Longmont (CO) club puts Santa on the airwaves with hope of transmitting interest in amateur radio
The coronavirus has altered the way that communities are celebrating this year’s holidays, meaning Santa Claus may not be able to make his Christmas list through in-person visits. One Longmont club, though, is giving Kris Kringle some air time so that he can still hear from Boulder County’s children in a safe-distanced way.
The Longmont Amateur Radio Club will host On Air with Santa from 6 to 7 p.m. Dec. 1 to Dec. 5. The club is encouraging licensed ham radio operators to give their children and grandchildren a chance to connect with Santa in a safe, distanced way.
Firestone’s Chuck Poch, president of the radio club, said this is the first time that the Longmont Amateur Radio Club has hosted the event. While the Longmont Amateur Radio Club wants to give children a chance to connect with Santa, members also hope to transmit an interest in the next generation of ham radio operators.
Sea Road students to radio orbiting astronauts
KENNEBUNK (ME) – The students at Kennebunk’s Sea Road School are getting ready to talk with astronauts aboard the orbiting International Space Station (ISS). The Sea Road School serves over 300 third, fourth, and fifth-grade students. NASA indicates the direct radio contact will likely take place this coming January.
The New England Radio Discussion Society, a Maine radio club comprised of federally-licensed radio amateurs, known as ham radio operators, is actively helping plan the contact.
Significantly, NASA is celebrating its 20th anniversary of Amateur Radio operations on the ISS. The new crew includes Commander Bill Shepherd, with American ham radio call sign KD5GSL, Soyuz Commander Yuri Gidzenko, and Flight Engineer Sergei Krikalev, with Russian ham radio call sign U5MIR.
Just a few days after the new ISS crew arrived, they set up the Amateur Radio equipment. ISS crews will now use the new gear to talk to schools as they orbit the Earth.
Villager built power supply for space station
If you can communicate with an astronaut using an amateur radio, you can thank Ed Krome for it. Krome, K9EK, a self-described experimenter and builder, was involved in creating what’s known as a Multi-Voltage Power Supply, which is used to power a next-generation amateur radio system on the International Space Station. The first of four power supplies for this system launched March 6 as part of a SpaceX commercial supply mission to the space station.
When he watched that rocket launch, Krome, of the Village of Amelia, thought it was awesome to have something he worked on go into space. “Going to the launch, it happened to be the clearest night ever over at (Cape) Canaveral, we could see the end of the fueling, the takeoff,” he said.
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