[amsat-bb] Re: hams on ISS

[Bill Booth]

On 30/01/2013 9:30 PM, Personal wrote:
 > Remember they don't get paid to sit up there on the radio. Remember too that
 > ham radio in manned space flight has changed since SAREX and Mir.
 > It's no longer the back up system it once was. They have iPods and such aboard 
 > now. There is Internet access and a telephone to speak with family.

I don't generally get into these types of verbal banter, but this time I make an 
exception.  Right now a Canadian, Chris Hadfield, is onboard and doing a great job 
with pictures and Twitter.  I see today that he did a live feed to a school here 
in Ontario.  The part that bugs me is there were a few ARISS Ham contact before 
Christmas that did not show up till the day of the contact.  The Canadian RAC site 
had no mention of it on their site and still is stuck in November.....

I read a lot of AMSAT/ARRL news letters and I have suddenly realized that the ham 
community is out of it altogether.  It would appear that starting this year NASA 
themselves is looking after the contacts.  I would have thought that the ham 
community would have been in an uproar over this, guess not.

I know that the chances of hearing or contacting the ISS is like winning the 
lottery, but I think now it is long gone.  I am disappointed that when an USA or 
Russian is onboad you may hear them once or twice.  I doubt that you will ever 
hear Chris at the mic......... he seems to be caught up in social media.

 > I'm not sure what the definition of a real ham is but too many times it seems 
 >to be a person stuck in the past, bemoaning the things that used to be

No I do not feel that way, I try all kinds of stuff when I have the time.  Mind 
you I see the day when the radio will have an iPhone built in, and we will no 
longer need the the communication devices we have now.

Long live the smell of the big tube Collins and Heathkit rigs

Sent from my personal computer.

-- 
Bill Booth VE3NXK
Sundridge ON, Canada
79.23.37 W x 45.46.18 N
FN05ns

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