Floyd Magnet School MIR/APRS Test

On 27 April,1998 myself (KD4CGA) and Mike (KB4JHU) setup Amateur Radio equipment to show some students at Floyd Magnet School in Montgomery,Al how APRS (Automatic Position Reporting System} via the MIR Space Station worked.

MIREX had set times {1000 UTC- 2300 UTC) for schools throughout the world to work MIR using the APRS system. On the 0823 hr pass,we were all setup and waiting for the first signal from the MIR Space Station. The students were tracking MIR with the STSPLUS tracking program on one computer and watching for stations to show up on the APRS maps on the internet APRS site as well as the APRS (MIRMON) program that was running in the classroom.

NOTHING HAPPENED!!!!!!!

After the pass was over (10 Min), I called MIREX on the conference line and was informed that the radio equipment on MIR was not in the digital mode. MIREX was trying to contact MIR to advise the crew to switch the radio mode to digital. Still nothing for the next few passes!!!

Internet Links...

APRS JAVA Tracking Site

Pictures...

Mike,KB4JHU
Mike,KB4JHU At The Computer
Larry,KD4CGA At the Mic
Larry,KD4CGA 2
The Group at Floyd Magnet School 1
The Group at Floyd Magnet School 2
The Group at Floyd Magnet School 3( A GREAT Group Of Students !!!)
The Head Man At Floyd Magnet School ( An Outstanding Leader )
The Comm Trailer Outside (Antenna Is At About 30ft)
The Radio,TNC,and Power Supply
The Tracking Program 1
The Tracking Program 2

This is a quick summary of the 27/28th MIR School Day test. The purpose of the test was to allow schools and students an opportunity at a successful packet exchange with MIR, and to demonstrate the use of <UI> BULLETINS for communicating MIREX information to all monitoring stations. Other objectives were to demonstrate the use of internet linked ground stations to merge their data into a common internet feed and to demonstrate the use of ground station generated pseudo GPS positions digipeated by the spacecraft to show its realtime position.
The MIR TNC was off for the day of the announced test (27th), but was on for three early morning passes on the 28th. A total of 27 schools or other participating stations were successful during the day-after test. All stations reported their position and status and there were several messages exchanged. Most stations reported receiving the MIR BULLETINS and the MIR position packets. On the 29th several more stations were reported in the Western USA and South Africa. The results are posted on the Academy MIREX page http://web.usna.navy.mil/~bruninga/mirex.html
where you can also see the live daily captured downlink files. THis page scored 1300 hits during the event, and a total of 2800 since the experiment was announced at the first of April. The test is now over.
The three internet linked ground stations provided a continuous feed from the USA, Madrid and Taiwan (telnet to APRServe at 199.227.86.221 port 10001). The live WEB page www.mirex.net was operational on the 27th when
there were no packets but died overnight. It was restored at the last minute on the 28th but only caught a half dozen live packets. It remains live now.
We wish to thank the MIREX team and Dr. Larsen N6CO for making this test possible.
Bob Bruninga, [email protected]
Satellite Ground Station
US Naval Academy, Annapolis, MD 21402

Here were the Bulletins transmitted by R0MIR:
BLN1:Welcome to the 27 Apr SCHOOL DAY on MIR fm Talgat, Nikolai,& Andy.
BLN2:We hope all students enjoy using our HAM RADIO equipment today

Here are the bulletins transmitted by other MIREX Ground Stations: BLN1 :Kids are our Future in Space so Study Hard - The MIREX TEAM
BLN2 :WWW.MIREX.NET is currently showing stations on this SCHOOL TEST
BLN3 :Please do NOT connect to R0MIR-1 during SCHOOL TEST - Thank You
BLN :School Test Continues on 28th!

The three linked MIREX ground stations were: EA4RJ-2, BV1AF and W3ADO

Stations heard via MIR. Edited to remove dupes and protocol overhead..

K5WX>EM10DJ,MIREX*:]K[ PHG5130/hi-M01-
N2JNT>FN32ER,R0MIR*:Greetings from Jack in Troy, NY * n2jnt@amg
KD4CGA>EM72BM,MIREX*:]K[ KI5QS fm Floyd Magnet,Montg,Al 30 Studnts-M01-
KB3BRT>FN11FW,MIREX*:]K[ WESTFIELD EL. SCHOOL-M02-
MIR>EL96IX,W3ADO*:]0[ Join Sprint Conference call on 888-628-xxxx
VA3HIP>MIREX*>FN04UH:]k[ Greetings from Adam Scott CVI in Peterboro
W3ADO>MIREX*>FM18SX:]'[ US Naval Academy MIREX uplink site
W1TYL>R0MIR*>FN31VK:]K[ TYL Middle School, Oakdale, CT
IW1FQE \
LU9HXV \
EA4RCT-5 { awaiting copies of packets heard in Europe
ON1APG.... Belgim /
F1RFH>JN33AU /
WA6LIE-3>QST,MIREX*:Kids are our Future in Space. Study Hard - MIREX TEAM
KI5OS>EL09QK,R0MIR*:on battery power
KU4LY>EM60NJ,R0MIR*:]K[ Holley-Navarre Inter., 30 stu., 30w.-M02-
WB5QLD-4>EM12IT,MIREX*:]K[ Riverside Applied Learning Ctr-796-
VE2DWE>FN36KA,MIREX*:]-[ QTH SOREL QC. (HS)-M02-
KB4JHU>EM62UI,MIREX*:]K[ Montgomery, AL Floyd Magnet School 30 Stude
KB0WVJ>EM48RP,MIREX*:]K[ Parkway Central High School-M01-
WA4HEI>EN65UX,MIREX*:]&[ MIR-8 position uplink station
KF6KLI>CM97AA,MIREX*:]K[ Happy Valley Elem Sch-M02-
W6BME>ROCKY,R0MIR*:
VE3ZYD>ID,R0MIR*:[FN03bf] Jason in Hamilton, Ont. [email protected] ***
KC5TRB>EM26AE,MIREX*:KB0WVJ :Hello frm Firehouse 24 in Tulsa,OK
WA6RKE>CM95PI,MIREX*:]k[ Cuesta College - [email protected]
KB2UYF>FN12XA,R0MIR*:Kopernik Observatory info www.kopernik.org

Complete List Of Contacts

Updates to this page will be made as more information is received.

Larry Johnston
Send e-mail to [email protected]