Palomar Amateur Radio Club and Open Research Institute Donate $2,449.44 to Amateur Radio on the International Space Station

Palomar Amateur Radio Club (PARC) was founded in February of 1936 and serves the San Diego, CA, USA amateur radio community. PARC hosts monthly membership meetings and hosts several annual events. PARC repeater system serves individuals and groups and provides opportunities for recreation, emergency preparation, and technical experimentation.

http://palomararc.org/

Contact board@palomararc.org

Open Research Institute (ORI) is a non-profit research and development organization which provides all of its work to the general public under the principles of Open Source and Open Access to Research.

https://openresearch.institute/

Contact Michelle Thompson w5nyv@arrl.net

Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) lets students worldwide experience the excitement of talking directly with crew members of the International Space Station, inspiring them to pursue interests in careers in science, technology, engineering and math, and engaging them with radio science technology through amateur radio.

Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) is a cooperative venture of international amateur radio societies and the space agencies that support the International Space Station (ISS). In the United States, sponsors are the Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation (AMSAT), the American Radio Relay League (ARRL), the International Space Station (ISS) U.S. National Laboratory and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The primary goal of ARISS is to promote exploration of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) topics by organizing scheduled contacts via amateur radio between crew members aboard the ISS and students in classrooms or public forms. Before and during these radio contacts, students, educators, parents, and communities learn about space, space technologies, and amateur radio.

For more information, see www.ariss.org.

This donation is given to support the Multi-Voltage Power Supply (MVPS). ARISS needs to replace the current aging ISS amateur radio station power supply. ARISS has a fund-raising campaign throughout 2019 to help with the expensive space-rated parts required to finish building the MVPS units.

Kerry Banke N6IZW has been a core volunteer in the effort to design, build, and test the flight, training, and spare models of the MVPS. Inspired by his commitment, expertise, and mentoring throughout this project, individuals organized a fundraiser through the Amateur Radio Satellite Service Facebook group.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/amateurradiosatelliteservice

Palomar Amateur Radio Club agreed to be the 501(c)(3) of record. Open Research Institute handled logistics, publicity, and secured a corporate match from Qualcomm Incorporated.

The $2,449.44 donation was made to ARISS from PARC on 28 May 2019. 

A substantial amount of additional funding is needed to replace the amateur radio power supplies on the ISS. This donation is a small part of a much larger effort to keep amateur radio in space, upgrade and update equipment on the space station, and promote peaceful international cooperation and the unparalleled educational opportunities enabled by ARISS.