My 1st Time Listening to the ISS

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lucky43113

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I heard them for about 5 minutes, it sounded like they were talking to a school group, I could only hear the ISS side of the conversation, they were answering questions about what it felt like to ride in a rocket and what their proudest moment was (growing lettuce) pretty cool to hear them. Has anyone else here been able to listen to them?
 

Harlock

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I've had successful voice RX from the ISS before, but not recently. The crew is generally not on the radio unless they are working with a school group, but every now and then they'll hop on if a clear TX makes the trip to the station.

You can usually pick up packet transmissions pretty regularly, as terrestrial operators send packets frequently. If you liked hearing the ISS, you should try to hit some satellites as well. There are several LEO sats that act as repeaters and bounce voice TX cruising around the globe. There are several apps out there that will show you exactly what's overhead and what's heading your way too. Most of them don't supply the uplink/downlink freqs in the app, so you'll have to look them up quickly on the internet before they come into range.

Good Luck!
 

toastycookies

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I picked them up on the 9th around 15:30 (east coast). Randomly started coming through on the scanner, then switched my vhf rig with better antenna over to frequency once I realized it was the ISS (first time ever hearing them, never tried to tune in before). lasted about 20 minutes before fading out, talking to a school group.

only their side was heard because the school was a few states away that they were talking to. as well as on a different frequency.
 

romanr

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I heard them yesterday, too. They were talking to a John Glenn Middle School near St. Paul, MN. It was truly fun. There is another school contact scheduled for March 1. You can keep track of their scheduled contacts (and more) at ARISS - Home.
 

VK3RX

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I think it's cool to see a visible pass just after local sunset, while even just listening to their packet beacon.

That bright light moving across the sky and the sound of the beacon coming from it is particularly impressive to visitors :)
 

jaguarundi

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What happens at school side? Does NASA show up with a van to transmit? Are recordings made of the conversations? Is there any way to pickup the terrestrial transmissions?
 

lucky43113

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What happens at school side? Does NASA show up with a van to transmit? Are recordings made of the conversations? Is there any way to pickup the terrestrial transmissions?

We did this when I was in school the teacher would not show us the frequency but the radio looked just like a standard mobile ham radio don't know what kind but looked like a galaxy style radio but he had the freq counter covered up.
 

VK3RX

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What happens at school side? Does NASA show up with a van to transmit? Are recordings made of the conversations? Is there any way to pickup the terrestrial transmissions?
Contact is either direct by radio i.e. an amateur radio transceiver and antenna set up at the school, or contact via "telebridge", which is a speakerphone-type arrangement set up at the school and connected to an external amateur radio station via the telephone network, and that amateur radio station will establish direct radio contact to the ISS.

Contact is often via telebridge because it is considered more reliable than setting up an amateur radio station at a school, which may be prone to unforseen problems and equipment failure, resulting in the loss of the scheduled contact (and a lot of disappointed people). In some cases the parties involved set up both systems, with radio the primary and telebridge secondary - just in case.

You wouldn't hear the terrestrial - radio - side of the conversation unless you were in VHF range of the amateur radio station (at the school, if a station was set up, or the external amateur radio station if a telebridge is being used).

See section titled "Radio Contacts with the ISS":

About - ARISS
 

KJ3LR

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I made two confirmed contacts with the ISS. Both times I was mobile.

Sent from my ONEPLUS A3000 using Tapatalk
 
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