ISS Contact from the East Falmouth Elementary School
On Friday, October 26th at 1:40PM EDT, ten children from the third and fourth grades at East Falmouth Elementary School got to talk with Commander Sunita Williams, who was on board the International Space Station. This was made possible through the efforts of Dr. Jim MacGuinness, Shawn Reed, myself, and a number of other members of FARA.
Jim MacGuinness applied to NASA last Spring for a spot in NASA's schedule for elementary school contacts for schools across the country. Jim's proposal was accepted and the application was forwarded to the ARRL in order to find a local amateur radio club that would be willing to help with the contact. I got the call from Phil Temples and told him that we would love to help! What an opportunity for our Club! I was in contact with Shawn Reed immediately and he was anxious to help anyway he could and agreed to take on "anything RF". Jim MacGuinness would handle "anything school". The rest (there wasn't much) fell to me.
That was the easy part. The program is administered by NASA and ARISS with support from the ARRL. For whatever reason those groups were pushing hard for us to participate in a "telebridge" contact rather than a direct link using the club's expertise. That didn't sound very exciting especially since Shawn is a ham radio operator with a lot of experience in satellite communications. The other problem we had was getting a firm commitment from ARISS and NASA on a designated pass of the ISS. I think we had four days notice of when we would have the contact.
The designated pass on October 26th was ideal. The ISS would pass over Falmouth at an elevation of 85 degrees and the pass would run from South to North. This would allow us a contact interval of about 10-11 minutes.
"Practice makes perfect!" NASA and ARISS wanted to make sure that we took all the steps necessary for a perfect contact. Therefore we had a practice session on the Sunday before the contact and another on the day before the contact. These were a lot of work because it include unrolling and rolling three 250 foot lengths of low loss coaxial cable and two 150 foot lengths of 8 conductor 12 gauge control cable for the Az-El rotator. Jim MacGuinness did a great job in lining up the children, preparing their questions, and giving them some practice time in front of a mike.
Friday arrived and we were all set up by 10AM. We paced up and down for three and a half hours waiting for our contact window of time. We had well over 100 children in the dining room where we were set up. Do you know how much noise that many children can make? You probably do but you probably don't know how quiet they can become, instantly, when Principal Dale raises her arm and has two fingers extended in a V-formation!
Shawn called the ISS and made contact with Suni Williams on the second call. The ten children filed up to the mike, asked their question, and listened to Suni's answer. All told, the children got to ask 18 questions before the ISS passed below our horizon. BIG SUCCESS FOR FARA AND EAST FALMOUTH ELEMENTARY SCHOOL!! A couple of our senior FARA members were seen to be a bit "misty eyed" as the kids got on the air!
Jim MacGuinness applied to NASA last Spring for a spot in NASA's schedule for elementary school contacts for schools across the country. Jim's proposal was accepted and the application was forwarded to the ARRL in order to find a local amateur radio club that would be willing to help with the contact. I got the call from Phil Temples and told him that we would love to help! What an opportunity for our Club! I was in contact with Shawn Reed immediately and he was anxious to help anyway he could and agreed to take on "anything RF". Jim MacGuinness would handle "anything school". The rest (there wasn't much) fell to me.
That was the easy part. The program is administered by NASA and ARISS with support from the ARRL. For whatever reason those groups were pushing hard for us to participate in a "telebridge" contact rather than a direct link using the club's expertise. That didn't sound very exciting especially since Shawn is a ham radio operator with a lot of experience in satellite communications. The other problem we had was getting a firm commitment from ARISS and NASA on a designated pass of the ISS. I think we had four days notice of when we would have the contact.
The designated pass on October 26th was ideal. The ISS would pass over Falmouth at an elevation of 85 degrees and the pass would run from South to North. This would allow us a contact interval of about 10-11 minutes.
"Practice makes perfect!" NASA and ARISS wanted to make sure that we took all the steps necessary for a perfect contact. Therefore we had a practice session on the Sunday before the contact and another on the day before the contact. These were a lot of work because it include unrolling and rolling three 250 foot lengths of low loss coaxial cable and two 150 foot lengths of 8 conductor 12 gauge control cable for the Az-El rotator. Jim MacGuinness did a great job in lining up the children, preparing their questions, and giving them some practice time in front of a mike.
Friday arrived and we were all set up by 10AM. We paced up and down for three and a half hours waiting for our contact window of time. We had well over 100 children in the dining room where we were set up. Do you know how much noise that many children can make? You probably do but you probably don't know how quiet they can become, instantly, when Principal Dale raises her arm and has two fingers extended in a V-formation!
Shawn called the ISS and made contact with Suni Williams on the second call. The ten children filed up to the mike, asked their question, and listened to Suni's answer. All told, the children got to ask 18 questions before the ISS passed below our horizon. BIG SUCCESS FOR FARA AND EAST FALMOUTH ELEMENTARY SCHOOL!! A couple of our senior FARA members were seen to be a bit "misty eyed" as the kids got on the air!
Follow-Up, Suni Williams visits East Falmouth Elementary School on May 7, 2013.
