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 Previous: Surfin': Making Printed-Circuit Boards Online |  Next: FCC Still Enforcing Part 15 Rules in Some Amateur Interference Cases |
 Expedition 9 Commander Gennady Padalka, RN3DT, at the controls of the ARISS Phase 2 amateur station located in the crew's quarters aboard the International Space Station. [NASA Photo] |
NEWINGTON, CT, Aug 30, 2004--The Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) program has put one of the two ham stations aboard the ISS to use as a U/V (Mode B) FM repeater. The announcement means the new Phase 2 ISS ham gear--until now primarily used for packet operation and tests and briefly by Expedition 9 Commander Gennady Padalka, RN3DT, during Field Day 2004--has been pressed into service for use as a low-Earth-orbiting FM "EasySat." As a result of the change, the RS0ISS packet system will temporarily be unavailable.
"We realize that many of you will miss the packet operating mode," said ARISS International Team Chairman Frank Bauer, KA3HDO. "However, crossband repeat allows further experimentation of the ISS Amateur Radio system." The FM repeater test is scheduled to last only until the ARISS gear is shut down prior to the scheduled September 3 space walk. The Phase 2 gear will return to RS0ISS packet operation following the space walk.
The VHF downlink for the ISS repeater-mode
station remains 145.800 MHz. The new uplink frequency is 437.800 MHz. ARISS
reminds users that all frequencies are subject to Doppler shift. In general,
the downlink frequency will be higher as the ISS approaches a given point above
Earth, and it will move lower as the ISS moves away. More important to keep in
mind, however, is that the effect is more pronounced on UHF. The uplink
frequency will be 10 kHz lower (ie, 437.79) at the start of the pass and 10 kHz
lower (ie, 438.81 MHz) at the end of the pass. This is the opposite direction
from the downlink Doppler shift.
 Astronaut Mike Fincke, KE5AIT, at the controls of the NA1SS Phase 1 5-W Ericsson handheld transceiver station located in the spacecraft's Zarya Functional Cargo Block--or FGB. [NASA Photo] |
Last December, ISS Expedition 8 Commander Mike Foale, KB5UAC, set up a new Kenwood TM-D700 Phase 2 dualband transceiver in the ISS Zvezda Service Module--the crew's living quarters. With the help of the ARISS Japan team, Kenwood donated the TM-D700 transceivers to ARISS and made specific hardware and firmware modifications--including limiting its power output to a maximum of 25 W--to prepare it for flight.
ARISS successfully completed a comprehensive checkout pass of the equipment on voice and packet with astronaut Expedition 9 NASA ISS Science Officer Mike Finke, KE5AIT. Plans call for using the Phase 2 station, which runs 10 W output instead of the 5 W of the Phase 1 gear, during ARISS school group QSOs, starting with the arrival of the Expedition 10 crew this fall. The Kenwood radio uses the ARISS-built WA1 antenna system. The ARISS Russia team completed its Phase 2 Earth-space equipment tests earlier this year.
Details of the ARISS Phase 2 gear are available on AMSAT's ARISS Web page.
For further information on working satellites and adjusting for Doppler shift, see "An Introduction to Amateur Satellites" by Emily Clark, W0EEC on the AMSAT Web site.
ARISS is an
international educational outreach program with US participation from ARRL, NASA
and AMSAT. ARISS offers an opportunity for students to experience the
excitement of Amateur Radio by talking directly with ISS crew members via
Amateur
| Previous: Surfin': Making Printed-Circuit Boards Online | Next: FCC Still Enforcing Part 15 Rules in Some Amateur Interference Cases |
