As one of the folks involved in this, below is some information. Someone talked about the added stress. Trust me, its there. I've got forty years in as a broadcast engineer, and this "remote" has me very uptight! I will be running the audio mix for the event. From the audio out of the rig, into the gym audio system, and feeding a 16 port media box, to running audio from the handheld mic back into the rig, if that fails, its me. We are using a hand held EV mic, with a aux feed from the board into the TS-2000. I have a pendant switch (nurse call like) that controls the PTT, and there is a broadcast "On the Air" light to let everyone know when the mic is hot.
And who is running the radio setup? Doug Paypay, KD8CAO. I have no concerns. :) And Mike Wolthuis, KB8ZGL and the crew form the Lowell ARC has done an amazing job in installing the antennas. Mike will be the local and radio host. The local cable TV access channel will have a 4 camera setup (including one on the roof antennas) and will be producing a 30 minute program on it.
I am looking forward to the event, and looking forward to LOS time even more!
More info:
The West Michigan Aviation Academy (http://www.westmichiganaviation.org) has been approved and scheduled for a ARISS (Amateur Radio on the International Space Station) contact with Kjell Lindgren (KO5MOS).
The ground station was put on loan from the Greenville Amateur Radio Club (KD8RXD) and the event supported by the Lowell Amateur Radio Club (W8LRC) and the Holland Amateur Radio Club (K8DAA). The event is being taped with multiple cameras and is expected to be available on NASATV (http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/) during the contact (possibly a bit delayed).
Up to date information is available on twitter at #ISS_Ham_Radio (https://twitter.com/ISS_Ham_Radio).
If you would like to stream the live audio to your local repeater and/or listen it is available from several planned sources as follows: IRLP – the Great Lakes Reflector – Channel 9617, Echolink – the *MICHIGAN* conference – Node #96170. The audio stream will also be available for any regular MP3 stream capable player (ie. iTunes, WinAmp, Windows Media Player, etc) at the URL: http://stream.kb8zgl.net:8000
Additional links with video as well as audio may be available, but waiting on a final website for that – follow the twitter feed for further updates. Many local news teams are also planning to be on hand from West Michigan – tune in to your favorite news station to see if we make the news!
If you have any questions, please feel free to send them to event coordinator Mike Wolthuis – KB8ZGL email addresskb8zgl@kb8zgl.net
Tom Bosscher K8TB