Now part of the ISS Expedition 15 crew, US astronaut Suni Williams, KD5PLB, has continued her run of successful Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) school contacts. In late April, she enlightened youngsters in Italy, Germany Virginia and Illinois about what it's like to live aboard the ISS. Williams has been in space since December and is scheduled to return home next month via the space shuttle that will bring her replacement. During the first of two ham radio conversations on April 23 with students at the Scuola Europea Varese in Varese, Italy, Williams allowed that she's growing tired of space meals.

Hey everyone, I'm a general newbie to Ham, and a big newbie to ISS communication and I need your opinion. I'm based out of Long Island, NY, and I live right in the middle of the Long Island and the only equipment I have available to me is a Yaesu FT-60R. I'm a tech license and I want to know what are my options, if any, to contact ISS on a passover? Any tips and advice are welcome and if I didn't provide enough relevant information feel free to ask for more.

73,
Matt

An International Space Station Expedition 15 ARISS school contact has been planned with participants at the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum's Space Day on 05 May. The event is scheduled to begin at approximately 18:01 UTC.

The contact will be a telebridge between stations NA1SS and W6SRJ. The contact should be audible in western portions of North America. Interested parties are invited to listen in on the 145.80 MHz downlink. The participants are expected to conduct the conversation in English.

Space Day 2007 will be another action-packed day of astronaut appearances, hands-on activities, book signings, tours, and special stories for children, all surrounded by the world's most famous space artifacts. Especially exciting will be a sneak peek at the much-anticipated successor to the space shuttle, the Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle.

Not beeing part of AMSAT I would ask Kenneth about this issue and the planned reprogramming of the D700.

-------------------------
Kenneth wrote:

Currently, the
Kenwood radio is being used as a prime radio for everything. That means
changing it from one mode to the next a lot. The simplest switch is from
voice to packet (3 steps). Activation of the crossband repeater is
(unfortunately) a 27 step process and therefore is crew intensive. That
is a major driver in it's activation.
-------------------------

Does the ARISS team plan to reprogramm the radio in a way that just 1 step is needed to change mode ?