ISS Fan Club

Just heard Charles around 03:00 on this last pass. Why was he transmitting 144.490 instead of 145.800? Thought 144.490 was the uplink? What have I missed?

ki6cha
Hey fellas--Do you know if their antenna is horizontal or vertical?

Just a reminder for U.S.A. Amateurs-FCC Part 97-101-General Standards-d- No amateur operator shall willfully or maliciously interfere with or cause interference to any radio communication or signal.So please be polite and allow others a chance.I recall the same rude calling the ISS when Ansari was aboard.Food for thought. 73 de KI4JVK

If the "other ham" was calling on 145.80, he does not realize he needed a -1.31 Mhz offset. He can call all day long, and not work the ISS -- because he's on the wrong uplink frequency. Charles is not listening on 145.80. TX on 144.49 MHz while the ISS is over North America.

If the ISS ham station is active, and Charles calls out "QRZ?", all you need to give is your callsign "X7XX". No need to waste time saying "NA1SS". He knows who he is. If you say "NA1SS", you missed your one second chance to give your callsign. The best ISS pass is about 9 minutes, 30 seconds long, so each second, and each syllable counts. Don't waste it.

If you don't hear the ISS active, then calling "NA1SS, X7XX" and waiting ten or fifteen seconds is okay. But, if you hear a contact (QSO) in progress, do not transmit until he says "QRZ" or "CQ" or similar request. Transmitting over an existing QSO (or transmitting over and over) is counterproductive. It generates interference, generates confusion, and no one will get a contact.

Ron H, AH6RH

Well,
NA1SS is a top most wanted. Having completely clean operations is impossible.
I dont understand how can you listen the others calling when you are listening to the downlink.
Was Charles operating simplex?
Plus, I consider the first call practice a legitimate one. Calling on a clear frequency is not a problem. What if the astronaut is passing by the radio and decides to pick up?
The real problem is when people call while other operators are talking. That is real real bad.

Thats just my opinion.
Alain

Sounds like operators on 20 meters lately. I've been trying for some DX on 20 these last few weeks and there are a lot of other operators that do the same thing. Many times I couldn't hear the response of the calling station due to the continuing interference of over eager stations. Here in the midwest we're lucky that ISS operators even remember that there's someone to make contacts with, so I don't think I'd have your same problem, but then you never know. I've had 5 confirmed contacts myself, so I'll just stand by and let others who haven't made there contacts yet get one in, if everyone else will let them.