Friday, 8 January 2016

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

Here is what I heard from my home in Staines Middlesex UK (IO91SK)
Here is the AMSAT echolink recording of the contact 

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

7 Minutes before AOS, warm up message for the school

This is the end of the speeches and thank yous!

Found this video of the ISS pass from YouTube


Picture
  • 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.

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.

Thursday, 7 January 2016

Hytera 685 getting started series: Install USB drivers

USB driver for Hytera 685 can be downloaded from HAM-DMR.nl
Make sure you choose 32 or 64 bit depending on your computers hardware.

Using 7zip or winrar or winzip open the file
Double click on folder DMR_SW_usb driver......




Double click on the DMR_SW_usb driver folder



Double click on driverinsstaller


You should now see a long list of files
Double click on setup.exe



Click run


Click Install





Be patient can take a couple of minutes


Click on OK

Hytera 685 getting started series: Install Customer Programming Software CPS


The Hytera CPS can be downloaded from ham-dmr.nl

Save the file and open it with 7zip winzip or winrar
Double click on setup.exe



Click on Run



The password is in SN.txt or copy and paste this: D78V70007022EM5C00
Click next



Click on Next


Click on accept the terms and then click on Next


Fill in your name or call sign and put anything for company.
Click on Next


if you need to change file location click on change (not usually needed)
Click on Next


Click on Install


Click on Finish



Wednesday, 6 January 2016

ISS contact with Frederick W. Harnett Middle School, Blackstone, Massachusetts, USA *Tim Peake*

Here is my recording from Echolink of the school contact

Pre contact speech

Link set up

Principal speech and details of radio / ISS contact

ISS contact recording   <<<<<====This is the main contact with Tim Peake


End of contact thanks








A telebridge contact via K6DUE with students at Frederick W. Hartnett Middle School, Blackstone, Massachusetts, USA was successful Tue 2016-01-05 17:42:06 UTC 81 deg. Astronaut Timothy Peake KG5BVI answered 14 questions for students and an audience of 600.
 
​Frederick W. Hartnett Middle School is a vibrant school in the central Massachusetts town of Blackstone, adjacent to Rhode Island’s northern border. It houses sixth through eighth grades for the regional school district that serves the towns of Blackstone and Millville.   This is a quiet, somewhat suburban to rural area where most town residents choose to remain to raise their own families. The major land-form in the area is the Blackstone River, which runs southeast through our towns. Because of this river, like many New England towns,  these areas were prominent mill towns in the late industrial era, and our landscape is dotted with old mills near the river, many which have been re-purposed for factory work, storage or condo living.
Our regional school district has two elementary schools, one middle school, and one high school.  Our ten-year-old building was built to keep our students up-to-date with technology. We are proud to say that we have 5 computer labs and a STEM program for each grade.  It is our sixth-grade students who will be asking the questions to the chosen ARISS astronaut. Sixth graders have just completed an extensive set of lessons about the ISS, its mission, the country partners who sponsor and keep the ISS going, its components, astronauts, some of the science happening on board, and a little bit about astronaut training. Earlier in the school year, they learned about our Universe, its history, the formation and the lives of stars and galaxies, our Sun and its solar system and Earth’s place in all of this.

Students are very excited to have this opportunity to speak with an ISS astronaut. In our classes, we often follow the path of the ISS, and we watch the Earth from the High Definition Earth Viewing System (HDEV) cameras placed on the ISS.  We watched today’s Soyuz TMA-19M launch and ISS docking, bringing the three new crew members for Expedition 46.  We have also had some very successful ISS viewing parties where students returned to school with their parents after dark to view the ISS when it passed overhead.  We know you astronauts can’t see us, but we waved anyway!

Thank you ARISS, NASA, ESA and all the ISS partners, our ARISS helpers Charlie Sufana and David Taylor, and all the astronauts who have participated in this great program which gives so many students a glimpse into and a personal connection with the science of space exploration and communication, on Earth and in space! 

Tuesday, 5 January 2016

Frederick W. Hartnett Middle School, Blackstone, Massachusetts,

A telebridge contact via K6DUE with students at Frederick W. Hartnett Middle School, Blackstone, Massachusetts, USA was successful Tue 2016-01-05 17:42:06 UTC 81 deg. Astronaut Timothy Peake KG5BVI answered 14 questions for students and an audience of 600.
 
​Frederick W. Hartnett Middle School is a vibrant school in the central Massachusetts town of Blackstone, adjacent to Rhode Island’s northern border. It houses sixth through eighth grades for the regional school district that serves the towns of Blackstone and Millville.   This is a quiet, somewhat suburban to rural area where most town residents choose to remain to raise their own families. The major landform in the area is the Blackstone River, which runs southeast through our towns. Because of this river, like many New England towns,  these areas were prominent mill towns in the late industrial era, and our landscape is dotted with old mills near the river, many which have been repurposed for factory work, storage or condo living.
Our regional school district has two elementary schools, one middle school, and one high school.  Our ten-year-old building was built to keep our students up-to-date with technology. We are proud to say that we have 5 computer labs and a STEM program for each grade.  It is our sixth-grade students who will be asking the questions to the chosen ARISS astronaut. Sixth graders have just completed an extensive set of lessons about the ISS, its mission, the country partners who sponsor and keep the ISS going, its components, astronauts, some of the science happening on board, and a little bit about astronaut training. Earlier in the school year, they learned about our Universe, its history, the formation and the lives of stars and galaxies, our Sun and its solar system and Earth’s place in all of this.

Students are very excited to have this opportunity to speak with an ISS astronaut. In our classes, we often follow the path of the ISS, and we watch the Earth from the High Definition Earth Viewing System (HDEV) cameras placed on the ISS.  We watched today’s Soyuz TMA-19M launch and ISS docking, bringing the three new crew members for Expedition 46.  We have also had some very successful ISS viewing parties where students returned to school with their parents after dark to view the ISS when it passed overhead.  We know you astronauts can’t see us, but we waved anyway!

Thank you ARISS, NASA, ESA and all the ISS partners, our ARISS helpers Charlie Sufana and David Taylor, and all the astronauts who have participated in this great program which gives so many students a glimpse into and a personal connection with the science of space exploration and communication, on Earth and in space!