The Paris Hiltons of Academia 
"Four wireless telecommunications students are building a radio station to contact the International Space"..
"Today, Mr. Rector, Paul, and I went out to Radioworld and purchased a transceiver. After much research, we decided to go with the ICOM Ic-V8000. For the cost, it has exactly what we need. On Friday, we're going to be integrating it into our setup, and doing all the necessary testing"
They "designed and built the antenna" though, according to some interviews, it was "over a year in the making and cost $3k so far." They also had to "build a back up". A NASA rep, or ARISS -- Amateur Radio for the International Space Station assigned mentor, was to check their work and make sure it was to spec.
"After doing some more research, we've decided on using a Hygain Two-Metre Oscar antenna. It has a circular polarization, which will help to cut through the atmospheric conditions. The antenna itself shouldn't be more than $250, and Skyward Towers Inc. has given us a quote to mount the antenna once we purchase it. We're hoping to get the antenna soon, stick it on a temporary tripod so that we can play with it and learn about it. Then come May, we'll go up there and mount it on the tower.
"Tomorrow, assuming all goes according to schedule, we should be starting the assembly of our primary antenna. We ended up deciding that the Hy-Gain OSCAR-style Yagi was the very best antenna to suit the needs of our project. While we assemble it, we're going to be taking some primary measurements for the antenna we're designing. Over the summer, we'll be building our antenna. We'll also be spending a considerable amount of time testing, re-testing, and re-re-testing both antennas"
"For the purposes of this project, we did a lot of research into what components (products) we should incorporate (buy) into our radio station. Ultimately, we decided on using the Yaesu G-5500 rotor based on it's(.. he did say his little sister did their power point and HTML) price, ease of use, and reliability."
"Now that we have been given the official go-ahead for NASA, the time has come to start getting the word out to everybody about our project. Today, we put on a small presentation for Humber's media outlets. Representitives from Humber's marketing department, Humber Life, Humber Et Cetra, and the Humber Student Federation came and joined us in Screening Room B for out presentation this afternoon. In a nutshell, we explained all the work we've done so far, and how we would like some media coverage."
"Last Tuesday, our group put on a presentation for Mr. Clint Thomas, a reporter for the Canadian Press. Afterwards, we had a short Q&A session up on the roof. He wrote up an amazing article, and put together a great video!
I was at work on Saturday morning when my boss came up to me. He says(lil sis) to me, "I just heard about your project on 680 News in the car on my way here." I thought to myself, "Wow! I can't believe it! This is huge!"
"I did a little research after work, and it turns out that our story has been published all across Canada. A quick Google search showed me that this article has been published in newspapers from Lethbridge, Alberta to St. John's, Newfoundland, and a whole bunch of places in between. In addition to local papers, I also found our story up on the Macleans website, the CBC's website, Yahoo.ca, Canoe, and the Sympatico page.
Even now, I just saw a headline on Toronto's CP24 channel about us. Last night, I saw our headline on CTV Newsnet.
To be honest, I feel it's a little mind-blowing. We're just four students from Toronto. We're not doing this project for any sort of fame. We're doing it because we want to do something big and exciting."
... considering the university students of superior intellect who'd done the very same a few months prior enjoyed wide exposure and these guys made it a point to be media whores from the beginning, it really must have been a shock. That whole angle about how non of them have any telecommunications experience and were all just lowly college level dipshits was fresh, a real tear jerker that had me all broken up.
"Right now, it looks like the school doesn't want any students on the roof. The exception to this may be Gino, who runs Sky 1 Communications, a very fine satellite company"
"Gino Cunti
Cunti has a background in satellite communication systems and was working in the broadcasting industry when he decided to upgrade his education and wireless communication skills at Humber. Cunti, 34, is the president of Humber’s Telecom Club and holds an advanced broadcasting licence in amateur radio. He lives in Toronto"
"Of course, we've been busy for real lately. There's a whole bunch of new stuff going on. Exciting stuff!
For instance, we soldered the connectors to the control wires for our antenna's rotor. After all that was said and done, we were able to control the movement of our antenna from inside room N214. Here's a few pictures of us working on that."
Then there's an action picture where the posers are holding up an end of wire... it didn't look that heavy?
http://www.operationfirstcontact.com/blog/episode16.htm"Also, we're in the process of implementing a new piece of equipment into our communication system, called a TNC (terminal node controller). This magic box (joke?) will allow us to exchange data packets back and forth with the space station. "
"I got an interesting email from Gino this morning. In it, a link to a press release from Canada's Telecommunications Hall of Fame. In short:
OTTAWA, ONTARIO--(Marketwire - Jan. 28, 2009) - Canada's Telecommunications Hall of Fame announced today that it will pay tribute to Humber College students Paul Je, Patrick Neelin, Gino Cunti, and Kevin Luong and their professor, Mark Rector for their innovative(what what??) NASA-approved satellite radiocommunication system to make voice radio contact with astronauts aboard the International Space Station. The
Hall of Fame honours will take place at the 2009 Telecom Laureate Awards at the Canadian Museum of Civilization, October 29, 2009."
"If you'll allow me to do so, I'd like to talk a little about the hall of fame. (hear yeee hear yee)
I can't speak on the behalf of my teammates, but I think that having an organization dedicated to honouring Canadian achievements is an amazing idea. I've had many conversations with first- and second-semester students here at Humber, and one of the things that I stress is that the telecommunications industry is one of the most bla bla bla... katrina..... bla bla.... 911.... terror.... new amarckin heroes. . "
"Canada's role in as(?) a pioneer in the telecommunications industry, I feel, is often over-shadowed or taken for granted. Without the efforts of people like Guglielmo Marconi(Tesla) and Reginald Fessenden(Tesla), the industry would be drastically different. If you do a little bit of research, you'll find (Tesla) a whole list of Canadian telecommunications advances (I just can't name you any). And yet, so many of these great feats (the feats so great that I can't name for they are beyond words) are taken for granted.
That's why I believe that Canada's Telecommunications Hall of Fame is so important. There are a lot of of brilliant Canadians who have helped to shape the industry. They have, quite literally, changed the world forever. You hear about sports players (athletes?) being inducted into their various halls of fame, but let me tell you this: the people that Canada's Telecommunications Hall of Fame pays tribute to are heroes, and they deserve to be treated as such. (...)
It's fortunate they were able to buy everything they needed or they'd never have had the time for all those interviews where they told of how they "designed" and built a radio station, of their very "own design", and how miraculous an achievement that was considering their college level handicap (according to their teacher), how "huge" it is, how innovative both they and their very "own design" are, and how they are pioneer heroes to be worshipped.
By that very measure the kid flipping your burger at macdonalds is God, for he designed the cow. He would also be smarter because it didn't cost him $30k + to get so full of shit. It seems the measure of scholastic genius is proportional to media gullibility, but where would we be without the managers of tomorrow.
A term project like this should not have even been accepted, unless they actually intended on designing the gear itself! This media push to market obvious posers only poisons those they pretend to inspire, blowing hot air into yet another bubble, one where education here is worth a damn. Bring us your plain, your ordinary, with their loans, and we'll forge you astronauts by proxy too, may the crumbling gears grind on.
How sick is it? Sick enough to make an international big deal out of this apparently, sick enough to award them as national heroes in the hall of shame. That's more than sick. In other news earlier today I saw our canadian president, mini me, discussing the ever looming and ever growing gaping void of skilled, highly educated talent, and how they'll have to put on a serious push to import more to fill that gap. Status quo, snafu.
So for the punchline, even that 'tard Herbie managed his own monstrosities, placing him firmly above a league of heroes today. Here's to you, "Herbie"
No doubt, he's teaching at a fine school.
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