So today I attempted to connect to the International Space Station using APRS (Automatic Packet Reporting System). Using my handheld radio Yaesu FT3D and a YAGI antenna (Diamond A144S10R2) on a tripod with 5 watts of power. It was a very low angle pass and I didn’t expect to connect, it was more of a practice session for the up and coming higher angle pass of which yielded more connections.

I used an app called Star Walk 2 to track the path of the space station and roughly follow it with the antenna.

Much to my surprise I received a message back from CT1EBQ which read ” Gretings M0NRG-7 loud and clear from Cacais PT 73, QSL ask oitaven@ct1ebq.com” .

There were plenty of stations in the station list on the radio ranging from Germany, Spain, France, Italy, Holland, Portugal, Belgium, Switzerland, Austria and of course RS0ISS.

You can go to http://www.ariss.net/ and check whether you have been seen by the ISS.

Replying to a message on the handheld is not quick as you need to select each letter on the little touchscreen and you are limited by the pass whilst trying to keep the antenna in line with the ISS. Maybe some kind of predefined message where I just need to edit the Callsign can be prepared. Time to RTFM 🙂 or maybe hook up a laptop and software.

(EDIT: I have now setup some pre-defined messages that can be added to a message quite quickly. I will report back in the next ISS APRS post)

APRS ISS a first for me today. Space the Final Frontier 🙂

If you have words of wisdom please comment.
Nige M0NRG