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Students Reach Astronauts Through Enhanced Radio Room:

Posted: 08 Jan 2017 04:45 PM PST
http://www.eham.net/articles/38385


Earth to space: This is Schenectady speaking. Teenage radio operators from
the Electric City talked with astronauts aboard the International Space
Station last month thanks to recent upgrades to the Broughton Memorial
Radio Room, in the lower level of miSci on Nott Terrace Heights. The
communication was made between 2:50 and 3:01 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 10,
using the Schenectady Museum Amateur Radio Association's W2IR station that
broadcasts from the room, said James MacMurray, a member of the radio
group. High school students from miSci's Teen Science Cafe took part.
Before the improvements, the antennas hadn't been updated since the early
1900s and couldn't pick up weak signals that are now within the radio
room's reach, MacMurray said. "The radio we had would've done it, but it
would've been more difficult. The antennas were in quite a disarray," he
said. "We actually had to replace some antennas and some equipment in order
to be able to actually track the space station as it went overhead. It's
definitely some specialized equipment involved, as you can imagine."