karn@eagle.UUCP (06/09/83)
Official AMSAT P3B Bulletin #006 2300 UTC 8 June 83 TO:QST FM:AMSAT HQ RLSD:K1HTV The Washington office of ESA was called today regarding the upcoming Ariane LO-6 mission and indicated that there was no change in the earlier released information. The launch of Phase 3-B is still scheduled for 11:59 UTC on Thursday, June 16th with the launch window extending until 12:28 UTC. Preparations continue for ALINS, The AMSAT Launch Information Network System . W4OWA has notified AMSAT that arrangements have been completed with American Bell for use of their conference bridge for ALINS. A brief prelaunch test of the system will be held at 0000 UTC June 16, about 12 hours before the scheduled liftoff. Jan King, W3GEY, recently back from the Kourou launch site has indicated that five minute bulletin transmissions originating from the 145.81 MHz General Beacon of Phase III-B scheduled for on the hour and thirty minutes past the hour will only be sent in CW in the earlier orbits. RTTY will be added at a later date. It appears now that in order to reduce battery drain during the early orbits when the solar panels are not yet properly oriented , the 145.987 MHz Engineering beacon will be kept off most of the time. In the early phase of the mission, Phase III-B 2 meter transmissions will be made on the omni antenna. The effects noticed during these early orbits are that downlink signals will appear to be at least 10 DB weaker and that more fading will be noted on the downlink signals. More information will follow in the days to come.