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 Previous: Radio Amateurs and America's Secret Submarine |  Next: FCC Amateur Radio Enforcement Letters for the Period Ending January 10, 2003 |
 ARISS International Chairman Frank Bauer, KA3HDO, who works for NASA at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland. Behind him on the screen is a computerized tracking program that shows the location of the ISS above Earth. |
 As members of the news media crowd in, Princess Elettra sends "cordial greetings, good wishes" to ISS Commander Bowersox, KD5JBP, in space. |
 Students queue up to ask their questions of ISS commander Ken Bowersox, KD5JBP, at the controls of NA1SS aboard the ISS. |
 The standing-room-only crowd at the Cape Code National Seashore's Salt Pond Visitor Center in Eastham, Massachusetts, applauds at the conclusion of the successful ARISS contact. Marconi's daughter Elettra, dressed in blue, is in the front row. |
 Princess Elettra later signed autographs for many well-wishers. |
 Anne Manna, WB1ARU, operates special event station KM1CC, set up at the former US Coast Guard station in Eastham, Massachusetts--not far from the site of the ARISS contact. |
 Visiting op Mark W. "Brown" Beezer, W1NZR, operates from the former WCC shore station receiving site in Chatham, Massachusetts. The Chatham Marconi Maritime Center plans to turn the site--now owned by the town--into a wireless history museum. The Center also sponsored a series of educational events for the public during "Marconi Week." |
 One of the antenna support towers that remains at the WCC site (that's an osprey nest at the very top) still support some antennas. The WA1WCC special event station logged more than 1000 contacts. [ARRL Photos] |
NEWINGTON, CT, Jan 21, 2003--The magic touch of a princess helped to put Amateur Radio center stage January 18 on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, during events marking the 100th anniversary of the first transatlantic wireless message transmitted by Guglielmo Marconi. For the occasion, Marconi's youngest daughter--Princess Elettra Marconi--launched greetings into space via an Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) hookup to ISS crew commander Ken Bowersox, KD5JBP.
"One hundred years ago today, my father, Guglielmo Marconi, sent the first wireless message across the Atlantic Ocean from Cape Cod," Princess Elettra said from a packed auditorium at the Cape Cod National Seashore Salt Pond Visitor Center in Eastham. "In this same spirit of his achievement and also from Cape Cod I send this wireless greeting to you in space. Cordial greetings, good wishes and God bless you"
Replied Bowersox from NA1SS, "It's wonderful to hear your voice across the radio waves. It's amazing how far our societies and radio communication have come in the past 100 years."
On January 18, 1903, Marconi sent wireless greetings on behalf of President Theodore Roosevelt to Great Britain's King Edward VII. Events throughout the week leading up to the ARISS contact included two Amateur Radio special event stations. KM1CC operated from a National Seashore site not far from Marconi's original Cape Cod radio station, transmitting a commemorative message from President George W. Bush and retransmitting Marconi's original 1903 text. Another special event station, WA1WCC, was on the air from the former WCC shore station in Chatham, where Marconi had relocated operations after the ocean threatened to claim the antenna support towers of his original station. Princess Elettra also visited the WA1WCC special event site.
Following Princess Elettra's introductory remarks, eight students from three Cape Cod high schools took turns firing a total of 18 questions at Bowersox as hundreds of visitors and some two dozen news media representatives looked on. Serving as mentor for the noontime Cape Cod contact was ARISS International Chair Frank Bauer, KA3HDO. The students' curiosity ranged from research goals to whether Bowersox had any desire to undertake a trip deeper into space--perhaps to Mars.
"What I hope will come out of the flight that we're doing on the International Space Station is knowing about man's adaptability to living in space and in weightless conditions," Bowersox told the students, "and hopefully that will allow us to leave Earth and move out to other planets someday."
Regarding future trips to other worlds, Bowersox said his wife has forbidden him to go to Mars--a comment that drew a chuckle from the audience--but he said he'd volunteer for a deep-space mission if he could bring his family along.
"I think someday we're going to leave Earth," Bowersox predicted in response to one of the students' questions. "We're going to move on out of our solar system out to the stars, and we're just taking the baby steps now. Your generation will take us a lot farther, I hope."
Bowersox said there have been few problems so far during his crew's tour. He noted, however, that he and crewmate Don Pettit, KD5MDT, encountered a balky handle on a critical hatch that would only move about halfway and not let them leave the spacecraft during a recent spacewalk. The pair finally was able to open the hatch to get outside, he said.
Handling earth-station duties for the ARISS
contact was Nancy Rocheleau, WH6PN, in Honolulu. A WorldCom teleconferencing
arrangement made two-way audio available on Cape Cod. National Seashore Ranger
Barbara Dougan, KB1GSO--the trustee of KM1CC--was among several National Park
Service personnel assisting at the contact site.
 Robert J. "Whitey" Doherty, K1VV, president of the Marconi Radio Club, which organized the KM1CC special event. Doherty said the station racked up some 12,000 contacts during the weeklong special event. |
Students selected were from Provincetown High School, Cape Cod Technical and Vocational School and Nauset Regional High School. During the time leading up to the contact, Princess Elettra and the students conducted dry runs of their roles in the contact. In addition, NASA Aerospace Education Specialist Suzanne Kinnison gave the audience a first-hand description of what NASA does and what it's like to live and work in space. She and Bauer used a huge display replica of the ISS as well as photos to describe the ISS and the NA1SS ham radio gear and antennas.
The ARISS contact received widespread
regional media attention, with reports on Associated Press radio and news
service, The
Boston Globe, The Cape Cod Times, New England Cable News
and even Italian television. Visitors braved frigid temperatures and recent
snowfall on Cape Cod to attend the Marconi centennial celebration. Some ended
up listening to the contact via public address speakers mounted throughout the
Visitor Center.
|
Bauer said that later in the day, Cody Johnston--one of the students who participated in the ARISS contact--spoke about becoming an aerospace engineer and pursuing a career as an astronaut.
"The ARISS contact at the Marconi centennial
event was a tremendous success," said Bauer. "I must say that this contact was
one of the more impressive and awe-inspiring ARISS contacts we have
accomplished." ARISS is an
international effort with support from ARRL, NASA and AMSAT.
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