Archive for September, 2006

Anousheh Ansari, Space Explorer, Blogs from Earth Orbit

Saturday, September 23rd, 2006

a safe return: 29 September 2006: the crew takes хлеб и сол.

Safe return of Soyouz crew Safe return of Soyouz crew Safe return of Soyouz crew

Anousheh Ansari is a successful Iranian-born American entrepreneur whose family provided the backing for the Ansari X-Prize. Anousheh is currently on-orbit in the International Space Station, and maintaining a blog with a slogan that states “Imagine. Inspire. Be The Change.” What a great opportunity to share between communities of interest in this person’s adventure, while bringing together politically diverse people.

My understanding is that she is also making contact to amateur HAMs around the globe. I will update with that info shortly.

The downlink is 145.800 Mhz, and her call sign is RS0ISS
The uplink is 437.800 Mhz

More info is available at:

ARRL website “Success Tips for Using the ISS Voice Repeater
http://www.arrl.org/news/features/2004/10/06/1/?nc=1

http://www.rac.ca/ariss/oindex.htm
http://www.issfanclub.com/node/5440

A sound file on her pass over Iran is also available:
http://home.twin.at/swl-chmy/Downloads/Frau_Ansari_via_RS0ISS.wav

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Things that go beep in the night.

Saturday, September 16th, 2006
It’s starting to get cold. Time to start DXing again!The cool night air reduces moisture. This helps with optical astronomy as well.What is DXing? Simply put, DXing is the reception of distant transmissions. It comes from the radio broadcast abbreviations for transmit, tx and receive, rx. For me, it is about receiving space-based transmissions from manned and unmanned vehicles, in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) or beyond.

Is There Anybody Out There?
DXing is a relatively inexpensive hobby, that I find fascinating. An antenna of the right configuration and a radio scanner is all you need to get started. Below I have added links to a bunch of resources related to DX, including the Amateur Deep Space Network - a great group that is very informative.
I joined last year, and have learned a great deal, even just sitting and listening. To the group I mean.

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