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The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/Engineeringbob on 2023-12-30 02:44:32.
Original Title: TIL that amateur radio operators are able to speak directly to astronauts on the international space station. Low power radio equipment and small antennas can be used to establish communications to the ISS, mostly taking place during their scheduled evening free time.
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The article claims that:
On November 12, 1983 the first amateur radio contacts were made from the International Space Station during Expedition 1.
This is litterarly impossible, seeing as the station only launched in 1998.
This date even predates the launch of Mir, so I guess they might refer to a shuttle mission as the shuttle was operational during that time, but still won’t line up with the dates of missions, sitting between STS-8 and STS-9.
I have done a bit more research, I have no idea of where the year 1983 came from, but Expedition 1 to the ISS took place between 200-10-31 and 2001-03-21, and on the logs the article cite you can read the events, but they are definately logged as taking place in 2000:
Here is the mission page at Nasa:
https://www.nasa.gov/mission/expedition-1/
I would hazard a guess that the dates got mixed up when the Wikipedia article was written…
Yup yup, I’ve made a couple contacts through the repeater onboard the international space station to people across the US with a handheld radio. Neat stuff! Ham radio was my lockdown hobby 🤷
