WA4SCA asked :

Still haven't found what beam width and direction the antennas view from the ISS WRT its direction of flight.

...

I know this is out there, but does anybody have off the top of their head a reference on the ISS antenna orientation, and what its view is WRT the direction of flight?

Which sent me on a brief scavenger hunt ... with these quick results.

Description (new one is probably available somewhere) of ARISS antenna (2002): http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/station/reference/radio/antennas.html (You can click on the pictures for hi-rez views)

The WA1 and WA2 antennae are reportedly on the perimeter of the Zvezda module, on the nadir (earth-facing) side, near the Soyuz docking port.?. These appear to be of the flexible spring element type for VHF & UHF, with a patch-type for L & S band. These also support Russian spacewalk video. The WA4 antenna reportedly has an element for 10 meters instead of VHF.

A very detailed description of antenna development effort for Columbus Lab : http://www.ariss-eu.org/columbus.htm

I don't now if these recent tests are with these new Columbus antennae or the existing elements on the Russian segment. I'm guessing the originals.

In either case, they are considered to be on the earth-facing surface...

Perhaps ARISS team personnel can enlighten us further, with links...

Thanks /;^)