Tag Archives: ARISS

Jan 8 2016

Sandringham students speak to Tim Peake GB1SS

Sandringham students talk to Tim Peake on the International Space Station

Sandringham students talk to Tim Peake on the International Space Station

On Friday, January 8, students at Sandringham School, St. Albans had an amateur radio contact with UK astronaut Tim Peake GB1SS who was on board the International Space Station.

Initial radio contact with Tim was made by Year 10 pupil Jessica Leigh M6LPJ who, along with two other students, passed her Foundation exam just before Christmas after training with the Verulam Amateur Radio Club.

The school caters for 1300 students aged 11-19 with 100 teachers including specialist teachers of computing science and three female physics teachers all of whom have a specialist interest in space and astronomy. In addition, the head teacher Alan Gray G4DJX is a very active radio amateur who is extremely supportive of this contact.

ARISS UK (Amateur Radio on the International Space Station) has provided and set up all necessary radio equipment such as low earth orbit satellite tracking antennas and radios, to establish a fully functional, direct radio link with the ISS from the school premises. In the few minutes when the ISS was over the UK, an amateur radio contact was established with Tim, and students were be able to ask him questions about his life and work on board the ISS.

The Sandringham School Space Festival started on January 5 and culminated with the live contact with astronaut Tim Peake on Friday January 8 at 08:47 GMT.  During the week there was a wide range of activities to engage the students in space, including a presentation from Spacecraft Engineer Sian Cleaver, mobile planetariums, an amateur radio buildathon, rocket workshops and talks on Mars and Cosmonauts.

What is Amateur Radio? http://www.essexham.co.uk/what-is-amateur-radio

Find an amateur radio training course near you https://thersgb.org/services/coursefinder/

Jan 7 2016

Students prepare to speak to Tim Peake GB1SS

Sandringham School students preparing for Tim Peake contact - Image Credit Sandringham School

Sandringham School students preparing for Tim Peake contact – Image Credit Sandringham School

Students at Sandringham School, St. Albans have been running through final preparations for their amateur radio contact with UK astronaut Tim Peake GB1SS on board the International Space Station.

The school caters for 1300 students aged 11-19 with 100 teachers including specialist teachers of computing science and three female physics teachers all of whom have a specialist interest in space and astronomy. In addition, the head teacher Alan Gray G4DJX is a very active radio amateur who is extremely supportive of this contact.

ARISS UK (Amateur Radio on the International Space Station) has provided and set up all necessary radio equipment such as low earth orbit satellite tracking antennas and radios, to establish a fully functional, direct radio link with the ISS from the school premises. In a ten-minute window when the ISS will be over the UK, an amateur radio contact will be established with Tim, and students will be able to ask him questions about his life and work on board the ISS.

Sandringham School pupils with Foundation certificates - Credit VARC Greg Beacher M0PPG

Sandringham School pupils with Foundation exam certificates – Credit Verulam Amateur Radio Club

Initial radio contact with Tim is expected to be made by Year 10 pupil Jessica Leigh M6LPJ who, along with two other students, passed her Foundation exam just before Christmas after training with the Verulam Amateur Radio Club.

The Sandringham School Space Festival started on January 5 and culminates with the live contact with astronaut Tim Peake on Friday January 8 at 08:47 GMT. The contact will be Web Streamed – Schedule

During the week there has been a wide range of activities to engage the students in space, including a presentation from Spacecraft Engineer Sian Cleaver, mobile planetariums, an amateur radio buildathon, rocket workshops and talks on Mars and Cosmonauts.

As part of the Space festival some of the young women at Sandringham School built a model of the ISS. Watch Women In Engineering #SANDspace

ARISS contact planned for school in St. Albans
https://amsat-uk.org/2016/01/05/ariss-contact-planned-for-school-in-st-albans/

Students in Amateur Radio Buildathon https://amsat-uk.org/2016/01/06/students-in-ham-radio-buildathon/

Model of ISS build by young women at Sandringham School

Model of ISS build by young women at Sandringham School

The contact will be web streamed from the school, watch live at https://principia.ariss.org/live/

The Chair of the RSGB Youth Committee Mike Jones 2E0MLJ and the RSGB President John Gould G3WKL will be attending the contact. The RSGB video  ‘Amateur Radio: A Hobby for the 21st Century’ will be shown to the students.

You can listen to the Sandringham School contact with Tim Peake on the ISS at 0847 GMT on Friday, January 8, either online or by using a ham radio tuned to 145.800 MHz FM, further information at
https://amsat-uk.org/2016/01/05/iss-school-contact-how-to-get-involved/

Huffington Post report http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2016/01/05/this-schoolgirl-is-going-to-operate-a-radio-station-and-call-tim-peake-from-earth_n_8915462.html

What is Amateur Radio? http://www.essexham.co.uk/what-is-amateur-radio

Find an amateur radio training course near you https://thersgb.org/services/coursefinder/

Sandringham School Students - Image Credit Sandringham School

Sandringham School Students – Image Credit Sandringham School

Nov 12 2015

HamTV on the ISS – Goonhilly update

While at Goonhilly Graham Shirville G3VZV received ISS HamTV on 2395 MHz with a 60cm dish

While at Goonhilly Graham Shirville G3VZV received ISS HamTV on 2395 MHz with a 60cm dish

Noel Matthews G8GTZ of the BATC provides an update on the amateur radio ground station at Goonhilly which will receive video from the ISS during the mission of Tim Peake KG5BVI.

Some of you may remember the presentation Graham Shirville G3VZV, gave at CAT15 subtitled “Tim Peake on a TV near you”.

Some of you may have also noticed a new station on the Tutioune map located at Goonhilly in Cornwall.

HamTV dish antenna at Goonhilly - Credit Frank Heritage M0AEU

HamTV dish antenna at Goonhilly – Credit Frank Heritage M0AEU

This station is using a 3.8 m dish is being loaned to the ARISS project by Satellite Catapult, and will be used to track the ISS and provide real time video during the schools contacts scheduled for early next year. This dish is almost in the shadow of the 29 metre dish built in 1962 to receive the first transatlantic television signals from the Telstar-1 spacecraft.

At the beginning of  November, we (G8GTZ, M0AEU and G3VZV) installed a PC with mini-tutioune software and a DB6NT downconverter to receive the ISS on the dish – It was no surprise that during the tests, we received video for 8.5 minute during one pass and had an MER of 30 dB 🙂

Currently the dish is not tracking the ISS but will be doing so in the near future and will be dedicated to this task for the next 6 months 🙂 In the mean time, the dish is pointing up at 90 degrees (zenith) but the receiver is connected and we received 25 seconds of blank video (visible on the TT monitor page) this morning when the ISS flew over the top of the dish!

There will be a full article on the ARISS Tim Peake project in the next CQ-TV along with pictures of the Goonhilly site.

Whilst we were at Goonhilly last week, Graham could not resist seeing if it was possible to receive the HamTV signal using only a handheld 60cms dish and the Tutioune software – much to the team’s surprise Graham was successful and this was the first reception of the ISS at Goonhilly as the equipment had was yet to be installed on the ground station dish!

Watch CAT15 HamTV on the ISS by Graham Shirville G3VZV

Local and Goonhilly Dishcams with map showing position of ISS at https://principia.ariss.org/dashboard/

Tutioune map
http://www.vivadatv.org/tutioune.php?what=map&sid=26af759a4ad0cf89cb0f0e59c1cd46c2

HamTV https://amsat-uk.org/satellites/hamtv-on-the-iss/

Satellite Catapult https://sa.catapult.org.uk/

British Amateur Television Club (BATC) http://batc.org.uk/
Twitter https://twitter.com/BATCOnline

Nov 3 2015

ISS Astronauts Link-Up with ITU WRC-15 in Geneva

ARISS contact between 4U1WRC and OR4ISS November 3, 2015

ARISS contact between 4U1WRC and OR4ISS November 3, 2015

The ITU World Radiocommunication Conference 2015 (WRC-15) is taking place in Geneva from November 2-27. On Tuesday, November 3 at 1241 UT there was an amateur radio link-up between WRC-15 and two astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS).

The contact took place using the permanent amateur radio station at the ITU. The station’s normal call sign is 4U1ITU but during the conference the special call sign 4U1WRC is being used.

Students from Institut Florimont were able to use the ITU station to talk to astronauts Kjell Lindgren KO5MOS and Kimiya Yui KG5BPH who were using the  amateur radio station in the ISS Columbus module, call sign OR4ISS.

The Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) program established the first permanent amateur radio presence in space 15 years ago. The inaugural ARISS contact took place on December 21, 2000, between a member of the ISS Expedition 1 crew and youngsters at Luther Burbank Elementary School near Chicago. Several pupils and a teacher got to chat using amateur radio with “Space Station Alpha” Commander William “Shep” Shepherd KD5GSL.

Watch ARISS contact with WRC-15 and Institut Florimont

The ARISS program lets students worldwide experience the excitement of talking directly with crew members of the International Space Station, inspiring them to pursue interests in careers in science, technology, engineering and math, and engaging them with radio science technology through amateur radio.

ARISS http://ariss-eu.org/

ARISS Celebrates 1000th Event, 15 Years of Permanent Ham Radio Presence in Space
http://www.arrl.org/news/view/ariss-celebrates-1000th-event-15-years-of-permanent-ham-radio-presence-in-space

RSGB WRC-15 information http://rsgb.org/wrc-15

Oct 31 2015

Radio amateurs to help London children talk to ISS

International Space Station - Image Credit NASA

International Space Station – Image Credit NASA

On Wednesday, November 4 pupils at the Eleanor Palmer Primary School in Camden, London should have the opportunity to speak to an astronaut in space thanks to an Amateur Radio Telebridge link via Australia. The audio will be streamed via the web and Echolink.

ARISS LogoAn International Space Station school contact has been planned with participants at Eleanor Palmer School, London, United Kingdom on Wednesday, November 4. The event is scheduled to begin at approximately 09:51 GMT. It is recommended that you start listening approximately 10 minutes before this time. The duration of the contact is approximately 9 minutes and 30 seconds.

The contact will be a telebridge between astronaut Kjell Lindgren KO5MOS, using the callsign NA1SS from the amateur radio station in the ISS Columbus module, and Martin Diggens VK6MJ in Western Australia. The contact should be audible over portions of Australia and adjacent areas.  Interested participants are invited to listen in on the 145.800 MHz FM downlink.

Audio from this contact will be available via the amateur radio Echolink system on node *AMSAT* (101377) and via the IRLP Node 9010 Discovery Reflector.

Streaming Audio will be able on the web at https://sites.google.com/site/arissaudio/

Audio on Echolink and web stream is generally started around 20 minutes prior to the contact taking place so that you can hear some of the preparation that occurs. IRLP will begin just prior to the ground station call to the
ISS.

Contact times are approximate. If the ISS executes a reboost or other manoeuvre, the AOS (Acquisition Of Signal) time may alter by a few minutes

Eleanor Palmer Primary School, a non-selective community school, is located in central London in the United Kingdom. London is an exciting and dynamic capital city and its schools are the best in the country, attributed to the social and ethnic diversity, excellent local leadership and the quality of teaching.

Eleanor Palmer is a relatively small school of around 220 pupils with single classes of 30 children per year. The youngest pupils are 3 years old and the oldest 11 years old. Due to the central London location it is a highly diverse and inclusive school with staff and children from many different backgrounds.

The pupils achieve highly as judged by national benchmarks. One of the core aims of the school is to inspire in all pupils a love of learning and the desire to continue to learn and they therefore seek to provide a rich and broad curriculum opening minds and creating opportunities. The school hope that their contact with the ISS will inspire pupils to go on to learn more about space through the study of Science, Technology, Engineering and Math.

Participants will ask as many of the following questions as time allows:

1.  What have you seen that is more beautiful than earth?

2.  Who or what inspired you to choose this job?

3.  Does being in space make you feel differently about earth?

4.  What can you learn from the ISS that you cannot learn on earth?

5.  Will normal people who are not astronauts be able to visit space in the ISS one day?

6.  How do you sleep?

7.  Is it quiet up there in the ISS?

8.  When you get back to earth, do you have to re-train your muscles?

9.  Can you call home?

10.  Do you all have to be scientists?

11.  What do you think is the most important things children should know about space?

12.  What time zone do you use?

13.  Do you have plants on the ISS?

14.  What has been your favourite experiment?

15.  How does your brain respond to micro gravity?

16.  How do you wash your clothes?

17.  If you cry in space, with laughter, what happens to your tears?

18.  What do you want to do when you come back to earth?

19.  How do you get enough oxygen?

20.  Is it more scary taking off from earth or returning to earth?

21.  What is your energy source on the ISS?

22.  What does it feel like to be in space?

23.  Is it always dark in space?

Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) lets students worldwide experience the excitement of talking directly with crew members of the International Space Station, inspiring them to pursue interests in careers in science, technology, engineering and math, and engaging them with radio science technology through amateur radio. http://www.ariss-eu.org/

A telebridge contact is where a dedicated ARISS amateur radio ground station, located somewhere in the world, establishes the radio link with the ISS. Voice communications between the students and the astronauts are then patched over regular telephone lines.
http://www.ariss-eu.org/ARISS%20Telebridge%20Guidelines.doc

What is Amateur Radio ? http://www.essexham.co.uk/what-is-amateur-radio

Eleanor Palmer Primary School
http://www.eleanorpalmer.camden.sch.uk/news/countdown-to-iss-link-up/
Twitter @eleanorpalmersc

Oct 30 2015

Tim Peake KG5BVI and the ISS Astro Pi’s

Competition winner Hannah Belshaw with the Astro Pi flight unit. Hannah’s entry logs data from the Astro Pi sensors, and visualises it later using structures in a Minecraft world.

Competition winner Hannah Belshaw with the Astro Pi flight unit.
Hannah’s entry logs data from the Astro Pi sensors, and visualises it later using structures in a Minecraft world.

AMSAT-UK members are leading on the Amateur Radio on the ISS (ARISS) Schools contacts programme for the upcoming Tim Peake Principia mission to the ISS. A number of high profile school contacts are planned to be carried out and this activity is being coordinated with the UK Space Agency as part of the overall Principia Educational Outreach programme.

Two specially augmented Raspberry Pi’s called Astro Pi‘s are planned to fly on an Orbital Sciences’ Cygnus cargo freighter to the ISS in early December. They will be used by UK astronaut Tim Peake KG5BVI during his Principia mission on the Space Station which is expected to commence in mid-December.

The Astro Pi’s are planned to run experimental Python programs written by young people in schools across the country; the results will be returned back to Earth at the end of the mission. ARISS/AMSAT-UK members are actively involved in discussions with the UK Space Agency, ESA, the Raspberry Pi Foundation and others to establish the feasibility of re-purposing one of the Astro Pi units, either within or post Tim Peake’s mission, to provide an alternative video source for the amateur radio HamTV transmitter in the ISS Columbus module. Additional discussions are ongoing with all parties for joint educational activities into the future with the Astro Pi units being networked and potentially enhancing the capability of the amateur radio station on board Columbus.

The main mission of HamTV is to perform contacts between the astronauts on the ISS and school students, not only by voice as now, but also by unidirectional video from the ISS to the ground. ARISS has been working with Goonhilly and hope to provide a video download facility via one of their large dishes for the schools contacts as well as attempting to receive the video at each school as part of the contact.

Principia mission http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Human_Spaceflight/Principia

School Shortlist for Tim Peake Space Station Contact
https://amsat-uk.org/2015/07/14/school-shortlist-tim-peake-iss/

HamTV https://amsat-uk.org/satellites/hamtv-on-the-iss/

Astro Pi http://astro-pi.org/
Twitter https://twitter.com/astro_pi