HPM%SU-AI@sri-unix.UUCP (07/04/83)
From: Hans Moravec <HPM@SU-AI>
a029 0030 04 Jul 83
Astronaut Garriott Gets Permission For Private Transmitter
By NORMAN BLACK
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - ''This is Whiskey-Five-Lima-Foxtrot-Lima, from the
Space Shuttle Columbia.'' With those words, expressing his assigned
call sign, astronaut Owen Garriott is expected to become the first
''ham'' radio operator to operate from space next fall.
Garriott, a mission specialist on September's scheduled ninth
shuttle flight, received permission from the National Aeronautics and
Space Administration last April to carry an amateur radio transmitter
on board the Columbia.
NASA said Garriott could use the gear during his off-duty hours
whenever he wished.
But as in all things bureaucratic, Garriott needed one more
permission slip. Amateur radio operators, like any other user of the
airwaves, must answer to the Federal Communications Commission and the
agency's rules weren't exactly written with the idea of ''hams''
originating calls from space.
Garriott applied for various waivers of the rules, and the FCC
granted it last week.
''The pioneering nature of this venture warrants favorable action on
Dr. Garriott's request,'' responded James C. McKinney, chief of the
FCC's private radio bureau. Granting the waivers ''is in keeping with
our statutory mandate to provide for experimental uses of radio
frequencies.''
Garriott, a ham radio operator since his youth who now holds an
Advanced Class license, will use a five-watt transmitter on board the
Columbia that will be powerful enough to reach ham receivers on the
ground within line-of-sight of the shuttle.
Since the shuttle orbits the Earth in about 80 minutes,
conversations will be brief because Garriott's radio will be in
line-of-sight contact with a single point for only a few minutes at a
time. He is expected to transmit in the range of 145.510 megahertz to
145.770 megahertz, and receive in the range of 144.910 megahertz to
145.470 megahertz.
ap-ny-07-04 0330EDT
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