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Future ISS amateur radio modes (from SAREX)

HB9OAY – May 4, 2007 – 08:51

Not beeing part of AMSAT I would ask Kenneth about this issue and the planned reprogramming of the D700.

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Kenneth wrote:

Currently, the
Kenwood radio is being used as a prime radio for everything. That means
changing it from one mode to the next a lot. The simplest switch is from
voice to packet (3 steps). Activation of the crossband repeater is
(unfortunately) a 27 step process and therefore is crew intensive. That
is a major driver in it's activation.
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Does the ARISS team plan to reprogramm the radio in a way that just 1 step is needed to change mode ?

I'm sure that Kenwood could easly write a firmware to have the 3 different modes programmed on the many available function-keys.
This will ease the intereraction of the crew and be (almost) error-proof.

HB9OAY - Mauro

Misc
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Turning the radio on is 1 step

N5VHO – May 4, 2007 – 15:09

Yes, the ARISS team plans to reprogram the radio. They have been attempting to do so by having a computer flown to accomplish the task since the end of Exp 13. A dedicated computer for the ARISS operations appears to be the only way to completely restore the radio to intended settings. A few attempts have been made to do a partial restore without significant results.

The D700 on orbit is not all that different than one you can buy. The radio was programmed by Kenwood with a few minor changes to be as simplistic as possible for the crew to use but the enabling of the crossband repeater function was too complex to simplify into a few steps. Most of the other operations require 3-5 steps. (Turning the radio ON is 1 step). The other modes that only require 3-5 steps include General Voice, Packet, School contacts and emergency communications. Crossband repeater and SSTV require many more to configure the additional parameters necessary to conduct those operations.

Had a radio been developed from the ground up instead of using an existing model, then simplified steps to operate the system could have been performed but the cost would have been extensive.

Kenneth - N5VHO
http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/station/reference/radio/
http://www.clarc.org/jprod/component/option,com_weblinks/catid,14/Itemid,23/

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