* MIR NEWS November *

=====================

The current Mir crew is still very busy working and experimenting in their

Lab in space, but they have had a few moments to chat with the public via

2-meter Amateur Radio.  A few times last week David Wolf was active on

145.985 FM simplex voice, and the packet PMS was also active for a day.

American Astronaut David Wolf who is currently living on board the Russian

Mir complex said he has been going to bed at midnight every day.  Judging

by the tone in his voice, he was enjoying every minute of his stay.



The Amateur Radio experiment (Personal Mail System, PMS) is a low priority

experiment.  The crew has been too busy with other experiments to devote

much time to the mail box.  However, David reported to Miles Mann, WF1F

that Paval did try to connect the Lap top to the packet radio TNC on

28-Oct-97, but was unable to get the terminal program properly configured.

David expects the crew will have a little more free time after this

weekend's space walk.  Anatoly and Paval will exit Mir early Monday

morning to perform the EVA.  One of the projects scheduled for this EVA

is the launching of the Sputnik Amateur Radio Satellite.  David reported

that he been testing the Sputnik satellite and has used the Kenwood TM-733

transceiver to listen for the Sputnik's beacon during a test.  There were

some conflicting reports about the satellite's beacon frequency, so Miles

Mann asked David if he remembered the exact frequency, but he was not sure.

Then Miles called the Chief of the Amateur Radio Cosmonaut Department in

Moscow and asked Sergej Samburov for a status update of the Sputnik.

Sergej stated the plan is to launch the Sputnik on Monday morning around

5:00 am Moscow time (02:00 UTC).  Sergej said the beacon frequency will

be 145.820 MHz FM.  Anatoly will perform the hand launching of Sputnik,

and Paval will take pictures from outside.  David Wolf will be inside

Mir, and he will also be taking pictures.



A special QSL card is available to anyone who copies the beacon from the

Sputnik satellite.  Envelopes should be well sealed and not include cash.

Send an SASE and an IRC coupon to the address below, and do not make any

visible notes on the outside of the envelope with Amateur Radio callsigns.

Note that Dave Larsen, N6CO, will not be handling SWL cards for Sputnik.

Please use the following address:



        Sergej Samburov

        PO Box 73

        Kaliningrad-10 City

        Moscow Area, 14070, Russia



In the meantime, the PMS 2-meter station can be expected to be off most of

the time.  The small 13k mail box was purged of most mail last week.  David

does not have time to issue personal responses to each station, but he does

have a list off all callsigns who sent him mail.  The tentative plan is to

send out a message addressed to "ALL" thanking everyone for their support

including the callsign list of those who sent messages to Dave.



The amount of time required by the crew to read, reply, and delete the daily

load of mail is approximately 30 to 60 minutes per day.  At the present

time, the crew's work load is just too heavy to support this type of time

investment towards non-essential projects.  It is hoped that everyone

understands this situation.



[Info via Miles Mann, WF1F / MIREX]