The countdown to contact is at four days now, and I promise each and every one of you that we're going to be super-busy from now until then. With time quickly running out, there's a whole bunch of things going on not just for our immediate group, but for a number of other people.

For instance, the marketing department here at Humber College has started inviting the media to our contact. Humber's chief of security is busy making arrangements to handle the crowds. The engineer from Radio Humber and I are going to be meeting up a little later to discuss the logistics of broadcasting the contact live on our own radio station.

Our group, on the other hand, is testing, tweaking, re-testing, re-tweaking, and repeating as necessary. We've got a super-busy weekend ahead of us, clearing out the lab where we'll be actually making our contact from. After all, we'd like to fit as many people in there as possible.

I got an interesting email from Gino this morning. In it, a link to a press release from Canada's Telecommunications Hall of Fame. In short:

OTTAWA, ONTARIO--(Marketwire - Jan. 28, 2009) - Canada's Telecommunications Hall of Fame announced today that it will pay tribute to Humber College students Paul Je, Patrick Neelin, Gino Cunti, and Kevin Luong and their professor, Mark Rector for their innovative NASA-approved satellite radiocommunication system to make voice radio contact with astronauts aboard the International Space Station. The
Hall of Fame honours will take place at the 2009 Telecom Laureate Awards at the Canadian Museum of Civilization, October 29, 2009.

Read the full article here.

If you'll allow me to do so, I'd like to talk a little about the hall of fame.

I can't speak on the behalf of my teammates, but I think that having an organization dedicated to honouring Canadian achievements is an amazing idea. I've had many conversations with first- and second-semester students here at Humber, and one of the things that I stress is that the telecommunications industry is one of the most important industries in the world. In Canada alone, there are 15.6 million cellular phone subscribers. In 2005, roughly ten percent of Canada's non-cellular telephones were VOIP-based. It's predicted that by 2010,
that figure will increase to ninety-five percent. The telecom industry is growing more rapidly than any industry in the world.

Another example of how important the industry is: When Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans back in 2005, one of the first things the military did was try to establish a communications link so that they could co-ordinate their efforts. In addition to that, amateur radio operators in the area played a critical role in getting information back and forth to the affected areas where the communications
infrastructure was destroyed.

Canada's role in as a pioneer in the telecommunications industry, I feel, is often over-shadowed or taken for granted. Without the efforts of people like Guglielmo Marconi and Reginald Fessenden, the industry would be drastically different. If you do a little bit of research, you'll find a whole list of Canadian telecommunications advances. And yet, so many of these great feats are
taken for granted.

That's why I believe that Canada's Telecommunications Hall of Fame is so important. There are a lot of of brilliant Canadians who have helped to shape the industry. They have, quite literally, changed the world forever. You hear about sports players being inducted into their various halls of fame, but let me tell you this: the people that Canada's Telecommunications Hall of Fame pays tribute to are heroes, and they deserve to be treated as such.

The hall of fame, I feel, celebrates Canada's achievements, and promotes the idea that not all of our heroes are from the past. We could talk at length about people like Marconi and Fessenden, but who knows that the future holds? The Hall promotes that idea, and inspires students to work to their full potential. It honours the professors that teach students. All in all, Canada's Telecommunications Hall of Fame is doing a whole lot of good. Not just for Canada, but for people all around the world. I am honoured to be recognized by such an influential organization. Please, give their website a visit. Click on their logo, and show your support for both Canada and the telecom industry!