Amateur Radio on the International Space Station
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Re: Amateur Radio on the International Space Station
#2I have been trying to years to raise someone at the ISS on ham radio without success. Even on the EchoLink. Anyone have tips for what I might be missing here?
Re: Amateur Radio on the International Space Station
#3I have been trying to years to raise someone at the ISS on ham radio without success. Even on the EchoLink. Anyone have tips for what I might be missing here?
Are you talking about using the repeater on the ISS, or contacting one of the astronauts on the ISS?
Contacting one of the astronauts is fairly difficult, as they have no particular scheduled time where they listen it. It just happens to be luck-of-the-draw.
As far as using the repeater, I think most of the radios are stowed. http://www.ariss.org/current-status-of-iss-stations.html
I've never heard of the EchoLink connection to the ISS... Do you have details on that?
Re: Amateur Radio on the International Space Station
#4This reminds me of Dinah in 'Seveneves' by Neal Stephenson, communicating with her father from the ISS.
Re: Amateur Radio on the International Space Station
#5Amateur 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.
Re: Amateur Radio on the International Space Station
#6I used to work in the room right below the ARISS base station at NASA Goddard. It’s an incredibly cool project and I’m so glad to see it getting some attention!
While ARISS usually schedules contacts between astronauts and people on the ground, perhaps the coolest part is that the astronauts can actually talk to anyone, any time, via the ham radio equipment on ISS. If this is something that interests you, you should give it a try! I’d be curious to know how responsive they are.
Re: Amateur Radio on the International Space Station
#7Reminded me of "Before Mars" from National Geographic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPuTlZYDbh4
Re: Amateur Radio on the International Space Station
#8I'm pulling my Baofeng out of storage.
Re: Amateur Radio on the International Space Station
#9Amateur 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 these skills and put them to use with my local emergency response teams in Portland, OR.
The Basic Earthquake Emergency Communication Node (BEECN)[2] program is specifically about aiding in emergency service coordination in the event of the a major earthquake in our area, and the Neighborhood Emergency Teams (NETs, our local CERT) also utilizing ham radio for emergency service coordination in the event of a communication breakdown.
I definitely encourage anyone with interest in these subjects to get a license.
Hope to eventually make contact with some HNers, till then - 73, KI7QXO
[0] http://arcticserver.com/alaskamorningnetmain1/
[1] https://www.amazon.com/BTECH-UV-5X3-Watt-Tri-Band-Radio/dp/B...
Re: Amateur Radio on the International Space Station
#10If 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.