[sarex] Sucesful Mir Voice / SSTV Weekend

["Miles Mann" <Miles_Mann@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Mir Amateur Radio Status: Aug 16, 1999

By Miles Mann WF1F,
MAREX-NA (Manned Amateur Radio Experiment, North American Division)

MAREX-NA Mir Public Radio Schedule was Successful.
Hello everyone, the MAREX-NA team is pleased to announce that the MAREX-NA
Mir Public radio schedule last Sunday on August 15 was a big success.
Thanks to the support from the Mir crew, we had 300% more active radio time than
we requested.  The MAREX-NA team had requested a one hour time slot beginning at
 14:15 UTC
and ending at 15:15 UTC.  This  pass was chosen by MAREX-NA and MAREX-RU
specifically
to cover as much of the world as possible during the one hour time slot.

The goal of the schedule was to introduce beginners, who have never made a
two-way
direct radio contact with a Cosmonaut IN space to have the opportunity to know
when the crew would be on the Air.  And to get that thrill you get when you
make you first contact with a Space-Man.
(Congradulations to Sean Thomas KC2DIJ Age 11 and all of the other first timers)

We have estimated the Mir crew has made over 250-300 two-way contacts during
the three published MAREX-NA Mir Public Radio Schedules.
And thousands more were on frequency listening.

French cosmonaut Jean-Pierre Heignere got on the air a few hours early
at 11:00 UTC and began thrilling people around the world by handing out
two-way contacts and sending down
MAREX-NA SSTV snap shots of the SOYUZ TM-29 space ship on the Amateur Radio
channel 145.985 FM Simplex.
Jean-Pierre went on to say, the Mir crew will be coming home on the Soyuz TM-29
in a
fort-night.
During the 13:00 UTC orbit over North America and Europe, Jean-Pierre was on the
 air again
talking to more First-Time stations and sending more SSTV images to Earth , back
 to Earth.
And again during the official scheduled MAREX-NA Mir Public Voice schedule,
Jean-Pierre was busy talking to the thousands of listening Amateur Radio
stations
around the world druing the 14:15 - 15:15 UTC schedule.


Partial list of countries we have heard from:
Sydney, Mexico, Pine Grove/Sacramento, CA, Seattle WA,  Winnipeg Canada
Bowling Green, KY,  Waldron/Indianapolis, Cincinnati, Ohio,
N Florida, Boston, Mass,  St Johns Canada,    London, France, Italy
Marseille, N Africa, KwaZulu Natal, South Africa,

This was the last official MAREX-NA scheduled public Amateur Radio event for
the Russian Space Station Mir, for this year.  The Mir Station will be
re-occupied next year in February 2000 and we plan on running more Public
events to cover more of the world.

The MAREX-NA team would like to thank the following groups for helping support
the MAREX-NA Mir Public voice schedule.

AMSAT and IRA
For frequency coordination Support.

MIREX
For Earth to message transfers.

RSA Energia, MAREX-Russia, AMSAT-Russia
For Mir crew Time-Line Scheduling

Space Station Mir crew:
For making many people exited about Amateur Radio and Space exploration.
Jean-Pierre Heignere
Viktor Afanasyev
Sergei  Avdeyev.


MAREX-NA Team
And special thanks to the MAREX-NA team for schedule development
and logistics:

Henry Cantrell W4HTB, Don C. Miller W9NTP, Chris Scott  WB9NEQ
Farrell Winder W8ZCF, John Langner, W2OSZ,


MAREX-NA on ISS
The MAREX-NA team was asked by RSA Energia a few months ago to submit several
proposals for future Amateur Radio projects for ISS.  The project proposals
have been submitted
and we have already begun building the proposed projects.
We at MAREX-NA believe that space needs to be kept open and accessible to
everyone.
Part of our philosophy is Keep-It-Simple (KIS).
All of our projects with Mir have been based on the KIS philosophy.
As an extra bonus of keeping a project simple, it also keeps the cost down
for project development and for access to users.  MAREX-NA has spent only
approximately
$35,000 (US dollars) for three Mir Amateur Radio projects.
I can only image what additional good projects we could have implemented if
we had 1% of the funding of that big satellite project.
The Mir projects were Simple, and affordable, that is why the Mir Amateur Radio
satellite projects become the most popular Amateur radio satellite in the
world for the past 7 years.

Still level:
To encourage growth, I have recommended that the ISS Amateur Radio program
contain
a rage of projects designed to cover many skill levels.
It is always important to keep one or more Entry level projects active at all
times
while also providing higher skill level projects for a greater challenge.

Projects covering multiple skill levels
(from beginners to advances users, in simultaneous operations)
     2-meter 1200 baud mono band packet       (Still level 1, Beginner)
     70 cm Voice Repeaters                         (Skill level 2)
     70 cm 9600 baud mono band packet         (Still level 3, intermediate)
     Compressed Digital Video (h.323)              (Still Level 5, Advanced)



Mir's retirement date:
On or about August 26, the current Mir crew will leave Mir for a temporary 6
month
closing of the Space Station Mir.
The Mir station will fly unoccupied for approximately 6 months until around
February 2000.   Then in February a new crew will arrive on Mir.
The new crew has received funding for their training and all of the information
I
have received directly from Energia indicates the February flight is still
planned.
The current planned retirement date for the Space Station Mir is around
February 2001.

Amateur Radio Status while Mir is unoccupied.
The MAREX-NA team has been working closely with the MAREX-RU team at
Energia trying to determine if it will be possible to keep some of the Amateur
Radio equipment active while Mir is temporarily unoccupied.
We discussed several low power modes of operations tying to satisfy all of the
official safety requirements.
The safety rules are quite clear.  If we can not remotely turn the equipment ON
and OFf
from ground control, then the equipment must be shutdown when the station is
closed.
We at MAREX-NA understand that the safety of the station is more important
than the Amateur Radio equipment.  And we agree with the decision to turn off
all of the Amateur Radio equipment on Mir while the station is temporally
closed.

The following Amateur Radio projects on Mir will be power off and de-cabled
during the
week of August 23-26th.
SAFEX/MAREX-NA Personal Message System (PMS)
MAREX-NA Slow Scan TV system
SAFEX Repeater

The equipment is expected to be turned back on again when the station is
reoccupied
in February 2000.


************************************************

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 26, 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.

MAREX-NA Public Voice QSL Update:
For the special MAREX-NA Public Voice days, please only use the address below
for two-way and Short-Wave-Listener SWL cards.

QSL Information:
Pleas provide the following information with your QSL  or SWL card.

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.

Sergej Samburov
PO Box 73
Korolev-10 City
Moscow Area, 141070, Russia

************************************************

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.

DOSVIDANIYA Miles WF1F


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