ISS Amateur Radio SuitSat Activation December 7th?

The SuitSat project is onboard the International space
station and could be activated in as little as 3 weeks.

The current tentative activation date is during the ISS crew space walk on Wednesday December 7, 2005. SuitSat will be a hand launched satellite. During the November monthly ARISS telecom the SuitSat launch date was discussed and it still looks like SuitSat will be activated during the next Space walk (EVA) in December.

For more specific details on the SuitSat project, please review the AMSAT web link PDF file for some good details and great pictures of the SuitSat project.
http://www.rac.ca/ariss/Suitsat%20Rev%20D.pdf

The reason it is important for people to get ready to Monitor the SuitSat project is because this is a short duration experiment. This is the first version of this type of project, and it will be running on batteries only. The battery duration of this project looks like it will be shorter than originally planed. The current expected life of the SuitSat project is
approximately 1 week. So if you snooze you will loose.

The down link on 145.990 FM will consist of:
Voice Telemetry, giving Mission Time, Suit Temperature
and Battery Voltage, Voice Greeting messages in multiple languages, One SSTV image. The whole process will repeat every 9 minutes until the batteries discharge.

On Wednesday December 7, ISS will be in range of the
East coast of the USA, starting around 2:33 AM EST
(7:33 UTC). (I do not have the starting time of the Spacewalk at this time). Then every 90 minutes, ISS will pass of the USA, going more west with each orbit.
By 7:19 AM EST (12:33 UTC) ISS will be passing over the Central USA and will be in range of most of the USA.

East Coast Starting Passes:
2:33 AM EST 5:33 UTC
4:07 AM EST 9:07 UTC
5:44 AM EST 10:44 UTC
7:19 AM EST 12:19 UTC
8:56 AM EST 13:56 UtC
10:30 AM EST 15:30 UTC

I will keep posting updated links for the SuitSat
project as they become available.

SSTV details:
By now you should have your station all configured to
Record the Voice down links from ISS and you should be
able to decode SSTV images.

The SuitSat project will transmit Telemetry, Pre-Recorded Voice messages and one SSTV image. The whole process will repeat approximately every 9 minutes. (Robot 36 format).

All transmissions will be in FM mode and will be on the 2-meter amateur radio satellite band. The current frequency for SuitSat is 145.990 FM Downlink only (There is no uplink for this satellite). This means that the Doppler frequency drift will not be much of a problem and you will be able to use your existing 2-meter station or a police scanner to hear and decode the signals SuitSat.

ARISS is also planning on using the Kenwood D700 Transceiver on ISS to Rebroadcast the SuitSat signal on 437.800 MHz FM. This will allow you to hear SuitSat while ISS is in range of you station.

If you have already have been successful in working the Packet station or talked to the ISS crew on 2-meter voice, than you already have most of what you need. What’s left is to connect your computer to the speaker of your radio and some SSTV decoding software, such as ChromaPix http://www.barberdsp.com/ or similar software.

So have fun, find your best setup and start practicing
how to decode SSTV on 2-meters.

Slow Scan TV Decoding Software Here are just two of
the many Share-Ware SSTV applications on the market.
There may be many more.

W95SSTV by Silicon Pixels
http://www.barberdsp.com/w95sstv/w95dload.htm

MMSSTV
http://mmhamsoft.ham-radio.ch/

There are also many High quality pay software
applications that offer many more features, such as
multiple windows that allow you to simultaneously
receive an image while preparing your next image that
you want to transmit.

CPIX
http://www.barberdsp.com/

What is Slow Scan TV?
On this web page you will find many links to help you
learn more about Slow Scan TV
http://www.marexmg.org/fileshtml/sstvlinkpage.html

Tips on how to use ISS, SSTV, Packet and Voice
http://www.marexmg.org/fileshtml/howtouseiss.html

Location of Hardware on ISS
This link will show you images of some of the amateur
radio hardware already installed on ISS
http://www.marexmg.org/fileshtml/radiohardware.html

Marexmg Web page
http://www.marexmg.org

Note to SAREX and AMSAT-BB.
Since the SuitSat project encompasses both a Free floating unmanned satellite and is being hand launched from a Manned satellite, there will be some double postings regarding the SuitSat project on both the SAREX and AMSAT-BB mailing lists.

If you are not currently on the SAREX list, you may want to check the AMSAT link to sign up for both so you do not miss the additional projects coming this year, and early 2006.

73 Miles WF1F MAREX-MG

Until we meet again
DOSVIDANIYA Miles WF1F

• AMSAT-UK produce a quarterly newsletter "Oscar News" which is full of Amateur Satellite information.
For membership details contact the secretary Jim Heck G3WGM
Tel: +44 (0)1258 453959
E-mail: g3wgm@amsat.org
Website: http://www.uk.amsat.org/
Online Satellite Pass Predictions:
http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/tools/predict/

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