UA1LO: Cosmo-nyet…and 41 years ago today
In September of 1979 I had a QSO with Yuri UA1LO on 20 meter CW.
At some point, I learned of that callsign as being associated with Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin. Briefly, I thought I’d worked a very famous man- the first person to travel into outer space.
To this day a Google search of “UA1LO” shows threads on various forums and websites that debate whether or not UA1LO was in fact Yuri the cosmonaut – there’s still a fair amount of speculation going on.
UA1LO is listed as Yuri Gagarin here and the October 1980 issue of 73 Magazine has an article on Gagarin as UA1LO here (200kb pdf). Many believe both of these assertions are incorrect.
This QSL may serve to alleviate some of the speculation. Yuri Gagarin the cosmonaut died in 1968 when his MiG 15 crashed - eleven years before my QSO with the real Yuri UA1LO.
Regarding Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin:
The “Fallen Astronaut” with name plaque – Hadley Rille, Moon
Exactly 41 years ago today – 1 Aug 1971 – Apollo 15 crew members left the “Fallen Astronaut” memorial on the moon as a tribute to all American astronauts and Soviet cosmonauts who lost their lives in their respective countries’ space program, Yuri Gagarin, of course, is among the names listed.
The idea for the memorial was that of Apollo 15 astronaut David Scott who co-wrote a book with cosmonaut Alexei Leonov entitled Two Sides of the Moon: Our Story of the Cold War Space Race, published in 2006.
The “Fallen Astronaut” was created by Belgian artist Paul Van Hoeydonck and is the only piece of art on the moon.
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Themocracy
According http://WWW.QRZ.RU UA1LO is Yuri Babkov, not a cosmonaut…
His e-mail ua1lo@mail.ru , but at the moment he is not at home, QRV as UA1LO/1 till the end of September.
73, Oleg UA9UAX
Hello Oleg – it would be interesting to know how long he has held that callsign…I wonder how many people have worked him thinking they’ve worked Y. Gagarin!
Good morning John, your adventure with the call sign UA1LO reminded my of ny BY5WJ when in fact it was 6Y5WJ…..as for the plaque on the moon I had never known that but a very nice thing to do.
Mike
P.S Hope the weekend weather is good tower working weather down your way…