From Ed Cifelli kc7mwp@yahoo.com

Tue, Jan 17, 2006 11:50 AM

In case someone is interested

EdC

Hi all, Not sure if you are interested in listening to the International Space Station.

Enjoy 73 De Don KA9QJG

The Space Station has been very active on weekends taking to Amateur Radio operators on 145.800 FM voice and data and 437.550 FM. In about 2 weeks they will be launching a Space Suit stuffed full of Amateur Radio equipment. It will be transmitting on 145.990 MHz FM 5k deviation. Voice Telemetry and A slow Scan TV image (a JPG). Here are some tips on the upcoming projects.

ISS Amateur Radio Status: January 16, 2006

International Space Station ARISS SuitSat project status

By Miles Mann WF1F,

MAREX-MG News www.marexmg.org Manned Amateur Radio Experiment

ARISS to activate a new hand launched educational satellite project from the International Space station. The new educational experiment is called SuitSat. The SuitSat project is onboard the International space station and is being prepared for activation very soon. The SuitSat project has a tentative activation date of February 2, 2006. The SuitSat activation will take place during the ISS crew space walk. SuitSat will be a hand launched by the ISS crew during the SpaceWalk.

ALL NOTE !! Since we have just determined that the batteries in SuitSast may last only a few days, suggest prepare now to receive the 1st transmissions so as not to miss out on this Historical event !!!

What is SuitSat: In short, the crew will toss an Old spacesuit out the airlock and let fly away as its own satellite. The Space Station crew have attached an Amateur Radio beacon transmitter to the spacesuit. The SuitSat project as it is called will broadcast telemetry and voice messages to earth for as long as the batteries last. Anyone with a simple FM receiver or police scanner should be able to hear the signals from SuitSat as it orbits around the earth 15 times a day.

For more specific details on the SuitSat project, please review the AMSAT and related links below.

Additional information on SuitSat at the AMSAT web pages. http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/articles/SuitSat/

ARISS SuitSat Details http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/articles/BauerSuitsat/index.php

ARISS video on SuitSat September 2005 mms://media.wmfd.com/amsat/SuitSat.wmv

http://www.rac.ca/ariss/Suitsat%20Rev%20D.pdf

SuitSat project Duration: The Reason it is important for people to get ready to Monitor the SuitSat project is because this is a short duration experiment. This is the first version of this type of project, and it will be running on Batteries only. The current expected life of the SuitSat project is approximately 2 to 6 days. If you delay in setting up your station you may miss out on this educational Experiment.

Voice Telemetry: The SuitSat project will be transmitting on 145.990 MHz FM and will consist of: Voice Telemetry, giving Mission Time, Suit Temperature and Battery Voltage Voice Greeting messages in multiple languages One SSTV image The whole process will repeat every 9 minutes until the batteries discharge.

It is recommended that you have an audio recorder handy to record the telemetry information. The ARISS team may be collecting some of the data from individuals to help monitor the status of the project.

Schools and Science: School systems with existing out side VHF antennas or the ability to set up a temporary out side receive antenna are welcome to listen in and collect telemetry data. The students will enjoy listing to the voice telemetry and tracking the position of the unique satellite. They may even hear one of the ISS crew talking to amateur radio stations on 145.800 MHz FM.

SuitSat Transmitter: The SuitSat transmitter is a small hand held radio, similar to a WalkiTalki. The Kenwood TH-K2 will transmit a 1 watt FM signal from SuitSat. The current frequency for SuitSat is 145.990 FM Downlink only (There is no uplink for this satellite). With a simple out side antenna and a simple VHF receiver or police scanner, you should be able to hear SuitSat when the satellite passes over your state.

ARISS is also planning on using the Kenwood D700 Transceiver on ISS to Rebroadcast the SuitSat signal on 437.800 MHz FM. This will allow you to hear SuitSat while ISS is in range of your station.

If you have already have been successful in working the Packet station or talked to the ISS crew on 2-meter voice, than you already have most of what you need.

SSTV (Slow Scan TV ): SSTV is a way Amateur Radio stations send JPG still images around the world. We use an audio format we call SSTV. The SuitSat project will transmit Telemetry, Pre-Recorded Voice messages and one SSTV image. The whole process will repeat approximately every 9 minutes. (Robot 36 format).

What's left is to connect your computer to the speaker of your radio and some SSTV decoding software, such as ChromaPix http://www.barberdsp.com/ or similar software. Here are just two of the many Share-Ware SSTV applications on the market. There may be many more.

W95SSTV by Silicon Pixels http://www.barberdsp.com/w95sstv/w95dload.htm

MMSSTV http://mmhamsoft.ham-radio.ch/

There are also many High quality pay software applications that offer many more features, such as multiple windows that allow you to simultaneously receive an image while preparing your next image that you want to transmit.

CPIX http://www.barberdsp.com/

What is Slow Scan TV? On this web page you will find many links to help you learn more about Slow Scan TV http://www.marexmg.org/fileshtml/sstvlinkpage.html

Tips on how to use ISS, SSTV, Packet and Voice http://www.marexmg.org/fileshtml/howtouseiss.html

Location of Hardware on ISS This link will show you images of some of the amateur radio hardware already installed on ISS http://www.marexmg.org/fileshtml/radiohardware.html

Marexmg Web page http://www.marexmg.org

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