Let me inform you that we are planning to conducting the final sessions of Amateur Radio connections, "QSO" between the Orbiting Station Mir and the Amateur Radio stations on Earth. The schedule will take place on the following dates: Aug 1, 8, and 15, 1999
Also we plan to activate the MAREX-NA Slow-Scan TV system for one hour before the Public Radio Schedule and one hour after the Public Radio schedules.The SSTV system will be in Robot-36 -Automatic mode.
Respectfully,
Aleksandrov AP
RK3AP
The MAREX-NA team has been running Official Voice Schedules with the Russian Space Station Mir since September 1991. with out notice. After August 1999, the Mir station will be left un-manned temporarily for 6 months.
Just before the Mir station is exited, MAREX-NA has proposed a special three day-weekend Voice / SSTV schedule for the world. If this project is approved by Energia the Mir crew will on active on Voice on the two-meter band around the world for during published times.The Mir crew will specifically set aside a specific time slot of 60-90 minutes of their time on specific dates to talk to as many people around the world as possible via Amateur Radio. This special MAREX-NA Public Schedule will allow many people from around the opportunity to tell the Mir crew "Thank You" and for the crew reminding the people that they will be back in the winter. We are anticipating a very large number of Amateur Radio Station to be calling the crew of Mir on the public Mir Amateur Radio channel of 145.985 FM simplex. Since Mir has a Receiver (hearing) range of over 1500 miles in all directions, the primary channel will become too congested with people calling the Russian Space Station Mir. To help reduce channel congestion, we have proposed that the Mir crew use a total of three different channels for this MAREX-NA Public Voice Schedule. The multiple channel format has been used on the Shuttle projects in the past, however the frequencies we will use for the Russian Space Station Mir will not be exactly same as the Shuttle. The frequencies that MAREX-NA is proposing have been recommended by AMSAT and the IARU.
The MAREX-NA Public Voice channels for the special event.
Primary 145.985 FM Simplex
Temporary 1 145.825 FM Simplex
Temporary 2 145.800 FM Simplex
Before the Special event the Mir crew will program in the three channels into the Kenwood TM-V7A Radio. The crew will set the frequencies into specific channel memory channels. This will allow the Mir crew to easily switch between the three channels very quickly. When one of the channels becomes too congested with stations calling, the Mir crew can then switch to a different channel and call "CQ CQ This is the Russian Space Station Mir". During the special Mir voice event days, the Mir crew will talk to the public during the posted times. The crew may also send an occasional SSTV image down to Earth. For this event, we are not going to recommend that people send images to Mir during the Official MAREX-NA Public Voice Schedules because it may use up too much time for Voice contacts. One of our goals is to allow as many new people to talk to the Mir crew for the first time. The SSTV contacts are being reserved for the Hour before and the hour after the Public Voice Schedule time slot.
Then after the published event times have passed, the Mir crew will return to the station to the Primary channel of 145.985 FM Simplex. I am sure the event will be extremely popular and that the other satellite enthusiasts will not mind sharing the channels for a few days.
Tentative dates:
In preparation for a possible MAREX-NA Public Voice / SSTV day between Earth and the Mir Space Station, the following advanced times are listed.The starts times will be updated closer to the actual schedule anticipated for August 1, 8 and Aug 15, 1999. These dates fall on Sunday, all times are UTC and are AOS. Only times within the active crew participation periods are listed, or Sunday August 1, the approximate time pass will begin around 16:15 until 17:30.
The August 1, Sunday date will include the following cities:
AOS
(UTC) City Lat/Lon
16:15 Perth -32/116
16:19 Adelaide -34/139
16:22 Sydney -34/151
16:27 Wellington -41/174
16:57 Mexico City 20/99
17:01 Houston 30/95
17:03 Cincinnati 39/84
17:04 Boston 42/71
17:06 St Johns 47/52
17:15 London 51/00
17:18 Marseille 43/05
17:21 Moscow 56/38
Sunday, August 8, 1999, using Keps for day 173 (June 22): The first part of the pass will cover Most of Europe and North Africa. The second half will cover North America.
The August 8, Sunday date will include the following cities:
16:55 Los Angeles
16:56 San Francisco 38/122
17:01 Cincinnati
17:04 Boston
17:10 St Johns, Canada
17:16 London, UK
17:17 Marseilles, France
17:18 Casablanca
Sunday, August 15, 1999, using Keps for day 173 (June 22):
The first part of the pass will cover Australia and North America
AOS
(UTC) City
16:00 Sydney
16:03 Wellington
16:19 Honolulu
16:29 W Oregon/N Ca