ARISS Contact with Australian School Proves Educational on More Than One Continent 04/27/2021
An April 20 Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (
ARISS) contact with youngsters in the small town of Winmalee, New South Wales, Australia, folded excitement and enthusiasm into their studies. It was a live demonstration for ham radio trainees in Belgium too.
It took a couple of years to arrange the ham radio hook-up with teacher Alison Broderick’s K – 6 pupils at Winmalee Public School, but the effort put into the enterprise paid off.
Astronaut Victor Glover, KI5BKC, at NA1SS fielded questions on a range of space travel-related topics. The “telebridge” contact involved a direct 2-meter ham radio connection between Glover on the ISS and ARISS team member Jan Poppeliers, ON7UX, in Aartselaar, Belgium, who used the call sign ON4ISS for the event. Two-way long lines audio between Belgium and Australia completed the circuit for the approximately 11-minute contact.
Winmalee over the moon about close encounter
Winmalee over the moon about close encounter
It took two years to organise but this school excursion was literally out-of-this-world.
22 April 2021
Image: Space junkie: Helped by teacher Alison Broderick, Alberto asks his question about whether the space station avoids rubbish.
Students at Winmalee Public School had a direct line to the stars this week when they were given the chance to speak to an astronaut on the International Space Station as he orbited 430 kilometres overhead.
The 11-minute call was two years in the making after school science teacher Alison Broderick applied to NASA and ARISS International (Amateur Radio on the ISS) to be part of an amateur radio operators’ program that enables students around the globe to speak to an astronaut.