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Amateur Radio on the International Space Station

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Re: Amateur Radio on the International Space Station

#61

Post by XnoiVeX »

7402 wrote: post #38
XnoiVeX wrote: post #28

I got a technician's license last year. But since hand held Ham radios are so cheap these days, it's a great idea to buy one and learn how to use the national simplex frequencies and your local repeaters. In the case of a real emergency, the FCC allows you to use a Ham radio without a license. The BaoFeng UV-82 is a great starting point for less than $30.

> In the case of a real emergency, the FCC allows you to use a Ham radio without a license. That's like saying, "In the case of a real emergency, the police allow you to smash in a store window." It's technically true, but it shows a lack of wisdom to offer a statement like that to people who don't know what they're doing, such people who buy a radio and don't have the knowledge required to obtain the relevant FCC li…

:-) Is it wrong to assume that people who read HN might have some common sense to understand what I mean?

Re: Amateur Radio on the International Space Station

#62

Post by pdelbarba »

shiplet wrote: post #48
kawfey wrote: post #13

Finally, the moment I've been waiting for, amateur radio on the top of hackernews. :) It's also worth mentioning we've got a lot of amateur radio satellites in orbit[0], and more coming, including a geosynchronous satellite launching sometime in March (Es'hail 2)[1]. Some are very easy to get into with just an HT (or two for full-duplex).[2] [0] http://www.amsat.org/status/ [1] https://amsat-uk.org/tag/eshail-2/ [2]…

Hey!! No kidding! One of my goals for this year is to finally get my call sign. I've been on the verge the past two years, but things with work kept coming up. This year however, this year it's gonna happen.

There are plenty of really good apps on the android app store at least. They'll just feed you the questions and correct your answers. Took about 1 wk of semi serious use to pass technician and another week to get general and extra together (though I work in a related field, YMMV)

Re: Amateur Radio on the International Space Station

#63

Post by pdelbarba »

flatline wrote: post #27
zitterbewegung wrote: post #10

If you want to use a communication system that will work if the Cell towers, local internet, and the phone system are offline get an Amateur Radio Licence. If you want to talk to some random person in Australia using a system which routes your radio through the internet get an Amateur radio Licence. If you want to help out in a disaster then get an Amateur radio licence.

There are lots of interesting hobbyist/hacker/maker projects as well, like the sdr chips, HF kits like uBitX, and FaradayRF. One of my coworkers has his license to track model rockets with a small transmitter that sends GPS telemetry. Lots of cool stuff!

Also literally anything that Travis Goodspeed has done. He's basically the lord and savior of amateur radio.

Re: Amateur Radio on the International Space Station

#64

Post by olfactory »

kregasaurusrex wrote: post #12

My university's amateur radio club had a large collection of QSL cards to go through. Really cool how widespread its use was; but it also shows how far reaching an ubiquitous the internet has become. Most of these were from pre-1970 and came from all over the world. I got my technician's level license by using the 'Ham Radio Study' android app which does a good job reinforcing the concepts taught in the ARRL manual.…

I still get an envelope with QSL cards from all over the world every few months. It's still fun to see the pictures and to appreciate the tangible "foreignness" of the cards.

Re: Amateur Radio on the International Space Station

#66

Post by BlankMike »

kawfey wrote: post #13

Finally, the moment I've been waiting for, amateur radio on the top of hackernews. :) It's also worth mentioning we've got a lot of amateur radio satellites in orbit[0], and more coming, including a geosynchronous satellite launching sometime in March (Es'hail 2)[1]. Some are very easy to get into with just an HT (or two for full-duplex).[2] [0] http://www.amsat.org/status/ [1] https://amsat-uk.org/tag/eshail-2/ [2]…

A great story, indeed. I'm scheduled to take my Technician Class exam in a couple of weeks. Looking forward to being able to use my license with stuff like this.

Re: Amateur Radio on the International Space Station

#67

Post by radioo75555 »

madengr wrote: post #54
threeio wrote: post #41

I’ll toss in that reddit has one of the better ham radio communities without the nonsense old man drama of other sites.. http://reddit.com/r/amateurradio 73, N3LGA

Though not as entertaining as 7.200 MHz. KD4HSO

What's on 7.2? I rarely listen to HF.

Re: Amateur Radio on the International Space Station

#68

Post by bluGill »

sigspec wrote: post #35
XnoiVeX wrote: post #28

I got a technician's license last year. But since hand held Ham radios are so cheap these days, it's a great idea to buy one and learn how to use the national simplex frequencies and your local repeaters. In the case of a real emergency, the FCC allows you to use a Ham radio without a license. The BaoFeng UV-82 is a great starting point for less than $30.

What's the policy of listening on these devices without participating (no license)?

For the most part you can listen to anything. There are exceptions for things like cell phones, but since analog cell phones are dead you are unlikely to stumble on something you can't listen to.

Be careful though, some cheap radios make it easy to accidentally transmit. A tiny burst of static when you turn it on is a transmission for which you need a license - and some radios are almost that easy to transmit.

Best is to get a license, then when your cheap radio sends a message at least you are legal to do that. Or get an expensive radio that doesn't have those quirks.

Re: Amateur Radio on the International Space Station

#69

Post by makomk »

gooseus wrote: post #9
stonepresto wrote: post #5

Amateur Radio Licensing at http://www.arrl.org/getting-licensed for those interested. You'll need it if you want to attempt to contact the ISS.

I haven't made contact with ISS, or many contacts at yet, but getting a Technicians license and getting on the airwaves really pretty straightforward. I studied for maybe 2-3 weeks (a chapter a day) and paid $15 to take the test back in October, 2 weeks later I was in the FCC database and made my first check-in on the Alaska Morning NET[0] via a local repeater on a $60 triband handheld[1]. Now I'm looking to develop…

It's not so easy in some other countries unfortunately. Here in the UK, it'd cost me the equivalent of about $80 and require an effectively mandatory in-person training course that's rather inconvenient too, just for the most basic license. More advanced licenses are even more expensive and annoying to get.
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