This episode of HamTalk Live is brought to you
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.com. T minus 10, nine, eight, seven, six, five,
four, three, two, one, zero, ignition. Liftoff.
Liftoff. 30 minutes after the end. Good evening
to everyone. It's time for HamTalk Live episode
number 92. It's NASA On The Air, recorded live
on Thursday, December 7th, 2017. I'm your host,
Neil Rapp, WB9VPG. Thanks for tuning in to this
episode of HamTalk Live. Tonight we're joined
by Dr. Rob Suggs, KB5EZ from NASA's Marshall
Space Flight Center. and Kevin Zari, KK4YEL from
Kennedy Space Center, and Peter Federer, KB3GTN
from Goddard Space Flight Center. And we will
take your calls live in just a few minutes. We'll
be talking about an on -air activity that's coming
up very soon. for all of the NASA facilities
across the country called NASA on the air. So
that's what we'll be talking about tonight. Last
week Dr. Ralph Fedor K0IR was here to talk about
the upcoming Bouvier Island De -Expedition and
so if you missed that just go over to HamTalkLive
.com and you can listen to it on demand there
or you can catch our podcast version on Apple
Podcasts, Stitcher, iHeart Podcasts, Google Play,
TuneIn, SoundCloud, or your favorite podcast
app. And then we're also available on YouTube.
And shout out to the Galapagos Islands, the expedition
team today. We talked to them at school and actually
got them again, myself, when I got home, one
of my students was able to make the connection
this afternoon. So it was nice to get that one
in the log and We're going to talk about getting
NASA in your log in just a few minutes. So think
of some questions and you can give us a call
and talk to us about the NASA on the Air program.
We'll talk to these guys for a little bit, but
later on in the show you can give us a call.
The number is 812 -NET -HAM -1. That's 812 -638.
4261, or you can Skype us, we're HamTalk Live
on Skype, and you can also tweet us anytime.
That's at HamTalk Live on Twitter. So I'll be
back with Rob, Kevin, and Peter right after this
word from Tower Electronics right here on HamTalk
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Check us out on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram
as well. Well, let's meet our guest tonight,
Dr. Rob Suggs, KB5EZ. was first licensed as a
technician in 1973's WA -4KVO. He upgraded to
advanced in 1978 and was assigned his current
call sign while attending grad school in New
Mexico. In 2000, he upgraded to extra and he
works for the Marshall Space Flight Center as
a space environments team lead. He is responsible
for compatibility of NASA flight projects with
This random stuff flying around. Meteoroids,
orbital debris, who knows what's floating around
out there. Ionizing radiation, neutral thermosphere
and ionospheric plasma environments. Rob earned
his PhD in astronomy from New Mexico State and
currently his research interest is in observing
meteoroid impacts on the moon. and ham radio
is interest or DXing meteor scatter are ready
jt65 and some summits on the air and and some
portable operations. Kevin Dzari, KK4YEL, was
licensed in 2014 and went from nothing to extra
all in that year. He's the activities officer
and trustee of the Kennedy Space Center Amateur
Radio Club, which is now N1KSC. He revived the
club after it had been idle for a number of years.
And Kevin is a graduate of Florida Tech and spent
17 years as a payload test engineer with NASA.
especially for the Space Shuttle program. And
he's now the Chief Technology Officer for the
Exploration Research and Technology programs
at Kennedy Space Center. Kevin enjoys operating
Whisper and build his own kit for that and some
other modes. And last but not least is Peter
Federer, KB3 GTN. He's an RF systems engineer
at Goddard Space Flight Center. He has a degree
in electrical engineering from Capital College.
He's an accomplished computer system engineer
which ties into his RF experience for software
-defined radios. He was licensed in 2001 and
his current position with NASA has him developing,
testing and installing communication systems
for space and he just returned literally from
Antarctica this week where he and other NASA
engineers were testing out a disruption tolerant
communications network to the International Space
Station, which I think could probably be a whole
show in itself. So Rob, Peter, Kevin, welcome
to the show. Well, thanks a lot, Neil. Thanks
for having us on this evening and helping us
publicize this event. Yep. Yep. Welcome. We're
glad to join you Neil here Well, we're glad that
that you're all here and we get some different
perspectives later on From all of the different
sites and your different clubs, but I'm gonna
let Rob take the lead here for a moment and tell
us about this operating vent that's kicking off
soon called NASA on the Air. So tell us about
what that is and when it'll take place and where.
And then if you want to throw it off to these
other guys, why go right ahead, Rob. Okay, great.
Yeah, that's what we'll do. Well, this is a year
long event and it kicks off really starting Sunday
evening at 6 p .m. our time here. That's zero
U .T. And we'll run for a year through December
27th of 2018, and a little bit later we'll tell
you the significance of those dates. This first
one that we start off is actually kicked off
with the Apollo 17 45th anniversary. This is
one of the anniversaries we'll be commemorating,
but this is a year -long event. It runs all the
way through. The idea here is that we wanted
individual clubs have gotten on the air over
the years to do special events. And we all got
together and started talking about this by telecon
a few months back and decided that we would kind
of coordinate efforts and try to be on the air
sort of at similar times. And we thought, hey,
we'll just make this a whole year long event
and we'll have a point system. And Peter can
talk about that a little bit later. But we'll
just have all of the clubs hopefully on the air
at various times during this year and any contacts
made with us count toward these points. And there's
a special certificate available at the end of
the event. All right, so. You mentioned, you
know, the starting date is right away. So tell
us about that first one that's coming up and
the tie there to the Apollo mission. Yeah, the
dates that we picked there, the 11th through
the 14th of December, are roughly the days that
the Apollo 17 astronauts Jack Schmidt and Gene
Cernan were on the surface of the moon. Recall
this was the last of the Apollo missions, the
last of the manned lunar missions. And we like
to do these special events kind of on multiples
of five and 10 year kind of thing. So this is
45th anniversary. That's pretty significant.
And so we'll be kicking it off this week. And
the key thing to remember here is that if you
want to find out what's going on with this event,
go to our website. We have one that's NASA on
the air one word dot wordpress dot com And it
has all of the information that we'll be talking
about here tonight plus a lot of other details
about other events and such has links to our
our various social media feeds which Kevin will
be talking about and That's how to find out what's
really going on with with the event is to go
to that page but hopefully we're not sure how
many clubs will be on next week, but we know
that a number of us will and you know we'll be
looking for contacts with folks out there. Okay
now you talked about this certificate that's
available so tell us a little more about that
and we've got the web address already here but
let's talk about the certificate and then you
can throw it over to to Peter to talk about the
point system. Yeah, the certificate will be actually
a download at the end of the event, and it'll
have a list of all the clubs that you've contacted
and the various bands and modes that were used
for those contacts. So rather than us trying
to send out these certificates, we thought, hey,
let's use the modern technology here. The certificate
will be automatically generated when you put
your call sign in. you can download it, print
it out, frame it, you know, whatever you'd like
to do with it. There will also be QSLs available
from some of the clubs. We're not sure, we haven't
worked out all the details of that yet, but for
instance, our club will probably do a special
QSL for the special events, and those will be
available with self -addressed stamped envelope.
If anybody wants to get a QSL, from a particular
contact, we just direct you to the QRZ .com page
for that particular club call sign, and it'll
have information there about whether they're
QSLing or not and how those are handled. And
I guess, Peter, if you wanted to talk about the
point system and how all that's going to work,
take it away. All right. So. Over here at the
Goddard Club, we're kind of doing sort of the
same thing Rob was talking about with doing QSL
cards as well. In terms of this contest though,
we're talking about several stations operating
on several bands and several modes. We're going
to probably play the game of one point per band
per mode combination. So if you're on 20, you
can work us on CW, phone, and digital and get
points for each one of those. It's a little bit
like field day in that sense. The exchange is
real simple because the only thing we really
need is our call and what band we're on. And
that's all we're going to log on our side. So
we don't have any fancy numbers or anything like
that going on. So it's just make contacts. And
just keep in mind that the operator on the other
end out here is probably not used to pileups
and operating those things. So it might have
to have a little patience out there. But it should
be pretty straightforward. There was some talk
about doing supporting VHF contacts via repeaters
through EchoLink and whatnot. But I think a lot
of the clubs have sort of turned that down at
this point. So I think we're only going to do
HF and satellite contacts would be available.
We're also looking at doing points on an honor
system with the ISS. There's some details about
what we're going to actually accept for that,
but some of them will be like record an SSS,
SOSCAN TV image, or no, hand TV reception from
the ISS as well. And we are working a little
bit with APRS, Bob Runiga, about doing an APRS
echo thing that might be coming out a little
bit later. So right now we are looking at supporting
all bands, 160 through 70 centimeters. There
was some talk about supporting 1296 moon bounce,
but I don't know if there's a lot of support
in the community for doing moon bounce. There's
only a couple clubs that actually can do that
anyway right now, so. That's pretty much it for
that point system, but it's pretty simple, one
point per contact, pretty much. So I guess back
to Neil, you got any... Yeah, and let's go over
to Kevin, too, because I know Rob said Kevin
had some stuff. So good evening, Kevin, and tell
us about the side of things from sunny Florida.
Hey, good evening, Neil, and thanks. As Rob and
Peter mentioned, there's going to be multiple
club stations on the air throughout the event.
And we were thinking about how's the best way
to get our information out to the general public
in a timely manner. and thought, well, that could
be best done using social media. So right now,
we figured some people are going to subscribe
to us and maybe not everybody, but the folks
that do subscribe to us, they're going to get
that info directly. But the benefit of social
media, of course, would be that the other people
who follow those people would see it as a result
of a retweet or mention or something like that.
So it's a very effective way. One message from
us could... quickly reach quite a large audience,
much more than if we had an email distribution
list or something like that. So we're going to
use social media in all aspects of the event.
Before the events, like this particular week,
we use our Facebook page, if you search for NASA
on the air, N -O -T -A, and also our Twitter
handle, which is at NASA Radio Clubs. Search
those things, you're going to see this week we've
been publicizing the event, in particular the
Apollo 17 event that we had just spoken about.
That's important, I think, because some folks
all around the world, they might not, some of
them like myself weren't even born, but some
folks might not know about what it is, why are
we celebrating it this particular week. So we're
going to use it to publicize the event and list
our proposed band and or our mode information,
and each of the clubs will utilize those single
points of contact. Then during the events, we
will use Twitter. We'll update our Twitter feed.
And we have two hashtags that we're using. One
of them is NASA on the air, all one word. And
the other one, of course, is NOTA. You know that
we love acronyms at NASA, right, Neil? Oh, yes,
absolutely. We couldn't pass up an acronym. Unfortunately,
you know, NOTA can mean... You've got to have
those TLAs and FLAs. Right on. Unfortunately,
NOTA could mean a lot of different things to
different people, like none of the above and
all these other things. So we kind of encourage
both of those hashtags. When they spot us, if
somebody spots us on the spotting networks or
the DX clusters, we also would like to ask them
to please, like they did with National Parks
on the Air or the AWRL events, we'd like to please
ask them to utilize those so folks know that
this station is one of the NASA on the Air stations.
And then finally, after the event, we're going
to summarize results and start publicizing the
next event. I'm really happy right now with how
the social media has been working for us. Yeah
and we will continue to to retweet and send out
some of that and I missed the Facebook group
so we will send that out as well on our social
media so you can find those easily. So we'll
be posting that on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram
here in the next day or so. So you'll be able
to find those but if you just search NASA on
the air you should be in In good shape. So yeah,
we got we got to get all those those TLAs and
FLAs and that's an acronym for three -letter
acronym and four -letter acronym, so We have
to acronym everything and I'm in science. It's
the same thing. So We like recursive acronyms
too. Oh, yeah, around the air and OTA is actually
a recursive acronym, right? This is right and
or NASA, which itself is an acronym. So yeah,
we like to spin it up a lot. Oh, yeah, acronym
inside of an acronym. We got it. All right. Well,
Rob, before we go to break, is there anything
we missed here that we need to make sure we throw
in before we take a break and then take some
calls? Yeah, I'd like to add that to find out
how you're doing with the contacts and and you're
chasing of these various clubs, we have a system,
we call it the Contact Tracking System, the CTS.
Oh, another acronym. Yeah, another acronym, which
that link will also be on our WordPress site.
It's not live yet, but we've been doing some
testing of it, but it should be this weekend.
With that system, the way this is going to work
is that each of the clubs will upload their logs,
hopefully fairly quickly after they do the event
or just kind of regularly throughout the year.
All you have to do as a ham is just go out there
and bring up this site and type in your call
sign and it will come up with a matrix that tells
you which of the clubs you've worked and which
bands and then there's designators for each of
the modes and we're breaking the modes down into
CW, Sideband and Digital. And we're not breaking
the digital down any finer than that. If you
use the full list in FLDG, you'd have, I don't
know how many there are, but we don't want to
make it any finer than that. So RIDI, FTA, all
of those things, those are just considered digital.
And then we're trying to figure out how to implement
a fourth mode that we call a space mode. We're
the space agency, we should be promoting that,
right? So that's those satellite contacts, the
ARIS contacts. you know, through the APRS system
or just hearing space station, you know, school
contact downlink, something like that. Meteor
scatter, I know those aren't exactly in space,
they're actually in the atmosphere, but we'll
call that a space mode. And then if we manage
to... Get any moon bounce contacts in there Though
those will all be kind of considered a separate
mode But we're still working out the details
of how that's going to work and then I think
some of the clubs to Peter mentioned about the
repeaters and such We're talking about possibly
including These internet linked things to just
to reach out and touch as many hams as we possibly
can Because there are a lot of guys out there
who are for technicians who maybe aren't set
up for satellite or or, um, you know, some of
these other, um, uh, long distance, uh, VHF modes
and, uh, would like to get in on the, uh, on
the action too. So, um, expect some of that too.
We just don't know how much, you know, how many
clubs will be participating in that, but, uh,
we're, we're talking about including that as
well. Sounds like a well organized plan here.
And it almost sounds like there's some, some
computer engineers involved or something. Oh,
we have a whiz. Matt is our guy and he's the
one who put together this CTS and we've just
all been amazed at how well it works. He actually
gave us a presentation at our club meeting this
evening on how it works and it's pretty whizzy
and it just works like a champ. So we're real
happy about that. We got some really good talent,
you know, these guys on the line here. And a
lot of folks in the background who are doing
a lot of this work getting this thing together.
And so it's, it's been a lot of fun, uh, seeing
all that talent come together to make this happen.
All right. Well, look forward to, uh, to seeing
the results of all of that very soon. And, uh,
that's kicking off on Monday. So, um, get on
the air and make those contacts. Well we're going
to take a break and then when we come back we're
going to open up the phone lines, we'll take
your calls, we'll look at your tweets and whatever
else we can come up with and maybe even talk
a little bit about the individual clubs that
these guys represent right here on HamTalk Live.
The National Voice of America Museum of Broadcasting,
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is only two minutes off I -75. The museum is
the former home of the Voice of America Bethany
Relay Station. Tours are now available every
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Time. You can see the control room. a 200 ,000
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-Crosley Jr. Also on display is a huge antique
radio exhibit and R .L. Drake's personal collection
of most every Drake amateur rig ever made. This
is a unique opportunity to see amateur radio
in action and have a chance to get on the air
from WC8VOA. Admission is only five dollars a
person. The museum is located close to historic
WLWAM and tons of shopping and restaurants. Take
a trip to the VOA museum or visit us online at
voamuseum .org. HamTalk Live with Neil Rapp.
Join the conversation. Call us on voice with
Skype at HamTalk Live or give us a call at 812
-NET -HAM -1. That's 812 -638 -4261. Now here's
more HamTalk Live. And we are back. Be sure to
listen to HamTalk Live every Thursday night,
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.com. Check out our Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Just search HamTalk Live there. Well, it's time
for your call. So if you have a question for
Rob, Kevin, or Peter, you can give us a call
at 812 -NET -HAM -1. That's 812 -638 -4261. Or
you can call us on Skype. We're on Skype as well.
You'll find us at HamTalk Live. And you can also
tweet us at HamTalk Live. In fact, I'll run over
there right now and see if we have anything over
there just yet. Don't see anything just yet,
but now's the time. So if you have any questions
about the NASA on the air, event or comments,
just give us a call at 812 -638 -4261 or you
can send us a tweet too. So let's talk a little
bit about some of these other events that are
going to be coming up. We've got the kickoff
on Monday, but Rob, you've got some of the other
events that will be coming up that you want to
talk about, so let's take a look at those. Yeah,
the ones that we have on our list on our webpage
currently include this Apollo 17 event we were
just talking about. Then in July of next year
is the 60th anniversary of NASA. Actually July
29th is when President Eisenhower signed the
Space Act which formed NASA. So we'll certainly
do something for that. And then in November and
early December were the first launches of the
first elements of the International Space Station
and that'll be the 20th anniversary of those
events. And in the Apollo 8, 50th anniversary
is December of next year. And so we'll certainly
be covering those events. We have a list of others
we're going to be discussing, perhaps in January,
the Explorer 1 60th anniversary event. We may
do that. And there are a number of others. So
just stay tuned to that website, and you'll probably
see some other events. But I need to point out
that it's not just during these events that you
can collect these points. We plan to be doing
casual operations, you know, like during lunch
and after work on the weekends. A lot of us,
a lot of the clubs do contest operations. And
all of those events, we plan to upload all of
those logs to this contact tracking system. So
any contact you make with any one of these clubs
will count toward these band mode counts that
we were discussing earlier. So I particularly
like the casual contacts because that's when
we can just chat with folks and kind of share
what we're doing, you know, again, sharing your
space program with you. And those are a lot of
fun. And we find folks who have either worked
in the space program or had relatives that did
or things like that. So those are a lot of fun,
but it's also a heck of a lot of fun to be the
object of a pilot. It's a hoot. So we're looking
forward to that type of operating as well. Yeah,
you know, this one thing too that we should mention
is that We're celebrating a lot of things that
happened throughout history, but we're also celebrating
things that we're currently doing. And so just
as an example, we currently have some commercial
crew flights that are test flights that are targeted
in 2018. And assuming that the schedules don't
slip too much, we might have the special events
operating around things like Boeing launching
its first test flight, its orbital uncrewed test
flight in August timeframe, as well as some SpaceX
demonstration missions that would happen throughout
the upcoming year. So, as Rob mentioned, we're
going to be celebrating NASA's past, we're going
to be celebrating NASA's current state, and then
we'll also use our on -the -air time to discuss
what it is that NASA is doing in the future,
too. A lot of folks don't recognize that after
the shuttle program, you know, they were a little
bit confused what happened to NASA. So this is
a great opportunity for outreach and education
as well as engagement with the general public.
Yeah, it's a very exciting time right now. You
know, Kevin mentioned those commercial crew launches,
but we're also building a large rocket space
launch system with a capsule that sits on top
called the Orion to get get us back into deep
space again, get out into the vicinity of the
Moon and possibly land on the Moon again. So
it's this really exciting time for us and plus
we've got this little space station operating
out there that has had a crew on it continuously
since, what, 2000, I think. So there's a lot
going on and we want to talk about all of those
things when we have the opportunities to. Now
Peter once you tell us oh, let me remind people
the telephone number It's eight one two six three
eight four two six one to join the conversation
here with the guys from the various NASA ham
radio clubs around the country and Peter once
you tell us a little bit about What's been happening
out at Goddard and what you're going to be doing
in the NASA on the air from Goddard? All right,
yeah, yeah daughter club we're gonna probably
be fairly active I know I know for next week.
We'll probably be pretty active on the weekends
and a couple hours after work made me a lot of
a couple guys for a couple hours after work operating
We got two stations set up right now Primarily
40 and 20 is probably we're gonna be at We got
a station doing digital and a station doing voice
So those are bare probably our primary locations.
You'll find us Pretty much Goddard Club's been
kind of just cranking along here, trying to get
set up and get going for this thing. We've been
kind of looking at other Goddard events that
we might be doing that might be extra to our
base level events. Goddard's kind of a center
where we do a lot of our earth science and astrophysics
science within NASA. So we have the missions
like JWST and Hubble run out of Goddard. And
we're doing a bunch of other missions like JWST,
we just launched, or no, JPSS, sorry, just launched,
and that's a weather satellite supporting NOAA's
Weather Gathering Services. It was built with
a lot of people here at Goddard. And we have
a bunch of Earth science missions that will probably
be launching. I know we have TESS, which is,
you know, ASTRO. TESS is an exoplanet survey
mission that's going to be supposedly launching
in June out of the Cape down there at Kennedy.
And then we got, this is another launch. I don't
think Parker Pope is ours now. So TESS is probably,
I think, our big launch for next year. JWST,
I think, has been pushed out to 2019, so they
won't be covered in this event, but we'll probably
have a special event in the future for JWST when
that comes out. And that may be a bigger NASA
thing. That's a pretty large project. And a big
science getter here for NASA as well. So that's
all I really got here from the Goddard Club.
If there's any actual questions from the listening
group out there, we'd be glad to answer them.
So with that, I'll send it back to Neil here.
Okay, yeah, and that phone number is 812 -638
-4261 or you can tweet us over at HamTalk Live
on Twitter. We'll check that here in a moment
and let me throw it back down to Florida, to
Kevin, tell us about some of the events that
you're planning for NASA on the air from Kennedy.
Yeah, thanks. One thing I would like to mention,
too, that today we happen to have many of our
space flight centers, and I do like to always
remind folks that the first A in NASA is aeronautics,
so we got a very great... level of participation
from other centers where their primary research
is in aeronautics. And so I'm looking forward
for them to give us the opportunity to discuss
some of the great things that NASA is doing with
respect to aeronautics as well. Back at Kennedy,
we've got a pretty nice shack. We've got plans
to operate on HF. both in voice and digital,
as well as satellite. One of our club members,
we're fortunate enough, he has a moon bounce
set up at his house. And so we haven't got all
the definitive dates and times yet, but we're
hoping to be able to participate in some UHF
moon bounce as well there. not related to this
particular event, but we also do have the opportunity
for folks to contact us on our repeater, which,
as you know, Neil sits on top of the vehicle
assembly building. And I say that because it's
important for you to understand that 535 feet
up, you can actually be in the Orlando International
Airport with a Balfang HT. Oh, wait a minute.
Wait a minute. He said Balfang. Okay, we got
it in there Kevin, okay I just wanted to make
sure because you could be with one of those units
in the Orlando International Airport or As what
happened to me one time in the Daytona International
Speedway with my bow thing. Oh I was watching
it I was watching the Skype. We've got a caller
waiting on the line. OK, let's let them come
in. But we've got some great presence on the
air. Looking forward to supporting these events.
All right. Well, we do have a caller on the line,
which is why I had it on the wrong window here.
So who is this, and what's your question? Hey,
Neil. My name's Al, N4EII. I'm a new ham and
very excited. I grew up, you know, at the beginning
of the space program, watched many of the launches
in black and white. And I just want to be sure
I'm clear on how to contact or find out where
you guys are going to be operating. And again,
thank you all for putting in all your personal
time to help out all those hams. So the question
was, where do we go to get your frequencies or
when you're going to be up and that type of thing?
Are you going to be posting on Twitter and those
social media places? Hey, Kevin, you want to
take that? Yeah, I was going to say, Kevin? Yeah,
sure. Yeah. Hey, Al, thanks for your call. Yeah,
you know, our intent is to, we're going to post
it ahead of time. As we know, we're starting
to operate, for example, tomorrow at 4 p .m.
Each of the clubs will have the ability to communicate
that information to folks through our Twitter
handle. And just in case you didn't catch it
earlier, it's at NASA radio clubs. And if you
follow that, you'll see our information. But
also I would like to call to your attention the
typical cluster, the DX clusters and the spotting
networks. We'll also have folks, once we are
on the air, I think you'll find that those types
of services will also be. We'll be putting down
information and spotting us. We do have our contact
information on the website. I think if somebody
were wanting to, they could easily email us or
email any of the clubs with our information on
QRZ. Let's say, Al, that you really have wanted
to talk to the folks at the JPL club and you
just haven't been able to get them on the air.
If you got their call sign and went to the QRZ
page with their email address, you could also...
kind of set up a skag with them and say, when
could we talk? That's another way to do it. And
I believe, don't let me, I'm not the expert here,
but I believe, don't you have the Twitter feed
from NASA radio clubs on the webpage for NASA
On The Air 2? That is correct. On the front page,
on the main page of our NASA On The Air WordPress
website, I think it's on the side of the right
hand side, but we have a live feed that follows
us. So if you just kept the web page up, it would
scroll by there as we're putting stuff on the
Twitter feed. And if you're into Facebook, we
also have a Facebook group as well, which is
NASA on the Air, or N -O -T -A, which you could
follow. And I think those work for the majority
of folks. on Twitter, then all they have to do,
as Neil mentioned, is just go to the webpage.
You could keep the webpage up in a browser, and
you could see without even having a Twitter account,
you could follow what our information is. And
for the old school guys like me, we'll be using
the DX clusters too. We'll probably be self -spotting
on those. And you know, there's a lot of logging
programs. That stuff will scroll across your
screen anyway. So you can check those DX cluster.
spots as well. Well hey, thank you very much.
I've made my first satellite contact today, so
I'll be listening out on the birds for you guys
and looking forward to a lot of fun next year.
Thank you. All right, Al, thanks for giving us
a call and congratulations on your first satellite
contact. That's pretty cool. So thanks for calling
in. Thank you, 73. All right, 73. 812 638 4261
is the telephone number. We're just about out
of time, but we might be able to squeeze a quick
one in here But it will have to be quick so if
you can do that and oh Johnson Space Center amateur
radio club, which may be my my friend Tanner
on Twitter Just says glad Kevin got the bow thing
in there And and also yes, and also he says in
addition to Saisies self -adhesive envelopes
are appreciated too So that must be tanner because
he had to do all the QSL cards for Johnson's
thing here a few months ago, so So all right
well we've got about a minute left so let me
throw it back to rob and talk just briefly about
what's going on down at marshall and um anything
else we need to get in here before we run out
of time yeah i don't think we've mentioned uh
how many clubs are involved with this but there
are there are a number of NASA centers and facilities
across the country. And I think we've had about
12 clubs all told who have indicated an interest
in this. I don't know if they're all going to
be on, but we do have that many. So you can,
again, go to our web page. And if you look around
there, you'll find a map and it shows where all
of these centers and facilities and the clubs
that will be active are. And as far as here at
Marshall, yeah, we'll be on the air. Certainly,
during this event, and as I said before, the
casual things and contest things too, we'll be
on HF satellite. And Meteor Scatter, I need to
get a plug in here, the Gemini meteor shower.
occurs kind of in the middle of our event next
week. I think it's Wednesday night or Thursday
morning, somewhere in that time. No, I think
it's Thursday evening is the peak of the gemini
shower. So that's a really good time to make
meteor scatter contacts. And I plan to be doing
some of that as well from there. And that's easier
than ever, you know, with the JT modes. All right,
very good. Well, that's going to finish things
up for us tonight. But Rob, Kevin, Peter, thank
you so much for joining us tonight and we even
had some others I know about the International
Space Station and we just weren't able to get
him on due to some other conflicts and time and
here we are with a minute left. So thank you
all for helping out to organize this and coming
on the show and look forward to hearing you on
the air. Thank you Neil and thanks for helping
us publicize this and we look forward to working
all of you guys and gals Okay, well, that's a
wrap for this week's HamTalk Live. Thanks to
Dr. Rob Suggs, KB5EZ from Marshall Space Flight
Center, Kevin Zari, KK4YEL from Kennedy Space
Center, and Peter Federer, KB3GTN from Goddard
Space Flight Center, and everybody out there
in cyberspace for listening and for calling in.
And next week at 9 o 'clock Eastern time on Thursday,
Emmet Onasi, WZeroQH from Radio Waves will be
here to talk about some gift ideas, and a trip
out to Pearl Harbor for the special event out
there. For a list of all of our upcoming guests,
visit HamTalkLive .com. For now, this is Neil
Rapp, WB9VPG, saying 7375, and may the good DX
be yours.