ARISS school contacts enhanced by internet voice communications

For the ARISS School Contacts on 22 May 2006 with Primary School Virgilio in Mestre (Venice) and on 18 April 2005 with Marconi Institute in Civitavecchia and Malignani Institute in Palmanova (Udine), technical solutions were used to enhance the ARISS contacts, involving Internet Voice Communications as support and widening of communications by amateur radio.

ARISS CONTACT ON 22 MAY 2006 WITH PRIMARY SCHOOL VIRGILIO IN MESTRE (VENICE)

The amateur radio station, set up at the primary school in Mestre, had support from three remote amateur radio stations. Audio transmission between the remote stations and the main station in the school was done by Internet Voice Communications (VoIP), called teamspeak. Teamspeak involves a server which supports clients connected by phone lines.

The primary purpose of teamspeak for the ARISS contact in Mestre was to serve as a back-up, allowing contact with the ISS through a remote station in case of failure of the main radio station. Moreover, this system has permitted to extend the contact by sharing stations located several hundreds of kilometers from the main site. Through ground station IKØWGF, situated 400 Km from the school, the contact was maintained nearly thirty second after the ISS was out of reach of the main station in Mestre. The school thus enjoyed a longer “spacetalk”.

ARISS CONTACT ON 18 APRIL 2005 WITH INSTITUTES IN CIVITAVECCHIA (ROME) AND PALMANOVA (UDINE)

This ARISS School Contact has been the first involving two different schools simultaneously. Distance between these two Italian schools is about 400 km. In each school an amateur radio ground station was installed. Questions were transmitted to the crew on the ISS by each school alternatively. The schools synchronized their questions as they were interconnected by the Internet Skype telephone system.

Skype teleconferences were organized for the schools, before and after the contact, extending the benefit of the “spacetalk” to seven more Italian schools. The number of students and teachers involved in the contact has been about 2500 persons. The event was broadcast direct on the website of the main national television, RAI1. At the end of the contact, Princess Elettra Marconi extended compliments and congratulations to astronaut Roberto Vittori, who was a member of the ISS crew and served as ARISS amateur radio operator for the Eneide Mission.

The techniques used for these ARISS School Contacts exemplify the know-how of the amateur radio service serving the youth and the educational community.

Francesco De Paolis, IKØWGF
ARISS Mentor

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