Congratulations BHHS/SMBVA on Successful ARISS Contact

With usual precision, Mike K1NPT, guided Bishop Hendrickson High School and Saint Mary’s Bay View Academy students through a successful contact with Italian Astronaut Paolo Nespoli, using the radio station of Claudio IK1SLD in Italy via Telebridge.

Approximately 400 students at BHHS and another 500 at BVA saw the event live.  Other joined in via a live stream to see history in the making.

Molly asks a question during the BHHS/BVA ARISS Event. Event Manager Mike K1NPT to her rightLocal station WLNE-6 news had nice coverage of the program here

YouTube video of Q&A Period here

BHHS ARISS Contact Thursday Nov 30 at noon.

Italian astronaut Paolo Nespoli, IZ0JPA — currently aboard the International Space Station — is scheduled to talk to 16 lucky students from Bishop Hendricken High School and St. Mary Academy – Bay View this Thursday Nov 30th at noon.

Paolo Nespoli

RI students and the general public are invited to watch the livestream of the event starting at 1140AM via https://livestream.com/accounts/9685187/events/7946215

Claudio, IK1SLD,  will be operating the ground station and linking to Bishop Hendricken via telebridge.  The student questions are expected to begin around 12:04PM.

Bishop Hendricken is expected to become RI’s first high school to have such a contact. 

This opportunity comes from the volunteers at Rhode Island STEAM Academy who view early and regular exposure to STEAM problem-solving as critical to the growth of Rhode Island’s economy.

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Congratulations to New Hams

The following folks just obtained their license after the latest NCRC Technician Class.  Two also took and passed their General: Richard KC1IPJ and Matthew KC1IPD

David KC1IPA
Cat KC1IPB
Raymond KC1IPC
Matthew KC1IPD
Brian KC1IPE
Peter KC1IPF
Heather KC1IPG
Denise KC1IPH
Esme KC1IPI
Richard KC1IPJ
Allan KC1IPK
Lisa KC1IPL
Hayden KC1IPM
George KC1IPN
Stephen KC1IPO
Ross KC1IPP
Robert KC1IPQ
Charlie KC1IPR
Anita KC1IPS
Pat KC1IPT

AO-91 Open for Amateur Use

AMSAT announced early Thanksgiving morning that AO-91 (RadFxSat/Fox-1B), a 1-unit CubeSat has been officially commissioned and turned over for amateur use.

The first QSOs have already happened, and this is proving to be an amazing bird, much better than Fox-1/AO-85).  Folks have already made QSOs with a HT & 1/4 wave whip.

To receive AO-91, simply tune your HT to 145.960 MHz.  When you are ready to step up to transmitting you will need to set up several memory channels to adjust your 70 cm transmit signal to compensate for Doppler.   The transmitter must also be configured with a 67.0 Hz subaudible tone.

AO-91 Doppler Shift Correction
Memory Your Transmit Frequency(With 67 Hz Tone) Your Receive Frequency
Acquisition of Signal (AOS) 435.240 MHz 145.960 MHz
Approaching 435.245 MHz 145.960 MHz
Time of Closest Approach (TCA) 435.250 MHz 145.960 MHz
Departing 435.255 MHz 145.960 MHz
Loss of Signal (LOS) 435.260 MHz 145.960 MHz

Since AO-91 will take about 12 minutes to pass overhead, you will switch to a new TX frequency every 3 minutes or so.

Of course you will need to locate the satellite based on your position. You can use the AMSAT tool (Select AO-91 from the drop down list of satellites, enter your grid square, FN41 for RI, and press “Calculate Position”, then press “Predict” — Note ttimes are in UTC, so subtract 5 hours since we are not currently in DST). N2YO’s Graphical tool is great too, just don’t forget to set your location in the bottom right of the screen.