Jon Turner, AC1EV, writes:
An ARISS contact is scheduled for this Friday, February 5th with students from the Ottawa Carleton District in Ottawa, ON, Canada. The contact will be a multipoint telebridge contact. Fred Kemmerer, AB1OC, will serve as the relay amateur radio station. The astronaut is Mike Hopkins, amateur radio call sign KF5LJG.
The pre-contact program will begin around 12:20 pm local time and the ISS will come over the horizon at about 12:40 pm local time. You can listen to the downlink from the ISS on 145.800 MHz FM and you can watch the pre-contact program and the contact on the ARISS YouTube channel via the following link: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxm5Ca2y0HD_NxXlZWXv11A
[…] There are different frequencies for uplink and downlink so it is only possible for the public to monitor the downlink. The ISS will be overhead in our area for this contact, so it will be easy to hear.
One of the things I am doing now in ham radio is helping Fred Kemmerer, who is the President of the Nashua Area Radio Society, work with schools to make scheduled contacts with an astronaut on the International Space Station. Fred is a designated ARISS mentor for the US. ARISS is an organization that coordinates Amateur Radio activities on the International Space Station. I am currently assisting Fred behind the scenes with testing and setting up the ground infrastructure and internet connectivity needed to have students who are remote to their school have successful contacts with the ISS. We have a project underway with a school in Nashua for a contact in a few weeks.
This is a link to the recent contact from RSU#21 in Maine:
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LN70OpJFMgs&feature=youtu.be
Here is a link to a report from a TV station about a contact from a few weeks ago with RSU#21:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=013JxlionCU
Here are other links on the contact you may find interesting:
https://www.wabi.tv/2021/01/22/maine-students-talk-with-astronaut-on-international-space-station/
https://www.newscentermaine.com/article/news/education/kennebunk-students-have-an-out-of-this-world-experience-talking-to-an-astronaut-aboard-the-iss/97-1a7a7bb5-19f9-4dbc-b353-e30b13c9f475
https://www.pressherald.com/2021/01/22/sea-road-students-chat-long-distance-to-astronaut-on-the-international-space-station/
https://www.seacoastonline.com/story/news/local/york-star/2021/01/22/sea-road-school-students-talk-astronaut-space/4175367001/
I hope you find this interesting and are able to tune in to hear ham radio from space.
73 and stay safe (sane, too)
Jon Turner
AC1EV
At its Annual Meeting in January, the ARRL Board of Directors considered a motion to offer a new plan that would pay the new but not-yet-implemented $35 FCC application fee for a limited number of new radio amateurs younger than age 18 who, at the time of testing, belonged to an ARRL Affiliated 501(c)(3) charitable organization and passed their tests through an ARRL VEC-sponsored exam session. The proposal called for reducing the VEC fee for these candidates to $5. The initial proposal came from ARRL Southeastern Division Director Mickey Baker, N4MB. Other Board members offered subsidiary motions. Supporters said the purpose behind the motion was to ameliorate the potential financial hardship the pending FCC application fee posed on certain minors applying for their first license, and to encourage new youth membership. [Full story]
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