karn@mouton.UUCP (11/10/84)
**** UoSAT Bulletin-100 (Edited) 8th November 1984 ****
UoSAT Spacecraft Control Centre, University of Surrey
** GENERAL NEWS **
** 100th UoSAT Bulletin **
It seems a long time ago now that we generated and loaded the
first UoSAT Bulletin back in October 1981 and, since then, the
Bulletin has settled down to a regular format after a number of
modifications suggested by the 'readers'. The technical feats
in loading the Bulletin on a regular basis in the early days
have long since been stream-lined - but the editorial effort is
still demanding! Material for the Bulletin is gleaned from
many sources - Telemail, ASR, various space news sources,
G3YJO's thoughts and, of course, the many letters we receive
daily from UoSAT experimenters. The response to the
Questionnaire transmitted during the summer of 1984 was
excellent and provided the UoSAT Team with valuable feedback
concerning the most popular and useful experiments and
schedules as well as Bulletin content & format suggestions.
The Bulletin was compiled by G3YJO for the first 9 months, then
by G8NEF for the following year, before reverting to G3YJO in
August 1984 as G8NEF took up full-time teaching commitments.
You may have wondered (or probably not!) how the Bulletin is
compiled & loaded. Work commences in earnest early on Friday
morning scanning the various news sources and compiling them
into the Bulletin file on the UoS Prime mainframe computer.
The operations of UO-9 and UO-11 are summarised from the
Command Operator's Log and the schedule for the coming week
agreed. A list of correspondents/reports for the week is
compiled. The Keplerian Elelments are copied automatically
from a Telemail file generated by KA9Q in the USA and the
'old-fashioned' EQX's generated automatically by an program and
inserted into the Bulletin file. The raw text is then run
through a text processor to format it into the 64 character
lines compatible with most displays. The processed Bulletin is
then run through an 1802 Assembler written by G8NEF which
produces a OBC compatible file (with error checking) ready for
transmission to the spacecraft, which is executed using
bi-directional packet communications with the UO-9 OBC.
The loading of the Bulletin obviously takes longer than the
time taken for you to receive it - exactly how much longer
depends on the UoS-to-UO-9 link quality - but a few iterations
between the OBC on UO-9 and the UoS groundstation Prime are
usaully sufficient. Then it is all yours for the weekend!
* UoSAT-OSCAR-11 QSL *
The second printing of these QSL cards was rejected too, but
relacements are promised for next week! Patience will be
rewarded!
** UoSAT-Oscar-9 Schedule **
This weeks schedule will be modified as G3YJO & G8NOB will be
attending the AMSAT AGM in the USA:
Thursday 8th - load Bulletin
Friday 9th - Bulletin/DIGITALKER/1200 bps telemetry
to
Tuesday 20th
Then back to normal!
The 21 MHz Beacon will be in use this week.
** UoSAT-Oscar-11 Operations **
A daily account of UO-11 operations follows:
DAY ORBIT CHANNELS RESET TIME
*** ***** ******** **********
Friday 3588 Telemetry
Saturday 3609 1,2,3,52 19:28:10
145 MHz returned to Telemetry
Sunday 3624 ODATA dump
(OBC told to change d/link from ODATA to TLM after 7.5hrs)
Monday 3632 2,3 09:50:15
435 MHz DCE 1200 bps afsk test
3633 ODATA dump
3634 435 MHz DCE 1200 bps AFSK Tlm tests
3638 ODATA dump
(OBC told to change d/link from ODATA to TLM after 8.5hrs)
Tuesday 3646 Reset Watch-Dog & 145 Tlm speed test
3647 435 MHz DSR 9600 bps psk tests
3648 same
3649 ODATA dump
(OBC told to change d/link from ODATA to TLM after 8.5hrs)
Wednesday 3661 P-Wave survey reset at 09:29:20
435 MHz DSR 9600 bps psk tests
3662 435 MHz DSR 9600 bps psk tests
3663 435 MHz 9600 bps psk DSR data dump
Thursday 3676 Despin from 3m30s to 23m10s!
1,2,3,52 10:11:49
** Thanks for Reports & Questionnaire Returns **
ZS1BI, DL7OU, H.J.Meerza, G4BBH, JA2WO, HB9RJV, VK2AVH, HB9RKR,
ZL2AHK, VE3CIE,
This week: H.Meerza, JA2WO,