SB SPACE @ ARL $ARLS008
ARLS008 Shuttle pact for US, Russia
QST de W1AW
Space Bulletin 008  ARLS008
From ARRL Headquarters
Newington, CT  February 8, 1994
To all radio amateurs

Russian and American amateurs now aboard the space shuttle are
benefiting from temporary third party and reciprocal operating
agreements finalized just before lift-off.

On February 3 the US Department of State and the Russian Ministry of
Post and Telecommunications each approved the temporary
arrangements, which allowed cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev, U5MIR, to
contact, on February 6, the House of Science and Technology for
Youth, in Moscow.

The contact was retransmitted in Russia on HF and VHF, according to
the ARRL SAREX Working Group.

After the Russian Ministry of Post and Telecommunications and the US
State Department approved the arrangements, it still was necessary
to obtain a Special Temporary Authorization from the FCC.  The ARRL
contacted the FCC's Personal Radio Branch, and the STA was granted
on February 4.

Permanent reciprocal operating and third party agreements between
the US and Russia have been in negotiations for several years.

In addition to schools contacted, the shuttle's robot packet station
had logged nearly 2000 contacts as of February 7.

US astronauts aboard the shuttle include Charles Bolden, KE4IQB, and
Ronald Sega, KC5ETH.
/EX