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Good Contact???
by Brad Smith 13 Apr '20

13 Apr '20

<2 - A station calls me with My Call and Their Call.3 - I respond to them with Their Call & My Call/Grid> Since I am always operating handheld or portable, whether at my QTH, or roving, I cannot write the call down as it is being said, as both of my hands happen to be employed at the moment. Since a rover usually gives his grid, at least every few calls, I may say "Grid CM94, My Call" for example and the rover usually comes back at me and I appreciate that and I will then give my call and grid. Sometimes that is the best that can be done. I get his call when he comes back to me. I also record every pass on my iPhone. My memory isn't geed enough to remember 5 calls (or more, if I am roving) that I just worked, along with the activities of pointing an antenna and manually adjusting Doppler, so I rely on my recording. I know it is difficult to understand, but working portable is a lot different than sitting in front of an SDR computer screen in one's shack, with a 9700 with a speaker system and elevating and rotating, computer controlled yagi antennas. Some of us are doing this under not-so-ideal conditions. I have worked with my Arrow in the rain and in a snowstorm, several times without gloves, with noisy trucks going by and people asking me what I am doing,while trying to work. I have been asked if I am tracking animals and once as I was setting up, someone threatened to call the police. (I offered to let him use my phone, and I have Amateur Radio plates on my vehicles.) So, please cut some of us a little slack, if we are not operating exactly by "the book." Also, getting stepped on by the rude, big guns will eradicate part of the call. (Big guns are certainly more important than little portables.) If it is his/her call that gets stepped on, I can pick it up as he/she makes more contacts. If it is my call, I will email him/her to verify what my call is and make sure the contact is correct. Many times the person will thank me because he was missing one letter. Brad KC9UQR

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what is a good contact?
by Ron VE8RT 13 Apr '20

13 Apr '20

maybe this has been brought up before, an alternative subject line might be "home far should you go" It seems that recording contacts and translating them into the log is acceptable. What about using post recording enhancements to pull call signs and grid squares out of the noise? A younger person with uncompromised hearing would do a better job at picking out contact information, the arguement might be made that even high end hearing aids do some audio processing. I just used Audacity to pull KJ7ATK's call out as Diawata-2 was low to my horizon, and his FM deviation was almost not there even though he had full quieting. I'll pass someone the recording if they'd like to hear it. Grid squares are required, is there an alternative other than RST? Ron VE8RT -- Ron VE8RT <ve8rt(a)yknwt.ca>

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Upcoming ARISS Contact Schedule as of 2020-04-13 17:00 UTC
by aj9n＠aol.com 13 Apr '20

13 Apr '20

Upcoming ARISS Contact Schedule as of 2020-04-13 17:00 UTC Quick list of scheduled contacts and events: TBD Exp. 62 now on orbit (***) Welcome aboard! Chris Cassidy KF5KDR Anatoli Ivanishin Ivan Vagner ************************************************* Looking for some stay at home activities related to science and for when you are not playing on your radio? Check out these links: (***) >From ARISS Vice Chair Oliver Amend DG6BCE: ESA Astronauts to offer inspiration during isolation in #SpaceConnectsUs https://www.esa.int/Newsroom/Astronauts_to_offer_inspiration_during_isolati… Celestron, the telescope, microscope, and sports optics folks, now has something called #STEMINYOURBACKYARD that you can find on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter. By the way, I don't work for Celestron or have any business dealings with them and this is just something I saw. Apparently there are 10 free STEM activities covering Astronomy, Nature and Wildlife, and The Microscopic World. Check out: https://www.celestron.com/blogs/news/discover-stem-in-your-backyard NASA has a STEM page with fun activities to do at home. Check out https://www.nasa.gov/stem ************************************************* ARISS is very aware of the impact that COVID-19 is having on schools and the public in general. As such, we may have last minute cancellations or postponements of school contacts. As always, I will try to provide everyone with near-real-time updates. The following schools have now been postponed or cancelled due to COVID-19: Postponed: No new schools (***) Cancelled: No new schools (***) The ARISS webpage is at https://www.ariss.org/ Watch for future COVID-19 related announcements here also. Note that there are links to other ARISS websites from this site. The main page for Applying to Host a Scheduled Contact may be found at https://www.ariss.org/apply-to-host-an-ariss-contact.html ARISS Contact Applications (United States) Note, all times are approximate. It is recommended that you do your own orbital prediction or start listening about 10 minutes before the listed time. All dates and times listed follow International Standard ISO 8601 date and time format YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS The complete schedule page has been updated as of 2020-04-13 17:00 UTC. (***) Here you will find a listing of all scheduled school contacts, and questions, other ISS related websites, IRLP and Echolink websites, and instructions for any contact that may be streamed live. https://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/arissnews.rtf https://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/arissnews.txt The successful school list has been updated as of 2020-03-21 00:00 UTC. https://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/Successful_ARISS_schools.rtf The ARISS webpage is at https://www.ariss.org/ Note that there are links to other ARISS websites from this site. The main page for Applying to Host a Scheduled Contact may be found at https://www.ariss.org/apply-to-host-an-ariss-contact.html ARISS Contact Applications (United States) The ARISS webpage is at https://www.ariss.org/ Note that there are links to other ARISS websites from this site. Message to US Educators ARISS Contact Applications (United States) The Proposal Window of February 1, 2020 to March 31, 2020 has now closed. For future proposal information and more details such as expectations, proposal guidelines and proposal form, and dates and times of Information Webinars, go to www.ariss.org. Please direct any questions to ariss.us.education(a)gmail.com. About ARISS: Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) is a cooperative venture of international amateur radio societies and the space agencies that support the International Space Station (ISS). In the United States, sponsors are the Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation (AMSAT), the American Radio Relay League (ARRL), the ISS National Lab and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The primary goal of ARISS is to promote exploration of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEAM) topics by organizing scheduled contacts via amateur radio between crew members aboard the ISS and students in classrooms or public forms. Before and during these radio contacts, students, educators, parents, and communities learn about space, space technologies, and amateur radio. For more information, see www.ariss.org. ******************************************************************************** ARISS Contact Applications (Europe, Africa and the Middle East) Schools and Youth organizations in Europe, Africa and the Middle East interested in setting up an ARISS radio contact with an astronaut on board the International Space Station are invited to submit an application from September to October and from February to April. Please refer to details and the application form at www.ariss-eu.org/school-contacts. Applications should be addressed by email to: school.selection.manager(a)ariss-eu.org ARISS Contact Applications (Canada, Central and South America, Asia and Australia and Russia) Organizations outside the United States can apply for an ARISS contact by filling out an application. Please direct questions to the appropriate regional representative listed below. If your country is not specifically listed, send your questions to the nearest ARISS Region listed. If you are unsure which address to use, please send your question to the ARISS-Canada representative; they will forward your question to the appropriate coordinator. For the application, go to: https://www.ariss.org/ariss-application.html. ARISS-Canada and the Americas, except USA: Steve McFarlane, VE3TBD email to: ve3tbd(a)gmail.com ARISS-Japan, Asia, Pacific and Australia: Satoshi Yasuda, 7M3TJZ email to: ariss(a)iaru-r3.org, Japan Amateur Radio League (JARL) https://www.jarl.org/ ARISS-Russia: Soyuz Radioljubitelei Rossii (SRR) https://srr.ru/ ****************************************************************************** ARISS is always glad to receive listener reports for the above contacts. ARISS thanks everyone in advance for their assistance. Feel free to send your reports to aj9n(a)amsat.org or aj9n(a)aol.com. Listen for the ISS on the downlink of 145.8Ø MHz. ******************************************************************************* All ARISS contacts are made via the Kenwood radio unless otherwise noted. ******************************************************************************* Several of you have sent me emails asking about the RAC ARISS website and not being able to get in. That has now been changed to https://www.ariss.org/ Note that there are links to other ARISS websites from this site. **************************************************************************** Looking for something new to do? How about receiving DATV from the ISS? Please note that the HamTV system has been brought back to earth for troubleshooting. Please monitor ARISS-EU or ARISS-ON for the very latest news on the troubleshooting efforts. If interested, then please go to the ARISS-EU website for complete details. Look for the buttons indicating Ham Video. http://www.ariss-eu.org/ If you need some assistance, ARISS mentor Kerry N6IZW, might be able to provide some insight. Contact Kerry at kbanke(a)sbcglobal.net The HamTV webpage: https://www.amsat-on.be/hamtv-summary/ **************************************************************************** ARISS congratulations the following mentors who have now mentored over 100 schools: Francesco IKØWGF with 140 Satoshi 7M3TJZ with 138 Sergey RV3DR with 133 Gaston ON4WF with 123 **************************************************************************** The webpages listed below were all reviewed for accuracy. Out of date webpages were removed, and new ones have been added. If there are additional ARISS websites I need to know about, please let me know. Total number of ARISS ISS to earth school events is 1387. Each school counts as 1 event. Total number of ARISS ISS to earth school contacts is 1320. Each contact may have multiple schools sharing the same time slot. Total number of ARISS supported terrestrial contacts is 48. A complete year by year breakdown of the contacts may be found in the file. https://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/arissnews.rtf Please feel free to contact me if more detailed statistics are needed. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ The following US states and entities have never had an ARISS contact: South Dakota, Wyoming, American Samoa, Guam, Northern Marianas Islands, and the Virgin Islands. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ QSL information may be found at: https://www.ariss.org/qsl-cards.html ISS callsigns: DPØISS, IRØISS, NA1SS, OR4ISS, RSØISS **************************************************************************** Frequency chart for packet, voice, and crossband repeater modes showing Doppler correction as of 2005-07-29 04:00 UTC https://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/ISS_frequencies_and_Doppler_correcti… Check out the Zoho reports of the ARISS contacts https://reports.zoho.com/ZDBDataSheetView.cc?DBID=412218000000020415 **************************************************************************** Exp. 60 on orbit Drew Morgan KI5AAA Exp. 61 on orbit Oleg Skripochka Jessica Meir Exp. 62 now on orbit (***) Welcome aboard! Chris Cassidy KF5KDR Anatoli Ivanishin Ivan Vagner **************************************************************************** 73, Charlie Sufana AJ9N One of the ARISS operation team mentors

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4/11 14:30z AO-92
by Roy Dean 13 Apr '20

13 Apr '20

https://network.satnogs.org/observations/2028147/ There is a little bit of the discussion that can be heard in this recording from today's 15:20z pass. --Roy K3RLD

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Re: [amsat-bb] 4/11 14:30z AO-92
by Roy Dean 13 Apr '20

13 Apr '20

Yep, definitely more repeater stuff on the 15:20 pass this morning (early in the pass... it's cleared up now). No call signs heard this morning, but they were gabbing about corona virus on sea vessels. --Roy K3RLD

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Re: [amsat-bb] What is a good contact?
by z man 12 Apr '20

12 Apr '20

>From now on I'm just going to put my call out there on the satellite and ANY station that also puts their call out, will be considered a contact... (Tongue in cheek) I live in RI. If I try to work a station in AK or HI, I have to make sure I get their call AND grid correct, otherwise its a busted contact and a struggle to work them again. Using a recorder is good for logbook updates, but if I were to realize I got their call wrong, you bet I'm emailing them to set up a sked for a redo! It's the same thing for HF contacts... Im not here to argue, just answer a question. You're going to do what you're comfortable with. It's just a hobby - some people forget that. You didn't hear the call or grid right the first time? Work 'em again - it's moe funner that way! Larry N1MIW

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Contacts with N6DNM from CM99/98 and DM08/09 grids on Apr 9, 10, 11
by Dmitry Mizin 12 Apr '20

12 Apr '20

Hi there, As I am stuck here in Tahoe region, I did a few mini roves to those grids making 131 contacts overall. All uploaded to LOTW where 81 were confirmed. I know I've worked many ops for the first time (and this sometimes true even for those who worked me before) and often other operator will make mistake with my call. So, if you do need confirmation for those grids - make sure you have my call correctly - N6DNM. If confirmations are still missing for you, email me directly with details and I will verify it on my side. Thank you all for contacts and looking forward to catching you later! Dmitry N6DNM

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Past Satellite Ham
by Brad Smith 11 Apr '20

11 Apr '20

<I talked to Julia on the phone about 2 months ago. She is well. Just busyand has not been on the birds.I told her about DMR and the AMSAT TG.Hopefully we will be able to "work" her there.> Thank you, Rick. Great to know that she is well. We have worked on SO-50 many times. I , too would love to get into the AMSAT net, if they could do it on a repeater that also does D-Star. Brad KC9UQR

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Efficient Contacts
by Brad Smith 11 Apr '20

11 Apr '20

< Cannot this be done more efficiently in only 4 transmissions instead of 5? > Most people do it in 3 transmissions. My call, your call, with my grid.Reply, with grid.QSL and your call. With the crowding on the FM birds, one has to get as inventive as one can. Lots of times, the QSL gets stepped on by a more powerful station. It happens all the time to me, as a portable. Lots of hams will still call it a contact. If I get stepped on , I try to come back to the station again. But sometimes-------------. Brad KC9UQR

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4/11 14:30z AO-92
by Roy Dean 11 Apr '20

11 Apr '20

To those in the northeast, it appears that somebody might be setting up a repeater on the 70cm uplink frequency of AO-92 (at least that's what it sounded like). I got one call sign (from NH), but there is no email address shown on QRZ to inquire about it. Might want to keep this in mind when operating the early passes on AO-92. --Roy K3RLD

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