All,

The ARISS team has a lot of exciting activities planned for the next few weeks, including the flight of Soyuz 17S to space station with Richard Garriott, W5KWQ and Mike Fincke, KE5AIT on-board. The following represents some new information and capabilities that we are rolling out to the community to prepare for Richard's and Mike's flight. Please go to www.ariss.org, www.amsat.org, www.arrl.org and www.issfanclub.com for real-time information updates.

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

The ARISS SSTV team announces the new ARISS SSTV Web Gallery and Blog.

A website has been established to enable amateur radio operators to share their pictures received from the International Space Station's SSTV system. People wishing to view photos captured from the ISS or upload their own captured pictures can go to http://www.amsat.com/ARISS_SSTV/. There is also a blog in which the ARISS SSTV Team will post announcements and additional information about the project. The blog can be viewed at http://www.ariss-sstv.blogspot.com/.

To prepare for the upcoming SSTV operations, you are welcome to "try out" the new Web Gallery by posting past SSTV images (on-orbit and terrestrial). These will be deleted prior to the ARISS SSTV events that are planned for this weekend and during ISS Expedition 17 and Richard Garriott's flight (see below).

ISS SSTV Operations Planned for October 12

The ARISS team received word from ARISS Russia delegate Sergey Samburov, RV3DR, that the current ISS crew expect to transmit SSTV on October 12 from 18:00-21:00 UTC. This is your opportunity to test out your SSTV reception capability and to post images on the ARISS SSTV Gallery. The planned downlink for this operation will be 145.80 MHz with Robot 36 as the expected SSTV mode of operation.

AO-51 Special SSTV Mode

Thanks to Drew, KO4MA, AMSAT-NA VP for Operations, this weekend AO-51 will operate in a special mode in anticipation of Richard Garriott's visit to the ISS. Richard's launch is currently scheduled for October 12th, with docking at the ISS on the 14th. Richard plans on being very active from the ISS ham station, including extensive operation with Slow Scan Television (SSTV).

In preparation for this event, AO-51 will be configured with dual repeaters for the weekend of October 11th and 12th. The primary repeater on AO-51 will be configured with an uplink on 1268.700 FM and downlink of 435.300 FM, and will be designated for this period as an SSTV repeater. Users are encouraged to exchange SSTV images in ROBOT 36 mode, as an opportunity for others to practice receiving SSTV images from space before the ISS activity. Please keep the images transmitted to space-related themes, and to the ROBOT 36 mode. Polite and courteous operation among those sharing the uplink is crucial to the success of this mode.

Concurrently, there will be a QRP voice repeater running on 145.880 FM uplink and 435.150 FM downlink. Users are asked to use 10 watts or less, and omnidirectional or handheld antennas only.

Good luck receiving SSTV images this weekend, and from the ISS during Richard Garriott's flight.

Richard Garriott Operations

As stated previously, Richard plans to perform several school contacts and downlink SSTV images during his flight. He also plans to contact the general ham community in his free time and perform random scout contacts during Jamboree on the Air. SSTV downlinks are planned on 145.80. SSTV uplinks are not currently planned. The standard general contact frequencies will be used to support the Jamboree on the Air and general QSO passes.

So that you are not calling CQ for naught, Richard's school contacts, thanks to Will Marchant, KC6ROL, Charlie Sufana, AJ9N, and Sergey Samburov, RV3DR, are tentatively scheduled as follows:

Challenger Learning Center Combined Contact #1, telebridge via W6SRJ; on Thu 2008-10-16 16:39 UTC Howard B. Owens Science Center's Challenger Center (Lanham, MD) Challenger Learning Center of Columbia (Columbia, SC) Verizon Challenger Learning Center at MOSI (Tampa, FL) Brownsburg Challenger Learning Center (Brownsburg, IN)

Budbrooke Primary School, Warwick, England, direct via GB4OBS Fri 2008-10-17 11:05 UTC

Challenger Learning Center Combined Contact #2, telebridge via W6SRJ; on Fri 2008-10-17 15:30 UTC Indianapolis Challenger Learning Center (Indianapolis, IN) Challenger Learning Center at Paducah (Paducah, KY) Challenger Learning Center St. Louis (St. Louis, MO)

Austin Liberal Arts and Sciences Academy, Austin, TX, direct via K5LBJ Sun 2008-10-19 13:14 UTC

Pinehurst School, Ashland, Oregon, telebridge via W6SRJ Mon 2008-10-20 15:13 UTC

National Planetarium, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, direct via 9M2RPN Tues 2008-10-21 08:30 UTC