ISS contact with Wittayanusorn School, Kho Hong District, Hat Yai, Songkhla, Thailand

A direct contact between astronaut Tim Peake, KG5BVI  and students at PSU. Wittayanusorn School, Kho Hong District, Hat Yai, Songkhla, Thailand  was successful Sat 2016-01-30 11:06:23 UTC 63 deg.

Watch a video of the interview at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25gCS1JTPxA

PSU. Wittayanusorn School, established in 2005, is a Prince of Songkla University affiliated private high school in Hatyai, Songkhla Province, Thailand.  The school serves approximately 1,200 students in 7th to 12th grade.  The school's identity colors are blue and grey.  The blue represents sustainability and grey stands for wisdom.  The school motto is "wisdom brings lasting success and happiness".  The guiding principle is "our soul is for the benefit of mankind".  The desired characteristics of our students are "SMART+" which are referred to scientific mind, good manner, aesthetic appreciation, responsibility and reliability, teamwork, and +global citizenship.  Green education is our school's uniqueness which focuses on education for sustainable development.



PSU. Wittayanusorn School is dedicated to create an exceptional teaching and learning environment in which morality is emphasized, science and mathematics concepts are embedded.  The school curriculum is designed to maximize each student's potential for critical thinking, intellectual curiosity, community involvement, and responsible leadership.  Additionally, the school has been selected by the Ministry of Science and Technology to be one of the first four regional schools of the country to host a special three-year science classroom program for high school level, grades 10 to 12, according to the proactive human resources development project to upgrade the science and technology capability of the country.  The selection of students with high ability in mathematics and science for the science classroom program is carried out by the Institute for the Promotion of Teaching Science and Technology and closely collaborated with Prince of Songkla University.  Each student who passes the selection will be entitled to a scholarship from grade 10 onwards, and subjected to certain additional criteria, he/she will be eligible for a scholarship until he/she can complete his/her education up to a doctoral degree level.

PSU Wittayanusorn School was accredited with the score 97.02% by the Office of National Education Standards and Quality Assessment on May 26, 2015.

ISS contact with Brihaspati Vidyasadan, Kathmandu, Nepal

A telebridge contact via VK5ZAI with students at Brihaspati Vidyasadan, Kathmandu, Nepal was successful today at 08:37:04 UTC 26 deg. Astronaut Tim Peake, KG5BVI  answered 17 questions for students. An audience of about 300 included students from 10 other schools, as well as the British Ambassador to Nepal, the Cultural Affairs Officer from the US Embassy, and a member of the National Human Rights Commission and former Ministry for Science and Technology.

Some local news media video reports are available at http://thehimalayantimes.com/kathmandu/british-astronaut-tells-nepali-students-to-follow-their-cherished-dreams/   and http://e-visitnepal.blogspot.se/2016/01/talk-to-astronauts.html

A video of the interview is available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Asaa1xb6fGo&feature=youtu.be

​Brihaspati Vidyasadan is a 32 year old High school, located in Kathmandu, Nepal. Brihaspati runs classes from nursery to 100 at secondary level and the 10+2 program in Science and Management at the higher secondary Level. Besides these Brihaspati also runs Diploma in Hospitality Managemant and Tourism in affiliation with Confederation of Tourism and Hospitality (CTH), UK.

Brihaspati is known for its academic excellence. To date Brihaspati has produced over 2000 SLC graduates and over 600 +2 graduates who have achieved excellent academic achievements. Brihaspati has also been awarded the "Best School in Nepal" in 2055BS.

Brihaspati is also known for its co-curricular and extra-curricular activities including sports, debates and concerts. Over the years the school has achieved Inter-school successes in football (soccer), cricket and basketball at national levels. School has also successes in inter-school competitions like debate, elocution and concerts.

For its academic, co-curricular and extra-curricular achievements Brihaspati has been placed among the Class A schools of Nepal by the Ministry of Education, Government of Nepal.

Brihaspati staff and students have been known for their innovation in education. The school is reputed to be the first school in Nepal to introduce computer education. Brihaspati houses clubs like Lokopakar, which is a student club that looks into Humanitarian aid.  Brihaspati students recently started gThink Inkh, an activity designed using the principles of Extreme Design from Stanford for instilling critical thinking and problem solving skills in students. This program has gained attention of a lot of people in the academia at a very rapid pace.

Brihaspati is located in a 25 acre land space at the heart of Kathmandu within the Balmandir compound. It  has academic facility that is of very high standards. It houses the Free and Open Source Research Lab and Ham (amateur radio) facility that students and staff have access to.

Recently during the earthquake of Nepal, one of the buildings of Brihaspati was used by ham radio operators from Nepal and India to coordinate search and reconciliation of families where over 500 families were reunited with their loved ones.

ARISS connection with the Secondary School of First Instance "Benedetto Croce", Civate, Italy

Follow the event live Wednesday January 13, 2016 , starting at 11:30 (early contact with the ISS at 12:29 )

Will answer students' curiosity American NASA astronaut Tim Kopra , to the ISS in December 2015, flight engineer of Expedition 46 commander and the upcoming Expedition 47

Links to various articles of the event:
 
http://www.lecconotizie.com/attualita/civate-che-successo-il-collegamento-radio-con-la-base-spaziale-287627/
 
http://www.leccoonline.com/articolo.phpidd=14720&origine=1&t=Civate%3A+l%26rsquo%3Bastronauta+Tim+Kopra+risponde+alle+domande+degli+studenti+dallo+spazio
 
http://lecconews.lc/news/cronache-dallo-spaziodialogo-tra-tim-koprae-gli-studenti-di-civate-137258/

A successful ARISS telebridge contact was held atScuola Secondaria di Primo Grado “Benedetto Croce”, Civate, Italy on January 13, 2016 through amateur ground station VK5ZAI in Australia. The astronaut for the contact was Tim Kopra, KE5UDN, using callsign NA1SS. 20 student questions were answered.

There was an audience of 150 students, teachers, administrators and guests and the event was covered by a local TV station and newspaper. Audio of the event was carried by the amateur radio services Echolink and IRLP.  

The connection will be made telebridge mode, with the support of the Australian station VK5ZAI operated by Tony Hutchison.
Here the official announcement from the site of ARISS Europe:  http://www.ariss-eu.org/documents/archive/2016_01_11.txt

Chertsey Radio club introduces MB6ICU

Today after friendly discussions with Ofcom and ETCC, We are very happy to announce the Chertsey DMR / Brandmaster hotspot MB6ICU

Access is on 434.5125 Talkgroup is TG9 (local)  colour code 1 and slot 2

MB6ICU is mostly on Brandmaster channel 4400



You can control the channel by setting your code plug up as follows

In contacts you will need each of the groups you wish to access
So popular in the UK 4400, 4401, 4402 and 4403 also add 4000(no-link)

next set up the channels
In digital channels you will need to create the following

MB6ICU-Main
frequency tx / rx: 434.5125
colour code 1
timeslot 2
TX contact Local TG9



Next create

MB6ICU-Drop (this will disconnect current channel)
frequency tx / rx: 434.5125
colour code 1
timeslot 2
TX contact 4000

Next create

MB6ICU-to-4400
frequency tx / rx: 434.5125
colour code 1
timeslot 2
TX contact 4400 UK

Next create

MB6ICU-to-4401
frequency tx / rx: 434.5125
colour code 1
timeslot 2
TX contact 4401 UK1

Add 4402 and 4403 and any other channels you require to your channel list.

Next you will need to create a ZONE

Call the zone MB6ICU
Add each of the channels starting with MB6ICU-Main
to the zone.



Now save your code plug and upload to your radio.

To operate MB6ICU tune radio to MB6ICU / MB6ICU-Main
Listen, to ensure no one else is using the hot-spot.
If they are please join in say hello.

If not firstly rotate the channel knob to MB6ICU-Drop and TX for about 5 seconds
This will drop all channels and return the hot-spot to disconnected
Next rotate the channel knob to the channel you wish to use, again tx for 5 seconds
This will force the hot-spot to connect to your chosen channel.

Next you need to change channel back to MB6ICU-Main

You are now connected and can use the hotspot on your chosen channel.

any questions my details are on qrz.com

Enjoy the hot-spot

M0JFP / Chetsey radio club.

ISS-Tim_contact Sandringham School, St. Albans, Hertfordshire, UK

Here is what I heard from my home in Staines Middlesex UK (IO91SK)

M0JFP recording-ISS-Tim-8-1-16

Here is the AMSAT echolink recording of the contact 

AMSAT-echolink-iss-tim-8-1-16

On the AMSAT echolink they played this recording as part of the warm up:

recorded message-happy-new-year

7 Minutes before AOS, warm up message for the school

7 Mins to go warm up

This is the end of the speeches and thank yous!

End of speech and Thanks

Found this video of the ISS pass from YouTube

• A direct contact with students at Sandringham School, St. Albans, Hertfordshire, UK is scheduled for Fri 2016-01-08 08:47:47 UTC 83 deg. This will be the first ARISS contact associated with astronaut Tim Peake and the Principia Mission.  An audience of 1300+ is expected. During the morning, the BBC will be devoting their live national BBC Breakfast news program to the pre-contact activities and the contact itself at the school.

• The BBC covered the event and posted these reports: http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-35261160 and http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/35261190.
•  A video of the interview is available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-XF1GCz87g  The video begins with the students of Sandringham School introducing their school and the activities that they have been involved with as part of their study into space.
• Another video includes an interview with one of the Sandringham students whose first contact as a radio amateur was with astronaut Tim Peake:  http://news.sky.com/video/1619375/ringing-the-iss-from-school. 
• An ARRL news story tells more about the preparations for the event http://www.arrl.org/news/uk-students-enjoy-first-ariss-contact-with-astronaut-tim-peake-kg5bvi
• Find more information about the Peake's Principia Mission at https://principia.org.uk/.

Sandringham School is a high performing coeducational non-selective and non-denominational secondary school, consistently graded Outstanding by Ofsted and being in the top 100 highest performing non-selective schools in England for the past 3 years.
 
The school is a specialist science college, arts college and leading edge provider. It is also designated as one of the first ‘World Class Schools’ in the country. The school operates a significant amount of community and outreach activities, is an Initial Teacher Training provider and runs a Teaching School Alliance for Hertfordshire.  Sandringham is also a “Gifted and Talented” lead school and International School, with significant international activities taking place throughout the year. The school also coordinates National Initiatives with the Education Endowment Foundation and has a significant reputation in the country for delivering outstanding comprehensive education.
 
The total number of students on roll is 1300 and expanding, with children from age 11 – 19, including a very large and academic sixth form. The catchment area is local, serving the needs of St. Albans and Wheathampstead although sixth form students join the school from further away if they meet the entrance criteria.
 
We have over 100 teachers in the school including specialist teachers of computing science and three female physics teachers all of whom have a specialist interest in space and astronomy. In addition, the headeacher is a very active radio amateur who is extremely supportive of this contact.