Upgraded Space Station Ham Gear Coming Online

The first batch of upgraded ham radio equipment aboard the International Space 

Station has been installed and is on the air. The new gear replaces equipment that is 20 years old. The ARRL reports that the first of the new radios – a "space-modified" Kenwood D710GA transceiver installed in the ISS Columbus module – came on the air on September 2 in FM cross-band repeater mode. The uplink is on 145.990 MHz with a 67-Hz CTCSS tone; the downlink is on 437.800 MHz (plus or minus Doppler shift).   

A second batch of new ham equipment – planned for installation in the Russian Service Module – is still undergoing flight certification.