South African school picture to fly on SuitSat

A hand drawn picture of a leopard - a unique majestic animal that embodies the spirit of South Africa, will orbit the world aboard SUITSAT to be launched on 3 February.

The artwork was drawn in pencil and then painted in watercolours by Marisca de Beer in grade 7 (12 years) of the Chelsea Preparatory school. The school entered the drawing in the SA AMSAT Suitsat competition and was selected to fly along with thousands of other entries from around the world.

Now is the time to begin preparing your amateur radio station to receive signals from SuitSat, the most unusual Amateur Radio satellite ever orbited. SuitSat amateur radio equipment has been installed inside a surplus Russian Orlan spacesuit. It will become an independently orbiting satellite once it is deployed by the crew of the International Space Station during an extravehicular activity, planned for February 3rd, 2006.

Running only on internal batteries within the spacesuit, SuitSat will have a limited, but interesting lifetime beaming down special messages and an SSTV image as it floats in space. Having no external thrust to adjust its orbit after it is hand-deployed during the EVA, SuitSat will be in a free-floating, but decaying orbit around Earth. It is expected to remain in orbit up to 6 weeks after being deployed.

SuitSat's transmissions will include special international voice messages, spacesuit telemetry, and a pre-programmed SSTV picture on its 145,990 MHz FM downlink. Signals from SUITSAT can be received with a 2 metre vertical antenna so an elaborate tracking system is not necessary. Visit www.amsatsa.org.za for a full description and last minutes updates.

Here is a special request to operators using the ISS packet uplink frequency: Since SuitSat will be operating on the ISS world wide packet uplink frequency of 145,990 MHz, it is requested that all packet operations on that frequency be suspended for the duration of the SuitSat transmissions. Keeping transmissions off the downlink frequency will help to avoid local interference to the 1/2 watt downlink signal from SuitSat.

The ISS crossband repeater is under consideration for being temporarily reconfigured to listen for the SuitSat transmissions and then retransmit them on 437,800 MHz. It is hoped that persons with minimal equipment might have a better chance of hearing the SuitSat retransmissions from the crossband repeater since ISS has a power output of 10 watt. Please help us to avoid interference problems by not using the crossband repeater while SuitSat is active because anything else the repeater hears on 145,99 MHz will interfere with the SuitSat retransmissions.

Courtesy of The South African Radio League

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