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Amateur Radio on the International Space Station
- Overtonwindow 9y agoI 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?
- tomswartz07 9y agoAre 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 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?
- ThinkingGuy 9y agoThis site is a really good resource: https://www.issfanclub.com/ https://www.issfanclub.com/
- timvdalen 9y agoThis reminds me of Dinah in 'Seveneves' by Neal Stephenson, communicating with her father from the ISS.
- robertbryan 9y agoYes, this is similar. Source: Am Dinan.
- stonepresto 9y agoAmateur Radio Licensing at http://www.arrl.org/getting-licensed http://www.arrl.org/getting-licensed for those interested. You'll need it if you want to attempt to contact the ISS.
- gooseus 9y agoI 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/ http://arcticserver.com/alaskamorningnetmain1/ [1] https://www.amazon.com/BTECH-UV-5X3-Watt-Tri-Band-Radio/dp/B01J2W4JUI/ https://www.amazon.com/BTECH-UV-5X3-Watt-Tri-Band-Radio/dp/B... [2] https://www.portlandoregon.gov/pbem/59630 https://www.portlandoregon.gov/pbem/59630
- makomk 9y agoIt'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.
- gooseus 9y agoWow, now that I did not realize... do you know the reasoning behind making it so difficult?
- therealidiot 9y agoMy father wanted a license and found it incredibly difficult to get in contact with the nearby group, only to find out (when he eventually managed to get in contact) that they wouldn't be holding any exams for some significant period of time Just seems like a clusterfuck to get the damn thing, the foundation exam is dead simple. I'm totally unsurprised by the dwindling popularity of amateur radio here. Even if the difficulty isn't the driving factor, I'm sure it deters lots of people who otherwise would be interested.
- bryananderson 9y agoI 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.
- kenrick95 9y agoReminded me of "Before Mars" from National Geographic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPuTlZYDbh4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPuTlZYDbh4
- randomerr 9y agoI'm pulling my Baofeng out of storage.
- zitterbewegung 9y agoIf 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.
- kozak 9y agoIn the second point, did you mean "not through the internet"?
- zitterbewegung 9y agoNo, the endpoints are communicated through radio but they are linked using a system similar to VOIP.
- mseebach 9y agoThen why don't you just use the internet in the first place, and skip the license and expensive equipment?
- BenjiWiebe 9y agoYa I agree (as a ham). No point in using internet linked repeaters as a reason to get into ham radio. If you have a ham radio, sure, play around with it, but it is kinda pointless. It doesn't exactly teach you how to communicate when the internet doesn't work. -K0COW
- vvanders 9y agoJust because they're connected to the internet doesn't immediately invalidate their use. We've got the PNW DMR network up here[1] that gives you tons of coverage where cellphones don't[2] all through a linked repeater system. We had an emergency a while back where someone got stranded up on the mountain due to a flat tire and they were diabetic so it was an urgent situation. In that case just hitting one repeater they were able to raise anyone in WA state that was listening vs just the local repeater. Ham radio is a different thing to different people so just because you don't see value in it doesn't mean that others don't find it interesting and a reason to get into the hobby. As a younger ham it's super frustrating to see this attitude whenever anything internet and/or packet related comes up that people dump on because it's not the thing that they enjoy. [1] http://trbo.org/pnw/index.html http://trbo.org/pnw/index.html [2] http://trbo.org/pnw/images/heatmaps/WA-Combined.jpg http://trbo.org/pnw/images/heatmaps/WA-Combined.jpg
- kregasaurusrex 9y agoMy 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. The test banks for each level are all publicly posted and have a rotation of about 3 years for each level. Edit: Meant to type QSL, not QST.
- kawfey 9y agoFinally, 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/ http://www.amsat.org/status/ [1] https://amsat-uk.org/tag/eshail-2/ https://amsat-uk.org/tag/eshail-2/ [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJrA62t141s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJrA62t141s
- chrissnell 9y agoIf you find AMSAT interesting, you'll probably also enjoy the high altitude ballooning (HAB) projects. This guy [0] built an 11-gram transponder payload and floated it up on what was, essentially, a mylar party balloon. It circled the globe at least once and came ashore over the northwestern U.S. near Tacoma, WA and I was lucky enough to pick it up on a handheld radio while standing in my backyard [1]. [0] https://amsat-uk.org/2014/07/31/434-mhz-balloon-b-64-completes-epic-journey/ https://amsat-uk.org/2014/07/31/434-mhz-balloon-b-64-complet... [1] https://imgur.com/a/2qEC0 https://imgur.com/a/2qEC0
- stilldavid 9y agoHey Chris, Dave KI6YMZ here :) We did a SOTA peak many years ago in CO together! You should check out HIRF-6 as well. Similar payload, and has been airborne since September of 2016! https://www.qrp-labs.com/circumnavigators.html https://www.qrp-labs.com/circumnavigators.html https://aprs.fi/info/a/HIRF-6 https://aprs.fi/info/a/HIRF-6
- olfactory 9y agoI can't recommend amateur radio enough to fellow HN readers. There are so many things to do -- my favorite is HF CW.
- efosmark 9y agoIt really is a hobby so rich & vast it can take a whole lifetime to explore. So much fun. 73, de K7FOS
- jventura 9y agoWhat is so interesting about amateur radio, besides talking to other people? Could you expand a little bit on this? This is an honest question, as I used to be a licensed user of CB radios but the bad mood of truck drivers and mIRC (internet) led me to leave it eventually.
- stagger87 9y agoI imagine everyone gets something different out of it. I have my technicians but have never made contact and barely listen. I use it as an excuse to learn electronics. There is a lot of material written for the HAM audience that is great for learning about electronics.
- olfactory 9y agoI'm curious which area of making contacts you think you would find most fun if you were to become more active? I tried some meteor scatter last year and it was fairly thrilling.
- squarefoot 9y agoDoing experiments outside of a personal lab in a legal way.
- Johnythree 9y agoBuilding radios! Doesn't matter if it's very simple, or very complex, you get enormous satisfaction when it works and you can actually communicate with someone.
- blendo 9y ago"A key development is the Multi-Voltage Power Supply (MVPS), which interfaces with multiple electric outlet connection types on ISS and provides a multitude of power output capabilities for our current and future ARISS operations and amateur radio experimentation. It will also allow our Ham Video system to have a dedicated power outlet, eliminating the outlet sharing we have now, which shuts down Ham Video at times." Looks like quite a feat to qualify a spacecraft power supply! Question for hams: since USB Power Delivery can supply 20V at 5A, might USB serve as a standardized power source for radio amplifiers? How "clean" is the power?
- DarronWyke 9y ago>Looks like quite a feat to qualify a spacecraft power supply! It's actually a hell of a feat to get any kind of electronics certified for outer space use. The atmosphere we have blocks a HUGE portion of ionizing radiation, including x-rays and gamma rays. Those forms of energy will play merry hell with any kind of sensitive electronics, so they have to be suitably ruggedized -- far more so than even most military specs which mostly call for shock, impact, and exposure to elements. Since they can be supplying power to sensitive electronics, where half a volt can be the difference between containing and letting out the magic smoke, that sort of regulation is absolutely key.
- jdietrich 9y ago>since USB Power Delivery can supply 20V at 5A, might USB serve as a standardized power source for radio amplifiers? Probably not. A typical amateur transceiver draws about 300W on transmit, which massively exceeds the 100W limit of USB Power Delivery. A linear amplifier running at the American legal limit will draw as much as 3.5kW. The de-facto standard for mobile equipment is 13.8v DC +/- 10%, which allows for operation on standard lead-acid batteries.
- superkuh 9y agoEven for things that use 5v USB explicitly I try not to use USB power. Instead I use a linear regulator to drop down the voltage to it instead of the noisy/efficient switching power supplies in USB power units.
- 9y ago
- jabl 9y ago> A key development is the Multi-Voltage Power Supply (MVPS), which interfaces with multiple electric outlet connection types on ISS So here we have the supposed pinnacle of human achievement and international cooperation, and they can't even agree on a common electrical plug and voltage? Excuse me while I go and cry in my beer..
- mostlyskeptical 9y agoYou probably have multiple plug types in your house. Single phase, two phase, maybe three phase, groundless, etc. They might have similar requirements.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- mulmen 9y agoIt's a matter of perspective. You could say that building an interoperable power supply was a pragmatic solution to multiple independent engineering teams building modules. This approach allows individual teams to use power systems they are familiar with so they can focus on actually building the ISS. I know little about it but the MVPS sounds like one of the ISS' many accomplishments.
- philcrump 9y agoIt's often referred to as "two space stations flying in close proximity". One Russian, one American. 28VDC on the Russian side, 124VDC on the American. Rumour has it that there's bolts with imperial thread on one end and metric on the other holding them together in the middle..
- XnoiVeX 9y agoI 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.
- vvanders 9y ago> In the case of a real emergency, the FCC allows you to use a Ham radio without a license. While that's close there's an important distinction that it's only in the case where you have no other viable options for communications and life or property is in danger[1]. However if you don't have a license you can't practice so it's really better to spend the tiny effort to get licensed :). [1] https://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/text-idx?c=ecfr&SID=336ab7469b61ecbfa15086dbf1bf2c59&rgn=div5&view=text&node=47:5.0.1.1.6&idno=47#se47.5.97_1403 https://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/text-idx?c=ecfr&SID=336ab7469b6...
- sigspec 9y agoWhat's the policy of listening on these devices without participating (no license)?
- vvanders 9y agoTotally fine, listen away!
- bluGill 9y agoFor 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.
- 9y ago
- nickysielicki 9y agoAmateur satellite radio is extremely fun. There has never been a better time to get into it, with cheap $20 handheld radios and a dual band antenna system with a bit of gain, you can get in with regularity on any of the new Fox1 transponders. Hope to hear you guys on the air! DE W9NLS
- threeio 9y agoI’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 http://reddit.com/r/amateurradio 73, N3LGA
- madengr 9y agoThough not as entertaining as 7.200 MHz. KD4HSO
- radioo75555 9y agoWhat's on 7.2? I rarely listen to HF.
- madengr 9y agoA couple of lids, trying there hardest to get fined by the FCC by trolling hams. I have an SDR here: http://64.136.200.36:8073/ http://64.136.200.36:8073/
- BlankMike 9y agoWow. I just used your SDR (totally cool). What I am hearing right now is simply horrific (LSB brings it in loud and clear). If these guys have tickets, the FCC needs to pull them.
- madengr 9y agoThey do, at least one of them does. It's a daily occurrence. As long as it stays at 7.200 MHz, I suppose it's just entertainment. FCC enforcement (as long as you don't interface with emergency comms) is pretty much non-existent.
- lighttower 9y agoPhenomenal SDR. How do you get such wide bandwidth on a single antenna?
- peterkshultz 9y agoAnybody interested in this might want to check out EME (Earth-Moon-Earth) communication: point an antenna at the moon, bounce a signal off of it, and coordinate with someone back on Earth to receive it. More details here: http://www.moonbouncers.org/ http://www.moonbouncers.org/
- muttonchop-dev 9y agoMy grandpa was really into amateur radio, he still gets postcards from NASA when he pinged the ISS unannounced. https://www.csmonitor.com/1982/1202/120236.html https://www.csmonitor.com/1982/1202/120236.html
- PaulHoule 9y agoFrom time to time I have heard people talking to the space station as it passes overhead on my 2 meter handheld. Sometimes the radio on the space station is connected to an APRS repeater which will repeat packets. With a very modest home station (a 2 meter radio marketed for use in a car and an omnidirectional antenna) I have communicated with stations 1000 miles away. To really have a talk w/ people on the space station you really do want a better station, at the very least a directional Yagi with a rotator.
- 0xdeadbeefbabe 9y agoStill saving up for an elecraft rig.
- gerry_shaw 9y agoI'm about a third of the way building my K2. Really hard to justify the expense of the kit but is the mother of all kits to build and the end result will provide a lot of satisfaction. I've just started testing the first of the boards and was surprised when it just worked (i.e., turned on and no smoke was visible).
- vvanders 9y agoGot a KX3 a while back and I can confirm that it does live up to the hype. I may be getting their 100W amp down the line with the current state of the band conditions though.
- lofaldli 9y agoI actually recorded a contact between NASA astronaut Joe Acaba (KE5DAR) and students from Lithuania today as the ISS passed over Germany. https://soundcloud.com/lofaldli/ariss-contact-14022018 https://soundcloud.com/lofaldli/ariss-contact-14022018 73, LB1IH
- pretendscholar 9y agoWhy can't you hear the Lithuanians?
- th0ma5 9y agoFT8 is a popular low power digital modeling these days for HF. I highly recommend reading the specification!
- olfactory 9y ago> I highly recommend reading the specification I agree. It's amazing how well it works. I've played with FT8 and WSPR and communicated with Australia using 500mw (from the midwest USA).
- th0ma5 9y agoMy Rpi1 WSPR transmitter was heard once in New Zealand on 30M and it is just the Pi, a filter, a tuner, and a long wire over the roof. Here in central Ohio I routinely get Thunder Bay receiving me with the setup which is wild.
- olfactory 9y agoWow, very cool. I'll have to try the Rpi WSPR transmitter. Do you happen to have a link? Does it require the Rpi v1?
- idoescompooters 9y agoAmateur radio needs more love here. Upgraded to my Extra license last night!
- 8bitsrule 9y agoCongrats, OM! (or YL as the case may be ;->)
- godelski 9y agoI just want to remind everyone that it only costs $10-$15 to get a license. You can generally take multiple tests in one day, so you could get a technician's and general in one day. Not too much use to get an extra. The tests are pretty easy and I'd expect most people on this site can get the technician without studying. Test questions are from a pool and you can do practice tests here[1] [1] http://aa9pw.com/radio/ http://aa9pw.com/radio/
- jakebasile 9y agoAnd you only have to do those tests once. You can renew every 10 years in perpetuity. I got mine at a HAM fest I went to with my dad 12 years ago. I hadn't studied. It's fairly basic things about radio and legal things like 'can you use amateur radio for business?' (no). - KD8ECA :)
- kstrauser 9y agoSeriously? On my technician practice exams, I aced the physics stuff ("What's the wavelength of a 7.255MHz signal?" "Let's see, the speed of light divided by 7,255,000 is...") but the FCC regs part was an utter black box. "What's the maximum permitted power on a 20m frequency?" A lot of that was sheer memorization. - KM6OCD
- godelski 9y agoThe technician part I was really mostly physics, so it was trivial. I see that on most practice exams (you do need to memorize some of the FCC stuff). When you go for general, that's where I felt that you needed more the memorization. (I tried to do a tech and general test in a single sitting. Missed the general by a point and never bothered going back for it) - KK6AWC
- elkos 9y agoYou might want to check out the most recent ARISS contact as recorded by the SatNOGS Network of satellite ground stations. https://community.libre.space/t/ariss-contact-vilniaus-jono-basanaviciaus-gymnasium-together-with-vilniaus-jono-basanaviciaus-progymnasium-vilnius-lithuania-direct-via-ly1bwb/1698 https://community.libre.space/t/ariss-contact-vilniaus-jono-...
- jhallenworld 9y agoChallenge: they have WiFi on the ISS. Pick up the signal from earth and tell me what SSIDs they use.