Amateur radio at the opera

You heard it right, or more precisely an opera that could have been based on a true story involving an Australian radio amateur, as Jim Linton VK3PC explains.

A contemporary opera called "Cosmonaut" has a striking similarity to the amateur radio activities of Maggie Iaquinto VK3CFI, who was be-friended by a number of crews on the MIR space station.

Maggie, also known to the MIR Cosmonauts as Rita, read a newspaper review of the opera that is now showing at the Melbourne Festival, and just could not believe the likeness it had to herself.

In 1991 Maggie, a school teacher competent in the Russian language, made world history by having the first computer-to-computer contact with the Space Station MIR.
She actually taught Cosmonaut Musa Manarov U2MIR packet radio.

Prior to that, she had regular voice contact with MIR.
Her activities were recognised by the prestigious Wireless Institute of Australia's Ron Wilkinson Achievement Award.

Cosmonaut, the opera, is about a communication between a Russian Cosmonaut and a woman in Australia. An unusual relationship develops between a cosmonaut as he floats through space and a woman on earth who dreams of a better life. It was inspired by the fate of Soviet cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev U5MIR, who was in orbit as the Soviet Union fell apart.

Maggie VK3CFI had the pleasure of meeting the cast of the opera and she explains their reactions:

`During a break at a rehearsal, I recounted some of my feelings when contacting the Russian space station. The lead actor Melissa Madden Gray told me how she had tried hard to get into the character of the woman on earth. My conversation filled the gaps and let her know how emotional these contacts had been - both for the Russian crew and for ham radio operators on Earth.'

As a result of Maggie's insight, the staging of the Opera, which is a full multimedia event, has now been slightly changed to include the true-life reality of contacting MIR, and in particular the voice of the spaceman has been lowered in tone to more accurately reflect that of a Russian Cosmonaut of the era.

How does Maggie VK3CFI feel personally about the opera and its parallels with her amateur radio activity in contacting the MIR space station?

`I discussed the intense attachment the cosmonauts all felt
towards MIR. The eyes of the actors filled with tears and they broke out in goose bumps. They were profoundly amazed and also spooked. It was a strange experience for me too due to their reactions and keen artistic interest in hearing my details of my experience.'

And was the opera based on the Maggie VK3CFI experience?
Well its author or librettist claims this is not the case.

The MIR Space Station met a fiery end when it deliberately plunged into earth's atmosphere in March 2001 - however its memory lives among those radio amateurs who heard or made contact with it, and of course through performances of Cosmonaut the opera.

Jim Linton VK3PC

Source: Wireless Institute of Australia

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