@@Robbnlinzi Anytime. When I get something stuck in my head, the best thing to do is to get it stuck in as many other peoples' heads. Sharing is caring, ammiright?
As a Radio-Amateur, C64-Fan and Space-Enthusiast I am very happy to see all combined together in this episode. I tried to contact ISS with my portable transceiver too and had also luck after several tries. 73 de DG1PI
If you listen at 1.25x speed (speed setting is in the gear icon, above subtitles) and start at about 13:34 you'll notice that the ISS signal sounds uncannily like the alien signal used in the 1997 movie CONTACT.
Back in 1986 - 1988, I was in the Army and stationed in Germany. My job was communications in Radio Teletype (SSB AM). I took my Commodore 128 with a HeathKit 300 baud Modem over with me. On the weekends, I would run Packet Radio from the RTTY Rig in the Motor Pool. It was like email but over-the-air. If your message was not received by the proper system, that Packet System would retransmit the message. Hence, it would go around the world until it got to the proper mailbox. This video brought me back full circle. Way before the actual internet that we currently know. Thank You!
Days when we would count characters/bytes of our messages out of courtesy to other users' transmission time and frown at anyone quoting previous message without any purpose... 73, CL
RTTY is a classic. The TTY devices used by hearing impaired people to communicate over the phone was invented by a deaf ham who wanted to see if you could do RTTY over phone lines. I have an analog TTY that won't work with modern digital phone networks. So I have been thinking about trying it out over ham radio.
A wacky idea to do with Commodore c64: broadcast a C64 program over radio waves and record it to a cassette from the radio and then run to program on another C64. This was actually done in Finland in the 80s, they had a computer radio program on national radio , the host decided to broadcast a C64 program over public national radio. Some listeners were able to record and run the program on their C64 (which displayed the radio program logo). If you google 'Finland c64 radio' you will find an arstechnica article about it.
Perhaps the radio equipment recently sent to the ISS was an upgrade to their existing systems. IIRC, the ISS has had the ability to handle packet radio from the early days of the station.
Now this is what I call Retromancing! :) I was experimenting with NOAA weather satellites reception this summer and I have a quick tip: you have to take the doppler shift into account too for a better reception.
What an amazing idea! I've been watching you for years and this is literally the coolest thing ever. This is the kind of stuff I dreamt of doing as a kid. I have no words!
Actually did this with MIR station. At that time it was nearly impossible. There was less than a min each pass that a low power station could connect by packet radio. I used a packet radio modem from A&A Engineering and Digicom 3.51 with my hand held Ham Radio. I still have it but it has been years since I used it. Internet is more interesting.
@@systemchris Back then there were alot of high power stations. If you over loaded the station it would shut down for a few minutes. You had to log in and leave a message of QSL and log out. To get a qsl card. I got as far as sending message. Never got a reply. So no qsl card. They took call signs from the inbox.This is how hard it was.www.qsl.net/kd4cga/mirhst.htm
I signed up several times on MIR , using a simple baycom modem that I did myself on a IBM XT, baycom was a very slow program and needed a disk access at every transmitted frame, so I use an Intel ABOVE BOARD with1.5 megs or ram on it and created a virtual drive , baycom became as fast as any commercial TNC, 73's from VE2MTV
@@RetroRecipes That's a verification badge, I'm surprised you don't have one for your channel actually, for us it's a little musical note, but for most it's a lovely ickle tick. Here's a link support.google.com/youtube/answer/3046484?hl=en-GB . Also, VERY cool video.
Well that's impressive! This video put me in mind of my older brother as he used to have a CB radio in the eighties while I had a Commodore 64. If only we'd known then about the possibilities of the two pieces of tech when combined.
This is a fantastic explanation and brings back a lot of memories. I remember the feeling of contacting the Russian space station MIR (R0MIR) as a teenager using a Commodore 64 and a PK-64 packet modem.
From a guy with half of his office filled with Amateur Radio equipment, and the other half filled with vintage Commodore's - well done, sir. I will be giving this a try through my satellite rig. Time to dust off the Vicmodem!
I just got my Ham License and I was blown away when I learned I could contact the ISS. When the rebroadcast of the message popped up I felt that same joy!
When I made my amateur radio license the C=64 was a common used device for packet radio. Many used DIY kits therefore. But not PCBWay, with waterproof pencils, UV light, … There were also sattelites to be used. No packet radio, just voice. But a computer to track them and guide the antennas.
Being a ham operator (KO4T) I've done this before. I love seeing a video showing this working and on a vintage computer. When the MIR was still up I used Tandy Color Computer 2 to contact it. That was a blast.. Thanks for the video. Love to see more packet radio videos with vintage machine. 73
What a fantastic episode. There were so many interesting visuals, I had to pause many times--and lost track of the story. Now to watch it again straight through. Great job, Chris (and Lee)!
Nice instigating introduction. For those interested on some serious ISS ham radio business, don't forget to use a proper antenna irradiating to the sky above. That one depicted in the video is directional and pointing to the horizon. That way, ISS only becomes workable for a small fraction of the time she is within range. Some very good tutorials are available. Ham radio is wonderful
Fun fact: The soviet moon lander 'Luna 9' made a picture from the surface of the moon in 1966, and sent it to earth using a fax signal. The Jodrell Bank observatory in the UK also received this signal, run it through a fax machine, (which they quickly borrowed from the London daily express), and probably printed the picture before the soviets did.
Back in 1982, who would have imagined a C64 talking to something in space? Excellent video, and nice to see a sneaky mention of the new Zzap! 64 team ;)
Back in 1982, who would have imagined an International Space Station going around the Earth all the time in 90 minute intervals? Well I guess a LOT of people imagined it, but who would have ACTUALLY imagined that it'd ever really happen?
Ohmigosh, I can't believe you actually were able to do that! That is amazing! I can just see the people in the ISS asking each other what a Perifractic is, unless one of them happens to be a fan of the channel and is like, "Oh yeah, that's that crazy funny Retro Recipe guy who's obsessed with Commodore 64s. Must have a lot of time on his hands down there." :) Peri's Crafty Brows strike again, you never know what they'll get up to next.
Remember Usborne books from the '80s? When I was a kid our library had loads of them! As well as predicting the future, there were many with projects and programs for home computers. A couple had stuff you could do with computers with a User port, like the C64. Electronic stuff to connect, all sort of madness. There was also a book with robots you could make out of Lego Technic, to connect to computers. This one was great. It progressed from a simple walker, eventually to a printer! Actually a plotter, with a round drum that went up and down, and a pen that went left to right on some sort of carriage. Your own Lego printer! Printers were EXPENSIVE back then, easily costing twice what your computer did! Except for the Spectrum where you had cheap ones. There was also a security card reader. You made your own card by punching holes, and it read the holes as a motor pulled the card through the mechanism. The computer collated it and said yes or no. Then you'd wire that to your bank vault, complete security! Actually with a phototransistor you could change that to a bar code reader and be even groovier and possibly useful. Anyway. Would just be groovy to see a C64 driving a Lego Technic robot doing something cool like the home-made Lego plotter would be. I'll try find the name of the book, I downloaded it once, but a loooong time ago.
This is cool - way back when I had my standard license (I'm advanced now) I hooked up a 1kW amplifier to my vhf radio and spoke (voice) to the astronauts onboard the space shuttle. It was really cool. I had friends over and we all had a quick "gday" to the spacefarers until the ship went out of range. When I first got my license I ran a 77m wire from my house to the park across the road and spoke with Zimbabwe on 5 watts. Ham radio is fun :)
I love this sort of thing! I've been using a home made satellite receiver (mainly old pipes from B&Q) to receive weather satellite pictures from space for several years. No real purpose in the age of the Internet, but the power of nostalgia is strong, and this was always something I'd wanted to do as a kid, but didn't have the means.
Thanks for remembering us how much fun was exploring the c64! I miss 80's! I used to be a packet-radio fun too! Hope to see more videos like this one! Have a great year!
epic!! i'm actually an amateur radio operator myself and have a pic somewhere of me connecting to the packet radio message board aboard the ISS using my childhood Tandy Color Computer 3. I wasn't able to get a message through though (I didn't have the brilliant idea of using a macro like you did!), but I definitely connected and got the greeting and menu prompt. It was such a cool experience. When retro hobbies collide, the fun is out of this world! Ok, but theres probably a tagline in there somewhere :D awesome video as always!
I'm a huge fan of the ISS and C64. Nice work combining these two subjects. My challenge is to make a Voice over IP call across the internet using a retro computer.
Sure, just offload some of the tasks onto other hardware - like the IP stack, the audio codec, maybe the audio capture and playback - and the C64 will be perfectly capable of VOIP.
My geek-o-meter just exploded. Retro computing, CB/HAM radio and the ISS all in one combination. You may have just put me into a over-geek infused coma. That is simply such a freaking cool project! Thanks for sharing!
What great co-incidence! Just last week I was playing around on my SX-64 and an RS-232 interface, to communicate with my PC. After a lot of fiddling, I managed to type C64-Text to Putty on the PC side using a little Basic 8-liner. Sadly, whatever I sent from PC to the SX, showed up there as garbled characters. Now I know it should work, so the troubleshooting will continue. Almost suspecting a bad CIA chip! Thanks for re-motivating me! Have not been using any terminal programm on SX side, just plain BASIC. And not using a terminal program on PC to talk to SX, just command line "type" and "echo".
I really hope this is what I think it is. As am amateur radio operator, I've worked the ISS a few times so I'm really interested in this ep. Admittedly not on a C64, but if you're accessing the packet node, using a TNC, then should be easy enough to interface to the TNC. Assuming the C64 isn't doing AX.25 by itself via the SID audio. lol, that would be weird, but totally awesome. If you can do AX.25 via the ISS node, you can probably do it over 2 meters as well for email, BBS etc if you have any operating local. Now I have images of images of Lady fractic being told to stand outside at night and point the yagi antenna at the 'shooting star'. Just thinking that the ISS is only accessible for around 5-6 minutes a day must have made for some interesting recording attempts while making this EP. I know the C64 and Amiga can decide SSTV (I've seen it), but I don't think it can do the PD120 the ISS currently uses during their events. 73s
Brings back great memories!! Packet Radio is what got me into amateur radio. I was a C64 user (and into electronics & tech in general) and saw a demo of Packet Radio in the late 80s and I was hooked. You could have your computer talk to another computer... over radio!!! I also had fun decoding the telemetry data from the UoSat9 and UoSat11 satellites on my C64. I still use Packet Radio today in the form of APRS. If you look in my amateur radio shack you will see a Tiny2 TNC! :-)
I thought that woman on the space station was Edward Scissorhand's sister because of her hair. 🤣 Back in the day there were several projects published in various magazines that let you use your VIC-20 or Commodore 64 with a ham radio. There was even one that worked as a 10 station memory bank and VFO controller for a few different radio models. You spent hours typing in the pages of Basic code printed in the magazine and the next few months of issues dealing with added corrections and omissions but in most cases they would eventually work. Those were the days! This was a neat project. Thanks for sharing.
ISS had amateur radio onboard for over 20 years now... And communication sessions with schools and other amateur radio operators would communicate with ISS crew since early 2000s. What they introduced recently is a amateur radio repeater which they didnt have one there before.
Indeed a Sony HB900, it was used for mapping weather apparently, the first and only home computer in space, now the ‘ISS’ has PC laptops init. If you want the MSX2 it is buried in an ocean!
@@edoz8939 It says on this link it was used for video capture on MIR www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?st=1&c=790 I remember reading it was used for weather, but cannot find the article now, sorry .
Suppose an Amiga would have been the natural choice for anything video in the mid 80s. But the MC68000 was on the CoCom list, so no Amigas for -Russia- the USSR.
Grew up with a C64 and played with modems a lot. Watching this video brought back some serious nostalgia. Amazing what you were able to do. New subscriber onboard :)
I used to do something very similar back in the day on my Amiga, this has inspired me to do something very similar with the students in the Radio club I run at the school I work at. We have already has success through December on the ISS repeaters. Cant wait to see your attempt. Good luck and 73's from the UK
The first time I saw the ISS it freaked me out as I wasn’t sure what it was. I couldn’t believe how fast it flies by. My son and I found a website to track it and would run out to yard to watch her flyby. I’ve watched particular video several times. Great stuff!
For those curious, there is also a satellite tracking program for the Commodore 64 - www.amsat.org/flashback-friday-satellite-tracking-with-quiktrak-for-the-commodore-64-and-apple-ii/ Though, it does not (accurately) track satellites that were launched after 12/31/1999 - the program is not Y2K compliant, so it won't track stations like ISS. It will track the satellites that are still in space that were launched before 1/1/2000 though :).
I've watched that video with Sunita so many times, and stood outside in the cold watching the ISS whiz by even more times. It still fascinates me that there are people in that little speck out there. Let me recommend ISS-gazing as a fantastic way for parents to bond with their children over awesome technology and science, and perhaps spark an interest.
If you listen at 1.25x speed (speed setting is in the gear icon, above subtitles) and start at about 13:34 you'll notice that the ISS signal sounds uncannily like the alien signal used in the 1997 movie CONTACT. Carl Sagan was big on accuracy.
SSSHHH!!! Don't let the aliens know you're using 40-year-old technology!! They might think we're in a dark age or something.... 😳😉😁 Seriously cool though.
LMAO@"I was just cleaning my user port" Puppyfractic has some of the best lines! I love how she sticks her face in front of yours and waits for a whisker kiss. This is so cool! Just the other day I was thinking about the couple of modems I have and wondering what I could ever do with them, and you went and showed what can be done with the right equipment and know-how. I've heard of people using computers to communicate across ham radio with bursts of data, so I have to wonder how many of them use a C64. When I was a kid my brother and I didn't have the money to join a local BBS, and any free ones were long distance calls back in the days of long distance being ridiculously expensive. The last time I used the modem was for downloading aviation weather back in the 90s and early 2000s, but once those services got websites and had graphical weather maps to view I stopped doing that. It would be interesting to leave that program running for a while to see what messages other people send to the ISS (when it's in range for reception).
I'm gonna do this for my high school tech club competition!! I don't think I'll do the Commodore part, since I'd imagine that would be pretty expensive to find but I just wanna contact the ISS in the cheapest way possible! I read your article you posted in the description, but I was wondering if you knew where I could get all of the necessary parts for the cheapest amount? My budget is under $100 and I guess that would include the exam. I've just never heard of anyone doing this and I feel like it'd be pretty cool to do something so few have at my age. Maybe I'd even win the competition 😆
You can approach this in different ways depending on time, budget and complexity. Have a look at c64-iss.ddns.net/ which gives a few more details. For just receiving the ISS using modern tech, you could use a PC as a 'software modem', and an online receiver, and receive and decode the ISS all for free. For transmitting, there's a licence test which you're aware of. You can find a radio and other equipment on the used market, but it may be a squeeze at $100. If you're just starting out, and in high school, I'd search online for your nearest amateur radio clubs. Good clubs will always look to support new and younger folks (and may be able to loan you some items!) Unfortunately the antenna cable on the space station seems to have broken a couple of weeks ago, so we'll need to be patient while it is fixed. It's not easy to go outside with a soldering iron as it is here on the ground! Good Luck with your project!
Wow, I remember when 1200 baud was absolutely blistering speed - albeit at 1200/75! Mr first modem for my Atari 130XE and C64 I had by then was in 1985 and it was only 300 buad... I've been "online" for over 35 years now! I was also on air on the CB (starting when I got one as a requirement for club trips in a Landrover Owners Club I belonged to) and went on to get a HAM ticket too (which I since let expire... formerly ZL3UEA). This piece of content ticks ALL the nostalgia boxes!
Nice to see Packet Radio in use! There is also a voice repeater on the ISS, and it is neat to use, one thing, the setup with the C64 to the TNC, did you know, the TNC was designed to connect directly to the user port on the C64, no need to convert TTL to RS232 which will be converted back to TTL once in the TNC, if you look at the TNC to the left of the DB9 (rs232) are the TTL pins, which are designed to connect directly to the user port. Thanks for the cool episode, DE AD7NY
Hey, love your channel. Been watching a bunch. It would be cool if you hosted a games night where you and lady would pick a bunch of old 80s games, from a particular system (I.e. Vic 20 one week, c64 the next, Atari, etc) ... each week, or month... I'll bet it would be fun and funny to watch you guys play old favourites!
What a fun project! I still have my Commodore Colt purchased in 1987 - first computer I ever bought. You've inspired me to listen for the ISS - thank you!
I was about to say the same thing get your ham license it’s very easy to do there are loads of computer related stuff you can do with ham radio and it can be done on just about any computer! Hi from N0GQX!
@@geraldcampbell6834 Hi Gerald - our club did a ARISS event in late 2014, now that was exciting letting the kids talk to the astronaut. See you on the radio!
I always thought that hams, the AMSAT group and amateur astronomy should get together and get more involved with space and build a space telescope! You know those guys with the AMSAT have done some amazing things to put up amateur radio satellites and on a budget to! They have built these thing for a fraction of the cost that the government can like the satellite that’s was housed in two metal salad bowls welded together! Yes folks there is a satellite made out of kitchen ware orbiting the Earth!
I mean... I guess? It's neat to be able to transmit a message to the ISS and all but I feel like the novelty would wear off. "Day 43: Still sending messages from my Commodore 64!"
You are really sending the message to other ham radio operators, the message it just going through a digipeater on ISS, the astronauts on the space station can see and read the messages if the care to but usually they are way to Busy to do so. Any type of ham radio activity directly to and from the ISS has to be scheduled like if a group of hams want to set up at a school the allow kids to talk to the astronauts. Once in a great while a astronaut may get on the radio in his or her spare time and sometimes during Field Day in June, so it is a very rare that a messege or actual contact directly to the ISS but it is really cool that your messages are being repeated the the ISS to other hams!
Thanks man. This brought a smile to my face. By the way there were some university students back in the 80's that contacted the spcae shuttle with this method. Amazing.
I remember watching Terrahawks on TV as a kid and they would use strange 10 codes like 10-10 for "acknowledged or standing by" which has a very different meaning to US 10 codes (10-10 = "Negative"). It took a long time before I understood why.
So you can just hook an old phone modem to an amateur radio transceiver? That's awesome! Kind of makes me want to experiment with my Apple II and an old serial modem I've had lying around for years.
>>> MASTERPIECE ALERT
Thank you for your kind words! Means a lot 👍🕹️
Agree
Agree!
Agreed
hi space station Gitmo.life
The ISS travels at 27,600 km an hour (or 17,100 mph), but CAN IT KEEP UP WITH THE COMMODORE?
"Are you keeping up with the Commodore? 'Cause the Commodore is keeping up with you!"
Is it, now? Is it keeping up with us?
LOL PERFECT!!!
Why bother keeping up when you can already be there? 😉
Thanks... now that’s in my head
@@Robbnlinzi Anytime. When I get something stuck in my head, the best thing to do is to get it stuck in as many other peoples' heads. Sharing is caring, ammiright?
After he typed "Hello!", I was expecting a robotic voice to respond with, "Would you like to play a game?"
Peri-Falken
Hey actually the WOPR was also a Commodore 64! For reals!
How about a nice party of chess ?
Interesting game. The only way to win is not to play.
Anyone else get goosebumps and a lump in their throat when the messages were repeated? Great vid!
Haha yes me!!
Thank you for sharing that. It is so rewarding to hear that it had the intended effect. 👍🕹️
Me too I admit happily!
Great Video!
Yep! It could have been any computer... but it wasn't just any computer - it was a C64! Great video.
As a Radio-Amateur, C64-Fan and Space-Enthusiast I am very happy to see all combined together in this episode. I tried to contact ISS with my portable transceiver too and had also luck after several tries.
73 de DG1PI
I spent so many hours with My C-64 and packet radio back thousand years ago ;) This brings back so many memories....
@@ezogno I did Packet Radio with my old MS-DOS PC using Graphic Packet. 😊
73 - KM4KHC
I rember learning cw(Morse code) on a C64 73s de vk3hen
If you listen at 1.25x speed (speed setting is in the gear icon, above subtitles) and start at about 13:34 you'll notice that the ISS signal sounds uncannily like the alien signal used in the 1997 movie CONTACT.
Back in 1986 - 1988, I was in the Army and stationed in Germany. My job was communications in Radio Teletype (SSB AM). I took my Commodore 128 with a HeathKit 300 baud Modem over with me. On the weekends, I would run Packet Radio from the RTTY Rig in the Motor Pool. It was like email but over-the-air. If your message was not received by the proper system, that Packet System would retransmit the message. Hence, it would go around the world until it got to the proper mailbox. This video brought me back full circle. Way before the actual internet that we currently know. Thank You!
That's amazing!
Like FidoNet, but RF!
Days when we would count characters/bytes of our messages out of courtesy to other users' transmission time and frown at anyone quoting previous message without any purpose... 73, CL
RTTY!!!!!!!
RTTY is a classic. The TTY devices used by hearing impaired people to communicate over the phone was invented by a deaf ham who wanted to see if you could do RTTY over phone lines. I have an analog TTY that won't work with modern digital phone networks. So I have been thinking about trying it out over ham radio.
Puppyfractic was particularly engaged in this episode. And cute!
She really was!
73 from your local 14 year old amateur! KN6KUK! Big vintage tech nerd, and a general class operator, So this is awesome
A wacky idea to do with Commodore c64: broadcast a C64 program over radio waves and record it to a cassette from the radio and then run to program on another C64. This was actually done in Finland in the 80s, they had a computer radio program on national radio , the host decided to broadcast a C64 program over public national radio. Some listeners were able to record and run the program on their C64 (which displayed the radio program logo). If you google 'Finland c64 radio' you will find an arstechnica article about it.
Love that idea! I've been working on something similar but using TV.
Perhaps the radio equipment recently sent to the ISS was an upgrade to their existing systems. IIRC, the ISS has had the ability to handle packet radio from the early days of the station.
Yes I think you're right
This was an awesome project !
Have to agree!
Hi Lon :o) and yes I agree!
it is Amazingk!
Yeah
Agreed
Now this is what I call Retromancing! :) I was experimenting with NOAA weather satellites reception this summer and I have a quick tip: you have to take the doppler shift into account too for a better reception.
Most modern "ham radio" transceivers are software capable of correcting for Doppler shift
What an amazing idea! I've been watching you for years and this is literally the coolest thing ever. This is the kind of stuff I dreamt of doing as a kid. I have no words!
Hello verified person
Let's Elite our way to that ISS docking bay!
* listening to "The Blue Danube" tune right now *
This falls somwhere near to the "Perfect Comment" sign.
Or Mercenary... gotta find the kitchen sink first, though :D
Everyone knows PCB stands for Peri's Citizen Band
I thought it was for 'Personal Channel Broadcasting', no...ehmm..??
Next week we'll be contacting Voyager using a ZX81! Stay tuned! 😝
Actually did this with MIR station. At that time it was nearly impossible. There was less than a min each pass that a low power station could connect by packet radio. I used a packet radio modem from A&A Engineering and Digicom 3.51 with my hand held Ham Radio. I still have it but it has been years since I used it. Internet is more interesting.
Wow that's challenging
That's awesome! "73"
That's really cool, do you know if they read it?
@@systemchris Back then there were alot of high power stations. If you over loaded the station it would shut down for a few minutes. You had to log in and leave a message of QSL and log out. To get a qsl card. I got as far as sending message. Never got a reply. So no qsl card. They took call signs from the inbox.This is how hard it was.www.qsl.net/kd4cga/mirhst.htm
I signed up several times on MIR , using a simple baycom modem that I did myself on a IBM XT, baycom was a very slow program and needed a disk access at every transmitted frame, so I use an Intel ABOVE BOARD with1.5 megs or ram on it and created a virtual drive , baycom became as fast as any commercial TNC, 73's from VE2MTV
What a fascinating, informative, fun video. Very nicely put together 👍
Thank you for your kind words! Means a lot 👍🕹️
You're not planning to go full Wargames with your next video are you? :D
Peri-Falken incoming!
BTW how do you get that cool ☑️ by your name? Want!
That would be a WOPR of a challenge. Does anybody fancy a nice game of chess?
@@RetroRecipes That's a verification badge, I'm surprised you don't have one for your channel actually, for us it's a little musical note, but for most it's a lovely ickle tick. Here's a link support.google.com/youtube/answer/3046484?hl=en-GB . Also, VERY cool video.
SHALL WE PLAY A GAME?
My Father in Law is a 7 decade HamOp, and he has chatted with and also received images via Ham from the ISS. Very cool indeed.
Poor ol' Puppy Fractic. You can tell she's dying to go and play, but she's being such a good girl just sitting there the entire time.
She really is the best girl
05:25 "I woz just cleaning my user port" 🤣 🤣 🤣
Well that's impressive! This video put me in mind of my older brother as he used to have a CB radio in the eighties while I had a Commodore 64. If only we'd known then about the possibilities of the two pieces of tech when combined.
You could have contacted the space shuttle. In fact some university students did that.
Great Scott!, Astronauts thought they travelled back in time!
The Tom or the Manley one ?
I saw what you did there!
@@kellerkind6169 the Doc Brown one...
3 of my favorite things back in the 80's: C64, CB Radio and Astronomy.
And in 2021 Retro Recipes brings them all together! Pretty freaking awesome 😎
This is a fantastic explanation and brings back a lot of memories. I remember the feeling of contacting the Russian space station MIR (R0MIR) as a teenager using a Commodore 64 and a PK-64 packet modem.
From a guy with half of his office filled with Amateur Radio equipment, and the other half filled with vintage Commodore's - well done, sir. I will be giving this a try through my satellite rig. Time to dust off the Vicmodem!
Dewit!
I just got my Ham License and I was blown away when I learned I could contact the ISS. When the rebroadcast of the message popped up I felt that same joy!
Nice work!
... Whoa!?
Simply awesome! I actually got goosebumps when the message pinged back haha. C64 forever!
It is very rewarding to hear that it had the intended effect. Thank you!
When I made my amateur radio license the C=64 was a common used device for packet radio. Many used DIY kits therefore. But not PCBWay, with waterproof pencils, UV light, … There were also sattelites to be used. No packet radio, just voice. But a computer to track them and guide the antennas.
That's a really interesting expermient. May 64 live forever.
Being a ham operator (KO4T) I've done this before. I love seeing a video showing this working and on a vintage computer. When the MIR was still up I used Tandy Color Computer 2 to contact it. That was a blast.. Thanks for the video. Love to see more packet radio videos with vintage machine. 73
What a fantastic episode. There were so many interesting visuals, I had to pause many times--and lost track of the story. Now to watch it again straight through. Great job, Chris (and Lee)!
Yes sometimes I think I pack too much into these videos but we had a lot to share in a short time. Watching again is a very viable option! 👍🕹️
Nice instigating introduction. For those interested on some serious ISS ham radio business, don't forget to use a proper antenna irradiating to the sky above. That one depicted in the video is directional and pointing to the horizon. That way, ISS only becomes workable for a small fraction of the time she is within range. Some very good tutorials are available. Ham radio is wonderful
Fun fact: The soviet moon lander 'Luna 9' made a picture from the surface of the moon in 1966, and sent it to earth using a fax signal. The Jodrell Bank observatory in the UK also received this signal, run it through a fax machine, (which they quickly borrowed from the London daily express), and probably printed the picture before the soviets did.
Back in 1982, who would have imagined a C64 talking to something in space? Excellent video, and nice to see a sneaky mention of the new Zzap! 64 team ;)
Haha thanks Alan, and well spotted 😉
Just picking nits but in 1982 the C64 was very rare. A VIC-20 would be more likely and even cooler
@@Danileith123 Not so rare that we couldn't get our hands on them!
Back in 1982, who would have imagined an International Space Station going around the Earth all the time in 90 minute intervals?
Well I guess a LOT of people imagined it, but who would have ACTUALLY imagined that it'd ever really happen?
@@kellerkind6169 ummmm.... you may want to look up SkyLab and Apollo-Soyuz
Ohmigosh, I can't believe you actually were able to do that! That is amazing! I can just see the people in the ISS asking each other what a Perifractic is, unless one of them happens to be a fan of the channel and is like, "Oh yeah, that's that crazy funny Retro Recipe guy who's obsessed with Commodore 64s. Must have a lot of time on his hands down there." :)
Peri's Crafty Brows strike again, you never know what they'll get up to next.
Haha!
Remember Usborne books from the '80s? When I was a kid our library had loads of them! As well as predicting the future, there were many with projects and programs for home computers. A couple had stuff you could do with computers with a User port, like the C64. Electronic stuff to connect, all sort of madness.
There was also a book with robots you could make out of Lego Technic, to connect to computers. This one was great. It progressed from a simple walker, eventually to a printer! Actually a plotter, with a round drum that went up and down, and a pen that went left to right on some sort of carriage. Your own Lego printer! Printers were EXPENSIVE back then, easily costing twice what your computer did! Except for the Spectrum where you had cheap ones.
There was also a security card reader. You made your own card by punching holes, and it read the holes as a motor pulled the card through the mechanism. The computer collated it and said yes or no. Then you'd wire that to your bank vault, complete security!
Actually with a phototransistor you could change that to a bar code reader and be even groovier and possibly useful. Anyway. Would just be groovy to see a C64 driving a Lego Technic robot doing something cool like the home-made Lego plotter would be. I'll try find the name of the book, I downloaded it once, but a loooong time ago.
This is cool - way back when I had my standard license (I'm advanced now) I hooked up a 1kW amplifier to my vhf radio and spoke (voice) to the astronauts onboard the space shuttle. It was really cool. I had friends over and we all had a quick "gday" to the spacefarers until the ship went out of range. When I first got my license I ran a 77m wire from my house to the park across the road and spoke with Zimbabwe on 5 watts. Ham radio is fun :)
I love this sort of thing! I've been using a home made satellite receiver (mainly old pipes from B&Q) to receive weather satellite pictures from space for several years. No real purpose in the age of the Internet, but the power of nostalgia is strong, and this was always something I'd wanted to do as a kid, but didn't have the means.
Thanks for remembering us how much fun was exploring the c64! I miss 80's! I used to be a packet-radio fun too! Hope to see more videos like this one! Have a great year!
epic!! i'm actually an amateur radio operator myself and have a pic somewhere of me connecting to the packet radio message board aboard the ISS using my childhood Tandy Color Computer 3. I wasn't able to get a message through though (I didn't have the brilliant idea of using a macro like you did!), but I definitely connected and got the greeting and menu prompt. It was such a cool experience. When retro hobbies collide, the fun is out of this world! Ok, but theres probably a tagline in there somewhere :D awesome video as always!
I'm a huge fan of the ISS and C64. Nice work combining these two subjects. My challenge is to make a Voice over IP call across the internet using a retro computer.
Sure, just offload some of the tasks onto other hardware - like the IP stack, the audio codec, maybe the audio capture and playback - and the C64 will be perfectly capable of VOIP.
TH-cam is the craziest place. Still 8 hours to before the video premiers and we've already got 1 Thumbs Down. Can you believe it? LOL.
It's that ZX Spectrum user again.
Yeah, how soulless does someone have to be to dislike a video like this?
@@bobbus_74 No, I was late and this is to cool to hate.
Must have been the Amstrad nut.
There are people who just go around youtube disliking every video they find all day.
@@KillaBitz Flat earther.
10:40 Nice “Up yours!” from the Astronaut on the monitor.
My geek-o-meter just exploded. Retro computing, CB/HAM radio and the ISS all in one combination. You may have just put me into a over-geek infused coma. That is simply such a freaking cool project! Thanks for sharing!
What great co-incidence! Just last week I was playing around on my SX-64 and an RS-232 interface, to communicate with my PC. After a lot of fiddling, I managed to type C64-Text to Putty on the PC side using a little Basic 8-liner.
Sadly, whatever I sent from PC to the SX, showed up there as garbled characters.
Now I know it should work, so the troubleshooting will continue. Almost suspecting a bad CIA chip! Thanks for re-motivating me!
Have not been using any terminal programm on SX side, just plain BASIC. And not using a terminal program on PC to talk to SX, just command line "type" and "echo".
I really hope this is what I think it is.
As am amateur radio operator, I've worked the ISS a few times so I'm really interested in this ep. Admittedly not on a C64, but if you're accessing the packet node, using a TNC, then should be easy enough to interface to the TNC. Assuming the C64 isn't doing AX.25 by itself via the SID audio. lol, that would be weird, but totally awesome.
If you can do AX.25 via the ISS node, you can probably do it over 2 meters as well for email, BBS etc if you have any operating local.
Now I have images of images of Lady fractic being told to stand outside at night and point the yagi antenna at the 'shooting star'. Just thinking that the ISS is only accessible for around 5-6 minutes a day must have made for some interesting recording attempts while making this EP.
I know the C64 and Amiga can decide SSTV (I've seen it), but I don't think it can do the PD120 the ISS currently uses during their events.
73s
Finally something awesome comes out of 2021! Fantastic work.
Finally!
Skimming the comments sorted by newest, I'm glad to see retro computer people don't seem to overlap with space deniers / flat earthers
Brings back great memories!! Packet Radio is what got me into amateur radio. I was a C64 user (and into electronics & tech in general) and saw a demo of Packet Radio in the late 80s and I was hooked. You could have your computer talk to another computer... over radio!!! I also had fun decoding the telemetry data from the UoSat9 and UoSat11 satellites on my C64.
I still use Packet Radio today in the form of APRS. If you look in my amateur radio shack you will see a Tiny2 TNC! :-)
You need to narrate space documentaries. You have the perfect voice for it.
Thank you! Does voiceover work in a galaxy far away count? christiansimpson.com 😉
You should do a video on slow scan TV when the ISS runs an sstv event. Pictures from space de GM7HHB.
I thought that woman on the space station was Edward Scissorhand's sister because of her hair. 🤣
Back in the day there were several projects published in various magazines that let you use your VIC-20 or Commodore 64 with a ham radio. There was even one that worked as a 10 station memory bank and VFO controller for a few different radio models. You spent hours typing in the pages of Basic code printed in the magazine and the next few months of issues dealing with added corrections and omissions but in most cases they would eventually work. Those were the days!
This was a neat project. Thanks for sharing.
ISS had amateur radio onboard for over 20 years now... And communication sessions with schools and other amateur radio operators would communicate with ISS crew since early 2000s. What they introduced recently is a amateur radio repeater which they didnt have one there before.
Write this all down so that when V'ger returns the Enterprise can communicate with it and Earth isn't exterminated.
16:47 - How about a C64 only live Q&A using a BBS or telnet chat or something?
This sounds so cool! 🤩
and I think that sending a picture over shortwave radio was awesome mmm
Several months later - got into software defined radio, took my ham test, and now licensed to try this myself :). But maybe with an Apple II ;)
Let us know if it works. I know they’ve been turning off their radio sometimes but hopefully it’s active when you try
Do you know the MSX home computer was on the MIR space station, probably the only home computer that really went into space!
Indeed a Sony HB900, it was used for mapping weather apparently, the first and only home computer in space, now the ‘ISS’ has PC laptops init. If you want the MSX2 it is buried in an ocean!
@@1697djh I did not know that it was used for weather... how did you know this? (just wondering)
@@edoz8939 It says on this link it was used for video capture on MIR www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?st=1&c=790
I remember reading it was used for weather, but cannot find the article now, sorry .
Suppose an Amiga would have been the natural choice for anything video in the mid 80s. But the MC68000 was on the CoCom list, so no Amigas for -Russia- the USSR.
The magic paw. The magic paw, which, when applied, makes treats magically appear from nowhere!
Haha so true!
Talk to the ISS from a Gameboy! I bet its impossible, but I would be damned impressed if it could be done.
Grew up with a C64 and played with modems a lot. Watching this video brought back some serious nostalgia. Amazing what you were able to do. New subscriber onboard :)
Welcome aboard!
I used to do something very similar back in the day on my Amiga, this has inspired me to do something very similar with the students in the Radio club I run at the school I work at. We have already has success through December on the ISS repeaters. Cant wait to see your attempt. Good luck and 73's from the UK
WOW THATS SO COOL IM JUMPING UP WITH GIDDYNESS
The first time I saw the ISS it freaked me out as I wasn’t sure what it was. I couldn’t believe how fast it flies by. My son and I found a website to track it and would run out to yard to watch her flyby. I’ve watched particular video several times. Great stuff!
For those curious, there is also a satellite tracking program for the Commodore 64 - www.amsat.org/flashback-friday-satellite-tracking-with-quiktrak-for-the-commodore-64-and-apple-ii/
Though, it does not (accurately) track satellites that were launched after 12/31/1999 - the program is not Y2K compliant, so it won't track stations like ISS. It will track the satellites that are still in space that were launched before 1/1/2000 though :).
Get somebody who looks at you the way that puppyfractic looks at CJ.
I've watched that video with Sunita so many times, and stood outside in the cold watching the ISS whiz by even more times. It still fascinates me that there are people in that little speck out there. Let me recommend ISS-gazing as a fantastic way for parents to bond with their children over awesome technology and science, and perhaps spark an interest.
If you listen at 1.25x speed (speed setting is in the gear icon, above subtitles) and start at about 13:34 you'll notice that the ISS signal sounds uncannily like the alien signal used in the 1997 movie CONTACT. Carl Sagan was big on accuracy.
@@saganandroid4175 Spooky.
Nice!!! I still have a C64 and SX64 lying around. And I have an old packet modem I use to use with a PC.
You have given me a new challenge. Cheers!
You combined 3 cool things in one project, radio, retro pc and ISS this is just awesome!
SSSHHH!!! Don't let the aliens know you're using 40-year-old technology!! They might think we're in a dark age or something.... 😳😉😁 Seriously cool though.
That low voice. It’s like he’s trying to seduce us all...
It's worked.
Unintentional ASMR...
He’s also a voiceover actor.
The dog makes this so much better.
this is awesome, your channel go to another level, love this. thanks!!
Commodore 64: He....l.l..o..
SPACE STATION: Hey old friend from 80s
Imagine if they responded with a sinclair
The early computer wars continue
That’s nuts! My first PC was a VIC-20 with the VicModem and Dow Jones News Retrieval. Those were the days.
LMAO@"I was just cleaning my user port" Puppyfractic has some of the best lines! I love how she sticks her face in front of yours and waits for a whisker kiss.
This is so cool! Just the other day I was thinking about the couple of modems I have and wondering what I could ever do with them, and you went and showed what can be done with the right equipment and know-how. I've heard of people using computers to communicate across ham radio with bursts of data, so I have to wonder how many of them use a C64. When I was a kid my brother and I didn't have the money to join a local BBS, and any free ones were long distance calls back in the days of long distance being ridiculously expensive. The last time I used the modem was for downloading aviation weather back in the 90s and early 2000s, but once those services got websites and had graphical weather maps to view I stopped doing that. It would be interesting to leave that program running for a while to see what messages other people send to the ISS (when it's in range for reception).
She types them all herself!!
This is probably the nerdiest thing I've seen on this channel. :D
I'm gonna do this for my high school tech club competition!! I don't think I'll do the Commodore part, since I'd imagine that would be pretty expensive to find but I just wanna contact the ISS in the cheapest way possible! I read your article you posted in the description, but I was wondering if you knew where I could get all of the necessary parts for the cheapest amount? My budget is under $100 and I guess that would include the exam. I've just never heard of anyone doing this and I feel like it'd be pretty cool to do something so few have at my age. Maybe I'd even win the competition 😆
Great idea! I’ll let Lee answer fuller but my advice would be to put the model numbers into eBay 👍🕹️
You can approach this in different ways depending on time, budget and complexity. Have a look at c64-iss.ddns.net/ which gives a few more details. For just receiving the ISS using modern tech, you could use a PC as a 'software modem', and an online receiver, and receive and decode the ISS all for free.
For transmitting, there's a licence test which you're aware of. You can find a radio and other equipment on the used market, but it may be a squeeze at $100. If you're just starting out, and in high school, I'd search online for your nearest amateur radio clubs. Good clubs will always look to support new and younger folks (and may be able to loan you some items!)
Unfortunately the antenna cable on the space station seems to have broken a couple of weeks ago, so we'll need to be patient while it is fixed. It's not easy to go outside with a soldering iron as it is here on the ground! Good Luck with your project!
Wow, I remember when 1200 baud was absolutely blistering speed - albeit at 1200/75! Mr first modem for my Atari 130XE and C64 I had by then was in 1985 and it was only 300 buad... I've been "online" for over 35 years now! I was also on air on the CB (starting when I got one as a requirement for club trips in a Landrover Owners Club I belonged to) and went on to get a HAM ticket too (which I since let expire... formerly ZL3UEA). This piece of content ticks ALL the nostalgia boxes!
Nice to see Packet Radio in use! There is also a voice repeater on the ISS, and it is neat to use, one thing, the setup with the C64 to the TNC, did you know, the TNC was designed to connect directly to the user port on the C64, no need to convert TTL to RS232 which will be converted back to TTL once in the TNC, if you look at the TNC to the left of the DB9 (rs232) are the TTL pins, which are designed to connect directly to the user port.
Thanks for the cool episode, DE AD7NY
Yes that's just the only cable we had lying around
Hey, love your channel. Been watching a bunch. It would be cool if you hosted a games night where you and lady would pick a bunch of old 80s games, from a particular system (I.e. Vic 20 one week, c64 the next, Atari, etc) ... each week, or month... I'll bet it would be fun and funny to watch you guys play old favourites!
bruh I'm on Alexa texting this but this sounds insane. FOR THE C64!!
Brings back the days when I had a 300 baud modem and was contacting the JPLs and Goddard's message boards with my TI99.
What a fun project! I still have my Commodore Colt purchased in 1987 - first computer I ever bought. You've inspired me to listen for the ISS - thank you!
Think about getting your own "Peri-license" and be able to do this on your own! 73 - Dino KLØS
I was about to say the same thing get your ham license it’s very easy to do there are loads of computer related stuff you can do with ham radio and it can be done on just about any computer! Hi from N0GQX!
@@geraldcampbell6834 Hi Gerald - our club did a ARISS event in late 2014, now that was exciting letting the kids talk to the astronaut. See you on the radio!
I always thought that hams, the AMSAT group and amateur astronomy should get together and get more involved with space and build a space telescope! You know those guys with the AMSAT have done some amazing things to put up amateur radio satellites and on a budget to! They have built these thing for a fraction of the cost that the government can like the satellite that’s was housed in two metal salad bowls welded together! Yes folks there is a satellite made out of kitchen ware orbiting the Earth!
I mean... I guess? It's neat to be able to transmit a message to the ISS and all but I feel like the novelty would wear off. "Day 43: Still sending messages from my Commodore 64!"
You are really sending the message to other ham radio operators, the message it just going through a digipeater on ISS, the astronauts on the space station can see and read the messages if the care to but usually they are way to Busy to do so. Any type of ham radio activity directly to and from the ISS has to be scheduled like if a group of hams want to set up at a school the allow kids to talk to the astronauts. Once in a great while a astronaut may get on the radio in his or her spare time and sometimes during Field Day in June, so it is a very rare that a messege or actual contact directly to the ISS but it is really cool that your messages are being repeated the the ISS to other hams!
Hack the ISS and remote control it using a Competition Pro! xD
Coming next week! 😉
Thanks man. This brought a smile to my face. By the way there were some university students back in the 80's that contacted the spcae shuttle with this method. Amazing.
OK, this is super duper cool. As an OG C64 user, extremely super duper cool.
i love u dog
is this even legal, i want to try something like this
of course its legal. its not legal to tap into spy satellites though. for obvious reasons.
Rewatching this video with my family.
Made me smile seeing the old UK Southampton area code 01703 stream out the modem 😎
Awesome project
The best project
Magnificent! I haven't seen a Vicmodem since I had a Vic-20. Or a 1084S monitor since I had my Amiga 500.
I remember watching Terrahawks on TV as a kid and they would use strange 10 codes like 10-10 for "acknowledged or standing by" which has a very different meaning to US 10 codes (10-10 = "Negative"). It took a long time before I understood why.
So you can just hook an old phone modem to an amateur radio transceiver? That's awesome! Kind of makes me want to experiment with my Apple II and an old serial modem I've had lying around for years.
Not phone but TNC which is a slightly different type of modem