Gift to

W erner M . Ma urer W1QMS
Kefl y Drive
S. Lancaster MA 01561
The First Man in Space Was a Ham
- UA1LO remembered
Back on February 13,
1962, I happened to be
in the right place at the
right time and had a chance
meetin g with a very distinguis
he d radi o a ma teur,
UA1 LO , Yuri A. Gagarin,
the f irst cosmonaut to orbit
the Earth - a trip of 1 hou r
Yuri Gagarin VAno.
42 73 Magazine . October, 1980
and 48 minutes. A lthough I
had never worked him , I fol ­
lowed space research and
travel closely as Sputnik
we nt up and successive
manned f lights took thei r
turn-theirs and ours.
There have been ma ny
art icles and mu ch speculation
about an amateur in
space or in government ­
wil l he use 2 meters?- and
so forth. I saved suc h art i­
cles and even have a fro nt
cover of 73-" A Ham in the
White House- K7UGA" 1
I spent a few mo nt hs in
Italy, and a cable dire cted
me to Athe ns to demonstrat
e a police X-band radar
to the Greek M ini stry of
Transport, Physical Society,
and all the high brassof the
con stabulary . As I landed in
Athens, I saw a red car pet
and a rose-covered open
Cad illac at th e te rm ina l
building w hich seem ingly
wa s lined with all the police
of th e city.
" This is nice," I said to
my distributor. " This is for
me?"
" W ell , no," he said. " You
can wal k on the carpet, but
the car is for Yuri Cagarin,
t he Russian cosmonaut.
Look, here comes his plane
now."
W e clea red th e suitcase
radar through customs and
headed for the city. M ajor
Yuri Gagarin, 28, was the
A ir Force hero being w elcomed
by th e City of
Athens. I had a sell ing job
to do and demonstrated the
rad ar su ccessful ly th at
afternoon .
That eve ni ng, UA 1 LO
was bei ng feted at a banquet
in his honor. Anyo ne
and everyone in physics, astronomy,
and electronics
was there, and I was at a
side t able as a guest of th e
ch ief of po lice. There were
speeches in Greek and Russian,
toasts, and hurrahs.
The next day I had the
day off and went to the
Acropo li s to see the Parthenon.
I had two colorloaded
cameras, 120 format
and 35m m, plus the old
8mm movie fo rmat with
co lo r f ilm. I sto od on top of
th e hill-and then th e ope n
Cadil lac came up to the
threshold of the Acropolis
and Yuri Gagarin and ento
urage made the climb to
the top .
I had a good vantage
point and used all three
cameras. Yuri was given an
olive branc h and stood by
the Parthenon. I took a