Recordings of QSO with Sergei Krikalev U5MIR
On the 27 August 2005, ISS passed over West Malaysia at 1945
Hours Malaysian Time or 1145 Hours UTC with a maximum elevation of 40 degrees.
During this pass, the packet digipeater and mailbox were not heard and therefore
I tried calling the crew as there were reports of the crew being active on voice
half an hour ago.
To my surprise, ISS ASTRONAUT SERGEI KRIKALEV, U5MIR ANSWERED MY CALL!!!
(BTW, today is Sergei's birthday). This was the first time I made a contact with
Sergei, and this was my 2nd contact with ISS's crew. Signals were very clear and
nice, 59 all the way.
No one else was active on this pass and I am happy to be the only station around
this region to wish Sergei a very happy birthday. This is the first time
in my life that I have wished a human out of the world, in space, happy
birthday, and I am very happy that I did it. I guess amateur radio operators are
very privileged as amateur radio is the only way an ordinary person can speak to
an astronaut when he or she is in space. Also, not many people get the
chance to wish another human in space happy birthday.
THANK YOU VERY MUCH, SERGEI (U5MIR) for the brief but memorable contact.
Equipment used were:
Rig: FT-847, running 50 Watts. Click on the thumbnail below to view the picture of my shack.
From left to right, Symek TNC3S, ICOM IC-PCR1000, ICOM IC-910H, Yaesu FT-847, Diamond SX-600 SWR and Power Meter, MFJ-969 ATU, ICOM IC-756PROIII
Antenna: Diamond 10-element 2M yagi, vertically polarized. Click on the
thumbnail below to view the picture of my antenna.
The picture shows the Diamond 2M Yagi, vertically polarized on the left, the 2.4 GHz S-Band 10 turn Helix, right hand circular polarized (RHCP) in the middle and the 11 element 70CM Quad, vertically polarized on the right (as seen from behind the Yaesu G-5500 rotator)
To download the recording, please click here. (1.18 MB MP3 Format)
Good DX.
73,
Sion Chow Q. C.,
9W2QC.
28/08/2005