[OZAPRS] ISS Packet system down....

[Liz]

QTR Tue, 1 Aug 2017 09:45:27 +0930 Terry, VK5ATN QTC

> For me the challenge of working the ISS is in utilizing an orbital
> pass which offers the highest likelihood of hearing my signal and the
> digipeated signal (if it exists) being captured by the available
> Igates.  As far as I am aware, there are none operating in SA.
> Igates are available on the west cost of the continent, and in the
> east from VK3KAW - there may be others.   Playing around with Igate
> locations in Orbitron reveals that ideal passes for my SA station are
> much more limited than might be first thought, confirmed by quite a
> few years of casual, and at times intense experimenting.    I have
> speculated about setting up my own Igate, but lack of accurate and
> specific information, along with my only having Windose XP
> computer(s) free for the exercise has meant that it hasn't progressed
> beyond an initial more or less successful experiment some months
> back. 
> 
> I cannot conclude this without thanking any Igate operators most
> sincerely for making the facility available.  Without their
> generosity, the exercise would be futile.
> 
> All this of course subject to peer review,  I'm just an
> experimenter ....

you say you just have windowsXP. For a very small price a RTL-SDR
receiver, a suitable antenna and a current microcomputer (eg RPi) would
build you a complete iGate which won't cost much to run, and need an
occasional restart.
Just another experiment....

I'm currently using a RTL-SDR and a Pine64 to watch the ADS-B traffic,
with a collinear antenna built from scrap coax. That's another fun
experiment.



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Liz
VK2XSE