Mir Amateur Radio Status March 19, 1998 by Miles Mann WF1F, Mirex Director of Educational Resources New Mirex Filter project arrives on Mir. The Progress 38 cargo rocket delivered the new Mirex-DCI antenna filter to the Russian Mir space station this week. The filter will be used to prevent interference to the 2-meter PMS Amateur Radio Station. It is important to note, that the Amateur radio station does not cause interference, it is receiving interference. One of the commonly used commercial radios on Mir is using a channel very close to the 2-meter 145.985 frequency. When the commercial radio is transmitting, the Amateur Radio station is unable to receive weak signals from hams on earth. The Mirex-DCI filer is a custom designed antenna cavity filter which will block the offending signal with a combination of pass band and knotch filters. The filter system is tentatively planned for installation in the April/May time frame. The Mirex team would like to thank all of the supporters of the filter project. It proves again that working together, we can make it happen. Special Thanks to: DCI Digital Communications Inc. SAFEX SAREX Working Group PMS: Make sure you read the new commands before operating. The Mirex APRS test last week had a few bumps, but overall went very well. For more details, check the Mirex and APRS web pages. The PMS was turned off March 16 - 17. This shutdown was required as part of the docking procedures. When ever there is a Docking taking place, all non essential radios are shutdown. On March 15, a new cargo rocket Progress 38 launched to Mir. The rocket docked on March 17. New Commands: The new modem is a Kantronics KPC-9612 Plus, Revision 8.1. The command set for this TNC is different than the previous Mir TNC. You may want to get a copy of the Kantronics manual for your own review. I have attached a list of the new Help file. And I will highlight some of the key changes. List the List command will list all messages in the mail box which your are allowed to read. This will include all Bulletins, traffic and any private message address to you or sent by you. This feature will be a big time saver. If you type in L and get back nothing, it means there is noting in the mail box for YOU to read, No ALL or Bulletins messages. The old TNC would dump 10 messages at a time, even it you were not allowed to read any of the messages. RM The Read Mine command has been added. You now have the option of R #### or RM to read all messages address to your call sign. This feature will also help reduce your connect time. S The Send command has changed a little. The letter S, defaults to a SP format, which can only be ready by the recipient or Sysops. Options SR and V are no longer supported. New Command List [KPC9612P-8.1-HM$] 82408 BYTES AVAILABLE THERE ARE 37 MESSAGES NUMBERED 155-259 ENTER COMMAND: B,J,K,L,R,S, or Help > LL n LIST LAST n MESSAGES LM(ine) LIST UNREAD MESSAGES ADDRESSED TO YOU LO [+|-] LISTING ORDER LT LIST TRAFFIC LTn DISPLAY LOCATION TEXT n=1-4 K(ill) n DELETE MESSAGE NUMBER n KM(ine) DELETE ALL READ MESSAGES ADDRESSED TO YOU R(ead) n DISPLAY MESSAGE NUMBER n RH n DISPLAY MESSAGE n WITH HEADERS RM(ine) READ ALL MESSAGES ADDRESSED TO YOU S(end) call SEND MESSAGE TO callsign S[B|P|T] call SEND BULLETIN, PRIVATE, or TRAFFIC New Features of the KPC-9612 Plus 1. Check: This is a new feature which will help reduce the amount of idle mail box time. How many times did u see the PMS fly by, and no one could log in because the connected station was out of range? The old PMS required 7 minutes to time out, when the connected station went out of range. The new PMS has an adjustable timer. The new system is set for approximately 70 seconds. After you connect, if your station is idle for more than 70 seconds, the TNC will begin disconnect from your station. 2. Remote SysOp access This is a big time saving feature. Before, if we needed to get any parameter changed, it always required the intervention of the Mir crew. To schedule crew time, required expensive phone calls and faxes to Moscow. The crew time is very precious, and the Amateur Radio station should not be intrusive into their schedules. This feature is already being used to fine tune the TNC settings. 3. More memory The old modem had 13k of memory for Mail storage. The new modem has 100k of memory just for Mails messages. 4. Dual speed support. This modem supports both 9600 and 1200 baud data rates. The 1200 baud rate will be the primary rate. The 9600 speed will be reserved for special testing at a later date. Mirex believes that the Mir Station is the best place for beginners around the world to experiment. Mir is the most popular Amateur Radio Satellite in the world. The reason for it success is because Mir is so easy to use. 2-meter FM Mono Band 1200 baud packet is very easy to use and inexpensive to implement. When we do start testing 9600 baud, it will be only for short published duration?s. We will always bring the system back to 1200 baud FM Mono Band for the rest of the world. 5. Software Adjustable Audio Levels. With the new Kantronics KPC-9612 Plus, we have the ability to remotely adjust Packet Audio levels in the TNC. Here is where you can help. If you have a service monitor and are able to monitor the Mir Packet. I would be interested in hearing from professionals who can analyze the packet signal coming from Mir. The goal is to fine tune the Packet down link audio level to the best level. The system was tuned in the lab, however, the radio on Mir may be slightly different than the Kenwood TM-733 used during the setup. Limitations: It is still a Single User Mail box. Only one (1) station can connect to the PMS mail box at a time. The call sign R0MIR goes to the Keyboard port which is not used. Think of the keyboard port as a big bit bucket in the sky. The call sign R0MIR-1 goes into the Single user mail box. All stations must wait until the station connected to the mail box logs off. Mirex would like the stations monitoring the PMS to please be patient while we make adjustments. Mir Crew Members: The current crew consists of: Mir 25 (New arrivals) Talgat Musabayev RO3FT Nikolai Budarin RV3DB and R4MIR. Frenchman Leopold Eyharts (depart feb 19 ) Shuttle schedule: The next shuttle docking Mission is currently scheduled for May 28, 1998 Sputnik RS-17/1 QSL cards MAREX RV3DR said, they have received over 350 QSL cards from the November/December RS-17/1 Sputnik Mission. They will be sending out the special Sputnik QSL cards in the April/May time frame. Sputnik RS-17/2 A new version. Did you know there was a Sputnk-2 on Mir? The RS-17/2 Mission is tentatively scheduled to fly around the end of the year (1998). The existing Mir satellite has the same functionality as the one which was flown last winter. However, it has been decided to perform an in space upgrade to the RS-17/2 satellite on Mir. The crew will replace the Battery and the control boards and install a new system with Voice Announcements. The new system will play pre recorded messages in French, Russian and English. I do not have any more details at this time. Check out the Proposed SSTV project. Please check out the Mirex web pages for pending and proposed Mirex projects. MIREX has created an Internet Web page containing information regarding Mir and the various Amateur Radio experiments proposed for the space station. The pages are still "under construction", but some good information can be gathered from what has been put together so far. URLs include the following: http://www.ik1sld.org/mirex.htm OR http://www.ik1sld.org/mirex http://www.geocities.com/~ik1sld/mirex.htm OR http://www.geocities.com/~ik1sld/mirex Some stations have had problems using the some of the URL aliases, if so, try the long version of the home page address http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/Lab/3431/mirex.htm Miles WF1F