Heard S21 Station on Space Station – A New One!

There was an Eastern pass of Space Station at 8 am IST today morning with maximum elevation of 32 degrees in this region. As usual I had pointed my antenna Eastward and started listening in on 437.800 MHz, the downlink frequency of Amateur Radio on International Space Station. I was hopeful of hearing some DX station from YB land or Thailand. Moreover there was a report on X that KD5PLB, Astronaut Sunita L Williams was spotted on the ARISS mic on the Columbus Module ham radio a few hours back. Though I was not lucky enough to hear KD5PLB, I could hear a new S21 station on ARISS.

As I could not hear the callsign in full, I went outside and turned the antenna more towards S21 to which side the Space Station also was moving. In spite of multiple calls, I could not reach him again. Later VU3CDK messaged me saying that VU2KOC could copy him as S21MOB and it was confirmed by S21MOB on the LEO Satellite Repeater Contact WhatsApp group. Usual S21 operators who are heard on ARISS are S21CRO, whom I have heard earlier and S21HMX who submits data to AMSAT Live OSCAR Satellite Status Page. I am happy to hear one more LEO Satellite operator from S21 land. Listening to the audio record of the pass, I could also confirm that it was S21MOB, though I could not get the full callsign during the satellite pass.