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 Previous: Youth@HamRadio.Fun: Field Day, Kid's Day and More! |  Next: VoIP Modes Critical for Hurricane Center Support, WX4NHC Says |
 ARISS International Chairman Frank Bauer, KA3HDO (standing), briefs NES educators before the contact between NN1SS and NA1SS. [Andrea Owens Photo] |
 Surrounded by NES educators, AMSAT President Rick Hambly, W2GPS, aims an Arrow antenna at the ISS while Dave Taylor, W8AAS (back to camera), holds a handheld transceiver as a member of the "outside" group at Goddard asks a question of ISS Astronaut John Phillips, KE5DRY. [Bill Boston Photo] |
 Rick Hambly, W2GPS, aims the Arrow antenna at the ISS near the end of the pass. Dave Taylor, W8AAS, holds the handheld transceiver. [Bill Boston Photo] |
 Dave Taylor, W8AAS (left), and Frank Bauer, KA3HDO, at the "inside" NN1SS location. [Bill Boston Photo] |
NEWINGTON, CT, July 26, 2005--Some 35 educators attending a NASA Explorer School (NES) program workshop July 20 got the chance to speak via ham radio with astronaut John Phillips, KE5DRY, aboard the International Space Station (ISS). Acting on very short notice, the Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) program was able to arrange the contact between NN1SS at Maryland's Goddard Space Flight Center, where the workshop was being held, and NA1SS on the space station. ARISS International Team Chairman Frank Bauer, KA3HDO, reports the contact went very well, and the group got in 15 questions asked and answered.
"The educators derived a lot of benefit from this activity, which they will bring into the NASA Explorer School program," he said. To accommodate the group's size, the Earth station actually used two locations and two sets of equipment, Bauer explained.
"The two-station event was closely choreographed using 70-cm radios, while the two stations could simultaneously hear the full set of questions being asked and the answers from Astronaut John Phillips," Bauer said.
The contact started and finished at the NN1SS ground station in Goddard's Building 11, where about half of the educators were located. Halfway through the contact, however, with the ISS closer to Goddard, another station a few hundred feet outside Building 11 was put on the air to handle questions from the other half of the group. The second station consisted of a hand-held transceiver and an Arrow antenna to successfully ask six questions.
"The educators, several with tears in the eyes, said this was one of the best events they have experienced." He noted that the QSO took place on the 36th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing. Several educators' focused on human physiology issues involved with space travel, while others asked about human exploration of Mars and long-distance space travel.
The NN1SS-NA1SS QSO represented a role reversal of sorts. During most ARISS school group contacts, the students--not the teachers--ask the questions.
ARISS is an
international educational outreach with US participation by ARRL, AMSAT and
NASA.
| Previous: Youth@HamRadio.Fun: Field Day, Kid's Day and More! | Next: VoIP Modes Critical for Hurricane Center Support, WX4NHC Says |
