Special News Bulletin from QCWA Wild Rose Chapter 151

This is one of those moments where I can say I am proud to be president of QCWA Wild Rose Chapter 151.

Why? As the sponsoring organization we agreed to assist with an ARISS application in order for school kids to talk with the licensed amateur radio astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS).

We are pleased to announce that after approximately 17 months this will come to fruition on December 02, 2005 beginning at 17:59 UTC. For almost 2 months we have known that our scheduled contact with the ISS was getting closer. At first, the week of November 28th was selected but, we still had not known the exact date until now.

This is all taking place at the Ralph McCall School in Airdrie,
AB, a first for Alberta to talk with the astronauts on the ISS.
This is where Brian Jackson, VE6JBJ teaches a grade five class. This contact will be one of Brian Jackson's dream come true. Licensed for less than 2 years, he has enthusiastically instilled amateur radio into his classroom. Along with this he has worked with QCWA Chapter 151 to bring two schools on board with the Radio Amateurs of Canada Youth Education Program. All of this has been beneficial both for Brian, the 2 schools and Chapter 151!

A team of 12 volunteers have been working furiously on
weekends setting up antennas on the school roof as well install other related radio equipment. ISS Operations require a backup system for most everything - like antennas, radios, computers, etc. Alfa Radio in Edmonton have been most generous in loaning us a brand new AlfaSpid Az/El rotor with cable, as well coax cable. The AlfaSpid rotor will be driven by a satellite tracking program via a computer for automatic tracking of the Space Station.

Now that we have an exact date - our contact with the ISS will attract considerable media attention. To date we have learned that the CBC will be on site and plan to do a "live feed" as well provide a clip for the local news. If we are lucky we might even make the National. Watch the evening news and local news papers
for all this.

For all amateur radio operators and short wave listening
enthusiasts - we plan to have a live simulcast audio feed to the IRLP Discovery Reflector (9010). There is also a Livestream Audio link on their web page: http://www.discoveryreflector.ca for those who are unable to listen in via IRLP. Please note that there may be a delay of 5 to 10 minutes for this audio stream after the start of the actual contact.

Locally the Calgary Amateur Radio Association is helping with a plan to possibly put a temporary IRLP link to repeater VE6RYC on 146.850 - 600 (their flagship repeater) or make some changes to repeater VE6REC on 147.210 + 600 for a more robust connection. If you have the time tune in!

Ken Oelke VE6AFO

• Visit the QCWA website

Source: Radio Amateurs of Canada

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