MIRNEWS.360 12 JUNE 1997 Progress-M35: This freighter is on schedule for late this month. If launch and flight will go as planned Progress-M34 will have to leave the aft docking port (+X-axis) the day before the arrival of Pr-M35. Apart from the normal cargo a badly needed component for the Antares-transmitter on board MIR has to be delivered by Pr-M35. Until the restoration of MIR's satellite relay system audio and video downlinks will be limited to groundstation passes. Progress-M34: It might be possible that before the departure for decay in the Earth's atmosphere the Russians will execute an autonomous flight with the old freighter to test the TORU system. Thusfar no confirmation about this operation. Radio-amateurisme: The fact that the MIR-crew is active again on the radio-amateur- frequencies confirms that the situation on board though not fully back to normal, improved to such a degree that they got more time to relax. During almost every pass within our range the amateur station in the 145 mc band is active, mostly in Packet Radio, but also in Phone. Mike Foale (call KB5UAC) or the Russians (R0MIR) can be heard on MIR's downlink 145.800 mc. (uplink 145.200 mc). The crew transmitted a P/R message in which they said that they planned to increase P/R traffic. In another P/R message they reported that the Safex-2 transponder in the Priroda Module is operational again. Downlink is 437.950 mc, uplink 435.750 mc. To open the transponder a CTCSS tone of 141.3 herz is needed. During docking operations with Soyuz-TM- and Progress-M ships and Shuttles Safex-2 will be OFF to avoid interferences on crucial systems. Chris v.d. Berg, NL-9165/A-UK3202.