SUCCESSFUL TELEBRIDGE ARISS CONTACT IN WALBRZYCH, POLAND,

Saturday February 4, 2012 at 12.41 UTC, which is 13.41 CEWT, amateur radio station W6SRJ, located in Santa Rosa Junior College (California , USA) established ARISS radio contact with NASA astronaut Dr Donald R. Pettit who operated the amateur station NA1SS aboard the International Space Station. The signals were relayed by phone line to the Polytechnic school in Walbrzych, Poland, where students asked questions to the astronaut.

The Polytechnic school in Walbrzych has been established in 1946. Presently, the school is well known as Secondary Complex School "Energetyk", with a population of over 900 students. They study electricity, electro-mechanics, electronics, technical graphics, telecommunications, IT and  ITC techniques, advertising. The school is equipped for students with disabilities, education is on a very high level and graduate students can easily find employment. It is the best technical school in Walbrzych.

Amateur radio club SP6PBA, located in the school, communicates with HAM operators from all over the World and operates ATV in the 1.2 GHz band. However, their equipment is not appropriate for a direct ARISS contact. For that reason they chose for the telebridge option, using the ARISS worldwide groundstations network.

This telebridge ARISS contact has been organized by three students: Karol Kapera (4th class), Lukasz Rybak (2nd class), Mateusz Debski (4th class). Teacher Darisz Cisek SQ6EMT was their supervisor.

At about 12:15 UTC, which is 13:41 CEWT, moderator Gaston Bertels, ON4WF established phone connection between the school in Walbrzych and the amateur radio station W6SRJ, located in California, USA. This station is operated by three HAM operators: Tim Bosma, W6MU, Bill Hillendahl, KH6GJV and Herb Sullivan, K6QXB.  At 12:41 UTC, i.e. 4:41 a.m. PST, the amateur radio club W6SRJ established amateur radio contact with the ISS, and eight students and their supervisor from Polytechnic school in Walbrzych, asked 17 questions to NASA astronaut Don Pettit. The astronaut’s answers were clear and explicit. The conversation was conducted in English. Audio was excellent and the signal from ISS was loud and clear, audible on 145.800 MHz FM in West and Central USA.

The contact  was broadcast by John Spasojevich AG9D on EchoLink AMSAT (node 101 377) and JK1ZRW (node 277 208) Conference servers, as well as on IRLP Discovery Reflector 9010. People watched live streaming video on the Internet: http://live.arisspolska.info (http://www.livestream.com/arisspolska)

The event was covered by three TV stations: TVP Wroclaw, TVP Regionalna, TV Walbrzych, one local radio station: Radio Wroclaw, the local press: Gazeta Walbrzyska, Panorama Walbrzyska and media such as: Tygodnik 30 min, walbrzyszek.com, walbrzych24.com and doba.pl.

Congratulations to the Polytechnic school in Walbrzych and to amateur radio club W6SRJ in California.

73, Armand SP3QFE

ARISS mentor

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Links to the media:

Audio: http://www.arisspolska.info/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/QSO_2012_02_04_063543.mp3

TV Walbrzych: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KPFukfTWJ5A

Others:

http://www.muzyczneradio.com.pl/5961,wiadomosci,energetyk-polaczy-sie-z-kosmosem.html

http://www.walbrzyszek.com/news,single,init,article,13549

http://www.prw.pl/articles/view/19940/walbrzych-laczy-sie-z-kosmosem

http://bielawa.naszemiasto.pl/artykul/1265857,walbrzyska-szkola-polaczy-sie-z-kosmosem,id,t.html

http://www.walbrzyszek.com/news,single,init,article,13547

http://www.walbrzych24.com/wiadomosci/35/7958