Question This guy at my work: Crazy?

[destinos]

This guy at my work told me this morning that he uses his Ham radio to talk to the space shuttle. Is he definitely a liar?

 

[Hielor]

Possibly not.
http://www.arrl.org/ARISS/

 

[agentgonzo]

It's entirely possible. One one of the last expeditions, there was a HAM radio enthusiast onboard who would talk to people as he whizzed overhead.

He could be a liar though - you never know. He could also 'think' that he's talking to the ISS, when in actual fact he's mistakenly speaking to a fat-and-balding man in the next block sat there in a vest eating a bucket of chicken pretending to be a hot-chic^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^Hastronaut.

 

[Kilo]

Cool...
I guess I need a HAM radio in my simpit :rofl:

Another question, I asked myself since the landing on the moon:
Why is it possible to use the radio for hundred of kilometers, when some radios doesn't work so far on earth??

 

[willy88]

Cool...
I guess I need a HAM radio in my simpit :rofl:

Another question, I asked myself since the landing on the moon:
Why is it possible to use the radio for hundred of kilometers, when some radios doesn't work so far on earth??

I believe it's due to the curvature of the earth, and maybe atmospheric interference.

 

[agentgonzo]

Cool...
I guess I need a HAM radio in my simpit :rofl:

Another question, I asked myself since the landing on the moon:
Why is it possible to use the radio for hundred of kilometers, when some radios doesn't work so far on earth??

Some frequencies work better with line-of-sight and work through buildings, but get degraded by passing through stuff. Some just work very very long range (but are pants quality). Other than that, I'm not really sure. Maybe the bods that talk to the ISS have really powerful transmitters and big aereals?

 

[Kilo]

well, that's plausible!
Anyway it's a great performance, in 1969, to have such a great radio communication and other tecniques!

 

[Notebook]

Yes, some folk listen to the SST...

http://i89.photobucket.com/albums/k207/Notebook_04/img049.jpg

N.

 

[Zatnikitelman]

It is more than possible to talk directly to both the ISS and Orbiter. Ham radio is an international radio service principally designed to assist in emergencies, and to promote technical knowledge, but also to allow people to talk to one another using better radios than what you can get off-the-shelf at WalMart, using an enormous range of frequencies. You have to study for a test and get a license which is specified by your local communications department of the government (FCC in the U.S.).

Radio range on Earth is limited by several things including: atmospheric absorption, line-of-site (curvature), and interference. The cheap FRS radios you buy at WalMart are UHF meaning they won't be bounced back down to and around the Earth, and they're relatively low power. In deep space, they use substantially higher frequencies for higher bandwidth/clarity, and there's not a whole lot to stop the radio waves till they reach the atmosphere hence the 70m wide receiving dishes on the Deep Space Network.

 

[ar81]

I can talk to people from other planets.
Yesterday I had a long chatter with Alf.
:lol:

 

[DaveS]

It is more than possible to talk directly to both the ISS and Orbiter.

The shuttle orbiters: Nope. That was a limited experiment called SAREX, short for Shuttle Amateur Radio EXperiment. They haven't been doing SAREX for over a decade now. Last mission that was in the SAREX was STS-93 flown in July 1999.