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pl -259 .com. it's time for another edition of
HamTalk Live. This is episode number 85, the
Johnson Space Center Amateur Radio Club anniversary
and special event station recorded live on Thursday,
October 12th, 2017. I'm your host, Neil Rapp,
WB9VPG. Thanks for tuning in to this episode
of HamTalk Live. Tonight we're joined by Ken
Goodwin K5RG and we'll take your calls live in
just a few minutes. Well on the show last week
was Christian Kudnick K0STH here to talk about
the 100 watts at a wire fallout and hopefully
you had a chance to get on the air last weekend.
I was able to make just a handful of contacts
on that. But if you missed the show, you can
listen anytime. It was a lot of fun. It was over
at hamptalklive .com. And you can also catch
us on the podcast version. We're on Apple Podcasts,
Stitcher, iHeart Podcasts, Google Play, TuneIn,
and SoundCloud. And you can also find us over
on YouTube and many other podcast apps. So pick
out your favorite one and chances are we are
there. So after a while, we'll give you a chance
to ask your questions. After we talk to Ken for
a while and do the interview, you can call us.
Let me go ahead and give you the telephone number.
Now we're not ready for your calls just yet,
but we will be soon. And that telephone number
is 812 -NET. ham1 that's 812 -638 -4261 for the
alphabetically challenged or you can Skype us
at HamTalk Live. You can also send us a tweet
or Twitter handle is at HamTalk Live and you
can start tweeting right now if you like. We'll
try to keep an eye on those throughout the show.
And we're on the air every Thursday night at
9 p .m. Eastern Time. Just go to HamTalkLive
.com and check out Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
We have some stuff up there through the week
as well. Before I talk to Ken tonight, I do have
one important note about School Club Roundup
next week from Lou into our cube. The next session
of Schoolcrub Roundup begins on Monday and on
20 meters, there's a lot of formal and informal
traffic being passed for hurricane relief and
a lot of that is around 14 .250 and 14 .275 which
is right where the schools usually operate. That's
kind of the recommended area is 14 -250 to 14
-280. There's also some stuff up on 40 meters
but it's down at 7182 and 7188. So the recommended
frequencies are a little higher for School Club
Roundup, but the organizers of School Club Roundup
wanted to make sure that we didn't unintentionally
interfere with any weak signals that couldn't
be heard. Um, you know how that goes. Sometimes
you get on a frequency and you ask if it's in
use two or three times and you don't hear anything.
And then all of a sudden, Hey, wait a minute.
There's these people on here trying to pass traffic.
So, um, this, uh, time only, uh, we're going
to shift those frequencies around. So if you're
running school club round up next week, look
for schools just above. below the normal frequencies
of 14 .250 to 14 .280 and the other bands shouldn't
be affected a whole lot but we want to make sure
that that word gets out and that we don't cause
any unintentional interference to those stations
so be sure to listen first as always and If we
are on one of those, then we need to move so
that we can get out of the way. So just wanted
to mention that and I'll be on from my high school
with my group. The kids will be on the microphone
next week. So just wanted to remind everybody
about School Club Roundup and about the change
in the frequencies. So help pass the word on
that. Well tonight our guest is Ken Goodwin,
K5RG. He was introduced in the hobby in 1955
in San Juan, Puerto Rico by Father Ed Turner,
KP4WN and KV4BQ and he was first licensed as
K1ONW in 1960 as a technician and in 1963 the
family moved to Boston where Ken became an active
participant in the Eastern Massachusetts Net
and the one RN while attending Tufts University.
W1KN to become an electrical engineer. After
undergrad, he moved to Texas to work in the space
program in 1968 with the MIT instrumentation
lab and Dr. Draper's lab. He became an extra
class later and picked his current call sign
of K5RG. He's a life member of ARL, QCWA, and
the OOTC and a member of an officer of the NASA
Johnson Space Center Amateur Radio Club, W5RRR,
the Diamond Club of the ARRL, the A1 Operator
Club, BPL and Tapper. And he also has a general
class radio telephone license with endorsements
and ship radar and radio telegraph. And I found
out the other day that he was the Puerto Rico
national yo -yo champion. So we may have to talk
about that if we have some time later on. Currently
Ken is the treasurer of W5RRR, the Johnson Space
Center Amateur Radio Club in Houston, Texas.
So Ken, welcome to HamTalk Live tonight. Well,
nice meeting you, Neil, in the audio domain,
as they say. And congratulations on the Yo -Yo
Championship. Now, I was... cruising the website
and and and all of a sudden here comes this trivia
question and it was the yo -yo championship so
i'm impressed well only only my closest friends
usually know about that but uh i i prefer to
say it was the same time i got interested in
amateur radio too well i should mention that
One of the young hams from my hometown club in
Vincennes, Indiana was Tanner Jones, W9TWJ. And
now he's all grown up and now he's in the club
down there. So there was a little connection
there. And he's currently the webmaster and QSL
manager of the club. So he's the one that contacted
me about doing the show. So I'm glad. it all
worked out and we can talk about this uh special
event coming up soon and and if you don't get
enough space tonight and and one of NASA's little
at least promotions uh slogans is is i need my
space so if you need your space um December 7th,
we're going to have Dr. Rob Suggs, KB5EZ, to
talk about a year -long special event that's
at all of the NASA facilities. But tonight, we're
just talking about the Johnson Space Center in
Houston, Texas. They've got an anniversary coming
up and a special event station this weekend.
So, Ken, tell us all about it. Okay. Well, as
you said, it's our 50th anniversary. We we think
we probably got a steady state start in 1967
There had been a few attempts at radio clubs
at the nearby Ellington Air Force base But I
think the club started a continuous history in
late 67 so We decided to commemorate the event
and this weekend, October 13th through the 15th,
Friday through Sunday, probably starting around
four o 'clock on Friday, which I just calculated
is 2100 UTC, 4 p .m. Central Daylight, till probably
six o 'clock Sunday. be running the club station,
no special call. We get plenty of response to
our normal amateur radio call, W5RRR. So we'll
be in pretty much continuous operation this weekend.
We've attempted to emphasize having operators.
Try to get a few of the astronauts that have
their license out there some of our new members
We're trying to get interested in the event so
most likely 20 meters and 40 meters single sideband
will be the predominant mode Probably in the
lower part of the general -class subband and
In operation with that We have a special QSL
card we've been working with KB3 IFH Designing
a commemorative QSL card for the event that turned
out really nice even though I think we probably
made Randy a little crazy with all our tweaks
and changes, but dealing with engineers is never
easy. So we'll have a special QSL card for the
event. The only thing we ask is that you QSL
with a self -addressed stamped envelope, S -A
-S -E. Our address is good. on QRZ, our webpage,
w5rrr .org. So we'll have a card if you care
to. It's pretty, really, really nice QSL card.
And we ran this, we ran a special events back
in the 25th anniversary of Apollo and it blew
up in our face. We ended up with a situation
where we were gonna have to spend more money
than the club had to fulfill the certificate
that we promised. So this time it's a nice QSL
card, self -addressed stamped envelope this weekend.
So I think that's the short of it. All right.
Very good. So listen for W5RRR on sideband mostly
on 20 and 40 in the lower part of the general
class. uh, sub band and, um, you can find it
on the spots too. I'm sure. Yeah. Um, and, uh,
give them a call and get a, get a nice, uh, QSL
to boot. So, um, be sure to, to check out their,
uh, web pipe webpage to w five RRR, uh, dot org
and, uh, and get on the air this weekend and
give them a call. So, um, Tell us about this
shack that you've got for the club and how that
ties into NASA's mission. Okay. Well, let's see.
As I say, we got started in 67 and, you know,
reasonable number of amateurs associated with
what was then the Apollo project. And at that
time it was the manned spacecraft center. later
changed to the Johnson Spacecraft Center but
the club the club really took off in association
with our being the force behind Sarex shuttle
shuttle amateur radio on board the shuttle the
first time that we got amateur radio into space
which was back in Because I wrote this down I
can't find it now, but I think it was 1983 with
Owen Gary at dr. Gary at w5 LFL Gave them we
were able to qualify a handheld Ended up with
a foil antenna that went into the overhead window
of the shuttle and Dr. Garrett took amateur radio
into space and talked about lots of contacts.
It was really quite an event and the club was
behind it. I think we've had three other shuttle
missions that carried amateur radio on board.
Each one got bigger and better. And I guess the
way I like to tell the story is the amateur radio
club was so successful with amateur radio and
space, which became the genesis of C. amateur
radio on board the International Space Station.
Gee, all I can think of is AMSAT. ARISS, A -R
-I -S -S, amateur radio on board Space Station.
So NASA saw that having amateur radio was quite
a desirable feature, so they took over the program
and after... Seven years of doing it, I think
we were. The ARIS amateur radio equipment became
an educational tool. The contacts today are scheduled
between the schools. and the amateur radio stations
aboard the International Space Station, of which
there are three, and they're about to get a new
one. So, ARIS has been really successful. I participated
in a couple events with some of the schools in
the local area. We classically use a telebridge
contact. a telephone call to a station that's
in the ground track of the space station at the
time. The students get to ask questions of the
astronauts for about 20 minutes if it's an optimum
pass. So those two things, Sarex leading to Eris
really got the club started. When the Sarex experiment
started off, one of the major manufacturers I
forget which one donated a top -of -the -line
rig, and one of our members had the bright idea,
well, gee, if one of these guys is willing to
do it, we should ask the other two. And sure
enough, we ended up with three top -of -the -line
rigs from ICOM, Yezu, and Kenwood, which consist
of the basic resources that we have at the club
now. along with a satellite station, obviously.
So the club, I guess as the Johnson Spacecraft
Center got deeper into providing benefits to
the employees, the Employees Athletic Association
at JSC, I was going to go through a construction
major construction upgrade and they were more
than willing to to build us a shack and Boy,
did they I don't think they ever said no to any
of our requests. You should see the ground system.
We've got in there Must be a couple thousand
dollars of copper in there, but our new shack
was Built in 2007. And as I say, it's got four
stations that are all set up ready to go. Two
weekends ago, we refurbished the antenna farm
for this event and put a new tri -bander and
a 40 meter rotatable dipole on the top of an
80 foot tower that we replaced most of the sections.
So we're ready to go and That's the the club
shack today Very nice facility works out great
on field day because it's air -conditioned Wow,
there you go, but NASA NASA put in a an external
Electrical system so we could quite easily plug
in a generator and run run generator power during
field day Very nice. Well, I remember the Sarex
missions and in fact, Dr. Garriott's son has
been on this program and we played some of the
audio from that and you know, that brings back
again a lot of memories of being able to talk
to the space shuttle and like you said, that's
continued on now with with Eris and they're still
raising money to get that equipment certified
and up there to boost the power and the capabilities
up there. It all started with the W5 RRR. That's
the start of it. We're very thankful that your
club got that process rolling and did the Sarex
thing and got Eris going. Pretty neat stuff.
And you guys have some other activities that
you do. Tell us a little bit about those activities
that are available and who can be a part of those.
OK. Well, to go back historically, the first
special event station we ran was Apollo 17. For
that, we did get a special call sign. WM5 MSC
for Manned Spacecraft Center, which was the name
at that time. And then the CERECs came along
and we've actively supported AERIS, especially
in the local school districts. As far as the
club is concerned, we are associated with the
Center legally. We support a number of the activities.
We're a backup communications source to the Emergency
Operations Center at the Center. You know, when
you think about amateur radio on board Space
Station, we're also a backup communications system
for Space Station, which If I remember, almost
got used when the computers went belly up one
day. Luckily, the shuttle was docked at the space
station, so they were still able to control it,
but they called us up and made sure we were ready
to go if they had communication problems. Let's
see, what else do we do? As far as the club is
concerned, being that we are legally associated
with the center, we do support that activity.
So our members have to be affiliated with the
NASA activities, the NASA facility in some manner
or another. So our membership is limited to some
degree, obviously. We have honorary members and
things like that, but we also are a... The other
club in the area is the Clear Lake Amateur Radio
Club, which is a public service club. And a lot
of our members are members of both clubs, so
we participate in their public activities, and
they and ours. Just this, see, yesterday, in
fact, we supported a fun run at the center associated
with Total Health and Safety Day, which has been
an activity at the center for a number of years.
And at the end of the day, they have a fun run
and we provide communication support to that
activity. Gee, I should... And some testing,
right? Yes, one of our members has been run as
the Honcho VEC in the area, so I think it's the
second Saturday of every month at the recreation
facility, which is the Gilruth Recreation Facility.
He sponsors test sessions and I suspect we've
had over a thousand people go through that over
the years. See on the air activities antennas
It's just like amateur radio you name it we do
it probably We're we're we're looking at EME
as a possible next technical activity Well, if
we get the moon base going, maybe we'll get something
going up there. We're going to shoot. What's
that trophy for the first amateur radio contact
with Mars? That's the one I want. That's the
one I want. Yeah. Well, there's some, there's
some cool stuff going on down there and uh, and
the 50th anniversary of that club being celebrated
this weekend on the air. So make sure you get
on, give them a call and look for W5RRR on the
air. So we're going to take a break and then
we're going to come back and we're going to give
you a chance to call in. and ask your questions.
Again, that telephone number here in just a minute.
You can give us a call at 812 -NET -HAM -1, 812
-638 -4261. So we'll be back and we'll do that
and give you a chance to talk with Ken Goodwin,
K5RG, right after this word from Tower Electronics
right here. on HamTalk Live. This episode of
HamTalk Live is brought to you in part by Tower
Electronics. Tower Electronics has been the Ham's
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episode of HamTalk Live. Sorry for the delay,
your host, Neil Rapp, is reading a book on anti
-gravity and he just can't put it down. Now,
here's more HamTalk Live! 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! Thanks
to Scott and Jill at Tower Electronics for sponsoring
the show tonight and to help bring HamTalk Live
your direction. They'll be at Melbourne, Florida
this weekend, Friday and Saturday. So that's
coming up tomorrow afternoon in Melbourne, Florida.
And let's see, Greenville, Tennessee on October
21st. and LaGrange Georgia on October 28th or
you can just give them a call at 920 -435 -2973
or you can go online at PL -259 .com and tell
them you heard it on HamTalk Live and they'll
be glad to hear from you. Well it's time for
your call so if you have a question now is the
time to call. It's 812 -NET -HAM -1, 812 -638
-4261, or you can catch us on Skype. Again, it's
HamTalk Live on Skype. Make sure you give us
a contact request there. I think we figured out
that was our technical problem last week. Um,
and then, uh, you can also tweet us at, uh, ham
talk live. So make sure you give us a call and
we do have a call here on the line. So let's
see if we can get that. Uh, yes. Hello. Who is
this? Hi, Tanner. How are you? All right. It's
good to, uh, It's good to hear you. So you have
a question or comment here for Ken We do collectively
have a question for Ken. We hear he likes to
climb mountains The question is has he ever taken
amateur radio with him? Well evening Tanner,
I knew you guys were gonna lay for me this evening
so You know the the the secret of mountain climbing
is is to carry as little as possible and I Even
I even found 35 millimeter cameras to be too
much to carry at 20 ,000 feet. So I've never
I've never taken amateur radio Into the Himalayas
there. I I have taken shortwave radio a couple
of Some expedition members had to get their daily
ball scores So my job was to listen to the BBC
and get the ball scores on my shortwave radio,
but that was about the most we've taken into
Nepal and Pakistan Wait wait is wait is not your
friend Now Tanner, how did you find out about
this yo -yo championship thing? Well, that was
actually our vice president, I think, who somehow
came up with that tidbit and happened just to
put it on the website. I think I actually, as
Ken said two weeks ago, we did a big tower event,
and I think there were some rumblings going around
when we were doing a lot of work, but I didn't
get to hear the whole story about that. But Dave's
the one who posted on our website, anyways. That's
Dave Lee, W5OC. Our vice president. Right. Now
the story behind that was my father was stationed
in San Juan, Puerto Rico with the United States
Coast Guard and I was a member of the Cub Scouts
and Coca -Cola showed up at one of the pack meetings
and Gave a demo and passed out free yo -yos and
said they'd be back in a month to have a contest
and I think that evening my father said he'll
he'll lose interest in this in a couple of weeks
and But that's all it took. So I won. I won the
pack, the Cub Scout pack, San Juan Air Force,
San Juan base championship. And they sent me
on to the the Nationals right there in San Juan
and got through that. And I just wish I had kept
some of the the badges and trophies. Somehow
they've disappeared over the years. But I like
to talk about having been introduced to amateur
radio in Puerto Rico. That was a pivotal event
in my life. Well, you didn't make a dipole out
of the yo -yo, did you, Ken? That's what I was
thinking. I was thinking, hey, maybe that'd be
a good launch method for the dipole. Yeah. Yeah.
Well, I was thinking the big base of the yo -yo
is the decent insulator. So yeah, maybe an antenna.
I didn't know. Yeah. I sure got hit with it enough
times. Well, Tanner, not to put you on the spot,
but, uh, you're going to be, uh, operating some
on this special event. Yeah, absolutely. I'm,
I'm very fortunate that I get, uh, every Friday
off. So I'll be ready to go Friday and then Saturday
we've got the V testing here at Gil Ruth. So
I'll be helping with that and then getting on
the air and then I'll probably come out again
on Sunday and just hang out and get on the air
as the, as the spots come open. I think we're,
we're going to rotate folks in and out and just.
Plan to have a really really fun time this weekend.
So we we hope we hope to hear you on the air
Yeah, I I think most of these contacts we're
not we're not allowing our big contesters to
Get into this I guess so the cut the contacts
are going to be informal and hopefully more than
just a signal report and Requests for the QSL
card that I mentioned so our new members. Hopefully
we may even get some astronauts out there that
are licensed. Almost all the crew members today
are licensed, predominantly for ARES. So it's
informal operation, I guess would be the way
I'd say it. Very good. So you may have a chance
to even talk to an astronaut by getting on this
weekend and catching the Johnson Space Center
Amateur Radio Club 50th anniversary celebration
on the air. So make sure you get on there and
Tanner W nine T W J. Thanks for calling in and,
uh, working with me to get this set up and, uh,
have fun this weekend. Absolutely Neil. Thank
you so much for doing this and, uh, your hospitality
to getting us on the air and a little bit more
exposure. We really do appreciate it. My phone's
about to die. So I'm going to get off here. But
again, thank you, Neil. And thanks to Ken for
coming on the show to do the interview as well.
All right. Thanks, Tanner. Seven threes. 73 by
now. 812 -638 -4261 is the telephone number 812
-NET -HAM -1. If you have a question about the
special event station this weekend or the Johnson
Space Center Amateur Radio Club. or maybe some
old Apollo questions for Ken. He worked on the
Apollo missions quite a bit. So give us a call,
812 -NATAM -1, 812 -638 -4261. We've got time
for another call or two. So give us a call. And
you mentioned that the club is kind of limited.
So You have to be a NASA employee or an employee
of a NASA contractor or Previously or how does
that work? Yeah, you've you've said it exactly
correct Essentially you had to have been badged
sometime in your history I guess would be the
way say it. It's since we were supported by the
employees at employees activity association you
know we have to remain true to that that association
however the the shack is in the non -secure area
of the Space Center it is open to the public
and we do you know during field day and things
like that we actively seek people to come visit
us so off space There's a public gate that leads
to the Gilruth recreation center. And you can't
miss us with the 80 foot tower and this three
element brand new tri -bander on the top of it.
Yeah. That's always a good way to, to locate
the station. Look for the antennas up in the
air and you can find us. So very good 812 NatTam1
is the phone number 8126384261 we have time for
one more call if you'd like to chime in here
and Again, we'll mention that this NASA on the
air thing is going to be coming up in December
and Be sure to listen on December 7th. Dr. Rob
Sugg's KB5EZ is going to join us. And every NASA
facility is going to be participating in that.
That's going to start around the first or second
week of December. So we'll be right before that
starts up. But there will be a lot of celebrations
going on for NASA. And Johnson will be a part
of that as well. But this one is all about the
Johnson Space Center and the 50th anniversary
of their amateur radio club this weekend on the
air. Again, 40 meters, 20 meters side band is
where most of the activity is going to take place
in the general class portion of the band, so
be sure to look for them. Again that phone number
eight one two six three eight four two six one
eight one two net ham one or tweet us at ham
talk live and in fact I need to run over here
to Twitter and see if we've got anything over
there too, and I saw someone else had called
earlier, but It was during the interview so we
didn't Good chance to get that in but well I
can I can tell you about the first special event
that I had at the club Yeah, okay. Well, um,
it was Apollo 17 I came off my shift During the
mission and you know, it was must have been one
or two o 'clock in the morning went out to the
shack to participate in the special event station
that we had set up WM5 MSC and Walk out there
and who's there operating? Senator Barry Goldwater.
So in those days, the NASA recovery ships had
gone the way of not being needed anymore for
communication. So the Collins S -lines were a
surplus. And we had a full Collins S -line out
there at the shack. And Barry and I sat there
and made contacts into the wee hours of the morning.
It's quite a quite an experience. Yeah, that
would be very very well known ham and and very
well known public official as well and Just be
able to sit down next to him and be rattling
off the Q says, wow. That was, that was one of
the worst experiences of worst experiences of
my life. How could an amateur radio operator
not become president of the United States? Well,
he was close. Yeah, it was close. Very good.
A great memory. All right, well anything else
you need to throw in here before we Say well
again, yeah for four o 'clock Friday afternoon
until probably six o 'clock Sunday 20 40 meters
single sideband W5 RRR org and Self -addressed
stamped envelope for a really nice QSL card association
with KB3 IFH QSL cards. It turned out a lot better
than... It's nice. It's a nice card. It commemorates
all the activities over the last 50 years that
the club has been involved in. Very good. Well...
Sounds like a fun time and I wish you great success
with that this weekend and congratulations to
you and the club on, on 50 years and, and hope
there's another 50 coming up. Well, Neil, contact.
Yeah, that's, uh, that's on the, uh, that's on
the bucket list here and no doubt, but, uh, thank
you very much for giving us an opportunity to,
uh, put out a little PR associated with this
special event. We appreciate it and we look forward
to having some nice informal contacts this entire
weekend out at W5RRR. All right, very good. Hopefully
I can squeeze some time in to get that call in
myself as well. Thank you so much for coming
on HamTalk Live, and that is a wrap for this
week's edition. Thanks to Ken Goodwin, K5RG,
and everybody out there in cyberspace for listening
and calling in and invite you back next Thursday
night at 9 p .m. Eastern time. Sean Cutsco, KX9X,
will be here to talk about more space. He's going
to talk about getting started with satellite
operations. So it's your chance to work some
satellites and talk about that. So Sean will
be here and we're looking forward to that. For
a list of all of our upcoming guests, visit HamTalkLive
.com and click on the show schedule link and
you can see what's coming up over the next few
weeks. So for now, this is Neil Rapp, WB9VPG,
saying 7375 and may the good DX. be yours. I've
completely forgot you're a ham. I don't know
your power or the height of your tower. Frankly,
I don't give a damn. So 73s, to you and your
family, I'll be seeing you further down the law.
Yeah, 73s, to you and your family, I'll be seeing
you further down the law. like a local up here.
But why don't those whistling Mediterranean's
check it with frequencies clear? We're warm and
cozy in our shacks and we have talked about thousands
of things. About shoes, about ships, about ceiling
wax, about cabbages and kings. It's the 73's.