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Students Call Space Station With Home-Built Radio

Posted by timothy on from the prince-albert-in-a-tin-can dept.

Pizzutz writes "Four Toronto college students have accomplished a technological feat that their teachers are calling a first. The Humber College seniors made contact with the International Space Station Monday with a radio system they designed and built themselves. School officials say that, to their knowledge, that's never been accomplished by students at the college level." Somewhat disappointingly, the students actually did have permission to make contact.

16 of 330 comments (clear)

  1. no kidding by gEvil+(beta) · · Score: 5, Informative

    Somewhat disappointingly, the students actually did have permission to make contact.

    No kidding. But this does open the door to prank calls to the ISS. I can't wait for some of those to get posted to YouTube. Or shown on NASA TV.

    --
    This guy's the limit!
    1. Re:no kidding by JavaManJim · · Score: 2, Informative

      Amen to zappecs! When I was a teenager, I think a good number of us built a) crystal whisker receivers, b) diode receiver radios, c) transmit and receive radios.

      Its no big deal. Wait a minute, nothing big for a kid to do. It might be special for a college student twice a kid's age in today's non magic world. A world that has never heard of the venerable ARRL (American Radio Relay League).

      Like others, I wonder why no one thought about "ARISS". http://www.arrl.org/ARISS/

      And zappecs is right so many times about the lack of specifications. They might have done it the hard way and made their own resistors and capacitors out of regional minerals (i.e dirt). The video had the students using an oscilloscope. Oscilloscopes help greatly to tune your antenna.

      Cheers,
      Jim

    2. Re:no kidding by NickW1234 · · Score: 2, Informative
      And they didn't actually build their radio. They bought a radio, antenna, and rotator.

      They "built" the "radio station"

      AKA bought stuff based on specs, and plugged it all in.

  2. Not a first by scsirob · · Score: 5, Informative

    HAM radio amateurs including students have been in contact with ISS many times over, using voice and digital connections (Packet Radio)

    Many of the astronauts on board are HAM radio operators and make frequent contact with schools, institutions and individual amateurs. On the ground, many of these individual amateurs have designed built their own rig.

    --
    To Terminate, or not to Terminate, that's the question - SCSIROB
    1. Re:Not a first by CRCulver · · Score: 5, Informative

      Indeed, it's sad how little knowledge there is of amateur radio among nerds these days. Part of that is the medium itself, where you're often essentially talking with bored middle-aged men about nothing (international regulations arguably forbidding interesting discussions). However, there's no better way to gain an understanding of electronics than through studying for an amateur radio license. If you start with a guide like the ARRL intro , electronic gadgets become a lot less mysterious and it gets better as you proceed up the license classes. You can diagnose television or mobile phone problems, repair simple devices, or build your own for cheap like audio amplifiers. I haven't used amateur radio in over a decade now, but I'm still really happy that I got into it.

    2. Re:Not a first by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      I was going to point out that myself! And most likely this was also via amateur radio. Ham radio operators have been doing this for about 26 years now, it's definitely not a "first".

      The SAREX (Space Shuttle Amateur Radio EXperiment)Program started in 1983 when Mission Specialist Owen Garriott W5LFL operated from the shuttle for the first time. Since then there's been an established program of scheduling contacts with school students and the astronauts. First on the shuttles and now on the ISS.

      Also, Mir was quite active on amateur radio as well. They would be on voice from time to time and there was also a packet radio system aboard Mir.

      Any amateur radio operator in the world is free to attempt a contact with the ISS. In fact, NASA even has a page about amateur radio aboard the ISS.

      http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/station/reference/radio/

      In fact, any school can apply to have a chance of a scheduled contact between students and the ISS.

  3. Unlicensed Broadcasts by AKAImBatman · · Score: 4, Informative

    Somewhat disappointingly, the students actually did have permission to make contact.

    You shouldn't be encouraging readers to attempt broadcasts without permission. Unlicensed broadcasts with power sufficient to reach the International Space Station can be a safety hazard; potentially interfering with or jamming legitimate transmissions. At the very least, one might distract the ISS crew during an important maneuver/space walk when the entire crew needs to be focused.

    (Think of it a bit like having the phone ring when you're in the middle of moving heavy furniture. Not exactly opportune.)

    These kids did the right thing by having official permission to make the broadcast. Especially because it meant that there was an astronaut available to speak with them. If it was an unlicensed transmission without prior approval, they would have gotten "hung up" on. ;-)

    --
    Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
    1. Re:Unlicensed Broadcasts by fotbr · · Score: 3, Informative

      Slight nit-pick. It doesn't take a whole lot of power to do VHF/UHF line-of-sight to (or from) low-earth-orbit. Especially if the receiving end has a) a good receiver b) a good antenna (or antenna system) or c) some combination of both, which, IIRC, the ISS does.

    2. Re:Unlicensed Broadcasts by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

      You're wrong, there's a dedicated amateur radio station on the ISS. That's all it's used for. Sure there's not someone always there, but the station is always on. And you don't require any sort of permission at all to contact the ISS. Any amateur radio operator can.

      Here's the FAQ about the ARISS program.

      http://www.rac.ca/ariss/oindex.htm

      You'll notice this question:

      "CAN HAMS MAKE UNSCHEDULED ARISS CONTACTS?

              Yes. The ISS crew has not lost sight of why it has been so successful. It is the Amateur Radio community that has brought astronauts voices into schools. Crew members make random contacts with earth-bound hams. They make contacts during their breaks, pre-sleep time and before and after mealtime. Astronauts have contacted thousands of hams around the world. Computer software allows the crew to operate the 2-meter packet gear radio in unattended mode, and hams can make contacts when the crewmembers are working."

  4. Re:I'm sorry to say... by mikewren420 · · Score: 5, Informative

    Indeed... I was able to contact the ISS twice using low power (10 watts) and a simple vertical antenna. This is hardly newsworthy, as any Amateur Radio operator with a 2 meter radio (they start at $100) and a small vertical antenna can make contact, with a little luck.

    Audio from my contact and others, as well as digital stills received from the ISS are at my website: http://mikewren.com/iss-21oct08

  5. The project's blog by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    http://www.operationfirstcontact.com/blog.htm

  6. Re:NB... Designed and Built Their Radio by codesmith.ca · · Score: 5, Informative

    Oops, my bad. They didn't design or build the transceiver. But....

    1) They did mod and deploy an antenna with homebrew tracker to keep alignment to the ISS

    2) They're first year students. Not at the end of the program, the very beginning.

    So, my praise still stands. Good work guys!

  7. Bad article by vitaflo · · Score: 5, Informative

    These kids did not build their own radio. The bought an Icom Ic-V8000 radio and a Yaesu G-5500 rotator and built their own antenna. One of the kids got a ham license and they were able to get some time with the IIS.

    http://www.operationfirstcontact.com/blog/episode16.htm

    The only thing they did was build an antenna basically. I'm happy for them (we could use more kids getting into Ham radio) but this story is sensationalizes on something that many people have done before.

  8. Re:I'm sorry to say... by vitaflo · · Score: 3, Informative

    Well, add to that the fact that they didn't even build their own radio. Here's their website:

    http://www.operationfirstcontact.com/blog/episode16.htm

    They bought an ICOM Ic-V8000 as the transceiver. Basically all they did was build an antenna.

  9. Re:I'm sorry to say... by Muad'Dave · · Score: 3, Informative

    They didn't just build a kit.

    No, they perpetrated a worse blasphemy than building a kit - according to their website, they purchased a friggin' tranceiver!

    Many, many hams have the brains and skill to actually DESIGN AND BUILD something as opposed to following cookbook designs and solder pre-supplied parts down and call it a miracle. If their website is correct, they did neither wrt the radio.

    --
    Tiller's Rule: Never use a word in written form that you've only heard and never read. You will end up looking foolish.
  10. Re:Read TFA by awehttam · · Score: 4, Informative
    Sounds more like they built a station, not the radio.

    http://www.operationfirstcontact.com/blog/episode16.htm

    Today, Mr. Rector, Paul, and I went out to Radioworld and purchased a transceiver. After much research, we decided to go with the ICOM Ic-V8000. For the cost, it has exactly what we need. On Friday, we're going to be integrating it into our setup, and doing all the necessary testing.

    The story is pretty hyped up but good on them anyway.