Monitoring the International Space Station

[nexus]

With as little as a handheld receiver and a vertical antenna, or a vertical/horizontal polorized yagi you too can monitor communications from the I.S.S.

The worldwide downlink frequency is 145.8000 mHz FM

Ham radio operators all over the world have worked the ISS since it went active. Most two way contacts will require 25 to 100 watts of power and even though a yagi antenna is perfered, contacts have been made on vertical and ground plane antennas. Remember that was just for transmission.

Since you're only going to be receiving I'm sure just an outside antenna would be sufficient. Okay now here is how you find out when they're flying over you. So track them and find out when the next time they will pass over your home and tune in to 145.8000 and listen...

ONLINE REALTIME ISS TRACKING:
http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/realdata/tracking/index.html

ISS's callsign is NA1SS

If you hear any communication on 145.8000 either digital or voice, then rest assured you're intercepting comms from the ISS. Earth stations transmit on 144.4900 for the US and 145.2000 for outside of the US.

more info:
http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/station/reference/radio/

 

[ka3jjz]

Well, almost - if you hear the digital noise, it could also be folks trying to connect to the ISS via the built in packet BBS in the Kenwood transceiver.
One must also be aware that, on occasion, Leroy might put the Kenwood in duplex mode, where the uplink frequency is up in the 430 Mhz range. There was an article on the ARRL website about how to connect up.

Here's the URL: http://www.arrl.org/news/features/2004/10/06/1/?nc=1

73s Mike

 

[nexus]

Well I wasn't trying to get very specific. I just wanted to generalize that you'll hear voice and some packet operations on 145.8000 and for the majority it'll be the ISS you're receiving those signals from.