
Details on the Ham Radio Equipment Being Used on the ISS - themoralone
http://k0lwc.com/new-ham-radio-onboard-the-iss-is-on-the-air/
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lennartkoopmann
Here is a video of me listening to the repeater while the ISS passes over
Houston, TX at night:
[https://twitter.com/_lennart/status/1305685955370725376](https://twitter.com/_lennart/status/1305685955370725376)

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jcims
Absolutely love this capture.

The ISS is between 250-300 miles away in this picture, traveling so fast that
a drop of sweat has the kinetic energy of a 44 magnum. And yet the short
antenna and circuitry on that little $50 radio can see what amounts to a
microwave lightbulb hanging off the ISS well enough to extract a one part in a
million fluctuations in power four hundred and thirty seven million times a
second.

Pretty wild

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giomasce
That's actually true for most electromagnetic telecoms. Ten orders of
magnitude between the transmitted and received power is usually the easy case.
With more careful techniques you can do even twenty or more orders of
magnitude.

And yes, it baffles me as well.

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jcims
There's a reason the word 'magic' is invoked around RF more than just about
any technology.

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akira2501
My favorite is GPS. Not only below the noise floor, but significantly below
it.. and all the satellites are on the same frequency. Gold codes are insane.

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amatecha
I absolutely love that the ISS crew are so involved with amateur radio
activities. It was a huge motivator to try out some new stuff, and it was
super exciting to pick up actual image transmissions[0] from the space
station!! I honestly couldn't believe it was for real until the image was
actually coming through. As someone who had almost no experience with radio
stuff, this was, as someone else said in this discussion already, "like
magic". :)

[0]:
[https://twitter.com/amatecha/status/1157891660648370176](https://twitter.com/amatecha/status/1157891660648370176)

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teuna
sent my dad the link thinking this is cool

he replied with this link [https://ve3cnu.blogspot.com/2012/03/this-ham-shack-
is-crazy....](https://ve3cnu.blogspot.com/2012/03/this-ham-shack-is-
crazy.html)

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macintux
Thanks, fascinating.

Unfortunately looking at his logs I fear he may be a silent key. No contacts
in a year.

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kiddico
I had to look up what sk was... I think you're right

> By now you've probably guessed that George isn't exactly a spring chicken,
> and that he's getting up in years. This is very true and it is one of his
> great wishes that his collection find a permanent home after he's gone so
> that future generations can enjoy and appreciate the hobby for many years to
> come.

I wonder if anyone was able to make that happen.

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tlrobinson
This is using the D710G for the APRS digipeater, cross-band FM repeater, and
for simplex / SSTV transmissions? Impressive. It will be interesting to see
how it holds up.

And nice marketing for Kenwood!

I’d probably get a D710G if I had a more suitable vehicle for it, like a space
station (or truck I guess).

I have the D72A which is the handheld equivalent (fewer features of course,
but has APRS/packet radio TNC built in) and it’s great.

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ThinkingGuy
The article implies that the previous the ham rig on the ISS was the Ericsson
handheld. Wasn't there a Kenwood D700 operating for quite a while?

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themoralone
The D700 was not very operational as they didn't think it through very well.
Cooling was an issue as was the software loaded on. Lots of bugs. This new
IORS discussed in the article addresses much of that. What has been working
tirelessly are the two Ericcson HTs.

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op00to
This is great, except it always seems like it's the same big booming voices
every time blasting their way in on the ISS and other FM satellites.

