Hello NIBBB friends and fans!

This is Elizabeth speaking! It’s been some time since I was last seen on the blog, so a very quick intro from me: I was a founding member of the NIBBB– I was a high school student then, and now I’m getting ready to graduate undergrad this year. Time flies! The balloon that flew with my call, KD9ORR, was the first successful launch and long flight of the NIBBB project.

Today, I’m extremely excited to share something I was very privileged to play a small part in this past summer: fram2ham!

NET this spring, the fram2 mission will launch 4 astronauts into polar orbit for the first time ever aboard Crew Dragon. Rabea Rogge, mission specialist and German amateur radio operator, will be operating amateur radio equipment from Dragon to send SSTV signals to earth!

On the ground, students in eligible regions ages 16-25 can form teams between schools across the country and internationally. Through working together, teams will assemble SSTV images representing regions important to polar history. By correctly identifying the locations in the SSTV photographs, teams can win QSL cards with flown mission stickers!

I’m so unbelievably excited that Dragon will be supporting not just an amateur radio payload but a payload that will be contributing to STEM education worldwide! If you are a student enrolled in school at the moment, I highly encourage you to check out the website and consider involving yourself and your peers in the competition! If you’re a non-student faculty member or a non-student with connections to a student community, it would also be super cool to see the amateur radio community help spread the word and encourage the creation of teams.

fram2ham is providing a ‘manual’ providing not only competition details but also the recommended hardware and signal chain for participating. There’s a Discord server available that provides Q&A and is facilitating the creation of teams. (Please direct your questions and inquiries there– I’m not a rep for this project, just excited to share the news!)

By the way, this is the first in a series of future blog posts from members of the NIBBB focused on their own projects and exploits! There’s more cool updates to come from our members on the horizon, so please stay tuned. 🚀✨

‘Til next time,
Elizabeth