This weekend I decided to try APRS on the ISS, NO-44 and AO-84. So far I have heard nothing on the ISS. I've heard that the radio is down. Is it still down completely or only for certain frequencies? Are any available on the ISS? I was using 145.825 for the ISS and AO-84 on APRS. I did hear a sound shortly yesterday either on AO-84 or NO-44, but not long enough to receive packets. I've also tried the ISS on 437.550. This page shows that APRS was last heard 1 week and 1 day ago https://www.issfanclub.com
I'll try AO-84 in a minute to see again. What other birds does anyone recommend for APRS? NExt I will try PSK31. LEarning one new thing at a time with the birds
Christy KB6LTY and I had a QSO on NO-84 a few minutes ago. Only NO-84 (PSAT) and FalconSat-3 seem to be QRV for satellite APRS at this point. The common practice is to send a beacon that serves as a implicit CQ. I actually use "CQ APRS AI6DO DM03" as my StatusText. You respond by sending a message back to that station with your grid. If you get an ACK packet back, or you get an APRS message packet with some indication that the recipient has QSLed, then you've successfully completed a QSO via APRS!
There is another way to make QSOs on APRS, which Bob WB4APR described on this list yesterday. It's an elegant solution from an RF perspective, relying only on beacon packets that go to everyone rather than point-to-point messages. However, it seems somewhat impractical to implement when using an HT; an awful lot of keystrokes are required to manually enter callsigns. I may yet try it on Field Day in addition to (not in lieu of) the conventional message passing method, but I suspect it isn't going to be popular enough to garner any QSOs.
That page you mention indicates that the status of ISS packet was last updated 8 days ago, and that status was "not active," not that packet was last active 8 days ago. Check the AMSAT status page (http://www.amsat.org/status/index.php) for live updates from folks who use (or at least listen in on) the birds. That Greek station keeps reporting NO-44 being operational, but I think I've gotten to the point where I no longer believe those reports, having tried NO-44 unsuccessfully several times over the past couple of months and seeing no indication of PCSat digipeating activity on findu.com. Frankly, I think that guy is reporting the wrong satellite. Should be NO-84, not NO-44.
Hope to get a QSO with you via APRS, hopefully on Field Day!
73, Ryan AI6DO
On Sunday, June 17, 2018, 11:36:44 AM PDT, Hugo Dominguez, Jr. [email protected] wrote:
This weekend I decided to try APRS on the ISS, NO-44 and AO-84. So far I have heard nothing on the ISS. I've heard that the radio is down. Is it still down completely or only for certain frequencies? Are any available on the ISS? I was using 145.825 for the ISS and AO-84 on APRS. I did hear a sound shortly yesterday either on AO-84 or NO-44, but not long enough to receive packets. I've also tried the ISS on 437.550. This page shows that APRS was last heard 1 week and 1 day ago https://www.issfanclub.com
participants (2)
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Hugo Dominguez, Jr. -
Ryan Noguchi