College student built radio to contact ISS. Should I be impressed??

[thatguy39]

Read this article on Engadget. Is it me or is this not a big deal?


College students contact space station with self-built radio system - Engadget

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

Not a big deal at all, radio amateurs have been doing similar things for decades, low earth orbit is no big deal.

Going back years as well radio hams have done 'moon bounce', using the moon as a passive reflector to transmit to the other side of the planet - that's somewhat more impressive.

 

[thatguy39]

The idea of a moon bounce just blows my mind.

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

The idea of a moon bounce just blows my mind.

Does mine as well - originally it was CW only (as the most efficient system), but apparently in later years (with better quality gear) SSB has been achieved also.

Just googled - apparently it was first done on January 10, 1946 - now that's mind boggling!,

 

[RadioRon]

To contact the International Space Station, those students, who range in age from 21 to 34 years old and are College seniors, had to build a 145 MHz analog narrowband FM two way radio with transmit power in the range of 25 to 100 watts, most likely around 30 to 50 watts. The antenna necessary for this kind of communication can be a simple ground plane vertical, but better stations use crossed yagis for circular polarization and better link budget. Such yagis would have to be pointed at the space station as it moves across the sky. It is not clear what antennas these people used. In the news video showing the contact, it was clear that the designers had access to reasonably good test equipment for their work. Perhaps they are engineering or technology students.

I note that Humber College is a Polytechnic school whose engineering programs are 2 or 3 year resulting in Technologist or Engineering Technologist diplomas. I presume that the guys who made this contact were engineering technology students.

You may judge that this is not the technological achievement that the press release makes it out to be, but bear in mind that making such a radio from resistors, ICs, capacitors and inductors is not an easy thing to do for beginners. On the other hand, I find it very hard to believe that this is a first for technical students at the university/college level. If this were achieved by 14 year old members of a high school amateur radio club who worked on their own to design and build the equipment, I might be more inclined to think it is an unusual achievement.

Clearly shown in the video is the great satisfaction taken by not only the guys who did the radio work, but also the excited participation of other students during the contact. I'd say that there was some good PR work from the team.

That "school officials say that, to their knowledge, that's never been accomplished by students at the college level" says more about the knowledge of school officials than of the admittedly worthy achievement of these students. If they are reading, GOOD WORK GUYS!

 

[mneary]

According to a Stanford press release, a student-built satellite was launched on Jan 26, 2000 and was still working a year later. I think that beats the technical achievement of a ham transceiver.