Mir Amateur Radio Status: October 28, 1998 =========================================== by Miles Mann WF1F, MAREX-NA (Manned Amateur Radio Experiment, North American Division) The Crew of the Russian Space Station Mir now have a new supply of fresh food and two new Amateur Radio experiments. The Progress 40 cargo rocket was launched into orbit on October 24 1998 and docked with the Mir Station on October 27th. The crews first priority will be to sample some of the fresh food (fruits, vegetables, etc.) and make sure it passes the taste test. Then later after they are full, they may have time for the more important stuff such as the two new Amateur Radio experiments. (Note: for the people with out a sense of humor, I was joking about the unpacking order, Amateur Radio is a low priority experiment). PMS: The PMS was temporarily shutdown this week in preparation for the docking of the Progress cargo rocket. The PMS has been on line over 80% of the time over the past few months. The crew does have to shutdown some of the Amateur Radio experiments periodically (docking, EVA, etc.). Whenever there is a docking taking place, all un-required radio equipment is turned OFF. The docking procedure is completely controlled by remote radio commands. It is important to minimize any possibility Radio Frequency Interference problems. After the crew has completed there other high priority post docking work, the crew will begin to turn on the optional experiments. The PMS should be back on in a few days. The PMS system consists of the following hardware: Kenwood TM-733 Dual Band transceiver Kantronics KPC-9612 (running at 1200 baud) Larsen Dual band mobile antenna (2m/70cm) Frequency/Mode: 145.985 FM Simplex The number of message handled by the Mir PMS over the past 7 months have been amazing. The PMS has received over 8000 mail messages in just 7 months. That is over 1000 messages a month. Does anyone know how many mail messages go though the PACSATs in one month? With the large amount of traffic going through the PMS you can see why the crew does not have much time to respond to the mail they are getting. However they do find some spare time in there off hours to read the mail and occasionally respond. Please be understanding if you do not get a personal response. For more information about the PMS and operational procedures, please check out the how to work Mir articles I wrote and published in the web pages below. And remember, the PMS system is designed to support only 1 user at a time. All others should patiently wait for the person using the mail box to log out <> before you attempt to connected to the PMS. The only active log-in port is R0MIR-1, the other port R0MIR is a dead port and should not be used. Progress 40: Docked The Mir supply rockets are called Progress rockets. Every 4-8 months a new Progress Cargo rocket is launched to Mir to bring new supplies to the crew. The Progress 40 cargo rocket has docked and is being unloaded by the Mir crew. The rocket will contain the typical supplies, Food, water, fuel and equipment to support the on-going experiments on Mir. The real exciting cargoes are the two new Amateur Radio experiments that were delivered to the Russian Space Station Mir. SPOUTNIK 41 The Amsat-France Sputnik RS-17-2 also called Spoutnik-41 arrived on the Russian Space Station Mir this week. For more information about this project, please check out the Amsat-France Web page. http://www.ccr.jussieu.fr/physio/Satedu/spoutnik41.html MAREX-NA SSTV Project: The MAREX-NA Mir SSTV (Kenwood/Tasco) has also arrive on the Russian Space Station Mir. What is SSTV, Slow Scan Televisions: It is a way of sending snapshot images over a radio. Anyone with an existing SSTV system will be able to decode the Robot-36 format color images. If you do not have an SSTV system, you will be able to down load the images of the web. For additional information about the SSTV project, check out our web page listed below. The SSTV Experiment is currently being reviewed for an activation date. The exact date of activation has not been chosen at this time. A lot of preparation work needs to be done to move the existing PMS and reconnect the two systems to share the same antenna. All of the components required to complete the job should already be on the Mir station. As soon as I have an activation date, the information will be published. The IARU has suggested operational frequency for the SSTV system of 437.975 FM Simplex. This frequency was chosen to be compatible with all of the existing Amateur Radio equipment on Mir. The short story about the project: The SSTV project first began with a phone call from Farrell Winder in May 1997. Shortly after that call MAREX-NA team began working on designing and building a flight quality SSTV system that could be used on board the Russian Space Station Mir. MAREX-NA began working out the details with Moscow. By April 1998 four flight ready systems were in the final stages of testing and a tentative launch date had been discussed. In June of 1998 Miles Mann went to Star City in Russian and delivered three of the SSTV systems. Miles gave the Mir crew hands on training with the equipment before they left Earth for the Mir station, and the rest is history. A detailed story about the events leading up to the flight of the MAREX-NA SSTV system will be published at a later date. Benefits to the public: The public wants to see a string of success stores on a regular basis. The RS-17-1 project last winter was a very successful project and generated a lot of interest world wide. These successful projects help keep people interested in Amateur Radio Satellite experimentation. It challenges their curiosity and gets worked into school curriculums. Many schools around the world would tune into the Beep, Beep of Sputnik RS-17-1 and listen. The MAREX-NA SSTV experiment will also generate a lot of positive interest in school educational programs. Now for the first time school children will not only able to hear the crews talking during school schedules, but the students will be able to see some of the 720 images per day coming from Mir. Web pages around the world will store the best images for schools to log into and view. Many schools are expected add Amateur Radio equipment to the schools so the can down load and display the images live. The success of the Mir Amateur Radio and other Russian Satellite projects has been very good for Amateur Radio and Amsat. Over 75% of the new Amateur Radio satellite operators started their operations by using a Russian sponsored satellite. Most of those people began by using the Russian Space Station Mir Personal Message System. The Mir SSTV system will help keep the people interested in Amateur Radio Satellites while MAREX-NA and other clubs build new projects for the International Space Station. Mir Amateur Radio Experiment- North American Division Engineering Team Gregory "Miles" Mann WF1F Chelmsford Massachusetts MAREX-NA Director of Engineering. Coordinated the Design efforts of the Mir SSTV project, including funding, hardware acquisition and Mir crew training in Star City Russia. Also designed and delivered two other projects to the Russian Space Station Mir. The Kantronics KPC-9612 Modem upgrade and the DCI Filter projects. Henry Cantrell W4HTB Bowling Green, Kentucky MIR SSTV Project- Designed Auto Controller Boris Garber (not a amateur radio operator) Bowling Green, Kentucky Provided translation into Russian technical documentation Don C. Miller W9NTP Waldron, IN Intergration of all the different pieces equipment into a working module and to take part in all tests such as terrestrial, airborne and satellite relays through several amateur satellites. Chris Scott WB9NEQ Bowling Green, Ky. Assisted Hank Cantrell in testing the Slow scan unit in an aeronautical environment. In particular he flew the airplane while ground stations recorded transmission quality. Tranmsission simulations have determined that stations with a zero gain antenna system should be able to decode several imags a day. Farrell Winder W8ZCF Cincinnati, Ohio Project originator and design integrator. John Langner, W2OSZ Chelmsford, Mass Testing and evaluation MAREX-NA sponsor List: Kenwood Communications Corporation: Provided the Kenwood TM-V7 Transceivers for the project http://www.kenwood.net/amateur/commindex.cfm Apple Computer: Provided the light-weight camera modules Parrelex: Parrelex controllers cards were used to automate the SSTV picture cycles and Morse code ID PictureTel Corporation: Provided test facilities and support funding. Tasco: Provided the SSTV controllers and support. Mir Crew Members: The current crew consists of: Current Crew SOYUZ TM-28 arrived at Mir on August 16. Mir Soyuz TM-28 crew consisted of Sergei Avdeyev, Gennadiy Padalko and Yuri Baturin. (Sergei and Gennadiy both received training on the MAREX-NA SSTV system in Star City). Mir Visibility: Mir will be visible in the morning skies over North America most of this month. It will appear as a bright star moving very fast. The best viewing times are between 1 - 3 hours before your local sunrise. Use your own tracking program or search the web for visibility listings. ISS: The Russian Service module of the International Space Station (ISS also called unofficially Alpha) will contain 4 antenna feed-through ports dedicated for Amateur Radio Antenna Access. The Russian Docking Adapter will also contain 2 antenna feed-through ports dedicated for Amateur Radio Antenna Access. When the first ISS crew arrives, they will already have ports to use for Amateur Radio. Ports 1,2 and 3 are tentatively planned for 144,435, 1200 mc, and port 4 for HF (10, 15 and 20 meters). Ports 5 & 6 will be for UHF and SHF bands. The first module, Zarya is scheduled for launch on a Russian Proton rocket Nov. 20 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakstan. Now the fun begins, and the designing of projects to use the ISS antenna ports is under development. We will publish more details as they become available. Web Page information ==================== For information about the MAREX-NA SSTV project, check the web page at: http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/Hangar/7355/sstv_proj.htm For general information about some of the Mir Projects, check the web page at http://www.ik1sld.org/mirex.htm OR or http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/Lab/3431/mirex.htm MIR 1 16609U 86017A 98299.58500029 -.00060720 00000-0 -50032-3 0 9002 2 16609 51.6578 99.2353 0007372 250.7079 109.8499 15.69611200724662 KVANT 1 1 17845U 87030A 98298.82089097 .00011154 00000-0 96909-4 0 5683 2 17845 51.6573 103.1339 0007199 244.5398 115.3736 15.69632131658658 KVANT 2 1 20335U 89093A 98298.82089097 .00011627 00000-0 10080-3 0 3949 2 20335 51.6573 103.1340 0007180 244.4323 115.4818 15.69632847507665 KRISTALL 1 20635U 90048A 98298.82089097 .00011627 00000-0 10080-3 0 1863 2 20635 51.6573 103.1340 0007180 244.4323 115.4818 15.69632847478496 SPEKTR 1 23579U 95024A 98298.82089097 .00011627 00000-0 10080-3 0 1503 2 23579 51.6573 103.1340 0007180 244.4323 115.4818 15.69632847195975 PRIRODA 1 23848U 96023A 98298.82089097 .00011627 00000-0 10080-3 0 8330 2 23848 51.6573 103.1340 0007180 244.4323 115.4818 15.69632847143067 PROGRESS M-39 1 25340U 98031A 98299.58500029 .00063532 00000-0 53242-3 0 1733 2 25340 51.6546 99.2385 0009662 236.4674 123.5660 15.69287665 25818 SOYUZ TM-28 1 25429U 98047A 98298.82089097 .00011627 00000-0 10080-3 0 832 2 25429 51.6573 103.1340 0007180 244.4323 115.4818 15.69632847 11530 PROGRESS M-40 1 25512U 98062A 98299.59836266 .00353675 68968-4 43744-3 0 101 2 25512 51.6566 99.3301 0034928 138.1668 222.2321 16.05920307 221 Miles WF1F