The Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) program this week put one of the two ham stations aboard the ISS to use as a U/V (Mode B) FM repeater (437.80 MHz up and 145.80 MHz down). The new Phase 2 ISS ham gear–primarily used for packet operation and tests and briefly by Expedition 9 Commander Gennady Padalka, RN3DT, during Field Day 2004–was pressed into service for several days as a low-Earth-orbiting FM “EasySat.” The crossband repeater experiment, announced August 28, was shut down with the other ARISS gear September 2 in preparation for a September 3 space walk. The Amateur Radio equipment aboard the ISS will be powered back up no sooner than 1700 UTC on September 4, said ISS Ham Radio Project Engineer Ken Ransom, N5VHC.
“Mike Fincke [KE5AIT] reported hearing stations actively using the repeater over North America, the southern portion of South America, South Africa, Europe, Australia and Japan,” Ransom said. He got lucky on the ISS repeater September 2, snagging a QSO with V31KD in Belize City, Belize (EK57).
The Phase 2 gear was scheduled to return to RS0ISS packet operation following the space walk, but the repeater experiment could be back for a “repeat” performance. ARISS International Team Chairman Frank Bauer, KA3HDO, said the crossband repeater test provided an opportunity to further experiment with the ISS Amateur Radio system.
Last December, ISS Expedition 8 Commander Mike Foale, KB5UAC, set up a new Kenwood TM-D700 Phase 2 dualband transceiver in the ISS Zvezda Service Module–the crew’s living quarters. With the help of the ARISS Japan team, Kenwood donated the TM-D700 transceivers to ARISS and made specific hardware and firmware modifications–including limiting its power output to a maximum of 25 W–to prepare it for flight. Plans call for using the Phase 2 station at 10 W output during ARISS school group QSOs, starting with the arrival of the Expedition 10 crew this fall.