SB SPACE @ ARL $ARLS014
ARLS014 Coming soon: First ham operation from ISS

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QST de W1AW  
Space Bulletin 014  ARLS014
From ARRL Headquarters  
Newington, CT  October 26, 2000
To all radio amateurs

SB SPACE ARL ARLS014
ARLS014 Coming soon: First ham operation from ISS

Amateur Radio is poised to mark an historic milestone. Operation
from Amateur Radio's first permanent foothold in space is expected
to debut soon after the all-ham Expedition 1 crew arrives November 2
aboard the International Space Station.

The Amateur Radio on the International Space Station--or
ARISS--initial station gear already is aboard the ISS awaiting the
arrival of Expedition 1 Commander and US astronaut Bill Shepherd,
KD5GSL, and Russian Cosmonauts Sergei Krikalev, U5MIR, and Yuri
Gidzenko. The equipment includes VHF and UHF hand-held transceivers
as well as a TNC for packet, a specially developed headset and
signal adapter module plus power adapters and interconnecting
cables.

The Expedition 1 crew is set to blast off aboard a Russian Soyuz
rocket October 31 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan and
will arrive aboard the ISS a couple of days later. Once on board,
the crew will begin a four-month stay aboard the ISS--the first
permanent occupancy of the international complex.

Two US call signs have been issued for Amateur Radio operations as
part of the Amateur Radio on the International Space Station
program. The FCC granted vanity call signs NA1SS and NN1SS to the
International Space Station Amateur Radio Club on October 11. The
NA1SS call sign will be used on board the ISS, while NN1SS will be
for ground-based ISS communications from Goddard Space Flight Center
in Maryland. A Russian call sign, RZ3DZR, and a German call sign,
DL0ISS, also have been issued for use aboard the ISS.

Still to be determined are the frequencies for ARISS and an
operating schedule. A decision on both is expected soon, along with
QSL information. The initial station gear will be installed
temporarily in the Zarya Functional Cargo Block of the ISS and will
permit operation only on 2 meters--FM voice and packet. The ARISS
Team anticipates multiband, multimode operations with the crew and
regularly scheduled school group contacts.

For more information about Amateur Radio on the ISS and SAREX, visit
the ARISS Web site, http://ariss.gsfc.nasa.gov/.
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