ISS voice transmissions

andyT · Post by **andyT** » Fri Feb 17, 2012 10:52 am

Davej wrote:Hi,

Just had a good visual pass and voice comms from tonights (Thurs) pass at 20.00. Watched the ISS for about a minute before it faded but heard the voice comms (Russian, 143.625 FM) untill they too faded at 20.04.

Incidently there will be a school contact (Italy) on Feb 24th at 14.02 UT. Not heard any for a while. It will be a low pass but well worth a try I think.
CalSky give the pass time as 14.02 to 14.09 UT (for my location).

All the best
Dave

Hi Dave,well done on that mate,i was running the base unit here,i thought i heard weak comms but not 100% sure.
Were the russian comms 'plainly heard' for you Dave.
Rgds,
andy

Davej · Post by **Davej** » Fri Feb 17, 2012 1:49 pm

Hi Andy,

Yes the voice comms were quite clear (couldn't understand what they were saying though

)
There has been quite a bit of activity recently on that freq. but no packet signals for a while.
Incidently there was live coverage yesterday afternoon on TV of an EVA being carried out (didn't find out about this until I got a call from one of grandkids, was intereting to watch) and I have read several reports where voice comms were heard during the EVA on 143.625 FM.

All the best
Dave

andyT · Post by **andyT** » Fri Feb 17, 2012 10:31 pm

Hi Dave,yes i saw it on skytv,i've not heard any packets myself for a while,after seeing the EVA on tv i ran the base unit with just the iss freq's etc,i heard something but not sure what freq it was on,the scanner went off straight away,to resume scanning.
Worth keeping 143.625 in the scan bank.
rgds,
andy.

Davej · Post by **Davej** » Sat Feb 18, 2012 9:35 am

Hi Andy,

Yes it's certainly worthwhile monitoring the 143.625 freq.
Looks like the packet signals are up and running again, heard them on two passes yesterday evening.

Was looking on some of the ARISS sites yesterday and came across this link. Doug Wheelock (Expedition 25 crew commander who we have heard several times on school contacts) is explaining the procedure for HAM activity on the ISS. Very interesting.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h73EYcyszf8

All the best
Dave

andyT · Post by **andyT** » Sat Feb 18, 2012 12:53 pm

Thanks for that Dave,some good footage there too of the capsule extraction,seems a very old fashioned way of returning to earth

will keep the base unit running,hopefully will get more time to monitor and post here,
Andy

dazcaz · Post by **dazcaz** » Sat Feb 18, 2012 2:36 pm

Reading these gets me thinking...

The packet traffic, is it standard AX-25 like what we hams use or is it another format?

I used to run software that could decode most things, great for pagers etc.
This was so long ago, I forget what it is, but there is tons of stuff out there for the listener.

I once heard the ISS calling CQ. I have my V/UHF FM ham rig programmed for the ISS.
This was the time when "the space tourist" was up.
He finished talking to a school and called CQ.
I replied, no answer. I called again, no answer. This continued until I lost the ISS.
It was only then that I realised that I had not pushed my Split frequency button in, so I was calling him back on the frequency he was calling on, rather than the frequency he was listening on

I am certain that my 50 Watts into a decent antenna would have made the trip. I have regretted this ever since. I have worked through less able "satellites" using just 5 watts from a hand held!

I now have the rig programmed so that it transmits and receives on the right frequency automatically, so I cannot screw up next time

For a while I had a hard drive based MP3 machine connected to my rig.
The rig would scan both the Ham ISS freq and the official ISS freq. If anything came along, the recorder would turn on and record it until it faded. I have hours of russian chat, but very little english

I can dig some of these out if anyone is interested.

Davej · Post by **Davej** » Sat Feb 18, 2012 3:41 pm

Hi dazcaz,

Yes it is AX-25 for the packet traffic as you suggested, also I am sure 50 watts is more than enough. I know that an handheld transceiver and a whip antenna is often used for contacting the ISS.
What would you say is the 'official' ISS freq ?

All the best
Dave

dazcaz · Post by **dazcaz** » Sat Feb 18, 2012 4:21 pm

143.625.... i think... On my rig it shows as ISS 1.... The ISS 2 is the ham freq

It's been a while since I saw what freq I programmed in

I called it the official freq as it can only be used by those who need to talk to the ISS. the other is used by those who WANT to

Davej · Post by **Davej** » Sat Feb 18, 2012 9:44 pm

Hi,
The 143.625 freq. is used mainly by the Russians when the ISS is suitably placed for contacting Moscow (and sometimes the comms are in English when the Americans are speaking to their representatives there (Star City).
I know that the packet signal is not operational during Ham activity but I have heard it several times (145.825) at the same time as the Russian comms are being transmitted on 143.625.

Good strong packet signal on this evenings 19.42 pass and it made a great sight as it passed fairly close by Venus and then Jupiter.

All the best
Dave

dazcaz · Post by **dazcaz** » Sat Feb 18, 2012 10:48 pm

I have heard very little english on 143.625.
I am not sure if the ISS ham repeater is still operational.
if it is and it operates the same as the OSCAR birds then it might be that the mode changes during different times of day. I read that the uplink has moved to 70CMs (430 Mhz). This will really cause problems as the doppler shift will be much more noticeable.
It also means that I won't be able to chat with the astronauts should they be calling CQ as they pass overhead

I'm going to look into it a bit more and see what, if anything, has changed.

David Frydman · Post by **David Frydman** » Fri Feb 24, 2012 2:34 pm

2012 Feb 24 13.58 to 14.09 UT

Listened to voice channel ISS. Heard nothing at all, not even carrier wave changes. Yupi 7100, telescopic standard.

Regards, David

Davej · Post by **Davej** » Fri Feb 24, 2012 3:16 pm

Hi David,

I managed a very short voice comm around 14.06 UT (not very audible) didn't expect too much though as the alt. was only 6.1 deg (for me). Might have got more but wanted to see if I could pick it up with the 'rubber duck' antenna (upstairs window facing SE) rather than the outside one (that will probably be the limit for the 'rubber duck').
There will be another school contact on Feb 27th 12.45 UT Again nothing on HA but CalSky give a pass from 12.47 to 12.53 UT but again very low (only 5.5 deg for my location) but will give it a try.
There will be a better chance on March 2nd. School contact (Greece but will be in English), at 17.03 UT Alt 32 deg. Pass times for me are 16.57 to 17.07 UT. Well worth a shout that one

.

All the best
Dave

dazcaz · Post by **dazcaz** » Sat Feb 25, 2012 6:18 pm

this evenings pass went right over Cardiff.
Head PI9ISS talking to another PA station. tried calling back when they finished but no reply. Not sure if the uplink is still 145.200 or whatever it was.

30 over 9 here at the peak!

Davej · Post by **Davej** » Sat Feb 25, 2012 6:56 pm

dazcaz wrote:this evenings pass went right over Cardiff.
Head PI9ISS talking to another PA station. tried calling back when they finished but no reply. Not sure if the uplink is still 145.200 or whatever it was.

30 over 9 here at the peak!

Hi,
Yes it was a very high pass (78 deg. for me). Heard voice comms from about 17.56 to 17.59 UT (Andre Kuipers ESA astronaut) giving out his callsign very clearly.
The uplink is 145.200 as you thought. Will see if there is anything else on the next (19.28 UT) pass.
All the best
Dave

Davej · Post by **Davej** » Thu Mar 01, 2012 3:07 pm

Hi,
Just heard voice comms (Thurs 1st) on the 14.47 UT pass (wasn't expecting it, lucky I heard it really). After a bit of checking I found it was Andre Kuipers who was speaking to a radio HAM operator.
Tomorrows 17.03 UT school contact should be worth a listen and there will be another school contact (Netherlands) on the 6th March. Very high pass well worth listening out for.
All the best
Dave