W8TCM made CONTACT
with NA1SS
Friday June 28 at 10:02AM
(14:02 UTC)
If you missed the event (in person or live-streamed, or on local cable channel 189) you can catch the replay of the stream (very good quality and audio) at this link:
KD8KXJ, W8RAK, NU8A, WX1J, KE8MJA, N8OCX
( Joe took everything we could throw at him – 12 cinder blocks, 2 antennas, lots of steel framing and lots of hardline and coax. Of the entire take-down crew, I think he got the most waterlogged..)
Brook designed and built the rack-mounted station and provided most of the equipment shown which was used for the contact.
We continue to receive notes of gratitude, thanks, and interest in the CARC and Ham Radio in general in response to this event which was widely covered in the media:
https://upnorthlive.com/news/local/traverse-area-library-to-host-qa-with-international-space-station
https://www.traverseticker.com/news/traverse-city-to-international-space-station-do-you-read/
We are still collecting media files (pictures, video and audio) from many sources and will present these to a future Cherryland ARC meeting and have them available online.
The Cherryland ARC is proud and honored to have assisted to provide the youth of the area a unique opportunity to engage in a once-in-a-lifetime experience and be introduced to cutting-edge technology and the intersecting STEM, Robotics, Mechelectronics, Computer, Biology, and other science-related topics intertwined into this experience. We hope this helps to direct, propel, and inspire our area youth to embrace a high-tech career path and to be fluent with the tools, technology, science, and terminology as we look to them to forge our future.
We wish to thank Dale Williams, Director of the Great Lakes Division of the ARRL for attending, our ARISS mentors Gordon Scannell and Larry Koziel, and the entire ARISS team who incidentally watched our content live while at their yearly face-to-face conference in Canada. We wish to thank NASA, CASIS, and the team at Houston watching the interaction. We wish to thank Astronaut Col. Greg Johnson for his involvement with the program. We wish to thank ALL of the support from the Cherryland ARC, namely financial support from Ernest and Jennifer Abel, David Wilcox, and the New Approaches Center in Traverse City. We also wish to thank the Traverse Area District Library for.. EVERYTHING! They invited us to facilitate contact when a Telebridge style contact (not direct ham radio, a contact via phone line) was a possibility being considered. We are happy that we were given the opportunity to participate in this and make it a success. The TADL team is AMAZING without question, and we thank them for their coordination of literally everything, and unending hospitality, and interest in our group and members.
Finally but most of all, we wish to thank our spouses for tolerating our absence and stress through this process. We intend to repay this debt gradually over time with many kind returns.
Stay tuned for a CJ article and club presentation on this marvelous experience. We hope you were able to tune in!
73,
Joe N8CN
Editor
Cherryland Amateur Radio Club