April 27 - 28, 1998
I.T.I.S. "A. Sobrero" 5BE ( IW1FQE is our school's call)
Via Candiani D'Olivola 19 - Casale Monferrato (AL) - ITALY
QTH Locator JN45FD - Lat. 4508.04N / Lon. 00827.24E
Tel. +39 142 454543 - E-mail: sobcs@sobrero.casale-monferrato.al.it

On April 27, we took part in MIREX School Day Test.

Fortunately, we had a pass over Europe at 08:53 UTC, and our staff was nearly ready to operate station.
We heard first packet frames from Space and immediately I have loaded MIRMON2 on computer.
(Watch http://web.usna.navy.mil/~bruninga/mirex.html for latest MIRMON release).

Two minutes later, station was up and ready but in receive mode only.
These are bulletins received from Mir Space Station:

Suddenly, on my monitor, an icon appears.......YES is another italian school:

IZ6BYY /270900z4251.9 N/01356.7 E/hello from ITIS "V. Cerulli" Giulianova TE,

ITIS "V. Cerulli" - Giulianova (TE) and station is operated by IZ6BYY Alain.
Alain is student of this school and I know him very well.
In the latest years we had opportunity to read our messages during several contact with Mir.

Some minutes later Mir is under horizon and we haven't received positions from other school in Europe.

We tried again in the afternoon during all passes but nothing heard from Space.

Another computer is constantly receiving latest news from USA over Internet:
http://web.usna.navy.mil/~bruninga/mirex.html and report says:
"Nothing heard all over the World"...ARGH.... Astronaut Andy Thomas says "TNC won't reset and therefore isn't running...."

We have prepared a photo album concerning April 27 - 28 test; click on image to see an enlarged photo.

Staff operating Mirex Station (Left to Right) Antonio Casaschi, Marco Stoppa Claudio Ariotti IK1SLD Prof. Mauro Demichelis IW1BSM Diego Ganora, Emanuele Braga