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The SpaceX Dragon resupply ship is packed with International Space Station hardware and scientific samples ready for return to Earth on Saturday. Meanwhile, the Expedition 55 crew members continued maintenance of the orbital lab and space research operations.
Dragon’s departure was pushed back from Wednesday after SpaceX personnel observed high sea states in the Pacific Ocean splashdown zone southwest of Long Beach, California. Its remotely controlled release from the Canadarm2 is now scheduled for Saturday at 9:30 a.m. EDT with live NASA TV coverage beginning at 9 a.m. Dragon’s splashdown is targeted at about 3 p.m. but will not be seen on NASA TV.
Mice living on the station have been transferred to specialized habitats in Dragon. They will be studied on Earth to observe how their bones and muscles have changed during their stay in microgravity. Other critical biological samples preserved in science freezers, such as plants, insects and human tissue, have also been transferred into Dragon for retrieval and analysis.
The astronauts and cosmonauts living on the space station exercise every day to maintain strong bones and muscles on orbit. One of the workout machines, the Advanced Resistance Exercise Device (ARED), got a tune up today amid the Dragon close out activities. Flight Engineer Drew Feustel greased the ARED’s rails and rollers and inspected its x-axis rotation points.
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Mark Garcia
ISS
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m5aka
AMSAT-UK
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The low-band VHF Amateur Service allocations are now:
30.0-49.0 MHz 50 watts
50.0-52.0 MHz 100 watts
54.0-69.9 MHz 50 watts
69.9-70.5 MHz 50 watts
The national amateur radio society, IRTS, are to be congratulated on achieving amateur access to so much spectrum.
The ComReg document as written appears to mean amateur satellite operation is not permitted in these ITU Amateur-Satellite Service allocations:
435-438 MHz
1260-1270 MHz
5650-5670 MHz
5830-5850 MHz
Oddly satellite operation is permitted in 430-432 MHz but there are no amateur satellites there!
Transmitting to amateur satellites operating in 2400-2450 MHz is only allowed with a Special Permit, it’s not included as standard in the licence. Even with the Permit amateurs will be restricted to a transmitter output of just 25 watts.
ComReg limit which modes that can be used in each band by listing three-character ITU Emission Designators. For example X7F is among those permitted for the 54.0-69.9 MHz band and means Digital Amateur TV (e.g. DVB-S) can be used. Unfortunately it appears to be the only band where X7F is permitted, an unnecessary restriction.
The Emission Designators for digital voice modes such as D-STAR and DMR don’t appear to be listed anywhere suggesting they cannot be used.
In 2006 the UK regulator Ofcom adopted a Technology Neutral approach to amateur radio, they scrapped listing of specific Emission Designators and allowed all modes to be used. It is unfortunate ComReg hasn’t taken this opportunity to do the same.
The new ComReg amateur radio document can be downloaded from
http://comreg.ie/publication-download/amateur-station-license-guidelines
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m5aka
AMSAT-UK
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Frequency Table
