SB SPACE @ ARL $ARLS036
ARLS036 Mir update

ZCZC AS36
QST de W1AW
Space Bulletin 036  ARLS036
From ARRL Headquarters
Newington, CT  December 19, 1997
To all radio amateurs

SB SPACE ARL ARLS036
ARLS036 Mir update

MIREX chief Dave Larsen, N6CO, reports that an announced crossband
''experiment'' involving Mir has been abandoned for now because of
interference on 145.800 and 145.550 MHz. The crossband test was to
have begun December 1 and was to have involved a 70 cm uplink and a
2-meter downlink. US astronaut Dave Wolf, KC5VPF, has been on
145.985 MHz FM simplex from the Russian space station, but only
occasionally.

A space walk at the end of December will check and--if
necessary--repair the 2-meter/70-cm antenna that might have been
damaged during a space walk in November. The Kenwood TM-733 aboard
Mir has been connected to the spacecraft's SAFEX repeater antenna.

A new KAM dual mode packet radio terminal node controller (TNC) that
was recently sent to Mir from the MIREX team was tested onboard Mir
recently. The new TNC supports both 1200 and 9600 baud connections,
and has a message buffer size of 100 kilobytes--substantially larger
than that of the TNC previously in use. Until a suitable cable can
be wired up and installed, however, 9600 baud communications will
not be available.

US astronaut Andy Thomas, KD5CHF, is training in preparation to
replace Wolf aboard Mir in January. Thomas will be the last US
astronaut stationed aboard Mir.
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