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ISS Commander Mike Fincke KE5AIT |
ISS Commander
Mike Fincke KE5AIT talks with Santa Teresa del Bambin Gesù school
On Tuesday 30 October 2008 at 09:55 UTC (10:55 local time), Primary School 'Santa Teresa del Bambin Gesù', in Rome, Italy, established a direct contact with US astronaut Mike Fincke KE5AIT, on board the International Space Station.
The Amateur Radio school station operated the contact with callsign IK0USO.
The students had been involved in the preparation of this ARISS event in different ways. The training of the students comprised satellite contacts during the weeks before the ARISS event. They also operated the reception of SSTV pictures, sent from the ISS by Richard Garriott W5KWQ.
Marcelo Teruel, IK0USO, the contact coordinator for this ISS contact, decided in favour of a direct contact. The questions were read by the pupils. The contact site was located in the school, where an audience of more than 150, students, parents, teachers, visitors and the mass media could follow the contact. Also present were, ESA representative Mr. Dieter Isakeit, Head of the ESA/ESRIN Corporate Communication Office (LEX-COR) and Mr. Daniele Giannini, President 18° District of City Hall Rome. Mr. Isakeit kindly translated the astronaut's answers, provided information and offered souvenirs.
At 09:55 UTC, contact with NA1SS was established by station IK0USO. Commander Mike Fincke answered 12 questions. The astronaut sent greetings in Italian at the beginning and at end of the contact. Thanks Mike!
The signal from the ISS was loud and clear all the time.
The audio was forwarded to different VoIP system, EchoLink by SkyPE and D-STAR. Thanks to Graham G7EVY who fed the signals of the ARISS contact into EchoLink. Thanks to Luca Ferrara IK0YYY who fed the signals of the ARISS contact into D-Star net. The audio forwarded by D-Star system was repeated to 40 nodes in Europe, 70 nodes in USA end 20 in the rest of the world.
Four TV stations (Regional RAI 3 - SAT2000 - Telelazio - Rete Blu) and RADIO RAI 1 covered the event.
Congratulations to the “Santa Teresa del Bambin Gesù” team!
73
Francesco De Paolis, IK0WGF
ARISS mentor
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