| Communication with family and friends as well as the voyage support group, was with Amateur Radio. Neil Tanner, wa4chq was the radio operator on Godspeed. Godspeed had radio schedules twice a day with hams in Virginia to pass our "traffic". Crew members would post messages on the radio shack bulkhead and during the skeds back home, Tanner would send the messages. If there were any messages for the crew, Tanner would copy them down and deliver them to the crew. All of this was done with Morse Code. When reception was favorable, Tanner was able to place actual phone calls via Ham Radio. The Williamsburg Amateur Radio Club was responsible for setting up antenna systems on Godspeed as well as building the transceiver and antenna tuner that was donated by the Heathkit Company. They also were the main traffic center in Virginia for the crew. Some of the hams that spent countless hours sending and receiving traffic from Godpeed were---k4mu, w5cle, w3atq, ww4h...these are just a few. There were more and hopefully I will be able to acknowledge them here soon. |