
Amateur Radio on the International Space Station - indescions_2018
http://www.ariss.org/
======
kawfey
Finally, 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)

~~~
shiplet
Hey!! No kidding! One of my goals for this year is to finally get my call
sign. I've been on the verge the past two years, but things with work kept
coming up. This year however, this year it's gonna happen.

~~~
pdelbarba
There are plenty of really good apps on the android app store at least.
They'll just feed you the questions and correct your answers. Took about 1 wk
of semi serious use to pass technician and another week to get general and
extra together (though I work in a related field, YMMV)

~~~
nickysielicki
Skip the apps, just go to hamstudy.org and then add it to your homescreen
instead of as a tab.

------
threeio
I’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
Though not as entertaining as 7.200 MHz. KD4HSO

~~~
radioo75555
What's on 7.2? I rarely listen to HF.

~~~
madengr
A 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
Wow. 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
They 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.

------
zitterbewegung
If 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.

~~~
flatline
There are lots of interesting hobbyist/hacker/maker projects as well, like the
sdr chips, HF kits like uBitX, and FaradayRF. One of my coworkers has his
license to track model rockets with a small transmitter that sends GPS
telemetry. Lots of cool stuff!

~~~
Tunecrew
I (Amateur Extra) ordered a BitX40 and about a month later they announced the
uBitX... so I've ordered one of those, and not only going to hack the firmware
and do some upgrades but also learn about 3D printing to make a case :)

------
stonepresto
Amateur 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
I 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/B...](https://www.amazon.com/BTECH-UV-5X3-Watt-Tri-Band-
Radio/dp/B01J2W4JUI/)

[2]
[https://www.portlandoregon.gov/pbem/59630](https://www.portlandoregon.gov/pbem/59630)

~~~
makomk
It'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
Wow, now that I did not realize... do you know the reasoning behind making it
so difficult?

~~~
PoachedSausage
Hard to say. At one time you could turn up and sit a City & Guilds exam, of
course to become a bonafide amateur you had to pass the Morse test, but
they've relaxed that now. I went from UK Foundation licence to Full licence in
about a year, not difficult from a technical point of view as I was working on
500kW broadcast transmitters at the time. The questions about the arcane rules
and regulations were probably the hardest. UK amateur radio is quite set in
its ways, the average age of UK amateurs is probably around 60. Some of it
probably stems from elitism and from some of the UK history of radio piracy.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pirate_radio_in_the_United_Kin...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pirate_radio_in_the_United_Kingdom)

[http://www.laughingpoliceman.com/amateur_radio.htm](http://www.laughingpoliceman.com/amateur_radio.htm)

------
timvdalen
This reminds me of Dinah in 'Seveneves' by Neal Stephenson, communicating with
her father from the ISS.

~~~
robertbryan
Yes, this is similar. Source: Am Dinan.

------
XnoiVeX
I 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.

~~~
sigspec
What's the policy of listening on these devices without participating (no
license)?

~~~
bluGill
For 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.

------
peterkshultz
Anybody 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/)

------
bryananderson
I 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.

------
jhallenworld
Challenge: they have WiFi on the ISS. Pick up the signal from earth and tell
me what SSIDs they use.

------
PaulHoule
From 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.

------
jabl
> 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..

~~~
philcrump
It'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..

------
kregasaurusrex
My 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.

~~~
olfactory
I still get an envelope with QSL cards from all over the world every few
months. It's still fun to see the pictures and to appreciate the tangible
"foreignness" of the cards.

------
elkos
You 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-...](https://community.libre.space/t/ariss-contact-vilniaus-jono-
basanaviciaus-gymnasium-together-with-vilniaus-jono-basanaviciaus-
progymnasium-vilnius-lithuania-direct-via-ly1bwb/1698)

------
Overtonwindow
I 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
Are 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?

------
idoescompooters
Amateur radio needs more love here. Upgraded to my Extra license last night!

~~~
8bitsrule
Congrats, OM! (or YL as the case may be ;->)

------
nickysielicki
Amateur 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

------
blendo
"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?

~~~
jdietrich
>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.

------
kenrick95
Reminded me of "Before Mars" from National Geographic:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPuTlZYDbh4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPuTlZYDbh4)

------
godelski
I 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
And 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
Seriously? 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
The 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

------
lofaldli
I 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
Why can't you hear the Lithuanians?

------
olfactory
I can't recommend amateur radio enough to fellow HN readers.

There are so many things to do -- my favorite is HF CW.

~~~
jventura
What 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.

~~~
topspin
It's applied physics. A study of oscillators, mixers, filters, amplifiers,
distributed elements, propagation and algorithms and how to optimize all of
these in multiple dimensions. It's community. You can meet interesting people
and prepare for and serve during emergencies or experiments. It's travel. You
can travel to or contact people in exotic places and have your accomplishments
recognized. It's technology. You can create new devices and techniques that
perform in ways no one has tried before, or collect and operate vintage
machines or the bleeding edge of contemporary gear. It's competition. There
are no end of contests across the electromagnetic spectrum using many
different protocols and modulation. It's continuity. The ranks of amateur
radio are filled with those who earned their living or served their respective
nations using similar or sometimes exactly the same skills and equipment.

There was a congressional hearing recently where an ARRL representative was
asked why amateur systems function when everything else is down. The answer is
simple and compelling; the amateur is the owner, technician and operator of
his own station with a deep understanding of every part and what is needed to
make it work and how to adapt it. Hard headed self sufficiency. Commercial and
broadcast systems die when the backups run out of fuel or the Powers That Be
take them away. First responders can't quickly fix or replace their systems
when something or someone breaks them. Give amateurs a few watts of power --
by any means available -- and they'll cross oceans or talk to people in space
using equipment they can carry at a dead run. It's the last thing that still
works when all the other gears strip.

And you are entirely welcome to take part in whatever aspect of it you wish.
All you need is a license.

~~~
olfactory
> It's applied physics. A study of oscillators, mixers, filters, amplifiers,
> distributed elements, propagation and algorithms and how to optimize all of
> these in multiple dimensions.

this

------
muttonchop-dev
My 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)

------
th0ma5
FT8 is a popular low power digital modeling these days for HF. I highly
recommend reading the specification!

~~~
olfactory
> 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
My 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.

------
0xdeadbeefbabe
Still saving up for an elecraft rig.

~~~
gerry_shaw
I'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).

------
randomerr
I'm pulling my Baofeng out of storage.

