College students contact space station with self-built radio system

While putting a call in to the International Space Station and chatting up an astronaut for a full ten minutes would likely be more than enough to satisfy most science classes, a group of students from Humber College in Toronto decided to go one big step further and do so with a radio system that they designed and built themselves. According to the school, that makes it the first time that's ever been done by students at the college level, which provided some well-deserved bragging rights for the students and their instructor, who said that they're "playing way, way above their league." Be sure to hit up the link below for a video of the big moment and, of course, the complete NASA control room-esque geek out.

[MRLN @ Feb 3rd 2009 3:53PM]

I hope that was legal.

[Invisiblemoose @ Feb 3rd 2009 3:55PM]

You wouldn't think Haruhi would care...

[Andrew K @ Feb 3rd 2009 4:01PM]

That's what she said!

sorry guys, had to be done.

[iEye yet again @ Feb 3rd 2009 5:19PM]

Lets get these guys working on lowering out long distance costs...

[Juaquin @ Feb 3rd 2009 5:20PM]

Well I highly doubt the space station would accept a call and chat for ten minutes if it was illegal. And since it was a university I'm sure they're smart enough to have checked all laws and talked to NASA ahead of time.

[tom @ Feb 3rd 2009 10:56PM]

They did. NASA staff was at the college when call is being made.

[Saad @ Feb 4th 2009 2:12AM]

"playing way, way above their league."

because they go to Humber College.

[one2wonder @ Feb 3rd 2009 3:54PM]

A first for college students maybe - but not for highschool students. Perhaps they designed the radio themselvs - but contacting the ISS on HAM has been done and done.

[Sam @ Feb 3rd 2009 4:00PM]

Did you read it?

"While school contacts with the space station are routinely made through the Amateur Radio on the International Space Station program, many of those contacts are made using a traditional ham radio."

[kjb434 @ Feb 3rd 2009 4:00PM]

That's what I was thinking. High Schoolers beat you to it!

Building a radio isn't that fancy.

[one2wonder @ Feb 3rd 2009 4:07PM]

Actually I did read it, as well as their blog. They made the antenna and use an off the shelf transreciever. Not saying it isn't cool - just its been done before. Maybe never at college, maybe never with a team size of 4 but it had been done. Nonetheless, still kinda makes me wanna get into amateur radio.

[404 @ Feb 3rd 2009 6:01PM]

As an example of One2Wonders point: My brother and a group of radio fiends had a chat with Helen Sharman on Mir using equipment they'd built at school in 1991. These guys might have done it slightly differently but it's not like Astronauts haven't talked to a bunch of students using home brew gear before.

Still nifty though.

[atomicthumbs @ Feb 3rd 2009 6:10PM]

@Sam:

This radio is "untraditional" in the sense that they built it themselves.

[MW @ Feb 3rd 2009 10:06PM]

Yep, not a big deal at all... But it was cool at the time when I did it a few months ago:

http://mikewren.com/iss-21oct08

I used a mobile radio with only 10 watts, into a simple vertical antenna. Surprisingly low-tech gear is needed when you have good line-of-sight. In this case, it's a few hundred miles into the sky for up to ten minutes at a time.

[Steve B @ Feb 4th 2009 5:08PM]

Yes, it has been done by ham radio operators. In fact, I was talking to the Mir (Russian) space station on my home-built ham radio station when I was in college--19 years ago.

[Dee @ Feb 3rd 2009 3:53PM]

"Toronto we have a problem..."

Man, that's totally awesome, wish I had that project when I was in college.

[Wolfticket @ Feb 3rd 2009 3:54PM]

With a big enough cantenna you could probably leach wifi off the ISS.

[Oli D @ Feb 3rd 2009 4:27PM]

with a big enough cantenna you could leach wifi of the Andromeda... whats your point?

[zioncat @ Feb 3rd 2009 3:56PM]

Wow that's really impressive.

[atomicthumbs @ Feb 3rd 2009 6:11PM]

No, it's not. Anybody can design and build an amatuer radio.

[Phobia @ Feb 4th 2009 3:40AM]

then wheres the article about the radio you built?

[change @ Feb 3rd 2009 3:58PM]

They built the antenna and I think the antenna rotor controller, but the rest is off-the-shelf. http://www.operationfirstcontact.com/blog/episode16.htm

I'm not really sure what the big deal is about this...ham radio operators of many ages have been doing this kind of thing for years.

[change @ Feb 3rd 2009 4:07PM]

Let me do a bit more to put this in perspective...

The Polysat group (http://polysat.calpoly.edu/) has built their own satellites (from scratch, which means they designed the instrument boards, battery packs, and programmed the microcontrollers themselves) and then put together their own ground station to contact their satellites when they were able to get them launched. THAT is an achievement at the college level. Just putting together the ground station would be a middle school or high school project.

It's not that I don't think it's great that more people are getting involved in amateur radio, but it's being played up as some amazing achievement. While it's still cool, people have been doing this for a long time.

So, to conclude, good on them for getting involved, glad they had fun, and hopefully it will get more interested in amateur radio (for those in the US, visit http://www.arrl.org to learn how you can get licensed), but I wish the article had done at least a tiny bit of research on what they were talking about.

[Rick @ Feb 3rd 2009 3:58PM]

Oh man, i would totally prank the hell out of them...

"This is Mission Control... The air locks are failing! Evacuate Immediately!"

I would watch thru my telescope and laugh....

[bangladeshiluv @ Feb 3rd 2009 4:00PM]

you are a jerk, sir!

[Oli D @ Feb 3rd 2009 4:04PM]

and they would say "я не понимаю английский язык"

[Freakin Ijit @ Feb 3rd 2009 4:12PM]

Yeah, or Mission Control Comms would be turning to the guy next to him and ask "Why do I keep getting a busy signal"?

[Iceman @ Feb 3rd 2009 4:02PM]

Got to ask my buddy, who goes to Humber, about this.

[Oli D @ Feb 3rd 2009 4:06PM]

Humber... as in Yorkshire, yeah its up north, but not 350 km up north vertically

[hariss @ Feb 3rd 2009 4:07PM]

Proud to be a Torontonian!

[Samboini @ Feb 3rd 2009 5:16PM]

Why, you did fuck all.

[Hans Gruber FTW @ Feb 3rd 2009 4:07PM]

The ISS is only ~200~ or so miles up, HAM radio can go thousands of miles across the earth, and while it is nice to see college students building a radio, this is not that big of a deal. You wait for your time window, aim your antenna between so and so degrees and talk away. Just about anybody could do it if NASA was just handing out the frequency(s). They only had ten minutes because at 17500 MPH the angle gets pretty extreme pretty quickly. Now, what I would like to see is some communication while it's orbiting on the OTHER side of the terminator.

[Sam @ Feb 3rd 2009 4:19PM]

" while it's orbiting on the OTHER side of the terminator."

Do satelittles usually orbit Governor Schwarzenegger?

[AMiSH PiRATE @ Feb 3rd 2009 4:47PM]

didn't john connor use ham radios to unite man against machine at the end of t3?

[Patriks7 @ Feb 4th 2009 1:22AM]

"Do satelittles usually orbit Governor Schwarzenegger?"
No, but I bet he has his personal satellite in space called the Terminator so he can get internet anywhere he goes. (Pr0n ftw!)

[zachary.mcgibbon @ Feb 3rd 2009 4:13PM]

I've relayed messages quite a few times through the ISS APRS repeater.. no biggie, handheld 5w transceiver and a yagi antenna.. very easy

[Nick Reyes @ Feb 3rd 2009 6:49PM]

They should have Rick Rolled them right off the bat...

[neofolklore @ Feb 3rd 2009 4:44PM]

I, sir, approve of your use of rickrolling

[Redbeaver @ Feb 3rd 2009 4:32PM]

Humber alumni here! good job on putting the school's name on the net :)

but CENG still beats Com-tech w00t! lol jk

[Chris @ Feb 3rd 2009 4:40PM]

From 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."

They put together an antenna and an AzEl rotator and used an off the shelf transciever.

What part of this is self-built? This seems like pretty standard amateur radio. Take away the AzEl rotator and get a handheld Arrow satellite antenna and anyone with a amateur radio license can do this for under a $1,000.

[Adam @ Feb 3rd 2009 5:08PM]

While this is a neat story, it is not all that unique, as other commenters have mentioned.

The ARISS (Amateur Radio on the International Space Station) program has been in existence for years. Contacts between astronauts and schools via amateur (ham) radio happen quite regularly, and there is usually a 1-2 year waiting list. The ISS is in a low-earth orbit, so it is only overhead and in "line of sight" VHF/UHF radio range for about 10-15 minutes. There is a published, well-known set of frequencies for casually contacting the ISS via amateur radio, though astronauts are rarely on the air except during these pre-scheduled school contacts. They usually use an unpublished frequency for the school contacts to avoid malicious interference.

[artem007 @ Feb 3rd 2009 6:59PM]

Перейти к черту thats what the Russians would say.

[kg4icg @ Feb 3rd 2009 5:29PM]

If that's the actual student picture up top and that is the actual radio they used. It's a Kenwood, either a V71a or a D710a, but they only bought it, then assembeld the seperate parts. It wasn't built from scratch, and it must be a ham radio club inside the college that did it. This isn't nothing new or unheard of. As a matter of fact, The space station has the same radio on board unless they didn't upgrade it yet, Then it still has the Kenwood TM-D700a.

[AK @ Feb 3rd 2009 5:48PM]

Either all radios are 'self built' or we have radios building themselves. hmm...just a thot...

[Sundog @ Feb 3rd 2009 5:59PM]

Now see, this is what comes of paying so much attention to new stuff that you know nothing about old stuff.

ANY HAM RADIO OPERATOR can do this. It's easy and does NOT take any special equipment at all.

[thedude @ Feb 3rd 2009 7:05PM]

Thanks to all the more informed commenters in regards to how often it is done.

Scratch built radios and antennas are nothing new to the Amateur Radio community
as is contacting space stations

Most people these days have no clue to the origin of that stores name Radio Shack
although I must say I truly miss the days whan all RS employees actually KNEW STUFF
instead of the minimum wage morons of today (apologies to the few remaining RS Elmers)

[paul-engadget @ Feb 3rd 2009 7:37PM]

it would have been much more impressive had they built the transmitter from scratch using discrete components having designed the circuit (or at least cargo-culted functional blocks from trusted designs), and made the antenna from bent coat hangers!
you can build a functional but basic transmitter and receiver for less than US$20, especially if you only want to transmit and receive morse.

[adage @ Feb 3rd 2009 8:09PM]

Clarification to people who don't read the articles:

1. They are at the community college level. Not university level.

2. Yes, ANYONE can use a HAM radio. These guys however did not use a HAM radio. They built all components from the ground up and were otherwise doing it entirely on their own.

3. These guys are community college level students. For them to have done this is simply incredible due to the lack of resources. This is not about building a HAM radio, this is about building all the separate components. Frankly, I highly doubt any of you could do it with a HAM radio. Personally, I know I can't.

I realize Engadget is a place filled with people bashing every any and every sort of achievement, but you are guys are simply assholes.

[Kelly Martin @ Feb 3rd 2009 9:01PM]

Clarification to people who didn't read the student's blog:

1. They are indeed community college students.
2. Only licensed hams can use ham radios. These students (at least some of whom are licensed hams) used a ham radio, which they purchased from Icom from a vendor known as Radioworld. They had assistance from their professors, from a mentor at ARISS, and several other people on the AMSAT mailing list, amongst others. They were not "doing it entirely on their own".
3. These guys were adult community college students. Considering that high school and even pre-high-school students have made contacts with Mir, ISS, and Shuttles using far less expensive setups, this was all about the hype. I imagine that just about anyone reading this could be taught how to use equipment costing one-tenth what these guys spent to make a contact.

Reality bites sometimes.

[Ryoga Vee @ Feb 3rd 2009 9:20PM]

I'll be impressed when they contact the 6 other orbiting stations and ask then WTF are they up to.