| Amateur Radio
- Space Station I have also spoken
with astronauts and cosmonauts aboard the Space
Shuttles, International Space Station and Russian space station MIR on
several occasions from my home station here in
Doaktown.
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One of my
most memorable radio contacts was with
fellow Canadian Chris Hadfield when he was aboard the Shuttle
Atlantis in November of 1995 during
Mission STS-74. As Atlantis passed over
New Brunswick I was able to chat briefly
with Chris and, by luck, a local TV film
crew was there to record the whole thing.
Since that mission Chris has again
distinguished himself by becoming the
first Canadian to walk in space. |
In
May and June of 2001 I also managed to speak with
Space Station astronauts Susan Helms and Jim Voss while they were in orbit. My second
contact with Susan was with my small, 1/2 watt,
handheld radio from my backyard as the Station
passed east of Newfoundland and over the
Atlantic.
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Susan Helms (KC7NHZ) and Jim
Voss. Both returned to Earth on August
22nd, 2001.
(photos courtesy NASA)
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Following
the radio contacts, I received a special QSL card
commemorating the event...
 
| On October
24, 2004, I managed to talk via radio to
Mike Fincke, KE5AIT, just hours before he
and crewmate Gennady Padalka departed the
Station for their return to Earth. I made
the radio contact from my vehicle while
driving through Doaktown. Mike was a
great friend to amateur radio when he was
in space, and made hundreds of contacts
with people on the ground during his
187-day mission. To the right is a
picture of Mike working the amateur radio
equipment from space. (photo courtesy,
NASA). |
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| If you
want to know where the International
Space Station is right now, just visit
this link to Heavens Above. You can also input your city
or town name and see a table of upcoming
orbital passes so you can try to spot the
station as it passes over. If you are in
New Brunswick, just click here to get a ready-made
set of precictions for the next several
days. If you are a student or a
teacher at a school in the central New
Brunswick area, I can help you organize a
special scheduled radio contact between
your school and the Space Station. If
this interests you, please email me for further details.
You can
find out more about the Space Shuttle
program by visiting the NASA web site and you can find out more about
Amateur Radio aboard the
International Space Station by visiting this NASA link or the ARISS page.
The American Radio Relay League cooperates with NASA in the
Shuttle Amateur Radio Experiment, or
SAREX for short, and they have some
wonderful resources and links on their
site.
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I specialize
in long range VHF 50 MHz communications. In 1996
I placed 4th in the world in my class (6M
single op) in the CQ WW VHF Contest.
Another contest I
participated in was on Miscou Island in July
2003. Follow the link for all the details.
VE9ND Miscou Island - NA-068 (RSGB IOTA
Contest - July 2003)
30 Harland View Drive
Stratford, PE
Canada, C1B 1W3
(902)
367-7764
Email: vy2hf@eastlink.ca
Website Designed by
the XYL
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