Archived ARISS status reports *********************** December 25, 2006 1. Swedish School Contact Update On Sunday, December 17, students attending school at Thunmanskolan in Knivsta, Sweden spoke with Swedish astronaut Christer Fuglesang, KE5CGR/SA0AFS, on board the ISS. Hundreds attended the event and half of the 50 connections made to Echolink were from Swedish stations. Many media outlets covered the contact. To view the article in the Swedish newspaper UNT, see: http://www2.unt.se/avd2/1,3908,MC=72-AV_ID=562618,00.html The American Radio Relay League (ARRL) also ran an article covering the event. See: http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2006/12/19/100/?nc=1 Television coverage may be viewed here: http://www.aftonbladet.se/atv/player.html?catID=10&clipID=13482 2. Upcoming School Contact An Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) contact between the Kashiwabara Community Center in Sayama, Japan and astronaut Michael Lopez-Alegria has been scheduled for Wednesday, December 27, at 12:22 UTC. Kashiwabara Community Center will plan and support this children’s event with the two area schools: Kashiwabara Elementary School and Kashiwabara Junior High School. The children will be taught about the ISS, space and amateur radio, and will take a field trip to visit the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). Members of JAXA will also be invited to the event. 3. Training Status On Thursday, December 14, astronaut Tim Kopra and future space participant Charles Simonyi took and passed their amateur radio license exams. Callsigns have since been issued. Charles Simonyi received the callsign KE7KDP and Timothy Kopra was issued the callsign KE5LUT. Congratulations to both! *********************** December 18, 2006 1. Swedish School Contact Successful On Sunday, December 17, students attending Thunmanskolan in Knivsta, Sweden spoke with Swedish astronaut Christer Fuglesang, KE5CGR/SA0AFS, on board the ISS via the telebridge station VK4KHZ in Australia. Fuglesang was able to answer 13 questions posed to him by thirteen students. Audio was fed to the Echolink AMSAT (101 377) and JK1ZRW (277 208) servers and to IRLP Discovery Reflector 9010. Fifty connections from 12 countries were made to Echolink, including 5 simplex and 3 repeater nodes. Eight stations connected to IRLP from Canada, U.S.A, and Sweden; 25 listened to the audio as it was streamed on the Discovery website. The audio was also webcast courtesy of Verizon Conferencing. 2. Upcoming School Contact An Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) contact is planned for the Kashiwabara Community Center in Sayama, Japan on Wednesday, December 27, at 12:22 UTC. Kashiwabara Community Center will plan and support this children’s event with the two area schools: Kashiwabara Elementary school and Kashiwabara Junior High school. The children will be taught about the ISS, space and amateur radio, and will take a field trip to visit the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). Members of JAXA will also be invited to the event. 3. Training Status On Thursday, December 14, astronaut Tim Kopra and future space participant Charles Simonyi took and passed their amateur radio license exams. In addition, Simonyi received training on the Kenwood radio and Amateur Radio on the ISS school operations. 4. ARRL Article on ISS Ham Radio Systems The American Radio Relay League (ARRL) ran an article covering the status of the Ericsson and Kenwood radios on the ISS. See: http://www.arrl.org/?artid=7028 5. ARRL QST Articles on ARISS The American Radio Relay League (ARRL) ran several stories covering Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) related activities in the January issue of QST. A bullet item in the monthly list of touted Amateur Radio accomplishments described the discussion about SuitSat-2 by the ARISS Team at the ARISS Annual Meeting in San Francisco (page 12). A letter to the editor was run from a person who upon learning about ARISS, decided he wanted to become a ham radio operator in order to talk to astronauts. He succeeded in studying for and passing his ham radio exams, and was very lucky (and excited!) to speak with Bill McArthur. His letter was written to thank Bill for his time spent doing outreach to the public while chatting via ham radio (p. 24). A story was run about AMSAT’s Annual Symposium describing McArthur’s excellent talk at the symposium banquet. The story included his photo (p. 75). 6. Thomas Reiter Active on Voice On Monday, December 11, Thomas Reiter was active on the Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) radio. Reiter made several contacts with stations in Norway, the Netherlands and the U.K. *********************** December 11, 2006 1. Weiskirchen School Contact Erweiterte Realschule Weiskirchen in Weiskirchen, Saarland, Germany was scheduled for an ARISS contact on Friday, December 8. The contact did not take place due to technical difficulties which are currently under investigation. The contact may be rescheduled. 2. ARRL Article on German and Canadian School Contacts The American Radio Relay League (ARRL) ran an article on the Mannheim, Germany and Ontario, Canada Amateur Radio on the ISS school contacts. See: http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2006/12/05/100/?nc=1 3. Astronaut Training Status Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) member Nick Lance, KC5KBO, provided amateur radio license training for astronaut Timothy Kopra on Thursday, December 7. Future space participant Charles Simonyi is currently studying for his license. Both plan to take their exams in the near future. 4. ARRL Article on STS-116 Launch The American Radio Relay League (ARRL) ran a short story on the Discovery crew which launched on Saturday, December 9. Crew members Christer Fuglesang, KE5CGR/SA0AFS, and Sunita Williams, KD5PLB, both plan on participating in Amateur Radio on the ISS contacts. See: http://www.arrl.org/?artid=7017 *********************** December 4, 2006 1. School Contacts to be Scheduled The Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) team continues to work on scheduling school contacts for December. 2. ARRL Article on Henri D’Haese School Contact The American Radio Relay League (ARRL) ran an article on Mike Lopez-Alegria’s Amateur Radio contact with children attending the Henri D’Haese Primary School in Belgium. See: http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2006/11/28/102/?nc=1 3. Debrief Session with Space Visitor On Tuesday, November 28, the ARISS team spoke with space participant Anousheh Ansari to discuss her experience with Amateur Radio contacts while onboard the ISS. She provided valuable feedback to the team. 4. Astronaut Participates in SKYWARN Recognition Day The National Weather Service (NWS) and the American Radio Relay League co-sponsored SKYWARN Recognition Day on Saturday, December 2 to thank those hams who volunteer to act as storm spotters and who are trained in emergency communications. The activity called for Amateur Radio operators to exchange contact information, including a short weather report for their location, with as many NWS stations as possible. Mike Lopez-Alegria, KE5GTK, took part in the activities and was heard speaking to hams in Texas. 5. ARRL Story on ARISS Mentor The American Radio Relay League (ARRL) ran a story on Barry Cohen, K2JV. Cohen mentored the Salt Brook Elementary School Amateur Radio on the ISS contact in New Providence, New Jersey, in June of this year and was recently named “Amateur of the Year.” See: http://www.arrl.org/?artid=6981 6. ARRL Article on Shuttle STS-116 Crew The American Radio Relay League (ARRL) ran a story covering the upcoming shuttle launch which will carry ham astronauts Sunita Williams, KD5PLB, and Christer Fugelsang, KE5CGR/SA0AFS. Both plan to participate in Amateur Radio contacts during their missions. See: http://www.arrl.org/?artid=6996 7. ARRL QST Articles The December issue of the American Radio Relay League (ARRL) QST ran an article, "Civilian Space Traveler and Astronauts Pull Off ARISS Triple Header". The story was about Jeff Williams, Thomas Reiter and Anousheh Ansari and described their recent Amateur Radio on the International Space Station school contacts. Another story, "Kids Day June 2007", summarized ARRL's on-the-air operating event for kids. Astronaut Dorothy Metcalf-Lindenburger, KE5DAT, made the comment, "As an astronaut, I enjoyed volunteering my time to encourage kids to study for their license so they can speak to folks all around the world and even on the International Space Station!” *********************** November 27, 2006 1. Mannheim Museum Contact Successful On Monday, November 20, students attending the Landesmuseum fuer Technik und Arbeit (Mannheim Museum) in Mannheim, Germany, for the opening of its space exhibition, experienced an amateur radio contact with astronaut Thomas Reiter, DF4TR. An audience of two hundred students, ages 12-20, watched as 13 students asked thirteen questions. Also present was former ESA astronaut Ernst Messerschmid, DG2KM, who displayed pictures of Thomas’ training and answered questions from the audience. Telebridge station VK5ZAI in Australia assisted in the event. The audio was fed into the EchoLink servers and received 22 connections from12 countries, including 1 repeater. Three connections were made to the Internet Radio Linking Project (IRLP) Discovery Reflector 9010, and 15 listened to the Shoutcast audio stream on the www.discoveryreflector.ca website. The audio was also webcast, courtesy of Verizon Conferencing. 2. Canadian School Contact, a Success Centre Hastings Secondary School experienced a successful contact with the ISS via amateur radio. On November 20, ten students posed 22 questions to Michael Lopez-Alegria, KE5GTK, in front of an audience of 800. The Ottawa ARISS team provided radio equipment for the contact and gave a presentation to the students. Local radio and newspapers covered the event and media students from the local college and university attended. Dignitaries making an appearance included a federal member of the Canadian Parliament, an Ontario Member of the Provincial Parliament, and local officials from the Township and School Board including Trustees and directors. The school webcasted the event on www.hpedsb.on.ca. Audio was fed to EchoLink servers and Internet Radio Linking Project (IRLP) Discovery Reflector 9010. EchoLink received 16 connections (1 repeater included) from 9 countries, and 5 connections were made to the IRLP server 9010 from Canada and Japan. Audio was also available through Shoutcast on the website www.discoveryreflector.ca which received 26 connections. 3. Cosmonaut Active on Voice Mikhail Tyruin, RZ3FT, has been active on voice. He has been using the ISS Ham radio equipment to make general contacts with his friends in Canada. 4. Astronaut Training Status On November 20, Christer Fuglesang, KE5CGR/SA0AFS, attended an amateur radio session at JSC which provided him with user level training on the Kenwood radio so that he will be prepared to perform a school contact with students in Sweden during his STS-116 mission. He was given instructions on manual configuration as well as normal operations of the radio. 5. ARISS International Team Meeting Held The ARISS International Team held its monthly teleconference on Tuesday, November 21. SuitSat-2’s design and progress were reported on. Updates were given on the Kenwood radio status and SuitSat-1 certificates. Minutes have been posted on the ARISS website. See: http://www.rac.ca/ariss/arisstel2006-11-21.htm *********************** November 20, 2006 1. Mannheim Museum Scheduled for an ARISS Contact An Amateur Radio on the ISS (ARISS) contact has been approved for Landesmuseum fuer Technik und Arbeit (Mannheim Museum) in Mannheim, Germany. The contact will take place on Monday, November 20 at 15:57 UTC (Note the new time) via the telebridge station VK5ZAI in Australia. This is a European Space Agency (ESA) Special Event with ESA astronaut Thomas Reiter. The audio will be fed into the EchoLink AMSAT (101 377) and JK1ZRW (277 208) servers and into the Internet Radio Linking Project (IRLP) Discovery Reflector 9010. The audio will also be webcast. To join the event: URL: https://e-meetings.mci.com CONFERENCE NUMBER: 2545537 PASSCODE: SPACE STATIO 2. ARISS - Centre Hastings Secondary School Event An Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) contact has been approved for Centre Hastings Secondary School, a rural school located in Madoc, central Ontario, Canada with a student body comprised of approximately 975 students. Centre Hastings, in conjunction with Stirling Senior School, expects to involve students from several grades by tracking the Space Station, calculating the speed, rate of travel and its distance from Earth, designing and building a space station, writing questions to ask the ISS crew, and designing and creating posters to advertise the event. The school intends to webcast the event on www.hpedsb.on.ca. The audio is presently planned to be made available via phone line connections for audio feeds into EchoLink and IRLP. Assuming that the phone connections are made, the audio will be fed into the EchoLink AMSAT (101 377) and JK1ZRW (277 208) servers. The audio from this event will also be fed into the Internet Radio Linking Project (IRLP) Discovery Reflector 9010. Newspapers and television are expected to cover the contact which is scheduled for Monday, November 20 at 16:35 UTC. The school has posted an announcement of the upcoming contact on its website. See: http://www.hpedsb.on.ca/ec/directorsOffice/pastNews/06-07/Madocstudentsprepareforcontactwiththeinternationalspacestationcrew.html 3. Astronaut Training Status ESA astronaut Christer Fuglesang has been scheduled for an Amateur Radio training session on Monday, November 20. Fugelsang will fly on the Shuttle STS-116 mission scheduled to launch on December 7, and plans to participate in an ARISS contact during his flight. *********************** November 13, 2006 1. Belgium Contact Successful The Flanders Science Festival contact originally planned for October 27 was rescheduled. On Friday, November 10, eleven students, ages 11 – 12, from Henri d’Haese Primary School in Gentbrugge, Belgium spoke with astronaut Michael Lopez-Alegria, KE5GTK, via the telebridge station W5RRR in Houston, Texas. Twenty questions were asked and answered in front of an audience of 25 students and 3 teachers. The audio was webcast and was fed into the Echolink AMSAT server. Echolink received 14 connections, including one repeater. It was also fed into the Internet Radio Linking Project (IRLP) Discovery Reflector 9010 to which 4 connections were made. One of these connections was to a repeater which linked the southern half of Nova Scotia, and afterwards, ARISS received positive feedback from several amateur radio operators. Three television stations, one radio station and several newspapers covered the Gentbrugge event. It is estimated that approximately 1 million people in Flanders, Belgium and the Netherlands heard the contact. One story, written in Dutch, may be found on: http://www.uba.be/actual/flash/ariss-dhaese2006.html 2. Upcoming School Contacts An Amateur Radio on the ISS (ARISS) contact has been approved for Landesmuseum fuer Technik und Arbeit (Mannheim Museum) in Mannheim, Germany. The contact will take place on Monday, November 20 at 14:42 UTC via the telebridge station WH6PN in Hawaii. This is a European Space Agency (ESA) Special Event with ESA astronaut Thomas Reiter, DF4TR. The audio will be fed into the EchoLink AMSAT (101 377) and JK1ZRW (277 208) servers and into the IRLP Discovery Reflector 9010. The audio will also be webcast. An Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) contact has been approved for Centre Hastings Secondary School, a rural school located in Madoc, Ontario, Canada with a student body of approximately 975 students. Centre Hastings, in conjunction with Stirling Senior School, will involve students from several grades by tracking the Space Station, calculating the speed, rate of travel and distance from Earth. They will design and build a space station, write questions to ask the ISS crew, and design and create posters to advertise the event. The school intends to webcast the event on www.hpedsb.on.ca. Newspapers and television are expected to cover the contact which is scheduled for Monday, November 20 at 16:35 UTC. 3. ARISS Contact Inspires Students to Earn Licenses In April 2006, Escola Americana do Rio de Janeiro experienced an Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) contact with Marcos Pontes, PY0AEB. As a direct result of that contact, several students became interested in learning more about amateur radio. The Amateur Radio and Space Experiment (AMRASE), (a Brazilian non-governmental organization dedicated to developing technical programs for use in schools) team developed a special workshop for the students which covered radio communications, antenna systems, space communication by satellites and the amateur radio system on the International Space Station. Ten students have studied and are prepared to take their amateur radio license exams. 4. ARISS Presentation at University of California, Fresno This coming week, American Radio Relay League member Dave Smith, W6TE, will give an Amateur Radio presentation to a college class at California State University, Fresno. His talk will cover CubeSats, Student Space Exploration and Technology Initiative (SSETI), and Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) including the satellites SuitSat-1 and SuitSat-2. 5. Students Testing SuitSat-2 Components At its face to face meeting in San Francisco, the Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) team approved a second SuitSat project, an amateur radio system housed in an Orlan suit which has outlived its usefulness for the ISS crew. Much of SuitSat-1’s design will be reused in this second project but this time a software designed radio and solar cells will be incorporated into the system. The hardware team has been designing and developing the circuitry for the new satellite. The printed circuit boards (PCBs) were delivered to AMSAT members Bob McGwier, N4HY, and Frank Brickle, AB2KT, who are teaching an elective course on software defined radios at The College of New Jersey (formerly Trenton State College). The students enrolled in the course (approximately half of the senior electrical engineering class) will test the boards. 6. ARISS Teacher Featured on Pride of Britain TV Program On Tuesday, November 7, the United Kingdom’s television station, ITV1, aired the Pride of Britain Awards in which the Teacher of the Year award was given to Head Teacher, Linda Davies. Davies was the teacher who coordinated the first Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) contact in Britain for her classes at Wiltshire's Neston Primary School and was commended for her work, which inspired students and promoted science at the school. 7. JSC Training Session Status A Space Flight Training Division Technical Interchange Meeting (TIM) was held at Johnson Space Center on November 6-10. The ARISS-Russian team from Energia, representatives from the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center (GCTC), and ARISS-U.S. members attended. As a result of the meeting, the ARISS U.S. team may be tasked to perform more of the amateur radio training to reduce the amount of time that U.S. crews spend in Russia. 8. ARHOP Meeting Held On Wednesday, November 1, a meeting was held to discuss the charter for the Amateur Radio Hardware and Operations Panel (ARHOP). The document is being developed by Carlos Fontanot at Johnson Space Center in order to formalize the multi-lateral agreement between all the participating ARISS partners, and to define their roles and responsibilities. 9. Expedition 13 Crew Debrief Held A crew debriefing session was held on Thursday, November 9 with Jeff Williams, KD5TVQ. Williams provided the team with feedback on the ISS Ham radio equipment and school operations. 10. ARRL Article Covers SuitSat-2 The American Radio Relay League (ARRL) ran an article on a second SuitSat project. See: http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2006/11/09/101/?nc=1 11. Amateur Radio to be Highlighted on History Channel In spring 2007, The History Channel plans to run a 13-segment series, "The Secret Life of Machines." One segment will cover Amateur Radio, part of which will focus on ham radio in space. ARISS delegate Rosalie White described the roles of the American Radio Relay League (ARRL), the Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation (AMSAT) and the Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) to the History Channel reporter, and provided information on SuitSat-1 and SuitSat-2 and explained how the ARISS team compiles components, and designs, tests and launches its systems. Follow-up material, which covered SuitSat-1 and an ARISS school whose 5th graders built 5 types of crystal radios and compared their qualities, was sent to him. *********************** November 6, 2006 1. ARISS Network Brought up for NASA Contingency Communications On Thursday, October 26, NASA asked the Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) team to enable its contingency communications network due to ISS-Progress docking issues. There were some concerns that the Tracking and Data Relay Satellites System (TDRSS) coverage might be lost and NASA wanted to have solid communication coverage while they worked the issue. ARISS’ station in Australia was ready within 15 minutes of the request as others around the globe began to bring up their stations. Although the network was not needed, it was the first time in the 6 year history of ARISS that the team was asked by NASA to bring up this contingency communication network. NASA was impressed with the ARISS team and its efforts. The American Radio Relay League (ARRL) ran an article covering this story. See: http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2006/10/31/100/?nc=1 The Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation (AMSAT) also published the news. See: http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/index.php 2. ARISS International Team Teleconference Held An Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) International Team teleconference was held on October 24. Minutes have been posted to the ARISS website. See: http://www.rac.ca/ariss/arisstel2006-10-24.htm 3. Training Session in Houston A Space Flight Training Division Technical Interchange Meeting (TIM) is scheduled for the week of November 6-10 at JSC. Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) members, including Russian delegate Sergey Samburov from Energia, and representatives from the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center (GCTC) plan to attend. The roles and responsibilities of each group in training ISS crew members in the ARISS program will be defined. 4. ARRL Article on Ham Astronaut’s Mission The American Radio Relay League (ARRL) ran an article on its website covering astronaut John Grunsfeld, KC5ZTF, and his next mission. “Ham-astronaut to make third trip to Hubble Space Telescope” may be found at: http://www.arrl.org/?artid=6915 *********************** October 30, 2006 1. Flanders Contact Cancelled The Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) contact which was scheduled with students attending the Flanders Science Festival on Friday, October 27 was cancelled due to issues associated with the docking of Progress 23P. The team is working to reschedule the contact with the students as soon as possible, although a specific date, time and location have not yet been determined. 2. Expedition 13 Crew Debrief Status The Amateur Radio on the International Space Station U.S. team has compiled questions for the crew debrief with Jeff Williams, KD5TVQ. The debriefing session is tentatively scheduled for November 9 with a new time of 3:45 pm ET. 3. ARRL Article on ARISS International Team Meeting The American Radio Relay League (ARRL) ran a web story covering the Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) International Team Meeting held in San Francisco on October 8 – 10. See: http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2006/10/25/2/?nc=1 *********************** October 23, 2006 1. Upcoming School Contact The first ARISS contact of Expedition 14 has been approved. Students attending the Euro Space Center in Transinne, Belgium will participate in the Flanders Science Festival, which is being held on October 27-29, and will speak with the ISS via the telebridge station WH6PN in Hawaii. The contact has been scheduled for Friday, October 27 at 10:36 UTC. The audio will be fed into the EchoLink AMSAT (101 377) and JK1ZRW (277 208) servers. There is a possibility that the audio from this event will also be fed into the IRLP Discovery Reflector 9010. 2. Expedition 13 Crew Debrief Status The ARISS-U.S. team has compiled questions for the crew debrief with Jeff Williams, KD5TVQ. The debriefing session is tentatively scheduled for November 9 at 5 pm ET. 3. ARRL Article on Expedition 15 Crew The ARRL ran a web story on the recently named Expedition 15 crew entitled, “Three radio amateurs on next ISS crew.” See: http://www.arrl.org/?artid=6880 *********************** October 16, 2006 1. Upcoming School Contacts The school contact that was tentatively planned for the end of October was not approved due to the Progress 23P docking and related activities. ARISS continues to work on scheduling school contacts for Expedition 14. 2. ARISS International Meeting Held The ARISS International Team meeting was held in San Francisco on Monday and Tuesday, October 9 – 10 and a SuitSat-2 technical discussion took place on October 8. Presentations given included delegate reports from each region, onboard radio systems, and slow scan television (SSTV). Minutes and presentations will be posted to the AMSAT and ARISS websites in the near future. 3. Expedition 13 Crew Debrief The ARISS-U.S. team has compiled questions for the crew debrief with Jeff Williams, KD5TVQ. ARISS-Russia expects to speak with the crew this week. *********************** October 9, 2006 1. Upcoming School Contacts The ARISS team continues to work on scheduling the Expedition 14 school contacts. The next one is expected to take place at the end of October. 2. AMSAT/ARISS Meetings Held The AMSAT-NA Annual Meeting/Space Symposium was held October 5 – 8 in San Francisco. ARISS Chairman Frank Bauer gave two presentations during the Symposium. The first speech given covered the tenth anniversary of ARISS and the second was on the SuitSat-2 project. Astronaut Bill McArthur, KC5ACR, was the keynote speaker at the AMSAT banquet on Saturday evening. Conferences continue as the ARISS International Team Face to Face Meeting kicks off today, October 9. 3. ARISS Members Visit JSC In August, ARISS-U.S. team members visited several NASA offices in Houston to discuss the future of Amateur Radio in space. ARRL reported on this in its story, “ARISS Team ‘Always on a Roll,’ ARRL Liaison Says.” See: http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2006/10/03/101/?nc=1 The article also appeared in the ARRL Letter: http://www.arrl.org/arrlletter/06/1006/ 4. ESA Article on Greek Contact Students attending the ESA Space Camp in Patras, Greece enjoyed the experience of speaking with Thomas Reiter, DF4TR. ESA Education ran an article on the event. See: http://www.esa.int/esaED/SEMYH76LARE_index_0.html *********************** October 2, 2006 1. Swiss School Contact Update On Friday, September 22, Thomas Reiter, DF4TR, spoke with students from the Gymnase Intercantonal de la Broye in Payerne, Switzerland. The students gathered at the Musee de l'aviation militaire, the Swiss Air Force Museum. This was a highly publicized event and was attended by many VIPs including representatives from education, ESA and the Swiss Astronautics Society as well as Swiss astronaut Claude Nicollier, HB9CN. It received extensive media coverage from numerous newspapers, television stations (Nord Vaudois, Suisse Romande) and radio stations (Fribourg). The video was streamed over schoolnet.ch/ariss. It is estimated that approximately 650,000 heard of the contact via the radio and television broadcasts. For more details on the contact, go to: http://www.ariss-eu.org/2006_09_27.htm 2. Upcoming School Contacts The ARISS team continues to work on scheduling the Expedition 14 school contacts. 3. ARRL Article on Three ARISS Contacts ARRL wrote an article covering the three contacts made from the ISS on September 22. “Civilian Space Traveler, Astronauts Pull Off ARISS Ham Radio Triple Header” may be found at: http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2006/09/27/101/?nc=1 4. School Teacher Makes General Contacts with ISS A teacher (callsign N8MS) from Coloma Junior High School, located in Southwest Michigan, had an unscheduled contact with the International Space Station on Tuesday March 21, 2006 when Bill McArthur answered 12 of his students’ questions. His class was also able to contact Anousheh Ansari during her stay on the ISS and have her answer a few questions. The audio from his most recent contact may be heard on Anousheh’s space blog, http://spaceblog.xprize.org/2006/09/28/n8ms-ham-radio-contact/ The Coloma student body is comprised of 19% African Americans and 6% Hispanics with 48% of the population eligible for reduced or free lunches. 5. Arizona Class Listens to Space Participant on Radio A teacher from Pueblo Magnet School in Tucson, Arizona wrote to say that he and his students listened to space participant Anousheh Ansari with a very simple radio station, and could hear her for a short while, although they did not connect. He felt this opportunity of hearing someone on the Space Station motivated his students and that it was a very good lesson for them in tracking space vehicles. He made the remark, “We saw that we would be able to speak to a space traveler, and it was very motivational for my disenfranchised students." Pueblo Magnet School has a student population of 87% Hispanics, 4% Native Americans, and 18% with limited English. Sixty-four percent are economically disadvantaged. 6. ARRL Article on Expedition 13 ARRL posted a short story covering Expedition 13 crew members returning to Earth. See: http://www.arrl.org/?artid=6830 *********************** September 25, 2006 1. Swiss School Contact Successful Thomas Reiter, DF4TR, spoke with students from the Gymnase Intercantonal de la Broye at the Musee de l'aviation militaire in Payerne, Switzerland on Friday, September 22. Eight students’ questions were answered as 50 people gathered around the radio. Another 300 witnessed the contact in the hall where the event was transmitted on screen by amateur television (ATV). Media coverage included newspapers and television. 2. George Washington University Contact Successful Space visitor Anousheh Ansari participated in a contact with her alma mater, George Washington University (GWU) in Washington, D.C. on Friday, September 22. As Ansari was Japanese participant, Dice-K Enomoto’s back up on the Soyuz flight, she did not have time to get her U.S. license. Jeff Williams, KD5TVQ, acted as the control operator during the contact. Students from several area schools participated in the event: Eastern Middle School, Silver Spring, Md. (a NASA Explorer School); School Without Walls Senior High School, Washington, D.C.; Stevens Elementary School, Washington, D.C.; and Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, Alexandria, Va. Six students were able to have their questions answered. The event was held in the GWU Marvin Center amphitheater where approximately 125 people gathered. Television stations Fox TV 5, ABC WJLA 7 and news channel 8 provided coverage of the GWU ARISS contact as did the Washington Post and some other local papers. See: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/22/AR2006092201496.html Photos of the event may be viewed on: http://artemis.crosslink.net/~pk/AMSAT/AMSAT-ARISS-9-22-06/ The contact video may be seen here: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1789656846413123353 The university posted a press release of the event. http://my.gwu.edu/mod/calendar/default.cfm?event_id=9660&option=view&day=09/22/06 3. ARISS - Illinois Contact, a Success Astronaut Jeff Williams, KD5TVQ, had his own contact scheduled for September 22 with his crew-pick school, Crete-Monee Intermediate Center in Crete, Illinois. Nineteen students asked one question each as the entire student body of 800 children looked on. The Kankakee Amateur Radio Society provided streaming audio via W9AZ 146.94 repeater on http://www.w9az.com. Two television channels, 7 and 2 covered the event. Crete’s local newspaper, The Star, posted an online article: http://www.starnewspapers.com/star/spnews/cup/24-cup3.htm 4. Upcoming School Contacts The ARISS team continues to work on scheduling the Expedition 14 school contacts. 5. ISS Makes General Contacts Besides making the scheduled ARISS school contact with George Washington University, Anousheh Ansari has been making general contacts with stations in the USA and Canada using the callsign RS0ISS. News of her contacts has already hit the media. See: http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/story.html?id=852560db-b97c-4565-afaf-01a1ca1e4fce&k=82481 6. ARRL Article Covers Hams Onboard ISS ARRL ran a story on the shuttle astronauts visiting the ISS. The amateur radio payload PCSAT2 was picked up during an EVA and returned to Earth. “Five Radio Amateurs Now Aboard ISS; Power Upgrade, PCSat2 Retrieval Set” may be viewed on: http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2006/09/11/101/?nc=1 7. ARRL Covers Expedition 14 Launch ARRL ran an article on the launch of the Expedition 14 crew. The story, entitled, “Shift Change: New Two-Ham Crew, First Female Civilian Visitor on Way to ISS” may be found at: http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2006/09/18/102/?nc=1 8. ARRL Press Release on Three ARISS Contacts On Friday, September 22, three ARISS contacts were performed by three different people onboard the ISS. “ARISS Plans Triple Header of Ham Radio School Contacts” may be viewed on: http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2006/09/21/100/?nc=1 *********************** September 18, 2006 1. Upcoming School Contacts ESA astronaut Thomas Reiter, DF4TR, is tentatively scheduled for a contact with Gymnase Intercantonal in Musee de l'aviation militaire, Payerne, Switzerland on Friday, September 22 at 10:35 UTC. The contact will be held in the museum "Clin d'Ailes", located on the Payerne Swiss Airforce Base. The museum "Clin d'Ailes" displays military aeronautics. Mr. Claude Nicollier, the first Swiss Astronaut, is the president of the Museum Foundation and will attend the event. Afterwards, the students will follow the Swiss Space Days activities organized by the Swiss Astronautics Association in the Gymnase and the museum "Clin d'Ailes". Space visitor Anousheh Ansari plans to speak with students at George Washington University, her alma mater, in Washington, D.C. on Friday, September 22 at 16:49 UTC. Jeff Williams, KD5TVQ, is tentatively scheduled for a crew pick contact with Crete-Monee Intermediate Center in Crete, Illinois on Friday, September 22 at 18:23 UTC. The school has thirteen fifth grade and thirteen sixth grade classes, and also services three self-contained special needs classes. 2. ARRL Article Covers Hams Onboard ISS ARRL ran a story on the shuttle astronauts visiting the ISS. The amateur radio payload PCSAT2 will be picked up during an EVA and returned to Earth. “Five Radio Amateurs Now Aboard ISS; Power Upgrade, PCSat2 Retrieval Set” may be viewed on: http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2006/09/11/101/?nc=1 3. ARRL Story on Spaceflight Participant Space visitor Anousheh Ansari’s plans to participate in amateur radio contacts while onboard the ISS was covered in the article, “Civilian space traveler set to try Amateur Radio from ISS after all.” See: http://www.arrl.org/?artid=6777 4. ARRL Article on Bowersox Departure ARRL ran this story, “ISS Expedition 6 Commander Ken Bowersox, KD5JBP, leaving NASA.” See: http://www.arrl.org/?artid=6772 5. Astronaut Training Status Educator Astronaut Barbara Morgan attended a training session with Kenneth Ransom at JSC on Wednesday, September 13. Topics covered included procedures related to school contacts and radio operations. Morgan is expected to fly on STS-118 in mid 2007. Joe Acaba, who is supporting her mission, also sat in on the training session. 6. QST Articles on ARISS Activities QST, ARRL’s monthly magazine, ran an article by ARISS delegate Rosalie White entitled, "Those Magnificent Hams in Their Flying Machines," that includes a portion on Jim Gerard, KI4ARO, of the KSC Aerospace Education Services Program, and his participation (including talking about ARISS to teachers and the general public) at an air show this summer. Another story, "ISS Ham Radio 'Go-To' Guy Earns NASA's Silver Snoopy Award" ran about ISS Ham Technical Manager Kenneth Ransom’s Silver Snoopy award. The QST article, "Dr Charles E. 'Chuck' Brady Jr, N4BQW, SK" is about Astronaut Chuck Brady having passed away. *********************** September 11, 2006 1. Upcoming School Contacts Scheduling of ARISS contacts continues for the Expedition 13 and 14 crews. Due to shuttle activities, no specific information is available at this time. 2. SuitSat-1 Re-enters Atmosphere SuitSat-1, a surplus Russian Orlan spacesuit equipped with amateur radio, was deployed from the ISS on February 3 of this year. On September 7, 2006 at 16:00 GMT, SuitSat-1 re-entered the Earth’s atmosphere approximately 1400 km south-southwest of Western Australia. For more details, including the winners of the Chicken Little Contest, please go to: http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/ariss/suitsatContest.php 3. ARRL Article on Tennessee School Contact ARRL covered the Northeast Middle School contact in the article, “Astronaut's Kin among Middle Schoolers for Space Contact via Ham Radio.” See: http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2006/09/08/100/?nc=1 4. ARISS International Meeting, October 9-10 The ARISS International face to face meeting will take place next month in conjunction with the AMSAT-NA Annual Board Meeting and Space Symposium in San Francisco. The AMSAT meetings begin on October 5 and the ARISS International meeting will be held on Oct 9-10. 5. Astronaut Training Status Educator Astronaut Barbara Morgan has been scheduled for a training session with Kenneth Ransom at JSC on Wednesday, September 13. Topics covered will include school contacts and radio operations. *********************** September 4, 2006 1. Tennessee School Contact Successful On Monday, August 28, students from Northeast Middle School in Clarksville, Tennessee had the opportunity to speak with the ISS. Jeff Williams, KD5TVQ, answered 19 questions asked by ten children via the telebridge station VK4KHZ in Australia. Jeff Williams’ niece was one of the children selected to participate in the session. A local paper covered the contact. Twenty-one connections, including 3 repeater nodes, from 7 countries were made to the EchoLink AMSAT (101 377) and JK1ZRW (277 208) servers. Audio was also fed into the IRLP Discovery Reflector 9010, and was webcast courtesy of Verizon Conferencing. The Leaf-Chronicle wrote a story on the event entitled, “Students make long-distance call to astronaut in outer space.” See: http://www.theleafchronicle.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060829/NEWS01/608290319&SearchID=73255668465433 2. ARRL Article on Japanese Contact ARRL covered the Sendai Yoshinari School contact in its article, “Junior High Schoolers in Japan Speak with Astronaut via Ham Radio.” See: http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2006/09/01/3/?nc=1 3. School Contact Mentioned on Space.ref The Space.ref website has a brief entry on the Teven Tintenbar School in Australia. See paragraph 19 on: http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewsr.html?pid=21694 4. Options to Speak with Friends, Family from Space Include Ham Radio The Canadian Space Agency web site describes the options available to the ISS crew members for contacting friends and family on Earth. Ham radio is one of the options mentioned. See: http://www.space.gc.ca/asc/eng/astronauts/living_relaxing.asp 5. ARISS TIM Held The ARISS team held a Technical Interchange Meeting August 28 -31 at Goddard Space Flight Center. ARISS Delegate Sergey Samburov was able to attend the discussions which covered ARISS hardware and software, SuitSat-2 design and development, and school operations. *********************** August 28, 2006 1. Japanese School Contact Sendai Municipal Yoshinari Junior High School in Sendai, Miyagi, Japan experienced an ARISS contact on Friday, August 25. Only five students were able to have their questions answered due to technical difficulties the school experienced with the audio. An audience of approximately 240 students, teachers and parents attended. Four television stations including NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corporation) and five newspapers covered the contact. 2. Upcoming School Contact Northeast Middle School in Clarksville, Tennessee has been approved for an ARISS contact. It will take place on Monday, August 28 at 15:59 UTC via telebridge station VK4KHZ in Australia. Approximately 1280 sixth, seventh and eighth graders are enrolled in the school with 41% of them coming from military families and 37% of the students having at least one parent serving in Iraq at this time. The local paper and a news station out of Nashville, TN are expected to cover the contact. The audio from this event will be fed into the EchoLink AMSAT (101 377) and JK1ZRW (277 208) servers and the IRLP Discovery Reflector 9010. It will also be webcast courtesy of Verizon Conferencing. To join the event: URL: https://e-meetings.mci.com CONFERENCE NUMBER: 4081260 PASSCODE: SPACE STATIO 3. Change Made to Spaceflight Participants Japanese businessman and space visitor Dice-K Enomoto was expected to fly on the next Soyuz flight in September. He has experienced some medical issues and will not be able to participate. His backup, Iranian American businesswoman Anousheh Ansari, will take his place. The ARISS team is making arrangements for her training and school contacts. News of the switch may be found in the following articles: “American Businesswoman Could Step In as Next Civilian Space Traveler” http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2006/08/21/100/?nc=1 “Space Adventures’ Client, Anousheh Ansari, Prepared to Take Flight” http://www.spaceadventures.com/media/releases/2006-08/424 4. ARRL News Story on SSTV Testing ARRL covered the Slow Scan Television (SSTV) testing that has been carried out on the ISS in an article, “ISS Crew, ARISS Team Troubleshooting Slow-Scan TV System.” See: http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2006/08/22/2/?nc=1 5. ARRL Article on SuitSat-1 SuitSat-1 was deployed on February 3, 2006. It is expected to reenter the earth’s atmosphere in the very near future. See: http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2006/08/24/1/?nc=1 6. ARRL Story on Next Shuttle Flight ARRL posted a short story on the upcoming shuttle flight entitled “Two radio amateurs to be aboard shuttle Atlantis.” See: http://www.arrl.org/?artid=6709 7. ARRL Article on Australian Contact On August 18, Australian Reece and Devonport High School students experienced an ARISS contact. ARRL’s article, “Astronaut, Tasmanian Students Work Through ISS Ham Radio Contact Glitches,” may be found at: http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2006/08/24/2/?nc=1 8. ARRL Magazine QST Articles Several ARISS related articles were published in the September issue of QST. The first is an article by ARRL writer Rick Lindquist, N1RL, about Thomas Reiter, DF4TR, (with his picture) being delivered to the ISS as a new crew member. It is titled "Shuttle Drops off New ISS Ham Radio Crew Member." There is another story by Lindquist which covers Bill McArthur earning the Worked All States (WAS) award and inspiring students to pursue science, space and radio. It includes a picture of ARISS Chairman Frank Bauer awarding a special WAS plaque to McArthur and is entitled, "Astronaut Honored for WAS, Inspiring Others from Space." A column written by ARRL's Steve Ford, WB8IMY, is entitled "APRS and the ISS" and talks about how to try APRS (Automatic Position Reporting System) with the ISS, and how this activity is educational and entertaining. *********************** August 21, 2006 1. Australian School Contact Successful Reece High School students in Devonport, Tasmania, Australia spoke with Jeff Williams, KD5TVQ, on Friday, August 18. Telebridge station W6SRJ in California assisted with the contact. The participants encountered some problems with the audio, which the ARISS team is currently investigating, but students did have six questions answered. Television and radio stations and the press covered the event. The IRLP Discovery Reflector 9010 had 3 connections from Canada and Japan; Echolink had 22 connections from 8 countries. 2. Upcoming School Contacts Sendai Municipal Yoshinari Junior High School in Sendai, Miyagi, Japan has been scheduled for an ARISS contact. It will take place on Friday, August 25 at 08:12 UTC. Students’ families and their community are involved with this event, coordinated through the school’s PTA. The local FM radio and television stations as well as the local government’s educational newspaper will cover the event. Northeast Middle School in Clarksville, Tennessee has been approved for an ARISS contact. It will take place on Monday, August 28 at 15:59 UTC via the telebridge station VK4KHZ in Australia. Approximately 1,280 sixth, seventh and eighth graders are enrolled at the school with 41% of the student body coming from military families, and 37% of the students having at least one parent serving in Iraq at this time. The local paper and a news station out of Nashville, Tennessee are expected to cover the contact. The audio from this event will be fed into the EchoLink AMSAT (101 377) and JK1ZRW (277 208) servers and the IRLP Discovery Reflector 9010. 3. ARRL Article on Robinson and Teven-Tintenbar Contacts ARRL ran a web story on the Robinson Elementary School and Teven-Tintenbar Public School contacts. To view the article, see: http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2006/08/18/1/?nc=1 4. ARRL Article on Next Space Visitor ARRL ran an article on Dice-K Enomoto, the Japanese businessman who will fly to the ISS in September. See: http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2006/08/15/3/?nc=1 5. ARRL Story on AMSAT Keynote Speaker On August 16, ARRL ran an article covering the upcoming AMSAT Meeting and Space Symposium, and named Bill McArthur as the keynote speaker at the AMSAT banquet to be held on October 7. See: http://www.arrl.org/?artid=6689 6. News Story Covers Teven-Tintenbar Contact The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) radio ran a story on the Teven-Tintenbar contact on Monday, August 14. The event was also covered by the online Northern Star news. See: http://www.northernstar.com.au/storydisplay.cfm?storyID=3696418&msg=emaillink 7. MSNBC Article on SSTV Commander Pavel Vinogradov, RV3BS, continues to test the Slow Scan television on the ISS. Photos are available for viewing in the article, “Ham Radio's Space Vision” on MSNBC. See: http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2006/08/17/2213.aspx *********************** August 14, 2006 1. Teven-Tintenbar Contact Successful On Friday, August 11, seventeen students from Teven-Tintenbar Public School, located in a rural area near the coastal town of Ballina in NSW, Australia asked one question each of astronaut Jeff Williams, KD5TVQ. Approximately 400 students, teachers, parents and others attended the event. ARISS member Tony Hutchison, VK5ZAI, gave a few presentations on ARISS to the children before the contact and afterwards, provided answers to the students’ prepared questions that Williams did not get to during the event. The amateur radio operators at Teven-Tintenbar fed the two-way audio from the contact to the ARISS team via Skype. The audio was fed into the EchoLink AMSAT (101 377) and JK1ZRW (277 208) servers and into the IRLP Discovery Reflector 9010. Twenty-one connections (3 repeaters, 6 simplex nodes) were made to EchoLink from 8 countries. Media coverage was extensive with several newspapers, radio and television stations attending, including a private videoographer who was making a documentary video. 2. Upcoming School Contacts Devonport Maritime Museum in Devonport, Tasmania, Australia has been approved for a contact. It will take place on Friday, August 18 at 10:38 UTC via the telebridge station W6SRJ in California. Seventh and eighth graders from Reece and Devonport High Schools will take part in the contact. Television and radio stations and the press will provide coverage of the event. The audio from this contact will be fed into the EchoLink AMSAT (101 377) and JK1ZRW (277 208) servers and into the IRLP Discovery Reflector 9010. Sendai Municipal Yoshinari Junior High School in Sendai, Miyagi, Japan has been scheduled for an ARISS contact. It will take place on Friday, August 25 at 08:12 UTC. Students’ families and their community have been involved with this event which has been coordinated through the school’s PTA. The local FM radio and local television stations as well as the local government’s educational newspaper will cover the contact. 3. ARRL Article on Patras, Greece Contact The Children’s Club Camp experienced an ARISS contact on Saturday, July 29 in Patras, Greece. ARRL covered the event in an article. See: http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2006/08/10/1/?nc=1 4. Robinson Elementary School Contact Robinson Elementary School experienced an ARISS contact with Jeff Williams on August 2. The Indystar published a web story on the event. See: http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060804/NEWS01/608040488&SearchID=73253462766485 5. TIM Held in Houston A Technical Interchange Meeting was held in Houston the week of August 7. SuitSat-2 was discussed and meetings were held with various JSC personnel. 6. Alaskan Students Speak With Astronaut via Amateur Radio Fifteen students, enrolled in the IDEA (Interior Distance Education of Alaska) home-school program spoke with astronaut Jeff Williams via amateur radio. An acquaintance of Williams arranged the contact with the children through the Challenger Learning Center of Alaska in Kenai. For more information, see: http://www.adn.com/life/hometown/story/8062300p-7955243c.html 7. Slow Scan TV Tests Pavel Vinogradov, RV3BS, continued with Slow Scan Television (SSTV) tests over the weekend. On August 12, a U.S. station captured a few SSTV images transmitted from the ISS. *********************** August 7, 2006 1. Indiana Contact Successful On Wednesday, August 2, students from Robinson Elementary School in Anderson, Indiana spoke with astronaut Jeff Williams, KD5TVQ, onboard the ISS. Williams answered twenty-one questions posed to him by 13 students. An audience of 200 students and 50 parents attended the event as did the local newspaper, The Herald Bulletin. Echolink and IRLP were both used for the contact, increasing the audience reached. Sixteen connections were made to Echolink from 7 countries, including two repeaters and 11 connections from 4 countries were made to IRLP. To view the Herald Bulletin article, see: http://static.cnhi.zope.net/flashpromo/heraldbulletin/flashpromo/pdffrontpage/front_page.pdf and: http://www.theheraldbulletin.com/local/local_story_214205845.html 2. Canadian Contact Status The contact planned with the Central Experimental Farm in Ontario, Canada on August 4 was not successful due to technical difficulties. The ARISS team is investigating the problem. 3. Upcoming School Contacts Teven-Tintenbar Public School is located in a rural residential area 12 km from the coastal town of Ballina in the Northern Rivers region of NSW, Australia. Approximately 180 students, grades kindergarten through grade 6, are enrolled at the school. Teven-Tintenbar has been approved for a contact on Friday, August 11 at 07:32 UTC. Devonport Maritime Museum in Devonport, Tasmania, Australia has been approved for a contact. It will take place on Friday, August 18 at 10:38 UTC via the telebridge station W6SRJ in California. Seventh and eighth graders from Reece and Devonport High Schools will take part in the contact. Television and radio stations and the press will provide coverage of the event. 4. Greece Contact Article On July 29, the Children’s Club Camp in Patras, Greece experienced an ARISS contact with ESA astronaut Thomas Reiter, DF4TR. ESA published an article on its website covering the event. See: http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Astrolab/SEM9R3815QE_0.html 5. ARISS Snoopy Award Recipient Makes Headlines Bill McArthur presented the Silver Snoopy Award to ARISS member Kenneth Ransom, N5VHO, on June 8. NASA’s PAO picked up on the story and posted an article on its website. See: http://www.nasa.gov/centers/johnson/news/releases/2006/JO06-008.html ARRL’s article, “ISS Ham Radio "Go-To" Guy Earns NASA's Silver Snoopy Award,” also covers the news. See: http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2006/08/01/4/?nc=1 6. Dice-K Receives Amateur Radio Training Japanese space visitor Dice-K Enomoto, who is scheduled to fly this fall, received amateur radio training from ARISS delegate Sergey Samburov, RV3DR. Photos of the session have been posted to the Energia website. See: http://www.energia.ru/english/energia/iss/iss14/photo_08-01.html 7. PCSAT-2 Event PCSAT-2 is scheduled to be brought back to Earth at the end of this month. Bob Bruninga, WB4APR, has announced an event to be held during its last days in space. Command stations will be listening for packets on the ISS digipeater 145.99 uplink and will acknowledge the packets with voice on the 437.975 MHz downlink. This event will begin on August 4, is expected to end August 29, and is contingent on command stations being available for the exercise. For more information, go to: http://www.ew.usna.edu/~bruninga/pec/pc2ops.html 8. ARISS Technical Interchange Meeting ARISS members will meet in Houston this week to attend a Technical Interchange Meeting. Topics of discussion will include SuitSat-2 and ISS Ham hardware and software. *********************** July 31, 2006 1. Children’s Club Speaks to ISS On Saturday, July 29, the Children’s Club Camp held in Patras, Greece experienced an ARISS contact with ESA astronaut Thomas Reiter, DF4TR, via the telebridge station, WH6PN, in Hawaii. The Greek Minister of Education asked the first two questions, followed by two questions posed by students. ESA employees’ children attended the camp held at the Porto Rio Hotel, with July 29 designated as Space Day. An audience of 200 was present for the event. Echolink was used for the contact, receiving 31 connections from 11 countries, including 6 repeaters. 2. Upcoming School Contacts Robinson Elementary School in Anderson, Indiana has an enrollment of 435 students of which 98% are eligible for free lunches. Its diverse student population is made up of 41% white, 31% African American, 7% multiracial, 21 % Hispanic. The school has been scheduled for a contact with the ISS on Wednesday, August 2 at 14:16 UTC. The Central Experimental Farm in Ontario, Canada is a research facility in the City of Ottawa. The ARISS contact with the camp originally planned for July 25 was cancelled due to EVA activities. The contact has been rescheduled for Friday, August 4 at 13:27 UTC. Teven-Tintenbar Public School is located in a rural-residential area 12 km from the coastal town of Ballina in the Northern Rivers region of NSW, Australia. Approximately 180 students, grades kindergarten through grade 6, are enrolled at the school. Teven-Tintenbar has been approved for a contact on Friday, August 11 at 07:32 UTC. 3. ARRL Article Covers SSTV Testing Pavel Vinogradov, RV3BS, ran a few Slow Scan Television (SSTV) tests over the weekend. Images were picked up by stations in Russia and Brazil. The ARRL July 26 article, “SSTV tests planned from ISS, school contacts set for German astronaut,” may be found at: http://www.arrl.org/ 4. ARISS International Team Meeting The monthly ARISS International Team teleconference was held on Tuesday, July 25. Topics of discussion included Japanese space visitor, Dice-K Enomoto, school contacts planned for Thomas Reiter, and the ARISS International Face to Face meeting planned for October. 5. ARRL Article on Chuck Brady, N4BQW Retired space shuttle astronaut Chuck Brady, N4BQW, one of the first astronauts involved with the Shuttle Amateur Radio Experiment (SAREX) program, passed away July 23. ARRL ran an article, “Dr Charles E. ‘Chuck’ Brady Jr, N4BQW, SK.” See: http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2006/07/27/1/?nc=1 *********************** July 24, 2006 1. Upcoming School Contacts A contact has been scheduled for an ESA Event, the Children’s Club Camp, in Patras, Greece for Saturday, July 29 at 12:27 UTC. ESA Astronaut Thomas Reiter, DF4TR, will participate in the contact via the telebridge station, WH6PN, in Hawaii. Robinson Elementary School in Anderson, Indiana has an enrollment of 435 students of which 98% are eligible for free lunches. Its diverse student population is made up of 41% white, 31% African American, 7% multiracial, 21 % Hispanic. The school has been scheduled for a contact with the ISS on Wednesday, August 2 at 14:16 UTC. The Central Experimental Farm in Ontario, Canada is a research facility in the City of Ottawa. The ARISS contact with the camp originally planned for July 25 was cancelled due to EVA activities. The contact has been rescheduled for Friday, August 4 at 13:27 UTC. 2. Astronaut Training Status On July 18, Expedition 14 commander Mike Lopez-Alegria participated in an abbreviated ISS Ham training session which focused specifically on the school contact operations including hands on training with the ARISS hardware. On July 20, astronauts Bob Behnken and Nicole Stott were provided with the Basic Ops class that covered ISS Ham operations on the ISS. 3. Repeater Group Provides Shuttle Transmissions The Rib Mountain Repeater Association in Wisconsin picks up shuttle transmissions from NASA using satellite dishes and broadcasts them through transmitters for those space enthusiasts without internet access. The transmissions can then be picked up via police scanners. The Wausau Daily Herald covered this in a July 13 article, “Group airs shuttle transmissions.” See: http://www.wausaudailyherald.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060713/WDH0101/607130608 4. Technical Interchange Meeting Status Plans continue for the ARISS Technical Interchange Meeting to be held the week of August 7 in Houston. An agenda has been compiled and meetings are currently being arranged with JSC personnel. *********************** July 17, 2006 1. Upcoming School Contacts The Central Experimental Farm in Ontario, Canada is a research facility in the City of Ottawa. A public camp is held at the farm for 7-18 year olds during the month of July. An ARISS contact with the camp has been approved and is scheduled for Tuesday, July 25 at 15:59 UTC. A contact has been scheduled for the Children’s Club Camp, an event organized for ESA employees’ children in Patras, Greece for Saturday, July 29 at 12:27 UTC. ESA Astronaut Thomas Reiter, DF4TR, will participate in the contact via the telebridge station, WH6PN, in Hawaii. 2. ARRL Article Covers Hiroshima Contact ARRL ran an article on the Hiroshima, Japan contact entitled, “Hiroshima Children's Museum Visitors Speak with ISS via Ham Radio.” See: http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2006/07/12/1/?nc=1 3. NASA Article on SuitSat-1 NASA ran a follow up story on SuitSat-1. “The Space Suit Heard 'Round the World” may be found at: http://www.nasa.gov/audience/foreducators/k-4/features/F_Space_Suit_Round_the_World.html 4. Barrios Technology Highlights Snoopy Award Recipient Barrios Technology ran a feature story on ARISS member Kenneth Ransom’s recent Silver Snoopy award presentation. Kenneth received the award for his Expedition 12 work with the ISS Ham program. To view the article, see: http://www.barrios.com/NewsItem1.cfm?News_ID=88 5. ARRL Covers Thomas Reiter, DF4TR ARRL ran a web story on Expedition 13 crew member Thomas Reiter, DF4TR. The article, “New ISS crew member settling in, school QSOs being lined up” may be viewed on: http://www.arrl.org/?artid=6590 *********************** July 10, 2006 1. Hiroshima Contact Successful On July 4, fifteen children, gathered at the Hiroshima Children’s Museum in Hiroshima, Japan, spoke with Jeff Williams, KD5TVQ. The youth asked one question each of the astronaut in front of an audience of approximately 200. A newspaper provided coverage of the event. 2. Upcoming School Contact Due to the arrival of STS-121 and related EVA activities, no radio contacts have been scheduled for the coming week. Scheduling of new contacts will continue as soon as possible. 3. ARRL Posts Story on Kuwait Contact ARRL ran an article on the ARISS-Kuwait contact entitled, “Spacewalk is ‘Ultimate Experience,’ Astronaut Tells Kuwaiti Students.” See: http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2006/07/06/100/?nc=1 4. ARRL Articles Cover Shuttle Ham Astronauts ARRL has been following the July 4 launch and docking of STS-121 which carried three ham astronauts into space. The July 5 story, “Shuttle Discovery Launches to ISS with Three Radio Amateurs Aboard” may be found at: http://www.arrl.org/ “Five Radio Amateurs Now Aboard the Space Station” may be viewed on: http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2006/07/07/100/?nc=1 5. Astronaut Training Status Michael Lopez-Alegria, KE5GTK, Bob Behnken, KE5GGX, and Nicole Stott, KE5GJN, have tentatively been scheduled for ISS Ham training sessions. Lopez-Alegria is scheduled for a class on July 18, and Behnken and Stott will receive their instruction on July 20. Training will cover basic radio operations and school contacts. *********************** July 3, 2006 1. ARISS-Kuwait Contact Successful The first ARISS contact with children in Kuwait took place on Wednesday, June 28. Eleven students at the Kuwait Scientific Center in Salmiyah spoke to Jeff Williams, KD5TVQ, via the telebridge station WH6PN in Hawaii. Twenty-two questions were asked as an audience of approximately forty people gathered to witness the contact. The event received extensive media coverage which included the following: Al-Hadaf, Al-Yaqaza and Al-Nahdha (Weekly Arabic magazines), The Daily Star (Daily Arabic Magazine), Al-Qabas and Al-Rai Al-Am (Local daily newspapers), Arab Times and Kuwait Times (local daily English newspapers), Layalina (Arabic bi-monthly magazine), Kuwait National Television for an evening program, Kuwait National TV Children’s Program, KUNA (Kuwait News Agency) and Kuwait Science Club Media. To view KUNA’s news coverage on the event, see: http://www.kuna.net.kw/home/Story.aspx?Language=en&DSNO=881386 English version no pictures. http://www.kuna.net.kw/home/Story.aspx?Language=ar&DSNO=881359 Arabic version with pictures. The audio from this contact was fed into the EchoLink AMSAT (101 377) and JK1ZRW (277 208) servers and received 15 connections, of which 2 were repeaters, from 7 countries. IRLP Discovery Reflector 9010 had 3 connections from Canada. The audio was also webcast by Verizon Conferencing and through the Scientific Center Kuwait. 2. Upcoming School Contact The Hiroshima Children’s Museum in Hiroshima, Japan has been approved for a radio contact with astronaut Jeff Williams, KD5TVQ. The event is planned for Tuesday, July 4 at 11:54 UTC. 3. ARRL Article on ARISS ESC Camp Contact The ARRL article, “European Space Campers Quiz Astronaut on Space Life, Research,” covers the recent Belgium contact and may be found at: http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2006/06/27/1/?nc=1 4. ARISS International Team Meeting Held The monthly ARISS International Team meeting was held on June 27. Topics of discussion included the ARISS International face to face meeting to be held in San Francisco in October, school contacts with ESA astronaut Thomas Reiter, DF4TR, and the work toward an amateur radio license for Japanese space visitor, Dice-K Enomoto, scheduled to fly this fall. Minutes will be posted to the ARISS website in the near future. 5. Educator Astronaut Participates in Kids Day On June 30, ARRL ran a story on Dottie Metcalf-Lindenburger, KE5DAT, who participated in Kids Day on June 17. Kids Day is an ARRL activity which is held to pique children’s interest in amateur radio. “Educator astronaut gets on the air for Kids Day” may be found at: http://www.arrl.org/ 6. AMSAT and ARISS-International Meetings, October 2006 The AMSAT-NA Annual Meeting and Space Symposium and the ARISS International Meeting will be held October 5 – 10, 2006 in San Francisco. Online registration in now available. See: http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/symposium/ *********************** June 26, 2006 1. Upcoming School Contact The Kuwait Scientific Center in Salmiyah, Kuwait will be closed on June 29 due to elections. The contact originally scheduled for the 29th has been rescheduled and will now take place via the telebridge station WH6PN in Hawaii on Wednesday June 28 at 11:26 UTC. The audio from this contact will be fed into the EchoLink AMSAT (101 377) and JK1ZRW (277 208) servers, and into the IRLP Discovery Reflector 9010. It will also be available on the Discovery Reflector’s companion web site, http://www.discoveryreflector.ca:8000/listen.pls In addition, the audio will be webcast courtesy of Verizon Conferencing. To join the event: URL: https://e-meetings.mci.com CONFERENCE NUMBER: 9052080 PASSCODE: SPACE STATIO The Scientific Center is dedicated to the advancement of the sciences and cultural heritage of Kuwait. It promotes public awareness, knowledge of and commitment to the care and conservation of the wildlife and ecosystems of the Arabian Gulf region, serving as a center of excellence for environmental education of the region. The Scientific Center Kuwait plans to webcast the event on http://www.tsck.org.kw 2. ARRL Article Covers School Contacts An article was run on the ARRL website which covers the Salt Brook Elementary and Scarlett Middle School contacts. “New Jersey, Michigan Kids Get a Turn at Ham Radio ‘Microphone to Space’" may be found at: http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2006/06/20/1/?nc=1 3. Field Day On Thursday, June 22, Jeff Williams, KD5TVQ, placed the Kenwood radio in crossband repeater mode in preparation for Field Day held over the June 24-25 weekend. He also made some contacts with stations over Europe. Many operators took advantage of the ISS crossband repeater, and earned bonus points for a satellite contact. The radio will be turned off on Monday for the Progress 22P docking. 4. ARRL Article on STS-121 Hams On June 19, ARRL ran a short story entitled, “Three radio amateurs aboard Discovery for July 1 launch,” which covers the ham astronauts flying on the next shuttle mission. See: http://www.arrl.org/ 5. Technical Interchange Meeting A Technical Interchange Meeting is being planned for the week of August 7. It will be held in Houston and the agenda, which is currently being compiled, will include such items as SuitSat-2, the Yaesu FT-100 radio and the Exploration Initiative. 6. McArthur Needs Confirmation Cards Bill McArthur, KC5ACR, made over 1800 general contacts from over 130 DXCC entities while onboard the ISS. He is now looking for confirmation (QSL cards) of those contacts. On June 22, ARRL ran a story, “Astronaut still needs QSLs for DXCC from space.” See: http://www.arrl.org/ *********************** June 19, 2006 1. ESC Camp Contact Successful On Tuesday, June 13, the Euro Space Center Camp in Transinne, Belgium experienced an ARISS contact via the telebridge station W6SRJ, in Santa Rosa, California. Twenty students were able to ask twenty questions before losing contact with the ISS. Approximately 60 children from Gillingham School located in Dorset, U.K. were present and another fifty from France, visiting the center for the day, also witnessed the contact. Afterwards, a French teacher interpreted the questions and answers for the French children. Audio and photos of the event may be found on the ARISS-Europe website. See: http://www.ariss-eu.org/2006_06_15.htm The ESC Camp audio, fed through Echolink AMSAT (101 377) and JK1ZRW (277 208) servers, had 24 connections, of which 3 were repeater nodes, from 9 countries. The audio was also fed through the IRLP Discovery Reflector 9010 with four connections made from the USA and Canada. One of the connections, in Saint John, New Brunswick, enabled students from a Grade 5 class at Quispamsis Elementary School, and representatives from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) Radio and Television services to listen in. After the contact, an ARISS member conducted a half-hour question and answer session with the students. Among the questions asked were 6 which focused on ARISS activities. 2. Upcoming School Contact The Kuwait Scientific Center in Salmiyah, Kuwait has been approved for a contact with the ISS via the telebridge station VK5ZAI in Australia. It is planned for Thursday June 29 at 18:10 UTC. The audio from this contact will be fed into the EchoLink AMSAT (101 377) and JK1ZRW (277 208) servers, and into the IRLP Discovery Reflector 9010. It will also be available on the Discovery Reflector’s companion web site, www.discoveryreflector.ca:8000/listen.pls The Scientific Center is dedicated to the advancement of the sciences and cultural heritage of Kuwait. It promotes public awareness, knowledge of and commitment to the care and conservation of the wildlife and ecosystems of the Arabian Gulf region, serving as a center of excellence for environmental education of the region. The Scientific Center Kuwait plans to webcast the event on: http://www.tsck.org.kw 3. Field Day Status The Kenwood radio system will be placed in crossband repeater mode beginning on Thursday, June 22 at 19:00 UTC and remain active throughout the Field Day weekend. ARRL ran a web story on Field Day events entitled, “Field Day 2006: NASA Releases ISS North and South America Pass Times.” See: http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2006/06/15/1/?nc=1 Information may also be found on the AMSAT website. See: http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/index.php 4. Astronaut Training Status Kenneth Ransom of JSC provided a refresher course for ESA astronaut Thomas Reiter, DF4TR, on Tuesday, June 13. School contact operations on the Ericsson radio were covered and a review of the Kenwood basic operations was given. Reiter is expected to fly on STS-121 in July and remain on the ISS to work with the station crew. *********************** June 12, 2006 1. New Jersey Contact Successful Originally scheduled for May 31, the ARISS contact with Salt Brook Elementary School, an ARRL Big Project school in New Providence, New Jersey, was rescheduled due to technical difficulties. The contact successfully took place on June 5. Ten students asked twelve questions of astronaut Jeff Williams, KD5TVQ, as approximately 600 students, teachers and parents witnessed the event. The New Providence Amateur Radio Club (NPARC) assisted with the radio contact. 2. NASA Explorer School Contact Successful Scarlett Middle School experienced an ARISS contact on June 6. Scarlett, a NASA Explorer School in Ann Arbor, Michigan, is attended by approximately 600 students in grades 6 - 8. Fifteen percent of the school population speaks English as a Second Language, 60% are minority and 30% percent receive free or reduced lunches, qualifying it as a Title 1 school. During the contact, thirteen students asked one question each of Jeff Williams, KD5TVQ. Students, teachers, parents, school administrators and representatives from the Ann Arbor Board of Education and Congressman John Dingell’s office attended the event, as did NASA Aerospace Education Specialist Jim Fitzgerald. Media coverage included the Ann Arbor News, whose article may be found on the web. See: http://www.mlive.com/news/aanews/index.ssf?/base/news-18/11496912607210.xml&coll=2&thispage=1 3. Upcoming School Contact The European Space Center Camp in Transinne, Belgium has been approved for a contact with the ISS on Tuesday, June 13 at 13:39 UTC. This will be a telebridge contact via the station, W6SRJ, in Santa Rosa, California. Approximately 100 children, ages 8 – 18, from several European countries, attend the camp for 5 days each week. The audio will be fed through Echolink AMSAT (101 377) and JK1ZRW (277 208) servers, through the IRLP Discovery Reflector 9010 and on the website, www.discoveryreflector.ca:8000/listen.pls Audio will also be available on the internet courtesy of Verizon Conferencing. To join the event: URL: https://e-meetings.mci.com CONFERENCE NUMBER: 8836429 PASSCODE: SPACE STATIO 4. ARRL Article on Field Day 2006 ARRL ran a web story on the upcoming Field Day events entitled, “Field Day 2006: ISS Ham Radio Station in Repeater Mode.” See: http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2006/06/07/1/?nc=1 5. School Selection Committee Meeting Held The ARISS Educational Outreach/School Selection Committee Meeting was held on Thursday, June 8. A new volunteer, Rita Wright, KC9CDL, has joined ARISS. She was the first teacher to have a contact with the ISS and will be reviewing and helping teachers select lesson plans for the classroom. This and other topics of discussion may be found in the meeting minutes, which have been posted to the ARISS website. See: http://www.rac.ca/ariss/arissschm.htm 6. ARISS Member Receives Silver Snoopy Award On Thursday, June 8, Bill McArthur, KC5ACR, presented ISS Ham Project Engineer Kenneth Ransom, N5VHO, with a Silver Snoopy award for his hard work and dedication to the ARISS program during Expedition 12. The pin flew on McArthur’s first mission, STS-58, Columbia, in 1993. Congratulations Kenneth! *********************** June 5, 2006 1. Salt Brook Elementary School Contact - Rescheduled Salt Brook Elementary School in New Providence, New Jersey was scheduled for an ARISS contact on Wednesday, May 31. The school experienced technical difficulties and the contact did not take place. It has been rescheduled for Monday, June 5 at 13:53 UTC. 2. Upcoming School Contact Scarlett Middle School, a NASA Explorer School in Ann Arbor, Michigan, has been scheduled for a contact on Tuesday, June 6 at 12:39 UTC. The event will be publicized electronically. Media coverage may include the Ann Arbor News and local radio stations: WUOM, WEMU, and WAAM. Arrow Communications, the local amateur radio club, will coordinate and promote the event with the local newspaper and area television stations. 3. ARRL Article on Virgilio Contact ARRL ran a web story about the Virgilio Primary School contact in Mestre, Italy. To view “Italian Primary Schoolers Get Front Row Seat to Space,” go to: http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2006/05/31/100/?nc=1 4. ARRL Covers Award Ceremony ARRL ran an article covering the award ceremony held at Space Center Houston where Bill McArthur, KC5ACR, received his Worked All States award. “ISS Astronaut Honored for Working all States, Inspiring Others from Space” may be found at: http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2006/06/01/103/?nc=1 5. ARISS Receives Group Achievement Award In a ceremony held at Johnson Space Center, the Amateur Radio on the International Space Station team was presented with a JSC Group Achievement Award for the support provided during the Expedition 12 mission, which resulted in a record number of ARISS contacts performed. ISS Ham Payload Integration Manager, Kenneth Ransom, N5VHO, accepted the award on behalf of the team. 6. Expedition 13 Invited to Participate in Field Day 2006 Expedition 13 crew members have been invited to participate in ARRL’s Field Day 2006 to be held over the June 24-25 weekend. Passes over the U.S. may not be ideal for contacting the ISS, but it has been suggested to place the radio in crossband repeat mode and make it available for the QRP (low-power operating) community as defined by AMSAT guidelines. 7. NASA Features ARISS Contacts NASA ran a story covering Bill McArthur’s numerous ARISS contacts during Expedition 12, the support he received from the ARISS team and especially from ISS Ham Project Engineer Kenneth Ransom, N5VHO. The article, entitled, “Hamming It Up: Space to Kids Radio,” may be found at: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/expeditions/expedition12/exp12_ham_radio.html *********************** May 29, 2006 1. Virgilio Primary School Contact Successful On Monday, May 22, fifteen students at the Virgilio Primary School in Mestre, Venice, Italy spoke with astronaut Jeff Williams, KD5TVQ. Fifteen questions were asked and answered as approximately 250 students and teachers looked on. Several media outlets covered the event, including television stations RAI 3 Veneto, Antenna 3, Televenezia, and Canale 5, and Il Gazzettino and La Nuova Mestre/Venezia newspapers. 2. Upcoming School Contacts Salt Brook Elementary School in New Providence, New Jersey has been scheduled for an ARISS contact on Wednesday, May 31, at 15:07 UTC. Students will design posters, ID badges, and tee shirts in preparation for the contact and will design a web page to include space experiments, ham radio communications, ISS tracking and space links. Local high school students, who have obtained Amateur Radio licenses, will be trained to act as mentors for the elementary school students, and to be Control Operators during the contact. Coverage of classroom activities by the local media is planned. Scarlett Middle School, a NASA Explorer School, in Ann Arbor, Michigan has been scheduled for a contact on Tuesday, June 6 at 12:39 UTC. The event will be publicized electronically. Media coverage may include the Ann Arbor News and local radio stations: WUOM, WEMU and WAAM. Arrow Communications, the local Amateur Radio club, will coordinate and promote the event with the local newspaper and area television stations. 3. ARRL Article on SuitSat ARRL ran a web story covering SuitSat and the publicity which it continues to receive. “SuitSat-1: Round and Round It Goes, When It'll Drop, Nobody Knows” may be viewed at: http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2006/05/24/5/?nc=1 4. Crew Debrief Held On May 24, the ARISS-U.S. team participated in a crew debrief with Bill McArthur, KC5ACR. Bill’s overall impression of the ARISS program was positive. 5. ARISS Delegates Give Talks at Hamvention ARISS Delegates Frank Bauer and Rosalie White participated in a joint presentation entitled, “ARISS and SuitSat: Current Status and Future Opportunities," at the Dayton Hamvention 2006 AMSAT Forum. Rosalie also gave two talks, “10 Million Hits Tracking an Empty Russian Space Suit” at the ARRL Expo 2006 in Dayton on May 19 and 20. 6. SuitSat Man - a Big Hit at the Dayton Hamvention! Dressed in a spacesuit labeled “SuitSat-2”, Russell Hummel, WB4PGT, a member of the Medical Informatics and Technology Applications Consortium (MITAC), a NASA partnership, made an appearance at the Dayton Hamvention 2006. His attire was well received by hams as they await the re-entry of SuitSat-1 into the earth’s atmosphere, and created enthusiasm as the amateur radio community looks forward to SuitSat-2 development planning and potential launch in 2007. A photo can be seen on the ARRL blog: http://www.arrl.org/blog/Dayton%202006 7. McArthur Receives Worked All States Award Several ARISS members attended Space Center Houston on Thursday, May 25 to hear Bill McArthur, KC5ACR, speak about his time aboard the ISS. ARISS Chairman and AMSAT V.P. for Human Spaceflight Programs, Frank Bauer, KA3HDO, took the opportunity to present a plaque to Bill for his honorary Worked All States award, having contacted amateur radio stations from all 50 states during his Expedition 12 mission. *********************** May 22, 2006 1. Upcoming School Contacts Virgilio Primary School in Mestre, Venice, Italy was approved for a contact on Monday, May 22 at 13:28 UTC. This event will be integrated into the school’s geography and science curriculum, using poster drawing and letter writing in the lesson plans. Media invited to cover the event includes RAI national television, TG3 Regional, Televenezia and the Gazzettino and La Nuova Venezia newspapers. Salt Brook Elementary School in New Providence, New Jersey has been scheduled for an ARISS contact on Wednesday, May 31, at 15:07 UTC. Students will design posters, ID badges, and tee shirts in preparation for the contact and will also design a web page to include space experiments, ham radio communications, ISS tracking and space links. Local high school students, who have obtained Amateur Radio licenses, will be trained to act as mentors for the elementary school students, and to be Control Operators during the contact. Coverage of classroom activities by the local media is planned. 2. ARRL Article on Yoneda-nishi Contact ARRL’s article, “ISS Astronaut Fields Questions from Elementary Schoolers in Japan” covers the ARISS Yoneda-nishi contact on May 11. To view the story, see: http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2006/05/17/3/?nc=1 3. Crew Debrief Scheduled for May 24 ISS Ham questions have been compiled and submitted for the debrief session with Bill McArthur, KC5ACR. The date is tentatively set for May 24. 4. AMSAT-DL Receives Voyager 1 Signal On March 31, Amateur Radio operators from AMSAT Germany tracked and received data from Voyager 1 using the 20m antenna at Bochum at a distance of 14.7 billion km. Its data was checked and verified against data from the Deep Space Network station. See: http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2006/04/25/2/ and http://www.amsatdl.org/cms/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=62&Itemid=97 5. Dayton Hamvention 2006 The Dayton Hamvention, 2006 was held this past weekend, Friday, May 19 through Sunday, May 21 in Dayton, Ohio. ARISS Chairman Frank Bauer gave a presentation at the AMSAT Forum entitled, “ARISS and SuitSat: Current Status and Future Opportunities." To view the presentation, go to: http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/Presentations/Dayton%202006.pdf ARISS member Lou McFadin, W5DID, also gave a talk on SuitSat-1 and 2 at the AMSAT banquet on Friday evening. Approximately 25,000 amateur radio operators attended the Hamvention. 6. Popular Science Article on SuitSat A 2-page photo of SuitSat appears in the June issue of Popular Science. A short write up, "Tossed in Space," accompanies the photograph. 7. AMSAT Runs SuitSat “Chicken Little” Contest AMSAT is holding a "Chicken Little" contest to see who can guess when SuitSat-1 will re-enter the earth’s atmosphere. There are three entry categories: K-8, 9-12 and adult. Certificates will be provided to the winners of each group. To enter the contest, go to: http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/ariss/suitsatContest.php *********************** May 15, 2006 1. Yoneda-nishi Elementary School Contact Successful On Thursday, May 11, students from Yoneda-nishi Elementary School in Takasago, Hyogo prefecture, Japan spoke with astronaut Jeff Williams, KD5TVQ. Thirteen students were able to ask 19 questions before the ISS went over the horizon. Over two hundred students and parents witnessed the event. The Earth to space contact was covered by one television station and a newspaper. 2. Upcoming School Contact Virgilio Primary School in Mestre, Venice, Italy was approved for a contact on Monday, May 22 at 13:28 UTC. This event will be integrated into the school’s geography and science curriculum, using poster drawing and letter writing in the lesson plans. Media invited to cover the event includes RAI national television, TG3 Regional, Televenezia and the Gazzettino and La Nuova Venezia newspapers. 3. ARISS Annual Report 2005 on AMSAT Website The ARISS Annual Report 2005 is now available on the AMSAT website. See: http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/Papers/Annual%20Reports/ 4. ARRL Article Covers Space Day Event On May 9, ARRL ran a web story on Udvar-Hazy’s Space Day activities. “AMSAT and ARISS staff museum Space Day 2006 exhibit” may be found at: http://www.arrl.org/ 5. ARRL Article on Canadian Contact The Jaanimmarik School in Canada experienced a successful contact with the ISS on May 4. ARRL’s story, “Inuit Students Join the Space Program via Ham Radio,” covers the event. See: http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2006/05/10/2/?nc=1 6. Crew Debrief Status ISS Ham questions have been compiled and submitted for the debrief session with Bill McArthur, KC5ACR. The date is tentatively set for May 24. 7. Student Ham Meets Astronauts Pearl Mahar, KD7TAS, of Peoria, Arizona, was given the opportunity to meet astronauts Andrew Thomas, KD5CHF, Charles Camarda, KC5ZSY, and James Kelly, KC5ZSW at the area's Challenger Center. She was part of a team of five students who designed a space station in the Honeywell Fiesta Bowl Aerospace Challenge. This story may be found in ARRL’s June issue of QST. *********************** May 8, 2006 1. Bob Jones High School Contact Successful On Monday, May 1, Jeff Williams, KD5TVQ, participated in his first ARISS contact with students from Bob Jones High School in Madison Alabama. Seventeen questions were asked by 13 students via the telebridge station VK5ZAI in Australia. Among the 100 students and teachers attending the event was Jeff Williams’ brother. Media coverage included the Huntsville Times and the Madison County Record. The audio from this contact was webcast by Verizon Conferencing and was fed into the EchoLink AMSAT (node 101 377) and JK1ZRW (node 277 208) conference servers. Eighteen connections, including three repeaters, were made from 7 countries. Nine connections were also made on the IRLP Discovery reflector 9010 from 3 countries: UK, USA, and Canada. ARRL’s article, “ROTC Cadets at Alabama School Query ISS Astronaut,” covered the news and may be found at: http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2006/05/05/1/?nc=1 2. Canadian School Contact, a Success Jaanimmarik School in Kuujjuaq, Quebec, Canada experienced a successful contact with the ISS on Thursday, May 4 via the telebridge station VK5ZAI in Australia. Jeff Williams, KD5TVQ, answered twenty-three questions posed to him by 18 students. The event was well attended by approximately 450 students, teachers and parents. Among the dignitaries present were the president and CEO of Makivik Corporation, Senator C. Watt, local officials, and elders from the community school board from the Montreal and local offices. Media coverage was provided by a local radio station which broadcast the event live, translating the contact in Inuktituk, CBC North, and APTN (Northern Canada TV Network). APTN is producing a presentation for later broadcasting. The City of Ottawa media also reported the event. The audio from this contact was webcast courtesy of Verizon Conferencing and was fed into the EchoLink AMSAT (node 101 377) and JK1ZRW (node 277 208) conference servers. Twenty-three connections were made, of which two were repeaters, from 9 countries, including Bangladesh, Holland and Thailand. It was also available on the IRLP Discovery reflector 9010. 3. Upcoming School Contact Yoneda-nishi Elementary School in Takasago, Hyogo, Japan has been scheduled for an ARISS contact on Thursday, May 11, 2006 at 09:33 UTC. As part of the school’s “Integrated Study” program, this contact will be used to interest the children in science, satellite tracking and Amateur Radio and as a means for learning the English language. The local government newspaper, television station and the local cable station have been invited to cover this event. 4. Space Day Event at the Udvar-Hazy Center On Friday, May 5, ARISS members participated in the Space Day activities at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center. AMSAT and ARISS members provided displays and hands on activities for the many students and scouts who attended. Special guests included astronauts John Glenn and Carl Walz. Approximately 10,000 visitors were expected to attend the event. 5. ARRL Article on Expedition 14 Hams On May 3, ARRL ran a story covering the newly named Expedition 14 crew, all licensed Amateur Radio operators. The article, “Three radio amateurs on next ISS crew,” may be found at: http://www.arrl.org/ 6. Cleveland Heights High School Contact Students at the Cleveland Heights High School participated in an ARISS contact on March 17. Photos of the event are now available. See: http://www.chuh.org/chhs/library/podcasts/Kidpics/index.htm 7. Technical Interchange Meeting Planned An ARISS Technical Interchange Meeting is being planned for the week of July 10 in Houston. Topics of discussion will include ARISS hardware, software, slow scan television, and plans for SuitSat-2. 8. SuitSat-1 Contest AMSAT is planning a "Chicken Little" contest to see who can guess when SuitSat-1 will re-enter the earth’s atmosphere. There will be K-8, 9-12 and adult categories. Certificates will be provided to the winners of each group. More information will be forthcoming. *********************** May 1, 2006 1. Upcoming School Contacts Bob Jones High School in Madison Alabama (Jeff Williams’ crew pick) has been approved for an ARISS contact and scheduled for Monday, May 1 at 18:34 UTC via the telebridge station VK5ZAI in Australia. The audio from this contact will be fed into the EchoLink AMSAT (node 101 377) and JK1ZRW (node 277 208) conference servers. It will also be available on the IRLP Discovery reflector 9010. This event will be webcast. To join the event: URL: https://e-meetings.mci.com CONFERENCE NUMBER: 8178717 PASSCODE: SPACE STATIO Jaanimmarik School in Kuujjuaq, Quebec, Canada has been scheduled for a contact on Thursday, May 4 at 18:08 UTC via the telebridge station VK5ZAI in Australia. The audio from this contact will be fed into the EchoLink AMSAT (node 101 377) and JK1ZRW (node 277 208) conference servers. It will also be available on the IRLP Discovery reflector 9010. This event will be webcast. To join the event: URL: https://e-meetings.mci.com CONFERENCE NUMBER: 8178720 PASSCODE: SPACE STATIO 2. ARISS Members will Participate in Space Day on May 5 ARISS members will participate in the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center Space Day activities on Friday, May 5. An AMSAT exhibition booth will be set up at the event and will include an ARISS display. Representatives will display ISS Ham hardware and will be available to inform students and the general public of the ARISS program. They will also talk about how AMSAT builds small satellites and will display the Cal-Poly Cubesat model and picosats. 3. ARISS School Demonstrates Satellite Communications On Monday, April 24, Larry Phelps, K4OZS, demonstrated satellite communications to two classes of fifth grade students at Romeo Elementary School in Dunnellon, Florida using the AMSAT Oscar (AO-51) satellite repeater. He received calls from many stations to the delight of the students. This demonstration was part of the preparation for an upcoming ARISS contact at the school. Phelps held another demonstration at the school in April 2005 and is a member of the Silver Springs Radio Club which will assist in the upcoming contact. Active in amateur radio, he also recently received a QSL card for a contact with Bill McArthur, KC5ACR. 4. SuitSat Makes the Reader’s Digest 2006 Best List The 2006 “100 Best” of everything as compiled by Reader’s Digest includes the “Best Empty Suit”- SuitSat. In the paper edition, SuitSat is listed as the 25th best. It can also be viewed on the Reader’s Digest web site. To view the write up (38th item from the top), see: http://www.rd.com/content/openContent.do?contentId=26667 5. SuitSat Video On April 18, Kevin Fetter from Brockville, Ontario, Canada videotaped SuitSat as it passed overhead. The video may be found on the Space Weather website, http://spaceweather.com/. Select April 28 under “View Archives” to view the video. ARRL also covered this story on April 28. “SuitSat-1 still in orbit” may be found at: http://www.arrl.org/ 6. Marcos Pontes Pleased with ARISS Contacts Brazilian astronaut Marcos Pontes, PY0AEB, visited Bauru, Sa~o Paulo, Brazil to give a speech and while there, he presented a gift to Fabiano Moser, PY5RX, to commemorate Pontes’ contact with him via amateur radio while he was on board the ISS. He remarked how nice it was to hear many people calling to him on the radio in his native language and because of this, he never felt alone. See: http://www.issfanclub.com/node/4958 7. Commander Active on ARISS Radio ISS Commander Pavel Vinogradov, RV3BS, has been very active on the ISS Ham radio equipment over Russia. He has been heard making daily voice contacts over Siberia and has also made some contacts over European Russia as well. *********************** April 24, 2006 1. Upcoming School Contacts Bob Jones High School in Madison Alabama (Jeff Williams’ crew pick) has been approved for an ARISS contact. It has been scheduled for Monday, May 1 at 18:36 UTC via the telebridge station VK5ZAI in Australia. The audio from this contact will be fed into the EchoLink AMSAT (node 101 377) and JK1ZRW (node 277 208) conference servers. It will also be available on the IRLP Discovery reflector 9010. Jaanimmarik School in Kuujjuaq, Quebec, Canada has been scheduled for a contact on Thursday, May 4 at 18:10 UTC via the telebridge station VK5ZAI in Australia. The audio from this contact will be fed into the EchoLink AMSAT (node 101 377) and JK1ZRW (node 277 208) conference servers. It will also be available on the IRLP Discovery reflector 9010. 2. School Committee Meeting Held The ARISS Educational Outreach/School Selection Committee meeting was held on Thursday, April 13. Among the topics covered were lesson plans status, the Expedition 13 school crew picks and SuitSat QSL (confirmation) cards. The minutes have been posted on the ARISS website. See: http://www.rac.ca/ariss/arissschm.htm 3. 2006 Dayton Hamvention The 2006 Dayton Hamvention will be held on May 19 – 21. AMSAT and ARRL will both set up exhibition booths at the event which is attended by 25,000 ham enthusiasts annually. ARISS Chairman Frank Bauer plans to attend and give a presentation, "ARISS & SuitSat: Current status & future opportunities," on Saturday May 20 at the AMSAT Forum. For more information on the event, see: http://www.hamvention.org/ 4. ARISS International Meeting Held The monthly ARISS International Team Meeting was held by teleconference on April 18. Agenda items discussed included program funding, SuitSat certificates and Slow Scan Television. The minutes have been posted to the ARISS website- http://www.rac.ca/ariss/arisstel26.htm The next ARISS International teleconference will be held on May 23. 5. ARISS Members to Participate in Space Day Events The Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center will celebrate Space Day on May 5. The center plans on a full day of activities with appearances by several astronauts. An AMSAT exhibition booth will be set up at the event which will include an ARISS display. Representatives will be available to inform students and the general public of the ARISS program. 6. Crew Debrief Plans The U.S. team has been compiling questions for the crew debrief with Bill McArthur, KC5ACR. The meeting is expected to take place in late May. 7. Escola Americana do Rio de Janeiro Video Marcos Pontes participated in an ARISS contact with students from the Escola Americana do Rio de Janeiro. Video clips of the event are now available. See: http://www.arissbr.org/globo.mpg http://www.arissbr.org/tve.mpg http://www.arissbr.org/sbt.mpg 8. Jeff Williams Makes General Contacts Astronaut Jeff Williams, KD5TVQ, has already made general radio contacts from on board the ISS. On April 21, ARRL ran an article, “ISS crew member gets early start on ham radio.” See: http://www.arrl.org/ *********************** April 17, 2006 1. Escola Americana do Rio de Janeiro Contact Update On April 5, Brazilian astronaut Marcos Pontes, PY0AEB, participated in an ARISS contact with students from the Escola Americana do Rio de Janeiro. The event was well attended and video and audio links were provided for those gathered outside the contact room. Five television stations, two newspapers and a magazine covered the contact. Portugal also picked up on the news through TV Globo International. A write up can be found on the ARISS-Brazil website: http://www.arissbr.org/misc_pages/marcos/marcos_musal_eng.htm 2. ARRL Story Covers Expedition 12’s Return The ARRL article, “Expedition 12 Crew Plus One Return Safely to Earth,” has been posted on the website. See: http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2006/04/10/100/?nc=1 3. ARRL Article on Nevada, Rio Contacts ARRL ran a story on the Robert McQueen and Escola Americano do Rio de Janeiro school contacts entitled, “McArthur Calls it a Wrap; Brazil's Pontes Completes One QSO.” See: http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2006/04/11/104/?nc=1 4. ARRL Member Attends NSTA Conference An ARRL member attended the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) conference held April 6 – 8. Fifteen thousand teachers attended the event, many of whom picked up an ARRL brochure. Approximately 300 stopped by the ARRL booth and learned more about Amateur Radio and the “Big Project” and ARISS programs. For more information, see the April 11 article, “ARRL staffer demos ‘magic trick’ for science teachers,” at: http://www.arrl.org/ 5. Elementary School Starts Radio Club Boulder Hill Elementary School in Montgomery, Illinois has started an Amateur Radio club thanks to parent and ham volunteers. The students are learning about amateur radio and communication basics. The school is on the waiting list for an ARISS contact. *********************** April 10, 2006 1. Robert McQueen Contact Successful On April 4, Bill McArthur, KC5ACR, spoke with students from the Robert McQueen High School in Reno, Nevada for his 37th and final ARISS contact. He answered twenty questions from 20 students as a group of 30 students, teachers, and parents gathered around the radio. Media coverage included one radio and two television stations. 2. Escola Americana do Rio de Janeiro Contact Successful On April 5, Brazilian astronaut Marcos Pontes, PY0AEB, participated in his first ARISS contact with students from the Escola Americana do Rio de Janeiro in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Students were able to have 17 questions answered. Audio is available on the following website: http://www.space-multimedia.nl.eu.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=191&Itemid=2 3. Escola Camilo Castelo Branco A second contact was scheduled for Marcos Pontes, PY0AEB, with students at Escola Camilo Castelo Branco in Carnaxide, Portugal. Originally planned for Thursday, April 6, and rescheduled for Friday, April 7, the contact did not take place due to Pontes’ heavy work load. 4. Expedition 12 Makes Final Contacts On Saturday morning, April 8, Bill McArthur continued to make several general contacts – even at the very end of his mission. He spoke with stations in the U.S., Cuba, Venezuela and Puerto Rico. McArthur, Tokarev, and Pontes returned to Earth later that day at 7:48 pm ET. McArthur has been the most active astronaut ham ever on board the ISS and the Amateur Radio community is very grateful for his participation in the ARISS and general contacts. 5. ARRL Article on Bradley, Briar Hill School Contacts On April 5, ARRL ran a web story on the Bradley-Bourbonnais and Briar Hill school contacts. To view, “Fixing a Flat, Playing the Didgeridoo: Kids Get Answers from Space via Ham Radio,” see: http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2006/04/05/1/?nc=1 6. ARRL Article on Expedition 13 ARRL posted an article on the handover activities of Expedition 12 and 13 crews. To view, “Bread and Salt: Two-Ham Expedition 13 Crew Arrives Safely on ISS,” go to: http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2006/04/03/1/?nc=1 7. ARRL Confirms All 50 States Worked The ARRL has received QSL cards (postcards confirming contacts) from all 50 states that Bill McArthur worked while on board the ISS. An honorary Worked All States certificate will be awarded to Bill on his return to the U.S. 8. ARISS Chairman Gives Presentation to Packrats On April 1, the Mt. Airy VHF Society, better known as “the Packrats,” one of the oldest Amateur Radio societies in the world, celebrated its 50th anniversary with a dinner that was attended by ARRL President Joel Harrison, the ARRL EVP, the Atlantic division director, and other ARRL dignitaries. A Nobel Laureate (K1JT, VP Packrats) and VP Engineering (immediate past VP Packrats) were also present. ARISS Chairman and AMSAT VP of Human Spaceflight, Frank Bauer, KA3HDO, gave a talk on ARISS and AMSAT. His presentation generated much interest in communicating with the ISS and satellites. 9. Brazilian Hams Thrilled with Pontes’ Contacts Brazilian astronaut Marcos Pontes made a few general contacts while on board the ISS. One contact in particular made headlines. Fabiano Moser, PY5RX, was fortunate to be able to talk with Pontes. His chat with the astronaut made headlines, and he was interviewed by three television stations and at least one radio station, promoting Amateur Radio. The Gazeta do povo article may be found at: http://canais.ondarpc.com.br/noticias/parana/conteudo.phtml?id=551799 To view one of his television interviews, see: http://canais.ondarpc.com.br/tvparanaense/paranatv/noticia.phtml?id=41867&video=1 10. ARRL Story on N4S Special Event Celebrating Shuttle Anniversary On April 6, an ARRL story, “N4S special event to mark silver anniversary of first shuttle launch,” was posted to the website. See: http://www.arrl.org/ *********************** April 3, 2006 1. Cleveland Heights School Contact Update On March 17, students at Cleveland Heights High School in Ohio spoke with Bill McArthur, KC5ACR, on board the International Space Station via amateur radio. Prior to the contact, NASA engineer Glenn Lindamood gave presentations on living and working in space and satellite tracking to 100 students. A video/audio link was set up to join those in the contact room to the rest of the student body gathered in the auditorium. Teacher Al DeGennaro was interviewed by radio station WTAM 1100 AM. Katherine Martin from the NASA Glenn Media Relations Office was present as was the Cleveland Heights Sun newspaper, the high school local paper and members of the board of education. A write up was posted by the Glenn Amateur Radio Club (whose members provided assistance with contact) to their website. See: http://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/Clubs/NA8SA/ariss_chuh.htm 2. Bradley, Illinois High School Contact Successful Bradley-Bourbonnais Community High School spoke with Bill McArthur, KC5ACR, on Tuesday, March 28. Fifteen students were able to ask 20 questions of the astronaut before the ISS went over the horizon. Approximately 300 students, teachers and parents gathered in the auditorium as the rest of the 2000 students watched the contact via video. Teacher Jim Schreiner, K9BIG, acted as control operator and was assisted by numerous members of the Kankakee Area Radio Society (KARS). The school's club callsign K9BHS was used for the contact. The event was simulcast using video streaming and audio streaming, with the video stream receiving nearly 900 hits. This event was broadcast live on the local Comcast cable channel 4. Radio stations WKAN 1320 AM, WVLI 95.1 FM, WGFA 94.1 FM, and the Kankakee Daily Journal and the Chicago Tribune newspapers were also present to cover the contact. The event was filmed and produced by the BBCHS’ Communications class. The video has been posted to their website: http://www.bbchs.k12.il.us/ISS/index.htm 3. Australian School Children Speak to Astronaut On Friday, March 31, students at Briar Hill Primary School in Briar Hill, Victoria, Australia spoke with Bill McArthur, KC5ACR, via the telebridge station VK5ZAI in Australia. Twenty-two students asked one question each. Approximately 100 students, teachers and parents attended the event as did the Banyule City mayor, and state government representatives. Local papers picked up on the news story prior to the event and the coordinating teacher was interviewed by both local and national radio stations. The audio was streamed over the internet courtesy of Verizon Conferencing, and Echolink and IRLP were both used successfully for the contact. Echolink received 10 connections from 5 countries, and three nodes connected to IRLP from Canada and Australia. 4. Thank You Note for Briar Hill Contact The ARISS team received a thank you note from one of the parents whose step son was involved in the Briar Hill contact. She said of her son, “He has wanted to be an astronaut for as long as he's been old enough to know what one is. Any time he wishes on a star or birthday candle he says, ‘I wish I could go to space school.’ This will have just fueled his interest which we are more than happy about!” 5. Upcoming School Contacts Robert McQueen High School in Reno, Nevada has been scheduled for a contact with the ISS on Tuesday, April 4 at 17:35 UTC. Escola Americana do Rio de Janeiro in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil has been approved for a contact with visiting Brazilian astronaut Marcos Pontes, PY0AEB. The contact will occur on Wednesday, April 5 at 16:48 UTC. A second contact has been scheduled for Marcos Pontes, PY0AEB, with students at Escola Camilo Castelo Branco in Carnaxide, Portugal. The event is planned for Thursday, April 6 at 10:45 UTC. 6. ARRL Article on Rutigliano, Calgary Contacts ARRL ran a story on the 1º Circolo Didattico Statale and Sir James Lougheed school contacts. To view, “Students in Italy, Canada, US Explore Space via Ham Radio,” see: http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2006/03/29/2/?nc=1 7. ARRL Articles on Expedition 13 Crew On March 27, 30 and 31, ARRL ran short articles on the Expedition 13 crew, Jeff Williams, KD5TVQ, and Pavel Vinogradov, RV3BS. See: http://www.arrl.org/ 8. School Children from Holland Experience Amateur Radio On March 25, the Octopus School in Holland held an Amateur Radio event for school children. Activities included amateur television, foxhunting (radio hide and seek), electronic circuits, DARES emergency radio and Morse code. The International Space Station was another topic covered and as Bill McArthur was on the air during these events, the teacher had the good fortune to demonstrate over several passes how to make contact with the ISS. The school director was then given 8 radios to distribute to 8 schools so that students would be able to listen to other ARISS contacts in the future. 9. Amateur Radio to be Used for Family Contacts Due to work expected due to the construction of the ISS, the Ku-band antenna may be unusable for 18 – 21 days at a time, causing an interruption in IP phone availability. The timeframe for this work may be as early as January 2007. During this time the crew may use the ISS Ham radio equipment for family contacts. *********************** March 27, 2006 1. Successful Contact with Maryland High School On Friday, March 17, students from Bowie High School in Bowie, Maryland had the chance to speak with Bill McArthur, KC5ACR, on board the International Space Station. Ten students posed twenty questions to the astronaut including two questions asked and answered in Russian. Fifty students, teachers and parents gathered in the library for the contact as other classes listened in. Kathy Kurtz, Regional Assistant Superintendent and AMSAT President Rick Hambly also attended. Media coverage included a local cable television station, CTV-76, the Washington Post, and several local newspapers. Some of the articles follow: “Students at Bowie High communicate with space station” http://www.gazette.net/stories/031706/princou152802_31960.shtml “Space Station calls home to Bowie - High school students communicate with astronaut via amateur radio” http://www.gazette.net/stories/032306/bowinew185511_31939.shtml “A Chat That's Out of This World” http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/22/AR2006032201250.html?referrer=emailarticle “Bowie High students speak to astronauts by ham radio” http://www.bowieblade.com/vault/cgi-bin/bowie/view/2006B/03/23-20.HTM 2. Ohio High School Contact Successful Bill McArthur, KC5ACR, participated in a second contact on March 17 as he spoke with a group of teens at Cleveland Heights High School in Cleveland Heights, Ohio. He answered 22 questions posed to him by 15 students. Echolink was used during the contact and had 30 connections from 10 countries which included Belgium, Germany, Greece, and Hungary. Three nodes connected to IRLP Discovery Reflector 9010 and shoutcast audio streaming was available on the website, http://www.discoveryreflector.ca 3. Successful ARISS Contact with Italian School Children On March 21, children from three schools participated in the ARISS contact held at 1°Circolo didattico Giuseppe Settanni in Rutigliano, Italy. Two elementary schools, “1°Circolo didattico Giuseppe Settanni” (500 pupils) and “2°Circolo didattico Aldo Moro” (475 pupils) and one middle school, “Alessandro Manzoni” (615 pupils) participated. Bill McArthur, KC5ACR, answered 17 questions that were relayed to him by amateur radio operator Michele Mallardi, IZ7EVR. Audio and video links were made from the radio shack at the “Giuseppe Settanni” school to the assembly halls of the two other schools where students, teachers, military representatives, civilian authorities and Princess Elettra Marconi, daughter of Guglielmo Marconi, watched. Five television stations (RAI3, Telenorba, Telepuglia, Telebari and Teleregione), one radio station (Canale 103), and 4 newspapers (Gazzetta del Mezzogiorno, La Repubblica, Blu and Fax) covered the event. 4. Canadian School Experiences a Contact with the ISS Students from Sir James Lougheed Elementary School in Calgary, Alberta, Canada experienced a successful ARISS contact on March 21. Twelve children asked 14 questions of astronaut Bill McArthur, KC5ACR, as 400 students and teachers looked on. Dignitaries present included a federal member of Parliament and executives from the school board and other corporations. The video of the event was seen many times on provincial wide distribution and acknowledged by other forms of media. 5. Upcoming School Contacts Bradley-Bourbonnais Community High School in Bradley, Illinois has been scheduled for a contact on Tuesday, March 28 at 18:01 UTC. Video of the contact will be streamed live on http://www.bbchs.k12.il.us/ISS/index.htm The audio will also be streamed on this site: http://w9az-repeater.daca.net:8000/listen.pls Briar Hill Primary School in Briar Hill, Victoria, Australia has been approved for an ARISS contact. It will take place on Friday, March 31 at 08:59 UTC via the telebridge station VK5ZAI in Australia. The audio will be webcast. To join the event: URL: https://e-meetings.mci.com CONFERENCE NUMBER: 7640724 PASSCODE: SPACE STATIO 6. ARRL Covers Lippstadt School Contact On March 16, ARRL ran a web story on the ARISS contact with Evangelisches Gymnasium entitled, “Space QSO Helps Introduce Amateur Radio to German Students.” See: http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2006/03/16/1/?nc=1 7. ARRL Article on Contacts with Bowie, Cleveland Heights Schools ARRL ran an article covering the Bowie High and Cleveland Heights Elementary School contacts. “ISS Commander on a Roll, Completes Another Set of Back-to-Back School QSOs” may be found at: http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2006/03/23/1/?nc=1 8. ARRL Article on Contacting ISS A “how-to” guide for making contacts with the ISS has been posted on the ARRL website. “Making a Voice Contact with the International Space Station” may be found on: http://www.arrl.org/news/features/2006/03/15/1/?nc=1 9. McArthur Wows Tonga An article has been posted online covering McArthur’s general contact with an amateur radio operator in Tonga. To view “Space station astronaut communicates with outer island,” go to: http://www.matangitonga.to/article/tonganews/outerislands/nasa_space_station_tonga150306.shtml 10. SuitSat Continues to Receive Media Coverage ARISS member Lou McFadin was interviewed by Electronic Design Magazine last month and talked about his participation in the SuitSat project. The story, “Latest Amateur-Radio Satellite Is No Empty Suit,” has been posted to this website: http://www.elecdesign.com/Articles/Index.cfm?ArticleID=12096 11. ARRL Runs McArthur’s Thank You Note ARRL posted a thank you note to earth bound hams from Bill McArthur. “ISS Commander Says ‘Thank You!’ to the Amateur Radio Community” may be found on the ARRL website: http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2006/03/22/2/?nc=1 12. Student Inspired by Amateur Radio Contact A student who participated in a SAREX contact with astronaut Ken Cameron in 1994 is now an Air Force Academy graduate. She dreams of becoming an astronaut and attributes much of her interest in flying to her participation in that contact years ago. As a little girl, she was able to ask her question, “How does a fish swim in space?” Today she is a pilot and she continues her flight training in flying fighter jets. *********************** March 13, 2006 1. German School Contact Successful On Wednesday, March 8, Bill McArthur, KC5ACR, spoke with students from the school, Evangelisches Gymnasium Lippstadt in Lippstadt, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany. ARISS lesson plans were incorporated into the school’s curriculum and all students participating in the contact took and passed their amateur radio exams. Twenty-one students asked one question each of the astronaut as 400 students, teachers and parents gathered in the school’s assembly hall to witness the event. Media coverage included the TV channel Westdeutscher Rundfunk WDR, the newspaper "Der Patriot,” and the two radio channels Hellweg-Radio and WDR 1 Live. Der Patriot’s article, “Erfolgreich ins All gefunk,” may be found on this website: http://www.derpatriot.de/index.php?content=lokal_artikel&ID=Pr-214936&RESSORT=LP&PHPSESSID=596fedd8b7b18d324b31ac3183747ec0 2. Upcoming School Contacts Bowie High School in Bowie, Maryland has been approved for a contact. It will take place on Friday, March 17 at 15:10 UTC direct via station KB3KAR. Cleveland Heights High School in Cleveland Heights, Ohio has been scheduled for an ARISS contact. It is planned for Friday, March 17 at 16:44 UTC. 1° Circolo Didattico Statale (G.Settanni), Rutigliano, Italy, has been approved for a contact on Tuesday, March 21 at 13:55 UTC. Sir James Lougheed Elementary School in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, has been approved for a contact with the ISS. It is scheduled for Tuesday, March 21 at 18:19 UTC. 3. ARRL Article Covers Country Day and Hallyburton Contacts ARRL ran a web story on the Cincinnati Country Day and Harry Hallyburton Elementary School contacts. The article, “Ohio, North Carolina Youngsters Help ISS Commander Boost His QSO Record,” may be found at: http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2006/03/10/1/?nc=1 4. McArthur Still on the Air As Increment 12 winds down, McArthur continues to contact stations on the ground. His list of DXCC entities worked continues to grow and currently totals 128 countries. On March 9, ARRL ran a web story on McArthur’s general contacts with stations in Hawaii. “NA1SS QSOs bring smiles in Hawaii” may be found on the website: http://www.arrl.org/ 5. Harry Hallyburton Elementary School Contact Burke County Public Schools posted a short summary of the Harry Hallyburton Elementary School – ARISS contact on its website. “Hallyburton Students talk to the International Space Station!” may be viewed at this location: www.burke.k12.nc.us 6. Astronaut Commends ARISS Member Bill McArthur relayed a compliment to ARISS member Tony Hutchison for a job well done. Tony operates the Australian telebridge station VK5ZAI for the ARISS program. 7. Astronaut Training Status On February 28, astronauts Jim Dutton, Shane Kimbrough, and Tom Marshburn took and passed their amateur radio exams. They have been issued the following callsigns: Thomas H. Marshburn, KE5HOC Robert S. Kimbrough, KE5HOD James P. Dutton Jr., KE5HOE *********************** March 6, 2006 1. Ohio School Contact Successful On Wednesday, March 1, children from Cincinnati Country Day School in Ohio chatted with Bill McArthur, KC5ACR, via the telebridge station VK5ZAI in Australia. Twelve students asked 19 questions. Approximately 180 students, parents and teachers attended the event, and students from Harry Hallyburton Elementary School listened in to prepare for their own contact on March 3. One daily and three weekly newspapers covered the contact. The audio was webcast, courtesy of Verizon Conferencing, and fed through the EchoLink AMSAT (node 101 377) and JK1ZRW (node 277 208) conference room servers. Forty-one connections were made to Echolink from 13 countries, including Korea, Slovenia and Thailand. IRLP Discovery Reflector 9010 had 5 connections from the USA, Canada, and Australia, with at least two schools listening in. The Cincinnati Enquirer ran an article, “Long-distance lesson,” on its website. See: http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060302/NEWS0102/603020352/1077 2. North Carolina School Contact – a Success A successful contact was experienced by the students at Harry Hallyburton Elementary School in Drexel, North Carolina on March 3. The contact was a telebridge via the station VK5ZAI in Australia; the phone line was donated by Verizon Conferencing. Bill McArthur, KC5ACR, answered 19 questions posed to him by 19 third graders as a crowd of students, teachers, parents and the school superintendent looked on. At least one local newspaper covered the event. The audio was fed through the EchoLink AMSAT (node 101 377) and JK1ZRW (node 277 208) conference rooms and fifty-one connections were made. Among the stations from 15 countries listening in were the Czech Republic, Iraq, and Trinidade and Martim Vaz Islands. Seven nodes connected to IRLP from 3 countries. Audio was also available over the internet. The News Herald posted a story, “A Message from A Moon Walker,” on its website. See: http://www.morganton.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=MNH/MGArticle/MNH_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1137834516087 3. Upcoming School Contacts Evangelisches Gymnasium Lippstadt in Lippstadt, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany has been approved for a contact with the ISS. It will take place on Wednesday, March 8 at 14:56 UTC. Bowie High School in Bowie, Maryland has been approved for a contact. It will take place on Friday, March 17 at 15:10 UTC, direct via station KB3KAR. Cleveland Heights High School in Cleveland Heights, Ohio has been scheduled for an ARISS contact. It is planned for Friday, March 17 at 16:44 UTC. 4. ARRL Article on Engineering Day, Itaki Contacts ARRL covered the Engineering Day and Itaki contacts in the web story, “Ham Radio Contact with ISS a Highlight of Discover Engineering Family Day.” See: http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2006/03/01/1/?nc=1 5. Audio of Discover Engineering Family Day Contact Available The National Building Museum has posted audio of the ARISS contact from the Discover Engineering Family Day on its website. See: http://www.nbm.org/Events/transcripts.html Select “International Space Station Teleconference.” 6. Astronaut Training Status On February 28, astronauts Jim Dutton, Shane Kimbrough, and Tom Marshburn took and passed their amateur radio exams. Their callsigns will be issued in the near future. *********************** February 27, 2006 1. Itaki Elementary School Contact Successful Students from Itaki Elementary School Fathers’ Club in Hiroshima, Japan spoke with Bill McArthur, KC5ACR, on Monday, February 20. Thirteen children asked 19 questions of McArthur as an audience of 90 looked on. Media coverage included 2 newspapers and 5 television stations. Audio and video are available on the following web site: http://www.ariss.jp/higashihiroshima.html.en The audio from this contact was available on the EchoLink AMSAT and JK1ZRW conference room servers. Echolink had 16 connections from 6 countries: Japan, UK, USA, Thailand, Russia, and Holland. 2. Upcoming School Contacts Cincinnati Country Day School in Cincinnati, Ohio is slated for a contact with Bill McArthur, KC5ACR, on Wednesday, March 1 at 19:02 UTC. The telebridge station VK5ZAI in Australia will assist with the contact. Audio from this contact will be available on the EchoLink AMSAT (node 101 377) and the JK1ZRW (node 277 208) conference room servers. It will also be webcast. To join the event: URL: https://e-meetings.mci.com CONFERENCE NUMBER: 7043744 PASSCODE: SPACE STATIO Harry Hallyburton Elementary School in Drexel, North Carolina has been scheduled for an ARISS contact on Friday, March 3 at 18:16 UTC via the telebridge station VK5ZAI in Australia. The audio from this contact will be available on the EchoLink AMSAT (node 101 377) and the JK1ZRW (node 277 208) conference rooms. It will also be webcast. To join the event: URL: https://e-meetings.mci.com CONFERENCE NUMBER: 7044035 PASSCODE: SPACE STATIO Evangelisches Gymnasium Lippstadt in Lippstadt, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany has been approved for a contact with the ISS. It will take place on Wednesday, March 8 at 14:56 UTC. 3. Girl Guides Listen to Engineering Day Contact The audio from the Discover Engineering Family Day contact was fed through IRLP to which the Node 2050 Halifax connected. Six Girl Guides, their parents and leaders who were taking part in "Girl Guides on the Air" activities at this club station were treated to this ARISS event. 4. ARRL Article on Pine Ridge, Cosmos Centre Contacts ARRL ran an article on the Pine Ridge NES and Cosmos Centre Charleville contacts entitled, “No Lollies on Space Station, Commander Tells Youngsters in Space QSO.” See: http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2006/02/23/3/?nc=1 5. ARRL Articles on SuitSat ARRL posted two web stories covering SuitSat’s end. To view, “SuitSat-1 Apparently SK; Nothing Heard for Several Days,” see: http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2006/02/22/100/?nc=1 “ARISS Makes It Official: ‘Tremendously Successful’ SuitSat-1 is SK” may be found at: http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2006/02/24/1/?nc=1 6. SuitSat Continues to Receive Media Coverage The ARISS team supplied photos and data to Popular Science, Japanese CQ, and Design Electronic Magazines, as all of these publications plan to run articles on SuitSat-1. ABC News also interviewed ARISS Chairman Frank Bauer and will include a segment on SuitSat in their news broadcast in the near future. 7. Astronaut Training Status A second class in Amateur Radio license training was held on Friday, February 24. Astronauts Jim Dutton, Shane Kimbrough, and Tom Marshburn attended. Astronauts Chris Cassidy, Randy Bresnik and Bobby Satcher will be scheduled for their second session at a later date. 8. ARISS Contact Cards After receiving the new ARISS QSL cards (postcards used to confirm general contacts), ARRL Headquarters’ staff has now fulfilled the backlog of 100 cards. They have currently collected 43 cards toward Bill's Worked All States award. *********************** February 20, 2006 1. Australia Contact Successful On February 17, students at the Cosmos Centre Charleville in Charleville, Australia experienced a successful ARISS contact with Bill McArthur, KC5ACR, via the telebridge station WH6PN in Hawaii. Eight children asked 17 questions of the astronaut as an audience of 50 looked on. The event was covered by Southern Cross TV, the Australian Broadcasting Commission (ABC) which was broadcast nationwide, and the local media. The audio was webcast, courtesy of Verizon Conferencing, and was fed through the EchoLink AMSAT (node 101 377) and JK1ZRW (node 277 208) conference rooms. Twenty-one connections were made to Echolink from the following countries: Australia, Japan, Russia, USA, UK, Netherlands, Slovak Republic, Czech Republic, and Thailand. Five stations from Canada, Australia and Japan made connections to IRLP Discovery Reflector 9010 and the audio was also streamed on www.discoveryreflector.ca 2. Engineering Day Contact Successful On Saturday, February 18, sixteen children attending the Discover Engineering Family Day made contact with the Space Station via the telebridge station, WH6PN, in Hawaii. Bill McArthur, KC5ACR, answered 16 questions. Prior to the event, the ARISS contact was publicized in the Weekend edition of the Washington Post newspaper and was described on many of the local TV broadcast channels. Approximately 7000 people attended the event held in the National Building Museum. The contact audio was webcast and was fed through the Echolink AMSAT (node 101 377) and JK1ZEW (node 277 208) conference rooms and the IRLP Discovery Reflector 9010. Eighteen connections were made to Echolink from the USA, Canada, the UK, Columbia, Japan, and the Czech Republic. In addition to the contact, a team of volunteers from AMSAT supported the ARISS booth the entire day of the Engineering Family Day function. The team provided a hands-on view of the ham radio equipment used on ISS, provided updates on the SuitSat project, and handed out information on ham radio and the ARISS program to children and their parents and guardians. 3. Upcoming School Contact Itaki Elementary School Fathers’ Club in Higashihiroshima, Hiroshima, Japan has been approved for a contact. It will take place on Monday, February 20 at 11:48 UTC. 4. SuitSat Status SuitSat was last heard from on Saturday, February 18 at 03:30 UTC. ARRL ran an article covering the satellite’s suspected demise entitled, “SuitSat-1 Battery Voltage May Be on Downward Slide.” See: http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2006/02/17/5/?nc=1 5. News Article on Pine Ridge Contact Naples News covered the ARISS contact between Bill McArthur and the NASA Explorer Schools - Pine Ridge and Immokalee Middle Schools. The article, “Live from Space,” may be found at: http://www.naplesnews.com/news/2006/feb/13/middle_school_students_chat_astronaut_he_orbits_ov/?local_news 6. ARRL Article on Dale High and DeGolyer Contacts ARRL wrote a web story covering the Dale High School and DeGolyer Elementary School contacts. To view, “Back-to-Back ARISS School Group QSOs Attest to Ambitious Contact Schedule,” see: http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2006/02/16/1/?nc=1 7. ARRL Article on New Astronauts On February 15, ARRL ran a story entitled, “Several new astronauts are Amateur Radio licensees.” See: http://www.arrl.org/ 8. Astronaut Training Session A second Amateur Radio training session has been tentatively scheduled for the remaining 2004 astronaut class. The class is planned for Friday, February 24. Astronauts Randy Bresnik, Jim Dutton, Shane Kimbrough, Tom Marshburn, and Bobby Satcher will attend. Astronaut Chris Cassidy will be scheduled for his second session at a later date. *********************** February 13, 2006 1. SuitSat Status Reports from February 12 indicate that SuitSat is still active. Deployed on February 3, SuitSat has been transmitting greetings and telemetry continuously ever since, although the signal strength is weaker than had been anticipated. The http://www.suitsat.org website has received nearly 8 million hits this month, and some of the audio and SSTV images received by stations around the world have been posted to this website: http://www.aj3u.com/blog/. Stations should continue to listen for SuitSat and are asked to share any telemetry received that might be helpful with this project. SuitSat has excited both students and the general public to the point that some individuals have expressed interest in obtaining amateur radio licenses. It has also sparked an interest in those who already have their amateur radio licenses, and because of this project are either cleaning up their current equipment or upgrading their stations. This project has also resulted in a few new ARISS recruits. ARRL ran a few web stories on SuitSat status. See: “‘SuitSat-1’ is Now AO-54; Reports Persist of Weak Signals” http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2006/02/07/2/?nc=1 and “New York Station Copies Complete ‘SuitSat-1’ Telemetry” http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2006/02/08/5/?nc=1 2. Dale, Oklahoma Contact Successful On Tuesday, February 7, fourteen students from Dale High School in Dale, Oklahoma asked 15 questions of Bill McArthur, KC5ACR, in front of a crowd of 500 students, faculty, and guests. Dale Public Schools have a total enrollment of 700 and all of the students from grades 3 through 12 were present for the contact. Two Oklahoma City television stations, several newspapers, and CQ VHF Magazine covered the event. Coy Day, ARRL West Gulf Division Director, and John Thomason, ARRL Oklahoma Section Manager, were both present. After an 80 minute break, the same students that asked the Dale questions read the DeGolyer questions while listening to the DeGolyer Contact. Channel Oklahoma ran an article, “Students Get Space Age Treat.” See: http://www.channeloklahoma.com/education/6819161/detail.html 3. Dallas School Contact Successful On Tuesday, February 7, Bill McArthur, KC5ACR, answered another 17 questions posed to him by 17 students at E.L. DeGolyer Elementary School in Dallas, Texas. Students, teachers, and parents gathered in the auditorium to watch the event. Jim Haynie, ARRL Past President, and Tom Blackwell, ARRL North Texas Section Manager, also attended. The Dallas Independent School District Video Production Crew produced a documentary of this event which included the Space Day activities that preceded it. DeGolyer is one of ARRL’s Big Project schools, and as such, an amateur radio station was added to the school, sponsored by the ARRL. Students who participated in the contact were licensed Amateur Radio operators. DeGolyer students also participated in AMSAT’s 2002 Annual Meeting held in Fort Worth. The 5th grade students may be seen building S-band antennas for the AO-40 satellite (from cardboard boxes and aluminum foil) on the following website: http://www.pbase.com/tomcat/kids__amsat. Dallas News covered the DeGolyer contact in an article, “Students have a stellar dialogue.” See: http://www.dallasnews.com/s/dws/news/localnews/stories/DN-spacetalk_08met.ART.North.Edition2.73e882d.html 4. Naples, Florida School Contact Successful On February 8, twelve children from two Florida NASA Explorer Schools, Pine Ridge Middle School and Immokalee Middle School, asked 12 questions of Bill McArthur, KC5ACR. An audience of approximately 150 gathered in Pine Ridge’s multipurpose room to witness the contact as it was broadcast to all Pine Ridge Middle school classes via closed circuit TV, and was webcast to the entire school district. Pine Ridge and Immokalee students, NES teachers Sally Johnson, Bob Call, Lori Cadwell and Sharon Lea, forty students and teachers from Naples Lutheran Academy, Collier County Commissioner Frank Halas, Collier County Superintendent of Schools Ray Baker, Collier County School Board member Patricia Carroll, Pine Ridge Middle School Principal George Brenco, Pine Ridge Assistant Principal David Mankiewicz, many district level administrators, and Pine Ridge Middle school parents were present. The radio operator during the event was Taylor Dunfee, K4TKD, a student at Gulf Coast High School. Two television stations, WINK News and FOX News filmed the event. A local radio station interviewed the coordinating teacher, Sharon Lea, and the Naples Daily News also covered the event. 5. Upcoming School Contacts Cosmos Centre Charleville in Charleville, Australia has been approved for an ARISS contact. It is planned for Friday, February 17 at 07:34 UTC via the telebridge station WH6PN in Hawaii. The event will be webcast. To join the event: URL: https://e-meetings.mci.com CONFERENCE NUMBER: 1642340 PASSCODE: SPACE STATIO Discover Engineering Family Day, which will be held at the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C. on Saturday, February 18, has been scheduled for a contact at 16:04 UTC. The telebridge station WH6PN in Hawaii will assist in the contact, which will be webcast. To join the event: URL: https://e-meetings.mci.com CONFERENCE NUMBER: 1642601 PASSCODE: SPACE STATIO 6. ARRL Article on West Point, Timber Creek Contacts ARRL covered the West Point and Timber Creek contacts in an article, “Very Full Schedule Keeps Space Station Crew Hopping, Cadets Told.” See: http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2006/02/10/1/?nc=1 7. McArthur Completes DXCC, Sets new Record Bill McArthur made a few contacts before and after last week’s EVA, and has now exceeded the 100 countries needed for his DXCC award. He adds this to his awards for Worked All States and Worked All Continents on both UHF and VHF, which he completed earlier in this expedition. McArthur participated in three school contacts this week, giving him a total of 24 successful contacts during a single increment. This breaks the previous record of 23 set by Leroy Chiao during Expedition 10. Congratulations Bill! On February 10, ARRL posted a story on McArthur’s accomplishments. See: http://www.arrl.org/ 8. ISS Contact Piques Educators’ Interest ARISS member Kenneth Ransom of JSC attended a Space Explorers conference on Sunday, February 5 and spoke with approximately 12 educators about the SuitSat project. While giving his talk, the teachers followed him outside for an Amateur Radio demonstration using the International Space Station. As the ISS was overhead at that time, Kenneth had the good fortune to speak with astronaut Bill McArthur onboard the Space Station. This impromptu contact generated much interest among his audience in ham radio and its use in the classroom. 9. ARISS School Selection Committee Meeting Held The bimonthly ARISS Educational Outreach/School Selection Committee meeting was held on Thursday, February 9. Among the items discussed were the school contacts, lesson plans, and FCC regulations on third party traffic. The minutes have been posted on the ARISS website. See: http://www.rac.ca/ariss/arissschm.htm *********************** February 6, 2006 1. SuitSat Deployed SuitSat was successfully activated and deployed during the February 3 EVA at 06:03 pm ET. The timing, micro-controller functions and audio have operated as expected; however, the signal from SuitSat is extremely weak. Ground stations with minimal equipment monitoring the satellite have had limited success in hearing the satellite’s transmissions, although some operators have picked up partial messages including the station identification RS0RS, one of the Russian greetings, and some SSTV image information. Stations are encouraged to continue listening to obtain any information and telemetry that might be helpful with this and any future projects of this type. 2. Media Coverage of SuitSat It is clear that SuitSat has captured the imagination of students and the general public worldwide. The number of hits the website http://www.suitsat.org received over the first 5 days of February approached 5 million, having been accessed either directly or from over 2000 referring sites. The international media coverage has been extensive. SuitSat articles have been translated into German, Polish, Italian, French, Japanese, Portuguese and others. ARISS, ARRL and AMSAT members gave interviews to The Houston Chronicle, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the Associated Press, CBS, The Herald Times News, Florida Today, the Washington Post, the Washington Times, National Geographic News, the Discovery Channel and National Public Radio. Reports were given by these and other media including MSNBC, CNN and Aljazeera. NASA television covered the deployment live. Links to some of the on-line articles from the past week follow. Pre-Deployment From Playfuls.com (Targu Mures,Romania) “Used Space Suits, The Latest Trend In Satellites” http://www.playfuls.com/news_0958_Used_Space_Suits_The_Latest_Trend_In_Satellites.html The Discovery Channel “Spacesuit Set To Become Satellite” http://dsc.discovery.com/news/briefs/20060130/suitsat_spa.html NPR Interview with ARISS Chairman, Frank Bauer “Space Suit to Orbit Earth” (Includes audio) http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5183146 A Polish translation of the SuitSat paper resulted in an article published for the general public at AstroNet, the most popular astro-portal in Poland. http://news.astronet.pl/news.cgi?5236 Another article was posted for ham operators at the Polish Amateur Radio Union. http://pzk.org.pl/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=1019&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0 ARRL “Countdown is On for ‘SuitSat-1’ Deployment from ISS” http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2006/02/01/2/?nc=1 CBS News http://www.cbsnews.com/htdocs/space_place/framesource_recent.html CNN “One small step for trash is giant leap for ham-kind” http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/space/02/02/recycled.spacesuit.reut/index.html Post Deployment - SuitSat Activated ARRL “‘SuitSat-1’ Launched from ISS” http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2006/02/03/103/?nc=1 MSNBC “Spacesuit floats off to become a satellite” http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11162380/ Aljazeera http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/AF1CA663-BD6D-4C81-8A9A-0623C50220D9.htm AMSAT http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/index.php Yahoo.com “Spacesuit Still Alive, Giving Weak Signal” http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060205/ap_on_sc/space_station Spaceflight Now “Castaway spacesuit radio experiment still alive” http://www.spaceflightnow.com/station/exp12/060204suitsat.html 3. SuitSat-1 is AMSAT-OSCAR-54 SuitSat-1 has been given an Orbiting Satellites Carrying Amateur Radio (OSCAR) number. It has been denoted AMSAT-OSCAR-54. 4. Florida School Contact Successful On Thursday, February 2, Bill McArthur, KC5ACR, answered 13 questions posed to him by 13 Timber Creek High School students in Orlando, Florida. Sarah Longino, longtime friend of McArthur’s, was the coordinating teacher for the contact. Approximately 100 students, teachers, and parents gathered for the event. John Winn, Commissioner of Education for the state of Florida, was also present. Among the media covering the event were the Orlando Sentinel, CBS affiliate WKMG, Orange County Public Schools Public Relations office, East Orlando Sun, and the Timber Creek newspaper and television station. The Orlando Sentinel article, “Biology students connect with space station,” may be viewed on their website: http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/custom/space/orl-spacestation0306feb03,0,4677459.story?coll=orl-home-headlines Echolink and IRLP were both used for the event. Echolink had 32 connections from the following 9 countries: USA, Japan, Germany, Australia, Korea, Russia, Thailand, Turkey, and the UK. IRLP had 10 connecting nodes from the U.K., U.S.A., Canada, Japan, and Australia. 5. Upcoming School Contacts Dale High School in Dale, Oklahoma has been scheduled for an ARISS contact. It will take place on Tuesday, February 7 at 14:56 UTC. E.L. DeGolyer Elementary School in Dallas, Texas has been approved for a contact with the ISS. It is also planned for Tuesday, February 7 at 16:32 UTC. Children at Pine Ridge Middle School (NES) in Naples, Florida will speak with Bill McArthur on February 8 at 15:24 UTC. The contact will include students from neighboring Immokalee Middle School (NES). Cosmos Centre Charleville in Charleville, Australia has been approved for an ARISS contact. It is planned for Friday, February 17 at 07:34 UTC via the telebridge station WH6PN in Hawaii. The audio from this contact will be available on the EchoLink AMSAT (node 101 377) and the JK1ZEW (node 277 208) conference rooms. It is expected to be fed into the 9010 IRLP Discovery Reflector as well. The event will be webcast. To join the event: URL: https://e-meetings.mci.com CONFERENCE NUMBER: 1642340 PASSCODE: SPACE STATIO The Discover Engineering Family Day event, which will be held at the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C. on Saturday, February 18, has been scheduled for a contact at 16:04 UTC. The telebridge station WH6PN in Hawaii will assist in the contact. The audio will be available on the EchoLink AMSAT (node 101 377) and the JK1ZEW (node 277 208) conference rooms. It is also expected to be fed into the 9010 IRLP Discovery Reflector. The event will be webcast. To join the event: URL: https://e-meetings.mci.com CONFERENCE NUMBER: 1642601 PASSCODE: SPACE STATIO 6. McArthur Continues to Work DXCC Bill McArthur continues to work DXCC entities. As of February 2, it was reported that he had worked 96 of the 100 international entities needed for the DXCC award. 7. ARISS International Meeting Held The monthly ARISS International Team meeting was held on January 24. SuitSat, training of the next taxi flight crew member, Marcos Pontes and the Columbus Module were discussed. Minutes have been posted to the ARISS website. See: http://www.rac.ca/ariss/arisstel23.htm *********************** January 30, 2006 1. New York Contact Successful On Tuesday, January 24, Aquebogue School in Aquebogue, New York experienced a successful contact with the ISS. Bill McArthur, KC5ACR, answered 20 questions asked by ten students. Video was fed to three other local school districts via a local videoconferencing network. The weekly Aquebogue newspaper, News-Review, covered the event. Echolink had 38 connections from 11 countries: Australia, Canada, USA, UK, Japan, Iraq, Italy, Russia, Spain, New Zealand, and Thailand. IRLP received 24 connections from the USA, UK, Canada, and Australia. The audio was also streamed on www.discoveryreflector.ca . 2. West Point Contact Successful Cadets from the Ham Radio Club at the United States Military Academy in West Point had the privilege to speak with Bill McArthur, KC5ACR, on Thursday, January 26. Among the dignitaries attending the event was the Electrical Engineering program director, Colonel Barry Shoop. Professors from other departments who advise some of the cadets who questioned McArthur in a study of lunar habitation requirements also attended. The school has 4000 members, many of whom listened to the contact via local closed circuit (intranet). 3. Upcoming School Contacts Timber Creek High School in Orlando, Florida has been approved for a contact on February 2 at 17:44 UTC. Dale High School in Dale, Oklahoma has been scheduled for an ARISS contact. It will take place on February 7 at 14:56 UTC. E.L. DeGolyer Elementary School in Dallas, Texas has been approved for a contact with the ISS. It is planned for February 7 at 16:32 UTC. Pine Ridge Middle School in Naples, Florida has been scheduled for a contact on February 8 at 15:24 UTC. 4. “Discover Engineering Family Day” Contact “Discover Engineering Family Day” will be held on Saturday, February 18 in the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C. Arrangements are being made for a contact via Amateur Radio with astronaut Bill McArthur for the morning of the 18th (11 am ET). 5. ARRL Article on Georgia, New York Contacts ARRL ran a story covering the Georgia Tech and Aquebogue School contacts. The article, “Onboard Fires, Safe Grounding Question Topics for NA1SS School Contacts,” may be found on its website. See: http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2006/01/27/2/?nc=1 6. SuitSat Scheduled to Deploy this Friday SuitSat will be deployed during a Russian EVA scheduled to take place on Friday, February 3 at approximately 22:20 UTC. Once deployed, those who hear SuitSat transmissions are asked to enter their data on the SuitSat website, www.suitsat.org so that participants around the world can track the satellite. Educational Outreach reports (at schools or informal education sites) as well as Slow Scan TV images can be sent to suitsat@comcast.net. This information will be compiled by the ARISS team. 7. Extensive Media Coverage on Upcoming SuitSat Deployment Interest in SuitSat has been increasing. The SuitSat website, http://www.suitsat.org has received over 105,000 hits this month, coming from over 350 referring sites. Media coverage has been extensive. Links to some of the on line articles follow. New York Times “An Orbiting Spacesuit With Transmitter” http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/28/science/28suit.html?_r=1 Energia website “Science Research on ISS Russian Segment Technical Research RADIOSKAF EXPERIMENT” http://www.energia.ru/english/energia/iss/researches/techn-35.html YubaNet.com “SuitSat: Disembodied Spacesuit set to orbit Earth” http://www.yubanet.com/artman/publish/article_30883.shtml Science@NASA “Using a simple policed scanner or ham radio, you can listen to a disembodied spacesuit circling Earth” http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2006/26jan_suitsat.htm NASA “Expedition 12 Preps for Second Spacewalk” http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/index.html ARRL “ISS Crew Prepares for Space Walk, ‘SuitSat-1’ Launch” http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2006/01/27/4/?nc=1 AMSAT “SuitSat Readies for Operation ” http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/index.php NASA Education “Hearing Voices From Space” http://www.nasa.gov/audience/forstudents/k-4/home/F_Hearing_Voices.html http://www.nasa.gov/audience/forstudents/5-8/features/F_Hearing_Voices.html http://www.nasa.gov/audience/forstudents/9-12/features/F_Hearing_Voices_From_Space.html http://www.nasa.gov/audience/forstudents/postsecondary/features/F_Hearing_Voices_From_Space.html NASA television has reported on SuitSat and will begin coverage of the EVA and SuitSat’s deployment on February 3 at 21:30 UTC. For more information, see: http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.html 8. McArthur Closes in on DXCC Award Bill McArthur continues to work DXCC (100 international contacts) entities. As of January 29, it was reported that he has worked 91 of the 100 entities needed for the DXCC award. ARRL covered McArthur’s accomplishments in an article entitled, “ISS Commander Completes WAS from Space, Gaining On DXCC.” See: http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2006/01/26/2/?nc=1 *********************** January 23, 2006 1. Georgia Tech Contact Successful On January 19, eight students from Georgia Tech in Atlanta, Georgia had the opportunity to speak with alumnus Bill McArthur, KC5ACR. Fifteen questions were asked and answered as at least 100 visitors gathered in the campus theater to listen in. Campus news organizations covered the event, as did the local CBS and FOX affiliates, and campus radio station WREK carried the contact live and streamed audio on its website. Announcements of the event on local nets allowed other radio operators in the area to listen in. Radio coordinator Alexander Carver remarked, “Needless to say we all had a blast. Everyone walked out of the room with a grin from ear to ear. It's not often we get to speak to an alum 200 miles straight up.” 2. Itaki Contact Cancelled The ARISS contact which had been scheduled with Itaki Elementary School in Hiroshima, Japan was cancelled due to EVA activities. The contact will be rescheduled in the near future. 3. Upcoming School Contacts Riverhead Central School District – Aquebogue School in Aquebogue, New York has been scheduled for a contact on Tuesday, January 24 at 18:48 UTC. The Cadet Ham Radio Club at the United States Military Academy in West Point, New York has been approved for a contact. It will take place on Thursday, January 26 at 13:14 UTC. 4. ARRL Article on Peterson, St. Albert School Contacts ARRL ran an article covering the Peterson Elementary School and St Albert the Great School contacts. “ISS Commander Visits Home via Ham Radio, Talks Space Trash with Ohio Kids” may be found at: http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2006/01/19/1/?nc=1 5. McArthur Completes “Worked All States” Bill McArthur, KC5ACR, worked a station in Alaska over the weekend, completing his Worked All States award. He continues to pursue his DXCC award, having worked 68 countries as of January 17, and is looking for more - including those in the Caribbean. 6. SuitSat Receives Media Attention Aviation Week and Space Technology, the premier U.S. Weekly aviation and space magazine read by thousands of engineers and leaders, worldwide, in the aerospace field, is planning to publish an article on SuitSat. ARISS Chairman Frank Bauer provided his SuitSat paper to the publication for background information on the satellite. The article is expected to run in the next week or two. AMSAT SM (Sweden) has posted a SuitSat article on its website with links to sites with other SuitSat information including video, papers, and articles. See: http://www.amsat.se/cgi-bin/main/index.pl The ARRL Journal published a SuitSat article this month which intrigued scouts attending the annual Boy Scouts Radio Merit Badge Day at the Sarnoff Corporation HQ in Princeton, NJ. The Scouts were very excited about the upcoming satellite and many expressed an interest not only in the project, but also in becoming licensed radio amateurs. 7. SuitSat EVA and Website SuitSat will be deployed during a Russian EVA scheduled to take place on Friday, February 3 at approximately 22:20 UTC. Once activated, those who hear SuitSat transmissions are asked to enter their data on the SuitSat website, www.suitsat.org so that participants around the world can track the satellite. Educational Outreach reports (at schools or informal education sites) as well as Slow Scan TV images can be sent to suitsat@comcast.net. This information will be compiled by the ARISS team. 8. Astronaut Training Status On Wednesday, January 11, astronaut Garrett Reismann took and passed his amateur radio license exam. He has been issued the callsign KE5HAE. On January 17, Clay Anderson, KD5PLA, attended a one hour refresher session with Kenneth Ransom at JSC. The session covered school contact procedures, general operating practices, and some hands on time spent practicing with the on board training hardware. 9. ARRL Article on Upcoming AMSAT Meeting On January 18, ARRL ran a story on the AMSAT – ARISS joint meetings to be held in October. To view, “AMSAT Space Symposium set for October,” go to: http://www.arrl.org/ 10. Space Day 2006 AMSAT has again been invited to set up an activity center at the Space Day event to be held at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center on Friday, May 5. The theme this year is "Living and Working on the Moon." AMSAT hosted a station last year which included an ARISS display, and representatives were on hand to distribute ARISS lithographs and answer questions. *********************** January 16, 2006 1. North Carolina School Contact Successful On Monday, January 9, children from Peterson Elementary School in Red Springs, North Carolina spoke to Bill McArthur, KC5ACR via the telebridge station VK5ZAI in Australia. Bill was able to answer 19 questions posed to him by ten students. The audio was fed through the Echolink AMSAT and EDU_NET conference room servers, through IRLP reflector 9010, and streamed on the IRLP website. Forty-six connections were made to Echolink from 25 countries, and six connections were made to IRLP node 9010. A local newspaper, Fayetteville Observer, posted an article on its website which contains a link to the audio of an interview with one of the students. To view “Children get special call from International Space Station,” see: http://www.fayettevillenc.com/article?id=223994 2. Ohio School Contact Successful Students from St. Albert the Great School in North Royalton, Ohio spoke with the ISS on Wednesday, January 11. Seventeen children asked one question each of McArthur as approximately 800 students and teachers looked on. Media coverage included a television station and several newspapers. An article with a link to photos of the event has been posted to the Glenn Amateur Radio Club’s website. “ARISS Activity with St. Albert the Great School” may be found at: http://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/Clubs/NA8SA/ARISS.html 3. Upcoming School Contacts Itaki Elementary School Father’s Club in Higashihiroshima, Hiroshima, Japan, has been approved for a contact on Thursday, January 19 at 07:49 UTC. The audio will be fed into the Echolink AMSAT (node 101 377) and JK1ZRW (node 277 208) conference servers. Georgia Institute of Technology, School of Aerospace Engineering in Atlanta, Georgia (crew pick) has been approved for an ARISS contact on Thursday, January 19 at 15:05 UTC. Riverhead Central School District – Aquebogue School in Aquebogue, New York has been scheduled for a contact on Tuesday, January 24 at 18:48 UTC. The Cadet Ham Radio Club at the United States Military Academy in West Point, New York has been approved for a contact. It will take place on Thursday, January 26 at 13:14 UTC. 4. ARRL Article on ARISS Contacts Carman Park Elementary, the Asia-Pacific Scout Jamboree and the STS Civil Aviation School contacts were covered in an ARRL web story, “US, Thai and Brazilian Youngsters Learn About Life in Space via Ham Radio.” See: http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2006/01/11/2/?nc=1 5. McArthur Completes “Worked All Continents” Bill McArthur, KC5ACR, has already earned his Worked All Continents award on VHF. Over the January 14 - 15 weekend he became the first ISS crew member to complete his Worked All Continents on UHF. He needs two states (Missouri and Alaska) to qualify for the Worked All States award, and has over half the countries needed for his DXCC award. Some recent countries contacted were Algeria, Serbia and Montenegro, Kyrgyzston, Azores, Cuba and Malaysia, W. McArthur has made over 700 contacts to the amazement of the ham radio community. ARRL posted a story, “ISS Commander Attempting to Work All Continents on UHF this Weekend,” on its website. See: http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2006/01/13/5/?nc=1 6. Astronaut Training Status Marcos Pontes attended a training session at JSC and received ARISS school operations instruction. He was also given the opportunity for some hands on experience with the training hardware. While on board the ISS, Pontes will use the callsign PY0AEB. On Wednesday, January 11, astronaut Garrett Reisman took and passed his amateur radio license exam. 7. ARRL Article on Expedition 13 Crew ARRL ran an article on the Expedition 13 crew. “NASA, International Partners Tap Two Hams as Next Space Station Crew” may be viewed on the following website: http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2006/01/12/1/?nc=1 8. Article on Pontes Flight A story covering Marcos Pontes’ upcoming mission has been posted on the ARISS-Brazil website. See: http://www.amrase.org/ariss/misc_pages/marcos/13_exp.htm 9. New ARISS Cards ARRL’s Rosalie White edited a story for ARRL’s website on how to make an ARISS radio contact. She used the story as a platform for announcing the expected arrival very soon of the updated ARISS QSL card. A QSL card is a confirmation post card that hams receive after having made a radio contact with the astronauts or cosmonauts on the ISS. 10. ARISS Report for ARRL BoD ARISS delegate Rosalie White finalized a report covering ARISS on-the-air activities and the ARISS team’s progress on its activities for the second half of 2005. This report is required material for the upcoming meeting, next week, of the ARRL Board of Directors. 11. CBS to Cover SuitSat ARRL’s Media Specialist met with the CBS Story Assignment Manager in Hartford, Connecticut to talk about the SuitSat story. The CBS manager was excited about the story, and is considering talking to the CBS national news managers about taking the story to the national level news. ARRL’s Media Specialist also pitched the SuitSat story to a reporter at Space.com 12. ARRL Lesson Plans in Demand More teachers who are interested in ARISS are asking for ARRL's space-related lesson plans. These lessons are on everyday use of wireless technology in life, on Amateur Radio in space, and on Amateur Radio-related simple electronics. *********************** January 9, 2006 1. Brazilian Contact Successful On Monday, January 2, students from the STS Escola de Aviacao Civil in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil experienced a successful contact with the ISS. Bill McArthur, KC5ACR, answered 17 questions posed to him by seventeen students, as an audience of 60 gathered around the radio. A Rio de Janeiro technical magazine, Antena Eletronica Popular, covered the event. The audio was retransmitted on HF (7080 Mhz) and Echolink. STS is a civil aviation school which offers airplane and helicopter instruction to students, ages 18-25, and gives refresher courses to pilots, ages 25-45. 2. Upcoming School Contacts Peterson Elementary School in Red Springs, North Carolina (a crew pick) has been scheduled for an ARISS contact via the telebridge station, VK5ZAI in Australia. The students will speak with Bill McArthur, KC5ACR, on Monday, January 9, 2006 at 16:39 UTC. The audio will be fed through the Echolink AMSAT and EDU_NET conference room servers. It will be available on IRLP reflector 9010, and on the IRLP website, http://www.discoveryreflector.ca/listen.htm. The audio will also be webcast. To join the event: URL: https://e-meetings.mci.com CONFERENCE NUMBER: 5921054 PASSCODE: SPACE STATIO St. Albert the Great School in North Royalton, Ohio has been scheduled for an ARISS contact on Wednesday, January 11 at 18:11 UTC. Itaki Elementary School Father’s Club in Higashihiroshima, Hiroshima, Japan, has been approved for a contact on Thursday, January 19 at 07:49 UTC. The audio will be fed through the Echolink JK1ZRW conference server. Georgia Institute of Technology, School of Aerospace Engineering in Atlanta, Georgia (crew pick) has been approved for an ARISS contact on Thursday, January 19 at 15:05 UTC. 3. NASA Education Covers Upcoming SuitSat Event SuitSat, a Russian spacesuit containing ham radio equipment with recorded voice messages and a CD of student artwork, is scheduled to be deployed during a Russian EVA on February 2. NASA Education has posted two versions of a SuitSat article entitled, “Hearing Voices from Space,” on its website. (The first version covers grades K-8, and the second, grades 9-12 & postsecondary).The links follow: http://www.nasa.gov/audience/forstudents/k-4/home/F_Hearing_Voices.html http://www.nasa.gov/audience/forstudents/5-8/features/F_Hearing_Voices.html http://www.nasa.gov/audience/forstudents/9-12/features/F_Hearing_Voices_From_Space.html http://www.nasa.gov/audience/foreducators/postsecondary/features/F_Hearing_Voices_From_Space.html 4. McArthur Active on Voice Astronaut Bill McArthur, KC5ACR, continues to be active on voice. Some of the contacts reported this week were with stations in the U.S., Canada, Israel, Saudi Arabia, the Netherlands, and Russia. 5. Astronaut Training Status The Brazilian Space Agency is working with astronaut Marcos Pontes to obtain an amateur radio license and callsign for him, so that he may participate in an ARISS contact during his spring 2006 taxi flight. A training session at JSC has also been scheduled to familiarize Pontes with ARISS school operations. 6. Television Station Broadcasts ARISS Contact On Thursday, January 5, the satellite television station, SAT8, in Rome, Italy broadcast the video of an ARISS-Italian school event. The contact, which was between astronaut Bill McArthur, KC5ACR, and the Istituto Comprensivo F. Negri of Casale Monferrato, occurred in November, 2005. *********************** January 2, 2006 1. Asia-Pacific Scout Jamboree Contact Successful On Saturday, December 31, ten scouts attending the 25th Asia-Pacific Scout Jamboree contacted the ISS, and spoke to Bill McArthur, KC5ACR. The children were able to ask and have answered 14 questions, as an audience of 100 people looked on. Three newspapers, 3 television stations, and one radio station covered the event. The audio was fed to the Echolink Bangkok, AMSAT and EDU_Net conference room servers. Sixty-four connections were made from the following ten countries, which included 33 simplex and 5 repeater nodes: Australia, Canada, France, Germany, India, Japan, Luxembourg, Thailand, U.K., U.S.A. 2. Upcoming School Contacts STS Escola de Aviacao Civil in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil has been scheduled for a contact with the ISS on Monday, January 2 at 15:54 UTC. STS is a civil aviation school which offers airplane and helicopter instruction to students, ages 18-25, and gives refresher courses to pilots, ages 25-45. Peterson Elementary School in Red Springs, North Carolina (a crew pick) has been scheduled for an ARISS contact via the telebridge station, VK5ZAI in Australia. The students will speak with Bill McArthur, KC5ACR, on Monday, January 9, 2006 at 16:39 UTC. St. Albert the Great School in North Royalton, Ohio has been approved for an ARISS contact on Wednesday, January 11 at 18:11 UTC. 3. McArthur Active on Voice Bill McArthur, KC5ACR, was active on voice over the holiday week, and continues to work stations around the world. Stations in Japan and Europe reported having contacts with the astronaut this past week. 4. Russian Special Event The Russian special event, Space Patrol, was held December 25 - 26 to commemorate the first anniversary of the death of cosmonaut Gennady Strekalov, U6MIR. Cosmonauts at Energia and the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center (GCTC) participated, using HF radios. Two contacts were made with the ISS as part of the event. The Kenwood radio was then placed in repeater mode for a few days. Stations reported having made contacts with the cosmonauts on the ground, and heard Valery Tokarev making contacts from the ISS.