This episode of HamTalk Live is brought to you
by Tower Electronics. For connectors, cables,
and more, call 920 -435 -2973 or visit pl -259
.com. And by ICOM, heard it, worked it, logged
it. Visit www .icomamerica .com slash amateur
for more information about ICOM radios. Here
we go Welcome to Hamtok Live Calling Let's Talk
Neil's your guy Hamtok Live Here we go on Hamtok
Radio Hey goodies Good evening, everyone. It's
time for HamTalk Live episode number 228. New
radio on the space station recorded live on Thursday,
September 17, 2020. I'm your host, Neil Rapp,
WB9 VPG. Thanks for tuning in to this episode
of HamTalk Live. Tonight we're joined by Frank
Bauer, KA3 HDO, Lou McFadden, W5 DID. and Cary
Banke in six IZW and we'll take your calls live
in a few minutes. Last week Andy and Tony Maluzzi
were here to talk about the collegiate QSO party
that's taking place. this weekend. So if you
missed that show, you can listen anytime over
ham talk live .com or on your favorite podcast
app or on YouTube, or you can catch the rebroadcast
over on W T W W that's 50 85 a .m. And that's
Saturday afternoons about three 30 p .m. Eastern
time is when the rebroadcast runs over there.
A couple of things here before we get started.
There's a new QSO party coming out of the Nashua
Area Radio Society on September 26th and 27th.
And actually I'll have a story about that on
the next edition of Newsline, which comes out
actually late tonight or early in the morning.
So you can hear more about it there. Check out
n1fd .org for all the information. It's a new
event that NARS is putting on to get people on
the air, especially beginning contesters. And
it's September 26th at 0100 Zulu and runs through
September 27th at 2359 Zulu. Also, just in, Lloyd
Colston, KC5FM wrote in that after many hours
of monitoring, the Voice over IP weather net
has secured along with WX4NHC at the National
Hurricane Center. They had scores of reports
submitted for Sally impacting the Gulf Coast
and Paulette impacting Bermuda. They report VP9NI
in Bermuda. Said that the 146 .82 repeater was
back in service with a broken antenna, so Bermuda
got Got hit, but they're on the air at least
and if you're interested in helping out the net
visit voipwx .net or reach out to KD1CY And he's
at katie1cyatarrl .net. Here's a little, here's
a short little clip from the end of the the net
here a couple days ago. You're very welcome Julio.
We'll get it until she weakens to a tropical
storm, which looks like sometime late tomorrow
afternoon. And appreciate all the stations on
here. This is exactly what we need to do for
the Hurricane Center. Who knows, maybe some of
the reports will eventually be used in the advisories,
depending on what we get. So, appreciate everybody's
support. KD1CY. Roger. That's the same thing
we've been doing probably some time early tomorrow
afternoon. All righty. Thank you, Rob. We'll
be standing by. I may not be on this one. I've
got a couple radials going and a couple computers
going. I don't know what I mean. We'll talk to
you later. WX4NHC. Okay, there you go. So yeah,
the next day they did end up Shutting down so
things are calm for a little bit. But again VoIPWX
.net or KD1CYARRL .net by email if you want to
help out with that so Now we're switching back
to Eris, so we're going to talk about this new
radio up on the International Space Station.
So get your questions ready to go. If you're
listening to us live on Thursday night, you can
give us a call after the interview by calling
us and then let me give you the telephone number
so you have it ready to go. It's not time to
call just yet, but let me give you the number
so you have it ready. It's 859. You can also
tweet us. We'll be watching Twitter tonight as
always. It's at HamTalk Live on Twitter. If you're
on Spreaker, you can type into the comments there
and I'll be back with Frank, Lou, and Carrie
right after this word from Tower Electronics
right here on HamTalk Live. Jerry, what's up,
man? I haven't seen you at Sunbucks in a while.
I used to see you every morning getting coffee.
What's up? Well, I can't afford Sunbucks five
days a week anymore. I had to spend my money
on PL -259s. You know, those antenna projects
I've been meaning to do. I had to do them before
my HOA finds out I have antennas. That's too
bad, Jerry. I miss seeing you and catching up
over coffee. You should get your PL -259s from
Tower Electronics. They have great stuff. Jerry,
you're back. Oh, QRM Heterodyne Frappuccino.
That's a good choice. How's it going? Did you
get all those antennas up before the HOA police
showed up? Yeah, I got them all done. Thanks
for telling me about Tower Electronics. Now I
can have my coffee. I just saved a bunch of money
on my PL259s by switching to Tower Electronics.
Don't get caught without PL259s. Visit Tower
Electronics online at pl -259 .com or at a ham
fest near you or give them a call at 920 -435
-2973 and be sure to pick up some power poles,
adapters and cables too. Sorry for the delay.
Your host, Neil Rapp, is reading a book on anti
-gravity. and he just can't put it down. Now
here's more HamTalk Live. Welcome back to HamTalk
Live thanks to Scott and Jill at Tower Electronics.
For sponsoring the show tonight to help bring
you ham talk live and you can visit them anytime
at PL -259 .com Our guest tonight returning is
Frank Bauer, KA -3 HDO He's been licensed since
1974 in 1983 in preparation for the first ever
ham radio operation from space He was responsible
for setting up and operating the worldwide retransmission
of space shuttle air -to -ground communications
from the Goddard Amateur Radio Club station,
WA3NAN. This initiative provided a critical conduit
of information to Hams attempting to contact
astronaut Hams in the pre -internet era. Frank
now serves as the amateur radio on the International
Space Station International Chairman. He holds
bachelor's and master's degrees in aeronautics
and astronautics. from Purdue University up the
road here and his career in aerospace spans four
decades within NASA and private industry and
he is the 2017 Dayton Hamvention amateur of the
year. Also joining us tonight for the first time,
Lou McFadden, W -5 DID, he is the 1991 Hamvention
Technical Achievement Award winner and has been
involved in all of the human spaceflight hardware
developments going all the way back to Owen Garriott's
flight. He was the lead on AO -40 and the Eris
Next Generation Interoperable radio station that
we'll be talking about. Cary Bankey, N6IZW, was
the lead designer and manufacturer of the multi
-voltage power supply. He has built five of those
so far and he is a microwave engineering expert
retired from Qualcomm. He has supported Eris
and Sarex back in the day, starting as one of
the Sarex ground stations in the early 1990s.
So we've got Quite the space experts on here
tonight. So, Frank, Lou, Kerry, welcome to HamTalk
Live tonight. Thank you, Neil. Thanks. I'm glad
to be here, Mr. Lou. We're ready to answer any
tough questions. The first the first ones are
the easy ones because you get them ahead of time
so We'll throw you a few softballs first so we've
talked about this new radio system on this show
for quite a while and and tried to drum up some
financial support and It finally was launched
a few months ago, and now it's finally up and
operational so frank tell us a little bit about
the current status of the radio and and how people
can use it down here on earth sure uh... first
off neil i want to thank you for the opportunities
to uh... to bring the heiress program in particular
this next generation radio to uh... to your audiences
over several opportunities and also to uh...
a drum up some financial support which we always
are in need of an heiress But let me just say
that we are so excited because on September 2nd
we finally got the radio system turned on. People
are using it right now in voice repeater mode.
And we actually did our first school contact
with it in France last week. And we've got another
one coming up in Spain tomorrow. So it's working
out. uh, exactly the way we would have expected.
And, uh, we're so excited to have it operational
now. Yeah. Now, you know, it's, it's taken a
while to get this fundraised and built and designed
and, and everything, but it took a while, you
know, it's been sitting up there for a while.
So I don't know if everybody realizes the whole
process of Not only getting this radio up there
and calibrated and programmed and ready to go,
but also just getting it once it's up there into
being operational. And that's kind of what you've,
I know you've been waiting on. You're just like
any day now, any day now, any day now. And it
finally happened. So tell everybody a little
bit about. The whole drama of trying to get this
thing turned on. Yeah, I think what I'd like
to do is I'll say a couple of words and then
I'd like Lou and Kerry to give their impressions
of hearing it on the air the first times. I will
say it took a while, primarily for two reasons.
One is that we still had some paperwork that
needed to be work through. We thought we had
everything done and then there were some little
items that got brought up from an operations
perspective, some procedures that needed to be
tweaked a little bit. And then the other part
is the crew availability. Chris Cassidy is doing
a great job with Eris in his expedition. He was
the only one up there for a while and and actually
the that the two folks that came up on the the
SpaceX flight Doug Hurley and Bob Bank and they
were up there and they were focused on a whole
bunch of EVAs they did so and and during those
EVAs Chris was engaged in that to Chris Cassidy
was engaged in that so and you think about if
you have a house and you got 300 Experiments
you're trying to do all at the same time plus
the ham radio You know, there's there's priorities
and there's you know times when we have the opportunity
It just took a little while for getting some
of the paperwork done and getting getting the
equipment set up And so let me let me turn it
over to Lou and give his first impressions of
the radio system and then Kerry because Kerry
got to operate it early, too Well, we're we're
very happy to have this thing up there and operating
and we're I'm not feeling it this is a combination
of many years of Thinking about it and wishing
we could have it done and many people saying
Why don't you do this? Why don't you do that?
And we've been doing the why nots and they're
working on these things. It just takes a really
long time. And there's safety aspect is such
a big part of it and making sure that it's going
to work for a long time. Think of the power,
like a little power supply that you buy from
one of these companies that sell them for around
a hundred bucks and you put that on orbit and
At $10 ,000 a pound to go up there. You're not
going to use the cheap components. You're not
going to take any shortcuts Because you're not
going to have a second chance you better make
sure it's right and that's That's what all the
paperwork was really about I think Making sure
it's right and safe. Terry? Yeah, well, you know,
we've been working on this thing since I think
it started back in about 2015 and for me as the
lead designer, I think the biggest challenge
was being able to fully understand all of the
NASA requirements. There are so many. I mean,
there are basically thousands of pages. of documents.
I mean, you'll have a 700 page document that
refers to other 100 page documents that have
to be understood so that you know that you're
going to meet their requirements and go through
their rigorous testing and meet their protocol.
Yeah, the red tape is always a challenge. Yeah,
but it's necessary for this. I mean, realistically,
we, you know, We can get frustrated, and the
three of us have at times, but we know that it's
for the good of, you know, our program, and it's
for the good of the astronauts on board. They're
valued resources. Space Station is a very valued
resource. We want to make sure it's safe, as
Lou said. You know, I've never heard any of our
teams say, this is too much trouble, let's quit.
Not one. That's something that's desperately
needed for a project like this. It takes tremendous
dedication. I mean, we had an amazing team from
that perspective being dedicated. Kerry, we've
talked about this power supply a little bit before,
but... Since you're here with us live here tonight,
talk a little bit about why this power supply
took such a long time to figure out and put together
and why you can't just, like you said, run down
to the store and grab a power supply and throw
it up there. Well, again, as Lou and others said
there, it's all about safety. defined requirements
for safety for the space station itself as well
as the crew and So as I say you have to you know
be able to fully understand these requirements
and You know figure out how to meet them this
power supply You know, it's not just plugging
to 120 volt AC as you might have on earth here
with ham stations or 12 volts DC from that matter,
but it's it's 120 volt DC or 28 volt DC and then
and the power on the space station is Can have
some interesting fluctuations because of those
300 experiments going on that Frank mentioned
if something happens one of those other experiments
You may have a real terrific transient or perturbation
on that power system that you have to be able
to accommodate and recover from. So that's really
what takes such a long time is again making sure
that all the T's are crossed and the I's are
dotted that the safety that's required by NASA
is built in. And making sure that all the connectors
are compatible and you've got different voltage
supplies depending on where you're at on the
station and and that's what I saw is the beauty
of this is that It'll work under any of those
different conditions Yeah, and the thing is here
that guide loop I was going to ask Kerry to tell
what kind of voltage is pulses the 120 volt input
had to withstand Well, that's right. I mean it
at 120 volt input it has to withstand a positive
but 370 volts and a negative 270 something like
that and the 20 and running on 28. It's similar,
you know similar Voltage proportionally on 28.
So it's not you know, not just a nice clean supply
like your Like you might have on your workbench
And I had to work in the Russian segment Right
and do do the other voltage there Lou talk a
little bit about the the radio to You know, it
is a radio off the shelf But there's been an
awful lot of stuff done to it to modify it to
to serve on the space station Well, it's mostly
most of the modifications are to make it so that
it's more user -friendly for the crew. And so
that, for example, on your car radio, if you
have it in your car, you're talking to one of
your buddies, you flip, turn it around to serve
repeater, and you're just having a grand old
time. And then you get home, you turn off your
car, and you get out and leave it. And then it's...
When you get back in your car and turn it on,
it's still on that station. That's one of the
things we didn't want to happen. We wanted to
come back to a standard position, a standard
configuration, when we reset it. So that if the
crew is using it and they forget what they've
done, you have another crewman come to use it,
you want to be able to tell them to do this reset
and then you know, exactly what steps they need
to take to do whatever you ask them to do. It's
like looking at the world in a different way.
Go ahead. I think the other things are some of
the aspects of like for voice repeater, having
a high -powered fan. We want to have this higher
power fan on there, if you will, to get the air
flow through, but then we also have to not be
too noisy on Space Station. So, you know, there's
these engineering trades that you have to do
as part of the design process that, you know,
several individuals like Ed Chrome and Carrie
and Lou were engaged in to try to make sure that
Um, we met, you know, we were able to have something
that would be quiet and also, uh, support, uh,
continuous operations, if you will. Yeah. And
continuous operations is always the challenge
too. And, and from the sounds of things, it's
getting used pretty well right now. That's very
true. I'm just saying we're very happy to see
him using it, or it wasn't used much. Yeah, I
think, you know, basically, Neil, you were talking
about, you know, how we're planning on using
it or how we're using it. You know, right now
it's in repeater mode, voice repeater mode. One
of the challenges that goes along with that is
it's FM. And anybody that has heard any communication
up to Space Station, when a whole bunch of people
are trying to use it in the capture effect, you'll
get bits and pieces of people's signals. So we're
actually hoping people don't use real high -power
operations, but we know that... You can use this
equipment with just, you know, five watts in
an aero antenna, you know, especially at three
o 'clock in the morning when there aren't as
many people there. That's the key, I think. Exactly.
We're experiencing some of that. I don't see
any way to avoid that. Yeah, that's a challenge
on on any kind of satellite up there it's Just
a lot of people trying and and it's it is a whole
lot of fun to hear all the people there Well
before we go to break Frank talk a little bit
about what we can expect from this system over
the next decade. Oh That's a long ball Well,
let me start with the fact that where we're at
now, which is, you know, we're going to operate
this on Voice Repeater for a few weeks and then
probably APRS. But Kerry and JBC Kenwood, who
built the radio systems, we've got now the flight
unit, a second flight unit that is going to go
on space station and we will be launching that
whenever it's delayed because of covid but we're
hoping to launch that and get it into the russian
service module once we get that then we can operate
um two capabilities at the same time in other
words we could have we could have aprs running
all the time and then voice repeater or slow
scan television or something else so the idea
is you know, we want to have multiple capabilities
for the hams. Let me also say that, you know,
if a crew member decides to talk, it doesn't
happen that often, we all know that, but if they
do, they can pick up the microphone through the
voice repeater and talk through that too. So
we're going to have those capabilities. We are,
this multi -voltage power supply is going to
provide a lot of different capabilities for us
for the future. So one of the things we're looking
at, one of the things Lou's working on right
now is an L -band repeater capability, L -band
uplink capability. Since we have L and S -band
antennas, we're going to get our connected into
this next generation radio system. Our ham TV
back up again, hopefully soon. That's being delayed
because of COVID. Unfortunately, we also are
building other systems are designing other systems.
I should say we're talking about flying a Raspberry
Pi. We call it an heiress pie, which will provide
us an opportunity to to to do some mode switching
from the ground and then also some. operations
using it and some software -defined radio systems.
So, and then, you know, we are talking about,
you know, we've talked about this lunar gateway
activity, but before we fly that, we want to
test that out and we want to do that on space
station. So, might be different frequencies than
we use for lunar, but Uh, we want to try the
software to find radio systems that we're, uh,
discussing that will be multi -mode capability,
uh, for telemetry, for, um, television, slow
scan television and other things like that. That
answer to mail. Yeah, absolutely. Well, we're
going to take a break right now. And when we
come back, we'll take your phone calls and your
questions. at 859 -982 -7373 and we'll do that
with Frank, Lou and Kerry right after this word
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Give us a call at 859 -982 -7373. Again, the
number to call is 859 -982 -7373. Or, if you'd
rather type than talk, tweet us at HamTalk Live.
Now, here's Neil Rapp with more HamTalk Live.
You're listening to Ham Talk Live with Neil Rapp.
Welcome back to Ham Talk Live. Thanks to Icom
America for sponsoring the show. Check them out
at icomamerica .com. Check out HamTalk Live every
Thursday night at 9 p .m. Eastern Time right
here at HamTalkLive .com. Be sure to check us
out on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram as well.
Well, it's time for your phone calls right now.
So if you have a question for Frank, Lou, and
Kerry, give us a call. Again, that number is
859 -982. to 7373 or you can tweet us. It's at
ham talk live over on Twitter. And if you're
on speaker, you can type a comment. And if you're
listening to us on WTWW or the podcast edition,
we're not here. We're doing this on Thursday
night. So, uh, sorry. You won't be able to, uh,
to ask your questions, but, um, if you are listening
to us live on Thursday night, give us a call
at 859 -982 -7373. Okay, well, we'll check the
tweets here and wait for some phone calls, but
Frank, let's talk a little bit about the funding
and support on this. Where are things on? Having
all this stuff paid for and then going and keep
it going Yeah, I think first off again, I want
to thank everyone out there that have generous
generously donated to The earth's program and
in particular the next generation radio systems
We are you know While we're talking about the
flight units, we are not done building these
systems. I mean, Lou, in his garage, and Kerry,
and his laboratory there, they've got a bunch
of other systems. Lou's got a bunch of cables
we still need to fabricate, procure, and Kerry's
gotten five of the units done. We still have...
Six more to go, actually. We need additional
units for training, for simulations, as well
as for testing. And these units have to go in
different parts of the world, too. So that's
why there's so many of them that we need. And
this is normal. when we build something so So
we are not done yet. It might look like because
we've got a radio on board that we're done. We've
got Two we want to have on orbit and we need
the other ones to support the the infrastructure
for the next few years So any help we can get
there. We are always looking for it You can go
to the Eris website, of course, and there's a
donate button there All right, very good eight
five nine nine eight two seventy three seventy
three Is the phone number if you'd like to call
in and ask a question or leave a comment here
for our guests tonight Frank Bauer Ka3 HDO and
Lou McFadden w5d ID and Carrie Banky in the six
I Zed W that some of the folks are responsible
for the New radio system on the International
Space Station. Guys, what have you heard so far
as far as comments from people in the last couple
of weeks here that have been able to use this
thing? What have you been hearing? I'll just
say what I know. Most people are saying that
it's working great. Some people are excited because
they've experienced this phenomenon called FM
capture, but that's not something we can fix.
But people will have to learn to be a little
more polite and considerate when they're talking,
wait for somebody drops out before they start
talking again, like they do on the ground. We
try to be very careful. But other than that,
it's working great. One of our prime objectives
was to be able to run it continuously and do
this crossband repeat, which we could not do
earlier. And this one works perfect doing that.
So I think it's working great. Yeah, it's a it's
a what what I would say to Neil is that this
is a cap off of you know This November and Lou
Lou remembers this very well because we were
together when this happened this November November
13th represents the 20th anniversary of operations
on the International Space Station With Eris
or ISSM as it's sometimes called And so we've
been operating you know, as of November, we're
going to be celebrating our 20th anniversary
of continuous operations. So having this on board
for that is wonderful. Yeah, very well done.
And it's just amazing how well you can hear from
up there. It's just incredible. I can't wait
to try out the packet. I've got my new handheld
that does all that packet stuff and I'm chomping
at the bit to try it out. So I'm ready for that
APRS mode here. You talked a little bit about,
oh I'm sorry, Kerry did you have any comments,
you know, anything from people that have been
using this? Oh, you know, it's primarily when
I've just been listening in myself here, being
on the West Coast and right near the ocean, I'm
kind of fortunate that I can either be the first
or the last sometimes in some of these passes.
But, boy, it's busy, it's clear, and a lot of
what I hear are people will announce their...
Call sign with the grid square and then let it
go and let somebody else do it So that's kind
of what I'm hearing a lot from a report sort
of a reporting Standpoint, but it seems to be
working nicely Now Frank, I know you've talked
about this lunar gateway a little bit and so,
you know the next question is what's next and
you've answered a lot of that but You know once
once you get all these built all these power
supplies built for the training and and some
backups and a second station up there What what's
on the radar next? Well, we're kind of working
this i'll say this simultaneously um We're we're
looking at you know this raspberry pi capability
because um We can use that to actually do commanding
and then we Then we're in a situation where we're
almost like a satellite I mean space station
is a satellite but we've been relying on the
crew to operate us all the time and Change modes
and things like that Well, you know, I mentioned
there's like 300 different experiments on board.
So us Right now and you talked about a PRS right
now. I think our The way we're going to do this
is on a periodic basis after the school contact
is over, we're going to do the mode switch because
the crew will be there. It'll be a quick changeover.
So those are the times I'd say for those that
are interested in looking at different things.
At the end of a school contact might be the opportunity
where you might see a mode change happen. So
you can kind of track that as to when you want
to listen to maybe repeater or APRS or whatever.
And then I mentioned, you know, we're moving
into the microwave world. I mean, we've operated
ham TV on S band and we will do that again. And
then we've got on board a software -defined radio,
a Lyme SDR, but that's more for reception, not
transmission. But we want to get into, you know,
having a digital system on board that will be
simple for people to use on the ground. The ham
TV system is using a, you know, the equivalent
of a set top box, you know, like a television
type of box that does the conversion and we have
pretty astounding software designers that build
the interface to allow us to do ham TV. We want
to do the same thing, and this kind of capability
will also allow us to do lunar gateway so we
can do things with the right coding sequences
to get as much signal out since it's such a long
distance. So we're going to try that on Space
Station. Another thing to think about is that
the commercial crew program is going to be bringing
more people on board Space Station. And there's
going to be commercial capabilities there, too.
And we're starting dialogues with some of these
companies called Axiom and others that are going
to be flying these systems and these modules
and seeing if a ham radio there would be good.
So a crew member goes up. Those of you that remember
Richard Garriott, he was on the air a lot. And
we're hoping that some of these private astronauts,
as they're called, We'll want to use ham radio
and talk to people. So that's another thing that's
on the horizon. We're, we're looking at very
good. Well, trip K five TRP says he's a little
bit late here tonight, but we thank you for listening
trip and I'm glad that you, you commented that
you're here. And we'll give one last call here
for phone calls at 859 -982 -7373 or on Twitter
it's at HamTalk Live. And I'm just checking here
to see if we've missed anything. So those are
some exciting things coming up for amateur radio
in space. I'm so grateful for the leadership
that Frank you have given and Rosalie and the
whole crew and for Lou and Carrie working on
designing all this stuff and getting it all ready
to go. You've done a fantastic job and you're
to be commended for all the hard work and expertise
you've put into this. Well, let's go around here.
Frank, I guess let's start with you too for some
final comments here because I know, you know,
you wanted to bring Lou and Carrie on here, you
know, because they have a perspective from, you
know, designing these things. So if there's anything
we've missed, feel free, go ahead and ask those
questions and any final thoughts here before
we go tonight. Yeah, the one thing I would say
Neil is that first off I want to thank Lou, you
know Lou's our chief engineer and he has for
decades now done so much for amateur radio and
in particular amateur radio and on the shuttle
Mir and and the International Space Station want
to really thank him for everything he's done
and and carries the expertise and strong support
and activities. We would not have gotten these
systems ready. It wasn't for them. And then,
of course, the support of JVC Kenwood, because
basically they re -engineered the radio systems.
Phil Parton and Shin Iota are the two that were
the ones we interfaced with. Like I said, they
re -engineered that Kenwood to make it space
worthy for us. And so we thank them for that
and Kenwood, JVC Kenwood for that too. But, you
know, I think we're very excited where we're
at and we're on the precipice of, or I should
say the threshold of a bright future. So I think,
um, I turned it over to Lou and get his thoughts
and then over to Kerry. Well, I keep saying that,
uh, we're on a, um, we're opening up a new world
for ham radio for, for us, any of the intended
radio in space is, is a new thing. And we hope
that, uh, uh, along with our partners, we're
going to be doing ham radio on the space station
for a long time, I think. We're trying to make
sure that we're opening up a new era for them.
Go ahead, Kerry. Yeah. Well, I'd just like to
thank everyone involved. I mean, from all the
support that we've gotten on this project from
years and years back, all the way through getting
it up there. I mean, it's a lot of people involved.
in the amateur community, NASA, JVC Kenwood,
all the way through ESA, and just, you know,
an awful lot of people have touched this project
as we've worked on it and put it together and
gotten it up there, so I really appreciate it.
Without all this input and help, it never would
have happened. Kerry you brought up something
important and I do want to say this Neil is that
you know we are doing this internationally and
every every one of our partners have been critical
in making this happen to Kerry mentioned ESA
you know it's Sergey Somborov and Russia and
absolutely critical and us getting ham radio
up there early and and continuing to make sure
we have redundant systems on space station too
yeah yeah it is the international space station
exactly uh lou i think you were trying to say
something there go ahead i would say that uh
you you look at it from the european viewpoint
uh here we come along a bunch of hams and we
say Hey, we want to build a power supply and
put it in your module To be used and they're
saying wait a minute, you know What are you guys
doing here? It's bringing this power supply.
They've been so helpful NASA ESA and the Russians
and all the Many many contractors that work with
the rest of the Oh, very good. Well, Troy DOE
nine KVR says he's a little late to the show
here. He's going to listen to the rest of it
later. So he's, he's got the second half and
Before the first half, but thanks Troy for listening
and also over on Twitter ke8fzt says great show
tonight and Thanks for the show and thanks to
Aris. So guys, thank you for Being here tonight
and all that you've done, and Frank, there's
one obvious thing that I think we haven't mentioned,
and that is if people don't know how to listen
to the space station, how do they find out the
information about the space station operations
and where to listen? Yeah, I think that there's
a couple places they can do that, but one is
Eris .org. We do have on there, we have bulletins
for each one of the school contacts. So, you
know, if you want to listen to a school contact,
you can do that. And we always post the questions
ahead of time so you can actually know the question
and hear the astronaut's answer to that. We also
have on there, you know, how to use the equipment,
what frequencies and, you know, uplinks and downlinks
for those that want to use the crossband voice
repeater. It's two meters. two meters up 70 centimeters
down with a tone and so that's all on the ARIS
website also AMSAT has that on their website
too as to you know when things are operational
so I think you know those are good resources
and ISS fan club is another area so those are
like several of the resources you can go to to
get the information to understand the operations.
All right, what so eras org and am sat org check
them out and give a listen and And maybe you
know after you listen a while give it a shot
and see how it goes Well, thank you guys so much
for being here. I really appreciate it. I know
this is a very Hot topic at this point because
the power switch has been turned on so thank
you so much Very welcome. Thank you Neil for
this opportunity No problem Well, that is a wrap
for this week's edition of ham talk live. Thanks
to my guests Frank Bauer k3 HDO Lou McFadden
w5d ID and Carrie Banky in six eyes at W and
Everybody out there in cyberspace for listening
and typing in tonight invite you all back next
Thursday night at 9 p .m. Eastern Time. To find
a list of our guests and past episodes go to
HamTalkLive .com and click on the show schedule
link and if you like the show please leave us
a review on iTunes or wherever you listen. So
for now this is Neil Rapp WB9VPG saying seven
three seven five and may the good DX be yours.
Thanks for watching!