From the Nashville "Tennesseean", August 11th, 2004

FRONT PAGE, with photos in color..

Has link to streaming audio...I was able to copy NA1SS with HT from downtown
Chattanooga...

The story, along with video and audio footage, was on all major TV outlets in
Nashville...Especially channel 5...WTVF-TV

So much for the "Amateur Radio isn't recognized by the general press" rhetoric
we get from one idiot in this forum...

Begin Quote:

"STUDENTS RADIO QUESTIONS OUT OF THIS WORLD"

By LEON ALLIGOOD
Staff Writer

Whizzing 200 miles overhead, space station astronaut has answers

TULLAHOMA — Mike Boyea took a deep breath and keyed the microphone.

''NA1SS, this is K4FUN,'' he said as more than 100 pairs of young eyes were
locked on him.

The elementary school students, kindergarten through eighth-graders from St.
Paul the Apostle School in Tullahoma and the Good Shepherd School in Decherd,
were scattered on the ground in the shade of green Army tents, sitting on
blankets or the grass.

No one needed to be shushed. The scene was as quiet as an empty church. After
all, it's not every day that students get to ask questions of astronauts on the
international space station, who are whizzing by 200 miles overhead at 17,500
mph.

Boyea's voice interrupted the quiet again.

''NA1SS, this is K4FUN,'' he repeated into the microphone.

The only reply was the scratch of static. No one moved, not even the most
fidgety first-grader.

Boyea, an avid ham radio operator and Saturn employee, keyed the mike a third
time.

''NA1SS, this is K4FUN.''

From the vastness of space came the voice of astronaut Mike Fincke, science
officer on the international space station. The younger kids giggled. The older
students beamed.

''We can hear you. Thank you for making this possible. We are ready for the
first question,'' said Fincke, one of two space station astronauts and the only
American aboard.

For the next 10 minutes, as the space station cruised over the school in a
south southwest to east northeast direction, students quizzed Fincke about
everything from whether the food is good (Fincke said he likes it but wishes he
had a microwave) to the kinds of experiments done on board (he had just
completed an ultrasound on his leg as part of a study of the effects of being
in space). There also was the inevitable thing every second-grader wants to
know: How do you go potty in space? It was Stanton Snead's question.

''I just thought it would be a good question,'' said Stanton, a Good Shepherd
second-grader.

Having faced the ''bathroom question'' before, Fincke handled it with aplomb.
''Going to the bathroom is important for every creature,'' the astronaut said.
He said he shares a ''space toilet'' with station Commander Gennady Padalka of
Russia. Both men are about halfway through their six-month stay.

The outer space conversation was the culmination of three years of work on
behalf of two ham radio clubs, the Stones River Amateur Radio Club and the
Middle Tennessee Amateur Radio Society. Yesterday's conversation with the space
station was the first time for a Tennessee school, according to the Amateur
Radio International Space Station, a ham radio group.

''It's a rather involved process to be able to get permission to talk to the
space station,'' Boyea said. ''We put our name on the list and just waited.
Earlier this summer we got word that our time was coming up.''

Janice Copeland, a science teacher at St. Paul's, said she learned of the space
talk appointment about a week before school started.

''It was really special for our kids. We thought we might get to do this last
year, but it fell through,'' she said.

John Oosting, an eighth-grader at St. Paul's, said the experience was better
than he expected. ''I thought it'd be all scratchy and everything, but you
could hear him fine. It was real clear,'' he said.

For Boyea, who works for Saturn at the Decherd engine assembly plant,
yesterday's connection with the space station was a dream realized.

''When he answered me, I think my heart skipped a beat. It was amazing,'' he
said.

END QUOTE

(Steve Robeson K4CAP) wrote in message ...
From the Nashville "Tennesseean", August 11th, 2004

FRONT PAGE, with photos in color..

Has link to streaming audio...I was able to copy NA1SS with HT from downtown
Chattanooga...

Update: http://www.twiar.org/audio/iss.mp3

73

Steve, K4YZ