[QCWA] Fw: Work the Internation Space Station

[Norm Gertz]

Sent: Friday, October 10, 2008 6:30 PM
Subject: Work the Internation Space Station


HAM RADIO SCOUTING: JOTA PREPARES FOR OUT OF THIS WORLD CONTACTS Richard 
Garriott, W5KWQ - the son of retired astronaut Owen Garriott, W5LFL - is 
scheduled to ride into space as a tourist aboard a Soyuz craft set for an 
Oct. 12 blastoff.
He's set to dock with the International Space Station on Oct. 14 and 
expected to get pretty radio-active right away.
We told you of plans to hook up with schools through the Amateur Radio on 
the International Space Station program.
Now, we have confirmation that the younger Garriott plans to work stations 
operating on the Jamboree on the Air the third weekend of October.
Wil Marchant, KC6ROL, is one of the volunteers with the ARISS team and 
helping to coordinate activity.
"Richard is planning on during some of his free time, his limited free time, 
to try to get around and call CQ to JOTA stations on the normal ISS 
frequencies, the regional frequencies," Marchant says. "So, that's 145.80 
MHz downlink worldwide and then there are a couple different uplinks 
depending on which region you're in."
Marchant says if you'd like to work Garriott, there is a protocol that has 
to be followed to make it work.
"You need to wait and not transmit until you hear Richard or one of the 
other astronauts or cosmonauts call 'C-Q,' " And, when they start talking to 
somebody else, that means that there's somebody else on the ground that 
they're trying to listen to.
"And if everybody is yelling, trying to call the space station at that 
point, it will interfere with that station on the ground and their attempts 
to finish the QSO. So that the cosmonaut or astronaut can call 'C-Q' again."
Marchant says there's a reason for the protocol.
"One of the things that's very important for people to remember is that the 
space station is like a repeater that essentially has a large footprint on 
the ground. So, the space station can hear everybody from a radius of I 
don't know, probably 500 to 1,000 miles."
Marchant says there's a website you can visit where the ARISS frequencies 
and lots of other good information can be found.
"I would recommend that people go to ARISS-dot-o-r-g, which is maintained by 
the Radio Amateurs of Canada in English and there are other ARISS web pages 
linked from there in other languages," Marchant says. "And, if you go there 
is information about frequencies and also operational practices."
Marchant says Garriott also is planning extensive use of Slow-Scan TV.
"He's talking about trying to get the Slow-Scan Television system up and 
running basically very shortly after he opens the hatch," Marchant says. 
"And he would like to try and leave that running as much as possible when he 
or one of the other crew members can't be at the microphone. So, hopefully, 
we'll have lots of Slow-Scan Television activity."
Marchant says there is a place you can go - if you don't have an SSTV set-up 
to see what's happening.
"We are encouraging amateur radio operators around the world to be prepared 
to capture Slow-Scan Television images from Richard," Marchant says. "And 
then we'd like people to submit those to this website so we can collect a 
gallery of images from around the world during Richard's flight."
The web address is available in the script version of this story on our 
website. (It's www.amsat.com/ARISS_SSTV)
So, once again, all of you JOTA stations operating the weekend of Oct. 18 
and 19, here's a chance to really light up the experience with a contact 
from space or even hearing Richard in a QSO from space.