New Amateur Radio Antenna to be
Installed During Spacewalk
 The new ARISS
antennas: The WA1 through WA3 antennas will
support VHF and UHF with the flexible tapes. The WA4 antenna includes the
2.5-meter flexible tape for HF. The flat spiral L/S-band microwave antenna is
within the Delrin radome cover. The systems include a diplexer and
interconnecting RF cables as well as mounting hardware. |
NEWINGTON, CT,
Jan 10, 2002--Amateur Radio on the International Space Station Board Chairman
Frank Bauer, KA3HDO, has announced that one of the four new ARISS antennas
could be installed as soon as next week. It's anticipated that the "WA3"
VHF-UHF flexible tape antenna will be installed on one end of the ISS Service
Module during a scheduled January 14 spacewalk--or extravehicular activity
(EVA).
The new ham
radio antennas were not expected to be installed until the Expedition 6 crew
came aboard. "The Russian team is able to deploy this particular antenna sooner
than the others because it is located very close to where the four RF
connections go into the Service Module," Bauer said Wednesday.
Expedition Four
Commander Yuri Onufrienko, RK3DUO, and flight engineers Carl Walz, KC5TIE, and
Dan Bursch, KD5PNU, are beginning their second month in orbit aboard the ISS.
They have not yet been active on Amateur Radio, although several ARISS school
contacts are pending for this month. Onufrienko
and Walz will carry out the EVA. NASA says the two will move a Russian cargo
crane to the Russian Functional Cargo Block--also called the FGB or Zarya module--for future assembly work.
According to NASA, Bursch will operate the Canadarm2
robotic arm from inside the space station "and act as spacewalk choreographer."
 Astronaut Dan Bursch, KD5PNU, Mission
Commander Yuri Onufrienko, RK3DUO, and astronaut Carl Walz, KC5TIE, in the
Destiny laboratory of the ISS. [NASA Photo] |
Installation of the new antenna on the
Service Module paves the way for two separate ham stations aboard Space Station Alpha. Plans call for a 2-meter station to remain in the Functional Cargo Block using the Russian antennas that had been used to dock the FGB but now used for ARISS.
A second 70-cm station will be set up in the Service Module using the new
antenna. Additional equipment was transported to the ISS in November that
supports the move to independent 2-meter and 70-cm station sites. Current ARISS
station equipment consists of separate Ericsson hand-held transceivers for VHF
and UHF.
The ISS ham
antenna deployment will be among the topics discussed during a NASA status
briefing today, January 10, 2 PM, broadcast on NASA Television from the Johnson
Space Center in Houston.
Page last modified: 01:48 PM, 10 Jan 2002 ET
Page author: awextra@arrl.org
Copyright © 2002, American Radio Relay League, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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