Explore "Hot Planet" by Hal Clement on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
Zaino tried. Hour after hour he juggled from one band to another. Once he had Hargedon stop while he went out to attach a makeshift antenna which, he hoped, would change his output from broadcast to some sort of beam; after this he kept probing the sky with the "beam," first listening to the "Albireo's" broadcast in an effort to find projecting wisps of ionosphere and then, whenever he thought he had one, switching on his transmitter and driving his own message at it.
Not once did he complain about lack of equipment or remark how much better he could do once he was back at the ship.