Space Station’s “HamTV” Transmitter Back Home for Possible Repairs

[BruXy]

A digital amateur television (DATV) transmitter that had added pictures to voices during Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) contacts for mom than two years is back on Earth after it stopped working last April and could not be repaired in orbit. The ARRL Letter reports that the unit was packed aboard that SpaceX-16 Dragon supply ship last December and returned to the surface in mid-January. ARISS and the transmitter's manufacturer, Kayser-Italia, will try to figure out what went wrong and whether the unit can be repaired or will need to be replaced. The whole process, including all pre-launch certifications for a new or repaired transmitter, is expected to take at least a year.

(Source: CQ Amateur Radio, March 2019.)