I was 13 when Apollo 11 landed. Even to this day when I hear the recordings of Neil saying 'Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed' I get goose bumps. I was allowed to stay up late and watch the EVA that night. From then on I followed all the manned spaceflight activities.
I got more involved during STS-9 when ham radio operators were allowed to retransmit the shuttle communications out over the ham bands (with proper permission from NASA). I started doing that and have re-transmitted mission audio for every shuttle mission since then in the St. Paul/Mpls, Minnesota (USA) area. If your in Minnesota during a mission listen on 145.150 MHz with a scanner or ham radio.
I was born and raised in Minnesota and have only had a few chances to make few trips to FL and visit the Cape, but never during any launch or landing. My interests are ham radio, computers, electronics, steam engines, and astronomy. On the outdoor side I enjoy camping and hiking, especially when I can get to the mountains out west. Recently we got involved with geocaching to supplement the hiking.
When I came across ALSJ two years ago, I was hooked. So much great data about Apollo that we never saw or heard about during the missions. Not only the mission activates, but the information about the flight systems is wonderful.
May 2009