Mar 27

St. John’s, NL, Canada, telebridge via ON4ISS

A ARISS telebridge contact via Amateur Radio was scheduled for March 27, 2024 at 16:25 UTC (1:55:27 pm NDT ad Newfoundland) with astronaut Loral O’Hara, amateur radio call sign KI5TOM. and students of St. John’s School Authority, St. John’s, Newfoundland, Canada.

Loral O’Hara KI5TOM operating the HAM station on board the ISS

Newfoundland (NL) Schools is an entity of the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador which teaches English-speaking students in K to 12 public schools in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador. Currently NL Schools includes over 63,000 students, over 250 schools, and over 10,000 employees. This ARISS contact directly links to the school’s Science 9 curriculum as students complete a full unit on space, including classes specific to the ISS. There are 4 schools (and associated Science 9 classes) involved in this ARISS contact: Leary’s Brook Junior High, St. Paul’s Junior High, Mount Pearl Intermediate, and Amalgamated Academy.

The downlink frequency for this contact is 145.800 MHz and may be heard by listeners that are within the ISS-footprint (Europe) that also encompasses the telebridge station. The ARISS amateur radio ground station (telebridge station) for this contact is in Aartselaar, Belgium use the callsign ON4ISS.

Oct 11

Multi-point ARISS contact via Belgian Defence (KSOO), Belgium, direct via ON4BAF

A direct contact via Amateur Radio scheduled for October 10, 2023 at 13:36 CEST (Belgium) allowing students to ask their questions of Astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli, KI5WSL was a successful.

The Royal School for Non-Commissioned Officers (KSOO/ERSO), situated in Sint-Truiden, in the east of Belgium, is Belgium’s main military training establishment for non-commissioned officers (NCOs) and
serves as a military training institution dedicated to educating and training NCOs within the Belgian
Armed Forces. IEPS of Colfontaine is located about 50 miles west of Sint-Truiden. IEPS is a lifelong
learning school for students ages 15 and older and provides training courses in the fields of mining,
beauty care, the hotel industry, IT, construction, industrial design and HVAC technology.
KSOO/ERSO is providing ham radio equipment for a direct ARISS contact using their radio club’s
callsign ON4BAF. Members of the radio club of the Union of Belgian Radioamateurs (UBA), represented by its local section RST Radio Section of the city of Sint-Truiden will coordinate this contact while also establishing a telebridge with students at IEPS of Colfontaine.

The amateur radio ground station for this contact is near Sint-Truiden, Belgium. Amateur radio operators using call sign ON4BAF operate the ground station to establish and maintain the ISS connection and provide a telebridge contact with students at IEPS of Colfontaine, Belgium.

Jun 03

General Assembly 2023

Annual General Assembly

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

The annual general assembly will take place on Monday, June 19, 2023 at 20:00.
Radio Club Leuven – Diestsevest 39 at Leuven. (The meeting room is located in the basement)

Agenda general assembly :
1. New members and outgoing members.
2. Financial report 2022
3. Discharge to the board of directors.
4. Approval of the 2023 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.

Correspondence about this extraordinary general meeting can be sent by email to jan.poppeliers@online.be

May 26

The Children’s Inn at NIH Bethesda, Maryland, telebridge contact via ON4ISS

The Children’s Inn at NIH (National Institutes of Health), Bethesda, Maryland, USA

There was a telebridge Contact via Amateur Radio allowing students to ask their questions of Astronaut John Shoffner, amateur radio call sign KO4MJC. Shoffner is a STEM advocate, business pioneer, and life-long space enthusiast, John Shoffner will serve as pilot for Axiom Space’s Ax-2 mission to the International Space Station (ISS) on the SpaceX Dragon. Shoffner currently lives in Knoxville, Tennessee, and is honored to have this opportunity to not only achieve one of his greatest life’s dreams but also to use the Ax-2 mission to ignite a passion for STEM education in teachers and students worldwide to each pursue their ambitions.

The ARISS radio contact was scheduled for May 26, 2023 at 17:31 UTC. The ARISS amateur radio ground station (telebridge station) for this contact is in Aartselaar, Belgium and use the callsign ON4ISS.

Apr 07

Collège Saint-Anatoile, Salins-Les-Bains, France, telebridge contact via ON4ISS

An ARISS telebridge contact via Amateur Radio, performed with students of Collège Saint-Anatoile, Salins-Les-Bains, France and Astronaut Steve Bowen KI5BKB on Friday April 7, 2023 at 14:27 UTC with OR4ISS and ARISS telebridge ground station ON4ISS (Aartselaar, Belgium) was successful.

Saint Anatoile secondary school is a French private catholic school located in a rural area in the department of Jura (258,000 population), Burgundy, Franche Comté region. In conjunction with hosting this ARISS contact, the school has developed a 2-year “ARISS contact” project to provide students a real opportunity to discover and understand an environment that is unknown to most of them. The objectives of the project are to deepen the scientific and linguistic knowledge of the students through workshops, and various STEM projects incorporated in their curriculum.

The ARISS amateur radio ground station (telebridge station) for this contact is in Aartselaar, Belgium. The amateur radio volunteer team at the ground station will use the callsign ON4ISS, to establish and maintain the ISS connection.

Media source:
Youtube: Contact ARISS – Collège Saint-Anatoile
ARISS France – Francophone

Mar 23

Lana’i H&E School, HI, telebridge via ON4ISS

This telebridge Contact via Amateur Radio allowing students from Lāna’i High and Elementary School in Hawai to ask their questions of Astronaut Warren Hoburg, amateur radio call sign KB3HTZ. The downlink frequency for this contact is 145.800 MHz and is be heard by listeners that are within the ISS-footprint over Europe. The ARISS amateur radio ground station (telebridge station) for this contact is in Aartselaar, Belgium. This amateur radio ground station use the callsign ON4ISS, to establish and maintain the ISS connection.

Great work, Danyel! Kids will probably remember this event for the rest of their lives!

This ARISS telebridge contact via Amateur Radio, performed with students of “Lāna’i High and Elementary School” on 23 March 2023 at 18:22 UTC with OR4ISS and ARISS telebridge ground station ON4ISS (Aartselaar, Belgium) was successful.

Media source:
Youtube: Space Chat–Lana’i High and Elementary School

Dec 21

Berufliche Schule Direktorat 1 Nürnberg, ARISS telebridge contact via ON4ISS

An ARISS telebridge contact via Amateur Radio, performed with students of “Berufliche Shule Directotaat 1 Nurenberg” on Wednesday 21 december 2021 at 08:21 UTC with OR4ISS and ARISS telebridge ground station ON4ISS (Aartselaar, Belgium) was successful. Matthias Maurer, amateur radio call sign KI5KFH, answered 12 questions. Stefan Vogl DL1STV coordinated the ARISS contact in the school in a safe CORONA way. Several classes and outside spectators followed the contact in the school through Teams. Due to COVID, there was no mass media on contact site.

Matthias Maurer
Matthias Maurer KI5KFH operates the Kenwood D710GA in the Columbus Module

The moderator Bertus Hüsken PE1KEH presented the contact. Stefan Dombrowski ON6TI had taken care of the preparation. The ARISS telebridge station ON4ISS (Amsat Belgium club station) was used by Jan Poppeliers ON7UX (lead ON4ISS operations). The amateur radio contact went smoothly for more than 11 minutes with a maximum elevation of 81°. The students thanked Matthias with a strong applause and Matthias Maurer KI5KFH acknowledged our “thank you” warmly.

Media source:
Youtube report M0IGW
Youtube report YO3RAK

Jun 08

AMSAT-Belgium – General Assembly 2021

annual general meeting 2021 – video conference – Tuesday, June 22, 2021 at 20:00 CEST

A photo of the AMSAT-ON annual meeting in 2012 – location UBA section LVN – Radio Club Leuven

The members of AMSAT Belgium, non-profit association, are invited to attend the annual general meeting. Due to the COVID-19 restrictions, this meeting cannot take place in the usual cozy atmosphere. The meeting is organized with a video conference.

The video conference is accessible with a password that is sent to all members in an invitation. Everyone can still settle with their membership until the day before.

Agenda:
1. New members and outgoing members.
2. Financial report 2020.
3. Discharge to the board of directors.
4. Approval of the 2021 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.

Correspondence about this general meeting can be sent by email to jan.poppeliers at online.be

Support:
The GoToMeeting normally install an app. If you don’t want to install an app, you can follow the meeting with a Google Chrome or a Microsoft Edge browser.
Do you need support: https://support.goto.com/meeting/help/how-to-join-a-meeting-g2m030001

Oct 07

UHF multi-point telebridge: McConnell Middle School, Loganville, GA & Chris Cassidy KF5KDR

On Wednesday, October 7 2020 at 14:18 UTC, there was a successful ARISS contact between students from McConnell Middle School, Loganville, GA, USA and ISS Commander Chris Cassidy, amateur radio call sign KF5KDR. For this multi-point telebridge contact Chris Cassidy used the ARISS Interoperable Radio System (IORS) which is installed in the Columbus module. Exceptionally, this ARISS contact was made on UHF frequency 437.525 MHz with ISS callsign OR4ISS and telebridge station ON4ISS (Aartselaar, Belgium).

ISS Commander Chris Cassidy, amateur radio call sign KF5KDR, operates
the Kenwood TM-D710GA in the Columbus module.

The multi-point telebridge school contact with McConnell Middle School happened simultaneously with the ARISS SSTV event on 145,800 MHz. Therefore, the UHF frequency was used for this telebridge contact. Telebridge station ON4ISS operators were Jan, ON7UX and Stefan, ON6TI.

Micol, IU2LXR received both the multi-point telebridge school contact and
SSTV transmission in the park from Milano, with two transceivers.

ARISS is pleased to receive reports on its activities. As you can see in Mic’s report, this can be done with a simple setup. Due to the low elevation from where Mic IU2LXR received the ARISS radio contact, she was able to monitor both the SSTV activity and the ARISS contact for 7 minutes. After this ARISS contact with McConnell Middle School, the IORS in the Columbus module was set to 145.825 MHz in APRS packet mode.

Media source:
Youtube: McConnell Middle School Space Chat 10-7-2020
ARISS News Release No. 20-19
ARISS Interoperable Radio System (IORS)

Jul 30

American School of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Multipoint telebridge via ON4ISS

A Multipoint Telebridge Contact via Amateur Radio, developed for distance learning while worldwide education institutions are closed due to COVID-19 that took place on Thursday 30 juli 2020 at 16:41 UTC with OR4ISS and ARISS telebridge ground station ON4ISS (Aartselaar, Belgium) was successful.. ISS Commander Chris Cassidy, amateur radio call sign KF5KDR, answered 12 questions from students of American School of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

American School of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Toni PY1AX and Kenneth Horrocks greeted Chris Cassidy on behalf of the school and Chris was delighted to greet the school from Rio. He still remembered his visit to the American School of Rio de Janeiro in November 2016. The moderator for this ARISS contact was Brian Jackson VE6JBJ in Airdrie, Alberta Canada, ON4ISS operators were Jan ON7UX with the assistance of Stefan ON6TI.

Media source:
Youtube stream: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSyfzEHYwrE
ARISS News Release No. 20-09
report received signal F4HTZ