[amsat-bb] non-standard ISS transmissions

["Bill Jones" <wejones@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On the last ISS pass, when the footprint came in view, I didn't hear 
anything at first, so I started scanning, and I ran across what I 
think was Susan talking in Russian to people at Houston.  I have 
heard this sort of thing numerous times on the 143.625 freq back 
when MIR was active, but this transmission was in the 2M amateur 
band, and she never gave a call-sign.
    This doesn't seem legal to me, but also, I can't figure out why 
they just don't use the 143.625 freq that they used to use with MIR. 
It almost sounds like the radio they now use doesn't do the 143 
freq, so they were stuck with using something that their ham rig 
could handle.  Or perhaps they only have one antenna available, 
and it is just easier to use the ham rig for everything.
   Anyway, this just doesn't sound proper, ie a US ham speaking 
Russian and never giving a call-sign in the 2M band.
   Right after the transmission ended in Russian, I switched back to 
145.8, and Susan was back there doing voice QSOs on the regular 
frequency, so they seem to have a rig pre-programmed with several 
uplink/downlind frequencies that they can quickly go back and forth 
between.


 *****************************************************************
 *Bill Jones  N3JLQ  Sweden Maine                                *
 * wejones@megalink.net                                          *
 * Main home page   http://www.megalink.net/~wejones             *
 * WWII/B-17 page   http://www.megalink.net/~wejones/wwii.html   *
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