Hello All,

This is the first time that I saw a VIDEO from an astronaut making random QSO's with hams (the video was recorded inside ISS!).

Brasil astronaut Marcos Pontes (PYØAEB) made a QSO with Fabiano (PY5RX) at 03-April-2006 (14:34utc). At 21 April 2006 Marcos Pontes was already back on earth and had a speech (about his ISS mission) in Bauru city (Brasil). Fabiano was invited to come on stage to meet Marcos Pontes personaly in front of a big audiance. Fabiano gave Pontes a DVD with video & audio recordings which was madeby Fabiano and Brasil TV station PARANA.
At 13 November 2007 Fabiano have received a video from - Marcos Pontes which was recorded by US astronaut Bill McArthur in ISS.

On Monday, May 21, Sunita Williams, KD5PLB, was able to restore a few commonly used configurations in the Kenwood radio. One of the modes that was partially restored was the packet system, although the operations will be on 145.825 simplex. Configurations of general voice communications and those used to support school contacts were also saved. A full restoration of the radio is required for a fully functional radio system. This requires access to a computer system and certification of the required software.

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

Gaston Bertels informs us that ARISS-Europe needs fund in order to complete the installation of the L/S antenna the ISS columbus module.
If you ever wanted to contribute to the ISS Amateur Radio development its time to do it now.
They still need 18.000 Euro so every little donation is important.
If you are a real ISS fan please donate a few dollars (or euro).

Here is the request from Gaston:

13 March 2007

CALL FOR DONATIONS FOR ARISS ANTENNAS ON COLUMBUS

ESA has accepted the installation of an amateur radio station onboard the

On Thursday, December 14, astronaut Tim Kopra and future space participant Charles Simonyi took and passed their amateur radio license exams.

Callsigns have since been issued. Charles Simonyi received the callsign KE7KDP and Timothy Kopra was issued the callsign KE5LUT.

Charles Simonyi KE7KDP an architect of Microsoft's Word and Excel programs, paid Russia more than $20 million for a round-trip ride to the station and a stay aboard the orbiting lab during April.

The SpaceCam1 Imaging project on the International Space Station was activated last summer between July 30th and August 26, 2006. The ISS Commander Pavel Vinogradov had a few seconds of spare time last summer to activate and test the SpaceCam1 Slow Scan TV software (SSTV). He was able to prove the whole Amateur Radio system on ISS with antennas, radio and SSTV software would work together as planned. All of the cables, Antenna, radio, pc connections and software were tested. After the testing was complete, the Borrowed Laptop computer had to be returned to a higher priority project. At the present time the Amateur Radio station does not have a dedicated flight qualified laptop assigned to the program. In order to work, the dedicated laptop must be one of the few flight certified versions that NASA uses.

This night Sunday November 26 at 04:35-04:55 UTC and 06:10-06:32 UTC will be conducted the Space PLASMA Experiment from International Space Station over Europe. A total of 206 Amateur Radio operators are registered to the project collaborating with the Central Research Institute for Machine Building (TsNIIMASH) in Korolev and 140 or more of them will be involved this night.
TsNIIMASH participates in all Russian (USSR) space programmes since 1946 when was established.
Transmissions from ISS will be at 145.800 MHz standard packet 1200 baud to test the plasma effects on the communications.
This will be a "COLD" test without Plasma engine active but very important the same to test the amateur radio network on earth.

After months of inactivity, the ISS is finally back on voice.
Mikhail Tyurin has been heard twice over North America answering questions to unidentified ground stations.
The contacts are unknown and not part of any official Ariss activity.
The uplink probably wasn't the standard one since many stations all over the US and Canada tried to have the contact unsuccessfully.

Miss Ansari has had a contact with Piraja PS8RF from Teresina Piaui.
They talked about Astronaut Marcos Pontes.

MAURICIO BERALDO PY4MAB
BRAZIL

US businesswoman Anousheh Ansari, will travel to the ISS on September 18 as part of the Russian Soyuz "taxi mission," and hopes to try ham QSOs from space. Ansari had decided originally, not to do ham contacts after realizing her heavy schedule didn't allow her to study for her ham exam. She was scheduled to fly in 2007, but when Daisuke Enomoto was grounded due to medical issues, her ETA was moved up. Ansari was trained on the ISS radios by the Russian ARISS Team quite a few months ago. Now, she has decided to go for a potential QSO with students at George Washington University, her alma mater, on September 22 by taking advantage of a U.S.astronaut as her Control Operator.