ANS-356.06<br /><br />** ANS welcomes the opportunity to publish your good news of success in<br />working a new satellite, new DX, new mode, etc. We also print reports<br />about what space related activities your local satellite groups and ham<br />clubs are doing. Send your operating reports to JoAnne (wb9jej@amsat.org)<br />and they will be printed here.<br /><br />** Bruce Paige KK5DO, AMSAT Awards Manager, says that congratulations go<br />out to Don Hinte KA5EYH for earning Oscar Satellite Communications Achieve-<br />ment Award #360 and to Brock Thomsen KG6GMT for earning Achievement Award<br />#361. To see this award and a list of other awards, visit<br />http://www.amsatnet.com/awards.html.<br /><br />** Sergio TG9ATX wrote about his QRP success in working the ISS packet<br />system from Guatemala. Sergio said, "Francisco TG9ANF and I have been<br />working the ISS between 0100 and 0300 UTC. I am working with low power,<br />5 watts into a vertical antenna." He can access the ISS PMS system and<br />packet digipeater with this setup. Sergio will be glad to work all<br />stations within range via the digipeater on 145.990 uplink and 145.800<br />downlink. QSL information is on-line at http://www.qrz.com.<br /><br />[ANS thanks KK5DO, and congratulates KA5EYH, KG6GMT, TG9ATX, and TG9ANF<br />for this week's operating news.]<br /><br />/EX<br /><br />SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-356.07<br />OSCAR-11 REPORT<br /><br />AMSAT News Service Bulletin 356.07 From AMSAT HQ<br />SILVER SPRING, MD. DECEMBER 22, 2002<br />To All RADIO AMATEURS<br />BID: $ANS-356.07<br /><br /> OSCAR-11 REPORT 17 December 2002<br /><br />OSCAR-11 is currently operating in a default mode, controlled by the<br />watch-dog timer. The satellite transmits continuous ASCII telemetry<br />for about seven days on 145.826 MHz., followed by about 14 days of<br />silence. However the mode-S beacon on 2401.5 MHz. is ON<br />continuously. If the present status continues the satellite should be<br />heard again, starting about 19 December, for seven days.<br /><br />During the period 20 November to 16 December the 145.826 MHz. beacon<br />has been heard transmitting continuous ASCII telemetry from 29<br />November to 05 December.<br /><br />The internal temperatures have remained constant at +8.6C, 7.0C<br />and 13.4C for battery, telemetry electronics, and command decoder<br />respectively. Eclipse predictions, show the solar illumination to<br />peak around the start of November, and then gradually decrease. In<br />previous years the peak temperatures have always been a little later<br />than predicted. The peak has probably now been reached, and<br />temperatures are expected to fall slowly as the solar eclipse times<br />lengthen.<br /><br />The battery voltage observed during daylight passes is unchanged.<br />Observations have varied between 13.7 and 14.0 volts, with an average<br />value of 13.8 volts.<br /><br />The attitude is now being controlled solely by the passive gravity<br />boom gradient, and there is no control over spin rate. The continuous<br />telemetry has enabled the spin period to be calculated from the X & Y<br />magnetometer readings. The spin period has varied from 247 to 273<br />seconds. Comparison with WOD taken some time ago indicates that the<br />spin direction is unchanged, i.e. Y-axis leading in phase. The<br />attitude is normal.<br /><br />The mode-S beacon is ON, nominally transmitting an unmodulated<br />carrier on 2401.5 MHz. There is however a VERY low level of AFSK<br />modulation which has been detected on strong signals. Telemetry<br />indicates that the beacon has partially failed, and is delivering<br />half power. This beacon is a useful test source for those testing<br />mode-S converters, as an alternative to OSCAR-40. However the signals<br />are very weak, and there is a lot of Doppler. Users should also note<br />that the polarization of OSCAR-11 is LHC. Even if you can't hear<br />OSCAR-11, your equipment may still be OK for OSCAR-40. Any reports<br />of reception on 2401.5 MHz. would be most welcome. Please e-mail<br />g3cwv@amsat.org.<br /><br />The 435.025 MHz. beacon is normally OFF. It can only be heard on<br />rare occasions when the satellite is being commanded by ground<br />control, i.e.. within range of Guildford, UK. When the 435 beacon is<br />transmitting, the 145 beacon is normally OFF. The data transmitted<br />is mainly binary.<br /><br />Listeners to OSCAR-11 may be interested in visiting my web site.<br /><br />The web site contains details of hardware required and some software<br />for capturing data, and decoding ASCII telemetry and WOD. There is<br />an archive of raw data for analysis, which is continually being<br />expanded, as new data is captured. Originally this was for WOD, but<br />it is now being expanded to include ASCII telemetry. At the present<br />time the telemetry is just for 2002, and 2001. I will add other<br />years as time permits. In parallel there is a news archive which<br />provides an overview of the state of the satellite, at the times when<br />the telemetry was captured.<br /><br />Telemetry from 1993 to 2000 should be relatively easy to archive, as<br />I already have the data on disk. Data prior to 1993 will take a lot<br />longer to archive, as I have to convert it from tape to disk. A<br />tedious process! The early data is often of poor quality, and there<br />are many long gaps where no recordings were made.<br /><br />If anyone out there can provide any data, particularly for the 1984<br />to 1993 years, this would be most appreciated. Please e-mail me<br />with details. However please DO NOT SEND ANY FILES, before further<br />discussion.<br /><br />Also included are some audio files, examples of each type of data<br />transmitted by OSCAR-11, each one plays for about ten seconds. There<br />are also examples of mode-S reception. All the audio files are<br />zipped, so that they can be played off-line. These should help<br />listeners identify the various types of data, and give an indication<br />of the signal quality required for successful decoding.<br /><br />The URL is -<br /><br /> http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/clivew/<br /><br />If you place this bulletin on a terrestrial packet network, please<br />use the bulletin identifier $BID:U2RPT80.CWV, to prevent duplication.<br /><br />73 Clive G3CWV g3cwv@amsat.org<br /><br />[ANS thanks Clive, G3CWV, for the above information]<br /><br />/EX<br /><br />SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-356.08<br />ARISS CONTACT SCHEDULE<br /><br />AMSAT News Service Bulletin 356.08 From AMSAT HQ<br />SILVER SPRING, MD. DECEMBER 22, 2002<br />To All RADIO AMATEURS<br />BID: $ANS-356.08<br /><br />Upcoming ARISS Contact Schedule as of 2002-12-18 16:00 UTC<br /><br />The ARISS (a joint effort of AMSAT, the ARRL, NASA, the ARISS international<br />partners including Canada, Russia, the European Partners, and Japan)<br />operations team wishes to announce the following very tentative schedule for<br />ARISS school contacts. This schedule is very fluid and may change at the<br />last minute. Remember that amateur radio use on the ISS is considered<br />secondary. Please check the various AMSAT and ARISS web pages for the<br />latest announcements. Changes from the last announcement are noted with<br />(***).<br />Also, please check MSNBC.com for possible live retransmissions<br />(http://www.msnbc.com/m/lv/default.asp). Listen for the ISS on the downlink<br />of 145.80 MHz.<br /><br />For information about educational materials available from ISS partner space<br />Agencies, please refer to links on the ARISS Frequently Asked Questions<br />page.<br /><br />If you are interested in supporting an ARISS contact, then you must fill<br />in an application