ARISS Plans Triple Header of Ham Radio School Contacts

Reposted from ARRL:

NEWINGTON, CT, Sep 21, 2006 -- Friday, September 22, will be a sort of "triple witching day" for the Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) program. For the first time since the inaugural ARISS school contact in December 2000, students at three schools will have the opportunity in the same day to speak with three of the six space travelers now aboard the ISS. All three QSOs will be direct on VHF.
The Expedition 13 crew, set to return to Earth later this month, consists of Commander Pavel Vinogradov, RV3BS, and NASA ISS Science Officer Jeff Williams, KD5TVQ. The just-arrived Expedition1 4 crew includes Commander Michael Lopez-Alegria, KE5GTK, and cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin, RZ3FT, who'll be on his second ISS duty tour. Bridging Expedition 13 and 14 is European Space Agency astronaut Thomas Reiter, DF4TR. Aboard for the next week is civilian space traveler Anousheh Ansari, a 39-year-old American businesswoman who contracted with the Russian space agency to visit the space station. She arrived aboard the ISS this week and will return to Earth with Vinogradov and Williams.
Reiter is scheduled to kick off the triple-header when he speaks with students at the Gymnase Intercantonal de la Broye, in Payerne, Switzerland, starting at about 1044 UTC. He'll use the German DP0ISS call sign. Ansari is next in the queue. She'll visit via ham radio with students at her alma mater, George Washington University in Washington, DC, beginning at about 1649 UTC.
Since Ansari's accelerated training schedule did not allow time for her to obtain an Amateur Radio license before going into space, she'll use NA1SS with Williams as the US-licensed control operator. Ansari, who left for the ISS September 18 as part of the Russian Soyuz TMA-9 "taxi mission," also hopes to speak via ham radio with US-licensed students, and plans call for her to be on the air at various times from now until Tuesday, September 26, using RS0ISS.
A last-minute stand-in for Daisuke "Dice-K" Enomoto as the fourth private citizen and the first female civilian to fly to the ISS -- Ansari trained on the ARISS gear in Russia. She's indicated she'd like to get her Amateur Radio license when she returns to Earth.
On the next orbit at about 1825 UTC, Williams will answer questions put to him by students at Crete-Monee Middle School in Crete, Illinois. Williams has logged 14 school contacts so far during his ISS duty tour.
HB4FR will be the Earth station for the contact with Reiter at DP0ISS, while KE4GDU will handle ground-station duties for the second event. ARISS mentor Charlie Sufana, AJ9N, will serve as the Earth station for the Illinois QSO. Downlink signals on 145.800 MHz should be audible to anyone in portions of Europe for the first pass, and in Eastern Canada and the Eastern US for the last two events.
Located some 25 miles southwest of Bern in the French-speaking part of Switzerland, the Gymnase Intercantonal de la Broye opened only a year ago with 300 students. The class taking part in that ARISS QSO -- 17 girls and 6 boys -- are between 15 and 17 years old. The school will set up for the contact in the museum Clin d'Ailes, located on the Payerne Swiss Air Force Base. Museum Foundation President Claude Nicollier, the first Swiss astronaut, will be on hand for the event, after which the students will take part in "Swiss Space Days" activities organized by the Swiss Astronautics Association.
After undocking from the ISS earlier this week, the crew of the space shuttle Atlantis participated in the first-ever three-way call with the Expedition 13 crew aboard the ISS and the Expedition 14 crew and Ansari aboard the Soyuz on its way to the station. All 12 in space at that time were able to take part in the conversation, made possible by NASA communication facilities.
NASA ISS Ham Radio Project Engineer Kenneth Ransom, N5VHO, notes that the ARISS equipment has not been functioning properly in automatic modes, and -- outside of any school contacts -- "may be silent more than usual." More information about these scheduled ARISS school contacts, including proposed questions, is available on the ARISS Web site.
ARISS is an international educational outreach with US participation from ARRL, AMSAT and NASA.