The funny thing is, they didn't even '[build] a home-brew shortwave radio', they picked up an ICOM 2m radio and a yagi antenna and installed them.

The article is grossly inaccurate, but what these guys did is still pretty neat. (I'm not convinced it's worthy of a college level graduating project, but luckily for them, it's not up to me.) They didn't really 'build' anything; they bought the antenna and the radio. Calling it (correctly) a 'transceiver' doesn't mean they put any more effort into it than the guy who strolled into best buy to pick up a new radio for his car.

Still, they set up the rig and went through all the red tape to get the school to let them do it, and they did get to talk to someone on the space station. It's certainly not new (did the people who wrote the article do *any* background research?), but it's still pretty cool.

Also, looks to me like they were just on the 2m band, so does "getting permission" really just mean "someone will be at the 2m radio on the space station to respond"? Last I knew, anyone with a ham license can hop on 2m any time...