Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) Status Report August 1, 2011

1. Upcoming School Contact

Octave Chanute Air Museum/Scouts Space Jam 5, Rantoul, Illinois has been scheduled for an Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) contact on Saturday, August 6 at 18:13 UTC via station WH6PN in Hawaii. Aviation, Space Exploration, Composite Materials, Radio and Electronics are all part of this scouting event. The NASA Digital Learning Labs team will be involved via video conference and girls and boys, ages 11 to 20, will participate in amateur radio activities, electronic breadboard projects and robotics.

2. Successful ARISS Contact with United Space School

On Saturday, July 30 a successful Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) contact was held between students at United Space School in Seabrook, Texas and Mike Fossum, KF5AQG on the ISS. Station W6SRJ in California provided the connection. The United Space School is a once a year session of high school students that meets in the NASA/Clear Lake Area. Students come from around the world for a two week session, during which they stay with local host families while being mentored by astronauts, engineers, and scientists to design a mission to Mars as their team project. Class sessions are held at the University of Houston at Clear Lake. Students are given lessons on amateur radio and through the ARISS contact they learn firsthand what spaceflight is like. They will use this knowledge in their team project, which they will present to the Houston space community at the end of their session.

3. Astronaut Training Status

Mike Hopkins, KF5LJG is scheduled for an ARISS Basic Ops class on Monday, August 1. Hopkins is slated to fly with Expedition 37 in September 2013.

4. ARISSat Test

A test of ARISSat-1 was conducted over the weekend from ISS. Satellite signals were received by numerous stations around the world, including voice, SSTV, CW, and BPSK on the ARISSat-1 frequencies and the repeated voice signal on 437.55 MHz. The satellite signals made an appearance at several ham gatherings, with reception reports from hams at the Central States VHF Society conference in Texas and the AMSAT-UK conference in England.

5. EE Times Runs ARISSat Blog

EE (Electronic Engineering) Times is running a blog called "Chips in Space - The Building of an Amateur Satellite" that will run over the next few weeks describing how the amateur radio satellite, ARISSat-1 was designed and built. The first entry has been posted: http://www.eetimes.com/electronics-blogs/chips-in-space/4218140/The-Building...

6. ARRL Article on ARISSat-1

The American Radio Relay League (ARRL) ran a story on ARISSat-1 in its July 28 ARRL Letter. The article, "Amateur Radio in Space: Astronauts On Board ISS Get ARISSat-1 Ready for Launch" may be viewed here: http://www.arrl.org/arrlletter?issue=2011-07-28#toc04

7. AMSAT Covers ARISSat-1 Test and Upcoming Deployment

The AMSAT (Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation) News Service July 31 bulletin (ANS-212) included several items covering ARISSat-1. The battery was charged and then the satellite was successfully tested over the July 30-31 weekend. Deployment is scheduled for Russian EVA-29 on August 3, beginning at 1400 UTC. To view the stories that follow, see: http://amsat.org/pipermail/ans/2011/000539.html

- ARISSat-1/KEDR On-Air Test Successful; Next: Deployment on August 3 - Radio-to-Soundcard Interface For Access to ARISSat-1/KEDR Bandwidth - Get Ready for ARISSat-1/KEDR BPSK-1000 Telemetry - Get Ready for ARISSat-1/KEDR SSTV Reception - N7HPR Blog in EE Times Magazine Documents ARISSat-1/KEDR Development - View Student Projects Flying on ARISSat-1

8. Amateur Radio Newsline on ARISSat-1

On July 29, the Amateur Radio Newsline Report 1772 had a piece on the upcoming deployment of ARISSat-1. "Ham Radio in Space: ARISSat-1 Made Ready for Deployment from ISS" may be found at: ftp://ftp.arnewsline.org/quincy/News/news.txt