Walter Jackson Elementary School in Decatur, Alabama had a successful ARISS radio contact this past Friday morning. All 20 students received an answer to their questions with full quieting reception for 90-95% of the pass.
Many thanks to the ARISS team for making these contacts a reality in Amateur Radio and in the development of the minds of young students growing to be our future leaders.
Here is a link to a short article with some video of the event by our local newspaper:
http://www.decaturdaily.com/news/local/walter-jackson-students-speak-to-spac...
We are looking for some video from space during the Walter Jackson Elementary School contact if there is anything with Timothy Peake. It would also be nice to find pictures or video on things he talked about like performing experiments, drawing blood, floating around the ISS, lighting on Earth, the aurora viewed from ISS, and the exterior view of the ISS with Earth in background. This would be really meaningful in assembling a video for those students and the school. If you know where any of these things can be found or obtained we would like to hear from you.
We had members from several groups participating in the event from AMSAT, the Decatur Amateur Radio Club, the Huntsville Amateur Radio Club, and the Marshall Space Flight Center Amateur Radio Club.
At the Huntsville ARC club meeting on Friday night, one of the members played an 8 minute recording captured on the downlink from the ISS using only an HT and a hand held beam antenna. The signal quality was very good on this simple setup demonstrating what can be accomplished. This has really turned out to be a fantastic event to promote interest in Amateur Radio Satellite Communications. Several hams throughout the state have made inquiries about our equipment setup. What a great way to promote interest in Amateur Radio and satellite communications.
73's,
Tim - N8DEU