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High School Club $lation WA6BYE
Dave Reeve. KF6PJ: Imagine a
Space Age high school science classroom
at Chaminade College Preoeretory
in Wesl Hills, California. This week
uie space shuttle Columbia on mis·
sion STS-35 is in orbit, carrying the
Asl ro · 1 observatory and 5AREX
(Shuttle Amateur Radio EXperiment).
A large TV screen in the classroom
displays live video of the earth from the
shuttl e's payload bay via K6KMN 's
Mount Wilson ham TV repealer. Anoth ·
er large screen computer terminal displays
the IocaliOn of the space shuttle
as it orbits the globe. Several students
are sludying plots of solar panel cur-
PhotoA. EricSunde, Melissa Parker, and computer group leader Anthony Freoer,
ick watch Columbia's progress on TRACKSAT.
56 73 Amaleur Radio Today . June, 1991
Number " on your Feedb«;lt can!
HAMS WITH CLASS
Carole Perry W82MGP
Media MlHltofS, Inc.
P.O. Box f3 1646
Stalen Island NY 10313-0006
Introduction to KF6PJ
There are so many teachers and instruc10rsdOing
so many innovative and
exci tin g th ings with amateur radio l
Many school teachers and amateur radio
instructors have written in 10 share
their ideas with others. In upcoming
eoIumns, I'll feature schools where lhe
creative uses of amateur radio are being
used in the classroom, and I'll highlight
successfu l recru iting melhods
used by amateur radio clUbs across the
country.
In April 1989. I had the pleasure of
meeting a teacher, Dave Reeve s
KF6PJ , and his wife Bemade"e, at a
NASA Educator 's Conference (for lhe
Magellan launch at the Kennedy
Space Ce nler) in O rlan do, Florida.
Dave and l. being fellow hams, immediately
found each other. We've been
corresponding ever since , exchanging
ideas and Classroom experiences . It's
a personal pleasure for me to shOWcase
the wonderf ul work he's been coing
with amateur radio at the Chami·
nada College Preparatory SChool in
California. The following is the article
Dave prepared wilh his students !of
this eo!umn.-WB2MGP
rents and temperature data they have
just Obtained from the DOVE ham
satell ite.
The students at cnemrneoe became
interested in space science when they
partiCipatedin the 1985 SAREX experiment
and got an SSTV piclure trom
aslronaut Tony England WIORE on
the space shu"le Challenger. Wilh the
help of physics teacher Dave Reeves
KF6PJ and engineer Mike Tweedy
KA6SPT, the students have maintained
an ongoing space science program
using lhe OSCAR amaleur radio
satellites.
Now, Ben DeWit and Keith Buller listen
for the first sounds of lhe packet
radio telemetry beacon as DOVE pops
above the hori.lon. Their computers
point the satellile antennas and capture
today's telemetry care. On the
NASA TV , an excited scientist in
Huntsville reports data from a distant
galaxy showing high energy radiation
from matter " waving good-bye" just
before being swepl into a black hole .
Chaminade senior Rima Mulokas
look s up from a worksheet on the etflciency
of the Microsat solar cell, gazes
at the live pictures of earth trom the
shuttle, and says. " I don 't believe this.
This is blowing my mind!" Teacher
Dave Reeves smiles in agreement.
Articles from The Los Angeles Times
and Daily News , a stack of video tapes
with no less than nine network and local
TV news reports , and the ARRL
5AREX videO, teft the story otlhe pasl
five years of the students' inllOlvement
with ham radio in space.
Encounter with Ron Parise WA4SIR
" Sta r StUdents-Students Tap
Short-Wave !of Long-Distance Reach
to Shuttle," This Times headline reported
the latest exc it ing SAREX
event . The physics class, with the help
of t t -vee r-crc J immy O 'Donnell
N6VYA. talked with astronaut Ron
Parise WA4SIR on the Columbia.
Because of the Astro-1 astronomy
mission , the shull1e didn't pass over
the United States during normal school
hours; volunteer relaystations in Brazil
and Australia helped out. The morning
ctoceccotact. Larry E" er N6MBJ used
Frosty Oden N6ENV's " Valley Repealer"
10 call AMSAT so that we coukI
listen in on Ron and a couple of $Iudents.
The students were Jim Fonte
KK9T in Indiana and Dan Blackburn
K5ZCO in Texas. This session was relayed
through PY2BJO Junior, in sao
Paulo, Brazil. Our $Iudents listened to
the tape of the contact to try to anticipale
wIlat their own contact was going
to be like.
On the evening 01 December 4, our
students excitedly gathered on Ihe
lawn near their classroom to talk to Ron
lhemselves. Adam Wahab used the
oompuler display set up by Anthony
Fredericks and Eric Sunde to show lhe
100 spectators and the press that the
shuttle was now coming In over the
Indian Ocean. and would soon be with-
in range of the VK61U tracking station
in Weslern Australia.
Jimmy O'Donnell accessed the
phone number to the "bridge" in West
Vi rgi ni a. Bill Tynan W3XO, at the
W5RRR club station at the Johnson
Space Aight Center in Houston, was
soon on the line. Three other schools
also joined the bridge. Allen Millar
N7NHM from Rigby Jr . High SChool in
Idaho, Dale Harris WA5QAP from Las
Cruces. New Mexico. and Ron Curry
WA4GSS from Lawrence County, Kentucky,
were cheeked in and ready.
Three relay stations in Austral ia were
clearly heard: Gorden VK61U in western
Australia; Graham VKSAGR in
AdelaiDe; and Art VK2AS in Sydney.
The shuttle popped above the hori­
.lon near the western AMSAT traeking
station in Australia. and Ron Parise
was ready fo r Jimmy O'Donnell's
question: " If you saw aliens or a UFO,
would you try to communicate with
them, and if so, how? " Ron replied:
" You know , we've been looking 0Ul the
window lor the Soviet space station
Mir. They're up here with us, too. We
have 12 people in orbit righl now.
They're net exaclly a UFO. I don 't
know what I'd do ill saw a llFO OUIthe
window. Probably just wave." AIesia,
aflOlher stUdent asked: " How far in
space can you see?" Ron: -wen.eceing
out in space we can see tothe edge
of the universe with our telescopes.
Pharo B. NiCOle Newman displays the
orbitsl gyrations of DOVE" while John
Fenger and Andy Cascialo walch attentiYely.
The Astro-I BBXRT (Ihe
" trash can ") ;s on the TVSCf68fl.
Pholo C. SAREX learn Dave Reeyes KF6PJ, Jim O'Donnell N60YF, Melissa
Parleer, Jimmy O'Ooonall N6VYA, Robert Nomura, and Lori Jedon, arter making
OO(Itact with Ron Perise WA4SIRon board Columbia onDee6mber 4, 1990.
ThaI's a long, long way . Wilh your
eyes, looking down on the earth, we
can see about 800 miles in any direction.
We are just coming up across
ShaM< Bay on the weetem edgeof Australia.
III were looking OUllhe window. I
could see all the way to Central Australia.
and all the way north toJava. We
can see a big piece of the earth. and I'll
tell yoo, it's really beautiful from up
here."
Andy tooll: lhe mike nexl, and asked:
" What do you think mighl be beyond
the quasars?" Ron: " That' s an inter·
esting queeucn. Maybe we'll be able to
shed some light on that with this mission.l'm
not sure exactly what quasars
are. but they appear 10 be very early
prototypes01galaxies that we see now,
but we' re seeing them so lar back. in
time because they're so far away. Their
light took a long lime 10 get here. And
before that. before ine beginning of the
universe, we're not sure what happened."
At this point, Ron was passed to
Wess VKSAGR in Adelaide. Wess
esked: " How many stars can you see
from orbit that are not visible trom
earth?" Ron: " II's oat that we carl see
more stars. bullhal we can see ullra-viole!
light. UV light gets filtered out by
the atmosphere, and we carl 'l see it
trom the ground. So that's what's important
to us here with these telescopes
." Ron said thai it is hard to see