Have you ever thought about contacting an astronaut as you see the International Space Station (ISS) pass overhead?

No? Well, neither have I, but a man called Doug managed to do exactly that using his ham radio back in July 2023.

For those that don’t know, a ham radio is simply just hobby that involves people using radio frequencies to try and communicate with other people without the need of a cell phone or the internet – it’s pretty cool, and is also known as amateur radio.

Of all the contacts you can make through your homemade ham radio, it doesn’t get much better than the ISS.

But doing so was a task – in fact, he had long wanted to make contact but his previous attempt came to no avail.

Alas, his hard work paid off, as he managed to make contact with the space station as it flew overhead, with astronaut Woody Hoburg picking up.

In the video, shared to his YouTube page, Doug can be seen saying his call sign: “Kilo Bravo 8 Mike,” a number of times before he was finally successful.

Hoburg then replies: “Kilo Bravo 8 Mike, NA1SS got you loud and clear aboard the Space Station, welcome aboard.”

Underneath his video, Doug wrote: “I’ve made numerous voice and APRS [Automatic Packet Reporting System] contacts over the FM satellites and the ISS repeater.

“But I’ve always wanted to talk to an astronaut. Over the Memorial Day weekend I finally made that contact. I made contact with the ISS and talked to Woody Hoburg. What a thrill.”

NASA via Getty Images

Many astronauts on the ISS also have ham radio licences, and often host scheduled contact sessions with people back on Earth.

NASA, ESA, CSA, and Roscosmos all participate in Amateur Radio on the International Space Station, a program which encourages children to reach out to the station to encourage interest in science.

But occasionally, amateur operators do manage to make it through and speak to the astronauts using their own equipment.

If you hadn’t already guessed, this is no easy feat to carry out. You can’t just start spinning the dials on any old radio and hope for the best.

In fact, it’s only really possible when the ISS is in certain positions, so even if you have equipment capable of reaching it you’ll have to wait for it to pass overhead.

It’s no use trying to contact from the US when the ISS is over Australia.

NASA via Getty Images

Ham radio operator Matt Payne and his daughter Isabella also managed to contact the ISS, chatting to astronaut Kjell Lindgren in August 2022.

Matt told IFLScience: “It’s pretty rare to speak to an astronaut outside of a scheduled educational contact. There are several factors that need to align for it to happen.”

He added: “The ISS must be passing within LOS [Line Of Sight]… at a time that coincides with an astronauts ‘down time,’ as in they must not be working doing an official scheduled task.

“There must be an astronaut who is actively using the Amateur Radio equipment to make unscheduled contacts.”

That’s a pretty long shot, but clearly it does sometimes work out!