Note : This article is complied by me from various sources available on internet like www.ariss.org, www.arrl.org, www.amsat.org etc.
H.A.L.
Scouts Group Amateur radio Club (VU2LKO) Lucknow is deeply devoted to explore
Amateur Radio activity among students and other interested people in state. We are licensed Radio
Amateurs (Generally known as HAM), when all means of communication fail Ham
Radio works. It is widely used in disaster mitigation to provide
emergency communication.
To
fulfill Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) goals for students
education an unique programme for students has been started by NASA
and other space agencies including Canada, Russia, the European Partners, and
Japan & other international partners
like AMSAT,
ARRL, RAC etc. known as ARISS.
What is ARISS
ARISS is an abbreviation for Amateur
Radio on the ISS (International Space Station), meaning amateur radio on the
International Space Station. The International Space Station (ISS) is a large
space facility of 108 m × 88 m, orbiting the earth at an altitude of about 400
km, and in cooperation with the United States, Russia, Japan, Europe and Canada
from 1998. There are already three astronauts staying 3 to 4 months
alternately, and there are also many people who have amateur radio licenses.
Amateur radio is recognized as one of the elements for
maintaining the psychological stability of these astronauts, NASA (National
Aeronautics and Space Administration), and activities are accepted by the
national space agencies. ARISS is a program for developing and operating
facilities of amateur radio stations on the ISS.
Organization
of ARISS : The organization of ARISS is as
follows.
a.
BOARD
It is composed of IARU affiliated
organizations and representatives of AMSAT regional organizations in 5 regions (USA,
Russia, Europe, Canada, Japan). Belgium, France, Germany, Italy and Portugal
are also participating as observers.
b. Committee:
It
is divided into the following committees, and one from each region
participates.
i.
Administrative
Committee
ii.
Technical Evaluation
and Support Committee
iii.
Sustainability and
Funding Committee
iv.
Operations Committee
v.
Educational / School
Selection Committee (Educational Outreach / School Selection Committee)
vi.
Public Relations
Committee
ARISS
communication and call sign
On
the other hand, ARISS communication is divided into the following three types.
1)
School communication that decides the date and time:
School contact (Scheduled School
Contact)
(2)
Communication with a person the astronaut wants (Crew QSO)
(3)
General communication (General QSO)
These
are done by astronauts with amateur radio licenses, (1) and (2) during work
hours, (3) in leisure time.
DP
0 ISS (Germany), NA 1 SS (USA), OR 4 IS (Belgium), RS 0 ISS (Russia) are used
for call signs of amateur stations on ISS.
School
contacts are putting particular emphasis on boys and girls to have valuable
experiences that encourage not only joy of amateur radio but also interest in
space development and communication technology. Since
a lot of hope is received from all over the world aiming at direct
communication with the astronaut, we accept application from the communication
hope school at ARISS Education / School Selection Committee, equipment,
operation time, participation In addition, the ARISS Operation Committee
decides communication schools, communication dates and times in consideration
of orbit conditions, working hours of the astronauts, etc.
Communication
with partners who astronauts desire is determined by ARISS's operation
committee so as to follow hope.
General
communication is the same as communication on the ground, communicating with
the station that has issued CQ and responded to it, and the ARISS committee
will not be directly involved. Also,
like the DX Pedition, there may be times when you foretell the date and time of
communication. In
ARISS, the frequency of general communication has been decided for the time
being as follows for the time being, so please follow this and communicate.
Downlink
(voice worldwide) -145.80
MHz
Downlink
(packet: worldwide) -145.825
MHz
Uplink
(packet: worldwide) -145.99
MHz
Uplink
(voice: first region) -145.20
MHz
Uplink
(voice: second region, third region) -144.49
MHz
The QSO between astronaut and School students can be heard during programme with the help of link given below:
1.
Direct Contact
A direct ARISS School Contact involves the setting up
in the school of a satellite type amateur radio ground station. This is done by
volunteering radio amateurs.
For several reasons a direct radio contact is not
always possible:
- the school building or the location may be
inappropriate for setting up a reliable satellite type amateur radio ground
station (antennas, horizon limited…)
- there are no passes of the ISS over the location at
the time the contact should occur
- etc…
2. ARISS telebridge contact
In such a case ARISS offers the possibility for a
“telebridge”. The ARISS organisation has several dedicated satellite ground
stations operated by volunteering radio amateurs. These stations are capable of
linking the astronauts to virtually any school in the world that has a phone
service and are located worldwide.
ARISS will select the most appropriate ground station
to handle the radio contact with the ISS and the uplink/downlink signals will
be relayed to the school by teleconference at no cost to the school.
2.1
Telebridge equipment
In the school a “speaker-phone” is needed. The speaker-phone shall be
equipped with a separate microphone and connected to the public address system
of the room where the audience is assisting.
Special care shall be taken to avoid audio feedback (Larsen effect). The
speaker-phone shall be connected to a secure phone line. Care shall be taken
that the phone line is free at least 30 minutes before the radio contact.
A secondary phone and separate phone number are also needed. The
secondary phone may be a mobile (check that it is operational).
Preparation
The school shall prepare 20 questions, numbered from 1
to 20.
The questions shall
be written like this:
1. Christian (12).
How do you feel in space?
2. Alice (13). What
is….
3. John (11). ...
Once approved, the numbering of the questions SHALL
NOT BE MODIFIED. The questions shall be asked to the astronaut in the order of
numbering.
On the other hand the
names of the students may be changed up to the last minute. The questions shall
be addressed to the ARISS mentor in charge of the school contact at least 10
days before the event. A short description of the school and their space and
science oriented educative project is also needed.
The questions will be radiogrammed by Mission Control
to the astronaut. The radiogramme will also feature the script describing the
school.
During the radio contact, the astronaut will read the
questions from the radiogramme while he listens to the students. In case the
radio link is disturbed he will still be able to answer a question.
The schoolchildren/students shall be trained to speak
into the microphone. They shall queue in a row, holding a sheet of paper with
their numbered question. Attention shall be given to good pronunciation:
- not to fast
speaking
- clear pronunciation
- loud voice
- mouth near to the
microphone
- not to let the
voice drop at the end of the phrase
- not to forget the
word OVER at the end of the question.
Experience has shown
that three rehearsals are needed, for adults as well as for children.
3
Telebridge procedure
One hour before the
contact the audience will be invited to a presentation on the ARISS School
Contact. A data projector (beamer) will project the world map showing the ISS
progressing on its orbit in real time. Several free PC programs are available
where the location of the ground station can also be shown. With this set up
the presenter can explain how the telebridge contact will be performed.
30 minutes before the
radio contact the teleconference is started and participants are called in by
the telephone operator.
From that point on the audience will be invited to listen and keep
silent.
Several persons will be involved in the
teleconference:
- the responsible for
ARISS Operations
- a moderator
- the ground station
operator
- the school contact operator
- etc…
1. The ground station operator will start checking and fine-tuning the
audio levels for the telebridge. He will invite the school contact operator to
proceed to audio tests.
2. 10 minutes before AOS (acquisition of signal) the ARISS moderator will
start introducing the event over the phone. He will present the parties
involved to the audience and comment the role each one is playing.
3. The schoolchildren/students will line up, queuing near the speakerphone.
They will have their question on a sheet of paper, ready to read it into the
microphone.
4. One minute before AOS the ground station operator will start calling the
ISS. As soon as the radio contact is established, the ground station operator
will turn over the microphone to the school operator.
5. The school operator will immediately extend the microphone to the first
student for the first question.
6. As soon as the student has read his question, without forgetting the
word “OVER”, he leaves the front area while the next student lines up to the
microphone.
7. When the astronaut has answered the question the school operator simply
extends the microphone to the next student without a comment. The next student
reads his question.
8. One minute before LOS (loss of signal), the ground station operator
warns the school operator and invites him to stop the questions.
9. The school operator thanks the astronaut and invites the audience to
send applause.
10. The ground station operator signs off the radio contact.
11. The moderator briefly comments the event, thanks the parties involved
and closes the telebridge.
Remark: the number of questions that will be handled depends mainly on the
length of the astronaut’s answers, as well as of the quality of the radio link.
The children/students and the audience shall be made aware of this before the
contact.
4
How to apply for
school contact
4.1.2
Send the dully filled
application form by e-mail to yasuda@ier.hit-u.ac.jp. A
member of the ARISS-Japan operational committee will be
informed about the applicant and this member will respond to technical matters.
4.1.3
Upon receipt of the
application, ARISS-Asia's education / school selection committee reviews the
suitability, ranks the accepted schools within the Asian region about every
month, and sends them to the ARISS Education / School Selection Committee. The
member's e-mail address is iaru-r3 @ jarl.org.
5 The
ARISS Education / School Selection Committee holds a telephone conference about
every month and decides the cross-regional order from 2 to 6 months ahead for
applications from all over the world and sends the list to the ARISS Operation
Committee To do.
6 Considering
the orbit conditions, astronaut's working hours, regional distribution of the
desired school, etc, coordinate with the NASA's ISS personnel, decide the week
of communication date and apply with a margin of about two months & will
notify the school. However,
in some cases, it may take only 1 to 2 weeks. Determination of detailed date
and time will be made two weeks before the scheduled week of communication. In
addition, the scheduled communication date will be specified 2 days including
the reserved date.
7 Communication
time is specified as a path that can take a long communication time between
0800 UTC and 1900 UTC on weekdays (Monday to Friday), which is usually the
astronaut's working time. In
some cases, astronauts are assigned between 0700 UTC and 2100 UC that is
supposed to be happening.
8 Communication
time is usually about 10 minutes. In
the meantime, Students ask questions to the astronauts, but in the past
examples, They have been asked 16 questions in less time and 26 in less cases. Please refer to the number of questions and decide on the
question with at least 10 people planning to communicate in advance. This
list of participants and questions should be submitted to the operation
committee two weeks before the scheduled date of communication. In
the absence of this submission, the communication schedule may be canceled.
We feel proud to serve the Nation through HAM Radio.
(Dinesh Ch Sharma, VU2DCT)
Secretary
VIPNET Club No. VP-UP0081
Cellphone
: +91 9450911438
