WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.799 This episode of HamTalk Live is brought to you 00:00:02.799 --> 00:00:06.000 by Tower Electronics. For cables, connectors 00:00:06.000 --> 00:00:13.140 and more, call 920 -435 -2973 or visit pl -259 00:00:13.140 --> 00:00:17.199 .com and by the HamStation. Get your new radio 00:00:17.199 --> 00:00:23.239 or antenna by calling 800 -729 -4373 or go to 00:00:23.239 --> 00:00:56.909 hamstation .com. Good evening, everybody. It's 00:00:56.909 --> 00:01:00.909 time for another episode of Ham Talk Live. It's 00:01:00.909 --> 00:01:05.069 episode number 49. Ham radio from space with 00:01:05.069 --> 00:01:08.849 Richard Garriott, the Caillou W5KWQ recorded 00:01:08.849 --> 00:01:15.069 live on Thursday, January 26th, 2017. I'm your 00:01:15.069 --> 00:01:18.409 host, Neil Rapp, WB9VPG. Thanks for tuning in 00:01:18.409 --> 00:01:22.209 to this episode of Ham Talk Live. Tonight we'll 00:01:22.209 --> 00:01:26.890 be joined by Richard Garriott, W5KWQ. He'll be 00:01:26.890 --> 00:01:29.829 taking your questions about ham radio from space 00:01:29.829 --> 00:01:33.750 and his new book entitled, Explore and Create. 00:01:34.489 --> 00:01:37.569 We'll take your calls live in just a few minutes. 00:01:38.390 --> 00:01:41.370 Last week, Karl Luselschwaab, K9LA, was here 00:01:41.370 --> 00:01:44.170 to talk about sunspots. And if you missed the 00:01:44.170 --> 00:01:47.450 show, you can listen anytime at hamtalklive .com 00:01:47.450 --> 00:01:50.530 or on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, TuneIn, 00:01:50.609 --> 00:01:55.030 SoundCloud. or YouTube. So think of some questions 00:01:55.030 --> 00:01:58.450 and after the interview you can call us. You 00:01:58.450 --> 00:02:01.409 can call us on Skype at the username HamTalkLive 00:02:01.409 --> 00:02:04.250 or you can call us by telephone. That number 00:02:04.250 --> 00:02:11.849 is 812 -NET -HAM -1. That's 812 -638 -4261. You 00:02:11.849 --> 00:02:14.409 can also go ahead and tweet us a question now 00:02:14.409 --> 00:02:19.870 via Twitter. Our handle is at HamTalkLive. So 00:02:19.870 --> 00:02:22.250 I'll be back with Richard right after this word 00:02:22.250 --> 00:02:25.490 from Tower Electronics, right here on HamTalk 00:02:25.490 --> 00:02:28.750 Live. This episode of HamTalk Live is brought 00:02:28.750 --> 00:02:32.430 to you in part by Tower Electronics. Tower Electronics 00:02:32.430 --> 00:02:35.650 has been the Ham's dime store since 1978. When 00:02:35.650 --> 00:02:38.370 you need connectors, mobile and handheld antennas, 00:02:38.629 --> 00:02:41.830 cables, or adapters, visit Scott or Jill at a 00:02:41.830 --> 00:02:45.189 HamFest near you. Or you can order online at 00:02:45.189 --> 00:02:52.930 PL -259 .com or call 920 -435 -2973. Stock up 00:02:52.930 --> 00:02:55.949 on those supplies like PL -259 and in connector. 00:02:55.949 --> 00:02:59.750 SMA adapters, audio cables, soldering supplies, 00:03:00.030 --> 00:03:02.750 mobile antennas, and hamsticks. Their silver 00:03:02.750 --> 00:03:05.650 -plated in -connectors are even used on the International 00:03:05.650 --> 00:03:08.990 Space Station. Tower Electronics carries MFJ, 00:03:09.210 --> 00:03:13.370 Comet, Daiwa, OPEC, Workman, and HamPro products. 00:03:13.569 --> 00:03:17.150 And don't miss their 0 % off sale going on now. 00:03:17.289 --> 00:03:21.729 Tower Electronics, online at PL -259 .com. Proud 00:03:21.729 --> 00:03:26.099 to sponsor this episode of HamTalk Live. Sorry 00:03:26.099 --> 00:03:29.379 for the delay your host Neil rap is reading a 00:03:29.379 --> 00:03:32.460 book on anti -gravity and he just can't put it 00:03:32.460 --> 00:03:48.639 down Now here's more ham talk long Thanks to 00:03:48.639 --> 00:03:52.020 Scott and Jill at tower electronics for sponsoring 00:03:52.020 --> 00:03:55.349 the show tonight To help bring you ham talk live, 00:03:55.669 --> 00:03:57.430 Jill will be at the Collinsville, Illinois Ham 00:03:57.430 --> 00:04:01.150 Fest on Saturday. Scott will be in Arcadia, Florida. 00:04:01.729 --> 00:04:04.469 And next week we'll be at the Miami Hambourie 00:04:04.469 --> 00:04:07.969 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. And then the Orlando 00:04:07.969 --> 00:04:14.110 Hamcation. Or you can call them at 920 -435 -2973. 00:04:14.729 --> 00:04:19.509 Or visit their website at pl -259 .com and tell 00:04:19.509 --> 00:04:22.500 them you heard it right here. on HamTalk Live. 00:04:22.620 --> 00:04:24.839 We're on the air every Thursday night at 9 p 00:04:24.839 --> 00:04:28.360 .m. eastern time at HamTalkLive .com and if you 00:04:28.360 --> 00:04:30.779 missed the show you can listen to the archive 00:04:30.779 --> 00:04:34.019 on the website or you can download it for most 00:04:34.019 --> 00:04:39.399 popular podcasting sites. Richard Gary at W5KWQ 00:04:39.399 --> 00:04:42.279 is a founding father of the video game industry 00:04:42.279 --> 00:04:45.639 and commercial spaceflight industry, a flown 00:04:45.639 --> 00:04:48.899 astronaut and an accomplished explorer. He's 00:04:48.899 --> 00:04:51.639 been inducted into the Computer Gaming Hall of 00:04:51.639 --> 00:04:55.060 Fame and has received the Industry Lifetime Achievement 00:04:55.060 --> 00:04:59.579 Award. He is credited with creating the now ubiquitous 00:04:59.579 --> 00:05:03.220 term Avatar, and among the gaming community he 00:05:03.220 --> 00:05:06.779 is known as Lord British. He authored the acclaimed 00:05:06.779 --> 00:05:10.399 Ultima series and has built three leading game 00:05:10.399 --> 00:05:13.319 companies, Origin Systems, which was sold to 00:05:13.319 --> 00:05:16.300 Electronic Arts, Destination Games, which was 00:05:16.300 --> 00:05:19.819 sold to NCSoft, and Portalarium, where he is 00:05:19.819 --> 00:05:23.240 building Shroud of the Avatar, a successor to 00:05:23.240 --> 00:05:27.379 his previous works. As a principal shaper of 00:05:27.379 --> 00:05:31.639 the commercial spaceflight industry. He co -founded 00:05:31.639 --> 00:05:34.339 Space Adventures, the only company to arrange 00:05:34.339 --> 00:05:37.600 space flights for private citizens and is the 00:05:37.600 --> 00:05:41.839 sixth private astronaut to live aboard the International 00:05:41.839 --> 00:05:45.300 Space Station. The son of a NASA astronaut, Owen 00:05:45.300 --> 00:05:50.019 W -5LFL, Richard became the first second generation 00:05:50.019 --> 00:05:53.480 astronaut and has been a key leader in civilian 00:05:53.480 --> 00:05:56.319 and commercial space as an investor and board 00:05:56.319 --> 00:05:59.699 member of institutions such as the XPRIZE Foundation, 00:06:00.480 --> 00:06:04.740 Space Adventures and Planetary Resources. Richard 00:06:04.740 --> 00:06:07.579 is an avid explorer having traveled around the 00:06:07.579 --> 00:06:09.920 globe from the jungles of the Amazon to the South 00:06:09.920 --> 00:06:13.360 Pole, the deep seas of the Titanic, and hydrothermal 00:06:13.360 --> 00:06:18.060 vents to orbiting the Earth above the Earth at 00:06:18.060 --> 00:06:20.660 the International Space Station. His non -profit 00:06:20.660 --> 00:06:24.620 and philanthropic efforts include serving on 00:06:24.620 --> 00:06:27.019 the boards of the Explorers Club and the Challenger 00:06:27.019 --> 00:06:30.500 Center for Science Education. Richard lives with 00:06:30.500 --> 00:06:34.879 his wife, Letitia, also an entrepreneur and their 00:06:34.879 --> 00:06:39.060 two children, Kinga Swong and Ronan Fee. I hope 00:06:39.060 --> 00:06:42.480 I got that right. His new book, Explore Create, 00:06:42.779 --> 00:06:45.459 chronicles his life from the early days of video 00:06:45.459 --> 00:06:48.699 gaming through his space flight and to the present 00:06:48.699 --> 00:06:51.860 day. So Richard, thank you so much for coming 00:06:51.860 --> 00:06:54.889 on HamTalk Live tonight. Absolutely, my pleasure. 00:06:54.970 --> 00:06:58.350 Great to be with you. And boy, it's not often 00:06:58.350 --> 00:07:01.610 I hear somebody read the whole bio. I've had 00:07:01.610 --> 00:07:03.949 a lot of fun in my life, as you can tell. Yeah, 00:07:04.089 --> 00:07:09.069 certainly. You've had a great batch of experiences. 00:07:10.329 --> 00:07:13.269 And tonight, we want to focus on your trip to 00:07:13.269 --> 00:07:17.089 the International Space Station. And I know you 00:07:17.089 --> 00:07:21.699 could talk about this for... weeks on end. Uh, 00:07:22.180 --> 00:07:24.779 and we don't have that long. We have 45 minutes 00:07:24.779 --> 00:07:29.060 and they cut me off. So, uh, so tell us a little 00:07:29.060 --> 00:07:32.379 bit about the trip and maybe focus more on, you 00:07:32.379 --> 00:07:35.480 know, how ham radio played a role in that. Sure. 00:07:35.480 --> 00:07:37.360 Sure. Of course. Uh, you know, you, you mentioned 00:07:37.360 --> 00:07:40.839 my father, uh, W five LFL. Um, you know, when 00:07:40.839 --> 00:07:42.959 I, when I was a young, let me, let me back up 00:07:42.959 --> 00:07:44.899 from the space flight and kind of introduce, 00:07:44.980 --> 00:07:49.759 uh, my journey through him as well. You know, 00:07:49.920 --> 00:07:53.000 my father, before he became an astronaut, he 00:07:53.000 --> 00:07:57.040 and my grandfather, whose call sign I now have, 00:07:57.480 --> 00:08:00.779 W5KWQ, the two of them went and got certified 00:08:00.779 --> 00:08:05.079 together when my dad was high school, college 00:08:05.079 --> 00:08:09.319 age. And when my parents moved to Houston, Texas, 00:08:09.459 --> 00:08:12.019 where my father was an astronaut and my grandfather 00:08:12.019 --> 00:08:15.639 still lived back in Enid, Oklahoma, The ham rig 00:08:15.639 --> 00:08:19.899 was set up in my father's office and every other 00:08:19.899 --> 00:08:22.480 night or so that was sort of the way we sat down 00:08:22.480 --> 00:08:25.240 and had long talks with grandpa was with our 00:08:25.240 --> 00:08:30.939 ham rig. And so I grew up with ham as a common 00:08:30.939 --> 00:08:36.200 tool of the household. And so by the time I flew, 00:08:37.100 --> 00:08:41.279 my father had already taken his, well in fact 00:08:41.279 --> 00:08:47.059 the first ham radio setup to space aboard STS 00:08:47.059 --> 00:08:50.259 -9, the ninth launch of the space shuttle. And 00:08:50.259 --> 00:08:53.080 that was the first time an astronaut in space 00:08:53.080 --> 00:08:56.919 spoke to the general public directly. And as 00:08:56.919 --> 00:09:01.620 you obviously know, ham radio operators around 00:09:01.620 --> 00:09:06.019 the globe could speak with my dad, including, 00:09:06.100 --> 00:09:07.940 remember, some of his favorites were people like 00:09:07.940 --> 00:09:11.080 King Hussein of Jordan, the previous King of 00:09:11.080 --> 00:09:15.019 Jordan. was a big ham and we had a chance to 00:09:15.019 --> 00:09:19.240 speak directly from space with him. So when I 00:09:19.240 --> 00:09:21.919 began to put together the plan for my own space 00:09:21.919 --> 00:09:25.740 flight, I was going to be flying 25 years almost 00:09:25.740 --> 00:09:32.840 to the day from my father's shuttle flight. So 00:09:32.840 --> 00:09:36.419 I knew that as his son and on such a good milestone, 00:09:36.980 --> 00:09:42.179 I would be remiss if I did not also not only 00:09:42.179 --> 00:09:44.940 take ham radios or operate ham radios when I 00:09:44.940 --> 00:09:49.259 was on board, but try to kind of push it up a 00:09:49.259 --> 00:09:53.580 notch from the status quo. And as many of the 00:09:53.580 --> 00:09:57.440 hams out there who do some contacts with either 00:09:57.440 --> 00:10:02.019 the ISS or satellites, you probably know, or 00:10:02.019 --> 00:10:04.419 some of them may know, there's actually a couple 00:10:04.419 --> 00:10:06.379 of radios that have been on board the International 00:10:06.379 --> 00:10:09.080 Space Station for many, many years. and it's 00:10:09.080 --> 00:10:11.799 not uncommon for astronauts and cosmonauts to 00:10:11.799 --> 00:10:14.740 use those radios. And so the addition that I 00:10:14.740 --> 00:10:18.480 did is I took up slow -scan television. And so 00:10:18.480 --> 00:10:21.980 I took up a handheld microphone addition that 00:10:21.980 --> 00:10:26.480 has a slow -scan TV device in it. And that way 00:10:26.480 --> 00:10:29.899 when I was doing other experiments and so I couldn't 00:10:29.899 --> 00:10:36.019 be at the radio myself, I would hook up the slow 00:10:36.019 --> 00:10:38.960 -scan television device and I could leave it 00:10:38.960 --> 00:10:41.940 at a window sort of automatically taking a picture 00:10:41.940 --> 00:10:44.279 every couple of minutes and Transmitting it down 00:10:44.279 --> 00:10:45.980 and taking a picture again and transmitting it 00:10:45.980 --> 00:10:50.059 down and therefore the the radio would be in 00:10:50.059 --> 00:10:55.480 use as close to 24 -7 as I could and And people 00:10:55.480 --> 00:10:57.399 could get you know, even if there wasn't somebody 00:10:57.399 --> 00:10:59.779 live to talk to they could get an echo kind of 00:10:59.779 --> 00:11:01.960 a selfie portrait of themselves from the International 00:11:01.960 --> 00:11:04.639 Space Station while I was while I was up there 00:11:04.639 --> 00:11:07.100 and But I have to tell you, one of the other 00:11:07.100 --> 00:11:12.100 things I did that I had good fun with was because 00:11:12.100 --> 00:11:15.360 I was doing the Slow Scan TV activities and I 00:11:15.360 --> 00:11:18.980 had a laptop in the loop as well, it also meant 00:11:18.980 --> 00:11:20.980 that the day I arrived on the station, as I was 00:11:20.980 --> 00:11:25.059 just getting all the gear set up, I brought a 00:11:25.059 --> 00:11:28.980 folder full of images, of pre -selected images 00:11:28.980 --> 00:11:31.700 that I could transmit down for the first few 00:11:31.700 --> 00:11:35.480 orbits around the Earth. that I personally had 00:11:35.480 --> 00:11:41.279 fun with where I sent down images of either test 00:11:41.279 --> 00:11:43.179 patterns from like the old fashioned television 00:11:43.179 --> 00:11:48.580 test patterns or a variety of eye tests and then 00:11:48.580 --> 00:11:53.179 some kind of comical pieces like, you know, pictures 00:11:53.179 --> 00:12:00.370 of a site of ham. or pictures of my dad, you 00:12:00.370 --> 00:12:03.070 know, speaking from his emirate aboard the shuttle. 00:12:03.590 --> 00:12:05.769 So in any case, I had a great time setting it 00:12:05.769 --> 00:12:09.509 up. I had a great time doing it. But some of 00:12:09.509 --> 00:12:14.029 the most interesting things that I remember from 00:12:14.029 --> 00:12:16.769 operating in Ham was not only just the great 00:12:16.769 --> 00:12:18.950 conversations I had with people truly all over 00:12:18.950 --> 00:12:24.889 the globe, but also how impressed I was with 00:12:24.889 --> 00:12:27.629 the community. When I would do things like, it 00:12:27.629 --> 00:12:29.870 might be for the crew, it might have been two 00:12:29.870 --> 00:12:31.370 or three o 'clock in the morning, let's call 00:12:31.370 --> 00:12:33.870 it. I might have woken up in the middle of the 00:12:33.870 --> 00:12:37.289 night to go to the head or something. I would 00:12:37.289 --> 00:12:39.730 drift back by past the ham radio that is sitting 00:12:39.730 --> 00:12:41.870 by a window. I'd look out the window, and I might 00:12:41.870 --> 00:12:44.970 be looking down at, say, Australia. In the case 00:12:44.970 --> 00:12:47.769 I'm describing, it was dark over Australia. Everyone 00:12:47.769 --> 00:12:49.230 in the ground would have known that the crew 00:12:49.230 --> 00:12:51.649 was asleep. This was our sleep schedule. There 00:12:51.649 --> 00:12:54.539 would be no real reason to expect anyone on board 00:12:54.539 --> 00:12:56.159 the International Space Station to be communicating 00:12:56.159 --> 00:13:00.899 down, but all I had to do was click the the transmit 00:13:00.899 --> 00:13:03.799 button on the microphone and Immediately, I'd 00:13:03.799 --> 00:13:05.899 be swamped with three or four attempts to contact 00:13:05.899 --> 00:13:10.080 and so it was It was really quite amazing to 00:13:10.080 --> 00:13:12.320 just think about the fact that you know when 00:13:12.320 --> 00:13:15.700 you're up there as an astronaut And that there's 00:13:15.700 --> 00:13:17.779 still people all over the world who just have 00:13:17.779 --> 00:13:21.889 their gear turned on tuned in and nearby to where 00:13:21.889 --> 00:13:26.389 if you just cycle the microphone, they will assume 00:13:26.389 --> 00:13:28.169 that that's a live body up there attempting to 00:13:28.169 --> 00:13:30.409 transmit, which in this case it absolutely was, 00:13:30.769 --> 00:13:32.929 and you know, had great 2 a .m. conversations 00:13:32.929 --> 00:13:38.250 as I traveled across, in this case, Australia, 00:13:38.509 --> 00:13:41.830 you know, 17 ,000 miles an hour. Yeah, and we're 00:13:41.830 --> 00:13:44.669 gonna listen actually to a couple of those in 00:13:44.669 --> 00:13:47.960 just a little bit, too, so. We'll give you a 00:13:47.960 --> 00:13:51.480 little idea of what that sounded like, both up 00:13:51.480 --> 00:13:56.019 there and down here. Now you mentioned your father, 00:13:56.220 --> 00:14:02.879 Owen, W -5 LFL, and his being the first person 00:14:02.879 --> 00:14:07.379 to speak to the general public from space, from 00:14:07.379 --> 00:14:11.340 Space Shuttle Columbia back in 83. Tell us how 00:14:11.340 --> 00:14:16.360 that impacted your desire to go up there. how 00:14:16.360 --> 00:14:19.700 that inspired some parts of your new book, and 00:14:19.700 --> 00:14:23.139 that's called Explore Create. So tell us a little 00:14:23.139 --> 00:14:25.639 bit about the book and the inspiration. Well, 00:14:25.759 --> 00:14:27.120 you know, what was interesting about growing 00:14:27.120 --> 00:14:29.620 up in an astronaut household at that time, and 00:14:29.620 --> 00:14:33.379 I'm sure that's largely true still today, but 00:14:33.379 --> 00:14:37.620 you know, when my dad would come home from the 00:14:37.620 --> 00:14:40.480 office, which of course was NASA, he would often 00:14:40.480 --> 00:14:44.139 come home with an armload of high -tech gear. 00:14:45.079 --> 00:14:48.019 and the ham radio sort of fit into this pantheon, 00:14:48.200 --> 00:14:49.940 but it would include, in addition to the ham 00:14:49.940 --> 00:14:53.240 radio gear, it might be things like something 00:14:53.240 --> 00:14:55.779 that at the time was referred to as a photomultiplier 00:14:55.779 --> 00:14:59.860 tube, basically, in this case, a hand -forged 00:14:59.860 --> 00:15:02.480 piece of aluminum that you could screw a camera 00:15:02.480 --> 00:15:05.399 lens into the front of and a telescope's eyepiece 00:15:05.399 --> 00:15:09.100 into the rear of and turn or rotate a knob on 00:15:09.100 --> 00:15:11.879 the side, and this photomultiplier tube would 00:15:11.879 --> 00:15:15.409 take a very dark image and brighten it. And today 00:15:15.409 --> 00:15:18.169 we know that technology as night vision, but 00:15:18.169 --> 00:15:20.850 the night vision didn't exist at this time. So, 00:15:20.850 --> 00:15:22.529 you know, my dad was bringing back this thing 00:15:22.529 --> 00:15:24.309 that was really going to be used for starlight 00:15:24.309 --> 00:15:26.529 magnification, but we would use it to go run 00:15:26.529 --> 00:15:28.190 around in the backyard and chase the cat who 00:15:28.190 --> 00:15:31.929 had no idea how he could stay in the dark. And 00:15:31.929 --> 00:15:34.169 similarly, he would bring home, you know, optical 00:15:34.169 --> 00:15:36.830 prism glasses that would reverse right and left 00:15:36.830 --> 00:15:39.250 because they had learned that if you wear these 00:15:39.250 --> 00:15:41.490 things for three days that your left and right 00:15:41.490 --> 00:15:44.830 vision will correct itself. I mean, your brain 00:15:44.830 --> 00:15:47.110 will reverse the image. But then when you take 00:15:47.110 --> 00:15:51.129 them off, it takes you about three days to reorient 00:15:51.129 --> 00:15:53.250 your left, right vision the other way around. 00:15:53.850 --> 00:15:56.049 And these were just kind of the toys that we 00:15:56.049 --> 00:15:58.110 would play with. So whether it was a ham radio 00:15:58.110 --> 00:16:04.190 or optics or other forms of electronics, these 00:16:04.190 --> 00:16:07.110 were... These were the things we did at home. 00:16:07.370 --> 00:16:11.950 And even, for example, my junior and senior year 00:16:11.950 --> 00:16:13.830 science fair project was actually related to 00:16:13.830 --> 00:16:17.649 ham radio operations. In particular, don't forget, 00:16:18.190 --> 00:16:21.090 when I was in high school, this is the day before 00:16:21.090 --> 00:16:23.029 personal computers. I was there right at the 00:16:23.029 --> 00:16:26.090 advent of personal computers. And so when my 00:16:26.090 --> 00:16:28.590 dad or other ham radio operators, many of the 00:16:28.590 --> 00:16:31.549 people here I'm listening in today, if you want 00:16:31.549 --> 00:16:34.710 to try to talk to someone over the horizon, You 00:16:34.710 --> 00:16:37.970 know, you have to find a frequency that you can 00:16:37.970 --> 00:16:42.210 bounce off the ionosphere and try to reach beyond 00:16:42.210 --> 00:16:44.950 the horizon by finding a frequency that'll create 00:16:44.950 --> 00:16:47.470 a good focal point at the distance you want to 00:16:47.470 --> 00:16:50.850 reach. And at my dad's time, they knew this, 00:16:51.210 --> 00:16:53.769 you know, my dad's specialty was upper ionospheric 00:16:53.769 --> 00:16:57.289 physics. He was trying to bounce radio waves 00:16:57.289 --> 00:16:59.649 off the ionosphere himself and was becoming sort 00:16:59.649 --> 00:17:02.250 of a specialist at it. But he was doing it with 00:17:02.250 --> 00:17:05.490 slide rule. and doing it sort of a guess at a 00:17:05.490 --> 00:17:08.450 time and kind of interpolating from there. And 00:17:08.450 --> 00:17:10.630 I was already becoming a kind of computer whiz 00:17:10.630 --> 00:17:12.690 kid. And so my dad turned to me and said, hey, 00:17:12.690 --> 00:17:14.670 Richard, you could probably write a program that 00:17:14.670 --> 00:17:18.990 if I gave you a atmospheric profile, you could 00:17:18.990 --> 00:17:22.470 very quickly run through a set of frequencies 00:17:22.470 --> 00:17:25.569 and show which frequencies would be best for 00:17:25.569 --> 00:17:27.750 which distances of communication. And I said, 00:17:27.829 --> 00:17:30.849 you're right, I can do that. So he helped me 00:17:30.849 --> 00:17:33.529 with the math. I wrote out the code. And for 00:17:33.529 --> 00:17:36.410 two years, I've earned my first place ribbons 00:17:36.410 --> 00:17:40.150 in competitions by first starting with radio 00:17:40.150 --> 00:17:42.009 wave propagation, but then moving on into sound 00:17:42.009 --> 00:17:47.589 wave propagation in air and water and even geophysical 00:17:47.589 --> 00:17:49.690 stuff underground. And so, but it really all 00:17:49.690 --> 00:17:54.390 goes back again to ham radio. Wow. Now that's 00:17:54.390 --> 00:17:58.710 a science fair project. It was, you know, I was, 00:17:59.049 --> 00:18:02.740 I was a BC student, but I was, I aced. science 00:18:02.740 --> 00:18:09.240 fairs. I won many of them from kindergarten through 00:18:09.240 --> 00:18:15.779 graduation. Well, it sounds like you're definitely 00:18:15.779 --> 00:18:19.779 the whiz kid, which reminds me a little bit of 00:18:19.779 --> 00:18:25.349 myself. I wasn't quite that far along. kind of 00:18:25.349 --> 00:18:29.289 early adopter into computing as well. So tell 00:18:29.289 --> 00:18:35.609 us about the book, how that all leads into your 00:18:35.609 --> 00:18:40.170 book about exploring and creating things. Yeah, 00:18:40.250 --> 00:18:42.410 well, you know, what's interesting is you mentioned 00:18:42.410 --> 00:18:47.490 up top in my bio, this kind of interesting hybrid 00:18:47.490 --> 00:18:50.579 that I've had through my life of of both being 00:18:50.579 --> 00:18:53.599 a creator of video games. I've been very fortunate 00:18:53.599 --> 00:18:55.680 to create a number of best sellers down through 00:18:55.680 --> 00:18:59.240 the years and help set standards for both visuals 00:18:59.240 --> 00:19:02.720 and user interface and even broader design ideas 00:19:02.720 --> 00:19:05.519 as well. At the same time, I've always been this 00:19:05.519 --> 00:19:08.839 avid explorer and been to the deep sea and space 00:19:08.839 --> 00:19:14.180 and all around all seven continents. When I think 00:19:14.180 --> 00:19:16.500 about those things, I then watch other people 00:19:16.500 --> 00:19:20.000 trying to create games or create original products 00:19:20.000 --> 00:19:22.539 of various kinds. And one of the things I've 00:19:22.539 --> 00:19:25.519 noticed is when I observe others and I try to 00:19:25.519 --> 00:19:29.700 sort out who can do this well and who has a harder 00:19:29.700 --> 00:19:35.400 time with creating original, compelling content 00:19:35.400 --> 00:19:39.700 or ideas broadly, whether it's business or science 00:19:39.700 --> 00:19:43.680 or story or entertainment, I started to notice 00:19:43.680 --> 00:19:47.509 there was this theme. The theme to me was associated 00:19:47.509 --> 00:19:52.150 with my exploration. I then began to realize 00:19:52.150 --> 00:19:55.829 that I sort of, at least for me, found that what 00:19:55.829 --> 00:19:58.309 allowed me to, or at least aided me greatly in 00:19:58.309 --> 00:20:01.809 being a successful creator of original ideas 00:20:01.809 --> 00:20:04.809 was because I'm not only just an avid explorer, 00:20:05.329 --> 00:20:10.269 but I'm a voracious consumer of knowledge around 00:20:10.269 --> 00:20:13.640 me. I not only like to explore physically, but 00:20:13.640 --> 00:20:17.240 I like to explore in literature. I like to explore 00:20:17.240 --> 00:20:20.240 any new subject that comes up that I am pondering 00:20:20.240 --> 00:20:24.539 for a product or an experience. I go buy a research 00:20:24.539 --> 00:20:26.880 library on that subject. I pay a lot of attention 00:20:26.880 --> 00:20:29.980 to the details of how that subject is implemented 00:20:29.980 --> 00:20:37.339 in the world around me. And I find that when 00:20:37.339 --> 00:20:40.500 it comes to trying to be a creator, those that 00:20:41.309 --> 00:20:44.049 decide they want to create by stepping off where 00:20:44.049 --> 00:20:45.869 someone has recently been. They're saying, hey, 00:20:45.950 --> 00:20:48.329 the best game I've seen around might play like 00:20:48.329 --> 00:20:50.490 this, and I like that kind of game, but I know 00:20:50.490 --> 00:20:53.390 how to improve it incrementally. Those are usually 00:20:53.390 --> 00:20:56.269 not successful. The ones that are more successful, 00:20:56.369 --> 00:20:59.450 the ones who say, I have a wholesale revision 00:20:59.450 --> 00:21:02.349 of how the industry works, or how this product 00:21:02.349 --> 00:21:04.890 line works, or how to tackle this kind of problem. 00:21:05.329 --> 00:21:07.230 And those inspirations usually come from very 00:21:07.230 --> 00:21:09.640 far afield, from You know, my inspirations for 00:21:09.640 --> 00:21:12.480 computer games, for example, you know, come from 00:21:12.480 --> 00:21:15.859 movies, they come from travel, they come from, 00:21:15.859 --> 00:21:19.779 you know, moral philosophy, as often as not. 00:21:19.799 --> 00:21:24.579 They come from a study of linguistics and the 00:21:24.579 --> 00:21:27.980 sociology around those linguistics. And so, you 00:21:27.980 --> 00:21:31.299 know, I find that my best creation comes from 00:21:31.299 --> 00:21:35.599 the deep research that I do in unrelated fields. 00:21:36.380 --> 00:21:38.490 And so that's sort of That was sort of the basis 00:21:38.490 --> 00:21:40.869 of the book, is sort of trying to draw those 00:21:40.869 --> 00:21:44.470 together, and the book is written as a collection 00:21:44.470 --> 00:21:46.410 of short stories with these little interstitials 00:21:46.410 --> 00:21:49.009 to collect them together or to hopefully tie 00:21:49.009 --> 00:21:51.329 them together, where I move from a creation story 00:21:51.329 --> 00:21:55.009 to an exploration story, and then the interstitials 00:21:55.009 --> 00:21:57.609 are often challenges, where I challenge somebody 00:21:57.609 --> 00:21:59.789 and say, look, if you live, say, for example, 00:21:59.809 --> 00:22:01.230 here in New York City, where I'm talking to you 00:22:01.230 --> 00:22:04.710 from right now, the city right now, and for the 00:22:04.710 --> 00:22:07.049 five years that I've been up here, there are 00:22:07.259 --> 00:22:11.539 six -foot -tall meter around liquid nitrogen 00:22:11.539 --> 00:22:13.980 tanks on every six or eight the street corner 00:22:13.980 --> 00:22:16.180 all through Manhattan and most New Yorkers walk 00:22:16.180 --> 00:22:18.640 by and don't even notice but having come here 00:22:18.640 --> 00:22:20.000 from the outside it was one of the first things 00:22:20.000 --> 00:22:22.980 I noticed and it pretty quickly bothered me as 00:22:22.980 --> 00:22:25.380 to why are these things here and why don't they 00:22:25.380 --> 00:22:28.359 go away and I put some photographs of these in 00:22:28.359 --> 00:22:30.819 the book and I challenge people to figure out 00:22:30.819 --> 00:22:34.259 what they are and I'll leave that for you to 00:22:34.259 --> 00:22:39.029 figure out. If you go Google liquid nitrogen 00:22:39.029 --> 00:22:42.170 tanks in New York City and go to images, you 00:22:42.170 --> 00:22:44.569 will see that all over New York there are these 00:22:44.569 --> 00:22:46.849 tanks. And the real question is, why are they 00:22:46.849 --> 00:22:48.950 there? And these are the sort of details that 00:22:48.950 --> 00:22:52.549 I refer to when I say, pay attention to the world 00:22:52.549 --> 00:22:57.630 around you, understand as much as you can, be 00:22:57.630 --> 00:23:00.289 bothered when you don't understand enough to 00:23:00.289 --> 00:23:02.589 go dig up the answer yourself. And I think that 00:23:02.589 --> 00:23:06.529 helps in the process of creation. All right, 00:23:06.529 --> 00:23:09.450 so that book is called explore create and you 00:23:09.450 --> 00:23:13.650 can pick that up just about anywhere Over Christmas 00:23:13.650 --> 00:23:16.630 break. I had a chance to go home and visit with 00:23:16.630 --> 00:23:23.650 my dad and we dug up a cassette tape That we 00:23:23.650 --> 00:23:28.650 recorded of your dad on two meters talking from 00:23:28.650 --> 00:23:31.670 space I was 13 years old at the time in junior 00:23:31.670 --> 00:23:35.750 high and I still remember the day very vividly. 00:23:35.809 --> 00:23:39.710 It was a Sunday morning. We were up trying to 00:23:39.710 --> 00:23:43.569 listen in and hoping that we caught a pass. We 00:23:43.569 --> 00:23:48.869 didn't have all the technology to tell exactly 00:23:48.869 --> 00:23:52.049 when and where that was going to happen and getting 00:23:52.049 --> 00:23:54.809 ready for church. And all of a sudden, we thought, 00:23:54.869 --> 00:23:57.730 well, we better grab the tape recorder and... 00:23:59.480 --> 00:24:01.680 And all of a sudden we heard your dad calling 00:24:01.680 --> 00:24:04.160 and we missed it. It's like, oh no, we missed 00:24:04.160 --> 00:24:08.000 it. So we go back and grab, you know, the tape 00:24:08.000 --> 00:24:13.539 recorder and hope for a little bit more. And 00:24:13.539 --> 00:24:36.299 this is what we heard. WB9UKG W5LFL from WB9VPG 00:24:36.299 --> 00:24:46.339 Whiskey Bravo 9 Victor Puppet Golf WB9VPG WB9VPG 00:24:46.339 --> 00:25:18.969 Come on. Acknowledge. We missed it on tape. We 00:25:18.969 --> 00:25:26.190 should be just about passing over Florida at 00:25:26.190 --> 00:25:30.250 this time. And W -5 Lima Foxtrot Lima is calling 00:25:30.250 --> 00:25:38.779 you to North America. So you know that was that 00:25:38.779 --> 00:25:41.900 was pretty pretty memorable and even though he 00:25:41.900 --> 00:25:45.420 didn't hear us It did land me on the front page 00:25:45.420 --> 00:25:49.660 of the local newspaper, but, uh, you know, it 00:25:49.660 --> 00:25:52.140 was, it was just fascinating to hear, you know, 00:25:52.180 --> 00:25:55.079 somebody from space for the first time. And, 00:25:55.119 --> 00:25:58.740 um, you had a chance to operate from there and, 00:25:59.619 --> 00:26:02.079 um, you've, uh, been gracious enough to share 00:26:02.079 --> 00:26:07.539 some audio, um, from your trip. So we'll, we'll 00:26:07.539 --> 00:26:10.299 play this and then, uh, we'll kind of talk about 00:26:10.299 --> 00:26:14.720 where this is, uh, Where this is heard otherwise 00:26:14.720 --> 00:26:35.079 Yes, my goal is foxtrot 5 America Sierra Delta 00:26:35.079 --> 00:26:48.319 Fox 5 alpha Sierra Delta near Paris QSL Yes, 00:26:48.480 --> 00:26:52.660 my name is Jérôme, Juliet, Echo, Romeo, Oscar, 00:26:53.160 --> 00:26:57.019 Mike, Echo, Jérôme is my name, Roger? Jérôme, 00:26:57.160 --> 00:26:59.319 great to make the contact with you there in Paris, 00:26:59.799 --> 00:27:03.500 on your call sign, 525, Alpha Sierra Delta, great 00:27:03.500 --> 00:27:05.920 QSL, I hear you 5 by 9, thank you, bye bye 73. 00:27:06.779 --> 00:27:09.960 Yes, 73 Richard, it was a pleasure to meet you 00:27:09.960 --> 00:27:12.559 on VR today, 73 Richard, I'll see you later, 00:27:12.660 --> 00:27:19.539 bye bye. So that's some audio of you from the 00:27:19.539 --> 00:27:22.700 from the ISS and and tell our listeners where 00:27:22.700 --> 00:27:28.440 that audio is hidden. Ah, well that that actually 00:27:28.440 --> 00:27:31.660 was sent to me by the individual on the ground 00:27:31.660 --> 00:27:35.640 who is also one of the players of my new game 00:27:35.640 --> 00:27:38.420 Shroud of the Avatar. So, you know, just to tie 00:27:38.420 --> 00:27:41.200 all these communities together, you know, as 00:27:41.200 --> 00:27:45.369 no one listening would be surprised. radio operators 00:27:45.369 --> 00:27:48.950 come in all stripes, including those that play 00:27:48.950 --> 00:27:51.289 medieval fantasy role -playing games, which is 00:27:51.289 --> 00:27:54.769 obviously my core business. Yeah, so a little 00:27:54.769 --> 00:27:58.869 audio from Shroud of the Avatar. That's exactly 00:27:58.869 --> 00:28:05.930 right. He sent me that recording and then we 00:28:05.930 --> 00:28:08.390 took it and we in the Shroud of the Avatar, even 00:28:08.390 --> 00:28:10.390 though it's sort of a medieval fantasy game, 00:28:10.809 --> 00:28:15.619 we do have some kind of Tesla style, technology 00:28:15.619 --> 00:28:17.960 creeping in, a little bit of steampunk technology 00:28:17.960 --> 00:28:21.279 clicking in. And so we even put in these cylinder 00:28:21.279 --> 00:28:24.500 record players and these ethereal amplification 00:28:24.500 --> 00:28:28.380 devices, basically radios, and so we put that 00:28:28.380 --> 00:28:31.259 recording actually in the game. So any ham radio 00:28:31.259 --> 00:28:33.859 operators come in and play Shroud of the Avatar, 00:28:34.000 --> 00:28:39.539 and you can hear some actual ham chatter from 00:28:39.539 --> 00:28:43.799 Earth to space and back as well. Well, how cool 00:28:43.799 --> 00:28:47.660 is that? Well, we gotta pay some bills, but I'll 00:28:47.660 --> 00:28:50.240 be back and we're gonna take some calls. We'll 00:28:50.240 --> 00:28:53.059 take your calls after this message from the HamStation 00:28:53.059 --> 00:28:56.759 right here on HamTalk Live. This episode of HamTalk 00:28:56.759 --> 00:29:00.150 Live is brought to you by the HamStation. For 00:29:00.150 --> 00:29:03.349 over 37 years, the HamStation has sold new and 00:29:03.349 --> 00:29:06.490 used radios, antennas, accessories, and equipment 00:29:06.490 --> 00:29:10.250 to hams everywhere. Give Dan or Jeff a call at 00:29:10.250 --> 00:29:16.829 800 -729 -4373, or order online at hamstation 00:29:16.829 --> 00:29:20.390 .com. HamStation carries all the major brands 00:29:20.390 --> 00:29:24.190 like Icom, Yezu, and Kenwood, and they have a 00:29:24.190 --> 00:29:27.970 wide selection of radio scanners, MFJ accessories, 00:29:28.329 --> 00:29:31.190 Heil Sound Pro... products, amplifiers by Mirage 00:29:31.190 --> 00:29:34.910 and Ameritron, Cushcraft antennas and more. Easy 00:29:34.910 --> 00:29:38.289 online ordering is at hamstation .com or call 00:29:38.289 --> 00:29:43.950 1 -800 -729 -4373 to place an order and talk 00:29:43.950 --> 00:29:46.990 it over with the experts. The Ham Station, proud 00:29:46.990 --> 00:29:56.359 to sponsor this episode of Ham Talk Live. Join 00:29:56.359 --> 00:29:59.539 the conversation. Call us on voice with Skype 00:29:59.539 --> 00:30:03.500 at HamTalk Live or give us a call at 812 -NET 00:30:03.500 --> 00:30:09.640 -HAM -1. That's 812 -638 -4261. Now, here's more 00:30:09.640 --> 00:30:13.960 HamTalk Live. Welcome back to HamTalk Live. The 00:30:13.960 --> 00:30:17.400 HamStation has you covered for both new and used 00:30:17.400 --> 00:30:22.440 equipment. Call Jeff or Dan at 800 -729 -4373 00:30:22.440 --> 00:30:25.059 or go to HamStation .com. Tell them you heard 00:30:25.059 --> 00:30:28.559 it on HamTalk Live. Well, it's time for your 00:30:28.559 --> 00:30:32.160 calls now. If you have a question for Richard, 00:30:32.640 --> 00:30:36.779 give us a call at 812 -NET -HAM -1. That's 812 00:30:36.779 --> 00:30:42.460 -638 -4261 or you can Skype us at HamTalk Live 00:30:42.460 --> 00:30:46.849 or you can tweet us at HamTalk Live. as well. 00:30:47.410 --> 00:30:49.230 While we're waiting on the calls, Richard, I 00:30:49.230 --> 00:30:53.150 wanted to ask you which radio were you using 00:30:53.150 --> 00:30:55.930 when you were on the Space Station? Well, there 00:30:55.930 --> 00:30:59.809 were two that were up and operational, both the 00:30:59.809 --> 00:31:07.730 Kenwood TM -700 and an Ericsson NPX. I used them 00:31:07.730 --> 00:31:12.450 both, but if memory serves me well, it was the 00:31:12.450 --> 00:31:16.359 Kenwood that I primarily used. And mostly just 00:31:16.359 --> 00:31:19.400 because I could attach the slow scan television 00:31:19.400 --> 00:31:22.480 device to it and that I left on orbit And so 00:31:22.480 --> 00:31:25.240 I'm guessing a few of you may have seen other 00:31:25.240 --> 00:31:31.099 images brought down since then because You know, 00:31:31.200 --> 00:31:33.619 I left it on board for so for future ham to use 00:31:33.619 --> 00:31:37.640 Yeah, great. And yeah, the the Erickson is finally 00:31:37.640 --> 00:31:42.380 given up and so we're working on getting I knew 00:31:42.380 --> 00:31:46.000 Kenwood up there soon, and hopefully we'll get 00:31:46.000 --> 00:31:49.759 that all funded and launched up there soon, ready 00:31:49.759 --> 00:31:52.720 to go. We do have a call on the line, so let's 00:31:52.720 --> 00:31:57.039 go to that. Who's this? My name is Chris, Victor 00:31:57.039 --> 00:31:59.799 Alpha 3, Echo Charlie Oscar. Can you hear me 00:31:59.799 --> 00:32:05.960 okay? Absolutely. Hi Richard, we worked in 2008 00:32:05.960 --> 00:32:09.960 when you're on the space station. Really proud 00:32:09.960 --> 00:32:12.619 moment of my life. And I gotta say thank you 00:32:12.619 --> 00:32:15.380 very much for doing that, working so many people. 00:32:15.519 --> 00:32:17.779 It was amazing to hear you work the pile up. 00:32:18.380 --> 00:32:22.000 And I was one of your last people. You were packing 00:32:22.000 --> 00:32:26.380 up your gear to head back to Earth that day. 00:32:26.960 --> 00:32:30.400 Next morning at work, I saw you on CNN in a lawn 00:32:30.400 --> 00:32:34.240 chair in Kazakhstan. And it just blew my mind. 00:32:34.859 --> 00:32:37.700 It sort of made the planet so much smaller to 00:32:37.700 --> 00:32:40.890 see a guy I just talked to. in Kazakhstan the 00:32:40.890 --> 00:32:43.650 next day. Back to you, Richard. Yeah, no, thanks, 00:32:43.650 --> 00:32:46.089 Chris, very much. You know, and thanks for the 00:32:46.089 --> 00:32:48.029 thought there, too, about those contacts. You 00:32:48.029 --> 00:32:51.369 know, I had one of my other kind of personal 00:32:51.369 --> 00:32:53.829 goals when I went up. I had a very busy schedule 00:32:53.829 --> 00:32:56.890 of experiments and other activity. And, you know, 00:32:56.910 --> 00:33:00.809 it set aside maybe an hour a day to try to work 00:33:00.809 --> 00:33:04.630 the radios. And I was on orbit for about the 00:33:04.630 --> 00:33:06.930 same amount of time as my dad had been up on 00:33:06.930 --> 00:33:10.019 Space Lab. but I knew that he also was very busy 00:33:10.019 --> 00:33:12.680 doing things other than ham radio. And so one 00:33:12.680 --> 00:33:15.880 of my goals was to make more contacts than he 00:33:15.880 --> 00:33:20.359 did just for bragging rights as his son. But 00:33:20.359 --> 00:33:22.319 I only thought of that once I was on orbit, so 00:33:22.319 --> 00:33:24.099 I actually didn't know exactly what his count 00:33:24.099 --> 00:33:28.859 was. And so I actually, somewhere between pentupled 00:33:28.859 --> 00:33:34.220 and tenfolded his contact list just because I 00:33:34.220 --> 00:33:37.029 was just so devoted to doing it. That combined 00:33:37.029 --> 00:33:39.549 with the fact that, as you say, working the pile 00:33:39.549 --> 00:33:44.490 up, as soon as you realize how many people are 00:33:44.490 --> 00:33:47.569 trying to reach you, you're really disappointed 00:33:47.569 --> 00:33:51.369 if you don't manage to read back clearly someone's 00:33:51.369 --> 00:33:55.569 call sign. Knowing how it, well frankly, it probably 00:33:55.569 --> 00:33:57.509 felt very similar to me on orbit, you really 00:33:57.509 --> 00:34:02.890 want to do this well. I remain very diligent. 00:34:03.289 --> 00:34:04.990 My biggest problem on orbit was finding more 00:34:04.990 --> 00:34:07.009 places to record all my contacts. I began to 00:34:07.009 --> 00:34:10.309 use the backside of all my instruction manuals 00:34:10.309 --> 00:34:12.349 to find enough paper to write down all the contacts 00:34:12.349 --> 00:34:16.409 I was making so I could keep track of it back 00:34:16.409 --> 00:34:19.289 on the ground. Well, Richard, you're working 00:34:19.289 --> 00:34:21.710 them like a pro, and I look forward to reading 00:34:21.710 --> 00:34:24.369 your book. And I'm sure there's other people 00:34:24.369 --> 00:34:26.570 calling, so I'll let you go and make some more 00:34:26.570 --> 00:34:29.150 calls. Thank you again very, very much. Thank 00:34:29.150 --> 00:34:30.590 you, Chris. Really appreciate it. Nice to talk 00:34:30.590 --> 00:34:33.500 to you again eight years later. Thanks Chris. 00:34:33.900 --> 00:34:36.719 Thanks for calling. Appreciate it. 812 -NET -HAM 00:34:36.719 --> 00:34:41.800 -1 812 -638 -4261 is the telephone number or 00:34:41.800 --> 00:34:45.199 the high -tech way. Skype us at HamTalk Live. 00:34:45.579 --> 00:34:48.800 If you have a question or comment for Richard 00:34:48.800 --> 00:34:54.019 Gary at W5KWQ give us a call now at 812 -NET 00:34:54.019 --> 00:35:03.389 -HAM -1 812 -638 -4261. Did you spend most of 00:35:03.389 --> 00:35:08.150 your time, since you went with the Russians, 00:35:08.349 --> 00:35:10.409 did you spend most of your time in that Russian 00:35:10.409 --> 00:35:12.750 module or were you in the US module? Where did 00:35:12.750 --> 00:35:15.190 you spend most of your time when you were on 00:35:15.190 --> 00:35:18.230 board? Well, funny you should ask because that 00:35:18.230 --> 00:35:21.230 ended up being a political issue just prior to 00:35:21.230 --> 00:35:26.309 my flight. I originally was scheduled to do a 00:35:26.309 --> 00:35:31.139 lot of work in the US segments. Then, just prior 00:35:31.139 --> 00:35:34.179 to my flight due to politics, the U .S. government 00:35:34.179 --> 00:35:37.820 actually tried to keep me out of anything other 00:35:37.820 --> 00:35:40.800 than the Russian segment. Fortunately, however, 00:35:41.260 --> 00:35:43.380 the rules of space are like the rules of the 00:35:43.380 --> 00:35:45.760 open sea, where the commander of the vessel makes 00:35:45.760 --> 00:35:50.280 the rules. And so despite governmental objection, 00:35:50.840 --> 00:35:55.019 I got clearance from the crew commander to continue 00:35:55.019 --> 00:35:58.519 my work as originally planned. I did in fact 00:35:58.519 --> 00:36:01.880 spend a significant amount of time in all the 00:36:01.880 --> 00:36:05.619 modules doing a variety of research, a variety 00:36:05.619 --> 00:36:07.960 of kinds of research. Some of the research I 00:36:07.960 --> 00:36:10.659 was doing was on visual acuity. It turns out 00:36:10.659 --> 00:36:13.920 I'm the first person who's ever flown with corrective 00:36:13.920 --> 00:36:17.059 eye surgery. And so they studied my eyes in detail 00:36:17.059 --> 00:36:20.599 and have since then approved corrective eye surgery 00:36:20.599 --> 00:36:23.300 for astronaut candidates. And that I needed to 00:36:23.300 --> 00:36:28.420 do in a very brightly lit module. I did other 00:36:28.420 --> 00:36:30.760 things like protein crystal growth that really 00:36:30.760 --> 00:36:33.920 needed to be undisturbed. And so the central 00:36:33.920 --> 00:36:37.440 corridor of modules would have been inappropriate 00:36:37.440 --> 00:36:41.260 from just not getting bumped into and having 00:36:41.260 --> 00:36:46.079 little vibrations. So that instead sat way up 00:36:46.079 --> 00:36:49.119 at the bow of the space station, which was not 00:36:49.119 --> 00:36:51.380 used. That area was not used much. So I could 00:36:51.380 --> 00:36:53.840 let an experiment sit there and cook for the 00:36:53.840 --> 00:36:55.440 two weeks I was in space. So I was all over. 00:36:56.500 --> 00:36:59.860 Okay, very good. 812 Net Ham 1 is the phone number. 00:37:00.500 --> 00:37:07.260 812 -638 -4261 to give a call to Richard, W5KWQ. 00:37:07.260 --> 00:37:10.539 We have about five minutes left so if you want 00:37:10.539 --> 00:37:14.699 to call now is the time to do so. And maybe kind 00:37:14.699 --> 00:37:18.059 of a strange question, have you ever tried to 00:37:18.059 --> 00:37:20.789 contact the station from down here? You know, 00:37:20.789 --> 00:37:23.949 I have. I've actually been successful. I actually 00:37:23.949 --> 00:37:26.070 was unsuccessful myself. And just like you said 00:37:26.070 --> 00:37:28.489 one time when you were trying to call up to the 00:37:28.489 --> 00:37:32.110 station, I have done that myself. I've been actually 00:37:32.110 --> 00:37:35.949 at NASA when we had some unsuccessful attempts 00:37:35.949 --> 00:37:41.630 to reach the station. But then on my own and 00:37:41.630 --> 00:37:45.250 often with school kids, we'll occasionally also 00:37:45.250 --> 00:37:48.690 try to make ISS contacts. In more recent times, 00:37:48.769 --> 00:37:52.170 we've been more successful. I think that the 00:37:52.170 --> 00:37:53.989 process is just better known now, and you know 00:37:53.989 --> 00:37:56.429 when the station is really traveling overhead, 00:37:56.670 --> 00:38:00.070 and the crew on board is listening out at the 00:38:00.070 --> 00:38:01.809 right time, so it's just easier to coordinate. 00:38:03.070 --> 00:38:05.590 So more recently, I've had more success. In the 00:38:05.590 --> 00:38:08.010 early days, I would say I had more failures. 00:38:10.050 --> 00:38:15.309 812 Net Ham 1. 812 -638 -4261 is the number to 00:38:15.309 --> 00:38:18.409 call. And that's kind of reassuring to know that 00:38:18.409 --> 00:38:22.630 sometimes it doesn't work for you, too. No, exactly 00:38:22.630 --> 00:38:24.550 right. Exactly right. You know, actually, one 00:38:24.550 --> 00:38:27.849 of my biggest disappointments of my ham radio 00:38:27.849 --> 00:38:30.210 use is one of the one of the contacts I really 00:38:30.210 --> 00:38:33.530 wanted to make was with a group of friends who 00:38:33.530 --> 00:38:35.250 were going to be in Austin, Texas, were camping 00:38:35.250 --> 00:38:37.750 out on some property that I have. And they were 00:38:37.750 --> 00:38:39.130 they were actually on the property for different 00:38:39.130 --> 00:38:40.469 reasons that they were going to be camped out 00:38:40.469 --> 00:38:44.179 there anyway. but one of my friends was a ham 00:38:44.179 --> 00:38:46.679 radio operator and he brought out a rig and the 00:38:46.679 --> 00:38:48.980 group all got around the campfire and watched 00:38:48.980 --> 00:38:52.639 the ISS go by and we did not manage to connect. 00:38:52.800 --> 00:38:54.820 That was about two minutes late to get the rig 00:38:54.820 --> 00:38:58.300 set up and getting the rig set up and trying 00:38:58.300 --> 00:39:01.079 to get the connection going. We just, a little 00:39:01.079 --> 00:39:04.019 bit too late, a little bit too off target and 00:39:04.019 --> 00:39:06.679 didn't quite make the connection, but that bothered 00:39:06.679 --> 00:39:11.079 me for days. Still bothers me to this day. you 00:39:11.079 --> 00:39:14.320 know you disappoint somebody with you know trying 00:39:14.320 --> 00:39:17.400 to make a contact so I definitely know the agony 00:39:17.400 --> 00:39:21.400 of defeat as well yeah in my teaching career 00:39:21.400 --> 00:39:26.739 I found that experiments always work until you 00:39:26.739 --> 00:39:30.260 do them in front of kids Yeah. And it doesn't 00:39:30.260 --> 00:39:32.760 matter, you know, if it works every single time. 00:39:32.780 --> 00:39:35.159 You do it in front of kids and now it doesn't 00:39:35.159 --> 00:39:39.559 work. So yeah, we're all susceptible to, uh, 00:39:39.559 --> 00:39:42.340 to those moments. Eight one two net ham one is 00:39:42.340 --> 00:39:44.280 the number eight one two six three eight four 00:39:44.280 --> 00:39:46.800 two six one. Just a couple of minutes left. We've 00:39:46.800 --> 00:39:50.199 got time for, for one more call here. If you 00:39:50.199 --> 00:39:55.059 want to chime in at ham talk live eight one two 00:39:55.059 --> 00:40:01.960 net ham one. Let's see, there was something else 00:40:01.960 --> 00:40:09.659 I was going to ask and it has escaped me for 00:40:09.659 --> 00:40:19.199 the moment. Your book is available how? Yeah, 00:40:19.519 --> 00:40:22.260 the book really just came out so this is the 00:40:22.260 --> 00:40:25.159 end of week one for the book launch and just 00:40:25.159 --> 00:40:31.650 the start of a book tour. You know, so HarperCollins 00:40:31.650 --> 00:40:35.789 is the publisher and you get to whatever your 00:40:35.789 --> 00:40:40.170 favorite book reseller is, both the brick and 00:40:40.170 --> 00:40:42.730 mortar stores as well as digital places like 00:40:42.730 --> 00:40:45.289 Amazon and others, all should have it. It's even 00:40:45.289 --> 00:40:50.349 available as an audio book and as a digital book 00:40:50.349 --> 00:40:53.929 as well. So all the forms you might like, whatever 00:40:53.929 --> 00:40:57.329 suits your fancy, you can track it down. It's 00:40:57.329 --> 00:41:00.269 funny that I often joke with people that even 00:41:00.269 --> 00:41:02.769 if you won't like the book, you might just find 00:41:02.769 --> 00:41:06.170 the list of people I managed to put a blurb on 00:41:06.170 --> 00:41:09.590 the back of the book made me particularly happy 00:41:09.590 --> 00:41:12.550 and I think sounds like a pretty good group of 00:41:12.550 --> 00:41:16.269 endorsers. It includes everybody from Elon Musk 00:41:16.269 --> 00:41:22.090 to Stephen Hawking, a gentleman by the name of 00:41:22.090 --> 00:41:23.809 Ernest Cline who wrote a book called Ready Player 00:41:23.809 --> 00:41:26.320 One, a recent bestseller. I was sort of the inspiration 00:41:26.320 --> 00:41:31.760 for his main character. It includes people like 00:41:31.760 --> 00:41:34.280 Alexei Lanoff, the first person to do Spacewalk, 00:41:34.699 --> 00:41:37.440 and Steve Wozniak, the developer of the Apple 00:41:37.440 --> 00:41:40.199 II computer. All those folks and more stuck a 00:41:40.199 --> 00:41:43.679 blurb on the back for me, and so hopefully it'll 00:41:43.679 --> 00:41:45.739 convince a few people to at least give it a shot. 00:41:46.519 --> 00:41:51.239 Yeah, you've got quite an impressive list. on 00:41:51.239 --> 00:41:54.699 the cover there. So I appreciate you taking time 00:41:54.699 --> 00:41:58.300 out to talk to us and come on the show and talk 00:41:58.300 --> 00:42:01.159 about the book a little bit and talk about your 00:42:01.159 --> 00:42:05.840 experiences in space and thank you for making 00:42:05.840 --> 00:42:09.300 all those contacts and helping us out and getting 00:42:09.300 --> 00:42:13.400 some space into Ham Radio. We sure appreciate 00:42:13.400 --> 00:42:16.300 it and thanks so much for coming on the show 00:42:16.300 --> 00:42:19.130 tonight. Wonderful, my pleasure. I sure appreciate 00:42:19.130 --> 00:42:21.909 it as well and look forward to talking to you 00:42:21.909 --> 00:42:26.710 again if not here on Skype, maybe from back on 00:42:26.710 --> 00:42:29.190 the ham radio frequencies, either terrestrial 00:42:29.190 --> 00:42:32.829 or from space. Oh, that would be excellent. I 00:42:32.829 --> 00:42:36.139 would thoroughly enjoy that. Well that's a wrap 00:42:36.139 --> 00:42:39.480 for this week's edition of HamTalk Live. I'd 00:42:39.480 --> 00:42:42.460 like to thank my guest Richard Gary at W5KWQ 00:42:42.460 --> 00:42:44.860 and everyone out there in cyberspace for listening 00:42:44.860 --> 00:42:48.400 and calling in and invite you back next Thursday 00:42:48.400 --> 00:42:52.280 night at 9 p .m. Eastern Time and for a list 00:42:52.280 --> 00:42:55.780 of all of our upcoming guests just go to HamTalkLive 00:42:55.780 --> 00:43:00.280 .com. So for now this is Neil Rapp WB9VPG saying 00:43:00.280 --> 00:43:05.510 7 -3, 7 -5 and may the good DX. be yours.