Ten lucky students from the Sanderson Schools made history on December 8, 2005 when they spoke with astronaut Bill McArthur via 2-meter amateur (ham) radio. McArthur is the commander of the Expedition 12 crew which currently resides on the International Space Station. Valery Tokarev, a Russian cosmonaut, is the other member of the crew and serves as the flight engineer.
The students chosen to represent Sanderson schools were Elias Hafner (3rd grade), Daniel Luevano (4th grade), Christopher Stephens (5th grade), Ashley Hagelgans (6th grade), Jackie Lakey (7th grade), Victoria Busch (8th grade), Ashlee Gamboa (9th grade), Sean Haley (10th grade), Ariana Gamboa (11th grade) and Olivia Espinosa (12th grade). The students were chosen through poster and essays contests. Judges for the contest were Terrell County Judge, Leo Smith; Terrell County Sheriff, Clint McDonald; and Sanderson Times newspaper publisher, Jim Street.
Two teachers were responsible for bringing the project to Sanderson. They were Mr. Chris Houy, science teacher, and Ms. Amy Carman, math teacher. Ms. Carman holds the call sign KD5HYB and served as the radio operator for the event. The contact was set up through a program called ARISS (Amateur Radio on the International Space Station). Schools go through a lengthy application process and wait approximately three years after the application has been accepted
Four members of Big Bend Amateur Radio Club (BBARC) from Alpine, TX were also in the audience. BBARC was the sponsoring club and provided all of the equipment and software needed to make the contact. A circularly polarized antenna was set up on the roof and laptop computer was used to make the antenna track the space station as it flew overhead. Two club members in particular, John Sanders (call sign AD5BY) and Bill Brooks (call sign KE5OG), were of great assistance as they were responsible for setting up and testing all the equipment.
The students, their parents and other spectators gathered in the high school auditorium at 11:30 a.m. and anxiously awaited the voice of Bill McArthur. Ms. Carman began calling for the space station a minute or so before it was due to rise over the horizon.
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