Ham radio ISS contacts

[Kn4fty]

Howdy folks! I was just curious how many amateur radio operators are on the forum. Also have any of you made Ham contact with the ISS? I'm currently working on a hand held dual band yagi antenna. I've finished the 2 meter half and need to finish the 440 side. My intention is to make ISS contact with only 5-8 watts. Can it be done? I have no idea. I just going to try to wing it since I'm the only Ham I know that has any desire to try. I've googled ways to do it, but some of those use equipment way out of my wallets ability. If anyone here has tried it using super simple equipment, I would love to hear your thoughts. Thanks 

Rob

[Demonperformer]

Never done it, never heard of it being done, but sounds fascinating. Do keep us informed on how it goes.

[SIDO]

I was a telecommunications engineer for a couple decades and almost got into amateur radio a couple of times, still a shortwave radio fan and these off the grid communications networks are important backup systems for society and those who take part indeed provide a service to the rest of us I do hope we never need. The goal of ISS with a low amplitude signal is a lofty one, best of luck...Kn4fty

[Pete Presland]

I have no idea either, but it does sound a pretty cool thing to try. Good luck Rob, it will be interesting to see how it goes!

[Kn4fty]

Will do Demon. Thanks SIDO. I know it can be done. They usually have a couple of the astronauts licensed for amateur radio. Many hams have contacted them. Contacts never last long since there are tons of hams making the attempts. But it would still be cool to do.

[Kn4fty]

Thanks, Pete. I'm gonna give it a shot soon.

[JohnSadlerAstro]

Hi,

Theres a guy down the end of our road who has talked to the ISS. He's got a quite incredible aerial setup, though!

I've never been round to see how it's all operated, radio is something I'm ignorant of. ?

John

[Ronclarke]

I'm G0IBI, mostly on HF but I have 2m too. I know quite a few hams in the UK have QSO's the ISS but it's not something I have thought about doing. Good luck and let us know how it goes..

73's

Ron

Edited August 29, 2018 by Ronclarke

[AKB]

Well, I’ll show my hand and say that I have a licence, G3ZYR, but I would also point out that I was extremely young when I qualified for it. (The G3 prefix ran out of letters a good while ago!)

I’ve always been interested in low power... mainly because I couldn’t afford anything else.  I don’t have any gear at the moment, and really the most interesting QSL card I got was from King Hussein of Jordan, but I think that the ISS trumps that!

Good luck, and give us updates with pictures along the way...

Tony

[Gina]

Great thing to try.  I too will be interested in how you do.  Good luck.  ?

[RT65CB-SWL]

What frequency or frequencies do they use? I am purely SWL/DX and contemplating SDR.

• Current 'rigs' are... Yaesu FRG-7 + FRT-7700 (atu), Icom IC-R5, (no SSB), Realistic DX-440
• Antenna's are... a 'random wire' in the loft and a Slinky in the bed-sit room at ceiling level.

73's & clear skies.

Edited August 29, 2018 by Philip R

[mark117h]

4 hours ago, Kn4fty said:

Howdy folks! I was just curious how many amateur radio operators are on the forum. Also have any of you made Ham contact with the ISS? I'm currently working on a hand held dual band yagi antenna. I've finished the 2 meter half and need to finish the 440 side. My intention is to make ISS contact with only 5-8 watts. Can it be done? I have no idea. I just going to try to wing it since I'm the only Ham I know that has any desire to try. I've googled ways to do it, but some of those use equipment way out of my wallets ability. If anyone here has tried it using super simple equipment, I would love to hear your thoughts. Thanks 

Rob

Hi Rob.

I am in no way a licenced radio operator or user of HAM Radio's, i do like the idea and sometime in the future i might even give it a go.

What i would like to say is, Would you be able to use a signal booster to help the signal get through or make it stronger, i don't know really, just wondering if this is even possible, either way i am going to keep an eye on this thread to see how you get on.

Good Luck Mate, hope you get to have a chat with them as that would be really cool.

Mark.

[MarsG76]

Interesting project, but wouldn't communication between the ISS and base be digital and encrypted?

 

[Adreneline]

I'm G4NOV but very much QRT (non-operational) these days - all I have is a very old IC2E and I've not heard anything on that for years! I was always a big fan of RTTY and Amtor writing my own software for the BBC (now in the loft) and Archimedes (long gone to a new owner). I would be very interested to know/hear how you get on trying to have a contact with ISS. I was always impressed by amateurs who used meteor scatter for brief contacts using large, high-gain, steerable, multiple antenna arrays - the ISS sounds equally challenging.

Good luck!

 

Edited August 29, 2018 by Adreneline
Clarification

[wxsatuser]

Have'nt done ISS but I did several with the Space shuttles and regularly used the Japanese Fuji sats FO20/29.
Plus Oscar's 10 and 13 which gave world wide coverage.
BTW I'm G1HWY

Here are the two QSL cards I got from the shuttles.
STS-59

STS-60

Edited August 29, 2018 by wxsatuser

[cv01jw]

2 hours ago, AKB said:

Well, I’ll show my hand and say that I have a licence, G3ZYR, but I would also point out that I was extremely young when I qualified for it. (The G3 prefix ran out of letters a good while ago!)

I’ve always been interested in low power... mainly because I couldn’t afford anything else.  I don’t have any gear at the moment, and really the most interesting QSL card I got was from King Hussein of Jordan, but I think that the ISS trumps that!

Good luck, and give us updates with pictures along the way...

Tony

I didn't realise the prefixes were issued in date order - I have never developed an interest in amateur radio but my dad has always had a licence - he is G3PCW so must have had it for some time too.

[wxsatuser]

2 minutes ago, cv01jw said:

I didn't realise the prefixes were issued in date order - I have never developed an interest in amateur radio but my dad has always had a licence - he is G3PCW so must have had it for some time too.

I was first licensed in 1984 when there was an explosion of new ones from CBers.
G1 callsigns were Class B and only allowed VHF and above but now it is a full license even though
I never did the morse test, used to do meteorscatter and could read the code but never took the test.

[Alan White]

Interesting thread, something that has always interested me but I have never committed to it.
I did listen as a teenager on SW with a radio set from a Lancaster bomber, it was a nice valve set, now passed on to others who use it still.

Talking to Space Shuttles, who ever knew.
Good luck with the ISS contact Kn4fty, is that your ham demarcation by the way?

[Gina]

HF comms was part of my job at one time and I've always been interested in amateur radio but couldn't be bothered to do all the tests for a transmitting license.  I new a bit of Morse code but not the speed needed for the test and I was more interested in voice.  I used to listen in the past.  I have built short range voice transmitters with power low enough not to need a license.  Also short range data comms on around 400MHz.  Nowadays I just use WiFi!  And I can talk to people all round the would on the internet - and I do.

Edited August 29, 2018 by Gina

[Phil Fargaze]

When I was at the Herstmonceux Festival of Astronomy in Sussex UK, the QRZ Amateur Radio Group of East Suusex are based there and they tried to contact the ISS whilst we were watching on. However the guy explained that due to a possibly large amount of other people trying to get in touch, they would be lucky to get a response. I don`t know anything about amateur radio but it was very interesting. They did get in contact with a Japanese fisherman somewhere in the Pacific Ocean though!

[Kn4fty]

11 hours ago, Ronclarke said:

I'm G0IBI, mostly on HF but I have 2m too. I know quite a few hams in the UK have QSO's the ISS but it's not something I have thought about doing. Good luck and let us know how it goes..

73's

Ron

Howdy Ron. I'll keep everyone posted. I recently aquired a Swan 500c, but don't have it on the air yet. I need to get an antenna tuner for it. Hopefully once I do I can get a QSO with y'all on here.

11 hours ago, AKB said:

Well, I’ll show my hand and say that I have a licence, G3ZYR, but I would also point out that I was extremely young when I qualified for it. (The G3 prefix ran out of letters a good while ago!)

I’ve always been interested in low power... mainly because I couldn’t afford anything else.  I don’t have any gear at the moment, and really the most interesting QSL card I got was from King Hussein of Jordan, but I think that the ISS trumps that!

Good luck, and give us updates with pictures along the way...

Tony

Tony, I'm not sure if ISS trumps a contact from a king or not. That's a really cool QSO to make! I'll keep y'all updated on my progress.

10 hours ago, Philip R said:

What frequency or frequencies do they use? I am purely SWL/DX and contemplating SDR.

• Current 'rigs' are... Yaesu FRG-7 + FRT-7700 (atu), Icom !CR-5, (no SSB), Realistic DX-440
• Antenna's are... a 'random wire' in the loft and a Slinky in the bed-sit room at ceiling level.

73's & clear skies.

 

Philip, here are the frequencies I have. This includes voice and packet frequencies.

The following frequencies are currently used for Amateur Radio ISS contacts (QSOs):    Voice and SSTV Downlink: 145.80 (Worldwide)
    Voice Uplink: 144.49 for ITU Regions 2 and 3 (The Americas, and the Pacific and Southern Asia)
    Voice Uplink: 145.20 for ITU Region 1 (Europe, Russia and Africa)
    VHF Packet Uplink and Downlink: 145.825 (Worldwide)
    UHF Packet Uplink and Downlink: 437.550
    UHF/VHF Repeater Uplink: 437.80
    UHF/VHF Repeater Downlink: 145.80

My current rigs are a Yaesu 2400H 2 m with a homemade vertical dipole, Heathkit HW101 and a Swan 500c with a fan dipole (it's not on the air yet), Baofeng uv5 and uv8, both 2m/70cm. Those are what I'm going to try the contact with.

10 hours ago, mark117h said:

Hi Rob.

I am in no way a licenced radio operator or user of HAM Radio's, i do like the idea and sometime in the future i might even give it a go.

What i would like to say is, Would you be able to use a signal booster to help the signal get through or make it stronger, i don't know really, just wondering if this is even possible, either way i am going to keep an eye on this thread to see how you get on.

Good Luck Mate, hope you get to have a chat with them as that would be really cool.

Mark.

Howdy Mark! Yes ,there are amplifiers to increase the signal. My goal is to attempt to make the contact with as low power as I can with cheap inexpensive equipment. If it works then I can take the gear camping on future attempts and not be paranoid about breaking stuff. Lol

You should give it a go. I'm still a new ham myself. Just received my tech rating last September and my general rating earlier this year. I had wanted to do it for years, but didn't pull the trigger till I found out there are astronomy nets on the bands.

10 hours ago, MarsG76 said:

Interesting project, but wouldn't communication between the ISS and base be digital and encrypted?

 

They have digital, but also act like a standard repeater. Many of the astronauts are hams and have equipment to talk to us ordinary folk.

10 hours ago, Adreneline said:

I'm G4NOV but very much QRT (non-operational) these days - all I have is a very old IC2E and I've not heard anything on that for years! I was always a big fan of RTTY and Amtor writing my own software for the BBC (now in the loft) and Archimedes (long gone to a new owner). I would be very interested to know/hear how you get on trying to have a contact with ISS. I was always impressed by amateurs who used meteor scatter for brief contacts using large, high-gain, steerable, multiple antenna arrays - the ISS sounds equally challenging.

Good luck!

 

Nothing wrong with old gear.

Both of my hf rigs are old tube radios. I'm still new at ham radio so I haven't tried meteor scatter yet. I don't remember the frequencies, but the radios can be used to pick up meteors during a shower. I had forgotten about this during the Persieds so didn't do it. It works with an AM radio too. Just put it on an unused frequency.

9 hours ago, wxsatuser said:

Have'nt done ISS but I did several with the Space shuttles and regularly used the Japanese Fuji sats FO20/29.
Plus Oscar's 10 and 13 which gave world wide coverage.
BTW I'm G1HWY

Here are the two QSL cards I got from the shuttles.
STS-59

STS-60

Those are awesome!  Wish I would have been a ham when the shuttles were still flying. Thanks for posting those. I wonder if ISS sends cards out?

8 hours ago, Alan White said:

Interesting thread, something that has always interested me but I have never committed to it.
I did listen as a teenager on SW with a radio set from a Lancaster bomber, it was a nice valve set, now passed on to others who use it still.

Talking to Space Shuttles, who ever knew.
Good luck with the ISS contact Kn4fty, is that your ham demarcation by the way?

That's sounds like a cool piece of history coming from a bomber! A friend of mine has an old radio that was used by the OSS in WW2. His dad (a silent key) had restored it. I drool over that radio every time I see it! Hahahaha

Yes, KN4FTY is my radio call sign.

7 hours ago, Gina said:

HF comms was part of my job at one time and I've always been interested in amateur radio but couldn't be bothered to do all the tests for a transmitting license.  I new a bit of Morse code but not the speed needed for the test and I was more interested in voice.  I used to listen in the past.  I have built short range voice transmitters with power low enough not to need a license.  Also short range data comms on around 400MHz.  Nowadays I just use WiFi!  And I can talk to people all round the would on the internet - and I do.

Is Morse still required there? They did away with the Morse requirements here. I still went on and learned it just because it was a challenge. 

6 hours ago, Phil Fargaze said:

When I was at the Herstmonceux Festival of Astronomy in Sussex UK, the QRZ Amateur Radio Group of East Suusex are based there and they tried to contact the ISS whilst we were watching on. However the guy explained that due to a possibly large amount of other people trying to get in touch, they would be lucky to get a response. I don`t know anything about amateur radio but it was very interesting. They did get in contact with a Japanese fisherman somewhere in the Pacific Ocean though!

Yes, I'm told it is a challenge because of the number of people that attempt it. That's why the contacts tend to only be call confirmation since they are trying to get as many folks thru as possible.

Cool contact! I haven't had Japan yet. My best so far was Italy

Thanks everyone! I really didn't expect to get so many responses. I will definitely keep everyone posted as things progress. 

73 to all,

Rob

Edited August 29, 2018 by Kn4fty
Misspelling

[Gina]

I think the Morse test was abandoned some time ago but the real radio amateurs will know.

[Kn4fty]

Ok. I didn't know if it was just a US FCC thing or if it was world wide.

[wxsatuser]

No morse test now all original Class B licensees were upgraded to full license which allows access to the HF bands, 30MHz and below.

There are 3 levels of license, Foundation, Intermediate and Full, links below.
Foundation

Intermediate

Full

[wxsatuser]

For ISS  QSL  cards

http://www.ariss.org/qsl-cards.html