Radio Thales Nederland calling… the International Space Station!

Since celebrating your 100th birthday is something special, some of our coworkers want to shout the news from the rooftops… and beyond! For this special year, a group of some of our passionate amateur radio operators came together to set up a station on one of our radar test towers on our site in Hengelo. Their objective? Talking with as many Thales people as possible in every country in which our company operates (over 70!). During our Open House last week, they managed something extra special: they had a contact through the International Space Station as well as more than 120 other stations around the world!

Thales has a large number of licensed radio amateurs, so we published a local intranet message proposing to bring them together in The Netherlands and obtain a special callsign (PA100THALES). More than 30 operators working in different offices all over the Netherlands replied to our initial message. Retired employees who also wanted to take part have contacted us as well, some of whom have previously worked for Thales for more than 40 years!

Licensed amateur radio operators

Our radio operators then set out to find a location on our site where they could create a semi-permanent radio station for the rest of the year. The Radar Test department kindly said they could use one of the radar test towers – so the team started installing equipment and antennas on the tower. They built the station using their own personal equipment, and the station went live on April 21st this year.

There are currently more than 35 people in The Netherlands directly involved. Their backgrounds are very, even volunteers from the Thales Museum joined in. Amateur radio operators are licensed by the government and have to take a test to prove they understand electronics, radio and the rules of operation of an experimental radio station.

Bouncing signals of the moon

Radio amateurs who are registered with this team may use the special call sign from their home station, meaning contacts can be made almost anytime outside of working hours. They operate in many modes, from Morse Code and voice to the latest digital modes. Even using a very special mode called EME – (Earth-Moon-Earth) where we aim signals at the moon and bounce them back to earth – thus making incredible distances on microwave bands.

On the first day of operations, the radio team spoke to 130 stations in 26 different countries! Our current contact number now totals more than 1200 stations in 69 different countries around to world, from the USA to Japan. So far, the operators have contacted 48 Thales employees worldwide and are actively seeking more.

Reaching the ISS!

As a special project highlight, the team managed to make a contact through the radio station on the International Space Station, during the Thales Open House day last week! At the last moment, some of the team designed and built a special ISS antenna in their free time. This antenna made communications with the ISS possible! The large number of visitors during the Open House made it difficult to take the time to contact the actual astronauts on board – but that’s surely our next challenge. Out of this world!