All,

Happy New Year!!

The ARISS team hopes you are all enjoying the diverse amateur radio opportunities that have occurred on the ISS over the past several weeks. We want to thank Mike Fincke, KE5AIT, for his outstanding support to the ISS Ham Radio community. His efforts have been phenomenal!

This e-mail provides an update of the ARISS special event opportunities for the next two weeks. As previously mentioned, the ARISS team is currently celebrating 25 years of amateur radio operations from space.

This past week, the ISS Ham radio system was configured in the L/V crossband repeater mode. This configuration will continue through to Saturday when a school contact is scheduled around 10:35 UTC. After the school contact on Saturday January 3, it is our plans to have Mike Fincke reconfigure the radio to support V/U crossband repeater operations. As a reminder, that configuration has a 145.99 MHz uplink frequency including PL tone of 67.0 and a 437.80 MHz downlink frequency. All repeater operations are being performed in low power (5 W) mode. It is our intent to keep the repeater active in this configuration for 2 weeks (through January 17).

We are also considering follow-on experimental operations of the 9600 baud packet radio system and the L/V crossband repeater. Stay tuned for future updates.

As a reminder, a special certificate is being developed for those who communicate with the ISS. This certificate will be awarded to those that have had 2 way communications with the ISS on Voice, Packet (APRS), or through the voice repeater. And those that have heard the ISS from space in any of the ARISS operations modes (Voice, SSTV, School Contact, Voice Repeater, Digital). Valid dates to qualify for certificate: November 30 to January 15.

To receive the certificate: A) Please note on your QSL the ARISS mode of operation (e.g. SSTV, voice, school, etc) and whether the contact with you was 1 way (receive only) or 2 way. B) Send your SASE to the normal ARISS QSL volunteer distributor in your area of the world. C) On the outside of the QSL envelope, please include the words "25th Anniversary Certificate" D) Make sure your envelope is big enough to accept an 8.5 by 11 inch certificate and includes the proper postage. E) Go to www.ariss.org if you do not know where to send your QSL and please use one of the standard international QSL distributors that are noted on the Web page.

Important note: We will be sending your certificate to the volunteer distributors in bulk AFTER the event is over. (This saves workload and money). So do not expect to see it until 1-2 months after the event closes on January 15.

We would like to remind everyone that ISS flight requirements related to EVA and vehicle activity may require the radio to be off for some portion of this schedule. And school contacts and general QSO opportunities by the crew will also preempt this schedule for short periods of time. (But remember that if you hear these, you still qualify for a commemorative certificate).

Continue to enjoy the ARISS ops on ISS in 2009!

73, Frank Bauer, KA3HDO AMSAT-NA V.P. for Human Spaceflight Programs ARISS International Chairman