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****************************************************************************** * AMSAT NA News Service Bulletins * * NEWS283 10Oct87 * * [ Copyright 1987 by AMSAT NA, The Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation. ] * * [ Permission is granted for unlimited redistribution by electronic or ] * * [ other means provided credit is given to AMSAT NA News Service (ANS). ] * * [ Edited for AMSAT NA by W0RPK ] * * [ (N)=New story; (U)=Updated story; (R)=Reprieved story ] * * [ This edition was forwarded by the W0RPK-AMSAT Bulletin Board System ] * * [ operating on 515-961-3325 24-hours Ralph Wallio, W0RPK SYSOP ] * * [ Uploaded by N8HSP ] * ****************************************************************************** Headlines: 1.(U) Mexican 430-440 MHz reallocation attempt clarified by K1ZZ. 2.(U) W3IWI organizing moonbounce effort from 140' NRAO dish 3.(U) 1987 AMSAT-NA annual meeting and space symposium information 4.(U) FO-12 Schedule Reinstated 5.(U) N4HY QUIKTRAK V3.1 now ready for distribution 6.(U) Short Bursts News In Brief: 1. IARU Secretary Dave Sumner, K1ZZ, puts into perspective the Mexican attempt to reallocate their 430-440 MHz amateur radio frequency spectrum. 2. Tom Clark, W3IWI, and others will put the National Radio Astronomy Observatory on-the-air during the October 17/18 ARRL moonbounce contest. 3. An updated tentative schedule and other information is now available for the 1987 AMSAT-NA annual meeting and space symposium in Southfield, Michigan. 4. FO-12 is back on schedule and performing well. 5. Dr. Bob McGwier, N4HY, has released version 3.1 of his latest highly acclaimed QUIKTRAK program for IBM-PC type computers. ****************************************************************************** 1.(U) Mexican 430-440 MHz reallocation attempt clarified by K1ZZ. We received some further news from Geneva this morning with regard to the Mobile WARC 430-440 MHz proposal by Mexico. Since a lot of inaccurate rumors have been flying around on this subject, let's begin with a restatement of exactly what was originally proposed. On September 25, Mexico proposed a new footnote, 664A, to the international Table of Frequency Allocations that would have read as follows: "Additional Allocation: In Mexico, the band 430-440 MHz is also allocated to the mobile (except aeronautical mobile) service on a primary basis." The proposal made no mention of any other country. The first question was, did the Mobile WARC even have authority to address such an allocations issue, inasmuch as it affected services other than the mobile services? Under the terms of reference of a conference that is limited to a single service, no action can be taken that would significantly affect another service -- and in this case, the amateur, amateur-satellite, and radiolocation services would stand to be affected -- unless such action is included in the agenda. On the other hand, there is no principle that is more important to ITU member-countries than that of national sovereignty. Paragraph 342 of the Radio Regulations permits administrations to make frequency assignments to stations without regard to the international Table, provided that harmful interference is not caused to stations operating in accordance with the Table. In other words, Mexico is already free to make whatever arrangements it wants within 430-440 MHz as long as harmful interference does not result outside its borders. As far as amateurs are concerned, the most serious threat of international interference that might arise from mobile operation in this band is to the amateur-satellite service at 435-438 MHz. This problem had also surfaced at WARC-79, at which 39 countries had requested to be included in a similar footnote. Following an IARU intervention -- I believe this matter was the subject of the only formal document submitted for WARC-79 consideration by IARU -- the administrations agreed to exempt 435-438 MHz from mobile operation. The footnote that resulted is number 658. (Incidentally, chapter 2 of the ARRL Operating Manual is a good reference for this and other international allocations discussions.) In this case, discussions between IARU President Richard Baldwin, W1RU, and the representative of Mexico accomplished the same objective: Mexico agreed to eliminate 435-438 MHz from its proposed footnote. ( Dick is in Geneva for the entire duration of the Mobile WARC, heading up the IARU observer team.) The modified proposal by Mexico referring only to 430-435 and 438-440 MHz came up for discussion in Committee 4A on September 27. Following its introduction, the U.S. spokesman objected to the proposal, pointing out that it would be difficult to coordinate the proposed mobile service with the existing radiolocation service. The chairman of the committee asked that Mexico and the U.S. get together and work out language that was acceptable to both. At last night's (October 5) meeting of Committee 4A, Mexico once again announced a modification of its proposal, this time to add a provision requiring "Article 14" procedures. Article 14 is a three-page section of the Radio Regulations entitled, "Supplementary Procedure to Be Applied in Cases Where a Footnote in the Table of Frequency Allocations Requires An Agreement with an Administration." What it boils down to is that, before an assignment can be made to a station in a service listed in such a footnote, agreement must be obtained from any administration that believes its services that are operating in accordance with the Table might be affected. This eliminated any basis for U.S. objection, since U.S. agreement would have to be obtained prior to the introduction by Mexico of a mobile service into this band. One concern we felt upon originally hearing of the proposal from Mexico was that other countries might wish to join Mexico in such a footnote. In Committee 4A, no other country made such a request. The proposal now goes to Committee 4 and then to the Plenary, and at either point further modifications might be made -- or it might be dropped altogether. The IARU observer team present in Geneva will continue to follow the matter. As it stands, the number of countries authorized to make land mobile assignments in the 430-435 and 438-440 MHz bands will simply go from 39 to 40 (plus seven others that may do so at 430-432 and /or 438-440 MHz). I should mention that Dick is being assisted by Wojciech Nietyksza, SP5FM, who is Vice Chairman of IARU Region 1 and is a veteran of many ITU conferences. They both emphasize that there has not at any time been any cause for panic on this issue. In their view it was a straightforward problem, resolved in a logical fashion. One may well ask what Mexico has gained as a result of its proposal. The answer is, not much -- as long as the U.S. adequately protects the interests of its radiolocation and amateur services during the "Article 14" procedure. If, in the course of that procedure, the U.S. were to agree to Mexican mobile operation in the vicinity of the U.S. border, we might have a problem -- but we won't be crossing that bridge in Geneva, and probably not for months or years afterwards. There may not be any further news for another week to ten days. The Mobile WARC is scheduled for completion on October 16, and there can be no "final" report until after the second reading of conference actions in the Plenary -- one of the last steps before adjournment. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 2.(U) W3IWI organizing moonbounce effort from 140' NRAO dish Dr. Tom Clark, W3IWI, wishes to inform all interested parties that an interesting moonbounce (EME) expedition has been scheduled to coincide with the 17/18 October ARRL international moonbounce contest. This activity will involve use of the 140' diameter radio telescope at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) in Greenbank, West Virginia. Plans call for activity on 3 bands -- 432, 1296 and 2304 MHz. The 140' radio telescope is located at 79.83 deg. longitude and 38.44 deg. latitude, corresponding to grid designator FM08ck. The operating schedule calls for being QRV during the entire time the moon is above the horizon -- about 13 hours per day. Available moon windows from Greenbank are 06:40-20:00z on the 17th and 07:40-20:30z on the 18th (plus an optional window from 08:40-12:00z on the 19th if their stamina holds out and if there is anyone left to work). Nominal operating frequencies will be 432.025, 1296.025 and 2304.010 MHz. Operation on the 432 and 1296 MHz frequencies can be concurrent since the dish antenna feeds are concentric (except that transmitting on one band will overload the other receiver). The 2304 MHz feed is off-axis, so the antenna must be re-pointed to QSY to that band. They currently plan to concentrate on 432/1296 the first day (Oct.17) and schedule 2304 MHz during the second day. Due to telescope constraints they have decided to use all solid-state transmitters. The power amplifier for 432 MHz will run about 140 watts output, while the 1296 and 2304 amplifiers will run about 100 watts output. These will be housed along with the GaAsFET receiver preamps in a large (.7m x .7m x 1.5m) box located at the focus of the dish; this minimizes transmission line loss problems. The feeds for all three frequencies support circular polarization, and the polarization sense will be remotely selected from the control room. On 432 MHz they will use a Kenwood TS811 as the exciter, while 1296 and 2304 will share a TS711 exciter to drive the respective transmitting converters. On the receive side, the 711/811 all mode radios will be augmented by a TS940. They expect to be able to QSO stations that have EME capability without the need for schedules on 432 and 1296. They request that stations working them 'random' not transmit on their frequency -- THEY PREFER TO TUNE FOR YOU! Given the gain of the 140' dish, it should be possible for them to work a well- equipped non-EME station on 432 and 1296. If you have one or two yagis, can generate 2-3 kw EIRP, and have a good GaAsFET preamplifier, there is a chance for a QSO. In order to QSO such stations, they expect to resort to schedules and will use the '432 standard' EME format. To make a sked, contact Jay, K5JL on the weekend EME net (Saturdays and Sundays at 16:00z on 14.345) or by phone (405-373-3758). When keeping skeds or calling CQ, they will follow the standard 5 minute EME sequence, and will transmit during the first 2.5 minute window. During the weekend you can also request a sked by telephoning them at the 140' telescope (304-456-2347). They anticipate that all 2304 MHz activity will be done with skeds. After the moon sets each night, they will be available to try long-haul tropo skeds on any of the three bands. Due to telescope limitations, they can only point to the horizon at southerly azimuths in the range 80 to 280 degrees. Again contact K5JL or telephone for skeds. Because the beam of the 140' telescope ranges from 1.1 degrees (at 432 MHz) to 0.24 degrees (at 2304), they will need to know your latitude and longitude quite accurately to know where to point the antenna. During the weekend they anticipate that there will be many hours during which there is nobody new to work. During these time they will be trying some 'exotic' tests. They expect to be QRV for packet tests with several modems (300 baud with 200 & 600 Hz FSK, 1200 baud with 1000 Hz FSK, 1200 baud PSK). They also anticipate trying some DSP (digital signal processing) tests using techniques being developed by W3IWI and N4HY. This extravaganza is a joint effort of a number of people from all over North America (NJ, MD, VA, WV, OK, KS and Manitoba): The feeds for all 3 bands and the 2304 MHz hardware are being provided by VE4MA. WB0DRL is providing the 1296 RF hardware and W3IWI the 432 hardware. The 1296 and 2304 100 watt power amplifiers are coming from WA2FGK with help from K2TKN. K5JL is coordinating on-the-air schedules. Telescope activities are being handled by engineers and radio astronomers from NRAO (AA4TJ, K2AOE, N4FWA, WB3DZC, WA4ZJO and others) and from NASA/Goddard (W3IWI and W8MIF). It now appears that it may be possible for them to also operate on 10.368 GHz. Anyone who has similar capability should contact them ASAP for schedule planning. Their TWT (traveling-wave-tube) transmitter will run about 25 watts. The antenna beamwidth will be 3 minutes of arc which is about 1% of the lunar disk! * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 3.(U) 1987 AMSAT-NA Annual meeting and space symposium information Larry Koziel, K8MU, has released an updated tentative schedule of events for the AMSAT-NA 1987 SPACE SYMPOSIUM to be held November 6-8 at the Southfield Hilton Hotel in Southfield, Michigan. This two-track schedule of educational and ham radio topics includes: Friday November 6, 1987 Socialize at AMSAT's Hospitality Suite, Cash bar, 7:00 PM Saturday November 7, 1987 Morning Plenary Session, 8:00 AM, Ballroom CD Welcome and Introductory Remarks "Spacecraft Technology Trends in the Amateur Satellite Service" Dick Jansson WD4FAB "NUSAT: A Student Satellite Project of Weber State College" William G. Clapp A Proposal for Inclusion of Amateur Radio on the Space Station William Tynan W3XO Morning Amateur Radio Session, 10:00 AM, Ballroom CD "Two-way Fast Scan Television Proposal for the Space Shuttle" Andy Bachler N9AB "QRP EME" Ray Soifer W2RS The TAPR/AMSAT Digital Signal Processor Project -- What is DSP Anyway? (A Tutorial) and DSP Applied to Weak-signal Communications (EME with Your AO-10 Station) Tom Clark W3IWI "Digital Signal Processing Modems" Bob McGwier N4HY Morning Education Session, 10:00 AM, Ballroom A "An Introduction to Amateur Radio" Jan Jellema W8SWN "Simple Techniques for Determining Satellite Visual Observation Windows" Vern Riportella WA2LQQ "Classroom Applications of Satellites in the UK" Craig Underwood Ham Radio from the Space Shuttle and the Space Station: An Informal Sharing with Students and Teachers Dr. Tony England W0ORE Lunch 12:00 Noon, Ballroom B Afternoon Amateur Radio Session, 1:00 PM, Ballroom CD "Spread Spectrum Ranging and Non-Linear Filtering for Orbit Determination" Bob McGwier N4HY Phil Karn KA9Q "Doppler Correction Techniques and Their Relation to QRM" Vern Riportella WA2LQQ "Fluid Momentum Attitude Control for Phase IV" Bob McGwier N4HY Lou McFadin W5DID Steve Robinson W2FPY Gordon Hardman KE3D Brent Helleckson Jeff Zerr Dave Cowdin WD0HHU Afternoon Education Session, 1:00 PM, Ballroom A "70,000 Feet over Ohio, An Amateur Radio Balloon Experiment" Bill Brown WD8ELK "Receiving and Decoding Radiation Data from UoSAT 1 -- A High School Student Project Using Basic Equipment" Richard Ensign Teaching Science and Social Science with Amateur Radio Douglas L. Smith "Project SPARC at Northeast High - Two Decades of High School Space Science" Howard I. Ziserman WA3GOV Afternoon Plenary Session, 3:00 PM, Ballroom A AMSAT/National Space Society Space Education Network K.O. Learner, II K9PVW Greg Barr "Building WEFAX Groundstations: A Practical Approach" Jeff Wallach N5ITU Phase 4 Status Report Jan King W3GEY Dick Jansson WD4FAB Entertainment/Social Hour/Cash Bar, 5:00 PM, Ballroom A Banquet 6:30, Ballroom B Keynote Speaker Dr. Tony England W0ORE Annual Meeting Sunday November 8, 9:00 "A Terminal Program for the User Interface for Packet Radio" Joe Kasser G3ZCZ Reserved for Additional Presentations Board of Directors Meeting Check-in and registration will open at 7:30AM Saturday morning. Exhibits may be open from 7:30AM until 6:00PM. A talk-in service will be available on the 147.16 (+600) repeater. Contact AMSAT headquarters at 301-589-6062 for further information. - - - It may or may not be appropriate to distribute the following - - - - - - additional information via amateur radio networks. NCSs and - - - - - - SYSOPs should use their own judgement. - - - Hotel reservations should be directed to the Southfield Hilton at 313-557-4800. Mention AMSAT for symposium rates of $45-single and $48-double. Discount airfares are available through NORTHWEST AIRLINES by calling NORTHWEST Meeting Services at 800-328-1111 (in Minnesota 800-272-1408) (in Canada 800-378-7747) or local travel agents and by mentioning MEETING CODE 12738. This could yield ticket prices 5% lower then NORTHWEST's lowest rate or 35% less than their regular coach fare. The symposium registration fee is $15. The Saturday luncheon cost is $12. Saturday's evening banquet fee is $22. Send registration fees to AMSAT, PO Box 1091, Ann Arbor, MI 48106-1091. Include information as to arriving date, time and flight if transportation is desired to the hotel. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 4.(U) FO-12 Schedule Reinstated Fuji OSCAR 12 has returned to its previously announced schedule and the schedule is being closely followed by FO-12 controllers. The following operating schedule was recently released by JARL: FO-12 will operate: From To Date Time Date Time Mode ============================ October 11 17:00 12 16:07 JD 14 01:26 15 00:32 JD 16 00:?6 17 23:52 JD 20 12:58 21 14:05 JA 22 13:11 23 12:18 JA 24 13:25 26 11:37 JA 28 11:50 28 13:45 JD Note 1 28 13:52 29 12:58 JD 31 11:10 01 10:16 JD November 02 11:23 03 10:30 JD 04 11:37 05 10:43 JD 07 08:55 08 10:02 JD The transponders will be off at others times. The schedule may be changed at any time due to unexpected power situations. Note 1: On October 28 from 11:50 through 13:45 UTC a special telemetry software package will be loaded to permit telemetry transmission every 2 seconds instead of every minute. The mailbox will be unavailable during this period but the digipeater will be operational. Telemetry reports will be appreciated. Send to JARL via the FO-12 mailbox. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 5.(U) N4HY QUIKTRAK V3.1 now ready for distribution N4HY QUIKTRAK V3.1 has now been "fully tested" and is ready for distribution. SIMCGA, a public domain utility, is included so QUIKTRAK V3.1 can be used with Hercules boards while you have the TSR SIMCGA running. Thanks to Hasan N0AN. Support for the KLM/MIRAGE and ARRL antenna controllers has been fully tested thanks to Dave Filmer, WB9QPG. This support allows you to control antennas in real time or load a table in the controller so that you may go off and do other things with the computer while control goes on in background. You do not need any of the TSR's for com-port support of the antenna controller but both MB-BIOS and COM-BIOS are included (as some problem with the League controller and MB-BIOS has cropped up). You DO need these for GATHER support when realtime tracking. The New functions or fixes in QUIKTRAK V3.1 are: (1) In REALTIME - ONE SATELLITE graphics mode, you may now do a groundtrack and control the time between dots. A PAUSE function is implemented. The sun position is indicated by a "cross hair" as well as the terminator allowing users to be able to tell daylight from dark. (2) A totally new function under MULTI-SATELLITE - ONE OBSERVER produces a graphics mode where ALL the satellites are displayed at once on the standard zoom 1 map. A modified satellite graphic easily identifies which satellite's numbers are being displayed. A PAUSE function is also implemented. (3) Fully tested support for Hercules cards via SIMCGA. (4) Fully tested support for the KLM and ARRL controllers. (5) WB5IPM controller support has been added and is available via the customization process (see QEX May and June, 1987). (6) A new proprietary controller that is being developed for ENCOMM by KB2CST (with aid from N4HY) will have the same functionality as the ARRL and KLM controllers and will be configured as an IBM-PC bus board. The price will be considerably less than the current KENPRO controller which ENCOMM is having trouble getting from Japan. This controller will come with a slew of TSR's to provide pop-up rotor control panels on your screen and table loaded "offline" support antenna control. (7) Minor annoyances fixed: the program now alerts users to the fact that GATHER is turned on while in the tabular realtime mode. Active antenna control is possible in both tabular and graphics realtime modes. A bug that clobbered the interrupt driven I/O support has been fixed. All unsold copies of QUIKTRAK V3.0 should be returned to Keith Pugh, W5IU, for update. There will be an extensive revision to the manual. Update instructions for V3.0 owners are included in their manual. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 6.(U) Short Bursts AO-10 remains in hibernation. It has been off since power availability fell below required levels. Engineers estimate it will be late autumn when required power levels are available. Restoration of AO-10 Mode B operation is anticipated on or about December 1. *** The AMSAT-NA Technical Journal made its debut last July. Now the second issue is being assembled for publication before the end of 1987 and editor Bob Diersing has issued a call for papers. He says there is a particular need for articles related to the Phase 4 project. Complete details on this call for papers appears in ASR #159 which is in the mail. *** The new ARRL video "The New World of Amateur Radio" produced by Roy Neal, K6DUE, will be available from the AMSAT-NA Video Tape Library shortly. Contact Tom Larson, N1CHM, for further details. *** Dick Jansson, WD4FAB, remarks that many operators are using far too much uplink power on FO-12 (apparently) because they can't hear their own downlink. This can be due, he concludes to a strong polarization sense shift from Right Hand Circular Polarization (RHCP) to Left Hand Circular Polarization (LHCP). Thus, operators should have the ability to switch between the two to be successful and consistent with FO-12. ***************************************************************************** END