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

MIR Status:
Mir Crew #30 arrived on Mir on April 6, 2000.   There have been several reports of radio activity on the Mir commercial channels.  At the present time the Amateur radio station has not been activated.

Courtesy of Farrel Winder

Hello All Mir Fans,
    For those following the progress of Mir and the possible return of Amateur Radio SSTV, Voice and Packet after the new Crew boards Mir, there are 2  interesting stories now running on the web:

                 http://www.msnbc.com/news/303767.asp

Mir Amateur Radio Status:
The two Mir crew members are both experienced Amateur Radio operators and are familiar with Voice, Packet and SSTV procedures. During the recent retraining of Kaleri and Zalentin they came up with several suggestions for changes for the amateur radio station.  MAREX-NA is currently discussing with the engineers at Energia the change requests to see if any of the suggestions can be implemented. If all goes as planned the Mir Amateur Radio station may be reactivated between April 10 - 20 on 145.985 FM Simplex (Voice, Packet and SSTV).

Mir School Schedules:
MAREX-NA is planning on running a Mir school schedule, possibly as early as week of April 17th this year (crew work load permitting).  The exact date of the school link will be chosen after the Mir crew moves into Mir and evaluates their work load.  We are also looking into to the possibility of running the Audio Live over the WEB so that many schools around the world can listen to the Mir / school Amateur Radio link. I will publish more information on the Web audio later.

Live Mir School audio web link:
The audio web link format we will try to use will be similar to the web audio at the MSNBC audio web link below. You may want to test your current browser to see if it is compatible with the MSNBC system. I was able to get this link working with one of the browsers when I set my browsers security levels low. We still have many more details to work out with the web audio link.  Please stay tuned for more updates.
http://www.msnbc.com/m/lv/default.asp

SSTV:
In a few weeks the Mir Space Station may be activating the amateur radio projects, including the MAREX-NA SSTV project.  The International Space Station (Alpha) may also be installing a new MAREX-NA SSTV called SpaceCam1 system as early as Q4 2000.  Now is the time to start getting your satellite station  ready to transmit and receive Slow Scan Television signals. I have provided a few web links, which can help you, get your satellite station ready to receive SSTV images.
The tentative SSTV/Packet Mir broadcast school is:
Saturday, Sunday and Monday SSTV. 145.985 FM Simplex
Tuesday - Friday  1200 baud AX.25 Packet 145.985 FM Simplex

Suggested Receiving Station for Satellite SSTV Images.
http://www.siliconpixels.com/marex/MirSSTVStation.htm

MAREX-NA home page
http://www.siliconpixels.com/marex/index.htm

SSTV Repeaters:
The MAREX-NA team has posted some information regarding testing of the new SpaceCam1 SSTV software.
http://www.siliconpixels.com/marex/RepeaterOperations.htm

Mir QSL Update:
The card proofs have been sent to Energia/MAREX-RU for final approval. We think we have all of the minor typographical errors corrected.  And an updated QSL fax was sent to Energia on the 7th for approval. We hope to send the final card to the printers in May 2000.

Note:  We are currently out of QSL cards for the Mir Amateur Radio program. 
I  would like to thank you all for being patient on getting your QSL cards.  We hope to begin shipping the new cards in Q2 2000.  The cards we are making are just for the Mir crew QSL cards, we are not associated with any of the special event QSL cards such as Sputnik.

QSL and Diplomas:
The Engineers at MAREX-RU have asked me to query the general public on a few QSL related topics.
1. QSL Cut off date.  Some day in the future, the Russian Space Station Mir will be retired.  The exact date of retirement is not known.  As long as the Mir station can be safely operated and afforded, the Mir program will continue.  The best guess on Mir's retirement date is some where between 6 - 24 months from now. 
After the last crew moves out of Mir, we will need to pick a cut-off-date for processing QSL cards for the Mir Space Station.  After the cut-off-date, no more QSL cards will be officially issued for Mir.
I have suggested a cut-off-date of 12 months to allow time for qsl managers, after the official retirement date for Mir.  Does this seem reasonable to the Amateur Radio community.  Your comments on this topic are welcome.

2. Mir QSL Diploma:  The engineers at MAREX-RU are also interested in knowing if the Amateur Radio community is interested in getting an official Mir QSL Diploma.  The rules for getting a diploma have not been chosen, but here is a rough guess.
To get a diploma you would have to have made approximately 10 logged contacts with Mir, in any combination of modes, Packet (Mail MSG or Digi, 2-way), Voice(2-way), SSTV RX.  You would need to provide photo copies of log information or SSTV images.  There would be most likely be a small fee associated with the Mir QSL Diploma to cover the cost of manufacturing, handling and postal fees.  I was also informed that there is a good possibility the diplomas would be hand signed by one of the Mir crew members (signature of your actual voice contact is not guaranteed ).  This proposal is just in the theory stage to see if there is interest.  And we will also need a club to spearhead this whole project and work closely with MAREX-RU, AMSAT-RU, and Energia to design and manufacture the diplomas.  So, if your club has the energy to run such a project from beginning to end, please contact me.

Email band width:  To reduce the amount of bandwidth on the amsat reflectors, please just forward your comments directly to my address and please avoid the broad cast if possible.  Thanks Miles 
wf1f@amsat.org

The MAREX-NA web page has moved to a new location. We will try to keep the page updated with the latest Mir and ISS amateur radio experiments.
http://www.siliconpixels.com/marex

Copyright 2000 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