SuitSat, a Russian spacesuit containing ham radio equipment and a CD of student artwork, is scheduled to be deployed during a Russian EVA on December 8. It has been receiving an increasing amount of media attention, and has been mentioned on NASA TV. Go to:
http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.html

http://www.rac.ca/ariss/oindex.htm

On Wednesday, November 9, Bill McArthur, KC5ACR, participated in a second successful ARISS contact with the students at Furtherwick Park School in Canvey Island, Essex, U.K. Sixteen students asked one question each of the astronaut. Students, teachers, and others gathered in the school hall, as the local media, including the BBC Essex Radio, covered the event.

http://www.rac.ca/ariss/oindex.htm

On Wednesday, November 9, the students at Istituto Comprensivo F. Negri in Casale Monferrato, Italy, experienced a successful contact with the ISS via the telebridge station WH6PN in Hawaii.
Twenty students were able to ask a total of twenty questions of Bill McArthur, KC5ACR, before losing contact with the ISS.
Approximately 1000 students, teachers, parents, representatives of the Board of Directors of the national amateur radio associations, representatives of the Ministry of Education, and other dignitaries attended the event.
The contact audio was webcast, and was fed to the Echolink AMSAT and EDU_NET conference room servers. Twenty-nine connections were made from Thailand, the U.K., U.S.A., Spain, Russia, New Zealand, Mexico, Italy, India, and Australia.

http://www.rac.ca/ariss/oindex.htm

Hello All,

Wednesday was the ISS UK school contact.
I was outside with my handheld and I could see the ISS in the sky like a fast flying bright star and hear astronaut Bill Mc Athur answering questions to a school in UK.
I also have anounced the visible pass here to amateurs in Holland (via news groups).
So many amateurs also have observed the ISS outside with their handhelds and even a amateur was in his car (with transceiver) and he also could hear (and see) the Space Station!
Bill did not answered all questions cause he took much time for some questions.
But nevermind cause these where very intresting answers (the event was successful!).
Inside my house I was recording the conversation via my satellite ham equipment.
You can download a recording from my website.
http://pd0rkc.ontwikkel.nl
My website is on a new server (it's under construction!).

73's Cor PD0RKC

Expedition 12 Commander Bill McArthur and Flight Engineer Valery Tokarev will get a special musical wakeup call this weekend as Paul McCartney connects with them live from a concert in Anaheim, Calif. The call will take place at 11:55 p.m. CST Saturday and will be broadcast live on NASA Television.

The McCartney wakeup music for McArthur and Tokarev is a follow-up to a tribute he paid to the crew of Space Shuttle Discovery during the STS-114 mission in August, when the Beatles' classic "Good Day Sunshine" was played as a wakeup call for Discovery's crew on the day weather conditions became favorable for landing.

goto this website for original article http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewsr.html?pid=18652

An unmanned Russian spacecraft docked at the International Space Station (ISS) fired its engines early Thursday, raising the research platform's orbit in preparation for a cargo shipment next month.

http://space.com/missionlaunches/051110_exp12_issreboost.html

Here's the video of the ISS QSO we had yesterday:
http://www.howardlong.com/images/Furtherwick.wmv (40Mb)

...where we got the breaking news of the McCartney "gig in space" before
anyone else!

73, Howard G6LVB

http://www.g6lvb.com/images/furtherwickcut16kbps11khz.mp3 1.2Mb

http://www.g6lvb.com/images/furtherwickcut32kbps24khz.mp3 2.4Mb

73, Howard G6LVB

Astronaut Nicole Stott took and passed her amateur radio exam on Friday, October 28, and was issued the callsign, KE5GJN. Stott is currently in the future ISS crew selection pool. The last 6 unlicensed astronaut candidates from the class of 2004 are tentatively scheduled for an amateur radio license training session on November 10.

http://www.rac.ca/ariss/oindex.htm

Five years ago this week, the International Space Station Expedition 1 crew of US astronaut and Expedition 1 Commander William "Shep" Shepherd, KD5GSL, and Russian cosmonauts Yuri Gidzenko and Sergei Krikalev, U5MIR, became the first humans to inhabit the ISS on a long term basis. Bill McArthur, KC5ACR, who commands Expedition 12, the current ISS crew increment, took note of the occasion when he spoke with reporters this week.

"We've done things that were just inconceivable 50 years ago," McArthur said." I think that we have demonstrated that human beings can live and work in space, and, given the will, we can return to the moon not just to visit but to stay there permanently and in not-too-distant future, send people to Mars."

http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/news/