I was very lucky to be selected to ask a question to Tim Peake whilst he was on the International Space Station on 8th January 2016. If memory serves, about a dozen of us were selected to ask questions - mine was 'what's the most exciting thing which has happened to you so far on the ISS?'. Ten schools from across the country were selected to make contact with Tim as part of the Amateur Radio on the ISS programme - Sandringham School was the very first one, no doubt thanks in part to our headteacher being an avid radio amateur, and so we were something of a test case to make sure future contacts could go well.
Thankfully being the youngest student there, I wasn’t subject to as much media interest, though there were several practices and warm-ups with the equipment to make sure we knew what we were doing. In the end, it was a partial success – we were able to make contact make with Tim and ask him a few questions. Unfortunately, interference popped up a fair few times and with only a limited time before the ISS disappeared over the horizon, I didn’t get my turn to ask a question to Tim. It wasn’t all that bad an experience though – I still got to ask my question to a cardboard cutout of Tim in the room instead!
This was my first taste in Amateur Radio and I think what properly got me hooked – ‘wow: this is quite cool’. Speaking to CBBC Newsround afterwards, I said that ‘it’s not like every day you can just come up and speak to an astronaut in space!’ That’s definitely something I still think holds true.
A quick google of ‘Sandringham School Tim Peake Contact’ should throw up plenty of videos on the day – I’ll just link to the Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation’s round up of the day here which contains plenty of links to all of the action.