Mucking around with amateur radio equipment had led to a rare position as a NASA volunteer for a central Queensland man.

Mackay man Shane Lynd was tinkering with his radio equipment 18 years ago when a chance encounter with space changed everything.

Mr Lynd made radio contact with Andy Thomas, the first Australian member of NASA's astronaut corps, who was on board the Russian Space Station Mir at the time.

"That sparked my interest," Mr Lynd said.

He soon began thinking of opportunities for schools to link with space.

It was another series of chance encounters that took Mr Lynd a step closer to his goal.

He was invited to join Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS), a project that helps students engage with amateur radio and make contact with the International Space Station (ISS).

The person driving the project worked for NASA, and Mr Lynd was invited to join NASA as a volunteer — one of only three in Australia.

"Basically they were looking at setting up a group of radio amateurs worldwide who could not only deliver educational opportunities for students, but could also be used by NASA [in] an emergency or contingency should they lose communication on the ISS," Mr Lynd said.

NASA astronauts Scott Kelly and Kjell Lindgren work outside the International Space Station. ( Supplied: NASA )

Providing support has not just been theoretical, with the radio buff being called on to provide an uplink for British space tourist Richard Garriott.

In 2008, Mr Garriott was the sixth space tourist to make it to the ISS.

"At that particular time the Russians weren't cooperating particularly well with the Americans," Mr Lynd said.

"So I did get a phone call from the guys at Mission Control and was actually asked to bring my equipment online to uplink some information to Richard at the time."

When not being on standby for Mission Control, he spends much of his time working with schools.

He also has three tracking stations set up at his home in Glenden, inland from Mackay.

"I have one of the tracking stations set up that I can bring to schools and demonstrate to school students, and hopefully inspire them to look a little outside of the square," Mr Lynd said.

Shane Lynd helped deliver information to US space tourist Richard Garriot in 2008. ( Dmitry Kostyukov: AFP )

His work has seen him become part of a central Queensland first — on Monday night, he helped Glenmore State High School in Rockhampton link up with ISS commander Tim Kopra.

Even that was a chance encounter.

"I was asked by Tony Hutchinson, who is the coordinator of ARISS, about three months ago if I could find another Australian school, because potentially there could be a slot coming up," Mr Lynd said.

"So I put, of all things, a post on Facebook, and [Glenore State High School head of science] Matt Barber contacted me and said, 'Yes, we're on board'."

A year's worth of work was condensed into three months, and the call was made in front of a 500-strong crowd in the school's hall, using a technique called time-shifting.

"We have a device which hooks into Telstra's telephone line, and that enables us to remotely connect to an amateur radio station or one of our ground stations situated anywhere in the world," Mr Lynd said.

"And in this particular event we were connecting to a radio ground station in Santa Rosa, California."

All the radio equipment used for the night was handmade, and in this day of digital technology, analogue is still king for contacting space.

While only a handful of Australian schools have managed to make a call to space, Mr Lynd said he was keen to help more.