For the second year, the Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) will work with Hamvention to support ARISS. Two ARISS Challenge Coins will be given away in a special drawing held just prior to the big prize drawings on Hamvention’s final day, May 21. ARISS has donated two of the coins, positioned side by side in a display that shows off each of the coin’s sides, to be given away. The commemorative coin is the premium received by donors who give $100 or more to ARISS.

Hamvention 2017 has selected ARISS Chair Frank Bauer to receive its Amateur of the Year award, crediting his technical achievements on GPS reception experiments with AMSAT’s Phase 3D. Hamvention also cited Bauer’s ARISS and SAREX work. Bauer thanked Hamvention for supporting ARISS.

“The ARISS Team kicked off its fund-raising campaign at Hamvention 2016 — ARISS needs funding for the very high cost of replacing our aging ISS radio system (one of the radios failed in October 2016) and to help defray costs of continuing ARISS operations,” Bauer said. “Having Hamvention team up with ARISS again in 2017 is a major boost, motivating the ARISS hardware team to work that much harder.” Bauer invited Hamvention visitors to stop by the ARISS booth to see a model of the newest power supply that will be undergoing space-certification testing.

Contributions are welcome!