Hi Tom,

It is highly recommended NOT to connect to the ISS mailbox. Any connection attempt if successful will block ISS digipeater operation for everyone else. When the ISS packet system is active (digipeater) folks use it for APRS purposes and exchange position information and/or short text messages. Use of the mailbox is of no benefit since it does not contain anything of value. You can find a lot of useful information by just googling "ISS APRS" e.g.,

http://amsat-uk.org/beginners/how-to-work-the-iss-on-aprs-packet-radio/

Hope this helps and good luck,

Stefan, VE4NSA

On Wed, Oct 7, 2015 at 3:33 PM, Thomas Karpiniec tk@1.21jiggawatts.net wrote:

Hi all,

I'm just getting started with sats and tried to connect to the mailbox on the ISS this morning. I must have done the wrong thing because it didn't go how I expected. I tried to make an ordinary connection to RS0ISS-1 from VK7NTK-1 and RS0ISS-0 responded (I think to me?) with:

RS0ISS>CQ:Logged on to RS0ISS's Personal Message System<0x0d> RS0ISS>CQ:on board the International Space Station<0x0d>

This suggests to me that even the mailbox is using some sort of unproto system. I haven't seen any information anywhere about interacting with the mailbox that way. Would anyone be able to send me a link to up-to-date instructions, or explain what format it's expecting me to send, to which SSID?

Many thanks,

Tom VK7NTK _______________________________________________ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. AMSAT-NA makes this open forum available to all interested persons worldwide without requiring membership. Opinions expressed are 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! Subscription settings: http://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb