Contacting the ISS with the FT-817ND!

Woohoo!! Yesterday I managed to make a nice 2-way QSO with one of the astronauts on the International Space Statin (ISS)!



The ISS has a ham radio station on board (callsign NA1SS), and the crew is periodically active making contacts with hams down on earth below. A few days ago I programmed in the ISS uplink/downlink frequencies into the FT-817ND qrp portable radio, and kept an eye on when good passes might be coming over.



The frequencies are:
FM VOICE for ITU Region 2&3: North and South America-Caribbean-Greenland-Australia-South Asia: Downlink 145.800; Uplink 144.490
And I programmed memories into the FT-817ND for doppler shift on the above frequencies +/- 3.0 and 1.5 kHz.



The ISS is in fairly low orbit and moves very fast, so it's only in view for around 10 minutes at a time. Yesterday at around 4:30pm, there was a good pass with the ISS coming overhead, south to north, slightly east of my location here, with a maximum elevation of around 60 degrees. I set up the radio with the Elk log-periodic VHF/UHF on a tripod, and sat in the backyard waiting for the station to pass overhead. Using a netbook computer running the Satellite Tracking module of HRD software, I was able to keep the antenna pointed at where the station was in the sky as it moved overhead. Nothing heard at all at first.



I put out a call every 30 seconds or so -- "NA1SS from KB5WIA near Sacramento" just in case thew crew was listening. After the third call, as the ISS was near max elevation overhead, right away a voice came back with something like "KB5W?A from NA1SS" -- how exciting! The signal was S9-plus, and the audio was so clear I could hear the fans/motors humming in the background up there. I corrected my call, and he came back something like "KB5WIA good to meet you this is Colonel Doug Wheelock aboard the International Space Station NA1SS". I then thanked him for the contact, wished them a happy Labor Day Weekend (what's a long weekend like aboard a space station, I wonder?!), and said I'd clear so he could make some other contacts. I heard around 3-4 more quick QSOs before the ISS dropped below my northern horizon.

Pretty cool for QRP from the backyard!



UPDATE 1: Two days later, I was able to make another (very!) quick contact, and record the downlink audio. Here it is in the attached file: ISS Audio 6 Sept 2010. The file (a one megabyte MP3) is a recording of the entire pass, from AOS to LOS -- intermittently you'll hear Col Wheelock on the ISS talking to various stations. He comes back to my call around 4m18s in the recording, and then makes quite a few more contacts.

UPDATE 2: Here's a link to a photo of Col. Wheelock talking to hams below: http://twitpic.com/2lwwex

UPDATE 3: The QSL card (confirming 2-way contact with the ISS) arrived! Here it is, below:

QRP via Amateur Satellite AO-51!

Yesterday I was able to make three "QRP" contacts through the satellite AO-51, woohoo!

I used my Yaesu FT-817ND coupled to an Elk 2m/440 log periodic antenna sitting on a tripod. The radio has 5 watts maximum output, so this was definitely "QRP"! So that I could quickly correct for the doppler shift, I programmed five memories into the FT-817ND, covering the base frequencies (435.300 downlink, 145.920 uplink) plus or minus 10 kHz on the uplink and 5kHz on the downlink:

1. 435.310 rx, 145.9150 tx pl 67.0
2. 435.305 rx, 145.9175 tx pl 67.0
3. 435.300 rx, 145.9200 tx pl 67.0
4. 435.295 rx, 145.9225 tx pl 67.0
5. 435.290 rx, 145.9250 tx pl 67.0



I tried three passes total. On the first pass (6 degrees maximum elevation above the horizon, to the east) at around 3:30pm I heard nothing -- not too surprising given that I have a large hill to the east. On the second pass (57 degress max el, east) at 5:00pm, I heard quite a few stations on the satellite (yay!) but the downlink was so crowded I didn't have any luck with calling. Finally, at 6:48pm there was another pass (16 degrees max el, westerly pass). I was hoping that the position of AO51 out over the ocean would reduce the number of users quite a bit. Also, to improve my chances, I set up in an area with a clear view to the west -- operating "portable" in the back of the truck. As soon as AO51 came across the horizon I could hear it well, and right away was able to make three contacts -- KA6SIP in CM97, NN6T in DM25, W7IN in DN27 -- yay!! I heard KL7XJ in BP40 as the satellite continued towards Alaska, but wasn't able to make contact. Signals on the downlink didn't get much above S1 or S2 at peak, but it was easily possible to communicate over the satellite with S0 signals.



Overall, this first set of sat contacts was a lot of fun! I had worked satellites back in Oklahoma in the mid-90's, and it's nice to get back into this mode.

QRP UHF From Mt. Lassen

For the ARRL August UHF contest, I took the FT-817ND and an ELK 2M/440L5 antenna to the very top of Mt. Lassen. Parking at the Summit Trailhead at 2pm, it took just over 2 hours to hike the 2 miles and 2000 feet up to the summit. Weather was cool (60F) but no clounds and chance of precipitation. The overall summit of Lassen is very exposed and was extremely windy, with views in almost 360 degrees. The true summit is a small cluster of rocks about 200' high, on the north section of the summit area. I was able to find a space shielded from the wind to set the equipment up; it was nice to be out of the wind! In my backpack I had the FT-817ND, spare AA batteries (2500 mAH), the ELK antenna, a lightweight photographic tripod, 6' of RG-58C cable, the logbook, compass, water, food, and importantly WARM clothing. It took about 10 minutes to set up, and right away I heard a few stations calling CQ Contest on 432.100. I was able to work all of the stations that I could hear using either 5 or 2.5 watts (yay for QRP!).



I made around 9 QSOs from the summit, with signal reports ranging from S1 to S7; grids were CM88, CM87, CM98, CM97, and DM09. The 70cm and 2m beacons from KJ6KO in CM88ws were coming in S9+. After 2 hours at the summit it was time to head back down, and was down just a bit after sunset. Fun! Overall, if the weather cooperates, the summit of Lassen was a great place to operate radio from!!

June VHF QSO Party - Mount Diablo

For the June VHF QSO Party I drove to the top of Mount Diablo (CM97). I worked quite a few stations from the summit, as well as different locations on the upper road, using the standard setup in the mobile (Yaesu FT-857D + ATAS-120A for 6m, HO-Loop for 2m, and 5/8 wave vertical for 70cm).





During the evening hours on Saturday, I worked QRP portable from the same location at my campsite, and then worked mobile the next day. The QRP rig was the Yaesu FT-817 with a HO-Loop for 2m and a Norcal Doublet + Electraft T1 for 6m. Fun!

VHF Hilltopping

Here's a photo of the setup that I take "hilltopping". The hill in the photo is at Lagoon Valley Park (CM98AH) just west of Vacaville, California, and the summit is around 950' above seal level. The radio system consists of a Yaesu FT-817ND hooked up to a M2 HO-Loop on a small tripod.



From this location, it's pretty much line-of-sight up and down the Central Valley, east to the Sierras, and west to the Bay Area. I've had good luck on 144.200 SSB and 146.52 FM from this location -- will have to try 6m from here soon! The map below shows the location of this hill relative to the surrounding area.

2m SSB Mobile

Here's a photo of the current antenna setup on the truck. The left antenna is the HF-6m screwdriver (ATAS-120A). The center antenna is the M2 HO Loop. And the right antenna is the vertical 5/8w dual-band.



After the January VHF Sweepstakes, I decided to order the M2 2m HO Loop antenna so that I could operate VHF-SSB Mobile. I already had the dual-band 2m/70cm vertical antenna mounted on the right of the truck box, but for SSB work I needed a horizontally-polarized signal and the reviews of the HO Loop were pretty good.

The loop installation and tuning were pretty straightforward. The loop is attached to a 22" 3/8"x24 stainless steel mast, which connects to an L-bracket in the center of the truck box using a quick-release coupling. I had to shave off 1/8" from each of the aluminum ends of the HO Loop in order to bring the antenna to resonance at 144.500, and there it has an SWR of less than 1.1:1; at 144.200 the SWR is less than 1.2:1. Reportedly, water will detune the antenna slightly downward, so that's why I tuned slightly high.

While mobile, I've been able to routinely make contacts up to 90 miles away, and during nets I can hear 20-30 stations in the local area. So far so good!

VHF Sweepstakes

This weekend I dusted off my old VHF and UHF beam antenns (4-el and 6-el), and drove to the top of nearby Mt. Vaca (2900' elevation). I set up the antennas on a portable mast in the truck bed, driven by the Yasesu FT-857D and fed through RG-8 and a duplexer. During the setup it was hailing on me, but once things were setup the system worked well! I had my first SSB 70cm and 6m contacts, and made around 30 QSOs in total before I had to take the system down and get back. Lots of fun.



Main learning experiences were that I should have had the 70cm and 2m beams pointed in the same direction. When I was assembling the array I thought it was more aesthetic to have them pointed in opposite directions, but then everytime someone wanted to cross-band QSO, I realized I had to get out and turn the antennas 180 degrees! Another useful thing would have been to have a map and a compass to help orient the beam ... at one point, thick fog rolled in and I could barely tell north from south.



The above map shows the location, looking southwest towards San Francisco Bay. The beams worked MUCH better than the mobile whip -- climbinb up the mountain, I barely heard any stations with the vertical, but on top, I could hear many many stations -- some of which were S9+20!

From my location in grid square CM88, the furthest contact was in Fresno, around 175 miles away.