The DLR_School_Lab Braunschweig, Germany, organized an amateur radio contact with an astronaut on board the International Space Station (ISS) for students from five different schools for the third time. While the contact itself was always an exciting event for the participating students our goal was to increase the sustainability in learning with a deeper understanding of the technology used for the radio contact. As a result, we present our concept for engaging with the students and preparing them for the actual radio contact with an inexpensive hands-on space radio workshop that was conducted remotely via video conferencing and thus is independent in regard to distance between the lecturer and the group. During the workshop the students built their own ground station to receive amateur radio satellites and the ISS. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic the workshop could not be conducted fully as an in-person learning experience. To overcome this obstacle, we chose a hybrid approach. Each session started with a short introductory lecture using a video conferencing software. After the introduction the students worked in groups following a written guide which we provided. During the rest of the session we assisted online in case of any questions or technical difficulties. We also supplied the schools with a Raspberry Pi single board computer, an inexpensive software defined radio and some coaxial cables for building antennas. The tasks necessary building the ground station included setting up the hardware, configuring the software and building antennas. The written guide gave detailed information on how to complete the individual steps. It also provided some optional more in-depth information on propagation of electromagnetic fields, antenna theory and orbital mechanics to accommodate the range of participating school forms with different levels of proficiency and wide range of age of the students participating. The students were very motivated to take part in this workshop, even as an extracurricular activity during their spare time. The students as well as the teachers involved also highlighted the interesting and useful lectures and the professional support via video conferencing software. This kind of hybrid approach was a new and innovative learning experience for the schools. Our workshop offered the students an introduction to radio technology and space which would be otherwise beyond most teachers’ knowledge and capabilities. We demonstrated that such a workshop can be realized over distance besides pandemic conditions broadening the field of schools that can be involved
