R -- SPACE WEATHER DATA ACQUISITION AND TRANSMISSION SERVICES

Notice Date

November 3, 2000

Contracting Office

Department of Commerce; Mountain Administrative Support Center; Acquisition Management Division; 325 Broadway MC3; Boulder, CO 80305-3328

ZIP Code

80305-3328

Solicitation Number

52RANR100014

Response Due

December 26, 2000

Point of Contact

Procurement Technicians, 303/497-3221, FAX 303/497-3163

E-Mail Address

NOAA; MASC Acquisition Management ( masc.solicitation@noaa.gov)

Description

In the absence of other qualified sources, it is the intent of = the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)/Space = Environment Center (SEC) located at 325 Broadway, Boulder, CO, to acquire space weather data acquisition and transmission services from the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL), Chilton, Didcot, Oxfordshire, England. The Contractor shall be located in Western Europe or in the United Kingdom and shall provide data from the NASA Advanced Composition Explorer = (ACE) spacecraft in the Real Time Solar Wind (RTSW) format to the NOAA/SEC Space Weather Office (SWO) in Boulder CO via the Internet. The Contractor shall operate their existing 12m satellite ground station to receive the S band 996sps RTSW Telemetry signal from the NASA ACE spacecraft located 1 million miles from the earth whenever the spacecraft is visible from the site, is transmitting data in RTSW format, and the data is not scheduled to be acquired at any other = ground station. The Contractor shall monitor the operation of the facility continuously during times of scheduled operation and be able to respond to unexpected signal loss or communication problems within 15 minutes = of occurrence. During those scheduled times, the Contractor shall provide NOAA/SEC with a guaranteed telephone point of contact with a Contractor staff member for SWO to report problems observed from the SWO. On weekends and national holidays the Contractor shall operate the ground station on a best effort basis by providing a guaranteed telephone point-of-contact for NOAA/SEC to reach a member of the Contractor=92s staff when problems are observed from the SWO. The Contractor will attempt to correct the problem on a best effort basis. The Contractor shall provide the ACE RTSW operational community by email with = projected schedules for the operation of the ground facility at least 48 hours in advance. Necessary scheduled maintenance down-time that cannot be carried out outside of scheduled operational time shall be notified to the community as far in advance as possible. Unscheduled down-time due to equipment failure or any other problem shall be notified as soon as they are known to permit possible rescheduling of other stations. The Contractor shall maintain the ground station S Band receive performance with a target G/T of greater than 26dB/K and provide the NOAA/SEC telemetry decoder system with a 1V pk-pk PM demodulator output from the ACE RTSW telemetry signal. The Contractor shall maintain the antenna pointing and tracking performance of the ground station antenna with a target maximum pointing loss of less than 1dB. The Contractor shall provide physical space and conditioned electrical power for the installation of NOAA provided telemetry decoding equipment and communication equipment (24 inches of l9 inch rack space and 500W maximum). The Contractor shall provide a computer network connection for the NOAA/SEC equipment. This shall be a TCP/IP network and shall = be capable of providing TCP and UDP connectivity to the NOAA/SEC network via the public Internet. Interested concerns must submit a written qualification statement that clearly establishes the firms capability = to meet the above requirements. This qualification statement shall be submitted to the individual and office cited above within 45 days from the date this synopsis is posted on the Internet. This is not a formal solicitation. See Notes 22 and 26.

Record

Loren Data Corp. 20001107/RSOL003.HTM (D-308 SN5059D5)