HAM RADIO IN SPACE

The date was November 30, 1983. The voice belonged to Dr. Owen Garriott,
NASA astronaut, Amateur Radio operator, as he called "CQ", ham radio
shorthand for "Calling Anybody". Over the next several days, several
thousand "anybodies" on Earth returned Garriott's calls. It was the
first time a ham had operated his radio in space. Only a few hundred
earthbound hams got through, but more than ten thousand others were able
to listen with simple equipment. The experience of sitting at home or
in their cars and hearing a voice directly from space, was excitement
enough.

In 1985, the success of the SAREX (Shuttle Amateur Radio Experiment)
Project prompted a strong commitment from NASA for future "Ham-in-Space" missions. SAREX is a two-way television picture exchange - Slow-scan TV -
from the shuttle to Earth. More than 7,600 school children participated
in the experiment. Thanks to Tony England, W0ORE, on board the Challenger, Slow-scan TV got the chance to show how valuable amateur radio can be to
the success of a mission. While Astronauts Garriott and England's
transmissions from space ushered in a new era in Amateur Radio history,
they were by no means the first Amateur Radio SIGNALS heard from space.
Hams haven't needed one of their own IN space to make use of it.

OSCAR

Who is Oscar? Well, OSCAR is more of a "what" than a "who". The
letters stand for Orbiting Satellite Carrying Amateur Radio, and
actually refer to a series of ham radio satellites - relay stations in
space. The first OSCAR was launched back in 1951, just four years into
the Space Age. It was the first satelite that didn't belong to
somebody's government.

Nearly 10,000 hams around the world have used the OSCAR satellites.
Many have won special awards for contacting hams in 100 or more
countries via satellite. OSCAR-1 was a fairly primitive satellite,
built by a group of hams fromCalifornia. OSCAR-10, launched in 1983,
was an international effort, built by hams from four continents,
coordinated by AMSAT, the Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation. AMSAT is
a non-profit scientific organization based in Washington, DC. Its
primary goal is to further the use of space for ham radio
communication. It depends on member contributions to pay the cost of
such things as building satellites and getting them launched. It
receives no government funds. More information is available from AMSAT,
PO Box 27, Washington, DC 20044.


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