Several years ago, when the ISS repeater was still working, I was doing a satellite demo for the scouts under the K9BSA callsign, working stations right and left with 20 - 25 scouts gathered around the rig, when astronaut Mike Fincke picked up the mic and said "hello to the scouts from the International Space Station, NA1SS!"
I swear, the collective "thud" of the scouts' jaws hitting the floor could be heard for miles...
George, KA3HSW
-----Original Message----- From: AMSAT-BB [mailto:amsat-bb-bounces@amsat.org] On Behalf Of John Sent: Thursday, January 04, 2018 1:46 PM To: 'Nick Hart' Cc: amsat-bb@amsat.org Subject: Re: [amsat-bb] doppler shift
Hi Nick,
It all depends on the knowledge and skillset of the scouts in question. My last significant AMSAT demo was done during JOTA, and at that point we had between 100 and 150 young people come through the shack doors throughout the weekend. We didn't have a huge amount of time to explain everything or go really interactive with the control or tracking, and to be honest most of them were amazed enough that they could hear voices coming back from space, so when we listened in to one of the Italian ARISS contacts, they were even more thrilled! My trusty FT-847, SatPC32, ERC-M interface and Kenpro KR5600 did the job nicely, we made quite a few QSOs, and we got to listen to a full ISS pass - something the 80 odd people who poured into the shack when it started will likely not forget for a long time yet.
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