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New Objective Unlocked: Convince an astronaut to use the Fediverse from space
(www.theregister.com)
I suggest we get our amateur radio guys to contact them
this post was submitted on 06 Feb 2026
250 points (98.8% liked)
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Do we have amateur radio guys on the fediverse?
Hi
Hi there. Can you talk to the astronauts for us lol?
You’d be better served learning how to do it yourself. It’s not hard and it’s a pretty cool skill to have (amateur radio).
It does sound interesting. Where do I start?
You can buy a cheap Chinese HT like a Quansheng UV-K6 for like $40. These have open firmware and there’s a bunch of custom options radio nerds have whipped up. Get the USB programming cable even if you’re not doing custom FW, makes programming frequencies and tweaking options much easier. You’ll also need a license and in the US, HamStudy.org has the exact questions from the test. There’s a ton of YouTube channels you can watch and books you can read for general purpose radio knowledge. Then it’s just a matter of getting a good antenna and pointing it in the right place at the right time; there’s free resources online, paid apps, all that is out there and it’s just a matter of wanting to learn it. The actual hardware you need to get started is really cheap these days.
Thank you!
Everything they mentioned checks out, but keep in mind that every ham within line of sight to the station will be trying to get into the repeater as the ISS passes overhead. The number of people trying to talk could realistically be in the thousands when it passes over a large populated country. And a full pass at a good angle only takes 5 mins give-or-take.
People take turns, but it's usually just a rapid-fire of IDs, locations and maybe some very short pleasantries, then you get out. Anything more is could be considered bad etiquette, and calling the ISS is kind of a big deal! It's not possible to have a full conversation unless you're extremely lucky with timing and/or geography, or there's an astronaut working the radio who wants to chat. I have heard astronauts operating. Sometimes directing and acknowledging contacts sometimes they will have longer form chats, but they're not at the radio all the time.
It is really fucking cool, though, to be in say, New England and hear someone in Texas or Puerto Rico or Canadian Maritimes coming through on your dinky Chinese handheld! The "normal" operating range of these radios is well under 20 miles, so that's a huge part of the appeal of working a repeater in orbit.
Also, you can get the radio and start listening in before getting licensed, you will just not be permitted to transmit on the ham bands. That is how I started and I got hooked!
Okay thanks for the heads up
Honestly I’ve been doing this for like 2 years now and I’ve not really keyed up and transmitted in the amateur radio sense, just GMRS walkie talkie stuff with the homies. Still, it’s super cool being able to listen. Picking up satcom stuff is just neat. I also take it to the airport and listen to the pilots talk with tower/ground crew.
One of these days I’ll transmit for real, but I have no problem following the “LURK MOAR” guideline as applied to amateur radio as I learn the culture.
Honestly, just go take the test. It became way more fun once I could participate. Soon after getting my call sign I found my home repeater with a great group of folks of all ages and levels, really large rf footprint and a daily net.
https://hamradioprep.com/ was useful for me as it has actual test material from past tests to practice with, and a nice mobile interface.
If I were to do it again I'd study for at least up to General. Most clubs will let you test for General for free immediately after passing Technician. I ended up passing Technician, but not General. It's been a few years so I'll have to re-study and go back.
General unlocks a lot of the fun HF privileges.
I did - I’ve got my general license. Missed extra by 2 questions despite not studying for it whatsoever.
Nice! I misread you not txing to mean you weren't licensed yet, my bad!
No worries! It’s a cool hobby. Getting licensed was a bucket list item, as nerdy as that sounds. Still gotta learn Morse code but I hope to one of these days. Seeing some old heads tapping away at a local HAM event was pretty damn cool.
not everything is an opportunity to teach- this is your chance to be a hero.. punch the clock!!! you are "our" radio guys
Radio is the OG fediverse and I want to promote decentralization and self-sufficiency. Amateur radio is a lot easier and more accessible than you might think.
Given the demographics I’d be really surprised if we didn’t.
Yeah, someone let those nerds in.
I was thinking guys into Meshtastic or something
What’s meshtastic?
Community driven decentralized radio frequency communications network. Some state populations have started using it in-large for emergency comms in case of severe weather knocking out power. Some people just use it because it’s like $50 to build a node yourself and get into the cool hobby.
That sounds really cool actually. Does it require special licensing like ham radio does?
it does not require a license!
Very nice
Breaker breaker ground69 to major tom
this is satan's maggoty cum fart to major tom (four... three...)
At least tag them if you're gonna steal a quote!
I dont want to be attacked, im afraid of @SatansMaggotyCumFart@lemmy.world
although we were instance brothers. I was a lemm.ee refugee. still bummed. my !badreligion@lemmus.org comminity did way better on lemm.ee. now no one, NO ONE sees my postz where on lemm.ee every post would get 7 or 8 bumps :(
I also started on lemm.ee so I know your pain.
PS that whole deal fucking sucked. I cant remember his name, but the guy who ran it seemed like a solid dude. eastern european of some ilk. I donated a few times through ko-fi. I didnt hear any stirrings of the bullshit he supposedly had to wind up dealing with. I cant fathom why someone would take time to fuck up something like a lemmy instance that someone was doing at a loss essentially
I think real life and the earlier days of lemmy moderation burned them out! It's not easy running one of these things and a dude with good intentions may have underestimated the load.
sure, but based on the announcement rationale for the closure it sounded like just one or two people made it not worth it
we're dead instance brothers
Lemm.ee is dead. Long live lemmy.ee!
Does space smell like updog?
This might be more achievable than it sounds: there is quite a bit of space content on Mastodon already. Seti have an official account along with several astronomers, observatories and astrophysicists. Nasa possibly used to have an official account that has gone inactive. I can't see any astronauts there at the moment but that could easily change
Perhaps its a lot to ask, but could you share some of the people profiles?
Sure. The SETI account is https://mastodon.social/@setiinstitute
This looks like it might have been the NASA account, but I can't verify whether it was official: https://mstdn.social/@NASA (The unofficial one that is active and more popular is https://social.beachcom.org/@nasa)
Some people working in space, e.g. astronomers and astrophysicists. There are many more, these are just some examples
- https://scicomm.xyz/@KellyLepo
- https://mastodon.social/@sundogplanets
- https://mastodon.social/@markmccaughrean
- https://mastodon.social/@AstroHyde
- https://mastodon.online/@elizabethtasker
- https://mastodon.social/@mcnees
- https://mastodon.social/@badastro
- https://mastodon.online/@michael_w_busch
- https://mastodon.online/@astro_jcm
- https://mastodon.social/@pomarede
- https://tech.lgbt/@planetarypan
- https://scicomm.xyz/@JohnBarentine
- https://scicomm.xyz/@drcaro
- https://mastodon.social/@planet4589
These people appear to be current or former nasa employees:
- https://masto.ai/@astroptere
- https://xoxo.zone/@arielwaldman
- https://mastodon.online/@Physicsj
- https://deepspace.social/@kevinmgill
- https://mastodon.online/@astrobiolena
- https://mapstodon.space/@mapperwocky
And here are some other space-related organisations:
- https://scicomm.xyz/@sjastronomy
- https://social.numerique.gouv.fr/@irap
- https://fediscience.org/@OJ_Astro
- https://mastodon.social/@ec_euclid
- https://mastodon.social/@esoastronomy
- https://vmst.io/@WestportObservatory
- https://mastodon.online/@StellaLunaObs
- https://observatory.social/@BGO
This is just what I found looking around, I think it shows there's a strong space community on the fediverse.
Meshtastic on the ISS wen???
God, the tantrums from the established media channels would be hysterical.
There's that one astronaut that posts awesome pics from ISS on reddit, Don Pettit or u/astro_pettit. Might be the best shot.
Beanis shitposting in spaaaaace