Hi all,
I see that Kenneth N5VHO and Tim W6MU have addressed some of the questions about ARISS contacts. Here is a bit more.
I post the information as fast as I get it and thus there could be changes that happen rapidly; after all this is real space business and ARISS is a guest. There have been times when the contact time changed 2 or 3 times in a day and I try to always post the latest info.
Please listen in on the contacts if you are in the footprint. ARISS uses 145.800 MHz FM as the international downlink. Even a simple scanner can be used to hear at least part of a contact if you are in the footprint.
About 1/3 of the school contacts are handled via the ARISS Telebridge system. The Telebridge system allows for schools that may not have the technical ability to handle a direct contact but still be able to have a wonderful educational activity. It also allows for ARISS to work in conjunction with the ISS crew work schedules, orbital mechanics, etc. Remember 3 things must happen simultaneously; the crew must be awake and available, the school must be in session, and the ISS must be over the ground station. The ARISS ham radio Telebridge ground stations are located in Australia, Hawaii, California, Texas, Maryland, Belgium, and South Africa. All of these locations have an outstanding satellite station equipped with a phone patch. Verizon provides for the Telebridge hookup; this is truly an international phone hookup that they donate time and personnel for and we at ARISS thank them for their contributions. The participants for a typical Telebridge contact are the school, the ARISS ground station, and an ARISS moderator who acts as net control.
The remaining contacts are direct; meaning that all of the equipment is at the school. Think of it as your worst case Field Day exercise. It is not that difficulty technically, but you are dealing with anywhere from 500 to 1000 non-hams who think everything should be perfect. If you ever get the chance to help out or to even be the control op; please do so as I think you will find it pretty rewarding. I always tell the schools to plan on 500 to 700 people hours of prep time; all for 10 minutes of contact time. They always think I am crazy until after the contact and then it hits them as to the impact.
Because we realize that many of you wish to listen in but may be out of the footprint, ARISS tries to have a live retransmission via IRLP, Echolink, as a live audio web stream, or a live video web stream. All Telebridge contacts will be able to be on the web courtesy of Verizon and their webservices. ARISS volunteers then pick up that audio stream and put it on Echolink and IRLP. If the contact is a direct one, then ARISS works with the school to determine if a retransmission is possible via IRLP, Echolink, or the web. In any case, as soon as I know whether the contact is going to be retransmitted, I post that information. There have been times when a school decided at the last minute to do a live retransmission, so I suggest you check the ARISS announcements right before a contact to get the most up to date info.
If you have not done an ARISS contact, consider finding a school, volunteering, getting the application in, and doing one. I have been the control op for 4 and a mentor for almost 30 and each has been a blast. The present wait time is between 1.5 and 2.5 years.
The schedule page has been updated as of 2006-11-10 19:00 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. http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/arissnews.txt
There are several ARISS web sites:
English: http://www.rac.ca/ariss/
French: http://c.avmdti.free.fr/ariss/index.htm
ARISS Europe: http://www.ariss-eu.org/
ARISS Japan: http://www.jarl.or.jp/ariss/
I have also seen comments along the way about what ARISS can and cannot do as far as scheduling. As a school works it way through the scheduling process, it eventually gets to be about 6 months out from a contact date and an ARISS mentor is assigned. So the really hard work may go for about 6 months; serious business where ARISS works with the ISS planners and the school to get a date and for the school to be prepared. But we are only guests and we can only put in our requests for contact times; we can never demand. Sometimes we get our desired times; sometimes it is back to the drawing board. So once again, check for my postings as well as info from the other ARISS mentors for the very latest schedule.
I hope this helps explain a bit more on how ARISS works to provide a truly out of this world educational experience.
73, Charlie Sufana AJ9N One of the ARISS Mentors