Wednesday, April 13.

At 0700 I woke when the telephone was ringing. Pekka Tanskanen, the professor of the Cosmic Physics of the University of Oulu congratulated us. He promissed visit Paltamo during next days.


Kainuun Sanomat, our local newspaper, praised SAREX-project on two different pages and big headlines:

"GREAT SUCCESS! DIRECT CONTACT FROM PALTAMO TO THE SPACE"

"PALTAMO SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL HAD VOICE CONTACT WITH THE SPACE SHUTTLE - TWO YEARS WORK, BUT IT WAS THAT WORTHY!"


Retrospect

The SAREX-project, ham radio and Paltamo High School got a lot of publicity on TV, radio and press. Mission control of JSC rebroadcasted the contact over the USA and Australia.

-On tuesday on the radio in all 3 national main networks in the news many times. Still after some days more telephone interviews on different programs f.ex. on local Kainuun Radio "Culture"-program on Friday.

-On tuesday evening on two different nation-wide TV-network news, both in the main headlines and newsreport both over 2 min 20 seconds long news.

-Newspapers: Kainuun Sanomat, Kaleva, Savon Sanomat, Iltalehti (the 2nd biggest Newspaper in Finland), Seitseman paivaa-magazine, Vayla (local newspaper in Paltamo) and Helsingin Sanomat (biggest newspaper in Finland) had long and good stories with pictures and in most of Finnish newspapers a shorter report delivered via STT (Finnish News Agency).

-On School TV N.Y.T (N.O.W)-News on Friday April 15 on three different program each over 2 minutes report with headline puffs.

-On famous TV Frank Pappa-show quiz a question in the weekend on national TV Network

-On TV a sketch on Iltalypsy (Evening Milking) - show in the weekend on another national TV Network

.

On Friday, April 15, professor P. Tanskanen and his assistent Juha Pirttila visited my ham station and our school where they lectured about their subjects. On summer 1994 Juha Pirttila was visiting the International Space Camp, Alabama, and we watched his slides. Professor Tanskanen welcomed us to visit and study their CASSINI -Mission to Saturn -project in the University of Oulu. Later on Juha Pirttila invited me to a member of AISE (The Association of International Space Educators).

On Friday evening OH8UV received congratulations, thanks and the 1994 culture prize of Paltamo in the beginning of the meeting of Paltamo municipal council. Of course we watched the qso on the video. They said it was an unique advertisement for Paltamo... This happening raised self esteem and importance of Paltamo.


On Saturday afternoon April 16, after the SRAL (Finnish Radio Amateur League) bulletin many OH-hams congratulated us on 80 meter ham band. It was a party!

Still some reporters visited on Sunday, April 17. During the Endeavour's mission many student groups visited my ham shack and we listened the signals from the shuttle packet radio. On April 17, OH8UV worked N5QWL on FM and welcomed Jay to visit Paltamo. SAREX-project gave surely much inspiration for the studies, expanded attitude of life and opened new possibilities for our students.


On Tuesday April 19, I heard negative to my scholarship application. There must have been better ones! (f.ex. set up a ski collection...) So with sadness I had to packet FT-736R and return it to RF-electronics. Thanks for Jukka OH8PF for co-operative and understanding!

There was not a single comment about SAREX-project in Swedish speaking medias in Finland. I don't know why. Usually they reports quite a lot about space traffic.


On Wednesday, April 20, I returned FAX and they were very satisfied with the SAREX-project in local telephone company. There was used up over 50 meter (170 feet) faxpaper with received faxes. We sent 82 faxes, about 14 to USA.

Many reportes have contacted later and thanked the special experience and nice arrangements.


From June 8 to June 10 OH8UV was QRV in Helsinki Kainuu Exhibition with SAREX exhibition and during 3 days there visited over 100 000 visitors. There was only few who hadn't heard about SAREX-project in Paltamo!

Also many hams visited our exhibition. The biggest surprise there was to meet Uschi, DJ1JD from Uetze, Germany. Year before that we had a complete meteor scatter contact on 144 MHz. (More info about meteor scatter .)

In the end of June I had a telephone contact with Erwin Kuntz DH8MBX and discussed with their STS-65 SAREX-project in Germany. I sent him our SAREX video tape and a PAL-copy of Ham radio in Space. They were very pleased and Erwin told me that it was help for to see how the prosess goes. Later on I received their video tape.


On July Janne Kemppainen visited Space Camp in Alabama and Virva Tervonen was studying in Space and Environment Summer High School in Utsjoki, Lappland, Finland.

Also I sent earlier an application for taking part to the Space Camp. There was quota of three persons: one teacher and one boy and one girl students ( students under 18 years) from Finland.
I'm glad that Janne was elected to that boy. Professor Tanskanen told me earlier that where those election is made they don't elect two persons from the same place on the same year. So this was Janne's last possibility, because now he is too old for that. Later on the autumn Janne started his space technology studies in the University of Helsinki. I believe SAREX-project had some influence with his study choice...
By the way suddenly there happened a strange thing on that episode. Unfortunately that female teacher got ill and she couldn't travel at all. So there was no teacher representative from Finland that summer. I was quite sad...

I'm looking forward some day to get possibility to take part to the Space Camp.

During the autumn 1994 almost every day there has been talk and contacts about SAREX-project. I have made many lectures about it.

There has been several articles in some magazines f.ex. Tähdet ja Avaruus (Stars and Space) by URSA , Kunta-Canon (Communal Canon), Radioamatoori 5/94 (6 pages).


On September 14, I managed to work STS-64 Discovery KB5SIW on FM and on September 18, got a qso with W5RRR-1 with SAREX number #294.

On November Paltamo Senior High School got the award of the School of the year 1994 in Kainuu-area.

So our school also discovered E-mail with SAREX-project. Now we become familiar with Internet by special Internet-course of the University of Oulu. We got also satellite TV channels with CNN and a cable TV inside our school just before Christmas 1994.


Maybe the best result was a half page article with color picture about SAREX in Paltamo in famous Finnish Year Encyclopedia MMM (WWW, What Where When). That was issued in November 1994.


During autumn 1994 I have sent letters and pictures to all SAREX STS-59 schools. Until this day (March 19,1995) only one school has answered. It is Kanawha School, Davisville and Dave Stone, KD8YY. We have exchanged video tapes and some letters and we will continue correspondence. I hope some day we will hear also from the other schools. Please E-mail to: oh8uv@kainuumedia.fi.


In the beginning of February 1995 there was one sleepless week for trying to work STS-63. The shuttle was over the horizon during the best sleeping time here in Finland. Althought I missed no orbits over the horizon there was no activity on ham bands from the shuttle heard in Paltamo.
I worked Mir-station by packet radio after the glorious rendezvous with Mir and shuttle and I dropped a russian language congratulations to the R0MIR's personal mail box. Next night I found there was an answer with thanks from the cosmonauts!
On the day time I watched CNN-news at school.We got that at last! Thanks to the SAREX-project. They surely had a lot of else to do than to work ham bands there aboard the shuttle. So waiting now for STS-71 very eagerly...


In February 1995 on our winter meeting the Finnish Radio Amateur League rewarded me by the respected prize of Jäämaa (Jaamaa). That is the highest honours that I haven't even dare to dream. Of course that comes after the SAREX and...


October 3, 1995. The latest, but maybe not the least occurence of our SAREX-project. I had the honour of meeting the president of Finland, Mr. Martti Ahtisaari.

Week before that I was asked to send our SAREX-video and some information of our projects to the president. Mr. Ahtisaari had watched it and he said:
-Thank you for the video. I was very satisfied of your activity. Good luck on continuation, kind regards to the students.

I was so pleased with this meeting and proud of our president. Long before his president carreer, before his commissions of foreign policy and peace negotiations he has been a teacher in school. His wife, Eeva Ahtisaari, has also an educational profession. Mr. Ahtisaari has also own Internet pages (www.tpk.fi). He seems to keep abreast of the times very much in communication.


It´s time to thank!

Special thanks to the SAREX-team, Jay Apt, Frank Bauer, Tracy Bedlack, JSC Mission Control, Bill Reed, SRAL and all the persons and companies involved with our project with important support to the great success!

Epilogy

The Truth is Out There!