[amsat-bb] Anyone for ISS packet QSO, 0248-0258 UTC tonight?

[Patrick STODDARD (WD9EWK/VA7EWK)]

Hi!

I will be lurking on the ISS pass over the continental USA and northern
Mexico this evening at 0248-0258 UTC. This pass will be at a maximum
elevation of 42 degrees here in central Arizona, and I'm hoping to find
other operators at the keyboard to possibly make a QSO or three. I use
my Kenwood TH-D72A and Elk log periodic, and I can make QSOs using APRS
messages.

If you don't use a similar radio or software like UISS, you can still
send an APRS message from a simple terminal program. To do this for a
message to the WD9EWK-9 call I normally use for packet/APRS, type:

:WD9EWK-9 :Here is a message

A colon goes before my call, a space followed by a colon goes after my
call, and then the short message goes after the space and colon. That
is all you need to do. The Kenwood APRS-ready radios won't display
free-form text typed in a terminal program, but can handle APRS messages
from other stations with no problems. I will respond with an APRS
message, typed on the HT's keypad.

Last night during an overhead ISS pass, I worked 3 different stations -
KG6FIY and KK6QMS in southern California early in the pass, followed by
KE8AKW in Ohio later in the pass. The QSO with KE8AKW was the furthest I
have ever worked a station using the ISS (digipeater, or cross-band voice
repeater), at 2755km. I posted a longer writeup about this, complete with
screenshots, in a thread on the QRZ.com satellite forum at:

https://forums.qrz.com/index.php?threads/making-long-distance-iss-packet-qsos.524960/

Nick was ready for me when the ISS came up for him, and we wasted no time
in completing a QSO. Since it appears that the theoretical maximum distance
for a QSO through the ISS digipeater is in the neighborhood of 4400km, there
is still some room to stretch the footprint. Both operators would need to be
ready to do this, of course, given the limited amount of time there would be
if the QSO distance approaches that theoretical maximum.

73!





Patrick WD9EWK/VA7EWK
http://www.wd9ewk.net/
Twitter: @WD9EWK