The purpose of the modem - to be used with a transmitter-receiver - is to provide a digital (computer) mail communications system between the cosmonauts/astronauts and their families, school children, and amateur radio operators world-wide.
The new modem, a KPC-9612 plus, was manufactured by Kantronics Inc, Lawrence, Kansas and was selected because it supports the transmission and reception of both 1200 and 9600 bits per second data (packets) over FM radios and because of its 100 Kbyte storage capacity.
The MIREX team will be evaluating the performance at 9600 on the 70-cm Amateur Radio band (440 Mhz).

The MIREX team will be conducting numerous tests with the new hardware throughout December, 1997. The team's long term goal is to support 1200 baud communications with simple systems that may be demonstrated/used in schools and to support file transfers at 9600 baud when using "data ready" radios.
The school stations can be simple, consisting of a computer with communications software, a modem - such as the Kantronics KPC-9612 Plus - and a 2-meter transceiver - such as the Kenwood TM-733 (as used on MIR).

Initial testing at 1200 baud is underway and if all goes as planned, packet radio links by schools and amateur radio operators with the MIR can commence in early 1998. Initial public access to MIR using packet radio will be at 1200 baud on 145.985 MHz (simplex). High speed access will come later.
CQ-VHF, a New York based Amateur Radio magazine, provided financial support for the modems placed on board and Kantronics provided modems for the ground coordination stations.