If at first you don't succeed ... well, you know the rest of that old saying. Regular readers of my blog might remember the first time I tried to listen to Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) was unsuccessful. So I decided to try again.
The process was fairly simple and straightforward. I referred to a schedule of ISS passes, picked a good pass for listening to ARISS, went to a place with a clear view of the sky and used an inexpensive shortwave radio to listen on the right day at the right time.
I used the n2yo.com Web site to get a table of "10-day predictions for Space Station."
 |
| n2yo.com | 10-Day Predictions for ISS |
 |
| n2yo.com | excerpt from 10-Day Predictions for ISS |
The 11 minute pass started at 16:09 EDT (4:09 PM) and ended at 16:20 EDT (4:20 PM), reaching a maximum altitude of 88° (near the zenith).
I used a modified V-dipole antenna and my Baofeng UV-5R shortwave radio (tuned for 437.800 MHz, the download frequency for ARISS) to listen during the window of time between the "Start" and "End" times shown in the n2yo.com table of 10-day predictions. I used an Apple iPad mini 2 (running the Apple "Voice Memos" app) to record audio from the speaker on my Baofeng UV-5R radio.
For most of the ISS pass I heard radio static and ambient noise (including wind). Toward the end of the 11 minute window I heard an amateur radio operator announce his call sign two times.
I used Apple "QuckTime Player" to trim the audio recording to remove static/noise (from the first eight minutes and last few minutes), and DaVinci Resolve to create a simple video for YouTube.
Related Resources
- Tracking the International Space Station - a blog post by Walter Sanford
- ARISS - Amateur Radio on the International Space Station and ISS Ham Radio Status
- International Space Station - NASA
Copyright © 2026 by Walter Sanford. All rights reserved.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Comments are invited and wlecome.