[ADXA] ARCUA ISS EVENT

[Dennis Schaefer]

Thanks for the report, Don.  This is a really big deal.   Our club did this
years ago with the Space Shuttle, connecting students from 3 or 4 schools
with mission STS-58.   We planned for over a year and our redundancies had
redundancies.   Even so, it was nerve-wracking.

We made the contact and had some good TV coverage, but I well remember
poring over the plans and wondering if it would really work!

BVRC and ARCUA are great clubs - congratulations to them!

73,
Dennis/RZ

On Wed, Apr 23, 2025 at 5:30 PM Don Banta <k5db at outlook.com> wrote:

> Thought you ADXA folks might be interested:
>
>
>
> A few weeks ago at 1:05 local time on March 31, members of ARCUA (Amateur
> Radio Club of the University of Arkansas) and also members of BVRC (Bella
> Vista Radio Club) conducted an outstanding school assembly at Lakeside
> Junior High in Springdale with Lakeside JHS and Sonora Elementary School
> students attending.
>
>
>
> The event was one year in the making, getting authorization from ARISS and
> NASA, and working on the logistics.
>
>
>
> Murray Harris-W5XH operated the IC-9700 radio and tracking software as
> students from the schools posed questions of
>
> astronaut Nichole Ayers – KJ5GWI operating the ISS amateur station NA1SS.
> They were able to ask quite a few questions but had to be fast during the
> 10 minute pass over NW Arkansas, as the ISS travels at around 18,000 mph.
> Murray was pretty anxious
>
> and wondering if the setup would work, but Nichole answered him on the
> first call.  He said this was the most exciting
>
> experience he has ever had in his 60+ years as a ham.
>
>
>
> Nichole was one of the 4 astronauts that rode the Space-X Falcon 9
> rocket/Dragon spacecraft to the ISS to enable three other astronauts to
> return home after an overextended tour of duty aboard the ISS.  She served
> as the pilot on the Crew 10 flight to the ISS, and also has flown the F-22
> raptor and served as flight instructor for the aircraft.  She is a major in
> the United States Air Force.  This was her first time in communicating with
> school students and she did an outstanding job.
>
>
>
> In case anyone would like to see the two-and-a-half minute news story that
> was broadcast on KFSM, here’s the link:
>
>
> *https://www.5newsonline.com/video/news/local/springdale-students-make-radio-contact-with-astronauts-aboard-the-international-space-station/527-73833247-1ed1-45d6-b8b3-db5c16e7d781*
> <https://www.5newsonline.com/video/news/local/springdale-students-make-radio-contact-with-astronauts-aboard-the-international-space-station/527-73833247-1ed1-45d6-b8b3-db5c16e7d781>
>
>
>
> 73 – Don, K5DB
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