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Software Vault: The Diamond Collection
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The Diamond Collection (Software Vault)(Digital Impact).ISO
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amsat084.zip
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AMSAT084.TXT
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1995-03-27
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SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-084.01
NEW AMSAT JOURNAL EDITOR
HR AMSAT NEWS SERVICE BULLETIN 084.01 FROM AMSAT HQ
SILVER SPRING, MD MARCH 25, 1995
TO ALL RADIO AMATEURS BT
BID: $ANS-084.01
NEW AMSAT JOURNAL EDITOR NAMED
AMSAT President Bill Tynan W3XO announced Saturday March 25th the
appointment of Russ Tillman KC4JVB as Editor of the AMSAT Journal
replacing John Hansen WA0PTV who is stepping down due to a heavy
work schedule. John will continue to write the "Heard on the
Downlink" column which appears regularly in the Journal.
John Hansen will complete the next Journal, which is hoped will be in the
mail sometime in April. Russ Tillman's stint will begin with the issue
following that.
Bill Tynan expressed the thanks of the organization to John Hansen for the
fine work he has done as Editor of the Journal over the past few years.
Bill also welcomed Russ Tillman aboard and said that is particularly glad
to see new people stepping forward to volunteer for AMSAT positions.
We need "new blood" if this organization is to continue into the next
century, he said.
[The AMSAT News Service (ANS) would like to thank Bill Tynan (W3XO)
for the information which went into this bulletin.]
/EX
SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-084.02
LOCAL AMSAT MEETING A SUCCESS
HR AMSAT NEWS SERVICE BULLETIN 084.02 FROM AMSAT HQ
SILVER SPRING, MD MARCH 25, 1995
TO ALL RADIO AMATEURS BT
BID: $ANS-084.02
Local AMSAT Meeting Exclaimed Huge Success
DC AREA AMSAT Meeting Proclaimed Huge Success
The Washington, D.C. - Area Seventh Semiannual AMSAT Meeting was held
Sunday, March 19 and was a huge success.
The event took place at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center's Visitor
Center auditorium/PAO TV studio. It was probably the best one to date
in this area, shy in attendance only of the first one of this series
which was held in January 1992.
A large number of individuals volunteered their time and talent
to make it happen. To recognize a few, first the presenters:
Frank Bauer, KA3HDO; Martin Davidoff, K2UBC; Eric Rosenburg, WD3Q;
Tom Clark, W3IWI, and Dick Daniels, W4PUJ. And the "show 'n' tell"
demos: Jesse Buckwalter, NZ3F; Tom Clark, W3IWI; John Klim, N3KHK;
Gilbert MacKall, N3RZN; Will Marchant, KC6ROL; Steve Stephenson,
WA5UNA; Joe Novak, K4OVK; Bob Bruninga, WB4APR; and Bob Damrau,
WA1LOT. John Bosak, K3IBN, provided some timely video expertise.
The sponsors thank all who contributed as well as the 75 or so who
attended.
And thanks to all who attended, roughly 75 individuals, including
those who traveled from afar: George Bourassa, KB2SAE, and his wife
(six hours one-way from Albany, NY!); Edward White, WA3BZT, from
Delaware; and number from Pennsylvania and Virginia. Special thanks
to our WA3NAN/R talk-in station Robert Stafford, N3QPJ; to our Greeter
at the door John Tyburski, K2VPR, and thanks to all those who donated
refreshments and to those who set up and knocked down tables and
chairs. Every little bit helped. What a great group!
Through the generosity of the many who contributed a modest donation,
it added up! It appears that we can now pay off the small amount that
we were in arrears for this meeting and have enough left over for,
again, a 400-strong direct mailing campaign towards our next meeting
in September. AMSAT members in other areas are encouraged to unite
and follow suit!
Watch for a description of the meeting highlights soon!
[ANS thanks Pat Kilroy, WD8LAQ AMSAT Area Coordinator for Washington, D.C &
Suburban Maryland for this information. WD8LAQ can be reached at either
the following INTERNET or packet address: wd8laq@amsat.org or
WD8LAQ @ WB3V.MD.USA]
/EX
SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-084.03
PBS TAPES SEGMENT ON OSCARS
HR AMSAT NEWS SERVICE BULLETIN 084.03 FROM AMSAT HQ
SILVER SPRING, MD MARCH 25, 1995
TO ALL RADIO AMATEURS BT
BID: $ANS-084.03
PBS Tapes "Signal to Noise" Segment on the Amateur Satellite Program
Ken Ernandes N2WWD reports that a PBS tape crew spent a very productive
day, Sunday March 19th at the QTH of John Gordon KD2JF preparing material
for a forthcoming segment of the program "Signal to Noise", apparently
featuring the transition of military systems to other endeavors.
During the taping Ken and John made 5 contacts on AO-10 which was doing
quite a good job at the time. Stations worked via the satellite included:
HB9OBR in Switzerland, Italians IK8MRD and IW5CNU, EA6SA in Spain and
N8TDL in Ohio. A live, on-camera, capture of AO-13 telemetry was accomp-
lished with Ken doing some voice-overs explaining the purpose of the tele-
metry. Some video footage of satellite tracking software was also recorded
as well as nice background footage of KD2JF's OSCAR antennas in motion.
QSL cards were shown off, including some for SAREX and MIR contacts as well
as two-way OSCAR QSOs.
Ken was also interviewed concerning his personal views regarding amateur
satellites.
[ANS thanks Ken Ernandes N2WWD for this interesting bulletin information.]
/EX
SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-084.04
WEEKLY OSCAR STATUS REPORTS
HR AMSAT NEWS SERVICE BULLETIN 084.04 FROM AMSAT HQ
SILVER SPRING, MD MARCH 25, 1995
TO ALL RADIO AMATEURS BT
BID: $ANS-084.04
Weekly OSCAR Status Reports: 25-MAR-95
AO-13: Current Transponder Operating Schedule:
The Mode Schedule from 20-FEB-95 until 22-MAY-95 will be:
Mode-B : MA 0 to MA 190 |Omnis : MA 250 to MA 140
Mode-BS : MA 190 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-B : MA 230 to MA 256 | Blon/Blat 230/0
Note: The Mode-B beacon is ON during the Mode-S transponder operations only.
Please do NOT uplink to the B transponder during Mode S only, as it inter-
feres with Mode-S operations. [G3RUH/DB2OS/VK5AGR]
RS-15: KR8L/7 says that he keeps hearing about how hard it is to hear RS-15
but his experience doesn't support that notion. He works RS-15 easily with
the following downlink setup: Butternut HF6V multiand vertical (which he says
he can't seem to get below 3:1 SWR at 29.4 MHz, 70 feet of RS-8, a small MFJ
tuner, he doesn't recall which model, HB preamp (single 40673 FET) in the
shack, Kenwood R-1000 receiver, and a good set of headphones. [KR8L/7]
RS-12: RS-12 continues to have an active following on the CW portion of the
passband. The evening passes over the US are beginning to come at a
reasonable hour for the East Coast and Midwest, 03:00 UTC, so RS-15 users
should even see more activity during the week for the next few months.
KD0AV has logged over 20 states in the past week, including UT, RI, VT
and OK. [KD0AV]
UO-22: The OBC-186 aboard UO-22 crashed during the early morning hours of
21-MAR-95. This is the third crash of the '186 in just over a month.
While one of the crashes has been completely explained, the other two have
not. As a result, ground controllers have spent the passes over the UK on
21-MAR-95 dumping the memory of the flight computer. It is expected that
the dump should be completed in time to begin the reload process during the
morning passes over the UK on 22-MAR-95. They will attempt to have the
reload completed as soon as possible and will post additional information
as details become available. [Doug Loughmiller (G0SYX/KO5I) UoSAT Space-
craft Operations Manager]
AO-27: NM1K worked KG8BG, WB4FWQ, and KB5MKD this week on AO-27 with just
50 watts and Hustler G7 antenna. Also, N2AAM says that he always knew that
the receiver on AO-27 was hot, but he never realized how hot it was until
he was able to work through the bird using his hand held with 5 watts and
with a rubber duck antenna as an uplink. This happened on the 15:38 UTC
pass 25-MAR-95. At his QTH in Metuchen, New Jersey the bird achieved a
maximum elevation of 60 degrees. While listening to the downlink using his
Kenwood TS-811A and KLM-40CX, and with ARR GASFET pre-amp, he transmitted
using his portable H/T. N2AAM says that he was able to hear his signal
with just a little noise. He then successfully worked a station in "8"
land who gave him a good report! [NM1K & n2aam@bagg.overleaf.com]
FO-20: NM1K, using FO-20 worked VE3VC, WB5NJL, and N8OHU. NM1K notes that
there is lots of activity on daylight passes, both CW and SSB. Also, KF0QS
reports that he typically hears 559 and 569 signals routinely on the down-
link of FO-20. [NM1K & KF0QS]
AO-10: DL1SDX reports that AO-10 is performing very well since beginning of
March, with a much stronger downlink with the same uplink signal than AO-13.
DL1SDX wonders if anybody has an idea why AO-10 gererally works better via
LPC than RCP antennas? As far as he knows it AO-10 uses a simple dual-band
ground plane antenna that should give some linear polarization.
[DL1SDX @ DB0ULM]
AO-13: DL1SDX has observed recently that unfortunately lots of thoughtless
stations, particularly on weekends, are "yelling" via AO-13, using a
tremendous amounts of uplink ERP, "screaming and shouting and crying like
wolfes." DL1SDX points out that four times 20 elements and "100 to 200W"
is too much for 12,000 KM range! Downlinks more than 3 dB stronger than
AO-13's beacon are the rule, not the exception. On weekends the ALC seems to
be activated from perigee to a range of about 30,000 KM. After that the
modestly equipped stations just can't hear their own downlinks after a range
of 30,000 KM because the of the "lids." DL1SDX has observed another strange
habit found on both AO-10 and AO-13: Two or more stations work like
in a local repeater QSO. Downlinks are 6 dB or more dB stronger than the
beacon, chatting for hours. These gentlemen do not seem to realize that
they make it impossible for many other stations to work also. AO-10 does
not have a ALC any more so the downlinks sounds totally distorted. But
those "OMs" don't seem to care. DL1SDX is asking all AO-10 and AO-13 users to
please be aware of the their uplink power ERP and also be considerate of
others who are want to use the satellites just like everyone else!
[DL1SDX @ DB0ULM]
The AMSAT NEWS Service (ANS) NEEDS YOUR HELP! The ANS looking for volun-
teers to contribute weekly OSCAR status reports. If you have a favorite
OSCAR which you work on a regular basis and would like to contribute to
this weekly bulletin, please send your observations to WD0HHU at his
CompuServe address of 70524,2272, on INTERNET at wd0hhu@amsat.org, or to
his local packet BBS in the Denver, CO area, WD0HHU @ N0QCU. Also, if
you find that the current set of orbital elements are not generating the
correct AOS/LOS times at your QTH, PLEASE INCLUDE THAT INFORMATION AS WELL.
The information you provide will be of value to all OSCAR enthusiasts.
/EX