I meant Amateur Radio Operators that are Astronauts. Ever since Owen Garriot, W5LFL, flew aboard STS-9 in 1983, there have been a series of Ham Operators aboard the Space Shuttle and the International Space Station. There were also Russian Hams aboard the MIR space station and Hams from a number of countries have been up in space on the various flights.

You may have been aware of this fact, or this might be the first time you have heard of it. It was a publicity coup for Ham Radio and NASA was fully in support of it. In fact, it couldn’t have happened without their support.

Having Ham Radio represented and operated from space is a great publicity tool for NASA. It also could be used as a backup communications system in the event of serious malfunction aboard the spacecraft. I’d hate to see things go that wrong – I’m sure they have other backup systems, so it would have to be the third or fourth or fifth resort – but it really could be used in that capacity.

So this is a good thing, right? A win-win for Hams and NASA alike, right? Well, maybe.

At the time Owen flew in space (STS-9 was his second flight, but the first for Ham Radio) there were only a few Astronauts who held Ham Radio licenses. But suddenly, lots of new Astronauts were getting their licenses, often just before their scheduled flight.

Now, a Ham license is not the hardest thing in the world to get. A reasonably intelligent and motivated person can do it with a few weeks study. Intelligent and motivated are certainly attributes that apply to every Astronaut, so it seems they would have no problem.

So what’s wrong with that? Well, nothing, but there is a big difference between an Astronaut who also happens to be passionately involved in Ham Radio and an Astronaut who adds getting a license to the (long) list of skills he has to master in order to fly. Clearly, there was some pressure from NASA to get Astronauts licensed.

No doubt, some of them found it to be a hobby that they embraced. But I’ll bet the majority of them, once they made their token number of contacts from the ISS, probably never touched a Ham Radio again. Parading Ham Radio alongside NASA was strictly publicity, and really had little truth behind it.

I was involved with one such operation from space. In 1995, William Gregory, a native of Lockport, flew STS-67. Naturally, there was a huge buzz about this in Lockport and people wanted to do something with it. People contacted people and someone came up with the idea that “wouldn’t it be great if the Astronaut in space could talk to a student back home in Lockport?”

Well, that’s what happened and someone at the Board of Education contacted someone they knew who was a Ham, who contacted other Hams in Lockport and finally, it got back to the local Ham club. It was decided to offer to teach a Technician class license course at the High School and help out with setting up a QSO (conversation) with the Shuttle.

So, a bunch of us who were involved with license classes and Volunteer Examiners, set up a class and taught it at the school. Students were recruited and a nice class was held. We managed to get a handful of them licensed in time for the flight.

Well, it was a media darling. Everyone wanted to get a piece of it. Somehow the cable company got to be a sponsor as well as NYNEX (now Verizon) along with, I believe Pepsi. Why Pepsi? No idea, but they donated a bunch of banners.

Now, you can imagine how complex a problem it must be to talk with the Space Shuttle using Ham Radio. Frequencies have to be pre-arranged. Orbits have to be plotted, and antennas aimed accordingly. They have to track the shuttle as it moves across the sky. We checked and, on the day of the planned demonstration, there was a good pass overhead that could provide a window of opportunity of 15-20 minutes to talk with the shuttle. All we had to do was to be allowed to set up the equipment.

So what happened? Well, it was broadcast over the cable company’s local access channel. The actual radio link from the ground to the shuttle was done somewhere in New Zealand or Australia and fed into a telebridge and piped into the school – to the PA system in the auditorium, and to the cable feed – by the phone company. There wasn’t a radio in sight. Sure the kids were trotted up to the microphone to ask their pre-prepared questions, but there was no need for a license.

What did this do for Ham Radio? Other than a general feel-good publicity event on a most general level, nothing for it in Lockport. The kids who studied and worked hard to learn the material for their licenses didn’t get to use them. One or two may have stuck with it on their own, but most of them lost interest. It got some play in the paper for a few days, but mostly was forgotten quickly.

Bill Gregory? He retired from NASA and is a VP for a company in Arizona. I am unable to find a current Ham license for him today. The callsign I believe was assigned to him, KC5MGA, expired in 2005, ten years after it’s initial grant in January 1995, just a few months before his flight. He never renewed it.

So why bring this up now? I don’t know. Every now and then someone trots out the fact that there have been Hams up in space as if it’s some great thing. I probably saw something watching Hamnation, an online video show about Ham Radio.

I get frustrated by some of the people on that show. They feel like they must do everything in their power to show Hams and Ham Radio in the best light, so all they do is talk in glowing terms about the most positive things and anything else is ignored. They have such a case of rose-colored glasses, it’s sickening. You’ll never hear them say anything bad about anyone or anything connected with Ham Radio, even if it is deserved. And they regularly bring up Hams in Space as if it was the greatest thing ever for Ham Radio.

To be fair, it’s not a bad thing, but it’s probably done more for NASA than it has for Amateur Radio. Allowing Hams who were aboard the Shuttle or Space Station to operate there as a publicity event as well as a recreational outlet for them would be good. Manufacturing Hams out of Astronauts in order to get some extra publicity, is not.

When one number called so often and for so long that I started to recognize it on the called ID, I starter to pay attention. I Googled the number and found dozens of web sites about these phone scams and that many people are receiving the same calls. What are they all about?

The consensus is that they are bottom-feeding scammers out to get your personal financial information for illicit purposes. At the very least they provide a worthless service that they charge either your credit card or phone bill for. Not one poster had any information that could be construed as a legitimate purpose for the calls. In fact, it is all but impossible to reach a real representative of any of these companies.

Here’s what I found out through repeated searches on many of these numbers that called me and sorting through the online complaints sites.

1. These often are the same people but they call from different numbers. In fact, you can’t believe your caller ID because they spoof the information. Calling them back is worthless because you are calling some innocent person whose number they have spoofed. One poor guy in California must have ticked someone off and they retaliated by using his number. The voice mail box is full and I’m sure he long ago changed his number. Mostly, though, they spoof 800 or 866 area code numbers.

2. If you listen long enough, they tell you to press 1 if you are interested and want to speak to their representative. You can cut through all the recorded crap and go straight to a live person if you press 1 right away. I did it several times with several of these callers and it works.

3. Don’t bother with the DO NOT CALL list. That is fine for legitimate businesses who follow the law. These scumbags don’t care. How can you report them? They hide their actual phone numbers. They know they are breaking a bunch of laws and don’t care.

4. I talked to a live person once by pressing 1. I told the guy who answered that I didn’t want their service and asked them to remove my number from their lists. The response I was given? “No way.” I repeated my request to have my number removed and started to tell him I would report them to the authorities. He interrupted me by saying “See you tomorrow. We’ll call you every hour” and hung up. Of course, I was bluffing about reporting him. There is nothing to report but a spoofed number. I wish there was a viable way to pursue these jerks legally, but there isn’t a practical way.

5. Call blocking works. After the jerk above threatened to call me, I added the number to my call blocker. This particular call was on my cell phone and I have an Android app – CallBlockerX – that takes care of the problem nicely. My home phone has a call block list built in as well and I use it. There is two problems with that one, though. It only holds 30 numbers (yes, I fill it up frequently) and it still has to ring once to work. Since the numbers are spoofed anyway, they change them frequently.

6. Another time, I received this kind of call on my cell phone. I was in a adventurous mood, so I again pressed 1 and decided to play along and see what I could learn about the scam. I gave vague answers and did not reveal any personal information. The woman on the line wanted to ‘sell’ me something in the worst way and I let her think she had a live one. She kept telling me they were going to help me get lower interest rates on my credit card. I told her I had more than one, which one did she mean? She couldn’t tell me what bank they worked with. She asked me what interest rate I was currently paying. I said don’t you already have that information, if you are working with the bank? She then said that they worked with Visa, MasterCard and Discover, not directly with the banks. I kept playing stupid, but interested and told her I thought one of the cards interest rates was 9.9% She asked what balance I had on the card I had the highest balance on. She said they could work with me if I had more than a $2000 balance. I told her I had $4000 on a card. She wanted the name of the card issuer. I said that she should already have that information, if they got my phone number from them.

This went on and on for at least 5 minutes. My wife heard me from the other room and was laughing. Finally, the woman realized she wasn’t going to get anywhere with me and was wasting her time (exactly my goal.) She said “Good day!” and hung up.

I hope they keep a list of numbers they don’t want to call and add me to it.

7. I received another call on my home phone no more than a couple hours later. I started to do the same thing. I pressed 1 and waited as the extension rang. They finally answered. I heard some background noise and about half a syllable then was hung up on. Was it a coincidence that I had just wasted the other womans’ time, or did they somehow figure out the connection between my cell number and home number and saw it flagged for being a time waster? I don’t know, but they didn’t want to talk to me and hung up. It was not the same number that called my cell phone, but the recording was very similar.

So what conclusion have I come to? There is not much you can actually prove about these calls. They cover their tracks so that they can’t be found and prosecuted, but I have reached some gut-instinct conclusions about them. They call from many numbers, but they are really only a couple boiler-room operations making a huge number of calls all over the country. I don’t know anyone who hasn’t been pestered by them. They use technology to dial numbers and play a recording, hoping for a percentage who will respond to their bait. I don’t believe they are calling truly at random. I believe they know who they are calling and that there is a link from a cell phone to a landline number. I don’t believe they have any actual bank information, although they could be operating from stolen records from a business that has been hacked. They could have partial information that led them to you because they know you have a credit card. Or they could just be fishing. I know they don’t care about the do-not-call list, but I believe they have their own way of marking you as undesirable if you waste their time. I haven’t had a call from them in several days now. It used to be multiple times per day.

Some typical web posts about these calls…
Complaintwire.org
800notes.com
Honeypot.net

Cell phones have become a fact of life, though. A necessity that we can’t live without. So we pile on features to make us think we like them. My phone is a camera, a web browser, an email client, a personal assistant, a toy and lastly, a phone.

The funny thing is, it’s not very good at any of those things…

I just ordered a bluetooth earpiece. You’ve got to have one or risk a ticket in your car if the phone rings. I don’t talk much while I drive, but it is safer than even the corded earpieces on the rare occasion that I do.

The problem is, it’s the third earpiece I’ve bought. I haven’t found one yet that I really liked. Every one has been a problem. They are uncomfortable. About as comfortable as if you put a clothespin on your ear. And less secure. Even with the hook around your ear, I’ve had them fall out. None of them are loud enough, especially while driving. The last on I had was so smart I couldn’t use it. It was supposed to have voice commands so that all I needed to do was talk to it. All I ever got out of it was “Say a command.” My phone has voice recognition as well. I never knew which one I was talking to and never did get the commands memorized. You shouldn’t need to learn a set of voice commands to make a phone call.

So did I get rid of them because I didn’t like them? No. I just ignored the voice commands and dialed all calls on the phone. That kind of defeats the purpose of having the headset while driving, but I just pulled over to dial. Answering was okay, when I could find the button to press by feel…

No the reason I just bought a new one – I lost the last one. I can’t walk around like a Borg with it on my ear all the time, so I take it off when I get out of the car. I end up sticking them in my pocket. Usually along with my keys. The hook that goes around your ear is like a grappling hook to keys and I guess I lost it pulling the keys out of the pocket later. It’s twice now that his has happened and I’m getting tired of it.

My last one was fancy – voice commands and noise cancelling etc. – a mistake I won’t make again. From now on, since I’m going to lose them anyway, I’m getting the cheapest I can find.

I’ve found that the cheap way to buy cellphone accessories is online. The stores, even the kiosks in malls, really live off the markup on the accessories. $30 for a car charger? Or a new battery? Not in my budget. Battery life is an issue with my new smart phone, so I looked for another one. The result? Another battery and a charger to charge it without putting it in the phone for $12. Sure, it came from China, but so do the ones sold in the shops. I just cut out the middlemen.

Those that fail to learn from history, are doomed to repeat it.
- Winston Churchill

I’m listening to a favorite local band of mine – Kilbrannan. They disbanded several years ago, going on to form two other bands, but that’s neither here ‘nor there. I know quite a few fans, though, that still miss their shows.

They were one of two local bands (Jackdaw, the other) that fed off my fascination with British Folk/Rock, such as Steeleye Span or Fairport Convention, and made me a fan of live Scottish/Irish music melded with Rock.

The driving force in the band was Kirk McWhorter, whose knowledge of traditional and contemporary Scottish tunes as well as his own songwriting skill, still impresses me.

So what has this got to do with Veterans Day, you might ask. If it isn’t already playing, play the song in the player at the top of this post. It’s a Kilbrannan song called A Simple Man. It’s the story of a young man who goes off to war, following “Bonnie Prince Charlie” in the Jacobite uprising of 1745. It was an unsuccessful attempt to claim the British Throne and, predictably, ended disastrously for those fighting in it, including the farmer’s Son of the song. Yet, it became, as these stories do, the stuff of songs and is remembered that way.

I can’t help but think of our servicemen overseas when I hear it.

Similarly, we tend to romanticize our war heroes, especially on Holidays like this. We call them “Heroes” whether they want the term or not; whether they carried a rifle or sat at a desk in a supply platoon. We give credit deservedly for their sacrifices, leaving family and friends behind, going to far away and inhospitable places, risking their own health and life.

That can’t be minimized and it is not my intention to do so.

But…

I think we go too far at times in all the praise and adulation we heap on the Veterans for a day here and a day there, then forget about it the rest of the year. Maybe it’s out of guilt for putting them in danger in the first place. Maybe we feel a little squeamish about asking them to risk all in wars that are so hard to justify in the first place.

I think just as we show our appreciation for those who served in the military, we should show our appreciation for those citizens who took their duty as citizens seriously enough to stand up and speak their mind against wars. Against the Military-Industrial complex that pressures our Congress into supporting these wars until it nearly breaks our own economy.

Shouldn’t those solders serving in foreign combat know that we’ve got their backs and want to get them home safely as soon as possible? Shouldn’t the citizenry, who pays the taxes that make the military possible, be remembered as well? Shouldn’t we be fighting to protect our economy so that when our soldiers return, there will be jobs for them to go to?

We’re all part of this country and we all serve in our own roles. I know I’ll get heat for this. Someone will say “You didn’t serve. You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Well, no I never was enlisted in any branch of the military. But if I had been, I would have gone and served just as any them there now do. I would have been scared shitless. I would have been homesick. I would have endured brutal conditions and then graduated from boot camp. I would have gone through what every other serviceman goes through, no better or worse, but I would have stuck with it and gotten through it. I’d have done my duty and I wouldn’t have expected to be called a hero for it.

And I do know what I’m talking about, it is those who exhibit knee-jerk patriotism that won’t listen. Our soldiers are taught to take orders without question because it saves split-seconds in combat. But someone needs to be thinking critically and looking at the big picture. As a citizen who is not on the warfront, I am given that opportunity and I take that duty seriously. Someone needs to be able to stand up and say the emperor has no clothes.

And yes, those veterans fought for the freedom of speech that lets me write this. To that I say, if you really want to fight for my freedom, then you’re in the wrong place. Washington DC has done more to remove my freedom and liberty in the past 10 years than any foreign land.

How can you sit there and talk about how heroic and brave our servicemen are without becoming enraged at the Fat Cats that put them and keep them in that position?

Want to help our servicemen? Bring them home safely.

Found on Facebook…

Wow! Has Facebook ever riled people up?!? All you see today is complaints about some changes they made and announcements/stories about changes they have just announced.

I know people don’t like change, but everyone complains about Facebook. You’d think they’d be happy they were trying to change the service that everyone loves to hate.

Part of the problem is the endless, ever-changing settings that affect your privacy and security. Not only do they keep changing them, they keep moving around – getting harder to find, as well as it’s always a 50%-50% chance that the default setting is what you want/safe/secure/convenient (pick one.) No matter what they do, it seems like almost everyone complains.

So here’s a bunch of graphics I found – all yesterday and today – that I found funny. Hope you do too.