🚀 Big news!
Astronaut John Shoffner, KO4MJC (Ax-2 pilot), will join us as special guest at ARISS @ Dayton Hamvention 2026!
STEM inspiration from orbit straight to Dayton. Stay tuned for details! #Hamvention2026 #ARISS #AmateurRadio
#ariss @ARISS_Intl i have heard some APRS on 70cm
but it don't apear to be sending GPS co-ordinates
On February 5, 2015 I attended an ARISS radio contact of an Italian school with ESA astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti on the International Space Station.
As a space enthuasiast the first student to ask a question to Cristoforetti, Elena Selmi, was thrilled at the opportunity to talk that day, her 13th birthday, with the first Italian woman in space. Which left Selmi stunned and speechless when Cristoforetti, before answering, wished her happy birthday from space.
Selmi eventually graduated in physics at Oxford and now works on the Bepi Colombo ESA mission to Mercury. At 24 she is the youngest Young Graduate Trainee staff member at ESA's European Space Astronomy Centre (ESAC) near Madrid. This ARISS article tells the full story in English (text in the second post of this thread).
The AstronautiCAST space podcast I co-host interviewed Selmi in Italian:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gm85aAhv0ww
This article in Italian I wrote that day in 2015 has a photo of Selmi and a video of the ARISS contact:
1/2
Our RARS newsletter has a five page article and nine pages of photos about our @ARISS_Intl contact with astronaut Chris Williams KJ5GEW last Friday!
The contact, led by @johnbrier on the radio side, was made possible by a grant from @ARDC for a “Space Communications Outreach Portable Ground Station” or SCOPG! The SCOPG will greatly increase our club capacity for space comms.
p32: https://www.rars.org/exciters/2026/RARSExciter02-2026.pdf
#KJ5GEW #ARISS #ISS #NASA #Satellites #AmateurRadio #HamRadio #YOTA #SCOPG #space
What a blast to make contact with the ISS despite the historic medical evacuation of Crew 11 and snow and ice storms on either side of today.
Chris Williams was a total pro on his first school contact. He was enthusiastic and said it made him think about his own kids.
Lots of families in the audience were in tears at the end. 🥹 Thanks @ARISS_Intl !
#ARISS #ISS #NASA #HamRadio #AmateurRadio #Raleigh #NC #STEM #space #satellites #amsat
This is the recording I made from the Conn Magnet Elementary School contact with the ISS on 01/30/2026.
Because the ISS was in view of Raleigh, North Carolina, before it came into view for me you will not hear the very start of the contact.
This was only a 14 degree pass for me, but, as you can hear, the signal was plenty strong. Because I'm way too far away from Raleigh, North Carolina, you cannot hear the students asking the questions.
@ARISS_Intl That was a really fun school contact! The questions were really great and Chris, KJ5GEW, did an excellent job answering them for his first ever school contact.
Great job by all involved!
I made a recording of how I received it on my end on the IC-9100. I will post that as a separate reply.
The image of my setup shows the ISS signal on the waterfall, but you can also see some SSB signals from JO-97 that was passing overhead at the same time.
F8ABX
ARISS - Amateur Radio on ISS
CBC Kitchener-Waterloo
M0PWX
Paolo Amoroso
Mike K3LOE
Nicolò Schira 🤖
Alex KR1ST/PA1ST