If I Could Talk to the Astronauts…

I can.   Well, I can’t, but you might be able to.  You can definitely listen though.

The Space Station orbits the planet.   When not performing their other duties, astronauts can make use of the amateur radio station on the ISS.  If you’re a licensed radio amateur (ham), you can talk to them on the way over your house (or car!).

For those of us who are not licensed but who might have a radio scanner at home, you can tune to one of a few frequencies likely to be used in your area.  In the US, it’s 145.8MHz, which is in the amateur two meter band but can be picked up by just about any scanner available.

I had programmed this frequency into my scanner a while ago and apparently forgotten to take it out.  A few days ago I heard a lot of commotion on 145.8 and remembered it was the Space Station downlink frequency (coming to earth from space).  I listened closely for any odd call signs (WK3YML is an example of a call sign).  The ones I heard were from New York and New Hampshire, which I don’t receive normally in that band (I’m in PA).

If you’re curious, you can find out where the caller is from by putting the call sign into the little box on QRZ.com which looks the call sign up in the FCC database.  It’s a horrible violation of privacy but I’m not likely to change it.

I was hearing a ton of people trying to start a converstaion with someone, which is known as a pileup.  I figured I was hearing the Space Station, skip (atmospheric condition where radio waves go much farther than normal), or Echolink (where a repeater connects to the internet and licensed amateurs can converse all over the planet regardless of where).

A nice local person pointed out that this was in fact the Space Station.  It showed up for that brief burst, then again a bit under two hours later.  When the hams hear the downlink, they start calling to initiate a contact with the ISS.  They exchange call signs and request a QSL card, which is a record of their conversation.    Some hams have walls filled with QSL cards.  If you hear the ISS (or any radio transmission) and can provide details, you can get a QSL card yourself.. it’s not limited to licensed operators.  You can hear a shortwave radio station across the world and request a QSL card from them.

I heard the pileup again last night.  It only lasts about two minutes or so, which should be a good indication of how fast that baby moves through the heavens.  It’s only receivable for about two minutes over my area.

Want to find out more?  Visit these sites:

Zarya - Soviet, Russian, and International Spaceflight

NASA - the Internation Space Station’s radio reference page

Happy Listening!