Video: Irish hams contact with Columbia in 1983

Thanks to Seamus EI4KE who spotted this great video on YouTube. It shows a contact between EI0RTS, the Irish Radio Transmitters' Society headquarter station, and the Space Shuttle Columbia back in 1983. Of course, Columbia was destroyed in an accident in February 2003 so this video is all the more poignant.

Here is more information about the video from its YouTube description:

This historic amateur radio contact took place in late 1983 when the Irish Radio Transmitters' Society set up a special station in the RTE museum in Rathmines to attempt to contact Owen Garriott aboard the shuttle Columbia. Garriott had a hand-held two-metre transceiver aboard the shuttle and, when time allowed, he would call other amateur radio stations on the ground as the shuttle passed over. Unfortunately, in 2003 the Columbia disintegrated on re-entry to the earth's atmosphere, killing all seven crew aboard.

Some time on the air as EI80IRTS

The Irish Radio Transmitters Society (IRTS) is celebrating its 80th anniversary this year and as a result the special callsign EI80IRTS has been on the air since January 1st. I was recently asked by Ger EI4GXB and Thos EI2JD if I would consider operating on CW as EI80IRTS.

Since I now have an interface that can key my radio, the ICOM IC-756PRO, I decided I would give it a go. Over the past three days I have logged about 700 QSOs, a great majority of which were made with just 100 watts. The higher bands have been in great shape.

Much of my time was spent on 10m and 12m, early in the mornings for Asia and Pacific and late in the evenings for North America. I have had Australia, Japan and Singapore in the log in the mornings and lots of west coast USA in the evenings. I am using N1MM logger to log the calls.

I am very happy with my rate when there is a pile-up, but with changing band conditions, it's not always possible to have a pile-up!! I was running at 32wpm, which is a bit on the hot side, but I want to get used to going along at a good pace because I want to start taking part in more CW contests.