24th World Scout Jamboree speaks with astronaut Drew Morgan via ON4ISS

The ARISS contact on Saturday 27 july 2019 at 18:27 UTC (20:27 CEST) 68 deg with OR4ISS and the 24th World Scout Jamboree at the Summit Bechtel Reserve in West Virginia, USA via ARISS telebridge ground station ON4ISS (Aartselaar, Belgium) was successful. Astronaut Drew Morgan, KI5AAA (also assistant Scoutmaster of Troop 452 in Friendswood, Texas) answered 12 questions from participating scouts at the World Scouts Jamboree 2019.

Scouts from the 24th World Scout Jamboree at the Summit Bechtel Reserve in West Virginia

The World Scout Jamboree is above all an educational event that brings together the world’s young people to promote peace and mutual understanding and to develop leadership and life skills.

The Summit Bechtel Reserve (‘the Summit’) is larger than some entire countries and is a training, Scouting, and adventure center for the millions of youth and adults involved in the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) and anyone who loves the outdoors. Amateur radio has been a part of the World Scout Jamboree experience since 1947 in France and in 1957in the United Kingdom.

The 2019 World Scout Jamboree operation at the Summit Bechtel Scout Reserve in West Virginia will use the existing infrastructure including the three VHF/UHF repeaters installed by Icom America, as well as the telephone poles for installing antennas, plus the K2BSA gear stored in West Virginia, including antennas, rotators, cables, and more.

The ARISS contact was realized with the cooperation of Jim Wilson, K5ND as a mentor and the assistance of Druvh Rebba, KC9ZJX and Hariprased Rebba, KD9LLR, John Kludt, K4SQC was moderator in the telebridge link. The club station AMSAT Belgium ON4ISS was operated by Jan Poppeliers, ON7UX with assistance from Stefan Dombrowski ON6TI.

Media source:
All About the 24th World Scout Jamboree
NA1WJ World Jamboree Operations Plan

Scouting Magazine
K2BSA – World Scout Jamboree – Ask an ISS Astronaut a Question

ARISS contact Yellowknife, Canada via ON4ISS

The ARISS contact on Monday 27 mai 2019 at 19:44 UTC (21:44 CEST) 81 deg with OR4ISS and Mildred Hall School , Yellowknife, Canada , via ARISS telebridge ground station ON4ISS (Aartselaar, Belgium) was successful. Astronaut David St-Jacques KG5FYI answered all 16 questions from students.

Mildred Hall, a Junior Kindergarten to Grade 8 School, is located in the heart of downtown Yellowknife with Frame Lake and its beautiful trail almost sitting in its backyard.  It houses 271 students from the ages of 4 to 14 with very diverse backgrounds and cultures. Almost 80% of the students are Indigenous, so it boasts programming that is relevant to hands-on learning, science inquiry, outdoor experiential opportunities and the instruction of English, French and Dogrib. The school’s mentor was Steve VE3TBD.

Media source:

General Assembly 2019

annual general meeting 2019

The members of AMSAT Belgium, non-profit association, are invited to attend the annual general meeting.

The general assembly will take place on Tuesday, June 11, 2019 at 20:00 in the clubhouse of the Radio Club Leuven – Diestsevest 39 at Leuven. (The meeting room is located in the basement)

Agenda:

1. New members and outgoing members.

2. Financial report 2018 and discharge to the treasurer.

3. Approval of the 2019 budget.

Persons who are in order with their membership contribution are entitled to vote. After the closing of the general meeting there is an opportunity to exchange ideas informally.

ARISS contact Ecole des Charmilles, Thyez, France

The ARISS contact on Thursday 11 april 2019 at 12:55 UTC (14:55 CEST) 64 deg with OR4ISS and Ecole des Charmilles, Thyez , via ARISS telebridge ground station ON4ISS (Aartselaar, Belgium) was successful. Astronaut David St-Jacques KG5FYI answered 17 questions from students.


Jeanne Mazille, teacher at the school of Thyez in Haute-Savoie and Patrick Pignot, the Mont Blanc climbing companion
of David Saint Jacques, KG5FYI, help students asking their question.

200 people attended the ARISS contact with enthusiasm, among them 150 children between 6 and 10 years old. Among the guests were City Hall officials and the regional Deputy.

Media source:
ledauphine.com
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dG2pKOKAbRM&feature=share

MarconISSta experiment identified ON4ISS signals

The project leader and initiator of MarconISSta, Martin Buscher DJ1MBB, has requested some support to help categorise the antennas on the ISS.  The ARISS telebridge groundstation ON4ISS reacted immediately and transmitted at different ISS passes the desired signal to the ISS.

SUMMARY OF TEST TRANSMISSION – ON4ISS
TX on 435.550 MHz during the entire pass, LHCP

Tuesday 5 FEB 2019
orbit 115480 max el 80° – AOS 14:29 utc (269° Az) – LOS 14:40 utc (88° Az)
orbit 115483 max el 20° – AOS 19:19 utc (270° Az) – LOS 19:29 utc (143° Az)

Wednesday 6 FEB 2019
orbit 115494 max el 09° – AOS 12:03 utc (182° Az) – LOS 12:12 utc (83° Az)
orbit 115495 max el 38° – AOS 13:38 utc (231° Az) – LOS 13:49 utc (75° Az)
orbit 115496 max el 85° – AOS 15:14 utc (266° Az) – LOS 15:25 utc (83° Az)
orbit 115497 max el 85° – AOS 16:51 utc (280° Az) – LOS 17:02 utc (104° Az)
orbit 115498 max el 38° – AOS 18:28 utc (281° Az) – LOS 18:38 utc (133° Az)
orbit 115499 max el 06° – AOS 20:05 utc (281° Az) – LOS 20:12 utc (133° Az)

Thursday 7 FEB 2019
orbit 115509 max el 05° – AOS 11:13 utc (169° Az) – LOS 11:20 utc (88° Az)
orbit 115510 max el 26° – AOS 12:47 utc (216° Az) – LOS 12:58 utc (74° Az)
orbit 115511 max el 81° – AOS 14:24 utc (252° Az) – LOS 14:34 utc (80° Az)
orbit 115512 max el 83° – AOS 16:00 utc (276° Az) – LOS 16:11 utc (96° Az)

This experiment ended Feb 7th 2019 at midnight (UTC) and only receive signal strength value for 435-438 MHz without decoding data. MarconISSta was deinstalled on Saturday, February 9th 2019, by NASA astronaut Anne McClain.

The project is conducted by a team of researchers and students from Technische Universität Berlin with support of DLR, ESA, ARISS and other partners.

Urgent call to support: https://marconissta.com/2019/02/05/urgent-call-all-power-to-the-iss/

ARISS-Europe News Bulletin > 2500 subscribers

The ‘ARISS-Europe News Bulletin mailing list’ was launched in 2001 with the announcement via email of planned ARISS contacts that are audible in Europe. Gaston Bertels, ON4WF, took at that time the initiative to inform some interested people by email about ARISS activities relevant to Radio Amateurs in Europe.
The success of this initiative obliged Gaston to use a free mailing service ‘Splio’, which automated the management of subscribers and unsubscribers of this service. The free service stopped by applying the European privacy rules ‘GDPR’ by their management on 31 December 2017.
AMSAT-ON developed a tool in early 2018 that will manage and distribute the ARISS-Europe news bulletin. The ‘Spam’ secure sending of mass email like the ARISS-Europe News bulletins requires a complex SMTP server. Currently there are more than 2500 subscribers for that bulletin.
After 17 years, the ARISS-Europe News bulletins are still being prepared by Gaston, ON4WF, and now archived by Francesco De Paolis, IK0WGF, on the ARISS Europe website.

ARISS-Europe News archive: https://www.ariss-eu.org/archive
Subscribe: ARISS Europe news bulletin mailing list

ARISS contact St-Jozef College – NOK Turnhout

The ARISS contact on Tuesday 16 October 2018 at 12:04 UTC (14:04 CEST) 88 deg with OR4ISS and ON4NOK St-Jozef College (Turnhout, Belgium) was successful. Astronaut Alexander Gerst KF5ONO answered 11 questions from students of St-Jozef College in Turnhout, Belgium.

Media source:
VRT: leerlingen-praten-met-astronaut-in-de-ruimte-dankzij-radioverbinding
UBA section NOK: http://on4nok.be
GVA: even-naar-de-ruimte-bellen

ARISS-USA Education Summit, College Park, MD

On October 15 and 16, 2018, the ARISS-USA Education Summit was held at College Park Airport and Museum Conference Center (Maryland, USA). It was an ideal opportunity to enhance STEM Ideas through displays and demos. Dan Barstow, KA1ARD, presented the CASIS Space Station Explorers Program.

Astronaut Paul W. Richards, KC5ZSZ sign his foto for Cosmonaut Sergey Sambourov, RV3DR

During this summit the educational aspect of ARISS contacts was illustrated with examples by SSE participant organizations such as Magnitude i.o, Student Spaceflight Experiments Program, Storytime from Space, ISS Above, Tomatosphere.

During their break the participants of the summit watched live the ARISS contact with OR4ISS (Alexander Gerst, KF5ONO) and between ON4NOK, St-Jozef College in Turnhout (Belgium) at 12:04 UTC on Thu 16 oct 2018.

The summit ended with a tour in NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center and a visit to the ARISS telebridge ground station K6DUE.

Jan, ON7UX operates the ARISS telebridge ground station K6DUE (NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center).

ARRIS contact with Pell Elementary School, RI

The ARISS contact on Tuesday 02 October 2018 at 17:45 UTC (19:45 CEST) 88 deg with OR4ISS and Pell Elementary School, Newport, RI USA, via ARISS telebridge ground station ON4ISS (Aartselaar, Belgium) was successful. Astronaut Ricky Arnold KE5DAU answered all 15 questions from students of Pell Elementary School is Newport, Rhode Island’s.

The event came during the UN’s World Space Week, all in the name of STEAM education.
Governor Raimondo marked the occasion, and even got to ask some of the students’ questions with them.

Media source:
ABC6: a-first-for-a-ri-public-school-students-speak-with-astronaut-aboard-iss
WPRI (youtube): RI students speak to astronaut aboard the International Space Station

ARISS telebridge contact in St-Vith & Nürenberg

The ARISS contact Friday 21 september 2018 at 10:15:22 UTC of Alexander Gerst KF5ONO with Bischöfliche Schule and Technisches Institut, St. Vith, Belgium, and Berufliche Schule Direktorat 1 Nürnberg, Nürnberg, Germany was a successful. The amateur radio contact with NA1SS was a telebridge via W6SRJ the ARISS ground station at Santa Rosa Jr. College, CA, USA.

Stefan ON6TI leads the conversations between Alexander Gerst KF5ONO and the schools in St-Vith and Nürenberg.

130 students were present in the auditorium of Bischöflichen Schule in St-Vith, almost 100 students in the auditorium of Berufliche Schule Direktorat 1 Nürnberg in Nürnberg, Germany, 12 questions were answered by Alexander Gerst. Stephan, DL1STV coordinated the activity in Nürnberg. Stefan, ON6TI, organized the contact from St-Vith and spoke afterwards to the press. The BRF (Belgian german-speaking channel) did cover the event on TV and made afterwards individual interviews with students and teachers. The regional press reported on it.

Media source:
BRF: Rendezvous mit dem Weltraum: St. Vither Schüler sprechen mit Alexander Gerst
http://www.grenzecho.net/region/st-vither-schueler-mit-live-schaltung-zur-iss-raumstation