On 19 December 2022 Jean Marc (3B8DU), Vikram (3B8HJ) and Ujo (3B8HL) attended the first rehearsal for the Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) contact in 3B8. Organised by Mr. Zoubeir Aungnoo Lecturer in IT at Polytechnics Ltd Mauritius there were 26 students in attendance ready to practice this ARISS voice communications simulation session. This rehearsal is in preparation for the possible 2023 radio contact with the International Space Station (ISS).
Two Baofeng HTs were used on 144.100 MHz to simulate a real ARISS contact. Vikram role played the astronaut on board of the space station with great success. Meanwhile Ujo and Jean Marc role played the Ground Station operators. Note that other HAMs should consider taking part in this project so that we can have backup replacements if so required.
The students took turns to voice their on-the-air questions which took around 9 minutes to complete. However, in a second session the questions session only took 8 minutes. There is still room for improvement with practice. After consultations, the target is to retain 25 selected students with 20 questions.
Thanks to the organisation by Zoubeir and students of Polytechnics Mauritius in collaboration with the team from Mauritius Amateur Radio Society (MARS) this simulation session was a success. Below photos by the students of Polytechnics Ltd Mauritius. We anticipate future news and information on this project.
Click on this link to view the video made by Polytechnics Ltd Mauritius.
