# Can you receive terrestrial TV or radio from the International Space Station? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 17, 2014, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-receive-terrestrial-tv-or-radio-from-the-international-space-station/701613 "2014-10-17T20:23:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2014, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-receive-terrestrial-tv-or-radio-from-the-international-space-station/701613/21 "2014-10-19T21:50:25Z")
> [@sweat209](#): > > What works in Hollywood movies don’t work well in the real world. > > Radio signals on earth hardly make it in space.If you where on moon or mars 95% of the radio signals on earth you would not pick up. It all depends on how sensitive your receiver is… ---
**Author:** ![johnpost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2014, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-receive-terrestrial-tv-or-radio-from-the-international-space-station/701613/22 "2014-10-19T22:09:32Z")
also very important also is the antenna(s). with radio astronomy, which are weak signals, there are very large reflector elements. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2014, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-receive-terrestrial-tv-or-radio-from-the-international-space-station/701613/23 "2014-10-19T23:32:47Z")
> [@t-bonham@scc.net](#): > > So the meme that when our first extraterrestrial visitors arrive, they will know a lot about us, from having seen decades worth of _I Love Lucy_, _Dragnet_, _Bonanza_, etc. broadcast out into interstellar space is really not accurate? No. It’s not and never was. Just as a matter of transmitted power the signals would be indistinguishable from random noise before you got much farther than Mars. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2014, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-receive-terrestrial-tv-or-radio-from-the-international-space-station/701613/24 "2014-10-20T03:15:38Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > I don’t think I’ve ever seen that concept in a movie. _Galaxy Quest._ Star Trek (direct parody) used as model for distant civilization. Actors, treated as heros, transported to help in war of survival. A very funny, genial movie ensues. ---
**Author:** ![sweat209](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9fc348/32.png) [@sweat209](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sweat209)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2014, 6:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-receive-terrestrial-tv-or-radio-from-the-international-space-station/701613/25 "2014-10-20T06:18:02Z")
> [@johnpost](#): > > also very important also is the antenna(s). > > with radio astronomy, which are weak signals, there are very large reflector elements. What do you mean by the antenna and large reflector? ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2014, 6:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-receive-terrestrial-tv-or-radio-from-the-international-space-station/701613/26 "2014-10-20T06:39:40Z")
> [@sweat209](#): > > What do you mean by the antenna and large reflector? Like a TV satellite dish. The dish is the reflector. The antenna is the round thing that hangs in front of it, because that’s where the dish focuses the radio waves. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2014, 8:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-receive-terrestrial-tv-or-radio-from-the-international-space-station/701613/27 "2014-10-20T08:30:42Z")
> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > Orbcomm, Iridium, and Globalstar all allow terrestrial users to maintain contact using handheld transmitters/receivers only by using a very complex system which hands off communications between satellites as they pass into and out of range. Iridium uses a very complex packet routing system which can bounce packets between satellites. Globalstar at least does not; their satellites are little more than so-called “bent pipes”. You send a packet from the ground, and any satellites in range pick up the signal, amplify it, perform a frequency shift, and transmit it back to the nearest ground station. Despite the name they are not particularly global–if you are over the ocean you are out of luck because there is no ground station for the packet to go to. There are even regions on land which do not have coverage. I don’t know about Orbcomm. Incidentally, it’s possible to use Iridium while in orbit. One or two cubesats have done it so far and my next one may also use it. Licensing is the main issue. ---
**Author:** ![sweat209](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9fc348/32.png) [@sweat209](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sweat209)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2014, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-receive-terrestrial-tv-or-radio-from-the-international-space-station/701613/28 "2014-10-20T17:56:11Z")
> [@cmyk](#): > > Like a TV satellite dish. The dish is the reflector. The antenna is the round thing that hangs in front of it, because that’s where the dish focuses the radio waves. You would need very large dish to pick up any thing the distance to Mars.The bigger the dish the more it reflects. ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2014, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-receive-terrestrial-tv-or-radio-from-the-international-space-station/701613/29 "2014-10-20T17:57:02Z")
> [@sweat209](#): > > You would need very large dish to pick up any thing the distance to Mars.The bigger the dish the more it reflects. That’s the idea, yes. Or an array. ---
**Author:** ![erysichthon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d07c76/32.png) [@erysichthon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/erysichthon)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2014, 7:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-receive-terrestrial-tv-or-radio-from-the-international-space-station/701613/30 "2014-10-21T07:18:06Z")
> [@Leo\_Bloom](#): > > _Galaxy Quest._ Star Trek (direct parody) used as model for distant civilization. Actors, treated as heros, transported to help in war of survival. A very funny, genial movie ensues. There was an episode of _Futurama_ in which an alien civilization 1,000 light-years from Earth is obsessed with the _Ally McBeal_ TV show. The idea turned up in Carl Sagan’s Contact as well (the ETs send back the first TV signal they received from Earth: a broadcast of the 1936 Berlin Olympics). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-receive-terrestrial-tv-or-radio-from-the-international-space-station/701613.md?page=1)