We're in a Golden Age for Amateur Radio

Re:We're in a Golden Age for Amateur Radio by themodelplumber on Wednesday November 07, 2018 @07:27PM (#18403478)

Sure, when the ISS passes over (and is transmitting SSTV--check the ARISS blog or issfanclub.com), tune your radio to 145.800, turn squelch off, and hold up your speaker to (for example) your smartphone which is running a decoder like Robot36. That's just one specific way...the app will auto-save an image to your phone when it's done. Example video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YAHJfE7EBlI&t=12s

You can use an app like "ISS Detector" to get alerts when the ISS is over; that one also has an IAP that will show you any amateur radio satellite that's over your head, as well as the uplink and downlink frequencies. (Last time I was listening to cubesat AO-92, my social "nerd antenna" apparently went up to about 1 MW transmitting and I ended up pointing into the clear blue sky a lot while explaining to interested random passers-by why people still use ham radio. :-))

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Re:We're in a Golden Age for Amateur Radio by ObsoleteNerd on Wednesday November 07, 2018 @07:37PM (#18403509)

That's so cool, and single-handedly just convinced me to take the plunge and buy a radio to learn more. I've been tempted for a while but had no idea you could do this. I liked the idea of talking to people from far away, but being able to receive stuff from ISS is just next-level awesome.

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Re:We're in a Golden Age for Amateur Radio by themodelplumber on Wednesday November 07, 2018 @07:44PM (#18403534)

Right on! You picked a great time in history, with a ham operator (Astronaut Serena Auñón-Chancellor) currently on the ISS and making contacts. It's exciting stuff. :-) Here's one operator's contact from this last Saturday:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwm-6tf7KCs

(That amazing feeling post-contact...funny that he left in those clips, but I definitely identify with the adrenaline rush. :-))

Be sure to check out #hamradio and #hamr on Twitter, and /r/amateurradio on Reddit. Edit: And your local club, too! And welcome!

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Re:We're in a Golden Age for Amateur Radio by avip on Thursday November 08, 2018 @04:36AM (#18405283)

I can't figure out why, but that clip really made my day. Thanks for sharing it.

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Re:We're in a Golden Age for Amateur Radio by proctor on Wednesday November 07, 2018 @09:42PM (#18404006)

here's an example of the decoding process

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vkH5yV4__3U

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