Working the International Space Station

As many of my ham radio friends know, I am not a fan of the VHF/UHF bands, or to be completely honest - most of the people on them. Listening to the yokels on local repeaters gives me a headache, and I'm not a fan of the puffy chested EmComm snobs. Regardless, there is one or two aspects of VHF that I absolutely love. One of them is working the International Space Station.

There are a few different ways you can "work" the space station. The first and probably most obvious, is voice. This is an extremely rare event. I imagine astronauts are pretty busy people, so I understand that they have far better things to do than float around and talk on a radio to any and all hams that call them.

I have never had the opportunity to communicate with them in this fashion, but I've tried. When my fellow Canadian, Chris Hadfield was commander of the ISS a few years ago, I spent hundreds of dollars and countless hours attempting to talk to him. I never had any luck. One day, I sent him a tweet, and he got back to me in five minutes...

But I digress.

There is also an FM repeater on the ISS, but I have never heard it, or seen proof of it working, and with all the amateur radio satellites, I haven't wasted any time trying to use it.

The one method I have enjoyed success with, is APRS. For those of you who don't know what APRS is, it's basically like text messaging and position reporting via ham radio. It's kind of neat. Back when it was on the road, you used to be able to follow my truck on the internet, and you can still look me up on aprs.fi and see where I am... or at least where my radio is. I can also Tweet via APRS. There are hundreds of uses for it, which I will save for another post, but bottom line: it's a lot of fun!

I am by now means very knowledgeable about APRS, so please excuse my boorish language and terminology.

Basically, the way it works is using a special radio, or a regular radio and some special equipment, and a special antenna, you can send sort messages up to the ISS, which they will "digipeat" (repeat) for others to see. Sometimes, you'll even get a message back from them, which I have a few times. I've also gotten APRS signals and messages from other hams as far away as Alberta, and all over the Western United States.

Because the Space Station is so high, it has a very wide broadcast footprint.

It doesn't take much time, money or effort to work the ISS, just as long as you have the right equipment, some know-how and you knew when and where it's going to be.

For voice, and 2m radio will do. Even a handheld will work if the pass is right and you know how to orient it. For APRS and packet, you do need some more equipment, most obviously a TNC. I am fairly lucky, I have a Kenwood TM-D710A, with a built-in TNC and setting so simple and straightforward, even an idiot like me can do it. 

There are plenty of websites with proper instructions how to work the ISS with any and all radios and setups which are written by people with far more knowledge and experience than me, so if your looking for step-by-step instructions, I'll include a few in the links below - This is just a post about how fun and easy it is.

For an antenna, I use an Arrow 3 element 2m Yagi, which is also a 7 element UHF antenna and is specifically designed for working the ISS and amateur radio satellites, but you can use any antenna. I have worked the ISS via APRS with a mag mount on my truck and a 2m vertical on top of my chimney. I've also heard the ISS communicating via voice on a stationary vertical antenna. It's all placement during the pass and orientation of the antenna.

I have my Arrow antenna mounted on a tripod with compass and angle meter so I can point the antenna at the Station throughout the whole pass. There are also several phone apps and websites that are invaluable tools to spot, track and follow the Station. Most of these are very accurate, and it would be next to impossible to find the Station in the day with out them.

Once again, I'll include some of the better ones in the links below, but the one I have been using is GoISSWatch on my iPhone and iPad. It was FREE and it a great and accurate app.

It's great fun to try and work the station. I first worked the ISS via APRS on January 2, 2014 at 2:45 in the afternoon. I was quite a thrill to see they're beacon pop up on the radio display. I look forward to trying for a voice contact, but I've just never been in the right place at the right time.

It's actually fun just watching it fly over at night. It's by far the brightest and fastest light in the sky, you can't miss it.

The last week or so, the Station has been passing over at least 3 good times and mostly after dusk when the station is visible, so I've been out every night trying to bounce my APRS signal off it, but as per usual, I haven't had any luck, either getting the station or receiving anyone else's APRS beacons... I have a feeling it might be offline. I'll check in to it.

I am writing this on Monday August 11 at 7:45PST and the station just passed over again with no luck. It is a hit-and-miss process and for one reason or another the equipment does get turned off quite often.

Here are some great resources for working the ISS:

http://oscar.dcarr.org/
http://www.work-sat.com/Home.html
http://www.ariss.net/
http://www.issfanclub.com/
http://www.isstracker.com/

Twitter resources:

Apps:

Rumours of my death have been greatly exaggerated! *UPDATED*

Hello all!

Just wanted to let you all know that I'm still here.

To be honest, I haven't had anything to blog about, radio related or not. I was working on one of my famous non-amateur radio related posts about the 100th anniversary of World War One, but I can't quite get the thoughts in my head and feelings in my heart to translate in to words on the page, so it may happen sooner, or later, or never at all.

As many of you know, I am in the middle of a dramatic, life and career change, and I have been working 8 hours a day, five days a week driving a forklift and moving lumber, to keep some cash flowing, then working the other two days a week and in the evenings twisting wrenches for my old gig... Then, this week, I found out my Plan A is kinda dicking me around. Unfortunately, I turned down Plans B, C, D and E because Plan A was supposed to happen in weeks, not months or years so I am kind of in limbo, with no time to play with radios or put my random thoughts down in a blog.

Anyway, I guess a post to tell you that I have nothing to post is pretty ridiculous, so please at the very least enjoy this picture of a rare evening off  tonight, which I spent listening to local traffic with my hastily setup station, and enjoying the sunshine and a cold drink... [more below the pic!]

* As I was typing that last sentence, a fire call came in for two local municipalities to respond to our city's airport for an "Aircraft emergency" which turns out is a plane on fire... stand by for details!

** Update for all my loyal readers who are at the edge of your seats: As soon as I heard the fire call come in, I also tuned to the local tower and heard some traffic about the emergency, but nothing of note. Being the thoughtful person I am, I thought it pertinent to call my dad, who not only has a scanner, but happens to live directly at the business end of main runway of the airport in question. My mom answered and informed me that my dad was on his bike and headed to a meeting at a local church on the other end of the airport. His route would take him along the entire north side of the airport, which has a complete unobstructed and elevated view of the airport... So, naturally, I called him immediately and was treated by an immediate update and then a live play-by-play! Long story short, the plane landed safely. Lots of lights and sirens, firetrucks, ambulances, and other traffic. No smoke to be seen, so it must have been in the cabin. But all turned out well. 

Moral of the Story: Sometimes, even dads are better in an emergency than radios! LOL

And, THANKS DAD!

Ask Shoey - Episode #2

Got a great question today from my good friend and new co-worker, and I've been getting lots of requests for more "Ask Shoey" segments, so here is it:

"Hey Mike, how are you doing in the ARRL Centennial Contest?"

              - Ray S.

                 Saanichton, BC

Great question Ray! I've actually had a couple of people ask me this lately, so it's  probably a good time for an update.

For those of you who don't know, it is the Amateur Radio Relay League's (ARRL), 100th anniversary this year and they are having lots of special events to commemorate the occasion. Among these is a "Worked All States" contest, where each week two different states are in the air. Over the year you have at least two opportunities to work all 50 states and if successful, get an award.

There are several other contests and other such events going on for the centennial, and you can find info on them, and the ARRL, on their website: www.arrl.org

Anyway, now for the bad news. I was really enjoying the Centennial WAS contest, despite getting a late start, I was kicking ass and taking names. From the beginning of March, through about mid-June, I had worked 33 or 34 different states in the contest.

That's when it all fell apart. 

Between my change of careers, my antenna problems and the general distractions summer brings, I haven't worked any of the ARRL portable stations, let alone much HF at all, in well over a month.

I'm not too disappointed as I don't plan on being around much in the fall anyway, so it would have come to an end anyway.

I had a blast working the contest while I had the the time and I'll try and pick up any new states I can when I'm on the air for the remainder of the year.

While I might not get the official ARRL Centennial Worked All States Award, but I am only 3-4 states shy of a general WAS Award, and for someone who still considers himself a relative newbie, that is more than enough for now. 

There are plenty of other Awards to obtain and upgrade in this hobby, it's hard to get bored with it.

Thanks again for the interest Ray!

^ Ray! ^

Random Observations - Episode #1

You know, I've made hundreds, if not thousands of trips to countless lumber yards over the years, and I always find nice, evenly stacked piles of lumber. As I dig through them I find myself wondering if I'm being too picky, or why I'm always the asshole who has to tear a pallet of wood apart to find the right number of boards that meet my standards when everyone else seemingly was able to just take what they needed right off the top and not make a mess...

That was until yesterday, when I discovered that the brave men and women labouring in our lumber yards stack and restack the lumber constantly. 

Marketing genius! 

Stay tuned this week for another edition of "Ask Shoey", a long awaited and highly demanded personal update, and as usual, daily updates from the shack.

Continuing On in to the Digital Arena

Okay, first the bad news:

My idea for hooking the FT-100D to my older laptop with the CT-62 cable that doesn't seem to be functioning didn't work. I tried every thing.

I'm officially accusing the ChiComs of sending me a dud. Oh well, I'll find another one later. It's not anywhere near the top of priority list.

Now for an update on my entering in to amateur radio's digital side:

After the FT-100D cable fiasco today, I stuck with my older laptop and pulled out my tried and true IC-756. I know it's interface cable works, and I've had it running of this particular laptop for a few years now. 

So after re-routing the antenna feed moving all of the necessary equipment to the Man Cave, (it was a miserable day here), I set it all up on my coffee table. 

My temporary setup.

I didn't dare take a picture, because my Man Cave is embarrassingly messy at the moment, but between the antenna cable, power wires, interface cables, internet cable, etc, etc, it was quite the mess of cords down there.

For some REALLY good news, the 756 tunes up again on all bands, except 80m, with the new feed line! I was a little worried that the internal tuner was shot, even after success on the FT-100D a few days ago.

After experiencing some computer problems and dealing with them, I fired up HRD and started Digital Master 780. 

"Getting Started" was actually quite frustrating. Between setting up connections between the radio and the computer, HRD and DM 780 and trying to interface it all together, and get HRD to work with DM 780, it took some time. 

After I *thought* I had it all  I turned in the waterfall and tuned around the digital sections of the bands...

Nothing but jibberush.

WTF?

After moving around cables and switching their various  ports a dozen or so times and trying every possible combination, I finally got to to the point where I could receive.

It's really frustrating the lack of info on such things online. It seems like if you don't have one of the three most popular radios out there that you're SOL if you want any real help with your rig.

After trying a few other things, like changing the cables around slightly, trying switching the speaker and mic wires, then switching them again, and playing with the settings in HRD and DM 780, I could still receive, but I was completely unable to transmit.

Nothing seems to want to work, not even holding down the PTT while the program is "transmitting".

I will look in to if and see what needs to be done, it would seemingly be something totally minor. And please, don't hesitate to offer and suggestions or guidance.

But, I'm shutting it down for today and declaring this a success. I'll will pick it up again later. As for tonight, I have a few things to do, and then I might re-acquaint  myself with my long lost love... (My IC-756!)

Almost legible, but no TX!

Quick Update

I had a unexpected surprise this afternoon. I had forgotten that my wife was going camping with her girlfriends tonight and my kids were going to their grandparents for a sleep over. After attempts to organize a guys night fell through, I decided to ride the wave of success I've been having lately and see if I could fix my main antenna.

I have blogged about it before, but literally overnight, my main wire dipole just mysterious stopped working. I tracked it down to one coax connector, which I tried to clean after it apparently somehow arched, but it hasn't worked good since.

So I found some more coax and replaced the current feed line. I had to dismantle my main station in my Man Cave, but it being summer, I haven't used it in months, and won't for 3 or 4 more. After replacing the coax, the antenna works beautifully and tunes on 40-6m... Why it doesn't tune on 80m is a mystery, because it also tunes on 160m and I have made a couple of contacts on that band.

Regardless, the antenna is back up and running and after the Ti-Cats game, I am set for a night of DXing.

New coax temporarily running through the yard...

 

Also, I am going to try the CT-62 CAT cable for the FT-100D I was having problems with on my other, older computer. I'm not sure why, I just have a feeling that an older radio might gel better with an older computer. But, what do I know?

Now, the past few days haven't been without setbacks...

Yesterday, my son spilled bubble solution on my netbook, which was the computer I used for all my radio logging, DX watching, etc. I don't know what's wrong with it, but the P, ", H, Enter and Backspace buttons now do not work. If anyone has any ideas on how to remedy this, please let me know. I love that computer!

Also, I'm down two substantial lengths of coax. One, the aforementioned arched coax from my main antenna, and another that when I was trying to remove it from my Man Cave station, somehow broke at the end. I'm not sure when I will be able to venture in to the big city for replacement parts, but I will add them to my already substantial parts list and I'll limp along for now.

I have NO IDEA how this happened...

 

But for tonight, GO TI-CATS GO and I am excited for a night of DXing. I might even bring the old IC-756 Big Rig Upstairs and try to re-ignite my love for that radio, but I am still not over the honeymoon phase with my FT-100D!

Have a good weekend everyone!!!



It's not going to be a night to be operating outside! 

 

I DID IT!!!!

Re: My previous post "My Entry in to The Digital Age"

WOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

After all the frustration, I finally got something to work! I sent my first packet!!!

Turns out, our local EmComm station is only "on the air" during the weekly net, so luckily, between soaking in my kids pool and enjoying the sunshine here in CN88, I thought to try it.while someone was in the radio room at our local Fire Hall and I was successful!

For now, I`m cashing in my chips while I am ahead. I might play around a bit more with it at a later date, and I still want to get on HF digital but I've been off the air for over two weeks, and I'd like to get back on HF soon. 

Proof of Success!