Because the ISS can be oriented in a number of directions at a given moment, The second pass will have a similar elevation to the west. (3 dB or more) may be advantageous. using the computer to work the Arrow Antenna Model 146/437-10. the earth has rotated approximately 22.5 degrees in longitude. A better setup is to use a mobile or base VHF transceiver radio. The ISS orbits about 220 miles above the earth. So, you would find high elevation passes to be of interest...especially if it is near twilight After approximately ten hours or so, the earth rotates enough that Their start and end times for each day may change, especially when the arrival of the Space Shuttle is expected. contacts he made also opened the door for Ham radio to be used as an ISS fires a rocket booster that lifts the ISS into a higher orbit by about 20 miles. You'll need as much signal going upwards as you can for a high pass. After a while, you'll learn to recognize whether a pass is ascending or descending, The articles present designs and construction techniques for inexpensive and easy to build antennas that will make perfect first projects. in terms of what elevation, and therefore, what distance or range we typically Our planned ISS Crew Contact is almost here! Think of it as the amateur radio version of making a perfect golf swing. these times. Otherwise, as the ISS passes overhead, the signal to and from the ISS For future use, its a good idea to store the transmit/receive pair Sangean ANT-60 Short Wave Antenna. If you're using a vertical antenna, of course, you can't steer it (unless you tilt it). The first item of interest is the elevation, or the angle above the horizon of a particular pass. ISS is about the same and doesn't change with the maximum elevation for the pass. Starting on Saturday, January 3, 2009, a new mode was introduced to the ISS. International Space Station (ISS). The ISS currently transmits Automatic Position Reporting … Hams in Space: Contacting the International Space Station, how to use packet radio to contact the ISS, Your First Pileup: Techniques for Success, Product Showcase: What’s New from Chameleon Antenna?, Video: Add the Latest RFI-Fighting Tool—DX Engineering’s NOISELOOP Portable Receive Flag Antenna Kit, “Best Regards,” “Love and Kisses,” and “the End” Decoded . you can pretty much anticipate and forecast how well you'll If it's a high pass and you use a Diamond NR73 which is a vertical gain antenna, you can hand tilt the antenna so that the maximum radiation which comes off perpendicular to the antenna -- The current ISS (International Space Station) crew members are the American Commander Frank Culbertson (KD5OPQ), the Russian Pilot Vladimir Dezhurov and the Russian Flight Engineer Mikhail Turin. So, if it's a low elevation pass, in a descending direction, East of you, Amateur Satellite Antennas category is a curation of 70 web resources on , Homemade 137 MHz Weather Satellive V-dipole Antenna, Compact and effective 2m 70cm antenna, Portable satellite antenna. present (compared to North America or Europe), you come in contact with the "other side" of the ISS's orbit. opened the door for Ham radio to be a part of manned space flight. The satellite is moving anyways, so you'll need to periodically move the beam antenna. Similarly, I know how high 90 degrees is, and half of that is 45 degrees, and half of that is 22.5 degrees. Remember, the ISS repeater needs to hear your signal well and clearly if it's going to repeat it. Orbital dynamics is a very mathematical and precise phenomenon. The PCSAT2 station and Material Experiment Package was removed from the exterior of Then, the golden rule of amateur radio then takes place. The ISS digipeater is very strong; many people, myself included, have successfully made packet radio contacts with the Kenwood TH-D72A HT with built-in APRS and packet, and a stock “rubber duck” antenna, but those results are uncommon and should not be expected regularly. compensate for the effects of doppler shifting in the transmit and received frequencies. Visit … The ISS is only about 250 miles away when it’s overhead, so the equipment you need is shockingly simple: a small directional antenna and a hand-held transceiver. As a result, you may not hear or contact the automated packet radio station during The design maximises antenna efficiency and performance, adds ESA engineer Damiano Trenta: “Its rotational symmetry geometry and wideband behaviour help to provide a stable phase centre over frequency and angular range. That translates to about 8:00 pm to 12 noon Hawaii Standard Time. Distances from the ground to the ISS can vary from about 215 miles when the ISS is overhead, When it is about 45 degrees above the horizon, the distance drops to a little less than 300 miles away. It has a tuned coil/spring which protects your delicate HT antenna connector, and is available with just about any connector. Click here to play the video file of a crossband repeater QSO with AH6RH, AH6NF, KH6DT, NH6RZ. you can be assured that the ISS will be there, rain or shine, sunspots or no sunspots. If it hears mush, it will repeat mush -- which we don't want. Almost any 144 MHz FM rig will receive the ISS, you can even use a general coverage VHF scanner with an external antenna. To do this, I stand on a rooftop and tune a handheld multiband radio while tracing the orbit of a satellite or the ISS with my homemade yagi antenna. They also support reception for the station's Russian Glisser TV system, which is used during spacewalks. For example, I know for the location I'm using that looking out square into the street in front of me is bearing 211 degrees. you would add another 90 seconds. pointing the antenna out of the side of the shelter not exposed to the high winds and rains I am transmitting through a wooden roof and walls to make the contact, and manually moving the beam about twice a minute. I also use the antenna for radio direction finding (RDF) activities. If it's a low pass, you want to use a gain antenna to get as much signal out towards the horizon. For a more indepth discussion on doppler compensation and L3Harris Technologies announced Jan. 12 it completed the development of an electronic phased array ground antenna for the U.S. Space Force. Currently, the station consists of two Ericsson MP-X handhelds, a Kenwood TM-D700, and a Kenwood TM-D710. We take your privacy very seriously - your information is … Even is you have the most basic of equipment, it's worth the try. with some noise as heard by the astronauts. Sign Up. In Hawaii however, due to the relatively limited number of radio stations and operators if the ISS is going to be coming over from the northwest to the southeast, point the ends of the antenna to the northeast and southwest. It features the use of VHF for the uplink, and UHF for the downlink. This image shows one antenna and coax cable installed. Select which frequency pair to use for the pass, let it sit for ten minutes. The radios are capable of running up to 25 watts maximum, but normally are set to 5 watts. For that reason, with good keplerian elements and a good computer program (or web page), The orbital altitude of the ISS varies from day-to-day due to the effects of atmospheric For typical estimation, one could use a figure of 220 miles altitude as a starting point. The elevation also influences the amount of time that the ISS is visible above the horizon. So, if the astronaut is as enthusiastic about ham radio and space communications Three of the four antennas are identical and each can support both transmit and receive operations on 2 meter, 70 cm, L band and S band. Once again, the program As the ISS gets closer to the horizon, its distance increases … AEcreative SO-239 to BNC Male coaxial External Antenna Adapter for shortwave Radio Receiver Eton Grundig 750 Tecsun s2000 Cobra Midland CB Uniden Whistler Radioshack Scanner. The company has offices in the Netherlands and the US. 4.4 out of 5 stars 964. FREE … It gives you an idea where to look. the base that easily screws onto a photo tripod. Contact Us Please complete the form below and someone will follow up with as soon as possible. Type the one or two digit number representing which row in the list you're interested in. Adequate communication can be made with ten watts, Hawaii Standard Time is just about nil. If it's a low elevation pass, in a ascending direction, West of you, This regular, successive movement with each orbit is known as "procession". Similarly, the frequency appears to drop after the space station passes overhead and heads to the horizon. Need immediate help? is Those 290 This image shows all 4 antennas … So, don't turn up your receive audio too loud. You can get the keplerian elements (fancy name for orbital parameters) from This angle is called inclination. For the high-end station, I'm running an Icom IC-910H, 100 watts, into an Arrow Satellite Crossband antenna mounted on a video tripod indoors. You can use this PDF file as a rough guide for on the uplink -- causing audio feedback and squeals. In this paper, an end-fire antenna for 28 GHz broadband communications is proposed with its multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) configuration for pattern diversity applications in 5G communication systems and the Internet of Things (IoT). A ¼ wave ground plane has a high angle of radiation and works well. Due to the procession, the ISS makes about 16 orbits during each 24 hour day. You COULD do it with 5 watts, but 50 watts (for example) would overcome a lot of misgivings of not doing doppler compensation on the VHF uplink transmit. oriented more horizontal, to send out a better signal in the vertical direction. The actual altitude varies as time goes on, You will see that these points and paths remain pretty consistent for a given type of path Ten watts of radio output fed into a unity gain vertical antenna such as a ground plane is adequate and transmit on 145.800 Mhz (the downlink frequency). Ascending passes in Hawaii are valuable, because if the astronauts are talking on The astronauts have a regimen of daily exercise, eating and other routines, (There is an exception when the ISS passes over Hawaii and heads towards I use a Manfrotto Bogen 3221 tripod which I use at other times for photos and videos. Keep your fingers crossed. I am planning a series of articles here on our blog to explain the process for preparing our ground station(s) and making our contact. the oncoming motion. (b) from the Northwest to the Southeast (called a descending pass). As an in-between compromise, you may use an external power amplifier hooked up to Generally, the first orbit passes off to the east of the Hawaiian Islands, If you're in Hawaii, you're especially well positioned to work the ISS. Continuing with the above example, the next pass about eight hours later Eric, NH6TY and Rick, KH6OM have mastered these techniques using vertical antennas -- I believe the antennas are outdoor. My favorite handheld beam antenna is the The first is enables the ISS to be an APRS (Automated Position Reporting System) can expect to hear or contact the ISS. and the onboard rocket engines are started occasionally to boost the altitude. For VHF voice communications, the astronauts are usually transmitting ten watts You might think that the ISS would require fancy communications equipment, but the onboard Ham radio station is all commercially available gear that any Ham can buy. If you attempt this, remember to hold the magnetic mount base, and not the loading coil of the antenna. on a directly overhead 90 degree pass, for an ascending pass it'll trace a line from a bearing of 231 degrees, to directly overhead, to 51 degrees on the other side. Circularly Polarized Yagi Antenna for ARISS Contact While building the required radio transceiver, writing satellite tracking software, and building antenna rotor systems is beyond the capabilities of many, students can actively participate in the construction of their satellite ground station by building the antenna. into a "vertical" antenna. The fourth antenna … STSPLUS then displays a list of upcoming passes, in UTC time. As a result, a given location can see the ISS perhaps once, twice, or even three orbits It's rarely directly overhead, and we tend to get two consecutive passes (one to the east, one to the west) timed about 90 minutes apart. If the pass is lower than twenty degrees, a vertical antenna with additional gain It is like the increase in pitch of a car horn as it approach you. It is real easy for the astronaut to pick up the microphone and talk with you, if he's nearby. It would be best if you could do 1 kHz increments on the VHF uplink for doppler compensation, with good transmit power and an antenna, as then you'll get the cleanest signal into the ISS crossband repeat, and you'll get clean audio coming down on the downlink. You can use this knowledge to work around obstacles such as mountains and tall buildings He also notes that he was able to use a Baofeng and Yagi antenna to receive the signal indoors. the "vertical" orientation may or may not match a vertical orientation on earth. The term ascending or descending refers to the satellite's movement relative to the you can operate the ISS from within the valley for a good amount of the pass. It's one of the most isolated locations in the world, ISS operations, see The V-Dipole antenna is a super simple satellite antenna for NOAA/Meteor/ISS etc satellites that recently became popular due to Adam 9A4QV’s writeup on it. this site The compass bearing of Nuuanu, Manoa and Palolo Valleys is approximately 45 degrees, This 58" antenna also has even higher gain at UHF, but as a 9/4 wave antenna it has an ever … (See the manual for your radio for details.) Email Address. Click here to play the video file of a QSO with Bill McArthur, KC5ACR. The Arrow is ideal in that sense, as it has a pre-drilled and pre-threaded hole in For orbital passes that are sixty degrees and higher, until it goes overhead and below forty five degrees. voice mode when the ISS passes over Hawaii, they'll likely keep talking as the But it's still a thrill. As you can see, the possibility of working the astronauts from 12 noon to about 8:00 pm daily As it goes higher than forty five degrees high, use Memory 2 California.). Get it as soon as Fri, Feb 12. The call signs available for use on the ISS are RS0ISS, RZ3DZR, NA1SS, RZ3DZR-1 (packet station mailbox callsign). As the ISS gets closer to the horizon, its distance increases and so the power output should The number of passes, the elevation of the passes, and the relative location to the east or west gives you a feel on how to approach setting up for a contact. spaced about twelve hours apart and So, in a given day, you have two windows of opportunity to make contact with the ISS, You may be one of the fortunate ones who talks with an If it's a low elevation pass, in a descending direction, West of you, lose contact at about the same elevation. you should generally be prepared to point your antenna to the North and East. And, being east or west means being off to one side or another of this line. Memory 1, Freq=145.80 Mhz, Offset =-1.31 Mhz. These are the best times to listen and be ready to talk with the astronauts. You work on understanding each component separately, then bring it all together to make that perfect swing and score the hole-in-one! Not only does it calculate usable ISS passes for the next 24 hours, Office locations. would occur in the sky. You should use a VHF/UHF dual-band mobile transceiver with two separate receivers. While you may be able to work the ISS with five watts while it's overhead, In addition we can use the next accessories : - An antenna preamplifier to increase receiving signals which … tilt the antenna 30 degrees (the tip should be pointing at a 60 degree angle) and point it in the northeast direction. Five watts of radio output fed into a unity gain vertical antenna is adequate to 900 miles One that puts out ten or more watts is ideal. He opened the door for many Hams and Ham radio-based educational outreach programs from space. There are patterns to the series of elevations and successive orbits. Ground Station for Satellites and the ISS. So, when the ISS returns to the original spot about 90 minutes later, The ISS-Ham station also has access to an Antenna system called the Sirius mono-band (147 mHz) antenna mounted on the FBG module. Generally, they are awake and about from about 6:00Z to 22:00Z UTC time. to the East or West of you, and the elevation. At least one of my contacts was with a station using an HT with a whip antenna! The ISS orbits the earth once about every 90 minutes. International Space Station (ISS) So, this is not an item to ignore. He had been trying to use Ham radio in space for nearly twenty years. It won't exactly match the path traced in the sky for a 30 degree path, but it'll be good enough. and passing status information to the crew aboard the ISS. it's easy to make contact with the International Space Station. Depending on the timing of the orbits, the ISS may be in an advantageous position A favorite mode is direct conversation with the astronauts onboard the ISS. for at least as much of the pass as possible. BTW, I saw Honolulu Electronics had these in stock for about $70 (mag mount extra for about another $40). It moves quite quickly in the middle. There are four Ham radio antennas mounted in different locations on the ISS to provide some redundancy, as well as help ensure an antenna will have good coverage of the Earth. This places your nulls roughly on the northeast and southwest horizon, which are the points furthest from where the satellite will … of you speaking to an astronaut aboard the International Space Station (ISS) and other ways you can As you can imagine, an astronaut’s schedule is pretty busy, and they often prefer to use their personal time for other things. If you don't get into the ISS repeater very well (not enough signal strength, poor audio from being off frequency), then you'll get a poor audio signal coming down. There are plenty of ways you can connect with the ISS using Ham DIRECTV, DISH Network, and AT&T U-Verse have chosen not to add Antenna TV to their local channel packages but DIRECTV and DISH Network are making Antenna TV available through their over-the-air receivers with an antenna in some cities that have a local Antenna TV affiliate. Generally speaking, for a given elevation above the horizon, the distance to the About once a month, In the meantime, check out If you can note how well you did at a given location with a given orbital pass (a) either from the Southwest to the Northeast (called an ascending pass), or In Hawaii, you're more likely to work another station from Hawaii. My favorite PC software is STSPLUS. astronaut one day, netting the ultimate DX contact. E-MAIL: … The radios support FM voice communications, an APRS digipeater, and SSTV transmissions. or the packet radio mailbox modes. QSO of March 5, 2006 11:09Z. The advantages are: Next, you should, if possible compensate for doppler on both the transmit and receive. If you choose to just leave the 437.800 frequency for the middle of the pass, you'll hear only the middle 30 seconds. On transmit, you start low at 145.987, 145.988, 145.989, 145.990 -- and proceed to 145.991, 145.992, 145.993. $14.99 $ 14. 3.1 out of 5 stars 3. So, 90 degrees left and right are 121 and 301 degrees (which is the bearing of the street in front of me), and behind me is 31 degrees. APRS you should generally be prepared to point your antenna to the West and South. ISS Minimalist Antenna The purpose of this project was to develop an antenna suggestion that would allow for a simple to duplicate, affordable antenna solution for reasonable access to signals transmitted from the International Space Station (ISS) now and signals from plan CubeSat resources in the near future. As of July 2020, the only licensed Ham radio operator The crew may have some free time on Saturday (Friday evening through Saturday noon Hawaii time) radio. a two meter VHF walkie. Having four antennas also ensures that ham radio operations can … It will still do fine for ISS even though it has less gain at low elevations, because the ISS is 14 dB stronger than PSAT and will be heard at all elevations too. We typically would expect to hear the ISS at a given elevation, and expect to My favorite MAC software is MacDoppler. A fifty five degree pass has more than nine minutes of pass time. At an elevation of 20 degress, the distance (or "range") of the ISS is about 510 miles away. One thing about space communications and the ISS. The antenna’s half wave design gives it a nice doughnut shaped RF radiation pattern that favors the horizon, but still puts enough energy out at all angles to maintain reliable contact with the station without needing to readjust things as the ISS moves across … When the ISS is that close, you can make contact using a rubber duck antenna. and find suitable operating locations. the four common modes: packet radio, voice contacts, the cross-band repeater so the opportunity to work the ARISS amateur radio space station is less than the full work day. as Bill McArthur, KC5ACR, it just might pay to be on the radio and ready during ascending passes. onboard the ISS is Commander Chris Cassidy, KF5KDR. There is a chance that the astronauts will come on during on Saturday and Sunday during their waking hours, as they tend to come on during the weekends and during their lunch time which is between 3 and 4 in the morning our time. at distances approaching 275 miles or so, you'll need more transmit power, My favorite site for getting current news and a rough forecast of the ISS location Another couple of orbits, and about another ten hours later, and you're back near the original starting point. If you should have any questions about ordering or a question about any of our great products, please feel free to contact us using one of the below methods: PHONE: To speak with one of our friendly Customer Service Agents, please call 888-596-2538 between the hours of 8:30 AM – 5:30 PM EST, Monday – Friday. There's hardly anything that will vary and affect the orbit of the ISS in an unscheduled fashion. with the ISS! The second mode is as an automated packet bulletin board system, If you intend to contact the ISS astronauts, you need to be aware of their hours of operations. it allows amateurs around the world to file activity reports for If it's a low elevation pass, in a ascending direction, East of you, In terms of when to switch the receive channels for the doppler effect, split the difference between each of the memory channels CAPTCHA. (ie, 2.5 kHz between each pair of frequencies), and change memory channels when the ISS doppler approaches that point. and slow-scan TV transmissions. We can use this information to accumulate knowledge about our station's performance For the UHF side, set your tuning steps to 5 kHz tuning, instead of the default 25 kHz tuning. When the elevation is high enough, you might get only one pass. As the ISS makes an orbit around the earth, the earth moves underneath it. you'll get a double advantage of improving your transmit and receive. Seattle, where there is about a 30 second overlap with San Francisco and Name Email Company Title Message Thank you! Whether the pass is towards the east or west. in a memory channel in your radio. Coming soon. to about 1,350 miles when it approaches the horizon. So, you need to forecast when the ISS will be visible, The reason for four antennas is redundancy in case of an antenna failure. From the main menu, press F3, F8, n, F, 1, 8. Empfangstechnisch ist dies auf jeden Fall besser! Ehrenamtlich tätige Funkamateure stellen Verbindungen zwischen Schulen und der Raumstation her. educational outreach tool for thousands of schoolkids worldwide, and as If you have a different 2 meter radio, you will need a TNC (Terminal Node Controller) to send and receive packets, or software and a digital interface. Sign up to receive news and updates. With some practice and a bit of planning, you will be able to monitor Call us at 940-325-3301. About nine hours later, you see a 7 degree pass to the east followed by a 32 degree pass to the west. For example, you might see a 35 degree pass to the east, Since the orbit of the ISS is inclined 51 degrees relative to the equator, However, there are other ways you can interact with the ISS via Ham radio. Enjoy, and feel free to drop me an e-mail if you have any questions. the ISS as it passes overhead and soon make digital contacts through the They're consistently on earlier and later in the pass. While over Hawaii, they receive on 144.490 Mhz (the uplink frequency) There is a rule in ham radio: It's best to leave it in VFO mode, if you can. He was running a Kenwood TM-D700 indoors, 50 watts, and a single vertical antenna that was not tilted. First off, assuming you are using a vertical antenna, you'll need a Only 16 left in stock - order soon. recreation for licensed astronauts onboard various spacecraft. described by these three parameters, Wenn man öfter mal reinhören will, würde sich eine Außenantenne empfehlen. On receive, set your UHF radio to 5 kHz tuning increments. QSO of June 24, 2006. do with a pass next time it has similar matching parameters. Not only will you cut off the transmit and receive signal, you'll expose your hand to excessive RF. When the ISS is at the horizon, the ISS is typically about 1,200 miles away. But, if you didn't compensate for doppler shift on the UHF downlink, your usable time in the middle is only 30 seconds. I find the roll up bag very valuable for keeping all the parts together If you live in metro Honolulu, knowing the ascending or descending passes is useful information. I find it easier to place the antenna on a good photo or video tripod and use the handle i.e. You wouldn't hear anything before, or afterwards, as your receiver would probably pick up a 5 watt UHF signal, 280 miles away that's off frequency by about 3 kHz or less. equator. Get in touch with us by filling out the contact form below. You can use this magnetic declination calculator. See all replies Recent Video The equipment onboard the ISS supports two modes of automated operation using packet radio. NOT the gain for satellites - but a great alternative to stock HT antennas! The new antenna systems were connected to the ISS-Ham station in December 2003. Similarly, you can't work (or contact) the ISS if it's not "visible" above the horizon. Chuck, N6NCT, achieved spectacular performance on his first try by following these instructions carefully. Thanks to Patrick Stoddard, WD9EWK, for his assistance. and 10 and 20 degrees variances of these points are. It will take place sometime during the first week of December (December 3rd – 8th) at the Hudson Memorial School (HMS) here in Hudson, NH. resembles making an FM repeater contact The Antenna Company International N.V. High Tech … You will need to adjust your radio to transmit with a minus 1.31 Mhz offset. The antennas are designed to withstand kick loads of 125 lbs. I was able to make solid contacts using the Ground Station here using only 1.5 watts uplink power when the ISS was at 10 degrees above the horizon. to prepare for the pass. you have quite a bit of experience under your belt to make contacts with the J-Poles are actually a very good antenna choice for contacting the ISS either by voice or digital modes. If you want to see the effect by getting a list of azimuth (compass bearing) and elevation for a given pass, use the pass predictor on the website magnetic declination, onboard digipeater. most thrilling means of making a space contact to happen in several years. Take a look at the notes below. The flex coil matching network provides at band center low SWR as well as a +/- 5 MHz band center. monitor Hawaii during the peak of a hurricane. But, if you want to include it, here are the memory channels. So if you know where to aim the antenna, you can … One of the special applications of the ISS is the ability for the ISS to If you use a beam antenna such as the Arrow crossband satellite antenna, I believe they're using 5 kHz doppler correction on both the VHF uplink and UHF downlink. is a very valuable PC program for calculating ahead of time the times, azimuth, elevation and doppler shifts do not use such a gain vertical antenna. Even with an Arrow beam antenna, if you're within 10 degrees, it's good enough. heavens-above.com But successful contacts have even been made with vertical and ground plane antennas. If you don't adjust for doppler on the VHF uplink, it isn't so bad as the maximum doppler shift is 3.3 kHz and you won't lose out on the middle half of the pass. In order to gain maximum advantage in the contact, it is advantageous to