Successful ARISS contact with Complex of Technical Schools in Kolo, Poland

Wednesday, September 19, 2012 at 7:13 UTC, i.e. 9:13 CEST, students of Complex of Technical Schools, Kolo, Poland established ARISS contact with astronaut Akihiko Hoshide KE5DNI onboard the International Space Station. Astronaut Aki Hoshide operated with the ISS callsign OR4ISS. This was a direct contact performed by amateur radio station SP3PGZ, located in the school.

Kolo is a 650 years old, small city located in the central region of Poland. Zespol Szkol Technicznych (Complex of Technical Schools, abr. ZST) in Kolo is a modern, dynamic and constantly developing school with more than 60 years tradition, with a well-qualified staff. The school is one of the largest secondary schools in the region. Currently they teach more than 1000 students between 16 and 20 years old.

Local School Amateur Radio Club SP3PGZ was established in 1976 and since then it has been active on many amateur radio bands. The main goals of the club are: promoting shortwave radio communication as a hobby for young people, cooperation in organizing local events and taking part in competitions. Now they established the ARISS school contact.

The contact took place at Centre of Information in the school, where an audience of about 30 visitors and media participated to the ARISS event. Before the contact, host of the event Dr. Armand Budzianowski and students Konrad Kustosik and Mateusz Karulak presented visitors and media information about ARISS and about the students’ preparation to this contact with the ISS via Ham Radio.

At 7:13 UTC, contact was established with OR4ISS by SP3PGZ station. Mr. Greg Walichnowski SP3CSD, the radio contact operator, exchanged welcome greetings with astronaut Akihiko Hoshide KE5DNI. Using the VHF radio in the Service Module, Aki answered 18 questions from the students. To close the contact, students dedicated this event to the memory of all those brave men and women like Yuri Gagarin, Neil Armstrong or Sally Ride and to all ISS crew members who are striving to fullfil humanity’s dream of conquering the universe.

The event was covered by several TV stations and other media. There was 2 minutes live breaking news on wide-World in Polish language television TVN24. http://www.tvn24.pl/wideo/na-zywo/.

Two movies produced by TVN24 are available here: http://www.tvn24.pl/wiadomosci-poznan,43/good-morning-my-name-is-greg-uczniowie-rozmawiali-z-kosmonauta,277673.html

Live Streaming video was available on: http://live.arisspolska.info, and 89 viewers have been been logged.

Downlink signals from the International Space Station on 145.800 MHz FM were load and clear. Uplink signals from school to ISS were relayed by the local amateur repeater on 438.800 MHz FM, locator JO92hf.

Congratulations to ZST and to the SP3PGZ Team

Link to audio: http://ariss.pzk.org.pl/SP/EU208/audio

Link to video: http://ariss.pzk.org.pl/SP/EU208/movie

Links to photo albums: http://ariss.pzk.org.pl/SP/EU208/photos

Links to media: http://ariss.pzk.org.pl/SP/EU208/links

Dr Peter Kofler, IN3GHZ

Dr Armand Budzianowski, SP3QFE

ARISS Mentors

Dr Armand Budzianowski, who was in this case also coordinator of the event thanks all persons involved in this event. In particular I would like to thank my daughter and my wife, for accepting that I had to spent a lot of time for the preparation to this ARISS contact instead of spending time with family; my SK daddy, Janusz SP3OCB, Robert SP3SLD, Agnieszka SQ3IV, Adam Wilk, Jacek SQ5RJG, Andrzej SP6JLW, Michał SQ7NSQ, Hubert SQ9AOL, Daniel SQ5AXS, Mirosław Hermaszewski, Mariusz Kozajda, Michał Kazimierczak and users of the SP7PKI forum for useful scientific discussions and spiritual support in this project; people and companies for fruitful discussions and their time spent on this case and sometimes providing equipment: Krystian SQ2KL, Grzegorz SP3CSD, Janek SP3AOS, Piotr SP9TPZ and SP9PKS HAM radioclub, Michał SQ3PMM, Piotr SP5MG, Sebastian Stoch (Orbitron), Jacek Bielecki (SPID), Grzegorz SP8NTH (drivers), Krzysztof SP6TPF (microphones), Darek SQ2HQY and SP2ZIE team, Martin DK7ZB (projects of antennas), Georges ON6WG/F5VIF(projects of egg-beater antenna), Dominik SQ5KB, Kamil Bielecki, Krzysztof SP7DCS, Jacek SQ3IZ, Tomek SP3TLM, Lukasz SQ3POO and Grzegorz SP3XPE; Wiktor Stronski and Jacek SQ3IZ, who were an “astronaut” during the training lessons with the the students; students and teachers from the ZST school, especially for the teacher of ZST Wiktor Stronski for excellent cooperation, a well done job, and time for preparing young people to this event. Special thanks to: Marcin Zylinski, Jarek Pawlicki, Zbyszek Pawlowski, Szymon Rybinski, Roman Wlodarczyk, Rafal Borkowski, Marcin Szczap, Tomek Chybczynski and Wojtek Wozniak - for an excellent technical job as well as movie and audio productions; MDK in Kolo team and all other persons involved in this project.

Thank you to SK dr Rafał Kalitynski, dr Grzegorz Żukocinski and Emil Holland, - for your support in the project of a new portable rotor for ARISS contacts.

There are also special thanks to Dr Peter Kofler, IN3GHZ and Gaston Bertels, ON4WF for mentoring and teaching me, and helping me to prepare the ARISS contact. Thanks to all of you!

73, Armi