Skype Access for Observers

The IRTF has a Skype Premium account for use with remote observing.

The name for the account is irtftos.

According to Skype, there is a usage limitation for group video calls under Skype Premium:

"100 hours per month, 10 hours per day, and four hours per individual call session."

At this time we are not sure if these are hard limits or otherwise, as there have been call sessions that exceeded four hours, and a warning message popped up, but the call was not ended. But it is something to keep in mind if troubleshooting a Skype video call.

For group video chat (up to 10 locations), only one member of the call needs to have Skype Premium (IRTF) and the rest of the participants need only the free skype software. After four hours, the group video call will revert to a group audio call and at that time the group video call can be restarted.

How to connect to the Skype account:

  1. Log into your own Skype account.

  2. 'Search' for 'irtftos', 'Add contact', and then 'Send Request'

  3. Another way to add is to click 'Add a contact' and type in 'irtftos' under username and then 'Add'.

  4. Once the request is sent and 'irtftos' is in your contact list, you can 'Call' the user to make a voice-only call.

  5. Or you can 'Video call' the user to make a video call.

IRTF Staff: here is the link to the staff Skype page.