Dan,
I am little confused by your question. If you are talking about a schedule ARISS contact, like the scouts did at Chanute, then my comments just below apply. If you are talking about general contacts, like JOTA, then look further down.
For scheduled ARISS contacts: For any school, scout group, museum, etc., the kids ask the questions. If there is time and if all of the questions have been asked, then sometimes one of the teachers may ask a question. Keep in mind that the ARISS contacts are for the students and not for the adults or hams involved.
Since the contact time is very limited (about 10 minutes max; usually around 9 minutes), we suggest somewhere between 12 and 16 students be lined up; each with 2 questions. Some schools want to have maybe 20 or more lined up; but the danger is that not all kids will be able to ask their question. We hate to have a disappointed student; especially if it is younger student. So if the number is kept to maybe 12 to 16, there is a high probability that each kid will get to ask at least one question. If they get to the second round of questions, then that is a bonus.
The questions are reviewed ahead of time to see if they are appropriate. We do not really like to see questions related to politics, religion or sex. We also don't really want to see questions that will get only a Yes/No or True/False type answer.
We often get asked by the schools on how to pick the students. That is the school's decision; not an ARISS one. I always suggest to the schools that I mentor that the student and the questions are a pair. Some schools want to pick the best speakers and separately pick the best questions. I really don't like that approach. How would you feel if your question gets picked but you didn't get allowed to ask it?
For general contacts (i.e. JOTA): If you are talking about a possible ISS contact during JOTA, then it is like a general contact. You take your chances at making a contact. ARISS will not know if any crew member will be on during JOTA until it actually happens; it is strictly their decision. If one of the crew members gets on during JOTA, then the contacts will probably be very short to allow as many ground stations as possible to talk. That probably means maybe 1 or 2 will get to ask a question. During these type contacts, the questions are obviously not reviewed ahead of time (but you would want to keep the same recommendations as presented above). Keep in mind that the ISS ham will really be the one in control (like when working rare DX).
Hope this helps.
73, Charlie Sufana AJ9N One of the ARISS mentors
In a message dated 8/19/2009 11:49:05 P.M. Central Daylight Time, howardd@yahoo-inc.com writes: Are the kids able to ask questions? That's a good list for sure. I was under the impression that there will be a pool of questions from Scouts in advance and only a select number was to be taken resulting in only a few being chosen to contact and ask their question. This would provide for an orderly list of contacts so that we don't have a traffic jam trying to get to talk to the ISS crew. I was under the impression that if we do not have an approved scout with an approved question we will just monitor the radio traffic as the ISS passes. Could someone clarify the intent and procedures here? We don't want to try and transmit if we are not supposed to. Any guidelines from the JOTA Masters? "May the Force Be With You!"
Dan Howard
LAARK
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