philb@tekecs.UUCP (06/18/83)
I would be very interested in finding out the information necessary to make a contact with the astronaut/ham on the next orbiter flight. Would some one please post the times, areas covered, protocol, and callsigns necessary to do this??? I would very much like to make a contact with the orbiter during this flight. Maybe make a date with Ms. Ride...... How about shuttle audio rebroadcasts on hf or 2m. Any one know about that (2m in Portland area)? Congrats on the sucessful Phase 3B launch!!! 73`s and tnx Phil Biehl, KA6YEP tekecs!philb
karn@eagle.UUCP (06/25/83)
First of all, it won't be the next shuttle flight, it'll be STS-9. Owen Garriot, W5LFL, will be the operator as he is a mission specialist for that flight. The orbiter will be Columbia, not Challenger. This particular flight has another advantage in that the inclination will be 57 degrees instead of the usual 28.5 degrees. This will cover northern latitudes much better, but the passes will still be very brief. The operating protocol will most likely consist of alternate one minute transmit and receive periods. Owen will scan a range of uplinks on 2 meters (not including his own transmit frequency), record the calls he hears, and then read them off on his downlink frequency during the alternate minute. Read July QST for further details. ARRL & AMSAT will be working jointly on disseminating info on this project. Phil Karn, KA9Q PS. Sally Ride is married. Sorry.