ARISS International Team News Release:

November 10, 2003

Roy Neal, K6DUE, ISS Commemorative Event Planned by the ARISS team

Our good friend and noted NBC news correspondent Roy Neal, K6DUE (SK), had a vision---to make amateur radio a permanent feature on human spaceflight missions.

On November 28, 1983, the first step to Roy's vision was taken with the launch of the first amateur radio station on the STS-9 Space Shuttle Columbia mission. A few days later, Astronaut Owen Garriott, W5LFL. became the first on-orbit crew member to talk from space.

15 years ago, in October 1988, the Russian Amateur Radio team, led by Sergej Samburov, RV3DR and Larry Agabekov, UA6HZ/N2WW, launched and deployed the first amateur radio station on Mir. On November 12, 1988 at the AMSAT-NA symposium in Washington DC, Leo Labutin, UA3CR (SK), started amateur radio operations by communicating with cosmonaut Musa Manorov, U2MIR on-board Mir. Soon thereafter, hams all over the globe were talking with the cosmonauts and astronauts through the Mir amateur radio station.

The first amateur radio communications from the ISS started 3 years ago this month. On November 13, 2000, from the ISS, Sergei Krikalev, U5MIR and Bill Shepherd, KD5GSL, could be heard talking to the ham radio teams located at the Energia amateur radio station, R3K, in Russia and the Goddard ISS ground station, NN1SS in the USA. Roy's vision was suddenly realized with the deployment and first operation of a permanent amateur radio station on ISS.

To commemorate Roy Neal's vision and dedication to the development of amateur space communications, the ARISS International team will be sponsoring a special event activity with the ISS crew. We have requested that the ISS Expedition crew communicate with ground-based radio amateurs during the weekend of November 29-30. Those who contact the ISS by voice or packet during this weekend and through December 2003 will be eligible for a special anniversary event certificate.

Please remember the ARISS frequencies:

Voice and Packet Downlink: 145.80 (Worldwide)

Voice Uplink: 144.49 for Regions 2 and 3 (The Americas, and the Pacific)

Voice Uplink: 145.20 for Region 1 (Europe, Central Asia and Africa)

Packet Uplink: 145.99 (Worldwide)

Please keep all contacts short as others will want to work the special event.

Specifics on QSL verification and certificate distribution will be provided in a follow-on news bulletin.

On behalf of the ARISS International Team, we congratulate the international amateur radio community on these exceptional accomplishments and commemorate Roy Neal, K6DUE for his vision and tremendous support to ARISS team.

73,

Frank Bauer, KA3HDO

Sergej Samburov, RV3DR