[net.ham-radio] vhf shuttle broadcasts

jhs%Mitre-Bedford@d3unix.UUCP (05/03/85)

------- Forwarded Message

"I should also mention that

	1) WA3NAN indicated that they were also transmitting on
	   ~14n Mhz FM.  I presume this is a repeater frequency which
	    would not have a very great range, so I did not copy the
	    frequency down.

	2)  If I did not say so before, the transmissions originate in
	    Greenbelt Maryland, USA.  Don't know how well they can be
	    heard at other places in the world.  I'm new to this DX stuff.

	3)  During Spacelab 1, I was at Edwards AFB for the landing, and
	    found that the JPL Amateur club was transmitting the same
	    stuff on repeater frequencies.  Those of you on the
	    near the Pacific may find that the same folks are also
	    transmitting on other AM frequencies just as Goddard is.  Worth a
	    try if you can't get Goddard.

						  - Burns"

------- End of Forwarded Message

I happened to be in Clear Lake City (Houston Suburb where NASA - Johnson Space
Flight Center is located) during the October, 1984 Shuttle mission.  They were
playing Shuttle audio over the NASA club repeater.  I especially got a kick
out of it because I had innocently turned on my HT on the way down from my
hotel room to breakfast, just to monitor for ham activity. I thought nothing
much of it when I heard a woman's voice discussing some technical things I
didn't quite get the context of until a man's voice came on saying, "Sally,
this is Houston.  Could you move the arm so that..." -- and then it hit me
what I was listening to!  It must be fun to have access to that facility
on a daily basis during Shuttle missions.  You hear a lot of news in the
making, and only a tiny fraction of the actual audio gets onto the TV
newscasts.


						73,
						John S., W3IKG