Hams in Space!

Andy MacAllisler WA5Z/B
14714 Knighlsway Drive
Houston TX 77083
$T$·35:
Mission Accomplished !
II's been over seven years since me
lirst ham-in-space activity by Owen
GarriOll W5LFL from lhe space shuttle
Columbia Since Ihen, others have
gone into orbit with amateur radiOgear.
Callsigns like WOORE . OPIISL and
U2MIR have been heard from ortnt.
No.... WA4SlR joins the ranks 01 the
ham·in.space fratern ity His efforts
!rom STs.35 were quite popular and
very successful.
Columbia blasted skyward on December
2, 1990. in • spec tacular
nighttime launch canying the Astro-l
telescope mission and Ron Parise
WA4SlA with his ham radiO gear.
The $150 milliOn Astra $ T$·35 mission
carried four advanced imaging
systems. The broadband X-ray telescope,
designed to be pointed by
ground controllers, worked well. It succeeded
in sensing much COSmic phenomena
not visible from the Earth's
surface due to the abso rbing characteristics
of the atmosphere.
The other three telescopes, aimed at
their targets by computers in the shutlie,
were designed to receive uttraviOle1
radiatiOn. On the first day 01 the meeion,
one 01 the te lescope-steering
computers failed . Four days later, the
second one went doWn. The systems
were located in the shuttle rear-oeck
area. Ground crews and Ihe flight team
lound the situation dillicutt. bof not insurmountable,
as controllers on Earth
radioed target coo rdinates verbally to
the astronauts, who used joysticks and
TV cameras to aim th e telescopes
manually.
SAREX.lI Successful
The Shuttle Amateur Radio EXperiment
went much smoother than the
telescope operatiOns, bol not without a
lew problems. On fhe posItive side,
238 etetons around the world managed
to make complete two-way pecket
contacts with the WA4S1R ROBOT
terminal node controller (TNe). Signals
from the shuttle could be heard on
145.55 MH:l: FM . The corresponding
uplin'" was 144.95 MHz , Note Table 1
lor a comprehensive list 01 those
logged as complete contacts,
A few stations even had two-way
voice contacts with the shut1l e. Several
hundred more packet stations were
heard by the SAREX-II system and received
unique aso serial numbers.
However, they weren't able to complete
a verified two·way ex change.
Ttlousands of stations attempted fO
contact Ron without suc:c:ess, bol it was
educatiOnal and even entertaining just
listening to the voice actIVity or watching
the packets fla sh past as Columbia
flew overhead . Table 2 is a sample of a
SAREX-ll bolletin sent on the second
day of the mission, plus some other bits
and pieces of paelIefs received as the
shuttle sped around the WOI1d.
Not all Of the sh uttle activity used the
published 145.55 MHz downlink frequency,
Conversations cou ld be heard
on nearby frequencies du ring many
evening passes when the shuttle was
Amateur Radio Via Satellite
within range 01 the Johnson Space
Cent er in Houston, Texas, or the 000.
dard Space Center in Greenbelt, Mary.
land. Several phone patches were
made for the astronauts with their
families.
Although many hams were probably
listening in , interference was rare and
the conversations, at least from the
shuttle side, co uld be monitored on
small berne systems or even HTs.
If you are on the gold-star aSl list in
Table 1, or il you made it to the sitverstar
OAl list (published by AMSAT).
send your aSL to the ARRL, 225 Main
Street, Newington CT 06 111, Attention
: Education Activities Department.
A sitver-star contact means that the
robot heard you r call but could not
complete a two-way acknow1edgment.
OSLs are also avadable for SWl reports.
Those few stations that had the
pleasure 01 a two-way voice aso wilf
be eligible for the top-grade aSL reply,
An important part of Ron's activity
from orbit invotved schools aro und
the U.S, Although the shuttle was not
in view over the U.S. during school
hours, methods were devised to connect
Ron to a phone network via hams
in areas 01 the world that had direct 2
meter aCC&SS to the shuttle. Stations in
Australia, induding VK2AS, VK5AGR ,
and VK61U, provided access during
passesover thei r coverage areas while
PY2BJO diel the same from his location
in Brazil.
Questions were uplinkect to Ron via
this system. Ron would answer the
questions, many limes adding commentary
about the view from above,
and g,ving updates on the Astro-1 experiments.
While only a few schools
were involved with direct communications
with the shu ttle, many others
were online, listening. AMSAT and
ARRL representatives were pleased
with the results, considering the comp1e~
l ty of the arrangement.
Lessons Learned
64 73 AmateurRadio Today · March, 1991
There were many comments lrom
me Mo nday-m orning·quarterback
point of vi_ about the ST$-35SAREX­
It operatIOn. The ham-in-spaee activity
wa s extremely successful. Not all
hams made contact with the shuttle,
but everyone who tried, shoutel at least
have heard Ron or the robot , Much 01
the difficulty in worlling the shuttle was
causecl by vehicle altitude, operator
schedule, interfererlC e, and system
limitations.
During the flight of ST5-35, the shut·
tie had to align itself for telescope ob·
servations. Since the 2 meter antenna
was located in either the pilot's or commander's
window, much Of the time it
was aimed away from the earth , or, due
to its directivity, it was aimed al only a
portion of ifS potential coverage area.
Because of the vehicle 's orientation ,
not even an antenna in the cargo bay
would have cured lhe probIern on this
night, but it coutel help considerabty on
future miSSiOns.
Because of phone patches and private
conversations. the packet system
was not active on many passes over
the U.S. II a second radio operating on
70cm could be employed for private
voice activity, the packet system could
be operated full·time on 2 meters. But
the amateur radio e ~pe rimen t
Table 1. Two-Way Packet Contacts with WA4SIA
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isn't a
paying customer, and it's difficult to
justify the inclusion of more ham equipment
jusl to simplify packet connects
to all orbiting rotxJt system.
Cofl98S1lon aRM
For hams in remote locations around
the world, it was relatively easy to make
a complete packet contact with the
shuttle. In the U,S., the situation was
quite different. With as many as a few
thousand stations all sending packets
on the primary uplink frequency of
144,95 MHz, it is likely the SAREX reo
celver was in a state of constant everload.
The 60 stations in the continental
U.S. that actually completed a full twoway
contact with the robot were either
running a lot 01power at jusl the righl
time. or were incredibty lucky, 01 both.
Also. many uninformed hams could be
heard calling before the shuttle was
above the horizon, alter it was long
gone 01 even on the wrong frequency.
FQr1unate!y. the shuttle activity on
144,95 MHz caused tittle disroptiOn of
the DX packet duster using that Irequency
for terrestrial DX inlormatiorl
forwarding, If the shuttle activity had
occurred during a DX contest weekend.
there could have been significant
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