As indicated by this article on SAREX ( http://www.amsat.org/amsat/archive/sarex/10day/msg00161.html ) the "materials exposure experiment" also known as PCSAT-2 was removed during the third EVA of STS-115. The last reported signal posted to Findu.com ( http://www.findu.com/cgi-bin/pcsat2.cgi?absolute=1 ) was on Sept 14, 2006 at 2010 and 25 seconds UTC. The experiment will be returned to Earth by Atlantis for continued study.

Additional information on PCSAT2 is available at http://eng.usna.navy.mil/~bruninga/pcsat2.html

Hello All,

At 28 august I have received an e-mail from DE2SHD/DH5ABC.
I was supriced cause inside the e-mail I saw a ISS SSTV picture
with a babyface.
Also David Barber G8OQW sended me a ISS SSTV.

The ISS SSTV pictures are shown on my website:
http://www.pd0rkc.com
If you sroll down on the main page you see 9 more.

In case if more people have received ISS SSTV pictures
please send them to: skyman@hetnet.nl

73's Cor PD0RKC

From SAREX:
All,

The ARISS team has been quite engaged with Pavel Vinogradov as he continues
the testing and verification of the SSTV system on ISS. We expect this to
continue over the next few weeks.

Those active on the bands have noticed that the Kenwood radio system has
been up and down over the past week or so. This is expected to continue as
Pavel checks out the SSTV software, configures and optimizes the radio, and
performs the integration checks necessary to make the SSTV system as
autonomous as possible. Since this is a "spare time" activity for Pavel,
please bear with us as we go through this aspect of system setup. It is

Hello All,

In an earlier posting I had anounced to make a CDROM for Bill McArthur (NA1SS).
Astronaut Bill McArthur was much active on hamradio during his 6 months -
mission aboard the ISS Space Station (he is already back on earth).
Many people have sended audio files (some with pics of the operator THANKS!!!).
There are already 121 messages in the McArthur guestbook, these message
will be shown on the CDROM!!!
In case you did not signed the McArthur guestbook yet, you can do it now on
this direct McArthur guestbook link:
http://www.webguestbook.com/cgi-bin/guestbook/viewguestbook.pl?user=corh...

I just wanted to let you folks know that this Saturday morning August 05 starting at 0712L we were successful in contacting Jeff Williams on the ISS. We had a solid contact that lasted for almost 8 minutes. We had the home school students from IDEA and they all had some interesting questions for the Science Officer aboard the ISS. The contact took place at the Challenger Learning Center in Kenai, Alaska. This is the first school contact for Alaska and we are not really a school but we had some very good cooperation from Kenneth Ransom, N5VHO with NASA at JSC in Houston, TX who gave us tips and info we needed. I worked Jeff on split frequencies on 2 meters. Uplink was on 145.200 and downlink was 145.800. I was using IC910H with full power on 2 m. My antenna was an arrow with a pre-amp. I disconnected the UHF side and used the 3el 2m side only. I had it mounted on a tripod mount on the roof of CLCA. I also had az-el rotors to track the space station. The radios are back home now but the antenna is still on the roof. I will remove it later next week.

The Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) program reports that ISS Expedition 13 Commander Pavel Vinogradov, RV3BS, has set up a camera to use for slow-scan television (SSTV) from the ISS. Vinogradov plans to soon test the system over Moscow on 144.49 MHz -- perhaps as early as this weekend -- and radio amateurs within range are encouraged to receive the SSTV images. For now, the SSTV system will only be used to transmit. Due to various issues with 144.49 MHz in Europe, the European and US ARISS teams will be recommending frequencies for use over other countries. Responding to a request from the European Space Agency (ESA), ARISS has scheduled school group contacts at three ESA-organized events for new Expedition 13 astronaut Thomas Reiter, DF4TR (photo). The Greek Minister of Education asked for a QSO with Reiter during the ESA Space Camp in Greece July 29. This is expected to be a major event, with the minister asking an interview question, and Greek national TV covering the occasion. A second QSO will be with visitors at the Museum of the Swiss Air Force. A third contact with visitors to Germany's Mannheim Museum is set for July 31. Reiter, the first German astronaut to be a part of an ISS crew, likely will use the space station's German call sign, DP0ISS.

Ground stations in Europe report the crossband repeater mode on ISS is
active. Jeff even made a brief appearance at the mic.

Enjoy and good luck on Field Day.

Kenneth - N5VHO

Unlike any other FM satellites that operate in Mode V/U (Mode J) the ISS is operating in Mode U/V (Mode B). While this seems to be of little consequence to most owners of dualband handheld transceivers, mobile rigs and base stations, some important factors can spell the difference between success and failure. Let's consider these.

Downlink/Uplink Frequencies

The ISS repeater downlink is 145.800 MHz, which is the normal FM voice and the RS0ISS packet system downlink worldwide. (The non-repeater FM voice uplink frequencies are 144.49 MHz in Regions 2 and 3 and 145.20 MHz in Region 1. The packet uplink frequency is 145.99 MHz worldwide.)

Bill McArthur claims to have worked 130 DXCC entities while on orbit but to date has only received cards from 30 of those entities.

If you worked Bill during Expediton 12, please send your card to:
ARRL Headquarters
ARISS QSL - Exp 12
225 Main Street
Newington, CT 06111-1494 USA

You can also send QSL's to the address on the following web link but they will take longer to get counted. http://www.rac.ca/ariss/oindex.htm#QSL's

The following is a list of confirmed entities as of June 20, 2006:

1. Alaska
   
2. Antarctica
   
3. Argentina
   
4. Australia
   
5. Belgium
   
6. Brazil

Here is a list of International Space Station Field Day pass times for North and South America. The Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) program announced earlier this month that the Phase 2 ham station aboard the ISS would be on the air in crossband repeater mode for QRP staions over Field Day weekend, Saturday and Sunday, June 24-25. The chances of talking to one of the crew members appear to be minimal, however. Additional information is available in the following story. http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2006/06/15/1/?nc=1

ISS FD Passes times listed below are for over North and South America and are in UTC! Passes during the crew sleep period are marked **.