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K5ARH > SAREX 12.07.97 02:43l 141 Lines 6623 Bytes #-10399 (0) @ AMSAT
BID : STS-94.017
Read: GUEST OE7FMI
Subj: STS-94 SAREX Bulletin 17
Path: DB0RGB<DB0SL<OE3XBS<OM0PBB<HA5KDF<HG8GL<HA5OB<HA3PG<VE4KV<KE0WO<
WB0TAX<K5ARH
Sent: 970711/1530z @:K5ARH.#LFT.LA.USA.NA #:46000 $:sts-94.017
Silver Spring, Maryland USA
Friday, July 11, 1997 @ 1100 UTC
SAREX Schools Update
Ten days since being launched from the Kennedy Space Center, Columbia
continues to orbit the Earth in excellent condition, providing a
platform for more than 30 separate scientific investigations.
Onboard the shuttle, the STS-94 crew, split into two teams, continues
around-the-clock work in support of the Microgravity Science
Laboratory.
The education aspects of the Shuttle Amateur Radio Experiment (SAREX)
are flourishing on the STS-94 MSL-1 mission.
On Orbit 94 at 13:55 UTC, the S. J. Davis Middle School in San Antonio,
Texas, with Steve Cerwin WA5FRF, had 22 in attendance with 14 students
for their conversation with CDR Jim Halsell, KC5RNI. The students had
six questions asked and five answered. Media coverage was provided by
the school district's video group. The contact was shortened at the
beginning due to the excessive squint angle between the window antenna
and the school amateur radio station. They perhaps lost about 1.5
minutes up front but maintained contact to set. AMSAT Technical Mentor
Steve Morton, AA8HH, guided the school up to contact day.
Robert Burch Elementary School first grader Melissa Bruns asked, "Why
are there two sonic booms when you reenter the earth's atmosphere?"
She and her fellow students had 12 questions answered by PS2 Greg
Linteris from the school station in Tyrone, Georgia set up by Bob
Watson, KN4HH, and members of the Fayette County Repeater Association.
At 15:34 UTC on Rev 95, they had up to 75 present (mostly students)
with local Atlanta TV coverage. Burch Elementary teacher Mrs. Kathy
Akins reported the contact was excellent. Bob KN4HH wrote:
>SUCCESS! Thanks for all your patience and great help. It was very
>good pass. Signals peaked at S9+20dB at the 23 degree elevation point.
>All 12 students were able to ask their questions. Channel 5 news
>(the local Fox network channel) and two newspapers attended the
>activity. We got a very nice slot on the 6 pm news.
The Artesia Public Schools in Artesia, New Mexico were similarly excited.
Teacher Mrs. Camille George wrote:
> Hi Will! We just finished our contact. It was great! We talked to
> Susan Still. She came through loud and clear. She provided wonderful
> concise answers. Every student got to ask at least one question--we
> asked 18 questions in all. We are elated! More later, Camille.
Artesia reported 600 present with TV coverage at the school starting at
about 17:05 UTC on Rev 96.
At MET 06/21:38 (15:40 UTC July 8), Mountain View Elementary in Dewey,
Arizona, started their day with a very nice chat with CDR Jim Halsell,
KC5RNI. Dave Boone, AB7JA, set up the contact station at Mountain View.
The contact occurred within seconds of predicted rise time and ended
about one minute before predicted set. For most of the pass, signals
were quite strong. They report about 100 people in attendance with
six students asking a total of 11 questions. As LOS approached, they
were able to sign off with CDR Halsell before communications were lost.
The Arizona school also reported that there were a lot of news media
present and that one of the local radio stations was doing a simulcast.
Ione Junior High School in Jackson, California enjoyed a memorable
conversation with MS1 Janice Voss, KC5BTK, at MET 07/03:50 (21:52 UTC
July 8). Volunteers Dick Flagg, AH6NM, and Nancy, WH6PN, ran the
AMSAT Telebridge ground station in Hawaii. There were 35 people
attending, with 14 students among them. About 15 questions were
answered by Janice. Media coverage was provided by local newspaper,
radio, and TV. The school reported that the students were dancing
after the successful contact.
AMSAT Technical Mentor Tim Bosma, W6ISS, coached the Ione school's
technical team in the months prior to contact day.
Additionally, a small number of lucky hams around the world found
themselves in random contact with the crew.
Late aquisition of signal continues to be observed while the orbiter
attitude is roughly "tail down, main engines forward". Most contacts
reported occur well after rise time, but not necessarily after TCA,
due to the observers squint angle of the antenna on Columbia. AOS
seems to be about 1.5 to 2 minutes after rise.
Many thanks to AMSAT Representative Charlie Sufana, AJ9N, at the NASA
Johnson Space Center in Houston, for so much of this information.
Charlie relieved Will Marchant in the SAREX Customer Support Room on
July 6.
These STS-94 SAREX bulletins are uploaded to a NASA web site
maintained by Jim Gass, N3CJN, and others. You will find them
under the "Shuttle Amateur Radio Experiment (main)" page at
http://www.gsfc.nasa.gov/sarex/sarex_mainpage.html.
An archive of SAREX bulletins from previous missions is found at
ftp://garc.gsfc.nasa.gov/pub/sarex/bulletins.
Radio amateurs, shortwave listeners and students may post their brief
technical observations of SAREX activity via e-mail to sarex@amsat.org
to benefit others who are participating in the experiment as well.
Here is the current Columbia orbital element set from the NASA Johnson
Space Center in Houston.
STS-94
1 24849U 97032A 97192.58987452 .00086646 00000-0 26243-3 0 9130
2 24849 28.4695 307.3235 0004362 81.7832 278.3440 15.90899466 1589
Satellite: STS-94
Catalog number: 24849
Epoch time: 97192.58987452 = yrday.fracday
Element set: 913
Inclination: 28.4695 deg
RA of node: 307.3235 deg
Eccentricity: .0004362
Arg of perigee: 81.7832 deg
Mean anomaly: 278.3440 deg
Mean motion: 15.90899466 rev/day
Decay rate: 8.66460E-04 rev/day^2
Epoch rev: 158
Checksum: 367
Now entering day 11 of the Microgravity Science Laboratory mission,
crew members and science teams are reporting steady growth of good
returns with their investigations. "Science teams are getting
everything they hoped for, and in some cases, more than they hoped",
said Mission Manager Teresa Vanhooser of NASA's Marshall Space
Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. "We're seeing a lot of
smiling faces in the science operations areas."
[Radio amateurs are encouraged to relay these SAREX bulletins to
their local packet BBS as long as the Bulletin IDentification (BID)
is preserved. The BID is the character string beginning with the
dollar sign ($), for example as in "SB SAREX @ AMSAT $STS-94.017"
without the quotation marks.]
Submitted by Pat Kilroy, WD8LAQ, for Frank H. Bauer, KA3HDO, and the
SAREX Working Group.
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