Packet Radio On ISS Beeping Away

mzac writes: "The amateur radio abord the ISS is now activated and is digipeating packet radio. With a simple 5W handheld and a 3/4 wave 2 meter antenna, the signal can be received quite easily. Anyone who doesn't have a amateur radio license but does have a scanner can probably also receive the signals with a handheld scanner and the stock antenna. Using satellite tracking software and NTP software to sync your computer's clock is a good way of knowing when the ISS will pass over." (Read more.)

"Transmitting to the station is a bit more difficult as everyone is trying to transmit to the station on each pass, but many people have made it through.

Frequencies for the ISS are:

• Worldwide downlink for voice and packet: 145.80MHz
• Worldwide packet uplink: 145.99MHz
• Region 1 voice uplink: 145.20MHz
• Region 2 & 3 voice uplink: 144.49MHz

More info can be found at: Amsat or the ARISS Home Page."

Comments

heh, I can see it now..

[Anonymous Coward]

FIRST POST on the ISS!!! And inbetween, the trolls are going to be complaining "ISS sucks because it is made by Microsoft.."

Great, what a day

Re:heh, I can see it now..

[Kartoffel]

ISS isn't made by Microsoft, but it *is* proprietary

Not true. Per the Natioanl Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958: "The Administraction shall provide for the widest practicable and appropriate dissemination of information concerning its activities and the results thereof."

Getting specs from contractors is more difficult, however, because they've got contacts (surprisingly enough) that allow them to keep their own stuff proprietary. Anything NASA does purely on its own, however, is meant to be freely available.

Some things like parts of the ISS expedidion #1 crew's log entries, were "redacted" by NASA PAO office. That doesn't mean it's classified, however. You can still get all that stuff throug a FOIA (freedom of informatio act) request. The redacted stuff was mostly Shep cursing out flaky software, or the crew talking about going to the bathroom, or losing a small part cause it drifted away behind a rack. No conspiracies to cover up... just silly things that for whatever reason the public affairs folks "sanitized".

Re:heh, I can see it now..

[ekrout]

Dude, ISS isn't made by Microsoft, but it *is* proprietary. They should release it under the GPL or BSD license so that we can all *easily* make upgrades to it. I mean, c'mon, this ain't rocket science. ;-D

Re:ping 44.x.x.x!

[phil reed]

nope. Just a simple digipeater (which lost its configuration, so it's responding to the call NOCALL only).


...phil

Re:NTP kicks ass!

[Ryandav]

honestly, it's not that close...

There's a reason that certain ideas occur over and over: cause they are easy targets. There's an entire group dedicated to finding references to the "virtual/digital/electronic Pearl Harbor." Cause any damn fool can make that one up...

Map of stations making it in

[jmaslak]

http://www.ariss.net/

It includes maps of the stations that get to make it in.

As a disappointment, there are some dweebs that are tying up the link by sending too frequent of beacons. After all, if you can wait an hour between passes, can't you be happy if only 1 or 2 beacons are heard an hour?

Solar sails?

[p3d0]

They're solar panels, for collecting energy. I have seen them called "Solar Sails" elsewhere, but that seems like a misnomer to me. Solar sails are for navigation through the solar wind, and (thanks to events this week) they are still fictitious.
--
Patrick Doyle

Another site

[superid]

I use Heavens-above to get times for sightings in my area.

SuperID
Free Database Hosting

I got through!

[QuantumHack]

On April 10th, at 6:35pm CDT, I sent a message through the ISS digipeater, using nothing but a low-power 2-meter radio in my car, a TNC (radio modem), and a little handbuilt terminal (coulda used a Palm, even). I'm in Oklahoma, and the message was picked up by a station in Colorado, and one in Maryland. Pretty cool. This would make a great "stuck-out-in-the-boonies-and-need-help" thing. Plus, since we're using APRS (transmitting our GPS position along with messages), that means "help" would know where it was needed. Cell phones don't work everywhere, you know, and don't even get me started on Iridium. Ham radio still has some uses.

Check out http://www.hamhud.net to see what I used to get through.

Steve KA9MVA
"QuantumHack"

Re:Good, since MIR is dead. And, Ham radio dead

[wowbagger]

What are you running for your packet link: 2400 or 9600? Given that packet is simplex, CD/CSMA, and requires the keyup and keydown delays for turn-arounds, I'd think TCP/IP would be unacceptably slow.

Also, how do you prevent the 5|r!p7 |1ddi3z from sending unacceptable things over the link?

If I could come up with good solutions to these problems myself, I'd be tempted to set my station back up.

73 de N0YKG

Re:Idea

[DoctorPepper]

Try here

Re:/. effect

[The_Messenger]

Anyone have a mirror for the satillite if it crashes due to the /. effect?

You'll see it mirrored on the surface of the Pacific Ocean, right before impact.

--

Re:How to do it?

[burris]

From what I understand your X-mhz box does not run at precisely X-mhz. The clock actually oscillates slightly around the stated frequency. This is of course to prevent a huge spike of RF emissions at the clock frequency, which makes it way easier to get FCC certification.

Burris

Re:NTP kicks ass!

[e_n_d_o]

OMG, it is the same post. Well, I apologize for stealing your thunder. I had not read your post before, but I can certainly see where you're coming from. I even think your post is a helluva lot better done than mine.

Hell, no one even understood mine, now that /. and Linux aren't synonymous. (It's already been modded down)

Based on your comments however, I find it unlikely that *I* am the one who is acting like an asshole.

---

Just what amateur radio needs....

[yawhcihw]

another busy, intermittently available repeater.

yay

now when do we get autopatch? :)

Cooperation and such

[GlassUser]

I remember when the ISS first had its solar sails deployed. That night, I looked up the night's pass on J-pass, went outside, and saw it rise, for the first time. I made sure to do that the next few nights, as the orbit would allow. It's going to be nice to be able to "see" it for the first time with a radio, get that warm fuzzy feeling about international cooperation across borders and all.

Oh yeah...

[Scoria]

Use J-Track or J-Track 3D to see when the ISS will be near your house.

And this is NASA's ISS homepage, if any of you want to know something about the ISS...

Good, since MIR is dead. And, Ham radio dead

[mwillems]

Good to hear we have another satellite! I (aka VA3MVW) used to digipeat via MIR, and the feeling that I was talking from Toronto to, say, Texas via space station MIR was fascinating. Using simple equipment too - simple 2m VHF, with a simple TNC (I have a few for sale btw: I use 3 and own 5)...

Ham radio is not dead - one use that /.ers should like is TCP/IP over AX.25 packet. Meaning, when my cable provider is down (happens a few times a week) I can get out (or in!) via packet radio. Telnet to a server 25 miles away from home, and standard TCP/IP from there; a ham's IP address being issued by ampr.org.

Then there's emergency radio (ice storms, tornadoes, etc), and talking to people kin your car: I spend hours talking away while stuck in traffic jams. And it's all free. :)

73,

Mike
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Want to track your own satellites?

[Trolocsis]

I found this free satellite tracking program for windows available here.

See the data!

[k4hg]

If you look at http://www.ariss.net, you can see who has been able to bounce packets through the station. Also, to see the live data, type: telnet first.aprs.net | grep NOCALL (This won't show much unless there is a pass in progress over the US... Steve K4HG