1 Titan Tec. - Amateur Radio, Science, and Technology Olde Towne Middle School Volume 1, 1st Edition Radio and Technology Club Special points of What’s up at OTMS Radio and Tech Club? interest: Welcome to the first edition of the Olde Towne Middle School Radio and Tech- Interviews from nology Club’s newsletter Titan Tec. We are a school radio and technology club prominent amateur from Ridgeland, MS. I am Bill Richardson the club sponsor and creator. The club radio operators is made up of 7th and 8th graders who competed for membership, and the callsign Technology Corner is KC5NXD. Science Corner The school club is in its fourth year of operation and going strong. After last Tips from the Field year’s near-space balloon launch, we have had a huge increase in interest in the Cool QSL cards club. The club started shortly after attending the ARRL Teacher’s Institute where Soldier Shout Outs I learned how to integrate radio and robotics into the school environment. Later I attended the Teacher Institute 2 where I learned about putting space communica- Larry’s Lines tions into the classroom. A large thank you goes out to the ARRL! DX IS This year we have three returning members who were 7th graders last year. We DX News meet weekly and focus on amateur radio and robotics. This year we have decided to try to venture into publishing a radio and technology newsletter. While I teach In This Issue history, and love the radio aspect of the club, I firmly believe that the students can Leon Pringle 3-5 make publishing a newsletter a life lesson that might influence them in career and Interview education. Local Happenings 6 Club funds are obtained from donations, fundraising, and hard work. We take Larry’s Lines 7-8 pride in the fact that we do not use any school or state funds. You will find a flair John Bergman 9 of patriotism and independent spirit. If you like the e-newsletter please let us Stories know. We need your requests and input for stories. OTMS Science Cor- 9 ner Currently we are looking for column contributors for technical radio articles, phys- ics, and radio operation articles. We are a free newsletter, so there is no pay, just Soldier Shout Outs 10 the glory of having your name in a publication that hopefully will be distributed DX IS 11-12 worldwide. If you are interested in receiving this, please contact us. Please keep Cool QSLs 13 in mind that we do our best to correct any grammatical mistakes from both our DX News and Re- 14 own writers as well as column contributors. If we miss something, we apologize view and will try too correct it in future issues. All contact information can be found on page 16. Please read away, and wish us luck in teaching students life skills, and 2 Titan Tec. - Amateur Radio, Science, and Technology Interviews in the Field: Leon Pringle, W5NA Interview by: Bill Richardson, N5VEI & Jonathan Fendlason Q: I understand that you worked for NASA. Can you tell me a little about what you did? A: "Yes from 1966 to 1974 I was a Flight Controller at Mission Control in Houston as well as a Remote Site Flight Controller...At first some of the Flight Controllers were assigned to various NASA Sites around the world such as Carnarvon, Australia, Guaymas, Mexico, Kawaii Hawaii, Adana, Guam, Ascension Island South Atlantic, Kano Nigeria, Canary Islands just to name a few. These sites were all linked together via voice and data lines. At each site there were engineers (Flight Controllers) monitoring the various spacecraft systems such as Guidance and Control, Communications, Environmental, Electrical Power and a CAPCOM who was the spokesman of the group and did essentially all the communicating by radio with the spacecraft as it was within the radar/radio range of the tracking station. While overhead these engineers monitored and evaluated the onboard spacecraft systems, passed along instructions for the astronauts to follow and downloaded various information from onboard the spacecraft that happened when the spacecraft was not within the radio range....This downloaded information was then sent to Houston Mission Control on the high speed data line. (51.2 KB/second). hi After communications improved on the NASA worldwide communica- tions system all of the controlling was done from Mission Control in Houston by Flight Controllers My particular job was monitoring and evaluating the Electrical Power Systems on board the spacecraft. This included the Bacon Fuel Cells, batteries, inverters which changed DC to AC power, Battery charging and the various switches and circuit breakers making up the AC and DC power Distribution System." Q: How do you see the technology that you worked on for NASA helping the world today? A: "Perhaps one of the best illustrations would be that all of us in Flight Control had to work out all our math calculations using a Slide Rule and powers of ten. Computers as we know them now, were not avail- able. Today just about all young students carry pocket calculators around with them. Another example would be remember I said that the NASA high speed data circuit was 51.2 KB? Most of you home computers con- nect to your internet service provider anywhere from 50 KB up to 25 MB/sec. That is significant!" Q: What was your favorite part of working with the Space Program? A: "Without a doubt,..... learning new things and working with some of the brightest technical people avail- able. For example: When I first was assigned to Flight Control I had no idea what a Bacon Fuel Cell did yet later that was the area I was assigned to have responsibility for. The Fuel Cell used liquid Oxygen and liquid Hydrogen and mixed the two elements together and generated the DC power required by the Spacecraft. As a byproduct of the chemical mixing of Oxygen and Hydrogen, the fuel cell produced water which was the very water the Astronauts drank while on the mission." Q: Do you still get excited seeing spacecraft launched into space? A: "Very much so....After I left the APOLLO Program, NASA had the Shuttle, Space Lab and the Interna- tional Space Station projects....I enjoyed all of them and was very excited as new accomplishments were made." 3 Titan Tec. - Amateur Radio, Science, and Technology Continued Q: What makes you feel like a kid again when looking at all the new private Interviews in the Field: space programs such as SpaceX and the Ansari X-prize. By that I mean, does the new private ventures into space feel like a breath of fresh air, and if so why? Leon Pringle, W5NA A: "I believe that America has made a huge mistake by relinquishing "No 1 In Space" to Russia by closing down the Shuttle program. That makes absolutely no sense to me. By paying the Russians 100 million US Dollars to carry a crew up and return them is very costly and it is an endeavor whereby we can learn nothing new except the Russians are now in command of space.....The space program clearly costs lots of money...but.....just look at the fall out and all the technological changes it has made in our lives. These changes and discoveries have a monetary value. The 100 million gift to Russia gives us nothing. The us President lis- tened to the "Augustine Committee" pretty much and decided for the govern- ment to get out of manned space. I find it very odd that not a single member of the Augustine Committee" had experience in the Manned Programs of NASA but rather the Unmanned side.....That makes their recommendations appear bi- ased and very much one sided to me. I am certainly glad to see the private ventures into space but from my experience as long as Companies are making money, they will invest in it, but it's very hard for me to believe they will remain in it when all they see is money going out and no return on investment. Perhaps I'm wrong but I doubt it since the former As- tronaut Corp as well as the former NASA Manned Space Program Leaders were opposed to the Augustine Report's recommendations. I could care less about what's on the other side of Saturn or Uranus as those heavenly bodies are too far away that man could visit and explore them but I am greatly interested in keep- ing the Manned Program going so that we can visit, study, explore and learn from those within our reach." Q: Did amateur radio influence your career? A: "Most definitely......I got my amateur radio license at the age of 14 and in studying for it got very fascinated with science, math, physics and chemistry. I quickly realized that I wanted to work in some scientific role when I finished my education." Q: What is the most memorable moment you can think of in amateur radio?? A: "One day shortly after receiving my amateur radio license, I was on 10 me- ters and worked an Egyptian Amateur Radio Operator who advised me his name was David. We had a typical amateur radio QSO and agreed to exchange QSL (CONFIRMATION) cards, When I received his I was quite surprised as he was David Farouk, King of Egypt." One meets all kinds of people on Amateur Radio." 4 Titan Tec. - Amateur Radio, Science, and Technology Q: If you had the chance to activate an entity, what would it be and why? Interviews in the Field: A: "Probably San Felix-San Ambrosio CE0, off the coast of Chile South Amer- Leon Pringle, W5NA ica.