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ZL2TZE > MIR 01.07.99 19:46l 206 Lines 9081 Bytes #-9778 (0) @ WW
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Subj: [sarex] Mir Crew comes home in Aug, June 30, 1999
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From: ZL2TZE@ZL2TZE.#73.MLB.NZL.OC
To : MIR@WW
Mir Amateur Radio Status: June 30, 1999
By Miles Mann WF1F,
MAREX-NA (Manned Amateur Radio Experiment, North American Division)
Live Long and Prosper:
The Russian Space Station will be flying solo for a few months beginning around
August 24, 1999 until February 2000. You have probably seen the news stories
about the current Mir crew returning to earth August 1999. During the weekly
telecon between MAREX-NA and Energia, we were informed the current Mir crew will
depart Mir on August 23, 1999. The next crew which was scheduled to arrive on
Mir in August, will not be launched until February 2000. This is not the first
time the Russian Space Station has flown with out a crew. The Mir station will
be empty for approximately 6 months. Then depending on the funding status, the
February Mir crew will either prepare the space station for a controlled splash
landing in the pacific or prepare Mir for operating until its 15 year birthday
in February 2001.
SSTV Update from Mir crew:
I was informed by Energia that the crew has been formally requested to activate
the SSTV project, when ever possible. During the weekend of June 26th, the Mir
crew was very active on voice and SSTV. The Mir crew even handed out many
Field-Day contacts.
Future Voice schedules with Mir:
The MAREX-NA team has been running Official Voice Schedules with the Russian
Space Station Mir since September 1991. Most of these schedules have been with
schools around the world (over 70 schools). During the month of August we hope
the make a schedule with the world. I know there are many people who have never
talked to a Cosmonaut in space before and we are trying to work out the details
for Mir crew voice time.
Stay tuned for further details.
Voice Contact Tips:
1 Listen first before Transmitting.
2 Wait till the crew says CQ or QRZ
We have been teaching the crew more Amateur Radio protocol and they are
catching on, slowly.
3 When you hear CQ/QRZ, just say the last two letters of you calls sign, twice
and that?s all
example: WF WF (don?t say anything else, until you hear the crew say,
something similar too. Station WF please continue?.
4 Keep your conversation short and speak very slowly. If you are fluent in
French or Russian that?s better, use the appropriate languages or English too.
5 When you are done, the crew will usually remember to say CQ/QRZ for the next
station waiting. When the band is too crowded, Jean-Pierre usually says Break
Break, which is his way of asking all stations to please stop transmitting.
6 If the crew is on voice, do not send any packet messages. The crew will
sometimes leave the Kantronics KPC-9612 ON, while they are on voice. This is so
they can read OLD mail while
they are talking on voice.
7. Do not ask the crew about the QSL card procedures. The Mir crew does not
Keep a log
of radio contacts. Just send a card to one of the two address below.
Current Channel, 145.985 FM Simplex.
I would like to ask everyone to please be patient regarding Amateur Radio
operations on Mir. The Amateur Radio portion of the Mir experiments are
primarily OFF-Hours experiments. The Mir crews do have a very busy schedule and
only have a very limited amount of FREE-Time to use the educational Amateur
Radio experiments.
Personal Message (PMS) Packet Update:
The packet system developed an audio problem on Friday. MAREX-NA faxed a list
of instructions to the engineers at MAREX-RU that same day. The engineers at
Energia did not know what was the exact cause of the audio problem but informed
us that Sergei Avdeyev is a very experienced amateur radio operator and he knows
the equipment very well. Sergei Avdeyev was able to fix the PMS and have it on
line by Monday morning.
When the Mir station is temporally shutdown in August, there is the possibility
all of the Amateur Radio equipment may be shutdown. The safety rules for
placing Mir in a shutdown mode require that all non essential equipment be power
off and disconnected. Many of the power cables running between modules will be
disconnected. And the Air-Lock hatches between he different modules will be
closed. The Amateur Radio equipment is located in the Priroda module. The
Priroda modules does have its own Solar Panels. There is the slight possibility
there may be enough extra power for the Amateur Radio station.
It is possible to leave the Kenwood TM-733 and the Kantronics KPC-9612 system
running for long periods of time. However some changes would need to be made to
the existing configuration. The PMS as it is designed requires a PC to be
connected at all times. If the PC is disconnected for long periods, the TNC
will lock up due to a Serial Buffer over flow problem.
MAREX-NA has been working on a modification the Mir crew can make to the TNC to
prevent the over flow condition. The modification works great in the lab and
with real on-the-air testing. The rest of the features of the PMS can be
remotely controlled from the Sys op stations on the ground.
We do understand that safety of the Mir station is the top priority and if it
should be decided to turn off the equipment we understand fully and we hope that
every else also understand and support any official decisions.
QSL Update:
Several people have asked, Where are their QSL cards for Sputnik 17 and 18. And
where are their QSL cards for Mir.
The short answer is:
The MAREX-Russia club has run out of QSL cards for those projects.
We are now looking into different plans on how to restock the QSL cards for the
MAREX-Russia club and we need about 4000 cards. When I get more specific
information, I will pass it on.
QSL Information:
Please use one of the following QSL managers and follow the directions for that
Manager
and included the following information:
Return Name and Address, country, ZIP
Date and time of your contact, In UTC format
Signal report (Best guess)
Radio Station and Antenna (optional)
All Mir contacts, including SWL, Two-way voice or Packet connections (R0MIR),
and including the Sputnik Satellites
Envelopes should be well sealed and do not include cash.
Send a SAE (Self Addressed Envelope ) and one or two IRC coupons
(which can be purchased at major US post offices).
Do not make any notes on the out side of the envelope with Amateur Radio Call
signs visible.
Temporally out of QSL cards!
Sergej Samburov
PO Box 73
Korolev-10 City
Moscow Area, 141070, Russia
************************************************
The California address still has a short supply of cards in stock.
For Two-way contacts with Mir ONLY. Just for the call sign R0MIR and R0MIR-1
No SSTV-SWL (Short Wave Listener) cards will be issued at this address.
No Sputnik-SWL cards
Dr. Dave Larsen - N6CO/K6MIR
PO Box 311
Pine Grove, California
95665
USA
Please include a SASE (Business Size Envelope) and two IRC?s for international.
If you are sending an IRC, Please make sure it is dated 1999, as the post office
won't accept IRC's dated over 1 year old.
Make sure the cancel stamp is in the right place on the IRC.
"Green Stamps" (USA ONLY) are appreciated for covering additional costs.
Note: Dave Larsen MIREX / N6CO is not handling SWL cards for Sputnik, please use
the other addresses
*****************
Current Mir Crew Members:
SOYUZ TM-29 arrived at Mir on February 20, 1999. Mir Soyuz TM-29 crew consisted
of French cosmonaut Jean-Pierre Heignere, Viktor Afanasyev and Slovakian
Cosmonaut Ivan Bella
On February 28, some of the crew returned to earth, they were:
Slovak Ivan Bella and Gennadiy Paldalko.
Gennadiys mission lasted approximately 6 months (August 16 1998 ? February 28
1999)
The remaining crew consists of:
The French cosmonaut Jean-Pierre Heignere (aprox 6 months)
Cosmonaut Viktor Afanasyev (aprox 6 months)
Cosmonaut Sergei Avdeyev. Sergei mission began August 16, 1998 and will end
on August 23, 1999. On this Mission Sergei spent just over 1 full year on board
the Mir Space Station.
On June 20, 1999, Sergej broke the worlds record for Total-Time-In-Space.
Sergei has spent over two full years in space when you combine all the time from
all of his missions together.
PMS Status (Personal Message System):
The PMS activity was a little intermittent last week, but its running good.
Tracking Mir:
For current tracking data, try the CelesTrak web page at http://celestrak.com/
Copyright 1999 Miles Mann, All Rights Reserved. This document may be freely
distributed via the following means - Email (including listservers), Usenet, and
World-Wide-Web. It may not be reproduced for profit including, but not limited
to, CD ROMs, books, and/or other commercial outlets without prior written
consent from the author.
Images received from the MAREX-NA SSTV system on the Russian Space Station Mir
are considered public domain and may be freely distributed, without prior
permission.
Miles WF1F
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