April 2009 - Sarex (INACTIVE) - mailman.amsat.org

2009-04-06 ARISS Status
by Carol Jackson 06 Apr '09

06 Apr '09

Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) Status Report April 6, 2009 1. U.K. Students Contact the ISS On Monday, March 30, students from Parkside Community College in Cambridge, U.K. took part in an Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) contact. Spaceflight Participant Charles Simonyi, KE7KDP/HA5SIK answered 17 questions put to him by the students as an audience of approximately 200 watched. British Amateur Television Club (BATC) streamed video of the event on its Web site. 2. U.S. Girls Speak with Spaceflight Participant via Radio The Girl's Middle School (GMS) in Mountain View, California experienced a successful Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) contact on Monday, March 30 via telebridge station K6DUE in Maryland. Twenty girls asked one question each of Charles Simonyi, KE7KDP/HA5SIK as sixty students looked on. The audio was fed into the EchoLink AMSAT and JK1ZRW servers and received 15 connections from stations in the U.S., Poland, Italy, Germany, England, Canada and Brazil. 3. ISS Radio Contact with Japanese Students An Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) contact took place on Tuesday, March 31 between Mike Fincke, KE5AIT and students from Science Dream Association (SDA) in Kobe-city, Japan. The original scheduled pass was too low for a successful contact. Mike Fincke and Koichi Wakata made a connection on the following pass and Fincke was able to answer 22 questions before the ISS went over the horizon. An audience of approximately 100 people attended the event and four newspapers provided media coverage. 4. ARISS Contact with Puerto Rican Students On Tuesday, March 31, students attending Marcelino Canino Canino Middle School in Dorado, Puerto Rico participated in an Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) contact with Spaceflight Participant Charles Simonyi, KE7KDP/HA5SIK. Simonyi answered all 15 questions posed to him by the children. Approximately 300 students and 60 adults, including the Secretary of Education, were present for the event. There was no media coverage, but the school plans to provide television stations with a DVD of the contact. Marcelino is a 2005 NASA Explorer School (NES). 5. Australian Students Question Astronaut Kalori Catholic School students in Wallaroo, Australia spoke with Mike Fincke, KE5AIT on Wednesday, April 1. The Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) contact was facilitated by telebridge station WH6PN in Hawaii. Students were able to have all seventeen questions answered. The audio was fed into the EchoLink AMSAT and JK1ZRW servers and received six connections from stations in England, Germany, Switzerland, and the U.S. 6. Florida Students Speak with Spaceflight Participant Milwee Middle School students in Longwood, Florida spoke with Charles Simonyi, KE7KDP/HA5SIK on Wednesday, April 1. This Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) contact was made possible through telebridge station ON4ISS in Belgium. The students were able to ask 11 questions of the spaceflight participant before the ISS went over the horizon. The audio was fed into the EchoLink AMSAT and JK1ZRW servers and received 10 connections from stations located in Belgium, England, Germany, Switzerland and the U.S. 7. Japanese Students Radio ISS On Thursday, April 2, students from Miyahara Elementary School in Saitama, Japan participated in an Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) contact. Fourteen students asked one question each of Koichi Wakata, KC5ZTA in front of an audience of 450. Media coverage included two television stations, including NHK (The Japan Broadcasting Corporation), seven newspapers and two magazines. 8. ARISS - France Contact Successful Albert Camus and Jules Verne Elementary Schools in Viry Châtillon, France experienced a joint Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) contact on Thursday, April 2. Mike Fincke, KE5AIT answered 16 questions posed to him by the students. Approximately 150 were present for the event including the mayor of Viry-Chatillon and Mr. Alberto Novelli, representing ESA. Local newspapers and "Le Parisien" reported the news. The audio was fed into the EchoLink AMSAT and JK1ZRW servers and received three connections from stations in the U.S., China and England. This was the last contact of Expedition 18 and Mike Fincke's 40th contact during this increment. 9. Carl Sandburg Elementary Participates in ARISS Contact On Thursday, April 1, students attending Carl Sandburg Elementary School in Kirkland, Washington experienced an Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) contact which was made possible through telebridge station W6SRJ in California. Charles Simonyi, KE7KDP/HA5SIK answered the 20 questions put to him by the students. An audience of approximately 75 students, teachers and parents were present for the contact. The audio was fed into the EchoLink AMSAT and JK1ZRW servers and received ten connections from stations located in England, New Zealand, Turkey and the U.S. King-TV posted an article covering the event. See: http://www.king5.com/localnews/stories/NW_040209EDB-space-station-simonyi-K… 10. ARRL Article on Dayton Award Winners The American Radio Relay League (ARRL) ran an article, "Dayton Amateur Radio Association Announces 2009 Award Winners." The Special Achievement Award will go to Spaceflight Participant Richard Garriott, W5KWQ who participated in many Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) activities while onboard the ISS. See: http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2009/04/01/10743/?nc=1 The ARRL Web site has 100,000 regular readers. 11. ARISS News on Amateur Radio Newsline On April 3, the Amateur Radio Newsline Report 1651 ran 2 Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) news items. The first, "Names in the News: Dayton Hamvention Announces 2009 Award Winners," covers Richard Garriott as the Special Achievement Award recipient. The second item, "Ham Radio in Space: KE7KDP Again Operating from the ISS," is about Charles Simonyi's mission, including his ARISS school contacts. See: ftp://ftp.arnewsline.org/quincy/News/news.txt 12. Charles in Space Web Site The Charles in Space Web site has a section where the public has posted space related questions concerning Charles' current mission and his Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) activities. To view the questions and answers, see: http://www.charlesinspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=Read_the_Answers.welcome# 13. General Contacts and SSTV Over the past week, Charles Simonyi, KE7KDP/HA5SIK made several general contacts with ground stations around the world including those in the U.S., Canada, Australia, Hungary and Venezuela. He also transmitted Slow Scan Television (SSTV) images using the VC-H1. Images may be viewed on the Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) SSTV gallery site: http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/SSTV/ 14. Astronaut Training Status On Monday, March 30, the Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) team provided training to Mike Fossum to prepare him for the ham radio licensing exam. ARISS member Kenneth Ransom is also working with other astronauts from Expeditions 25 - 28 to get them trained and licensed.

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ISS on the air!
by santanaamt＠aol.com 05 Apr '09

05 Apr '09

Hi again: ? This past Tuesday a school here had an ARISS contact, and today at 00:04 had the opportunity to work Charles, full quieting. Heard him work two US, 4 from here and one from Venezuela. ? Cheers, Angel Santana - WP3GW Puerto Rico FK78aj

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Upcoming ARISS Contact Schedule as of 2009-04-04 03:00 UTC
by AJ9N＠aol.com 04 Apr '09

04 Apr '09

Upcoming ARISS Contact Schedule as of 2009-04-04 03:00 UTC Quick list of scheduled contacts and events: TBD Crossband repeater and packet have been active! Don’t forget to do Doppler correction for the crossband repeater! Don’t forget the keyword here is Repeater. Repeaters have the FM capture effect. Strongest into the machine wins momentarily. Expedition 18 has now set the record for ARISS contacts by an expedition. Total number of ARISS ISS to earth school contacts is 429. Total number of ARISS supported terrestrial contacts is 22. QSL information may be found at: http://www.arrl.org/ARISS/arissfaq.html http://www.rac.ca/ariss/oindex.htm#QSL's ISS callsigns: DP0ISS, NA1SS, OR4ISS, RS0ISS ***************************************************************************** The complete schedule page has been updated as of 2009-04-04 03:00 UTC. (***) Here you will find a listing of all scheduled school contacts, and questions, other ISS related websites, IRLP and Echolink websites, and instructions for any contact that may be streamed live. http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/arissnews.txt The successful school list has been updated as of 2009-04-03 05:00 UTC. http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/Successful_ARISS_schools.rtf Frequency chart for packet, voice, and crossband repeater modes showing Doppler correction as of 2005-07-29 04:00 UTC http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/ISS_frequencies_and_Doppler_correctio… tf Listing of ARISS related magazine articles as of 2006-07-10 03:30 UTC: http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/ARISS_magazine_articles.rtf ***************************************************************************** There have been rumors in the past indicating that the ISS was having direct contacts on the 40 meter band. There is no HF radio equipment on board and available yet. The HF antenna is mounted. Sometimes WA3NAN will retransmit shuttle audio. ***************************************************************************** Exp. 18 on orbit: Michael Fincke KE5AIT Yury Lonchakov RA3DT Koichi Wakata KC5ZTA Exp. 19 on orbit: Gennady Padalka RN3DT Michael Barratt KD5MIJ Space Flight Participant on orbit: SFP Charles Simonyi KE7KDP/HA5SIK ***************************************************************************** 73, Charlie Sufana AJ9N One of the ARISS operation team mentors **************Feeling the pinch at the grocery store? Make dinner for $10 or less. (http://food.aol.com/frugal-feasts?ncid=emlcntusfood00000001)

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Upcoming ARISS Contact Schedule as of 2009-04-03 05:00 UTC
by AJ9N＠aol.com 03 Apr '09

03 Apr '09

Upcoming ARISS Contact Schedule as of 2009-04-03 05:00 UTC Quick list of scheduled contacts and events: Miyahara Elementary School, Saitama, Japan via 8J1KW Contact was successful: Thu 2009-04-02 09:14:35 UTC 29 deg (***) CAMUS, Viry Châtillon, France, direct via F8BPA Contact was successful: Thu 2009-04-02 13:35:48 UTC 87 deg (***) Carl Sandburg Elementary - Lake Washington School District, Kirkland, WA telebridge via W6SRJ Contact was successful: Thu 2009-04-02 19:35:38 UTC 36 deg (***) Congratulations to Koichi Wakata KC5ZTA for his first ARISS school contact! (***) Crossband repeater and packet have been active! Don’t forget to do Doppler correction for the crossband repeater! Don’t forget the keyword here is Repeater. Repeaters have the FM capture effect. Strongest into the machine wins momentarily. Expedition 18 has now set the record for ARISS contacts by an expedition. Total number of ARISS ISS to earth school contacts is 429. (***) Total number of ARISS supported terrestrial contacts is 22. QSL information may be found at: http://www.arrl.org/ARISS/arissfaq.html http://www.rac.ca/ariss/oindex.htm#QSL's ISS callsigns: DP0ISS, NA1SS, OR4ISS, RS0ISS ***************************************************************************** The complete schedule page has been updated as of 2009-04-03 05:00 UTC. (***) Here you will find a listing of all scheduled school contacts, and questions, other ISS related websites, IRLP and Echolink websites, and instructions for any contact that may be streamed live. http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/arissnews.txt The successful school list has been updated as of 2009-04-03 05:00 UTC. (***) http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/Successful_ARISS_schools.rtf Frequency chart for packet, voice, and crossband repeater modes showing Doppler correction as of 2005-07-29 04:00 UTC http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/ISS_frequencies_and_Doppler_correctio… tf Listing of ARISS related magazine articles as of 2006-07-10 03:30 UTC: http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/ARISS_magazine_articles.rtf ***************************************************************************** There have been rumors in the past indicating that the ISS was having direct contacts on the 40 meter band. There is no HF radio equipment on board and available yet. The HF antenna is mounted. Sometimes WA3NAN will retransmit shuttle audio. ***************************************************************************** Exp. 18 on orbit: Michael Fincke KE5AIT Yury Lonchakov RA3DT Koichi Wakata KC5ZTA Exp. 19 on orbit: Gennady Padalka RN3DT Michael Barratt KD5MIJ Space Flight Participant on orbit: SFP Charles Simonyi KE7KDP/HA5SIK ***************************************************************************** 73, Charlie Sufana AJ9N One of the ARISS operation team mentors **************Feeling the pinch at the grocery store? Make dinner for $10 or less. (http://food.aol.com/frugal-feasts?ncid=emlcntusfood00000001)

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SSTV Clarification
by Frank H. Bauer 02 Apr '09

02 Apr '09

All, I wanted to clarify some statements made by Miles, based on where ARISS was when I stepped down. In his e-mail he states: ----------------------- SSTV Status: We have two SSTV systems on ISS. One is the Kenwood VCH1 sstv microphone. This is the system which th4 crew has been using the most. The system only runs on AA batteries at this time due to flight safety limitations. The second system is the Marex Software system called SpaceCam1. This system will run manually for fully automatic. The software system has not been used much because of a problem with the VOX cable that goes to the D700 transceiver. When the Vox cable is used the radio sticks in the Transmitting mode until 3-minute watchdog timer expires. ARISS has tried two different cables with the same results. The Vox gets its power from the D700 and it appears the dc power has too much RF and is causing Vox circuit to keep the radio stuck transmitting. Marex is proposing a completely different VOC using that has been tested extensively. ---------------------- The ARISS-provided VC-H1 currently does run on AA batteries. The use of AA batteries was not due to flight safety limitations at all. Given the tight schedule that we had for Richard Garriott's flight and the need to fly a hardware-based SSTV system, we concentrated on certifying the VC-H1 with the understanding that there was a surplus of AA batteries on ISS. On ISS, batteries for critical functions are taken out of service and replaced before they are fully used up. These partially-used batteries can easily be used for non-critical devices like the VC-H1. The ARISS team is working on a battery eliminator (power supply) for the VC-H1 that will be flown at a later date. There are 3 SSTV systems on board, one hardware system (VC-H1) and two software-based systems, MMSSTV and SpaceCam. The primary rationale for making the VC-H1 prime is that the ARISS team gets very limited use (read as: almost no use) of an on-board computer. So the SSTV operations over the past few years was nearly zero. Only when the VC-H1 was introduced in October 2008 did SSTV on ISS really take off. Some self-interference issues have been observed on the software-based system that were not observed on the ground prior to flight. As of right now, it is unclear what is causing this issue. The ARISS team has not had an opportunity to fully debug this issue on-orbit. (It is very hard to get a computer and the crew time at the same time) So I would not speculate what the issue is. Also, there are some subtle differences in the radio system on-board ISS as compared to the ground-based equivalents. Any proposals for new amateur radio hardware and software systems need to be approved by the ARISS project selection and use committee. They then need to be presented to the space agencies. The space agencies then determine if there is volume/power/mass available on-board for the system and give the ARISS team a yes/no answer as to whether they are willing to fly the equipment. The proposal then needs to get a final concurence from the ARISS international delegates to move forward as an official project. Miles' proposal (above) has not gone through that process yet. I hope this clarifies. 73, Frank Bauer, KA3HDO

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New Zealand SSTV Contact
by Gary & Mary 02 Apr '09

02 Apr '09

This morning ZL1KJ received a very good SSTV image from the International Space Station here in Warkworth, North of Auckland City, courtesy of Charles, and afterwards a brief Voice contact with him as well.The time of this contact was Friday morning 08.19.am.Local Time (Thursday 1919 Hrs UTC). de Gary

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Upcoming ARISS Contact Schedule as of 2009-03-31 18:00 UTC
by AJ9N＠aol.com 02 Apr '09

02 Apr '09

Upcoming ARISS Contact Schedule as of 2009-03-31 18:00 UTC Quick list of scheduled contacts and events: Science Dream Association (SDA), Kobe-city, Japan, direct via 8N3S Contact was successful: Tue 2009-03-31 09:56:03 UTC 25 deg (***) Marcelino Canino Canino Middle School, Dorado, Puerto Rico, 2009-01-27, direct via KP4RF Contact was successful: Tue 2009-03-31 15:36:19 UTC 74 deg (***) Kalori Catholic School, Wallaro, Australia, telebridge via WH6PN Contact is a go for: Wed 2009-04-01 07:25:38 UTC 70 deg Milwee Middle School, Longwood, Florida telebridge via ON4ISS Contact is a go for Wed 2009-04-01 17:55:42 UTC 33 deg Miyahara Elementary School, Saitama, Japan via 8J1KW (***) Contact is a go for: Thu 2009-04-02 09:14:35 UTC 29 deg CAMUS, Viry Châtillon, France, direct via F8BPA Contact is a go for: Thu 2009-04-02 13:35:48 UTC 87 deg Carl Sandburg Elementary - Lake Washington School District, Kirkland, WA telebridge via W6SRJ Contact is a go for Thu 2009-04-02 19:35:38 UTC 36 deg Congratulations to Mike Fincke KE5AIT! He now holds the record for the most ARISS school contacts on a single expedition as well as the most for multiple missions. (***) Crossband repeater and packet have been active! Don’t forget to do Doppler correction for the crossband repeater! Don’t forget the keyword here is Repeater. Repeaters have the FM capture effect. Strongest into the machine wins momentarily. Expedition 18 has now set the record for ARISS contacts by an expedition. Total number of ARISS ISS to earth school contacts is 424. (***) Total number of ARISS supported terrestrial contacts is 22. QSL information may be found at: http://www.arrl.org/ARISS/arissfaq.html http://www.rac.ca/ariss/oindex.htm#QSL's ISS callsigns: DP0ISS, NA1SS, OR4ISS, RS0ISS ***************************************************************************** The complete schedule page has been updated as of 2009-03-31 18:00 UTC. (***) Here you will find a listing of all scheduled school contacts, and questions, other ISS related websites, IRLP and Echolink websites, and instructions for any contact that may be streamed live. http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/arissnews.txt The successful school list has been updated as of 2009-03-31 18:00 UTC. (***) http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/Successful_ARISS_schools.rtf Frequency chart for packet, voice, and crossband repeater modes showing Doppler correction as of 2005-07-29 04:00 UTC http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/ISS_frequencies_and_Doppler_correctio… tf Listing of ARISS related magazine articles as of 2006-07-10 03:30 UTC: http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/ARISS_magazine_articles.rtf ***************************************************************************** There have been rumors in the past indicating that the ISS was having direct contacts on the 40 meter band. There is no HF radio equipment on board and available yet. The HF antenna is mounted. Sometimes WA3NAN will retransmit shuttle audio. ***************************************************************************** Exp. 18 on orbit: Michael Fincke KE5AIT Yury Lonchakov RA3DT Koichi Wakata KC5ZTA Exp. 19 on orbit: Gennady Padalka RN3DT Michael Barratt KD5MIJ Space Flight Participant on orbit: SFP Charles Simonyi KE7KDP/HA5SIK ***************************************************************************** 73, Charlie Sufana AJ9N One of the ARISS operation team mentors **************Feeling the pinch at the grocery store? Make dinner for $10 or less. (http://food.aol.com/frugal-feasts?ncid=emlcntusfood00000001)

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Upcoming ARISS Contact Schedule as of 2009-04-01 23:45 UTC
by AJ9N＠aol.com 01 Apr '09

01 Apr '09

Upcoming ARISS Contact Schedule as of 2009-04-01 23:45 UTC Quick list of scheduled contacts and events: Kalori Catholic School, Wallaro, Australia, telebridge via WH6PN Contact was successful: Wed 2009-04-01 07:25:38 UTC 70 deg (***) Milwee Middle School, Longwood, Florida telebridge via ON4ISS Contact was successful: Wed 2009-04-01 17:55:42 UTC 33 deg (***) Miyahara Elementary School, Saitama, Japan via 8J1KW (***) Contact is a go for: Thu 2009-04-02 09:14:35 UTC 29 deg CAMUS, Viry Châtillon, France, direct via F8BPA Contact is a go for: Thu 2009-04-02 13:35:48 UTC 87 deg Carl Sandburg Elementary - Lake Washington School District, Kirkland, WA telebridge via W6SRJ Contact is a go for Thu 2009-04-02 19:35:38 UTC 36 deg Congratulations to Mike Fincke KE5AIT! He now holds the record for the most ARISS contacts on a single expedition as well as the most for multiple missions. (***) Crossband repeater and packet have been active! Don’t forget to do Doppler correction for the crossband repeater! Don’t forget the keyword here is Repeater. Repeaters have the FM capture effect. Strongest into the machine wins momentarily. Expedition 18 has now set the record for ARISS contacts by an expedition. Total number of ARISS ISS to earth school contacts is 426. (***) Total number of ARISS supported terrestrial contacts is 22. QSL information may be found at: http://www.arrl.org/ARISS/arissfaq.html http://www.rac.ca/ariss/oindex.htm#QSL's ISS callsigns: DP0ISS, NA1SS, OR4ISS, RS0ISS ***************************************************************************** The complete schedule page has been updated as of 2009-04-01 23:45 UTC. (***) Here you will find a listing of all scheduled school contacts, and questions, other ISS related websites, IRLP and Echolink websites, and instructions for any contact that may be streamed live. http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/arissnews.txt The successful school list has been updated as of 2009-04-01 23:45 UTC. (***) http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/Successful_ARISS_schools.rtf Frequency chart for packet, voice, and crossband repeater modes showing Doppler correction as of 2005-07-29 04:00 UTC http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/ISS_frequencies_and_Doppler_correctio… tf Listing of ARISS related magazine articles as of 2006-07-10 03:30 UTC: http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/ARISS_magazine_articles.rtf ***************************************************************************** There have been rumors in the past indicating that the ISS was having direct contacts on the 40 meter band. There is no HF radio equipment on board and available yet. The HF antenna is mounted. Sometimes WA3NAN will retransmit shuttle audio. ***************************************************************************** Exp. 18 on orbit: Michael Fincke KE5AIT Yury Lonchakov RA3DT Koichi Wakata KC5ZTA Exp. 19 on orbit: Gennady Padalka RN3DT Michael Barratt KD5MIJ Space Flight Participant on orbit: SFP Charles Simonyi KE7KDP/HA5SIK ***************************************************************************** 73, Charlie Sufana AJ9N One of the ARISS operation team mentors **************Feeling the pinch at the grocery store? Make dinner for $10 or less. (http://food.aol.com/frugal-feasts?ncid=emlcntusfood00000001)

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