Tim Peake HamTV at Royal Masonic School for Girls – Credit Sian Cleaver
In a Tweet sent February 11 the UK Space Agency noted that the HamTV Digital Amateur Television (DATV) transmission by Tim Peake GB1SS from the ISS was a “World First”.
James Patterson M1DST and family listening to Tim Peake
On Thursday, February 11, 2016, at approximately 18:11 UT, an ARISS contact took place between UK astronaut Tim Peake GB1SS and students at the Royal Masonic School for Girls GB1RSM in Rickmansworth, Herts.
The ARISS team of licensed UK Radio Amateurs achieved a world first by receiving live video from the ISS during the contact. Using the HamTV transmitter, which has recently been commissioned on board the ISS, Tim Peake was the first astronaut to use this equipment during a two way schools contact.
As well as building a vehicle based HamTV receive system, which was installed at the school on the day of the contact, the ARISS UK team also installed equipment at the Goonhilly Earth Station in Cornwall to receive the 2395 MHz HamTV transmissions from the ISS, this was then streamed via the web to the school.
On the Expert Panel at the historic contact were Libby Jackson of the UK Space Agency, Sian Cleaver of Airbus, Frances Wray of QinetiQ, Stephanie Fernandes Engineering Skills Policy Specialist at the IET, Matt Cosby of QinetiQ and Chris Bridges 2E0OBC of the Surrey Space Centre.
Radio amateurs across the British Isles and Europe were able to receive Tim Peake’s signal on 145.800 MHz FM. Among them was James Patterson M1DST who uploaded this video to YouTube.
Watch Listening To The ISS
The ARISS program is designed to maximise the impact of the Principia Mission outreach activities. It directly engages students with media and communication technologies with the goal of inspiring them to pursue careers in Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths.
The contact took place on the United Nations International Day of Women and Girls in Science
http://www.unesco.org/new/en/unesco/events/prizes-and-celebrations/celebrations/international-days/int-day-of-women-and-girls-in-science/international-day-of-women-and-girls-in-science-2016/
UK Space Agency “World First” Tweet
https://twitter.com/spacegovuk/status/697847985212952576
Installation of the Goonhilly HamTV receiver
http://amsat-uk.org/2015/11/12/hamtv-on-the-iss-update/
HamTV on the ISS http://amsat-uk.org/satellites/hamtv-on-the-iss/
The questions asked by the students during the contact are at
http://amsat-uk.org/2016/02/07/ariss-rms-girls/
What is Amateur Radio? http://www.essexham.co.uk/what-is-amateur-radio
Find an amateur radio training course near you https://thersgb.org/services/coursefinder/
A free booklet is available aimed at introducing newcomers to the hobby that can also be used as a handy reference while getting started, see
http://rsgb.org/main/get-started-in-amateur-radio/alex-discovers-amateur-radio-2/
