Russian Ham Radio License Issued for ISS

Greenbelt, Maryland

March 7, 2000





Members of the Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS)

team in the U.S. received word from the Russian team that a Russian

station license has been granted for the ISS Ham Radio station.  This

license is valid for all amateur radio hardware that will be located in

the Russian Segment.  It will support the operation and use of the ham

radio station in all of the Russian provided segments of ISS.  This

includes the FGB (or Zarya) module that is currently on-orbit and the

Zvezda Service Module that is planned for launch this summer.



During a telephone conversation last week,  AMSAT-RU team member Sergej

Samburov, RK3DR, informed the U.S. Ham Technical Team that the Russian

Federation Communications Oversight Commission has granted a license to

operate a "Ham Radio Station of the Highest Public Usage Category" for the

ISS Russian Segment.  The ARISS US team received a copy of the license on

March 2.  Since that time, NASA has translated the Russian Cyrillic to

English for the team.



Frank Bauer, KA3HDO, ARISS-International Administrative Chairman explains

that "This specific license enables the on-orbit ISS crews  to operate all

amateur radio modes and bands.  It is a critical step in our future

operations of ham radio on ISS.  We are excited that the Russian team have

made significant progress and now have our first license in place."  

Sergej Samburov explained to the ham team that this license is required

before any ham radio equipment can be installed in the Russian Segment. 

The station license call sign is RZ3DZR.  It was issued on March 2, 2000

and is valid until March 2, 2005.



The ARISS International team is working on a long term plan for a single,

international ISS station license.  This will allow all the international

crew members to operate different hardware that will comprise the ham

radio station in any part of the ISS without third party restrictions in

their country.  This was discussed at the ARISS meeting in Surrey, England

in July 1998 and at the IARU Satellite Meeting during the 1999 AMSAT-NA

symposium in San Diego, California. It is also an agenda  topic for the

upcoming ARISS meeting that will be held near Amsterdam later this month. 

The ARISS team is working with the IARU to develop a long term,

international solution.  In the meantime, the team is pursuing licenses in

each of the member countries.  The U.S. team will soon apply for a station

license to allow Bill Shepard, KD5GSL, to use the station later this year.



In the meantime, the ARISS team is working with the ISS Space Agency

partners to prepare the crew and hardware for use later this year.



Submitted by Frank H. Bauer, KA3HDO for the ARISS International Team ----

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