Hello ..This is an issue that is no doubt way out of my pay grade. I loosely used the term "real hams" with regard to amateur operations on the ISS. We all know what the term implies, if you don't then that is another issue. I believe they are required to have a amateur ticket. That does not give them the "burning in the belly" to get WAS, VUCC etc etc. Yes they are short on time, so are all of us, and look at the time we "make" to do that radio thing. I had a short QSO many years ago with the ISS, still recall it vividly. I do not expect any changes, and have long given up on a QSO "up there". I do get a kick out of watching the ISS go over and watch my sat array track them. You can not teach "real ham", it is either there or it's not. 73 Bob W7LRD Seattle

----- Original Message ----- From: "Ted" k7trkradio@charter.net To: AJ9N@aol.com, ve3nxk@gmail.com, amsat-bb@amsat.org Sent: Wednesday, January 30, 2013 11:02:50 PM Subject: [amsat-bb] hams on ISS

Charlie, thanks for all your efforts on this...

And of course, the priority should be the School program

73, Ted K7TRK

-----Original Message----- From: amsat-bb-bounces@amsat.org [mailto:amsat-bb-bounces@amsat.org] On Behalf Of AJ9N@aol.com Sent: Wednesday, January 30, 2013 10:07 PM To: ve3nxk@gmail.com; amsat-bb@amsat.org Subject: [amsat-bb] Re: hams on ISS

Hi all

As part of my volunteer duties with ARISS, I post the schedule of upcoming ARISS contacts on practically a daily basis. I post to the SAREX BB (_sarex@AMSAT.ORG_ (mailto:sarex@AMSAT.ORG) ). You can also check the schedule at _http://www.issfanclub.com/_ (http://www.issfanclub.com/) and at _http://ariss.rac.ca/_ (http://ariss.rac.ca/) (actually _http://ariss.rac.ca/upcoming.htm#NextContact_ (http://ariss.rac.ca/upcoming.htm#NextContact) and look for the link saying Tentative List of Upcoming School Contacts . You can also go directly to _http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/arissnews.rtf_ (http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/arissnews.rtf) .

In spite of what some may think as to how up to date the schedule is, as soon as I get updates on the schedule and success of a contact, I usually have updates posted in less than a day. There are times when we get the locked down time from the ISS planners for a contact almost at the last minute so my heads up might be very short. Unfortunately we sometimes find out about the Russian contacts after the fact and thus I am unable to give everyone a heads up. Usually we at ARISS get the scheduled date and time about 10 to 14 days in advance but we warn all schools that we may get told with less than 36 hours. We have also been aborted with less than 10 minutes to go before a contact.

We are often asked about when the crew is going to make a general contact. We simply do not know. The crew is super busy and when they do get free time, they have many things they can do. We can suggest that they get on the radios; we can never demand. So ham radio may or may not be in their game plan for that day. By the way, all of the ARISS school contacts actually take place during a scheduled off time for the crewmember. That means they either gave up some free time or their day gets extended.

73, Charlie AJ9N One of the ARISS mentors

In a message dated 1/30/2013 7:30:56 P.M. Pacific Standard Time, ve3nxk@gmail.com writes:

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.