Last October, I had the honor of making such contact with the ISS. I posted about this on my website here: https://rz01.org/na1ss/
The ISS has radios on board that allow amateur radio operators to send and receive APRS messages, talk to other hams via their built-in FM repeater or to receive SSTV images. They also have amateur TV stuff on board but I have not explored this yet. Crew members with an amateur radio license can pick up the mic of the radio that acts as a FM repeater to make contacts with other hams on the earth.
A good few years ago I had a crack as using the ISS's crossband repeater when it was on and could hear myself clearly with a Kenwood TH-F7E and home-made dual-band crossed dipole.
Unfortunately no-one else could work me, because they'd boosted the satellite's orbit, the TLEs hadn't been updated, and so everyone with a nice motorised antenna positioner was aiming at the wrong part of the sky.
Me standing in my back garden pointing roughly in the direction of the fast-moving bright spot? Nah that worked perfectly :-D
My daughter is deaf and goes to a specialist deaf secondary school in the UK.
Five years ago ARISS-UK pre-arranged a connection between the school and astronaut Mark Vande Hei on one of the ISS flyovers. Various students got to ask questions directly to Mark in orbit. It was the first contact between ISS and a deaf school.
An “aural” deaf school? This seems like a fairly harmful approach. I know that approaches to deaf education are quite fraught, but pushing students to communicate orally and not allowing sign language in the classroom seems like it’ll set a lot of students back educationally. It essentially turns deafness into a learning disability, which it doesn’t need to be if you just allow sign language. (It also shuts the students out of mainstream Deaf culture, which I imagine a lot of them will resent later in life.) I am surprised that a school with this philosophy still exists, frankly.
I've done this twice for local schools. It was an event for the entire school to listen in on. In one case, we relayed the signal from the roof of the school to another local ham's house, where he had a big antenna on a tower with alt/az control for tracking the station. That meant we could test the tracking beforehand and not worry about setting it up again at the school.
NASA also used to coordinate telephone-based contact (maybe they still do? not sure). They'd simply patch the phone call in to radio equipment that they acquired and operated for this purpose. Confirmed beforehand out of personal interest though: it was still over the ham bands.
Something really amazing happens when kids are given an opportunity to experience something like that: science goes from being a largely theoretical exercise to having some amount of practical applicability. The kids that got to actually _talk_ on the radio were incredibly curious and eager to learn as much as they could about everything. They wanted to know how radio works. They wanted to know more about orbital mechanics and how we know where to point the antenna (to the point of actually _asking_ to learn the math). They wanted to know how big the ISS was and how we even got it to orbit (which led to some model rocketry-related topics).
I imagine that it was very difficult to justify the expense of acquiring and transporting heavy amateur radio equipment to the space station (even if you're just thinking about the cost of putting the equipment into orbit - the cost is (pardon the pun) astronomical), but this kind of stuff _matters_. Making science accessible to children in a way that isn't just preparing them for the next standardized test _matters_.
When I was studying to get my Technician-class ham radio license a few weeks ago I was slightly curious as to why there were questions relating to space stations and satellites, like "any ametaur with a radio license can contact the ISS" and such, but I paid those thoughts no mind as I was being hasty trying to legally fiddle with my APRS tracker in a weather balloon.
I should re-review those exam questions; I might be licensed to do a lot more than I know I can.
Can't ham radio operators also be drafted involuntarily in times of disaster and war? Incidentally, America suspended all amateur radio operations during WWII.
About 17 years ago I recorded Richard Garriott's side of a conversation with a school in Warwick in England. The school was several hundred miles south, so well out of radio range, but obviously it's a clear path the thousand miles or so to the ISS!
There's a video somewhere on Youtube with another recording from Hampshire, just a short distance south of the school but still too far too hear them. It's crazy hearing the two different recordings of the same thing :-)
Lasers in space are fun! We[1] are actually doing this for real but automated and inversed -- launching a satellite with a laser to beam data down to Earth. Like these searchlights, but from orbit!
I have used the APRS on the ISS to talk with other amateur radio operators. I also spoke to an astronaut briefly from my backyard using a Kenwood D72A and an Elk antenna.
The closest I have done is picking up the SSTV signals with one of my HTs. I learned a lot doing it. It was crazy just how directional the rubber ducky antenna was even on a crappy Baofeng. Turning the radio 90 degrees went from 0 signal to crystal clear signal. I thought it was cool, and even my mom was impressed. Lol
exitnode|1 month ago
The ISS has radios on board that allow amateur radio operators to send and receive APRS messages, talk to other hams via their built-in FM repeater or to receive SSTV images. They also have amateur TV stuff on board but I have not explored this yet. Crew members with an amateur radio license can pick up the mic of the radio that acts as a FM repeater to make contacts with other hams on the earth.
You can contact the ISS via a handheld setup (FM radio and a yagi antenna in your hand) or with a stationary setup like mine: https://rz01.org/leo-sat-ground-station-v3/
ErroneousBosh|1 month ago
A good few years ago I had a crack as using the ISS's crossband repeater when it was on and could hear myself clearly with a Kenwood TH-F7E and home-made dual-band crossed dipole.
Unfortunately no-one else could work me, because they'd boosted the satellite's orbit, the TLEs hadn't been updated, and so everyone with a nice motorised antenna positioner was aiming at the wrong part of the sky.
Me standing in my back garden pointing roughly in the direction of the fast-moving bright spot? Nah that worked perfectly :-D
exitnode|1 month ago
jeffwass|1 month ago
Five years ago ARISS-UK pre-arranged a connection between the school and astronaut Mark Vande Hei on one of the ISS flyovers. Various students got to ask questions directly to Mark in orbit. It was the first contact between ISS and a deaf school.
https://www.arrl.org/news/ariss-confirms-october-12-as-date-...
rafram|1 month ago
nephihaha|1 month ago
cweagans|1 month ago
NASA also used to coordinate telephone-based contact (maybe they still do? not sure). They'd simply patch the phone call in to radio equipment that they acquired and operated for this purpose. Confirmed beforehand out of personal interest though: it was still over the ham bands.
Something really amazing happens when kids are given an opportunity to experience something like that: science goes from being a largely theoretical exercise to having some amount of practical applicability. The kids that got to actually _talk_ on the radio were incredibly curious and eager to learn as much as they could about everything. They wanted to know how radio works. They wanted to know more about orbital mechanics and how we know where to point the antenna (to the point of actually _asking_ to learn the math). They wanted to know how big the ISS was and how we even got it to orbit (which led to some model rocketry-related topics).
I imagine that it was very difficult to justify the expense of acquiring and transporting heavy amateur radio equipment to the space station (even if you're just thinking about the cost of putting the equipment into orbit - the cost is (pardon the pun) astronomical), but this kind of stuff _matters_. Making science accessible to children in a way that isn't just preparing them for the next standardized test _matters_.
NoiseBert69|1 month ago
Lots of students have basically zero interest in that stuff. With the exception of the usual group of nerds.
Radio call at a school with an Arctic research station? The organizers from our local club even begged members to come.
fevercell|1 month ago
I should re-review those exam questions; I might be licensed to do a lot more than I know I can.
burnt-resistor|1 month ago
ErroneousBosh|1 month ago
https://gjcp.net/mp3s/iss-friday1106.mp3
There's a video somewhere on Youtube with another recording from Hampshire, just a short distance south of the school but still too far too hear them. It's crazy hearing the two different recordings of the same thing :-)
wortelefant|1 month ago
creatonez|1 month ago
Possibly explained by moon landing deniers being too stupid to operate radio equipment.
GistNoesis|1 month ago
ssernikk|1 month ago
[1] A bunch of students at https://satlab.agh.edu.pl
firesteelrain|1 month ago
olyjohn|1 month ago
The closest I have done is picking up the SSTV signals with one of my HTs. I learned a lot doing it. It was crazy just how directional the rubber ducky antenna was even on a crappy Baofeng. Turning the radio 90 degrees went from 0 signal to crystal clear signal. I thought it was cool, and even my mom was impressed. Lol
HelloUsername|1 month ago