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.