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

MIR Status:
Mir crew active on 2-meters.  The Mir crew has been making a few random voice contacts with stations in Australian and New Zealand area.  The crew seems to be activating the 2-meter station while the crew is having their breakfast.  Then the crew turns off the equipment as they began their heave work load.  No packet or SSTV signals have been hear as of 4/14/2000

Mir Crew Sleep / Wake times:
The Mir crew is using a time Sleep/wake cycle I will call Mir-Time (MT).  Mir-Time is UTC time plus 3 hours.  Mir-Time does not make any adjustments for daylight-savings time.

Here is a list of an approximate time schedule for the Mir crew.

The Mir crew sleeps from approximately 19:00 UTC, until 04:00 UTC.
Mir crew is awake and working from approximately 04:00 UTC - 18:00 UTC

Another way to think of it is, take the UTC time and add 3 hours to equal Mir-time.

Mir Amateur Radio Status:
The 2-meter station has been activated for a few short passes, in voice mode only. The two Mir crew members are both experienced Amateur Radio operators and are familiar with Voice, Packet and SSTV procedures. If all goes as planned the Mir Amateur Radio station may be reactivated full time later this month on 145.985 FM Simplex (Voice, Packet and SSTV).  The chief of the Amateur radio cosmonaut department at RSA Energia asked the Mir crew to contact the MAREX-NA team (WF1F) while over the USA to help test out the packet and SSTV systems this weekend. Part of the reason for the testing to evaluate the status of the equipment for the upcoming Mir school schedules planned.

Mir School Schedules:
MAREX-NA received approval for a school schedule with a school in the USA for the month of April. The Mir crew received a radio gram today with the school information and a list of questions from the (ham) students. The exact date of the school link will be chosen after the Mir crew  evaluates their work load and finishes testing the Amateur Radio equipment (Kenwood TM-733 and TM-V7).  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.
If this weekends testing with Mir is successful, then I will announce the date on Monday 17th of when you can tune into the WEB page and hear the audio live.

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

Selected Questions
Note: Due to a lack of a third-party agreement between the USA and Russia, only the Students with a valid FCC Amateur Radio license will be allowed to talk to the Mir crew.
  
1. If you get a headache or a cold does it feel different in space than on Earth?
2. Why did you go back to the MIR again?
3. Were you scared to go back to the MIR after all the problems it's had?
4.  Do you like to live in  space or on the Earth better and why?
5. Does your bodies internal biological clock still work in space?
6. Is your daily routine for eating and sleeping the same in space as it is on earth?
7. Without gravity do you get more or less physically tired?
8. Does the Earth look brighter in places where the main cities are located, because of all the lights?
9. How hard was it to reopen the MIR space station?
10. What would you do if you have to go outside on a space walk and you get a rip in your space suit?
11. Is it fun to eat in micro gravity and do you have to eat food differently than on Earth?
12. How many missions have you flown on the MIR space station?

Over the next few months we expect to run school schedules with a few more schools world wide. MAREX-NA currently has a back log of schools waiting for Mir schedules.  We are not currently looking for any more schools at this time.

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.
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