An International Space Station Expedition 18 ARISS school contact has been planned with participants at Quispamsis Elementary/Middle School, Quispamsis, New Brunswick, Canada on 04 December. The event is scheduled to begin at approximately 1823 UTC.

The contact will be a direct between stations NA1SS and VE9LC. The contact should be audible over eastern North America. Interested parties are invited to listen in on the 145.80 MHz downlink. The participants are expected to conduct the conversation in English. The event is also planned to be streamed live at http://www.aliant.net/SpaceStation once the link is activated.

Seems a lot of folks are confused between when the VC-H1 batteries might be running low. If the screen is black, then it is most likely that the image was shot when the ISS was past the terminator (dark side of the Earth). If the image has a distinct purple hue to it then the batteries are low enough that the video portion of the unit cannot capture an image but the rest of the unit's capabilities are still intact.

If the batteries die after the crew goes to sleep, it will likely be purple until the unit is completely drained and we won't see anything until they replace them after they wake up. If we get lucky, and they replace them just before calling it a night, then we should see about 8 more hours of images.

Topics in this report: 1. Upcoming School Contacts 2. New Zealand Homeschoolers Experience ARISS Contact 3. Video of ARISS - International Education Week Contact 4. CQ VHF Article on ARISS Meetings 5. ARISS Commemorative Event 1. Upcoming School Contacts Quispamsis Elementary and Middle Schools in Quispamsis, New Brunswick, Canada have been scheduled for an Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) contact on Thursday, December 4 at 18:23 UTC. Math, Social Studies, and Literacy Skills have been emphasized through the participation of students in this project. Subjects of amateur radio, space, satellites and the ISS have been integrated in the science curriculum. Quispamsis Elementary School (QES) and the Loyalist City Amateur Radio Club (LCARC) have participated in Echo-51 Satellite contacts for the past two years. The Quispamsis Middle School has an enrichment program. Two years of students who participated in the satellite contacts at QES are also involved with this program. The amateur radio installation has been used to complement the enrichment program, and to demonstrate amateur radio to girl guides and scout troops. Children have created posters for placement in the school to publicize the event and local and national media coverage is anticipated. Bell Aliant, one of Canada's national telecom providers, will assist in providing live video of the Quispamsis Elementary/Middle School contact. It will be streamed on: http://www.aliant.net/SpaceStation. This site may be active as early as Monday afternoon. New Brunswick based provincial newspaper, the Telegraph Journal, ran a front page story on the upcoming contact. See: http://telegraphjournal.canadaeast.com/front/article/495134.