Recently, we had the wonderful happening of "Suitsat" that spurred the interest of many young minds. The frequency of 145.990 is in the OSCAR sub band (145.800-146.000) as indicated by the ARRL in their well publicized band plan. Many interlopers find their way into this clear portion of 2 meters unknowingly using these sub bands causing headaches to those that were straining to hear this event. Even using nearby frequencies can cause problems when the super ears are listening for the birds. Also, 145.800 the ISS downlink, is in this same sub band and is being used in many metro areas for chit-chat and other experiments. We must remind each other that the band plan was put in place to assist us in utilizing the spectrum effectively. Those that just hear nothing and start a QSO should be reminded about how wide their signal is and that they are causing many well intentioned hams trying to make contact with the satellites unintentional interference. There may not be a satellite signal every minute of the day in these sub bands but when they are there, terrestrial stations are not listening with big enough ears as someone with an OSCAR caliber setup. Point these sub bands out to all at your next club meeting or get together.

Bill was once again looking for an ND station to contact. He has previously worked North Dakota but the ARRL bureau has not gotten the card for the contact and they are trying to confirm all 50 before he comes back to Earth. Bill is trying to increase the odds that he will get all 50 by reworking these states. Last report on March 20 showed.
Bill still needed cards from the stations he worked in Kansas, Mississippi, Wyoming and North Dakota.
Kenneth N5VHO

If you operate from one of those states please do your best to contact Bill McArthur onboard ISS. Don't hesitate to ask

To the Amateur Radio Community,

As Expedition 12 draws to a close onboard the International Space Station, a note of gratitude is due.

I would like to express my deep gratitude to the world-wide amateur radio community for your participation in this great adventure. Clearly, one of the benefits for Amateur Radio is bridging the distances between us. Through your participation, you helped realize the potential for the human exploration of space to do exactly that. Thanks to you, over the past six months, the International Space Station has been more international than ever before. Together, we achieved many significant milestones from space, DXCC, WAC, WAS, and most importantly, 35 school contacts (as of March 21).

The radios will be turned off on Sunday as part of the preparations for the relocation of the Soyuz module. They will return to service after the crew returns and finishes all post relocate activities. The relocation will require the crew to put in a 21 hour day on Monday and will be sleeping most of the day before in preparation.

Several radio amateurs in Hawaii are smiling this week after working ISS Commander Bill McArthur, KC5ACR, March 5 at the helm of NA1SS in space. "We had perhaps 12 to 15 stations--maybe more--make contact during the 8-minute, 20-second pass," reports Ron Hashiro, AH6RH. "I can tell you that all those stations were super, super excited to work Bill--especially some of those who scored their first space contact since becoming a ham." Acting on a tip that NA1SS might be on the air for the early-morning pass, Hashiro and four others set up on the beach at Waikiki, and he was the first and the last station to work NA1SS. The pass was not particularly ideal, but Hashiro said the NA1SS signal was "clear as a bell" considering the 1100-mile distance involved, coupled with 3 kHz of Doppler shift. Hashiro convened a net about 10 minutes before the 1:08 AM pass and got six check-ins. Incoming (and former) ARRL Pacific Section Manager Bob Schneider, AH6J, was among those snagging a contact with NA1SS, as was Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) veteran Earth station op Dick Flagg, AH6NM. Hashiro told ARRL that for McArthur to show up on the pass and be able to share it with others "really meant a lot to them and to me." On the beach (L-R in photo): Hans Kashiwabara, KH7GN; David Cabatu, AH7E; Ann Miller, KH6W; Ernie Murphy, NH7L, and Hashiro.

Hello, thanks to last weekend efforts, the worked list has reached 127! Congratulations to the friends in Monaco, Senegal, Vatican City and all the others who kindly participated to the NA1SS DXCC Campaign. See the updated list here

Hello, with the site change I was able to update the ISS Achievement Award with the obtained REPEATER stickers. If you see any mistake please send us a message: staff@issfanclub.com The link page is: [url]http://www.issfanclub.com/iaa-list[/url] Claudio IK1SLD

Hi this is Belayet Robin, Call S21RB from Bangladesh. I have successfully contacted with NA1SS on 18th February around 20:03 UTC. Bill's signal was very clear to my end and he was telling me that there was another pass over Bangladesh after 90 minutes . I got him for 3 minutes In total. This is amazing to me as this was first time any Amateur Radio Operator talked to space from Bangladesh.

NASA is honoring legendary CBS TV news anchor Walter Cronkite, KB2GSD, for his coverage of the US space program. Cronkite, who has narrated two ARRL Amateur Radio videos (photo), will receive the Ambassador of Exploration Award February 28 during a ceremony hosted by the University of Texas at Austin Center for American History at the studios of KLRU-TV.
http://www.arrl.org/

Hello All,

I'm sure many people did not had the chance (at 3-Feb) to look at the
SUITSAT Space Walk (EVA) on NASA television.
During the Space Walk Mission control Houston and Bill McArthur talked about-
his 1000 amateur radio contacts.
Mission control team (capcom) was curious about the QSL cards!

Listen to this funny audio file:
http://pd0rkc.ontwikkel.nl/SUITSAT/AUDIO/3feb2006McArthur_EVA3.mp3 (1,5mB).

I also have the Space Walk (EVA) VIDEO links on my website (you can download).

73's Cor PD0RKC
ISS & SUITSAT http://pd0rkc.ontwikkel.nl