A radio amateur was playing with a homemade antenna. What did he intercept in his own backyard?

A radio amateur managed to contact the International Space Station (ISS) while it was passing over his home, writes unilad.com. The unique event took place last summer.

Doug, a radio amateur, was able to actually talk to astronauts on the ISS as it passed overhead in July 2023.

The man revealed that he had wanted to talk to an astronaut for some time and had tried to do so in the past. Here he finally got his wish, talking to NASA astronaut Woody Hoburg.

In the video shared on the KB8M Ham Radio YouTube page, Doug can be seen repeating the call sign: “Kilo Bravo 8 Mike” several times before making contact with the ISS. Hoburg then replies, “Kilo Bravo 8 Mike, NA1SS has clearly received you aboard the Space Station, welcome aboard.”

Since June, the clip has reached 1,378,800 views.

The man says he has made numerous voice contacts via FM satellites and the ISS repeater, but he always wanted to make voice contact with an astronaut. He finally managed this: “I contacted the ISS and spoke with Woody Hoburg. What a thrill! The video was quite long, so I edited it…”.

Many astronauts on the ISS have amateur radio licenses and often hold scheduled contact sessions with hobbyists on Earth.

Organizations such as NASA, ESA, CSA and Roscosmos participate in Ham radio on the International Space Station, a program that encourages children to contact the station to encourage an interest in science. But occasionally, amateur operators manage to make contact with astronauts using their own equipment.

If you haven’t already guessed, this is not easy to do. You can’t just start flipping the switch on any old radio and hope the astronauts will hear you.

In fact, this is only possible when the ISS is in certain positions, so even if you have equipment capable of reaching it, you will have to wait for it to pass over where you are.