The VASC Amateur Radio Group, Inc.
Satellite Station KE4ZXW

Students Contact Astronaut Commander Bill Shepherd
Aboard the International Space Station (ISS)

January 5, 2001

^Photo credit: Jeff Caplan of the Langley Research Center Office of External Affairs.

Wally Carter K4OGT (left) and Langley Research Center retiree Ken Pierpont KF4OW (right) help Melody Wright, a kindergarten student from Hampton's Armstrong Elementary School, communicate with the International Space Station (ISS) on Jan. 5 at the Virginia Air and Space Center (VASC).

Students from Armstrong's Young Astronaut Club were invited to ask ISS Commander Bill Shepherd questions via VASC's Amateur Radio Satellite Station, KE4ZXW. The link lasted approximately eight minutes as the orbiting ISS passed within communications range.

This radio contact was planned under the Shuttle Amateur Radio Experiment (SAREX) program several years ago and finally came about under the Amateur Radio International Space Station (ARISS) program as a special treat. In addition to Astronaut Shepherd, Cosmonauts Yuri Gidzenko and Sergei Kirkalev were present on the ISS while students communicated with Bill Shepherd.

Additional Pictures

Select each picture to see a larger view and accompanying text description.

2001.01.05	2001.01.05	2001.01.05	2001.01.05
2001.01.05	2001.01.05	2001.01.05	2001.01.05
2001.01.05	2001.01.05	2001.01.05	2001.01.05
2001.01.05	2001.01.05	2001.01.05	2001.01.05

• The Newport News Daily Press has given the VASCARG permission to reprint the Newspaper article about the ISS contact with the children.

Students Contact Astronaut John Blaha Aboard the Russian Space Station Mir

December 28, 1996

^Photo credit: The Richmond Times Dispatch

School Science Day at the Virginia Air and Space Center

January 21, 1999

^Photo credit: Wally Carter K4OGT

Volunteer Staffing Hours

• Weekdays, Monday-Friday, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.
• Weekends, Saturday-Sunday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

A working interactive exhibit is available to the public even when staff volunteers are not present to demonstrate the station in action. The Amateur Radio satellite station exhibit is located on the second floor on the west wing of the Virginia Air and Space Center.

The duty control operator is often monitoring the Southern Peninsula Amateur Radio Klub (SPARK) repeater W4QR on 444.550 MHz (CTCSS 167.9 Hz) or W4QR on 146.730 MHz. Please feel free to call the duty control operator at KE4ZXW if you have questions about the exhibit or are looking for directions.

Recent changes, updates, or new items:

• 2003.02.04 - The VASCARG page was updated to remove some outdated links.

For previous items, check the history list.

• A listing of press releases concerning KE4ZXW.

Active News and Information Sites

• The Spaceflight Now news site.
• Space Science News.
• Shuttle Status Reports from the Kennedy Space Center.
• Find out what's happening Today@NASA.
• The NASA Television home page for program schedules and news.
• The National Weather Service Forecast Office, Wakefield VA.
• The latest USA Radar image courtesy of Intellicast. Select your area of interest on the image map for a closeup.
• The latest Norfolk Surface Weather Forecast courtesy of Intellicast.
• The latest Norfolk Radar image courtesy of Intellicast.
• The Tropical Prediction Center of the National Hurricane Center.
• Space Weather.
• Today's Space Weather from the Space Environment Center.
• Jonathan's Space Report. A weekly synopsis of space activity.

Background Information

• The history of the VASC Amateur Radio Satellite Station Exhibit.
• A description of operations at the VASC Amateur Radio Satellite Station Exhibit.
• A list of KE4ZXW technical specifications
• A summary of KE4ZXW station equipment.

The KE4ZXW Guestbook

If you enjoy visiting the KE4ZXW home page why not make an entry into our guestbook? Two forms are available below to (1) Make a new guestbook entry and (2) Review the guestbook listing.

Amateur Radio Communications with the International Space Station

Amateur Radio operations with the International Space Station are now in progress. For those who wish to hear Amateur Radio communications with the ISS, check the ARISS home page for current news and frequency information. For Amateur Radio use, ITU region 1 is generally all of Africa, Europe, Northern and Central Asia. Region 2 is all of North and South America. Region 3 is Southern Asia, Australia, including most of the Pacific Islands. For further clarification of what composes ITU Regions, visit the Millimeter Wave Report page to locate an appropriate graphic.

As of 2001.04.09

Amateur Radio Modes	ITU Region 1 uplink/downlink	ITU Region 2-3 uplink/downlink
FM Voice (active)	145.200/145.800 MHz	144.490/145.800 MHz
FM Packet (1200 bps, active)	145.990/145.800 MHz	145.990/145.800 MHz

Research communications for ISS operations are relayed from a number of ground sites around the world. NASA Wallops (Wallops Island, Virginia Eastern Shore) is the closest ground relay station to the southeast Virginia area. You will often hear the Russian language being spoken on these non-Amateur Radio frequencies:

Research Communications Modes	uplink/downlink
FM Voice (active)	?/143.625 MHz

Amateur Radio Communications with the US Space Shuttle(s)

The Shuttle Missions page from the Kennedy Space Center provides a nicely compiled synopsis of each mission's specific description, past and future. It seems the best location to find information about the shuttle launch status that is quickly updated within a few minutes is the Shuttle Liftoff Status page. A visit to the Spaceflight link has a convinent search engine to learn more. Amateur Radio communications with the Space Shuttle falls under the Shuttle Amateur Radio Experiment (SAREX) Program.

• The next/current Space Shuttle mission is STS-111. This launch will be in a 51 degree inclination orbit to dock with the ISS.

Jim Conrad has recorded Shuttle communications during the boost phase of a previous mission, STS-81.

Related Amateur Radio Pages

• The International Space Station Reference.
• Claudio Ariotti's SpaceOnLine.
• Bob Bruninga's Mir/APRS page.
• The Houston AMSAT Net
• Orbitessera by Ken Ernandes.
• AMSAT-NA, the Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation (of North America) involving personal satellite communications via amateur radio with current news of amateur radio space activity. To read about SAREX communications reports, you might consider subscribing to the sarex@amsat.org mailing list. Detailed instructions for subscription may be obtained by consulting the AMSAT.ORG Mailing Lists to discover several types of Email news services.
• The American Radio Relay League in Newington, Connecticut.
• The National Skywarn homepage.
• The Chesapeake Amateur Radio Service.
• The Western Tidewater Radio Association.
• The Tidewater Radio Conventions Inc.
• The Portsmouth Amateur Radio Club.
• The Williamsburg Area Amateur Radio Club.
• The Peninsula Amateur Radio Club (PARC).
• The Hampton Roads Radio Association.
• The Goddard Amateur Radio Club where shortwave retransmission of space shuttle audio communications occurs.
• Take a practice Amateur Radio License Exam.
• W5AC, the Texas A&M University Club Station.
• Brian Webb's Rawhide Space Page.
• Ashley's Space World, with a variety of amateur radio topics.
• Software for CW learning/upgrade is available from a web site by Jim Farrior, W4FOK.

Photo Gallery

• A full image of the VASC Amateur Satellite Station Antennas.
• Students of the Bigyn School Amateur Radio Club, Llanelli, Carmarthenshire, South Wales, U.K.
• From the Sultanate of Oman and a frequent contact via satellite, Saif Al-Jabry (A41KD). Saif Al-Jabry's QSL card.
• From the University of Surrey, a UoSAT-5 image of the smoke plumes over the Persian Gulf after the 1991 Gulf War.
• Korean Satellite Station HL5PME.

Satellite Tracking Tools

If you would like to predict and plot satellite orbits for communications purposes, you will need:

• A satellite tracking program for your particular computing platform. A large variety of software applications are available from the AMSAT software page.
• A relatively recent data file of Keplerian terms describing the satellite orbit model. These files are known in the vernacular as two line elements files or "TLE's". These files can be found from several TLE Sources.
• Your ground location specific data. If you do not know your latitude and longitude, try the Tiger Mapbrowser and adjust it to your location.
• Network software for quickly setting your computer to reasonably exact time can be found by visiting the NIST Network Time Service of the NIST Time and Frequency Division.

Other Sites of Interest

• The NASA Langley Research Center.
• The NASA Wallops Flight Test Facility where aeronautical and sounding rocket testing is conducted on Virginia's Eastern Shore.
• The CERES S'COOL Project.
• The Langley Office of Education Online.
• Ben's Space Page by Ben Huset.
• David H. Ransom's Software Home Pages.
• The Basics of Space Flight Learner's Workbook from the JPL.
• The Space Day home page from the Lockheed Martin Corporation.
• The educator's resource NASA Spacelink.
• The NASA Langley Educators'Resource Center.

Related Sites

The following sites are authored by the same person as this site.

• The Amateur Satellite Observers of Southeast Virginia (ASOSV) where predictions for visual observations of notable satellites are posted.
• The NASA Langley Amateur Radio Club (NLARC) in Hampton, Virginia.
• The Newport News Composite Squadron Cadet Page of the Civil Air Patrol.

Utility Sites

• The Google Search Engine.
• The Callsign Database Server located at the University of Arkansas (at Little Rock) Club Station.
• The National Address Server.
• The Alta Vista search engine.

Acknowledgments

The VASC Amateur Radio Group, Inc. is a consortium of eleven Amateur Radio Clubs and Groups in the Hampton Roads (southeast Virginia) area. It's purpose is to provide the Virginia Air and Space Center with a permanent Amateur Radio exhibit focused upon a fully automated digital satellite communications station. Resources to support the VASC Amateur Radio Group, Inc. are derived from it's membership and others interested in Amateur Radio.

Additional supporting organizations are:

• SEVAnet, the Southeast Virginia regional free-net located on the campus of Christopher Newport University, Newport News Virginia.
• The Langley Activities Association of NASA's Langley Research Center, Hampton, Virginia.

An important reminder about this page:

You are encouraged to ask questions, suggest changes, or report difficulties with the server or items offered. The author attempts a reasonable effort to ensure the accuracy and appropriateness of the posted information though omissions, errors or links which change to inappropriate topics not under the author's direct control may develop without the author's knowledge. Your acceptance, use, or the communication of information or software from this home page for any reason is solely at your own risk. Links which feature commercial products for sale are provided on an "information only" basis and do not represent an endorsement of the products or sellers.

The VASC Amateur Radio Group, Inc. is a non-profit organization providing a major exhibit for the Virginia Air and Space Center which is the official visitor's center for the NASA Langley Research Center. Remember however, information provided by the VASC Amateur Radio Group, Inc. home page must not be confused with official NASA information which is available locally from the Langley Office of External Affairs at 757.864.6124.

Return to the SEVAnet home page.

Learn more about Hampton Roads (Southeast Virginia) historical attractions, event schedules, businesses, and educational institutions. Since October 5, 1996 you are welcome site visitor

Contact List

If you would like to find out more about the Amateur Radio Group, Inc. at the Virginia Air and Space Center or questions about Amateur Radio in general, the following persons are willing to assist you.

Contacts	Call sign	Responsibility	Telephone	Email
Ken Pierpont	KF4OW	Station Engineer and Secretary	757.898.3774 (h)	kf4ow@amsat.org
Wally Carter	K4OGT	Control Operator	757.826.1794 (h)	k4ogt@amsat.org
Cpt. Jim Sanford	WB4GCS	Control Operator	757.850.4939 (h)	wb4gcs@amsat.org
Steve Finkle	WA8AHV	Control Operator	757.486.5360 (h)	wa8ahv@juno.com
James E. (Jim) Byrd	WB5POJ	Web page	757.874.3104 (h) 757.864.5961 (ofc)	wb5poj@amsat.org