International Space Station Reference. International Space Station Reference Ham Radio When astronauts, cosmonauts and mission specialists from many nations fly on the international space station, they will have amateur, or ham, radio as a constant companion.
Since its first flight in 1983, ham radio has flown on more than two-dozen space shuttle missions. Dozens of astronauts have used the Space Shuttle Amateur Radio Experiment, or SAREX, to talk to thousands of kids in school and to their families on Earth while they were in orbit. They have pioneered space radio experimentation, including television and text messaging as well as voice communication. Satellite Resources. There are two kinds of Satellite Tracking Position Servers.
One transmits moving position reports up VIA each digipeating digital satellite so that all users in the footprint can see the exact location of the satellite live on their APRS displays. There is usually only one of these statiions every 3000 miles across the planet. See the red coverage circles on the map below. They run a special version of APRStk.exe... The other Data Servers serves the same data to all locals on the local APRS data channel in any given local area. Mobile/HT Digital Comms via ECHO. ECHO's POTENTIAL for DIGIPEATING: ECHO is ideal for supporting global HAM radio handheld and mobile digital communications at 9600 baud.
We have demonstrated this capability via many previous satellites, but now the new ECHO and the thousands of handheld digital radios in the hands of AMSAT members can make this become a permanent reality. The table below lists the installed capability of the Kenwood D7 and D700 handheld and mobile APRS radios for stand-alone satellite communications. These radios include not only the self-contained 9600 baud TNC, but also an APRS processor and display system so that digital communications can be entered from the keypad and displayed on the multi-line display and even the map of an attached GPS.