
SB NEWS @ AMSAT $SPC1031
* SpaceNews 31-Oct-94 *
 
 
BID: $SPC1031
 
 
                               =========
                               SpaceNews
                               =========
 
 
                         MONDAY OCTOBER 31, 1994
 
 
SpaceNews originates at KD2BD in Wall Township, New Jersey, USA.  It is
published every week and is made available for unlimited free distribution.
 
 
* ITAMSAT NEWS *
================
Due to heavy workload and the desire to turn to different interests,
Alberto I2KBD, appointed Gianluigi IK2VOO as main command station and 
Stefano IK2OYD as backup for the ITAMSAT-OSCAR-26 satellite.  After some 
training on the 20th of October, IK2VOO succesfully turned on ITAMSAT and 
exercised some onboard functions.  Both transmitters (435.867 MHz and 
435.822 MHz) were commanded on and some telemetry was collected.  The 
spacecraft was found to be in good shape with the battery well charged and 
the main operating parameters in nominal status.  After a week of tests, 
with the main purpose of better training in the commanding procedures, 
IO-26 was reset in preparation to the main software reload.
 
[Info via Alberto E. Zagni, I2KBD, of the ITAMSAT Command Team]
 
 
* FO-20 NEWS * 
==============
On 16-Oct-94, the initial software loader was successfully uploaded to 
FO-20 by ground command stations.  On 19-Oct-94, software reloading was 
completed by 0300 UTC and digital (Mode JD) transponder operation resumed.
 
The FUJI-OSCAR-20 satellite was launched four and a half years ago.  Its
storage battery performance is still better than FO-12 in its early days.
The characteristics of batteries have changed gradually, and the setting 
of battery volatage of power control unit (PCU) has changed to level 3.
 
[Info via Kazu Sakamoto, JJ1WTK]  
 
 
* MIR NEWS *
============
During the night between 11-Oct-94 and 12-Oct-94, the power supply voltage
on the Mir space station sharply decreased.  This is believed to be due to
insufficient battery charging by the solar panels on Mir.  All systems in 
the base block discontinued functioning and it became impossible to control 
the attitude of the MIR-complex.  It also became impossible to aim the 
communications antenna toward the geostationary relay satellite for contact
with mission control. 
 
During this period, a listeners in Europe were able to monitor quite a bit
of activity on 143.625 MHz.  Problems onboard Mir were reported and 
discussed, and the opinions of Russian specialists were varied.  The VKS 
(Russian space force) spoke of a very complicated situation.  Deputy 
Flight controller Blagov of TsUP blamed the age of the station, which has
been in orbit since the beginning of 1986, while the PRO of TsUP sounded 
rather optimistic.  He stated that the Euromir94 expedition will remain
on schedule dispite the problems on Mir.  Amateur communications have taken
place over Europe, and it is hoped that this activity will become more
widespread once the power problems on Mir are solved.
 
During the evening hours between 12-Oct-94 and 13-Oct-94, Viktorenko and
Kondakova remained on duty and available if necessary.  Meanwhile, a lot 
of recharging occurred and specialists hoped to be able to adjust the 
attitude of the complex in such a way that the solar arrays would function 
as efficiently as possible so that communications via the relay satellite 
would be restored.  The cosmonauts did not panic during this period.  
Viktorenko and Kondakova even joked about the fact that the exchange rate 
of the dollar on board MIR remained stable, which could not be said about 
the voltages of their power supply systems.  
 
[Info via Chris v.d. Berg, NL-9165/A-UK3202]
 
 
* DP3MIR UPDATE *
=================
German Astronaut Ulf Merbold, DP3MIR, has been active from the Russian
space station MIR over Europe during last week during the evening hours.  
Unfortunately the power supply problem aboard MIR has prevented Ulf from 
using the Digital Voice Memory and this obviously reduces his activity to
only a few passes a day over Europe.  Precise information about this 
problem is not available, as all questions and answers regarding the HAM 
activity of DP3MIR have to be relayed via the Moscow control centre, which 
turns out to be very complicated.
 
DP3MIR will stay aboard MIR until about 03-NOV-94.  It is hoped he will be 
active over other continents too.  The QSL info is: DP3MIR via the usual 
German (DARC) QSL Bureau.
 
[Info via Norbert, DF5DP, DARC Coordinator Satellites and Space Projects]
 
 
* WEBERSAT-OSCAR-18 NEWS *
==========================
WEBERSAT-OSCAR-18 controllers have noticed that the satellite has become
increasingly more difficult to copy ovr the past several months.  There is 
a weak but relatively steady tone of about 1200 Hz in the demodulated 
signal.  A hypothesis suggests that this tone is due to a partial loss of 
carrier suppression in the Raised Cosine BPSK transmitter.  Reception of
this transmitter (437.102 MHz +/- doppler) can be improved by adjusting the 
IF-shift of the downlink receiver.  It is believed this improves recption by 
shifting the insufficiently suppressed carrier into the skirts of the IF 
filter, suppressing the carrier on the ground.  Controllers are trying to 
find ways of fixing this, or working around it.  They may also switch to 
the straight-PSK transmitter, 437.077 MHz, on occasion, which may now give 
better copy. 
 
[Info via Bob Argyle, KB7KCL] 
 
 
* RS-12 NEWS *
==============
Karsten Hansky, DL3HRT, reports that Ron, 7Q7RM is very active on RS-12. 
He can be heard regularly, especially on the weekends.  His usual 
operating mode is CW, and his QSL manager is G0IAS.  Karsten worked 7Q7RM
two weeks ago, sent his QSL directly to G0IAS, and received a quick reply
last weekend. 
 
In the reply, G0IAS wrote that Ron typically calls CQ 15 minutes after LOS 
of RS-12.  Then he usually has about 5 minutes to work into Europe when 
there is some skip on 21 and 28 MHz.  Karsten heard Ron very strong on the 
21 MHz RS-12 uplink from Germany, and his signal on the downlink was good 
as well (559).  G0IAS wrote that 5Z4FM follows the same procedure to work 
into Europe, but DL3HRT has not heard him as of yet.  Gary, C53HG, reported 
that he works RS-12 at times as well.  Last month, DL3HRT worked JW, 4X, 
EA8, OY, and 9H on RS-12.  He is also looking for contacts into the East 
Coast of the United States via RS-10.
 
[Info via Karsten, DL3HRT]
 
 
* 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@ka2qhd.de.com -or- kd2bd@amsat.org
SATELLITE : AMSAT-OSCAR-16, LUSAT-OSCAR-19
 
MAIL      : John A. Magliacane, KD2BD
            Department of Engineering and Technology
            Advanced Technology Center
            Brookdale Community College
            Lincroft, New Jersey  07738
            U.S.A.
 
 
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/EX
