What a thrill to announce my call while I was just getting into the footprint of the ISS, and getting a response from Mike - NA1SS, of the crew of the Shuttle!
At first I didn't hear anyone, it was quiet, but I heard my downlink stronger than usual, and all of a sudden, I heard "W4AS this is Mike NA1SS of the International Space Shuttle". I think my first words were, are you really in the shuttle?
He went on and worked a few more stations, he didn't seem to be in a hurry, and we actually had a bit of a rag chew, but at 4:30 pm eastern time, I guess there weren't too many hams trying to hear the ISS.
Just wanted to put this up here, so others can be aware that they are active on the 'repeater' 70cm up and 2 meters down.
At one point the signal was 60 db over S9, I should have turned my preamp off to see what the actual reading was.
If anyone recorded the pass I would love to have it. Guess I should start to record them from now on.
73 de W4AS Sebastian