The commander of the International Space Station (ISS), Bill McArthur, KC5ACR, just can’t seem to get enough of ham radio operation. Previous ham astronauts have participated in widely varying levels of activity (like “none” to “some”) but Bill is hitting it really hard.
More significant that than, he seems to have caught the DX bug. He has achieved Worked All Continents (WAC) on 2M and is now trying to get WAC on 70 cm. I don’t recall any ham astronaut firing up the ISS rig on 70 cm, so this is new and cool. For Worked All States (on 2M), he still needs to work Alaska. It seems that the combination of the ISS orbit and the relatively sparse population of Alaska has caused it to be the last state that Bill needs to work. I suspect with the publicity around his goal, he should be able to nail it shortly. According to the ARRL, Bill has about 50 or so DXCC countries logged.
See NA1SS Active From Space for more information.
73, Bob K0NR
Based on various reports via the AMSAT email lists, Bill KC5ACR has now worked Alaska, completing Worked All States (WAS) from space.