College congratulated on ISS ham radio link-up

NASA Astronaut Ronald J Garan KF5GPO

NASA Astronaut Ronald J Garan KF5GPO

Lough Erne Amateur Radio Club congratulates South West Regional College on its very successful Amateur Radio link up with the International Space Station.

Particular credits to Mamraz Nagi whose initiative secured this ARISS event, the College technicians, and the students who spoke with the Radio Amateur in the ISS, Ronald J Garan, KF5GPO. Among his replies to the Enniskillen students’ questions, he shared very happy memories of a recent visit to Northern Ireland.

David Taylor operated the ground station K6DUE in Maryland USA linking up to the ISS, and Gaston Bertels ON4WF in Belgium, guided the College ARISS team through checks, rehearsals student questions and wrapped up with remarks that brought massive applause from over a hundred present for the radio amateurs in space and on the ground, and all involved in Northern Ireland’s first ever ARISS event. Continue reading

ARISSat-1 Reception Challenge

ARISSat-1 is scheduled for deployment from the ISS next Wednesday Feb 16 – it has a composite VHF downlink that will easily fit into the FUNcube Dongle receive spectrum. The telemetry is 1 kbit BPSK and can, of course, also be received with a normal SSB 2 metre receiver.

The expected signal levels from ARISSat should be similar to those we expect from FUNcube itself (and also eventually  from UKube) and the team are keen to discover what will be the minimum and best type of antennas for schools to use with a FCD. Therefore user experience with the ARISSat signals will be very valuable in making this determination.

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