Hello Jacob,
1st answer:
Last Month I have gone to Siegburg near Köln for an ARISS contact between Siegburg Gymnasium and Alexander Gerst. I have brought with me all the equipment for a direct Ham video receiving ( Dish, down converter, tracking system and PC with software ready for HamTV receiving) . But the astronaut was not allowed to use HamTV at this moment. This decision doesn't depend of ARISS team. For what I know, for the moment HamTV will not be allowed to be used before 2015. We are asking at ARISS for a quick decision, but administration takes time.
Are you really sure you will have HamTV switched on for your contact in November? I think no.
2nd answer :
We have actually 3 Ground Stations that can receive HamTV and stream the video to the:
http://www.noelandsally.net/iss/ . We use BATC Multiviewer for each HamTV contact with some school in Europe. The 3 active Ground Stations are : EI9FHB, F6DZP and IK1SLD. That should allow about 10 mn of video for a descending pass. For an ascending pass we are working now to add 2 others ground stations : one in Portugal and another in Poland.
So if you will have your ARISS contact using HamTV in November, all of Ground stations will be active to help you and stream to the Multiviewer. If you are not too much far from my home (Poitiers – France), I could go again in Germany with all the equipment for a direct receiving in your school.
73
Jean Pierre F6DZP