Hi Jean Marc and all, As has been mentioned before by others, it is very very very rare to have a general contact with the ISS. Your best bet to talk to the ISS would be to have an actual ARISS contact.  Find a school to work with and send in an application to have an ARISS contact.  Go to https://www.ariss.org/apply-to-host-an-ariss-contact.html for all of the info.  As 3B8 is in Africa, your application would be handled by the excellent ARISS team in Europe.  If the school gets accepted, then ARISS will work with the school and local ham team to make it happen.  I have personally been the control operator for 5 ARISS school contacts (including ARISS contact #1 ever) and have mentored over 80 schools.  Each contact is a lot of fun, can be nerve-wracking at times, and can be very rewarding. For your information, ARISS is working on scheduling a school on Reunion Island (sort of in your neighborhood).  Presently it is scheduled to be a direct contact sometime in late May.  But depending on COVID, this could get changed.  So stayed tuned. Hope this helps. 73,Charlie Sufana AJ9NOne of the ARISS Mentors In a message dated 2021-02-06 12:58:15 Eastern Standard Time, [email protected] writes:  Good Evening, I have for quite some time trying to call the ISS when over the Indian Ocean without success, even today on Tx 145.200 and Rx 145.800 MHz as usual. But no respond, which I fully understand as the astronauts have tight schedule  and most probably do not expect anyone calling when over the Indian Ocean even if in their spare time. So, my message in the bottle is:” if any astronauts on the iSS or anyone who can have contact with them read this message, please request on my behalf a sked, it will be a first this side and probably the first 3B8/ISS QSO” Thanks for passing on the message and I just hope to make it. I would be really happy to make it and actually if I can record same it would be a national event and promoting radio ham this side at national level. 73  Jean Marc (3B8DU)     ----------------------------------------------------------- Sent via AMSAT-BB(a)amsat.org. AMSAT-NA makes this open forum availableto all interested persons worldwide without requiring membership. Opinions expressedare solely those of the author, and do not reflect the official views of AMSAT-NA.Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! View archives of this mailing list athttps://mailman.amsat.org/hyperkitty/list/[email protected] unsubscribe send an email to amsat-bb-leave(a)amsat.orgManage all of your AMSAT-NA mailing list preferences at https://mailman.amsat.org