Hi!
Last night around 0150 UTC (6.50pm PDT), we had a rare event - both the ISS and NO-84 were passing by at basically the same time, and in the same general direction. Both came out of the northwest, sweeping down the west coast and ending up in the south-southeast. NO-84 was higher than the ISS, and a few of us tried to make some double-hops through both.
Fernando NP4JV and I started with a path RS0ISS,APRSAT to force our packets first through the ISS digipeater, and then through NO-84. I thought that it might work better having ISS retransmit the packets first, then go silent as NO-84 did its retransmissions. This did not work as well as I had hoped. Fernando did not see any of his packets make the double-hop. I saw one of my position packets make the double-hop near the end of the pass, but that wasn't picked up by any of the Internet gateways listening on 145.825 MHz. On my TH-D72A HT, I first saw "My Position via RS0ISS", followed a moment later by "My Position via ARISS". It is unfortunate that the TH-D72A won't store my own position in the list of stations heard, as many of the Yaesu APRS-ready radios do, as this means I don't have any evidence to show that packet making the double-hop. In any event, it was fun to give that a try. There may have been one or two other stations that had packets make the double-hop, along with what I saw for my position packet.
Beyond the double-hop experiment, this was another opportunity to practice making QSOs using APRS messaging through the space-based digipeaters. I was able to make quick QSOs with NP4JV (Fernando is in southern Arizona, near the USA/Mexico border) and KG6BFD in California. I used only my TH-D72A HT and Elk log periodic antenna as my station, and Fernando wrote about his APRS station here on the AMSAT-BB last night. This is one way to get that 100-point ARRL Field Day bonus for making a satellite contact, something I did during last year's Field Day.
I will be out this evening for the west-coast ISS and NO-84 passes around 0055-0125 UTC (5.55-6.25pm PDT). This time, the two will not pass over at the same time, so there will be a chance to make QSOs through each of them during their passes. If anyone out west is in the footprint on these passes and wants to try to make a QSO with me, please look for WD9EWK-9 - and be ready with APRS messages for the QSO. My TH-D72A won't show freeform text entered into a terminal program, but will display (and store) APRS messages addressed to my call. From a terminal program, you could send me APRS messages using this format:
:WD9EWK-9 :Message follows the second colon
A colon goes before my call sign, a space and a colon follows the call, and then the text of the short message. My replies to you would appear in this format, with the other station's call in place of WD9EWK-9.
73!
Patrick WD9EWK/VA7EWK http://www.wd9ewk.net/ Twitter: @WD9EWK