A planned guest at this year's Dayton Hamvention® was Astronaut Doug Wheelock, KF5BOC -- a callsign he's never used! "I call that my gravity callsign," Wheelock told Newsline. "My real callsign is NA1SS from the space station ..." He said that ham radio provided a great way to relax and decompress as he and his crewmates worked to fix a pump failure that required three spacewalks to repair. Plus, he said, "(h)aving you guys as an emergency contact for us around the globe was a warm, warm feeling for me as a commander…"
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| Astronaut Doug Wheelock, KF5BOC (NASA Photo) |