What I don't understand is ...how can we make personnel contact with ISS for QSL if they only have contact with schools?
I would think it would be rude to break in a school contact.

And now they ask for donations for additional radio's onboard the ISS..........Does this mean that perhaps we will get lucky again as it
once was, and we will be able to make one on one contact with the station via: packet/voice/repeater/sstv ???????????

Look fwd to any replies:

73 de George

The Expedition 14 crew was busy this week moving trash into the ISS Progress 23 cargo ship, installing a new window on the space station and preparing for upcoming missions to the station.

The new window was installed on Wednesday on the port side hatch of the Unity node. It is fitted with a berthing camera system that includes target markings on the outside of the hatch. This will help robotic operators align and dock the station's new elements.

Complete release at http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2007/mar/HQ_SS0713_station_status.html

Audio file of the 3/16/2007 ISS contact with the University School, Shaker Heights, Ohio USA. The feed from the school to the EchoLink feed station kx4y was via Skype.

Audio File: 

QSO_2007_03_16_111256.mp3

The Expedition 14 crew Image above: The Expedition 14 crew are pictured in the Destiny laboratory. From left are, Flight Engineer Suni Williams, Commander Michael Lopez-Alegria and Flight Engineer Mikhail Tyurin.

The Progress 23 cargo craft will fire its engines Thursday to lift the International Space Station to a higher orbit. The reboost puts the station in the proper orbit when Expedition 15 arrives at the station to begin its increment in April. Two weeks later the crew will also relocate their Soyuz vehicle to another port allowing Expedition 15 to dock in their new Soyuz TMA-10.

The Expedition 15 crew launches from Russia on April 7 and will dock to the station on April 9. Expedition 14 will leave the station and return home in its Soyuz TMA-9 on April 20.

An International Space Station Expedition 14 ARISS school contact has been planned with students at East Aurora Middle School, East Aurora, New York, USA on 19 Mar. The event is scheduled to begin at approximately 13:04 UTC.

The contact will be a telebridge between stations NA1SS and ZS6BTD. The contact should be audible in portions of South Africa. Interested parties are invited to listen in on the 145.80 MHz downlink. Additional listening options are listed below. The participants are expected to conduct the conversation in English.

IRLP - Connect to the IRLP reflector 9010.
You may also connect via the IRLP Discovery website at http://www.discoveryreflector.ca/events.htm

Ever since it was designed for the International Space Station, it has been known as the Node 2 module. Now thanks to students from across the United States, Node 2 also will be known as "Harmony."

At an event Thursday at NASA's Kennedy Space Center, Fla., NASA announced the new name. Harmony is being prepared at Kennedy for its space shuttle Atlantis flight, designated STS-120, targeted for launch in 2007. Members of the STS-120 crew and managers who are preparing Harmony for launch took part in the naming event.

The name was chosen from an academic competition involving more than 2,200 kindergarten through high school students from 32 states. The Node 2 Challenge required students to learn about the space station, build a scale model and write an essay explaining their proposed name for the module that will serve as a central hub for science labs.