[HN Gopher] How to Hear the ISS
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       How to Hear the ISS
        
       Author : lemonspat
       Score  : 48 points
       Date   : 2021-01-11 02:00 UTC (20 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (amsat-uk.org)
 (TXT) w3m dump (amsat-uk.org)
        
       | gorkish wrote:
       | AMSAT articles about this always kind of bug me. They make it
       | sound like this is really difficult, but has the cool payoff that
       | you can listen to/ talk to astronauts! Unfortunately both of
       | these assumptions are far from reality.
       | 
       | For anyone who wants to do this with their kids, I would highly
       | caution you to temper any expectations that they will be able to
       | hear or talk to the crew: while entirely possible and also pretty
       | easy, it's a very rare treat to make a contact. The crew keeps
       | very busy and most do not carry amateur radio licenses.
       | 
       | The ISS is a trivial satellite target. I cannot overstate the
       | ease of receiving it compared to other satellites. A $20 radio
       | like a Baofeng UV5R or an RTLSDR dongle is all you need. A fancy
       | directional antenna, worrying about doppler shift, tracking its
       | position, etc. are not necessary with ISS to listen to the FM
       | 145.800MHz voice or 145.825 (1200 baud AFSK ax.25) packet radio
       | downlinks. Voice activity is incredibly rare as I mentioned, but
       | packet activity is nearly constant as it consists of ground
       | stations relaying through the ISS digipeater. If you want to be
       | sure your setup is working, listen for packet data. You should
       | also check online to make sure the digipeater is currently
       | operational. For various reasons, it is sometimes offline.
       | 
       | Most of the ISS packet traffic is APRS and include position data
       | which you can decode with a cell phone or a computer (or a radio
       | that supports APRS or packet). It's fun to watch a visible pass
       | while monitoring the traffic to see where it's all coming from.
       | My kids who are typically not terribly interested in my nerd
       | hobbies enjoy this particular one quite a lot.
        
         | drewnick wrote:
         | Great points on managing expectations.
         | 
         | In my experience the new voice repeater is quite busy on
         | 437.800 output. While you won't be talking to astronauts,
         | you'll be hearing it and often can see it move across the sky
         | while listening. My kids get a huge kick out of it.
        
       ___________________________________________________________________
       (page generated 2021-01-11 22:01 UTC)