STS-60 Shuttle Amateur Radio Experiment (SAREX)

 

SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-036.01

STS-60 SAREX Mission Begins

HR AMSAT NEWS SERVICE BULLETIN 036.01 FROM AMSAT HQ

SILVER SPRING, MD FEBRUARY 6, 1994

TO ALL RADIO AMATEURS BT

BID: $ANS-036.01

STS-60 News as of 3 February 1994  at 12:30 UTC

The Space Shuttle Discovery made a spectacular, historic, on-time liftoff 

this morning from the Kennedy Space Center.  Discovery's launch marks the 

first joint U.S.-Russian Space Shuttle Flight.  This will be the first of 

several joint missions planned in preparation for the development of  the 

international Space Station.  Cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev, U5MIR, was one 

of the six crew members on board this morning's Shuttle flight.  His 

fellow American crew mates include Commander Charlie Bolden, KE4IQB, 

Pilot Ken Reightler, and Mission Specialists Jan Davis, Ron Sega, KC5ETH, 

and Franklin Chang-Diaz.  The primary payloads on-board Discovery are the 

Wake Shield Facility, which will be deployed and retrieved during the 

flight and the Spacehab facility.  Of particular interest to radio 

amateurs is the Shuttle Amateur Radio Experiment (SAREX) secondary 

payload.  SAREX information for STS-60 including frequencies, callsigns 

and Keplerian elements, follows:

         STS-60 Shuttle Amateur Radio Experiment (SAREX)

                        Information Sheet

Mission:       STS-60 Space Shuttle Discovery

               Wake Shield Facility & Spacehab-2 Mission

Launch:             February 3, 1994, 12:10 UTC

Orbit:              57 degree inclination

Mission Length:          8 days (Nominal)

Amateur 

Radio

Operators:          Charlie Bolden, KE4IQB, Ron Sega, KC5ETH,

               Sergei Krikalev, U5MIR

Modes:              FM Voice

               Prime callsign: KE4IQB 

               Packet Radio

               Callsign:  W5RRR-1

Frequencies:   All operations in split mode.  Do not transmit on 

           the downlink frequency.

Voice Freqs:   Downlink: 145.55 MHz  (Worldwide)

          Uplinks:  144.91, 144.93, 144.95, 144.97, 144.99 MHz 

                    (Except Europe)

                    144.70, 144.75, 144.80 MHz (Europe only)

               Note:  the crew will not favor any specific uplink 

               frequency, so your ability to work the crew will  

               be the "luck of the draw"

Packet Freqs:  Downlink: 145.55 MHz

          Uplink:        144.49 MHz

Info:     Goddard Amateur Radio Club, WA3NAN, Greenbelt Maryland, 

     SAREX Bulletins and Shuttle Retransmissions

     3860 KHz, 7185 KHz, 14,295 KHz, 21,395 KHz, 28,650 KHz  

     and 147.45  MHz (FM)

     Johnson Space Center ARC, W5RRR, Houston, Texas

     SAREX Bulletins

     7225 KHz, 14,280 KHz, 21,395 KHz,  28,650 KHz, (SSB) 

     and 146.64 MHz (FM) 

          

     ARRL Amateur Radio Station, W1AW, Newington, CT

     SAREX News Bulletins

     3990, 7290, 14,290, 18,160, 21,390, and 28,590 KHz

     and 147.555 MHz (FM)

     Also, bulletins available on internet, via AMSAT ANS,  

     Compuserve, and your local PBSS.

School Group Participation:   5 school groups will participate   

                    in SAREX with pre-scheduled direct 

                    and telebridge contacts.  These include 

                    4 in the U.S., and one in Russia.  

ANS wishes to thank Frank Bauer KA3HDO AMSAT VP for Manned Space Programs for

this information.

/EX

SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-036.02

SAREX UPDATE AS OF FEB 6 at 00:30 UTC

HR AMSAT NEWS SERVICE BULLETIN 036.02 FROM AMSAT HQ

SILVER SPRING, MD FEBRUARY 6, 1994

TO ALL RADIO AMATEURS BT

BID: $ANS-036.02

SAREX Begins Operation

SAREX was officially activated at 14:27 UTC on February 4 with a

successful voice contact through the University of Surrey amateur radio

station.  Doug Loughmiller, G0SYX was the operator at the microphone to

intitate the first contact with the STS-60 crew.

The SAREX team reports a highly successful direct contact one orbit

later with a school group in Boise Idaho.  The contact, held at the

Discovery Center included students from several schools including the

Boise Senior High School.  19 students were able to ask direct questions

to Shuttle Commander Charlie Bolden.

The packet robot has also been quite active.  The packet QSO sequence 

number exceeded the 800 mark about 30 hours after SAREX operations was 

initiated.

Problems with RFI on the Wake Shield Facility have delayed the

deployment of this primary payload.  This has affected the SAREX payload

somewhat.  Currently, the Mars, Pennsylvania school contact, which was

scheduled for today, has been postponed until the Wake Shield issues

have been resolved. 

The official SAREX element set for today will be GSFC-003.  Gil Carman, 

WA5NOM reports that the predictions using GSFC-003 are 1 second later

than the current orbiter state vector.  

 1 22977U 94006A   94 35.13981770 0.00000202  00000-0  58718-5 0    37

 2 22977  56.9857 213.2731 0008535 263.0773  96.9324 15.72145611   115

 Satellite: STS-60

 Catalog number: 22977

 Epoch time:      94035.13981770         (04 FEB 94   03:21:20.25 UTC)

 Element set:     GSFC-003

 Inclination:       56.9857 deg

 RA of node:       213.2731 deg          Space Shuttle Flight STS-60

 Eccentricity:    0.0008535                  Keplerian Elements

 Arg of perigee:   263.0773 deg

 Mean anomaly:      96.9324 deg

 Mean motion:   15.72145611 rev/day      Semi-major Axis: 6730.8981 Km

 Decay rate:       0.20E-05 rev/day*2    Apogee  Alt:        358.25 Km

 Epoch rev:              11              Perigee Alt:        346.77 Km

 NOTE - This element set is based on NORAD element set # 003.

        The spacecraft has been propagated to the next ascending

        node, and the orbit number has been adjusted to bring it

        into agreement with the NASA numbering convention.

ANS thanks Frank H. Bauer, KA3HDO, of the SAREX Working Group for this

item.

/EX

SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-036.03

AMSAT NET ON GALAXY 3

HR AMSAT NEWS SERVICE BULLETIN 036.03 FROM AMSAT HQ

SILVER SPRING, MD FEBRUARY 6, 1994

TO ALL RADIO AMATEURS BT

BID: $ANS-036.03

AMSAT NET ON GALAXY 3

Satellite users may be interested in an experimentbeing conducted in the

Houston, Texas area.  The group there is uplinking the Houston Area Amsat Net,

heard locally on the 147.10 FM repeater, to Galaxy 3, Channel 17, 5.8 Mhz.

audio subcarrier (Shop-At-Home Channel).  This net is carried in realtime on

Tuesday evening, from approximately 10PM (CST) until completion at

approximately 10:30 - 10:45 PM.  This is an experiment but could

be continued on a regular basis if interest is sufficient.  Please send reports

of your reception and your comments to: davidsonc@tcd.jsc.nasa.gov  via

Internet, or call (713) 483-0078 during business hours, or during the uplink

period (713) 595-2393. Ask for Craig Davidson, WD5BDX.

ANS wishes to thank Craig Davidson WD5BDX for this information.

/EX

SB SAT @ AMSAT   $ANS-036.04

OSCAR-21 CELEBRATES THIRD BIRTHDAY

HR AMSAT NEWS SERVICE BULLETIN 036.04 FROM AMSAT HQ

SILVER SPRING, MD FEBRUARY 6, 1994

TO ALL RADIO AMATEURS BT

BID: $ANS-036.04

OSCAR-21 CELEBRATES THIRD BIRTHDAY

On 29 January 1991 the first international Orbiting Satellite Carrying 

Amateur Radio (OSCAR) in which radio amateurs from the former

Soviet Union (CIS) worked together with radio amateurs from

Germany was successfully launched.

The official name of the project was RM1, which stands for "RADIO M-1".

The digital transponder RUDAK-2 is part of RM1.

After the launch from the Northern Cosmodrome in Plesetsk, Russia

the satellite was named as AMSAT-OSCAR 21, to emphasize that the

spacecraft was built by, and for, Radio Amateurs around the world.

AMSAT OSCAR-21 is an attached secondary payload (Piggy-back) aboard

the CIS geological research satellite "INFORMATOR-1".

OSCAR-21 (also known as RS-14) is a joint project between AMSAT-U

in Russia and AMSAT-DL in Germany.

Two UUENCODED files which show the RUDAK hardware and two pictures taken from

an original launch video have been uploaded to AMSAT-BB by DB2OS.  The picture

is compressed using CJPEG.

ANS thanks Peter Guelzow DB2OS for this item.

/EX

SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-036.05

AO-13 ZRO TEST SCHEDULES!

HR AMSAT NEWS SERVICE BULLETIN 036.05 FROM AMSAT HQ

SILVER SPRING, MD FEBRUARY 6, 1994

TO ALL RADIO AMATEURS BT

BID: $ANS-036.05

AO-13 ZRO Tests Begin For '94            

                        AMSAT-OSCAR-13 

                      ZRO TEST SCHEDULE 

                     FEBRUARY-MARCH 1994

The ZRO Memorial Technical Achievement Award Program, or just

"ZRO Test" has a new schedule for February and March, 1994, via

AMSAT-OSCAR-13.  This activity is a test of operating skill and equipment

performance.

During a typical ZRO run, a control station will send numeric

code groups using CW at 10 words-per-minute.  At the beginning of the

run, uplink power from the control station is set to match the general

beacon downlink strength.  This is level "zero".  The control operator

will send and repeat a random five-digit number, then lower his uplink

power by 3 dB (half power) and repeat the procedure with a new random

number (level "1").  This will continue to a level 30 dB below the beacon

(level "A").

A participating listener monitors the downlink signals until he

or she can no longer copy the numbers.  Those who can hear the beacon

will qualify for the basic award by copying the code group heard at level

"zero".  The challenge is to improve home-station performance to a point

where the lower-level downlink signals can be copied (levels 6 through

A).  To date, only one station, Darrel Emerson (AA7FV), has successfully

copied level "A".

The following schedule of Mode "B" tests were chosen for convenient

operating times and favorable squint angles.  The tests can be heard on

145.840 MHz.  Andy WA5ZIB will conduct all the tests.  Mode "JL" tests

will no longer occur due to the failure of AO-13's 70-cm transmitter.

Day       Date (UTC)     Time      Areas covered

Saturday  Feb. 12, 1994  2345 UTC  NA, SA, Europe, W. Africa

Sunday    Feb. 20, 1994  0330 UTC  NA, NW SA, Japan, Pacific

Saturday  Feb. 26, 1994  1930 UTC  NA, SA, Europe, Africa, ME

Saturday  Mar. 19, 1994  1930 UTC  NA, SA, Europe, Africa

Saturday  Mar. 26, 1994  2315 UTC  NA, SA

Note that the dates and days are shown in "UTC", thus the second

test occurs at 9:30 PM CST Saturday night (the 19th).  Any changes will

be announced as soon as possible via the AMSAT HF and AO-13 Operations

Nets.

All listener reports with date of test and numbers copied should

be sent to Andy MacAllister WA5ZIB, AMSAT V.P. User Operations, 14714

Knights Way Drive, Houston, TX 77083-5640.  A report will be returned

verifying the level of accurate reception.  An S.A.S.E. is appreciated

but not required.

Information about the AMSAT Awards Program can be found on page

197 of the "Proceedings of the AMSAT-NA Tenth Space Symposium" (1992). 

This paper, covering all the AMSAT-NA awards including specifics on the

ZRO Test, was reprinted on page 10 in the March/April 1993 issue of "The

AMSAT Journal".   The ZRO Test information provided in the article covers

test procedures, means for obtaining certificates and gives some

historical background about the program.  Reprints of the article can be

obtained for an S.A.S.E. to WA5ZIB at the address above.

/EX

SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-036.06

WEEKLY OSCAR STATUS REPORTS

HR AMSAT NEWS SERVICE BULLETIN 036.06 FROM AMSAT HQ

SILVER SPRING, MD FEBRUARY 6, 1994

TO ALL RADIO AMATEURS BT

BID: $ANS-036.06

Weekly OSCAR Status Reports: 6 FEB-94

AO-13: Current Transponder Operating Schedule:

L QST *** AO-13 TRANSPONDER SCHEDULE ***  1994 Jan 31-Apr 04

Mode-B  : MA   0 to MA  90 |

Mode-BS : MA  90 to MA 120 |

Mode-S  : MA 120 to MA 145 |<- S transponder; B trsp. is OFF

Mode-S  : MA 145 to MA 150 |<- S beacon only

Mode-BS : MA 150 to MA 180 |        Blon/Blat 180/0

Mode-B  : MA 180 to MA 256 |

Omnis   : MA 230 to MA  30 |  Move to attitude 240/0, Apr 04

Poor Sun angle and battery testing need maximum OFF time.

[G3RUH/DB2OS/VK5AGR]

FO-20: The following is the current FO-20 operating schedule:

       From January '94 thru March '94, the analog mode and the

       digital mode will be on alternately for a week at a time.

       ANALOG MODE:

                09-FEB-94 7:15 -TO- 16-FEB-94 7:40 UTC

             23-FEB-94 8:05 -TO- 02-MAR-94 6:40 UTC

             09-MAR-94 7:05 -TO- 16-MAR-94 7:30 UTC

             23-MAR-94 7:52 -TO- 30-MAR-94 8:15 UTC

      DIGITAL MODE: Unless otherwise noted above.

      [Kazu Sakamoto (JJ1WTK) qga02014@niftyserve.or.jp]

AO-21: ZL3VTV works AO-21 with great success from his QTH in Christchurch, New

       Zealand.  He reguarly works stations in Australia with ease using a 

       a fixed 10 element beam pointed 30 deg above the horizon on the uplink 

       and using a collinear antenna for the downlink.  ZL3VTV is looking for

       to work more ZL's and would entertain schedules.  [ZL3VTV @ZL3AC]

The AMSAT NEWS Service (ANS) is looking for volunteers 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 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 @ W0LJF.#NECO.CO.USA.NOAM.  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