#sedahewitt

By Seda Hewitt, Interstellar Communication Holdings Inc., United States

Somewhere, right now, a teenager in Brazil is tuning into a signal from low Earth orbit using nothing more than a handheld antenna and a modest transceiver. Halfway across the world, a retired engineer in Japan is logging beacon pings from a PocketQube on his balcony. And in a small town in Eastern Europe, a community radio club is decoding live telemetry and sharing it with their local school.

What connects all these people?

Amateur radio—or “ham radio,” as it’s often called.

Once seen as a quaint, niche hobby, amateur radio is experiencing something of a renaissance. And it’s not because of nostalgia. It’s because the boundaries between Earth and space have started to thin. With small, affordable satellites like HADES‑ICM, and platforms like icMercury—from Interstellar Communication Holdings Inc., based in the United States—radio operators are now part of an expanding universe.

They’re no longer just reaching across continents. They’re reaching the stars.

A Legacy Hobby Meets a New Frontier

Amateur radio has been around for over a century. Traditionally, it’s been about sending and receiving messages, experimenting with antennas, and mastering long-distance communication through the atmosphere.

But the hobby has always carried a spirit of experimentation. And when space became accessible—not just to governments and corporations, but to hobbyists—radio operators were among the first to notice.

Satellites started transmitting in ham bands. Suddenly, a new frontier opened up—one that didn’t require a launchpad, only a license, a radio, and a bit of patience.

That spirit continues today. Only now, the satellites are smaller, cheaper, and far more interactive.

PocketQubes: The Game Changer

Our icMercury satellites, including HADES‑ICM, are about the size of a Rubik’s Cube and weigh less than a loaf of bread. But don’t let that fool you—they’re packed with capability. Operating on VHF and UHF amateur radio bands, they transmit beacon signals, telemetry data, and even allow for APRS relays (Automatic Packet Reporting System), enabling two-way messaging through space.

For amateur radio enthusiasts, this means:

Tracking live satellites with antennas they build themselves

Decoding telemetry using open-source software

Sending and receiving APRS messages through orbit

Participating in global space missions from their backyards

It’s not just fun. It’s real contribution.

Some hams are the first to hear a new satellite after deployment. Others provide critical signal reports that help us at Interstellar Communication Holdings Inc. refine operations. In a way, they’ve become mission partners—not officially on payroll, but unquestionably essential.

Why It’s Growing Again

Part of this revival is technological. Radios have become cheaper. Software has become more intuitive. Online communities have made it easier to learn. You don’t need a room full of gear anymore. A laptop and a $30 USB receiver can get you started.

But I think there’s something else going on.

In an era where most tech feels invisible—apps, clouds, algorithms—radio offers something tangible. You build it. You hear it. You feel it. And when you know that the beep you’re picking up just came from 500 km above Earth? That never stops being thrilling.

Young people are discovering this for the first time. Older hobbyists are coming back. And in the middle, a growing, global network of curious minds is forming.

A Culture of Sharing

Amateur radio has always had a generous, open-source heart. That fits beautifully with the way icMercury is built. We publish our telemetry formats. We share frequencies. We invite people to play, test, fail, and try again.

And they do.

We’ve seen logs from over 60 countries. We've received signal recordings from volunteers within hours of launch. We’ve had entire school groups build their own antennas based on blog posts from other hams.

This is space participation at its best—not centralized, not monetized, but communal.

Recognition Beyond the Hobby

This kind of public involvement is gaining notice at higher levels, too. This November, Interstellar Communication Holdings Inc. will attend the 2025 Go Global Awards in London, hosted by the International Trade Council. We’re proud to be a nominee.

But the real story isn’t just about our team—it’s about the people behind the scenes. The ones listening to passes at 3 a.m., who share signal maps online, who teach a younger generation how to tune into the sky.

At events like the Go Global Awards, where businesses and policymakers meet, we hope to shine a light on these communities. Because the future of space isn’t just built in boardrooms. It’s also soldered in garages and logged in field notebooks.

Final Thought: When You Listen, You Belong

Amateur radio is, at its core, about listening. And when you listen—really listen—you start to feel like you’re part of something bigger.

Maybe you hear a faint Morse beacon from HADES‑ICM. Maybe you decode a string of telemetry values and realize what they mean. Maybe you hear silence and wait again tomorrow. It doesn’t matter. You’re part of the sky now.

And in a world where space can feel distant, technical, and owned by someone else… that feeling of inclusion? It’s powerful.

By Seda Hewitt, Interstellar Communication Holdings Inc., United States

If you step into a university engineering lab these days, you might find something unexpected next to the 3D printer and oscilloscope. A satellite. Or at least the skeleton of one—tiny, metal, circuit-packed, and full of promise.

What used to be the domain of national space agencies is now becoming an integral part of higher education. And it’s not just theory anymore. Students are designing, building, launching, and analyzing real space missions—as part of their capstone projects.

At Interstellar Communication Holdings Inc., based in the United States, we’ve watched this trend accelerate through our icMercury platform and PocketQube missions like HADES‑ICM. Universities across different continents have found creative, practical, and sometimes unexpected ways to integrate our satellites into their final-year student programs.

And honestly? It’s one of the most exciting shifts in space education we've seen in years.

First, What Is a Capstone Project?

For those outside academia, a capstone project is typically the final assignment that engineering, science, or tech students complete before graduation. It’s meant to pull together everything they’ve learned—design, problem-solving, project management—and apply it to a real-world problem.

In the past, that might’ve meant designing a robot, a web app, or a manufacturing prototype. But now? It might mean building a communication system for a satellite in orbit. Or even writing flight code that gets beamed to a spacecraft hundreds of kilometers above Earth.

And that's not science fiction. That’s happening right now.

How icMercury Enables This

Our icMercury platform was designed to make satellite technology accessible to more people, including educators and students. With HADES‑ICM, for example, students can:

Decode live telemetry using ground stations they build themselves

Send approved messages through the satellite’s APRS system

Contribute to global observation projects

Analyze orbital decay, radio propagation, and signal behavior

Design experimental payloads for future rideshare opportunities

And the best part? They’re doing this within the time constraints and budget limits of a standard university course.

One group in Spain built a Python dashboard that logs and visualizes real-time telemetry data from HADES‑ICM. A team in Malaysia designed a rotating antenna tracker as part of their final hardware engineering submission. In Canada, a software class used our satellite data to model temperature fluctuations across multiple orbits.

The versatility of PocketQubes makes this kind of integration possible.

Real Learning, Real Constraints

Textbooks can only teach so much. When students work on a satellite capstone, they learn more than just orbital mechanics or radio theory.

They learn what it's like to:

Debug problems they didn't anticipate

Work in teams with overlapping roles

Document everything (because no one else will remember)

Present findings to non-technical audiences

Fail, retry, and still hit a deadline

Sometimes a component overheats. Or a ground station fails mid-test. Or the satellite passes over at 2:14 a.m. and someone has to be awake to catch the signal. This isn’t hypothetical work. It’s messy. Frustrating. And incredibly real.

Which, honestly, makes it the perfect preparation for the engineering world outside the classroom.

Partnerships That Go Beyond Graduation

What’s also inspiring is how these projects don’t always end with a diploma.

We’ve had students stay connected to the icMercury network long after graduation—monitoring new missions, mentoring younger cohorts, even launching their own satellite startups. One former capstone team in South Africa is now developing low-cost atmospheric sensors for PocketQubes. Another group from Argentina spun their ground station software into an open-source project used by hobbyists worldwide.

When we launched HADES‑ICM, we didn’t imagine it would become a long-term community hub. But that’s exactly what’s happened.

And we couldn’t be more proud.

A Bigger Stage for These Ideas

As we approach the 2025 Go Global Awards this November in London, Interstellar Communication Holdings Inc. is honored to be recognized as a nominee. The event, hosted by the International Trade Council, gathers business leaders, innovators, and educators from around the world.

It’s not just about awards. It’s about exposure. Conversation. Collaboration.

We’re excited to bring with us the stories of students—some barely out of high school—who are solving real-world challenges through space. And we’re hopeful that more universities will see the potential in turning classrooms into launchpads.

Because the next generation of satellite engineers, entrepreneurs, and researchers? They're already building. Right now. In university labs. One solder joint and satellite pass at a time.

Final Thought: Space Isn’t the Future Classroom—It’s the Current One

There’s a quiet revolution happening in education. And space is no longer an abstract concept on a chalkboard. It’s something you can see, track, hear, even talk to.

If you’re a university administrator, now’s the time to explore satellite integration. If you’re a professor, think bigger about what your students can handle. And if you’re a student? Know that you don’t have to wait to work in aerospace.