Teachers in Newington build antennas to decode message from International Space Station (Connecticut)

A group of STEM teachers eagerly gathered together Wednesday in Newington for a message that was much more than a text.

For starters, they had to work for it.

The group of teachers were part of a partnership with NASA and the National Association for Amateur Radio. Their goal? Receive a custom image through amateur radio from the International Space Station, and then decode it using antennas that they built themselves.

“Amateur radio is so important to the future of engineering and STEM in our country,” said Kristen Kucko, a former high school robotics lab director from Alexandria, Virginia. “It’s always been there — became a hobby — but it’s very important for learning how data gets transferred. You can’t do anything in space without radio.”

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