On 30/01/2013 9:30 PM, Personal wrote:
Remember they don't get paid to sit up there on the radio. Remember too that ham radio in manned space flight has changed since SAREX and Mir. It's no longer the back up system it once was. They have iPods and such aboard now. There is Internet access and a telephone to speak with family.
I don't generally get into these types of verbal banter, but this time I make an exception. Right now a Canadian, Chris Hadfield, is onboard and doing a great job with pictures and Twitter. I see today that he did a live feed to a school here in Ontario. The part that bugs me is there were a few ARISS Ham contact before Christmas that did not show up till the day of the contact. The Canadian RAC site had no mention of it on their site and still is stuck in November.....
I read a lot of AMSAT/ARRL news letters and I have suddenly realized that the ham community is out of it altogether. It would appear that starting this year NASA themselves is looking after the contacts. I would have thought that the ham community would have been in an uproar over this, guess not.
I know that the chances of hearing or contacting the ISS is like winning the lottery, but I think now it is long gone. I am disappointed that when an USA or Russian is onboad you may hear them once or twice. I doubt that you will ever hear Chris at the mic......... he seems to be caught up in social media.
I'm not sure what the definition of a real ham is but too many times it seems to be a person stuck in the past, bemoaning the things that used to be
No I do not feel that way, I try all kinds of stuff when I have the time. Mind you I see the day when the radio will have an iPhone built in, and we will no longer need the the communication devices we have now.
Long live the smell of the big tube Collins and Heathkit rigs
Sent from my personal computer.