La capsula Apollo 7

Ho trovato questo svolgimento in un vecchio quaderno di scuola, all'epoca delle elementari. Adesso capisco il perchè di tutto il mio interesse per satelliti e spazio! "La capsula Apollo 7 sta per finire il suo viaggio (e ciò avverrà esattamente domani 22 ottobre). Schirra, Eisele e Cunningham sono i tre astronauti lanciati in cielo da Cape Kennedy l'11 ottobre. Capitan Schirra con questo viaggio potrà dire che è stato già il terzo. Domani quando la capsula tornerà sulla Terra sarà pericoloso: per superare la pressione atmosferica terrestre i tre astronauti dovranno avere le vie respiratorie ed auditorie libere, perchè la pressione vuole e cerca di chiuderle ma, con le compresse di Aspirina speriamo riescano a passare "indisturbati", come si suol dire. Come sarà il loro rientro ? Duro o senza preoccupazioni ? Domani, giorno decisivo, lo sapremo finalmente ed attenderemo con ansia il ritorno dell'Apollo 7. Domani, quindi, io sarò puntuale all'appuntamento con il rientro della capsula; prego solo che il satellite Tele-Star riceva e trasmetta come se io fossi là, in America, a vedere il riceupero della navicella tuffatasi in mare dolcemente. Se fossi stato ben undici giorni lassù sarei stato contento per la vicinanza alle stelle ma non a proposito della fifa. Schirra, Eisele e Cunningham, tre grandi astronauti americani molto ma molto coraggiosi. Preghiamo solo che la navicella "cada" in maniera giusta."

Svolgimento di Maurizio Bertolino 21 ottobre 1968 (10 anni)

L'equipaggio dell'Apollo 7, Eisele, Schirra e Cunningham.
Da Wikipedia

Forvik island: new DXCC ?

From the Stuart Hill's website (the owner of Forvik island, Shetland islands, Scotland): "I hereby invite residents of Shetland to join with me to set up a true and just administration, based on principles of democracy that will ensure the elected representatives carry out the wishes of the people and that will serve as a model which the rest of Shetland could adopt if it so wished. Further, I hereby invite residents of Shetland to join their properties with that of Forvik in a federation under such new administration. Further, I also invite anyone from any country in the world, who supports these aims, namely to become free of liars, thieves and tyrants in government, to become a citizen of Forvik. It is my earnest desire that Forvik will provide an example for Shetland to follow and that Shetland in turn will provide an example for other countries and regions, the people of which would prefer a system where their politicians represent, rather than rule them." Another Seborga ? Read more here.

source

Papua New Guinea IOTA dxpedition

The team is complete and comprises: AD6E, CT1AGF, G3KHZ, K6HFA, W5GAI + one non-ham traveller. P29VLR will be QRV from OC-181; P29NI will be QRV from OC-041. The MV Barbarian II will leave Kokopo, New Britain on 18 October and the team plan to be QRV from Garove Island, OC-181 from 20 - 26 October. The boat then sails to the Hermit Islands (OC-041). Operation from there is expected to be from 28 October – 3 November. The final leg will be to Manus Island from where the team will fly home. There may be some operation from Manus (OC-025).
73 de Derek, G3KHZ, P29NI

STS103-733-68 26 December 1999 02:25 UTC (credit NASA)

More on Hermit island here.

Ci rileggiamo il 25 giugno

Grazie alla festività patronale del 24 giugno qui a Torino (ecco il programma della manifestazione), potrò fare il weekend lungo, ci rileggiamo da mercoledì 25. Buon ponte a chi lo fa.

L'orologio dell'astronauta

Photo credit NASA

Dal blog degli orologi trovo una curiosità sull'orologio indossato da Steve frick durante la missione Shuttle STS-122. Si tratta del modello INCA del Brand YES watch. Come cita il suddetto blog "in un’occhiata l’orologio YES rivela gli orari dell’alba e del tramonto, il sorgere e il tramonto della luna, le fasi lunari, ore, minuti e secondi ovunque uno sia. L’orologio è pre-programmato per circa 600 città in tutto il mondo e regola automaticamente l’ora legale. Questo orologio, ricco di caratteristiche particolari, incorpora la formula “Mission Elapsed Time” (il tempo trascorso) insieme ad una serie di altre uniche applicazioni riferite al tempo e a dati." Per vedere questi modelli visitate il sito marinaoro.

Midsummer in Aland Islands

OH0B - Midsummer in Aland Islands, June 19-22

Not many people have probably thought about the meaning of Midsummer for the folks up in Northern Europe and specifically those rituals that are related to Aland Islands. Maybe not even about the reason why OH0 ranks as another DXCC counter. Simply, Aland is a highly modern society of some 27.000 people and a dozen or so active hams. Also, it is home to three super stations stuck away at different points of the archipelago.

To reach Aland Islands one needs to take a ferry from mainland Finland. See more details HERE

It was 28 years ago when Martti, OH2BH and Leena, OH2BE visited the easternmost island of the Aland group - Brando - and fell in love with its beauty and remoteness plus the instant pileups always created from there. And that marked the beginning of what is now one of the well-known super stations frequently active with several callsigns. In terms of hardware, the latest addition there was an 80M beam that was put up last autumn.

That particular occasion almost thirty years ago was the Midsummer celebration which is very special to these islands. This weekend Martti and Leena will be on that same mission, and you will hear OH0B activated mostly on 20M SSB. QSL via OH2BH.

http://www.visitaland.com/en

DStar TV

1) What is DStar TV ?
In its simplest terms, DStar TV is Slowscan TV for DStar digital radios.

2) Why not call it DStar SSTV then ?
Bit of a mouthful that....

3) What can I do with it then ?
You can send pictures using the digital data stream on a DStar radio, either by loading a picture from a file on your PC or capturing an image from a Webcam (or any video capture device, TV card etc)

Read more here.

Source

Eleuthera, Bahamas, dec 1996

This is a pic of me during my first "holiday style" DXpedition. Tanning in Eleuthera, (NA-001) Bahamas, Dec 1996, with my FT900 and a dipole, listening for calls on 11 mtr band (yep!) Twelve years ago, long hair, moustaches and still single ! (24° 57' 13.6" N, 76° 9' 36,1" W). Complete set.

OC-248: 779 new photos

Here is a fantastic new set of 779 photos from the 2007 Hisayuki Kubota's trips in Southwest islands (Sonsorol Tobi, Merir, Pulo Anna, Helen Reef they all count as OC-248 for IOTA). At the same link you will find the entire collection of thousands of pics from those islands.

Tag Technorati: sonsorol island, tobi, merir, pulo anna, helen reef, oc-248, t88si

Corail Vivant

Lets save the colour of the oceans.

To encourage the protection of New Caledonian coral reefs and associated ecosystems in their entirety. To make available means for observation and protection. To improve the quality of life for New Caledonian inhabitants and their environment by means of this action. To favour the creation of an international foundation with the same title and objectives. To obtain inclusion of the New Caledonian coral reefs and associated ecosystems on UNESCO’s World Heritage Listing. Welcome on the web site of Corail Vivant

FK is the New Caledonia DXCC prefix and there are five references in the IOTA program, OC-032, (New Caledonia Island), OC-033 (Loyalty Islands), OC-058 (D'Entrecasteaux Reefs), OC-079 (Belep Islands), OC-218 (Matthew and Hunter Islands)