Kenwood D700 Tested on ISS

Frank Bauer, KA3HDO
ARISS International Chairman 

December 9, 2003

Subject: Phase 2 Hardware Status
From: "Frank H. Bauer"
To: sarex@AMSAT.Org

All,

Phase 2 hardware (Kenwood D700) equipment setup completed and activated at approximately 11:20 UTC on December 8. As I mentioned, we did not expect to have the hardware operational until all the safety paperwork was 
completed. I received the following from NASA yesterday which explains what happened. The packet turnoff this time was not the issue we have seen with the FGB Phase 1 packet system. It was manually shut off. FYI, the equipment has been yellow tagged (do not install or operate) since prior to its delivery on ISS. Let's hope that the safety team can get the paperwork done very soon.

Congratulations to the ARISS international team for a successful end-to-end demonstration of the new antenna system and the Kenwood radio system!!

73, Frank Bauer, KA3HDO

.....hardware was installed as planned. A radiogram was sent to crew with instructions to remove the yellow tags. Having removed the yellow tag and not having received any instructions to not activate the (ISS Ham Radio) unit, the crew then activated the hardware. The US side did not expect activation because coordination with US safety was not complete. The rationale for the Yellow Tag is due to a concern regarding (ISS Ham radio) hardware operation impacts to EVA crewmembers, so there is no immediate concern regarding (ISS Ham Radio) operation. However, Russian controllers did request that the crew power down the Sputnik hardware while bilateral Safety paperwork coordination is completed.

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The Kenwood radio system will support 2 meter and 70 cm operations (uplink and downlink) and L-band uplink with up to 25 watts of output power. FM voice, APRS and packet capabilities are included.

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