Ham-Astronaut COL (Ret.) Bill McArthur

NASA Space shuttle veteran and International Space Station Expedition 12 commander Bill McArthur, KC5ACR, will be the League's guest at Dayton Hamvention 2007, Friday through Sunday, May 18-20, at Hara Arena near Dayton, Ohio....

A graduate of the US Military Academy at West Point, McArthur, 55, holds a master's degree in aerospace engineering from Georgia Tech.... During his six months aboard the ISS -- from October 2005 until April 2006 -- he became the most active ham-astronaut ever to serve in space, logging more than 1800 QSOs and picking up several honorary operating awards, including Worked All States (WAS) and Worked All Continents (WAC). He told his AMSAT audience last fall that the tremendous enthusiasm of the radio amateurs and students he talked with via ham radio helped him to focus on why he was aboard the ISS.

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Note: W2KGY made contact with COL (Ret.) McArthur while he was on the International Space Station last year.