Students Call Space Station With Home-Built Radio 330
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.
Still it's awesome. (Score:5, Insightful)
Somewhat disappointingly, the students actually did have permission to make contact.
I imagine one could get in a lot of trouble prank calling the ISS. Though it it some what difficult to come up with space themed prank calls akin to "Is your refrigerator running". Still though, they got a good grade in the class I'm sure and likely had a lot of fun doing it. I'd say that's a grand accomplishment even if they did have permission to do it.
Disappointing? (Score:5, Insightful)
And why is that disappointing? I think it's incredibly cool that they had permission to do something like this and would love to see officials (both school and space) take similar steps to encourage students to push the boundaries. I don't see how this is disappointing at all.
Re:no kidding (Score:4, Insightful)
Disappointingly? Heck, that makes it three times cooler, IMO :)
Your first radio (Score:5, Insightful)
It's going to be considerably more difficult for the next generation to build their first radios, once it's all gone digital.
There won't be much left to listen to on a simple crystal set.
Re:no kidding (Score:5, Insightful)
Somewhat disappointingly, the students actually did have permission to make contact.
Yes, it is truly disappointing when youngsters act responsibly.
I understand how the story would be more romantic if they contacted the ISS out of the blue (imagine how surprised those aboard the station would be!). But the fact of the matter is that living in space is precarious at the best of times. Unexpected events, especially those that tie up communication channels, are unsafe and not welcome. Thus the students did the right thing by clearing permission first, and they should be applauded for that.
Also, the students probably wanted their signal to actually be answered, rather than ignored or (even more likely) simply not noticed!
I'm sorry to say... (Score:5, Insightful)
I wiash I still had mod points (Score:3, Insightful)
NB... Designed and Built Their Radio (Score:3, Insightful)
Ummm, folks? They're Canadian college students, tech school level, not university. They designed and built a 2m band 5 watt transceiver.
When I was in college in the 90's, designing and building a low power FM transceiver from the ground up was considered a good third year project. I'm guessing that they had to design everything from power supply to antenna, and probably fabricate it themselves.
Good on you, guys!! I'm da*ned proud of you. especially the adult student who went back for more schooling.
Re:Read TFA (Score:5, Insightful)
They made their own radio that used Amateur Radio frequencies (nitpick: Amateur Satellite Service [itu.int] freqs) as opposed to using a Yaesu or Kenwood radio on Amateur freqs. To hams like me, this isn't a big deal. Designing software-defined radios and protocols [princeton.edu] that can span Virginia->New Zealand using 1W [wsprnet.org] of power is cool, but making an 5W VHF or UHF radio is so 1970's.
Re:no kidding (Score:5, Insightful)
Somewhat disappointingly, the students actually did have permission to make contact.
Yes, it is truly disappointing when youngsters act responsibly.
I am much older then them but I still wouldn't call them youngsters. From TFA:
Operation First Contact is the graduating project for 34-year-olds Gino Cunti and Paul Je of Toronto, Patrick Neelin, 25, of Welland, Ont., and Kevin Luong, 21, of Mississauga, Ont.
They are all legal age!
Re:I'm sorry to say... (Score:3, Insightful)
I'm saddened by the fact that an Amateur Radio hobbyist making a simple FM transceiver is considered news-worthy by the masses.
A fair point. But on the other hand, what better way is there to ignite enthusiasm for amateur radio among the masses than by showing them what it can do?
What happened to the spirit of 'Experimentation and Advancement of The Radio Art'? Have we as a species lost our curiosity and drive to learn about and then do new things?
Evidently these students have curiosity aplenty, which is what drove them to build their system and try to call the ISS. If this is the behavior we want to see more of, then we need to encourage said behavior: by applauding it and publicizing it, which is what this news item is doing.
I understand your point, which is that this kind of experimentation should be so commonplace that we take it for granted (hence not newsworthy). On the other hand, if we want to encourage curiosity, experimentation, and a "hands-on" approach to using technology, then any news or publicity is a good thing.
Wow, college-level engineers can build a radio? (Score:3, Insightful)
Seriously people - We should feel pretty damned scared that this counts as some sort of "achievement" to crow about on the Slashdot FP. These guys built a home-brew shortwave radio as their senior project?
Sorry if this sounds like "playa-hatin'", but gimme a break! Even as a "first", this doesn't sound like anything to brag about.
Re:no kidding (Score:5, Insightful)
Yeah, I read that part too and I'm trying to figure out what kind of radio they had to build that was 'way over their heads' kind of technology? Freq-hopping with 1024 bit encryption digital radio? If ham operators normally talk with the ISS and their story sounded like it was HAM radio they used, why was it such a feat? Is there something special we need to know about students in Canada? Did anyone find a link to technical details of the radio system they built?
Re:no kidding (Score:5, Insightful)
Guess what I can contact the ISS WITHOUT PERMISSION. and do it regularly. I also talked to astronauts on the Columbia Shuttle, and cosmonauts in the Mir when it was in the sky. all on my home made radio. You don't need permission.
It's called HAM RADIO. and I designed and built my own 2 meter radio and antennas when I was 16. I also built a radio from my own design and talked to people on the OTHER SIDE OF THE PLANET!
If these "college kids" are extra special then we as a nation are completely and utterly doomed.
College level should be designing stuff that a kid with some surplus electronics in his basement cant do.
Re:Read TFA (Score:2, Insightful)
well, no.
According to their blog (http://www.operationfirstcontact.com/index.html) they purchased the radio (Icom IC-V8000 2M ham transceiver) the antenna (Hy-Gain Oscar yagi) and the antenna rotator (Yaesu G-5500). The blog is kinda sketchy but they may have designed and built a microcontroller-based rotator controller to keep the antenna pointed at the ISS. The frequencies used are smack in the middle of the 2 meter ham band (~145 Mhz). The students put together off-the-shelf, commercial ham gear and contacted the ISS.
My issue isn't with the students, it's with the disparaging way Ham radio is presented in TFA: the student's contact with the ISS was not only PURELY using "a traditional ham radio", but a commercial ham radio at that. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but some of us hams still enjoy homebrewing our own equipment and TFA specifically says the radio was "home-built" and implied it was somehow different and superior to "tradtional ham radio".
Here's hoping the students will go on to be active hams!
73!
Re:Not a first (Score:5, Insightful)
I tried to get some kids interested in ham radio.
Problem was, when I started teaching theory and rules I lost half the class when they found out you could not swear or use profanity.
Tell them they have to self censor themselves and they lose interest.
saying SHIT is more important than knowledge to them.
Embarassing project (Score:4, Insightful)
This project is embarrassing. It took five college seniors ("Wireless and Telecommunications Technology" majors, no less) a whole year to build and use a pointable ham VHF antenna comparable to a fringe-area TV antenna. That's all they built; the transceiver was a stock ICOM Ic-V8000 [universal-radio.com], which is a ham mobile radio that's basically a CB radio with higher power (75W) and fewer restrictions built in. This is not exotic technology. NASA has a program devoted to doing this in high schools. [nasa.gov]
From their blog, the only big problem was getting permission to go on the roof of a building (a large flat roof) to put up the antenna. If they'd just headed out to an open field (they're using a radio intended for car installation, after all), mounted the antenna on a tripod, and aimed it by hand, they probably could have completed the project in a week.
Hams talk to the ISS all the time. When it's visible, it's only a few hundred miles away, after all. The only real problem is booking some astronaut time. If you don't want to bother with that, the ISS has an open packet repeater hams can use. It's only 9600 baud, using an old TNC. This technology is so old it was on Mir.
Their blog is like reading Twitter output:
Of course, we've been busy for real lately. There's a whole bunch of new stuff going on. Exciting stuff! For instance, we soldered the connectors to the control wires for our antenna's rotor. After all that was said and done, we were able to control the movement of our antenna from inside room N214. Here's a few pictures of us working on that.
Re:no kidding (Score:3, Insightful)
Technically, your amateur radio license is the "permission".
You DO have a license from the FCC (or equivalent regulatory body in your country), right?
Re:no kidding (Score:3, Insightful)
(With apologies to South Park)
What about apologies to Canadians? >:[