E' stata installata durante la seconda spacewalk,la nuova antenna dualband V/UHF sulla parte esterna del Modulo europeo COLUMBUS della ISS Stazione Spaziale Internazionale.Dovrebbero adesso proseguire il lavoro per collegare gli apparati radioamatoriali a detta antenna(molto simile a quella già esistente sul modulo Zarya della ISS).Sono gia installate,da quando il COLUMBUS fu agganciato alla ISS,anche le antenne per le bande L/S. Questo dovrebbe significare che il laboratorio spaziale del Columbus,per quanto riguarda il rack radioamatoriale va avanti e speriamo che ,avendo piu' spazio a disposizione,gli astronauti riprendano con maggiore frequenza i contatti radio diretti con noi.
73' Michele
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Messaggio originale:
New Ham Radio antenna installed on the ISS
ARISS US Hardware Manager Lou McFadin, W5DID says that all the teamwork and effort to expand the ARISS amateur radio station aboard the ISS were successful this weekend when the new dual band 2m/70CM antenna was installed on the outside of ESA's Columbus module.
Lou congratulated the team, "This is an example of what can be achieved by volunteer hams working closely with a space agency. This antenna project was funded entirely by AMSAT-NA and volunteers who built the antennas for both an ESA experiment and for ARISS. I am very proud of all the teamwork and effort that has gone into this project."
The new ARISS antenna is very similar to the antennas already on the Russian service module. Once the antennas are in place the ARISS team will be working to bring amateur radio to the Columbus module.
In conclusion Lou noted the tremendous contribution from ESA for the experiment, the launch and the EVA making this expansion of amateur radio aboard the ISS possible.
Source: AMSAT News Service (ANS)