The REST of the Story…

The REST of the Story… was Originally Posted on October 30, 2003 by lavarock

In trying to determine if I want to take my satellite receiver and dish to Hawaii, I happened upon www.Telesat.Com they mention the Anik A1 satellite as being the 1st commercial domestic satellite put into geostationary orbit. I am familiar with that bird! As Paul Harvey says “Here is the REST of the story…”

In 1972 I was an aspiring Ham Radio Operator. I did not yet have my license as I remember, but was involved in the Montgomery Amateur Radio Club (Montgomery County Maryland). Our club also operated a 2 meter repeater which allowed Hams to drive around or use a handheld walkie-talkie with a touch tone pad on it, to make phone calls. These handhelds were quite similar to the cell phones of today.

Members of our club had jobs in such places as Microdyne (made satellite receivers), COMAST (a communications satellite company) and the FCC (Federal Communications Commission). We even had a famous newsman and various radio announcers, etc who were all Hams.

As part of our public service, we would set up and demo Ham communications at events and even supplied radio support to the Cherry Blossom Parade and MDA Bikeathons, etc.

One day we decided to set up a display at a Boy Scout Jamboree at the fairgrounds, to show repeater communications. We could transmit via radio to our stationary equipment located downtown and bring up a dialtone, thus showing that we had instant communications and contact ability in emergencies.

A club member from COMSAT said he could do that one better. He was testing a new satellite to be used for communications in the Northern areas like Canada and the satellite was empty. After a quick authorization from the company, we set up our demo.

As scouts came forward we demonstrated the normal phone calls locally, then I dialed the COMSAT number I had been given. The scouts eyes opened wide…

I was on a small transceiver, talking to a larger system in a building downtown, had brought up a phone line remotely and dialed a phone number north of me. The audio from that phone was patched into an uplink to the Anik A1 satellite, where it was looped back on a downlink channel back to COMSAT. The audio was put back into the phone, sent to that base station and directed back to me via radio. As I said “HELLO” and let go of the microphone button, the scouts soon heard my delayed “HELLO” come back down the tens of thousands of miles back to me, a few seconds later! It was more impressive when they realized that we were able to set this up in just an hour and beside being able to hear myself, anyone within the footprint of the satellite would also be able to hear me!

While this was a great feat, my Uncle had his signals go further many years earlier. He was a Ham on Oahu and performed “moonbounce” whereby you transmit a signal towards the moon and have it bounce back to earth. It is not efficient, but that satellite requires no prior authorization

Although he said he was just in the right place at the right time, he also was able to send radio signals to the mainland from Oahu on frequencies not expected to go that far.

His newspaper back home started the story with:

“If Hawaii is ever linked to the mainland by radio or television, it may well be due to the work done by Ralph Thomas (KH6UK).”

As a young kid I was told Uncle Ralph lived in Hawaii and was a Ham Radio Operator. Uncle Ralph was one of the Hams who provided Howard Hughes with weather forecasts on Howards around the world flight.

I too am a Ham and now will be making Hawaii my home. I fly alot (in the BACK of planes) and also listen to the weather reports… well, we don’t have to necessarily follow EXACTLY in others footsteps, do we?