Tag: short wave listening

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Ham Radio In Space – High Flying Repeaters (LITERALLY!)

April 11, 2009

The following steps and resources should help you walk through the process of trying to hear your selected favorite space repeater. Such as? The International Space Station (ISS), Space Shuttle or AMSAT (Amateur Radio Satellite). This is written for the person that wants to primarily listen and see if they can hear the flying repeater.
• Research what is operational at the current time. I researched the repeater on the International Space Station (ISS) with this search on Google. I use Google because they have the largest percent of the search engine market. Therefore people likely submit to them first and people have voted that they give the best results. Everyone has their favorites. I use statistics to judge. Here’s the link: http://www.google.com/search?ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=international+space+station+repeater And here is one result that I read – it has some key resources for my use: http://www.southgatearc.org/news/february2008/space_station_repeater_active.htm You may also want to read articles on the bird and review other people’s websites that describe their experiences on working the repeaters on the birds. www.AMSAT.org is a great place to do some research.
• Determine when the particular bird is able to be heard at your location. Use one of these three free sources: http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/tools/predict/ and http://www.n2yo.com/ and http://www.satscape.co.uk/ You will need to know your latitude and longitude for these sites or your ham radio grid location. I use www.QRZ.com to find mine. I search for my call sign biography page and click on “Click for more details”. There you will find what you need. Another nice piece of information you will need is this: “GMT Offset”. Mine is -6 Hours. I need that because many of the resources will list the Universal Time (UTC) of the satellite’s pass. I need to convert that to my local time so I know when to listen.
• Convert your reported time as necessary. There is software available for tracking birds that should do this for you. This article is for those of us that do this every now and then or for the first time. There are a number of conversion sites available. You can do the following Google search to find them: http://www.google.com/search?ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=convert+utc+to+cdt – I selected this one and probably will do the conversion with a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet: http://ww2010.atmos.uiuc.edu/(Gh)/guides/maps/utc/frutc.rxml
• Go outside with a clear view of the sky and listen! Try your HT with a stock antenna. Then try your mobile. Then maybe try an Arrow II handheld satellite antenna – http://www.arrowantennas.com/146-437.html Make sure that you understand the specific frequencies you need to listen on, the direction of travel and the effect of speed on the frequency (Doppler shift). Do some research at www.AMSAT.org on this…

Stay radio active!

Jon E. Kreski, AB9NN
http://www.HamRadioResources.com


 


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About the author

AB9NN (Jon Kreki) is an Extra Class ham radio operator and Auditor / Financial Analyst. Jon loves HF mobile as well as 2 meters. Jon is a trained severe storm spotter, active ARES / RACES and Skywarn member in Outagamie County (Appleton, Wisconsin) area. Jon's lovely wife is Jane, KD8KRS!
www.hamradioresources.com