Earthlings and astronauts chat away, via ham radio

The International Space Station has cost more than $ 100 billion. A ham radio can be bought for a few hundred dollars.

Perhaps that partly explains the appeal of communicating one of mankind’s greatest scientific inventions with Earth through technology that dates back over 100 years. But perhaps there is a simpler explanation why astronauts and radio operators have been talking and talking for years.

NASA astronaut Doug Wheelock had only been on his six-month mission on the space station for a few weeks when feelings of isolation began to emerge.

Wheelock would be separated from loved ones except for internet phone, email or social media communications. At times, the stress and strain of serving as the station commander can be tremendous.

One night, looking down at Earth from a window, he remembered the space station’s ham radio. He thought he was going to turn it on – see if anyone was listening.

“Every station, every station, this is the International Space Station,” Wheelock said.

A torrent of voices clattered from the airwaves.

Astronauts aboard the space station often talk to students via ham radio, which can also be used in emergency situations, but those are scheduled performances. Some, like Wheelock, spend their limited free time connecting with radio amateurs around the world.

“It allowed me to … just connect with humanity down there,” said Wheelock, who interacted with many operators known as ‘hams’ during that time on the space station in 2010. ‘It became my emotional, and a really visceral, connection to the planet. “

The first amateur radio transmission from space dates back to 1983, when astronaut Owen Garriott took to the airwaves from the Space Shuttle Columbia. Garriott was a recognized ham who, back on Earth, had used his Houston home appliances to talk to his father in Oklahoma.

Garriott and fellow astronaut Tony England urged NASA to allow amateur radio equipment on-board shuttle flights.

“We thought it would be good encouragement for young people to become interested in science and engineering if they could experience this,” said England, the second astronaut to use ham radio in space.

An almost entirely volunteer organization called Amateur Radio on the International Space Station, or ARISS, now helps manage contact between students and astronauts on the space station. Students prepare to pose rapid-fire questions one after the other into the ham radio microphone over the short 10-minute period before the space station flies out of range.

“We’re trying to think of ourselves as planting seeds and hoping to get some mighty oaks to grow,” said Kenneth G. Ransom, the ISS Ham project coordinator at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.

Typically about 25 schools around the world are elected each year, said Rosalie White, treasurer international secretary at ARISS.

“Not too many people talk to an astronaut,” she said. “They understand the importance of that.”

The talks are also a feast for the astronauts.

“You talk to someone and look exactly where they are,” said NASA astronaut Ricky Arnold II.

Over the past 10 years, ham radio has become more popular, experts say, with about 750,000 licensed amateur operators in the US (not all of which are on the air). Help stimulate interest: emergency communication.

“Ham radio is when all else fails,” said Diana Feinberg, Los Angeles section manager of the American Radio Relay League, the national amateur radio association. “Unlike other forms of communication, no switched network is required.”

But for some hams, the appeal is the ability to connect with people around the world – or even above.

During his 10-day shuttle mission in 1983, astronaut Garriott spoke to about 250 hams around the world, including King Hussein of Jordan and Senator Barry Goldwater of Arizona. Garriott died in 2019.

“From my perspective, even from a young age, it was very clear how globally inspiring that moment was,” said his son Richard Garriott. “People from Australia and America, just everywhere, tuned in and it hit them clearly. No matter what their transmitter was, no matter where they were physically, they all became part of this global experience.”

Unsurprisingly, Richard Garriott followed his father’s lead with a flight to the space station in 2008 as a private astronaut. During his free time on the 12-day mission, the younger Garriott made contact with so many hams on the ground – including his father – that the two pieces of paper he took to record the contacts were full on his first day on the radio. .

“Any moderately populated landmass, regardless of the time of day or night, you would find an abundant group of enthusiasts ready to make contact,” he said.

What drives this desire for contact? Amateur radio operators like a challenge, especially when it comes to getting to remote or unusual locations.

“On amateur radio we always talk to people we don’t know,” said England. “If we hadn’t enjoyed the adventure of meeting other people that way, we probably wouldn’t have been amateur radio operators.”

Amateur operator Larry Shaunce has made a handful of contacts with astronauts over the years, the first time in the 1980s, when he reached Owen Garriott as a teenager.

More recently, Shaunce, 56, contacted NASA astronaut Serena Auñón-Chancellor in 2018.

“Hi, this is Larry in Minnesota,” he said after Auñón-Chancellor acknowledged his call sign.

“Oh, Minnesota!” she replied, adding that she could hear him “super clearly” in space and that he must have nice equipment.

“It’s always exciting when you talk to someone in space,” said Shaunce, an electronics engineer in Albert Lea, Minnesota. “You just never know. I check the frequency all the time.”

James Lea knows that reaching the space station can be hit or miss. He and a friend once stopped at a farm in Bunnell, Florida, while the space station flew over.

The couple was in a truck with an antenna on the roof and the radio equipment in the cabin. After a few tries, they heard Auñón-Chancellor reply, “Hey, good morning, Florida. How are you?”

Lea, 53, a filmmaker and engineer, recalled that he and his friend were “in the middle of a cabbage field. The fact that she came back to him was pretty unbelievable. ‘

Lea’s daughter Hope has been trying to reach the space station for years but never got a response. She got her ham radio license at the age of 8. Hope is now considering becoming an astronaut and going to Mars, her father said.

David Pruett, an emergency physician from Hillsboro, Oregon, attempted to make contact with the space station using a multi-band amateur radio with a magnetic mounting antenna, which was placed in a pizza plate to improve performance. Working at his dining table, he made many fruitless attempts. But one day the space station got close to the west coast and Pruett made the call again.

“November Alpha One Sierra Sierra,” he said, using the amateur radio call sign for the space station.

Seconds of silence extended after Pruett’s identification: “Kilo Foxtrot Seven Echo Tango X-ray, Portland, Ore.”

Then there was a crackle, then the voice of astronaut Wheelock. At the end, both signed off with “73” – ham lingo for “best regards.” Remembering that first conversation in 2010, Pruett’s arms are still standing.

“It was absolutely incredible,” said Pruett. ‘To push that microphone button and call the International Space Station and then release the button and wait, and then you hear this little creak and you hear Doug Wheelock come back and say,’ Welcome aboard the International Space Station ‘- it’s just mind-boggling. “

Pruett and Wheelock had 31 contacts in total, one when Pruett was trapped in a traffic jam in Tacoma, Wash.

“I feel like I’ve made a friendship with him,” said Pruett, 64, who has documented many of his contacts on YouTube. “I can only imagine that their workload is very tight and they have precious little spare time, but I think it was very generous of him to donate as much of his spare time to amateur radio operators as he did.”

Wheelock remembers Pruett well.

“David was one of the first contacts I made,” he said. “He was one of the first voices I heard as I approached the west coast.”

Wheelock’s other ham radio contacts made equally deep impressions on him – including a man from Portugal he spoke to so often that Wheeler and his fellow astronauts once serenaded him with “Happy Birthday to You.”

Wheelock also reached out to some of the first responders who worked to rescue the 33 Chilean miners who were trapped underground for 69 days in 2010.

“I just wanted to give some encouragement … to let them know that there is someone upstairs who cares about what they are doing and what comes their way,” he said.

During a six-month mission from 2005 to 2006, NASA astronaut William McArthur spoke to 37 schools via ham radio and made more than 1,800 individual contacts in more than 90 countries.

“That’s only an infinitely small percentage of the world’s population, but it’s much more than I think I could have touched it directly any other way,” he said. “I wanted to share with people who might be random, who might not have a special connection or understanding of space exploration.”

It also provided some variety in his conversation partners. During his mission, McArthur’s main crew member was Russian cosmonaut Valeri Tokarev.

‘I love him like a brother. We’re very, very close, ”he said. “But still, it’s a different person for six months.”

---

---

© 2020 Los Angeles Times.
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.