May 1: The Council Rock South Amateur Radio Club, along with the Technology Club, facilitated students at Council Rock High School South in Holland, PA in trading questions and answers with Steve Bowen during their ARISS radio contact. He answered 17 of their questions. In the auditorium, 618 students, faculty, and parents watched the action. The contact was live streamed and is at www.crsarc.org/live. Within days, 1,744 people had watched the recording. A reporter from CBS TV station KYW in Philadelphia came, and quickly posted a short video at https://www.cbsnews.com/philadelphia/news/council-rock-high-school-south-speaks-with-astronauts-on-international-space-station/. Several reps from the American Radio Relay League (ARRL) attended and the ARRL Pennsylvania Section ran an online article covering the contact; it is at https://epa-arrl.org/council-rock-south-high-school-has-out-of-this-world-contact-with-international-space-station/. Before students initiated the contact, everyone watched a video from Pennsylvania Auditor General Timothy DeFoor congratulating students for their work preparing for the ARISS contact. The school engineering team and the Technology Club received recognition for accomplishments in constructing the radio antennas and for participating in the ARRL School Club Roundup’s on-the-air radio activities. A division of the school’s Technology Club is a HUNCH group–High schools United with NASA to Create Hardware. Members of the Warminster Amateur Radio Club lent a hand, and among other things, taught youth to build and solder electronic projects and do transmitter hunts.
ARISS Social Media
ARISS’ social media leader Jim Reed reported these highlights for April 2023:
- ARISS had 259,881 impressions on social media in April.
- ARISS gained >1% Followers per month since January 1, 2023, equating to ~1,200 new Followers for the year so far, and ARISS now has more than 28,000 total Followers.
April Social Media Top Posts & April Total Metrics and images
- Top April Tweet–Steve Bowen to talk to Montross Middle School: Impressions 20,132, Interactions / Engagements 124
- Top April Facebook Post – ham radio operators are part of Artemis 2 crew: Reaches / Impressions 9,691, Engagements 194
- Top April Instagram Post – times the ARISS Radio must be powered down for ISS work: Reach 203, Interactions / Engagements 21
- Top April Mastodon Post – ARISS’ anniversary of 1,000th ARISS radio contact: Interactions 15
ARISS Total April Social Media Metrics:
- ARISS Twitter – Total Impressions / Views 192,766, Interactions / Engagements 3,931
- ARISS Facebook – Total Impressions 64,843, Interactions / Engagements 1,910
- ARISS Instagram – Total Reach 2,272, Interactions / Engagements 258
- ARISS Mastodon – Interactions / Engagements 123
- ARISS LinkedIn – 5 new Followers, 126 Reactions
- ARISS YouTube – Total Subscribers 1.92k, an increase of almost 100
ARISS Upcoming Events
May 19: Webb Bridge Middle School, Alpharetta, GA – ARISS Contact, ARISS-US Team
May 19: Fairview Elementary School, Olathe, KS – ARISS Contact, ARISS-US Team