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ISS Crew Member Chats with Scouts in Canada via Ham Radio

07/15/2013

European Space Agency Astronaut Luca Parmitano, KF5KDP, aboard the International Space Station spoke July 8 via ham radio and a terrestrial telecommunication link with Scouts attending the Canadian Scout Jamboree 2013 in Sylvan Lake, Alberta. Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) arranged the event. Using the ISS call sign NA1SS, Parmitano contacted telebridge station VK5ZAI in Australia, on 2 meter FM. Audio from the VK5ZAI was relayed to Canada. The contact lasted about nine and a half minutes. The Jamboree attracted upward of 6500 youth, leaders and volunteers July 6-13 and was the largest gathering of Scouts in Canada. A day earlier, Parmitano was at the helm of IRØISS for an ARISS educational group contact with HV2VO at Ospedale Pediatrico Bambino Gesù in Vatican City. On July 20 (1534 UTC), Scouts at K2BSA at the 2013 BSA National Jamboree in Mount Hope, West Virginia, are scheduled to speak with the ISS. Later the same day (1905 UTC), students at Colegio Uruguá, in El Pinar, Uruguay, are scheduled to speak with the ISS crew via LU8YY. ARISS requests listener reports for these contacts. The ISS crew has been using a 5 W Ericsson hand-held transceiver for contacts in recent weeks, because of problems with the higher-power Kenwood radio on board, and this can make terrestrial copy difficult. ARISS has recorded more than 800 ISS school contacts since the program began in late 2000. — AMSAT News Service via Charlie Sufana, AJ9N



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