<Lena first contact>

Missing: them cobbling their equipment together, sending the remote activation sequence

The oscilloscope shows a thick wobbly line. Michelle slightly adjusts the knob for the trigger frequency and the image turns into a continuous sine wave, slowly rolling to the left.
She says: I think that's their carrier. It worked.
Jack flips a switch on the project box.
Ringing.
Michelle picks up the receiver and listens.
Beeeeep. Beeeeep. Beeeeep. Beeeeep.
A female voice greets her: Hello?
She gestures for Jack to flip the switch back and says: This is ground support facility 53. Do you hear me?
Yes, I can hear you. So good to hear someone's voice.
Jack who had heard it says quietly: And I thought we were the ones facing unexpected difficuties...
Michelle notices the carrier strength gradually dropping and says: Listen, we don't have much time. We're on makeshift equipment. Please turn on the radio in front of you and tune to some frequency or channel.
The person on the other end says: Understood. Please stay on the line.
As long as possible. If not, we'll be back in 24 hours.
Michelle hears her quietly mumbling to herself: How's this thing work...
She turns the receiver away from her mouth and says: Jack, I need the manual.
He opens it at one of the bookmarks and hands it over. The page depicts what the control panel on the other end should look like.
Speaking into the phone again, Michelle says: There should be a button labeled EGCR-1. Push that in and flip the switch next to it up to AM. Turn TXP to max, then search for the frequency.
The voice comes through slightly choppy: Th-ank-s.
The wave on the oscilloscope is now almost flat.
The phone plays an automated error message: Dish unresponsive. Attempting network handoff.
Relays click inside the comms unit and some status indicators light up red. The green lights next to the network ports flicker for a moment, then turn off again.
Another error message: Handoff failed. Consult operational manu...
Michelle puts the receiver down.

The following dialog would benefit greatly from proper radio protocol. Unfortunately, that is sonething I have yet to learn. Feel free to send me a fixed version of it.
James aims the antenna at the moon. It's resting on some kind of stand. Jack takes the microphone off a desktop radio and pushes the talk button a few times. An indicator light on the radio blinks as he does.
Looks good... He speaks into the mic: This is ground facility 53. Do you copy?
He waits for a response.
Nothing.
He repeats himself: This is ground facility 53. Do you copy?
A few repeats later, the female voice answers: There we go... Loud and clear.
Missing: they introduce themselves, Lena says something along the lines of "everyone is dead"