Do You Want to Talk to Astronaut? So Join Me

Hi all, I just wanted to let you know that Kuwait Amateur Radio Society announce their radio course in order to earn you radio license and your own callsign. They have this course once a year. It will start next Monday on 21 of November for five weeks. I will be teaching one session about satellite communication and how to talk to astronauts. If you are interested on how to talk to astronauts, so join the course for only 30KD including book fees, registration and practical training. It will be great to see more females join this course.

See ya there!!

Who is Calling the ISS?

"Who is calling the iss?" there first words was spoken by Sergei Krikalev when he answered my call via radio. Today I recieved my birthday gift from my friend Cor (PD0RKC). It was my QSL card with cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev coonferming my voice contact with him. You can see my radio callsign (9K2MD) and Sergei's callsign too (U5MIR) written on the back on the card with details about the date, time, frequency and type of the contact. I am so happy to receive the QSL card. Actually, this is my first QSL card that I ever got. This card is very special for many reasons.....

1. this voice contact was my first time to use my actuall radio callsign
2. it was the first time that I spoke with International Space Station
3. I spoke to my idol Mr. Krikalev
   
4. this card is my first card to recieve

the funny thing is that I spoke to Sergei on his birthday and recieving the QSL card for my birthday ;)

THANK VERY MUCH YOU COR!!

Kuwait Second International GIS Conference and Exhibition

Kuwait International GIS Conference and Exhibition in its second year aims at generating the needed political support, and interest or excitement about GIS, by targeting officials and executives from government and large enterprises, for the purpose of getting the right commitment, involvement, support and resources.
In addition to that this years' conference will have a special focus on Open GIS Technology which has gained a lot of popularity In recent years, seen in a remarkable growth in development and adoption of open source technologies. The conference will be addressing issues such as Interoperability & Open Architectures, Geo spatial Standards, Open GIS Specification, Spatial Data Infrastructure, and many more.
Hence, the organizing committee would like to invite you to Kuwait Second International GIS Conference and Exhibition to be held during the period 13 -15 February 2006 in Kuwait.

[More info]

New Kuwait Space Generation

The director of Kuwait Amateur Radio Society gave me a phone call few days after my arrival from Japan. He asked me to give presentation about satellites for junior high school girls in Al-Ahmadi governor. They need more information about satellite for the physics scientific project. I totally agreed. I supposed to give the presentation after Eid but you know my computer crashed and I lost all my data. So I postponed it my presentation until yesterday.

Yesterday I went to high school to give 50 minute presentation about "Satellites".There were about 40 to 45 students in the room. There were very quiet during my presentation, and taking pictures quietly. I talked about what is a satellite, history of satellites, ArabSat and the Saudi astronaut, space race, how to launch a satellite, Kepler's law, what is inside a satellite, satellites' orbits, types and use of satellites, satellite altitudes, space debris, and in the end I talked about my radio contact with cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev and use of amateur radio (of course I showed them a picture of Krikalev. No I don't tend to brainwash them :P ).

I finished the presentation and was waiting for the students' questions. I thought of breaking the ice by talking about my real story and how I got interested in amateur radio because of Sergei and my love to space. I told them that they can possibly talk to astronauts like I did if they come to Kuwait amateur Radio Society and earn their licenses. I was like "hey, do you wanna know how astronaust go to bathroom on board the ISS?" and I explained what it like to be on board the space station. So the students started to ask ... "What is black hole?... Is there life on Mars?.... How can I be an astronaut? What can I study to work in space field? There is no space program in Kuwait, what can I do?..." I was so happy of their questions and their interests in space. After the my presentation sessions, there was 5-7 girls who stayed around and they are very space enthusiastic. They wanted to have my personal E-mail, phone number so they can be in touch and if I can answer their questions about space. I was looking at them and I can see their excietment in space and I knew these students can be a part of New Kuwait Space Generation. I felt the responsibility to guide them and help them out, I felt that I should provide a guidance for them, I should create space informative guide in Arabic and online source since there isn't any in Arabic.

As soon I arrived home I received two text messages from the students letting me know that they were very inspired and hope that I be their guide in their space studies and they are eagerly waiting for World Space Week. I know I didn't mention in my blog anything about World Space Week (WSW). I was chosen to be the local coordinator of WSW in Kuwait on which I have to organize the event and find sponsors. I worked on it since September and that was what keeping me busy. The process is going slow and the interests in space week event is getting low. But I will try my best to have this event held in Kuwait Scientific Center in early December for the sake of the students that I met and many others :)

Paul McCartney Provides First-Ever Live Station Wakeup Music

The International Space Station crew, 220 miles above Earth, will receive a special live musical wakeup call from Paul McCartney Sunday during a first-ever concert linkup.

The wakeup will come from McCartney's "US" Tour performance at the Anaheim, Calif., Arrowhead Pond. McCartney plans to play two songs, "Good Day Sunshine" and "English Tea," for NASA Astronaut Bill McArthur and Russian Cosmonaut Valery Tokarev. This is the first time a live concert will be linked to a U.S. spacecraft.

The call will take place at 12:55 a.m. EST, Sunday, Nov. 13 (9:55 p.m. PST, Nov. 12) as the concert is nearing its end; and McArthur and Tokarev are awakening for the 44th day of their six month mission in space. It will be broadcast live on NASA TV, with video expected of McArthur and Tokarev and audio from both locations.

During his tour, McCartney has paid tribute to the crew of Space Shuttle Discovery's STS-114 mission, a flight to the space station last summer. On Aug. 9, the Beatles' classic "Good Day Sunshine" was played as a wakeup call for Discovery's crew because of a favorable weather forecast for landing that morning.

"I was extremely proud to find out that one of my songs was played for the crew of Discovery this summer," McCartney said. "In our concert we hope to repay the favor." McCartney is nearing the end of his 11-week "US" tour.

"Since people were first awakened on the moon by mission control, wakeup songs have been a space tradition to brighten the crew's day and get them off to a great start," said astronaut Eileen Collins, who commanded Discovery. "We're honored that Paul McCartney will be a part of this historic delivery of music for Bill and Valery. It will surely give them a big boost as they continue through their research mission."

[Source: NASA]

"Go to Your Radio, Maryam!"

At 23:19 local time, I received this text message "Go to your radio, Maryam!" from Cor (PD0RKC) on Thursday's night. This message just freaked me out and made me jumped from my seat running to the top of the house. I prepared my mobile radio really quick, I screamed for my sister to give me a hand. As soon I turned the radio on, I heard Bill, the commander of Expedition 12, was calling on the radio over Kuwait. I was a bit nervous not nervous when I heard Sergei's voice on the radio.

So I called back "N- A- One - S- S ... This is Nine Kilo Two Mike Delta from Kuwait Do you Copy my call?" I heard Bill saying in the end 73 (73 in ham radio talk means best regards) and silence. I was like "ha?" I think he made a radio contact with some radio operator and stopped. Too bad I was using my stupid vertical antenna and I didn't have my computer to record Bill's voice since it's crashed.

My computer is crashed on the day of 5th anniversary of Human Occupancy on the International Space Station. Uh, I feel disconnected from the rest of the world without my internet access. By the way, Sergei Krikalev was the first to live on ISS ;)

[Note: I think some of my readers got confused because of Mark's post "Call me" I like to mention that I heard Bill's voice and was talking to other amateur radio operator not me. And he wasn't calling for me]

Day Two- Fukuoka, Japan

I woke up early in the morning feeling fresh. I look out of the window and I see the subway station is very near and I can see trains traveling. I was waiting for bullet train to appear but it didn't. It's not the first day of the congress yet. So I have full free day to go and sightseeing Fukuoka. I grabbed my shoes which they were in plastic bag and I went downstairs. I left the hotel and went straight to Lawson, a small grocery store, I was looking for a plug that fit my computer. After explanations with hand language and the map, I figure where I go. I should go to the electronic shop "Yodobashi". I walked down the streets looking around and taking pictures. Too bad I couldn't find the perfect plug for my laptop.


So I came back to the hotel. At the entrance I saw SGC delegates setting with their laptops and a lady with them. It was Maryanne Galvin, the director. We decided to go to ASG building along with delegates. We walked through this. Maryanne decided to shoot me today before everybody else get busy and may not have the time to do the interview. We decided to do the interview in her hotel's room.

Wow, the interview was very tough... She asked me many questions and I answered them all natuarlaly... Tough questions? Why you wanna go to space? There is nothing in space? What do you think about space industry and environment. Am I a space geek? Why your cosmonaut idol is a male not a female? (pretty obvious you know the answer he is Sergei Krikalev). I think the interview lasted for more than two hours.