We've all heard the old saying that any technology sufficiently advanced is indistinguishable from magic(slight of hand). I'm wondering, is this the direction MS is heading although in reverse. Are we looking at a future where any magic(slight of hand) sufficiently advanced is indistinguishable from technology? Hmmmm......

It's not a question of commercial or not. What you need to do it leverage the crisis handling skills of amateur emcomm operators in a commercial setting. They will not be operating under an amateur license they will be operating under a commercial license but having the experience and knowledge of amateur operators that have come from the emcomm field. What would cost less, training commercial personnel in communications protocols or training radio amateurs in commercial protocols. ROI baby! It just makes sense.

Really, they used a rather stealthy explosive fuel mixture to get it into orbit as well.
Only 3.5 million people in the surrounding area witnessed it.
So regardless of the camouflage techniques they used...no one noticed at all.

I was gonna spend some mod points on these comments but they are already modded right to the edge of space.

My personal fave..."apt-get install clue", priceless.

Seriously though, don't they make paperback dummies guides for this kinda shit now-a-days?

This is the way to go. In the beginning was the bit and it was good. Start with looking at CW (Morse code) on a waterfall display, then other modes, these relatively simple modes are the building blocks of almost all after them. Here are some tools to help:

http://www.websdr.org/ - MANY web enabled SDR rigs with a java app that includes a waterfall.

http://software.muzychenko.net/eng/vac.htm - Virtual Audio Cable software to make audio from previous app available to a lot more apps.

http://hfradio.org.uk/html/digital_modes.html
http://wb8nut.com/digital/
http://members.storm.ca/~ve3iay/digital.html - Some examples and basic info.

This will get the ball rolling in increasingly complex modes of transmission...then you begin to throw in real complexity by going over how some of this good old tech was made into the modern internet. Remember this is where the TCP in TCP/IP came from. If your area has an active VHF packet network that will keep her busy for a few years at least. There is a BBS on the space station she can use too (callsign RS0ISS-11, AR1SS, RS0ISS-3).

Have fun.