[GCARC] more fun with radios: excellent visible (and radio) ISS pass Monday 10:35pm

[Jim n2gxj]

If you've enjoyed seeing the Space Station float by overhead with sunlight
from the set sun still reflecting off of it, Monday's your night (assuming
clouds permit).
Even if are clouds, is also a good chance to try a voice contact through
the FM repeater on board as it flies by.

Here are the visual pass details.
Hold the chart upside down over your head as if you are looking up through
the page towards the sky.  The dot in the sky rises up from the South-West,
traveling just to the North of straight overhead, and sets towards
new-england in the North-East.
https://www.heavens-above.com/passdetails.aspx?lat=39.7416&lng=-75.0789&loc=NJ_home&alt=45&tz=EST&satid=25544&mjd=60136.109153538&type=V

Here are the radio details:
Cross band repeater and packet are both operational, if want to give radio
a try.
https://www.ariss.org/current-status-of-iss-stations.html
The repeater is cross band, where you transmit on 2 meters (with a pl
tone), and receive on 70cm, like this::
(145.990 MHz up {PL 67} & 437.800 MHz down)
The doppler shift will be minimum when is straight overhead.  You can
listen a little higher in frequency on the way up, and little lower
in frequency after it passes overhead to stay tuned.
For simplicity, you can keep the TX fixed at 145.990 as 2M is less
sensitive to the doppler shift than the RX on 437.800 is, just turning the
dial on your RX up or down a little during the pass. Some people use two
radios for this, but one can work fine too.
Oh, one more tip.
Since the repeater is up in the sky overhead, and not on top of a water
tower  near the horizon like we usually use, you'll want to change from
vertical to horizontal with your antenna.  Orient your hand-held's antenna
parallel to the ground, and sideways to the path of the overhead pass,
rather than straight up as you normally would, to get the best signal/noise
ratio on receive.
Good luck to anyone who tries!
73, Jim.