Yesterday was an 'open day' at our local radioclub. The radioclub is housed in a scouting building and several scouts came to see what we were doing, soldered a very simple electronic light and showed some real interest in radio.

I noticed the ARISS contact with the school in Greece was during this open day so I told the club I would demonstrate this and brought the arrow antenna and a simple handheld radio to show the other amateurs and the visitors that it is possible to hear an astronaut with simple means.

The announcement that we were going to hear an astronaut was received with great joy and everybody who was there at the time came out to hear it. After a few (tense) minutes the voice of the astronaut came through and we al heard clear audio. Even some of the radio amateurs were surprised how easy it is to receive signals from space.

For as far as I know nobody there understood greek so it was just the idea of hearing an actual astronaut talk that held a crowd.

Koos PE4KH