Amateur Radio Voice Operations from International Space Station

Amateur Radio Voice Operations from International Space Station

Though the often highlighted acitivity of International Space Station on Amateur Radio is the contact with students on the ground, contact with individual Amateur Radio Operators on the ground is also possible. ISS crew members may operate Amateur Radio during their personal time after waking up and before sleep. They may also have free time during the weekend when they operate Amateur Radio. 25-100 watts output power on 2m FM is desirable. A circularly polarized crossed Yagi antenna is desirable, though it may be possible to contact with vertical and ground plane antennas.

Operation is on split mode, with voice uplink at 144.49 for ITU Regions 2 and 3 and 145.20 for ITU Region 1. Voice downlink is at 145.80 Worldwide. NA1SS, DP0ISS, OR4ISS and IR0ISS are some of the callsigns used by ISS crew. AMSAT Online Satellite Pass Predictions page https://www.amsat.org/track/ can be used to find the timing of ISS pass in your region. Earth station has to transmit on the uplink frequency and never on the ISS downlink frequency. In addition to this ISS has VHF/UHF repeater with uplink at 145.99 (PL 67 Hz) and downlink at 437.80 MHz.