SB SPACE @ ARL $ARLS003
ARLS003 Permission granted for Linenger to ham it up from Mir
ZCZC AS03
QST de W1AW
Space Bulletin 003 ARLS003
From ARRL Headquarters
Newington, CT January 31, 1997
To all radio amateurs
SB SPACE ARL ARLS003
ARLS003 Permission granted for Linenger to ham it up from Mir
US ham-Astronaut Jerry Linenger, KC5HBR, has been granted permission
for general QSOs and scheduled school radio contacts with unlicensed
students and a control operator.
Getting permission involved approval by authorities in the US,
Russia and Germany. Miles Mann, WF1F, Director of Educational
Services for the Mir International Amateur Radio EXperiment (MIREX),
and Dave Larsen, N6CO, director of the MIREX board, signed an
agreement on behalf of MIREX, while Sergei Samburov, RV3DR, chief of
the Cosmonaut Amateur Radio Department, signed for the Mir Amateur
Radio EXperiment (MAREX), and Joerg Hahn, DL3LUM, international
coordinator, signed for the German Space Amateur Funk EXperiment
(SAFEX) group, which provided the ham equipment aboard Mir.
The FCC also has given approval for Linenger (and for Astronaut
Colin ''Michael'' Foale, KC5UAC--who will take Linenger's place in
May) for general QSOs and third-party traffic with schools, family
and friends. Linenger recently arrived on Mir via STS-81.
According to Mann, applications for US school QSOs with cosmonauts
are approved by MIREX, based on specific guidelines, before being
sent on to Samburov and SAFEX. ''The Mir crews have busy work
schedules, but our guidelines allow us to arrange--months in
advance--school QSOs during crew off hours,'' he explained. The
Cosmonaut Amateur Radio Department gives final approval for all QSOs
and reserves the right to cancel at any time. Mir's daily
experiments always have first priority over ham radio.
Because Mir crews now include a US astronaut, SAREX and MIREX have
begun to work together. Currently the SAREX program has about 80
schools on its waiting list. To get a Mir school QSO application,
send a self-addressed, stamped envelope to Educational Activities
Department, ARRL, 225 Main St, Newington CT 06111.
A word on random QSOs with the Mir space station: Mir crews make
random voice QSOs only during off hours. Do not ask the crew to
schedule QSOs, as they do not have the long-term calendar. The
2-meter Mir frequencies recently were changed: The uplink frequency
is 145.200 MHz and the downlink is 145.800 MHz. This change
resulted from a recommendation from IARU Region 1 (Europe). Please
do not ask the crew about it, as the crew does not set policy on
frequencies.
NNNN
/EX
