On July 10, 1997 I made 2 successful STS-94 contacts from the high Colorado mountains. I was at our family's cabin which you can read about in the Why am I doing this FAQs. I have always had good luck up there with SAREX, but this being a micro gravity experiment where they tend to let the ship drift in a tail down attitude, usually results in the antenna orientation pointed away from those up north. Boy, was I wrong on this one!
The Colorado AMSAT net concluded on Wednesday night as it customarily does, and Rick, KB0VBZ was kind enough to give me some keps for the Shuttle. Before retiring for the night, I programmed my old 286 laptop with them, and wrote a script for it to listen for and respond to the shuttle the next morning. Since I was on vacation and not interested in getting up at 6:50 MDT, I let the computer do it's thing. It worked, and this is the contact. It worked perfectly as I got on both the "heard" and "worked" list. Here it is:
KANTRONICS ALL MODE COMMUNICATOR PLUS Version 8.0P
(C) COPYRIGHT 1988-1995 BY KANTRONICS INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
DUPLICATION PROHIBITED WITHOUT PERMISSION OF KANTRONICS.
cmd:\
cmd:cmd:cmd:cmd:
*Shuttle Con Script*
W5RRR-1>K8SIN/V: <I00>:
#26-is your STS-83 SAREX QSO number.
W5RRR-1>KF7E/V: <I00>:
#27-is your STS-83 SAREX QSO number.
W5RRR-1>K8SIN/V: <I00>:
#26-is your STS-83 SAREX QSO number.
W5RRR-1>KF7E/V: <UA>:
W5RRR-1>K8SIN/V: <I00>:
#26-is your STS-83 SAREX QSO number.
W5RRR-1>KF7E/V: <I00>:
#27-is your STS-83 SAREX QSO number.
W5RRR-1>SAREX/V: <UI>:
#26-is your STS-83 SAREX QSO number.
W5RRR-1>KF7E/V: <I00>:
#27-is your STS-83 SAREX QSO number.
W5RRR-1>KF7E/V: <I00>:
#27-is your STS-83 SAREX QSO number.
W5RRR-1>KF7E/V: <UA>:
W5RRR-1>KF7E/V: <I00>:
#27-is your STS-83 SAREX QSO number.
W5RRR-1>KF7E/V: <I00>:
#27-is your STS-83 SAREX QSO number.
c W5RRR-1
W5RRR-1>SAREX/V: <UI>:
#27-is your STS-83 SAREX QSO number.
cmd:*** CONNECTED to W5RRR-1
*Shuttle Con #2 Script*
#28-is your STS-83 SAREX QSO number.
*** DISCONNECTED
cmd:N0VSE>W5RRR-1/V: <UA>:
W5RRR-1>K8SIN/V: <I00>:
#29-is your STS-83 SAREX QSO number.
W5RRR-1>K8SIN/V: <I00>:
#29-is your STS-83 SAREX QSO number.
W5RRR-1>SAREX/V: <UI>:
#29-is your STS-83 SAREX QSO number.
W5RRR-1>K8SIN/V: <I00>:
#30-is your STS-83 SAREX QSO number.
W5RRR-1>K8SIN/V: <I00>:
#30-is your STS-83 SAREX QSO number.
W5RRR-1>K8SIN/V: <UA>:
W5RRR-1>K8SIN/V: <I00>:
#30-is your STS-83 SAREX QSO number.
W5RRR-1>K8SIN/V: <I00>:
#30-is your STS-83 SAREX QSO number.
W5RRR-1>QRZ/V: <UI>:
#41-N0VSE KF7E K8SIN KO6XI VK6YEI W2KQ N2OEQ N9PRP K5PK KE4KND W4SV AB4EG N5YFA
N5ZNL KB5SDW ZL1AKJ VK4GEL FO3PJ JH2VHL W6MJE K6RO W6KK W6DA N7QQ N6HL WB6UCD K4
RS KG3N F1OKN NOCALL N7TR CTDXC WC5P WA1LNP KO4ZR
W5RRR-1>QSL/V: <UI>:
N0VSE/28 VK6YEI/25 KG3N/24 W2KQ/23 K5PK/19 AB4EG/15 N5ZNL/14 ZL1AKJ/12 FO3PJ/10
JH2VHL/9 F1OKN/5
W5RRR-1>SAREX/V: <UI>:
This is STS-83 SAREX Robot station W5RRR-1
onboard the Space Shuttle Columbia.
W5RRR-1>SAREX/V: <UI>:
#30-is your STS-83 SAREX QSO number.
Notice the great clarity of the packets. I forgot to turn both Passall and Mcon on, but it worked anyway. I got QSO Number 28
On the next pass, at 10:00 MDT, I again expected nothing. Boy was I wrong again! I was listening and heard a voice say, "73"
Here is a transcript as well as my memory can remember it. I wrote this down after I stopped shaking!
Shuttle: "73"
Me: "N0VSE"
Nothing happened…….
Me: "N0VSE"
Shuttle: "N0VSE, KC5FVF"
M: "Howdy, Name John in Rocky Mountain National Park, over"
S: "Nice part of the country. Wish I were there with a nice cool breeze in my face"
M: "Yeah, it is a nice part of the country. The sky is blue and it is warm. How you guys doing up there?"
S: "We are doing great. Everything is fine here."
M: "OK, have a good flight. Thanks for the contact, this is about the 10th or 15th Shuttle contact I’ve made."
S: "OK, thanks for your support 73 from the Space Shuttle Columbia."
And that was it. My longest QSO with a Shuttle astronaut. I bet he rembers it, too! Anyway that is fun stuff. For more info, please e-mail me.
73 de John N0VSE QSY to dinner….
