ISS Amateur radio contact Friday Morning

Hi,

Picked this up on an amateur radio email list. People with amateur radio equipment, or even a handheld scanner outdoors should be able to pick this up. I've never tried listening to the ISS before so I can't provide much advice.

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Friday, January 8, 2016 at approximately 08:47 UTC, an ARISS contact
is planned for Sandringham School, St. Albans, Hertfordshire, United
Kingdom. Amateur radio station GB1SAN, will operate the contact. The
ARISS HAM radio station GB1SS on the board of the International Space
Station will be operated by Timothy Peake KG5BVI.
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The ISS Downlink frequency is 145.800 MHz so you'll hear Tim Peake's answers to questions. Since the communication is over VHF which is pretty much line of sight, you won't be able to pick up the transmission from the school.

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Students will ask as many of the following questions as time allows.

1. Hugo (12): What do you think Isaac Newton would say if he knew that
the name of your mission was based on his book?

2. Imogen (17): If you had a liquid hydrocarbon in space would the
intermolecular forces be strong enough to hold it in a ball of liquid?

3. Philip (15): How is rapid cooling of liquid metals performed in the
EML experiment?

4. Jess (12): The EML is being used to study alloy structure and
formation. What are the benefits of using space as a scientific
platform?

5. Jamie (18): What would happen to a helium balloon aboard the ISS?

6. Aiswarya (15): With the EXPOSE-R2 experiment are, you able to
predict if any samples will be able to survive outside in space?

7. Samuel (10): What's the most exciting thing that's happened to you
so far on the ISS?

8. Josh (12): With your view of earth, is there one thing which stands
out visually?

9. Liberty (15): We hear that you are planning on driving the Mars
Rover from space, how does that work?

10. Jessica (9): Does gravity affect time and ageing?

11. (Hugo (12): If you could visit any planet in the solar system
(which isn't gas), which planet would you visit and why?

12. Imogen (17): How does your body feel when you are weightless?

13. Philip (15): What did you bring with you to the ISS?

14. Jess (12): Is the sun more powerful in space?

15. Jamie (18): Did you want to be an astronaut when you were a boy
and is it like you thought it would be?

16. Aiswarya (15): As you are communicating with us, do you get the
chance to communicate with your family?

17. Samuel (10): If you could send any message out into space what would it be?

18. Josh (12): What do you think the hardest adjustment in coming back
down to Earth will be?

19. Liberty (15): What is the most amazing thing you have seen in space?

20. Jessica (9): Where do you stand on the theory of a multiverse
existence and do you think it is possible to find any evidence for or
against this in space?
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Cheers,
~Al

That is really cool. I have a Bearcat scanner that I use for astronomy from time to time. I think I have picked up the ISS twice over the years but I might have had the wrong gain antenna and the transmission was a bit broken. I have since used an old RTE 2 television aerial, which is pretty good for catching meteor bursts now and again. I just might try this tomorrow morning and see.

Thanks for sharing Albert.

Seanie.

A regular metal telescopic whip antenna might be good for this. Set it to about 50cm long and leave it perpendicular to the ISS (i.e. not pointing at it! - mind you I end up waving the radio around like a madman trying to swat a fly with an antenna trying to get signals!). 50cm is about a quarter of the wavelength of the transmission.

I'm planning on making a Yagi antenna for the 2m band in the next few weeks so I'll let you how that improves the reception.

Cheers,
~Al

Buppkiss, got nothing. Using the scanner's own 15cm antenna and the RTE 2 aerial.

I did try an 'Albert White', but all I looked like was an amateur Jedi master gently waving an invisible light sabre...

I couldn't find my taxi aerial in time which would have given me the 50cm suggested one.

Seanie.

I only fared marginally better. I got the callsign when it was more or less overhead but nothing else, so perhaps I wasn't accounting for the doppler shifts in frequency enough? Only using the scanners rubber ducky antenna didn't help.

This is the best (read: only intelligible) audio:



Good enough proof of concept to spend a bit more time on antennas and trying to eavesdrop more satellites

Cheers,
~Al

albertw wrote: This is the best (read: only intelligible) audio:



Good enough proof of concept to spend a bit more time on antennas and trying to eavesdrop more satellites

Nice capture on the callsign. And I agree re: trying for more satellites. I have gotten some passes before but they usually just sound like shortwave blips and beeps.

Seanie.