On Friday, March 17th, 2006, members of the Goddard Amateur Radio Club provided an opportunity for students at Bowie High School in Bowie, Maryland, to talk to astronaut Bill McArthur on the International Space Station. Their teacher, recently licensed ham, Art Colton (KB3KAR) asked for the club's help and a number of members responded.
The site was surveyed and a station was set up and tested in the weeks prior to the scheduled contact. It was cold up on the roof, but James Gass (N3CJN), Hugh Dowell (W9WNH), Art Colton (KB3KAR), Bob McCown (N3IYI), Rob Gresty (N3RLL), Mark Steiner (K3MS), and Dave Taylor (W8AAS) braved the wind to set up antennas. Robert DiRosario (KA3ZYX) was also up there helping and taking pictures. Other participants in setup and testing included Pat Kilroy (N8PK) and Ron Parise (WA4SIR). Ron used his experience as an astronaut to act the part for the dry run.
Clicking on a picture or it's caption will bring up a full sized copy of the picture.
Bowie High School's contact with Bill McArthur was very successful. Ten students had 20 questions prepared, and all were asked and answered. We encountered two significant fades, and the first masked all of Bill's response. But we had a little extra time at the end, and the teacher was way ahead of us. He had that student requeued and she was able to re-ask the question, which Bill handled just as if the redo were planned. Bill even answered two Russian language questions in Russian. The student was very happy about that.
The kids were ecstatic, their parents were proud, and the principal, his staff, and his higher-ups were highly impressed and very pleased.
Frank Bauer couldn't make it back to the area to be at this contact, as he'd hoped, but AMSAT president, Rick Hambly attended the event and helped out with PR, handed out brochures, etc.
We had decent media coverage, with print journalists and photographers from the Washington Post and some smaller, local papers. The only TV coverage was from a local cable access channel.
Operators: Jim Gass (N3CJN), Ken McCaughey (N3FZX), Hugh O'Donnell (W3FUO), Dave taylor (W8AAS), Bill Boston (N3DCI). Carl Wales got stuck with roof duty in case there was a problem with the antenna.
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Last Update April 12, 2006
