Date: Fri, 13 Apr 2001 08:48:47 -0400 From: M Subject: [sarex] How to Work ISS Chat Room, Short Version April 13, 2001 G. Miles Mann Short Version How to use the Unproto (Chat Room) Amateur Radio System on ISS Working the International Space Station ISS on 2-meter packet station is easier than you may think. I have been able to connect to the ISS packet station on a regular basis with a very modest 2-meter base station and from my car packet station. The name of the 2-meter packet experiment on the ISS is the "Personal Message System" or PMS. The ISS PMS experiment is specifically designed to allow easy access to beginners. If you have an existing 2-meter packet station at home now, then you may already have all of the equipment you need to start a friendship with the Cosmonauts and Astronauts on board ISS. In this article I will describe the equipment you need to operate the ISS (International Space Station Alpha). I will also discuss the features supported by the PMS and cover the setup details for operating the Unproto mode called Chat Room. Other modes will be covered in separate memos. The ISS is currently using an Erickson portable radio (known as a HT) which is operating on the Amateur Radio 2-meter band. The Personal Message System is using a 1200 baud Terminal Node Controller (called a TNC or Packet or Modem) from Paccom. The radio is currently connected to a pair of externally mounted co-phased mono band antennas (2-meters). The typical power output is 3 watts, with an ERP rating of 1.5 watts. To work ISS from your home, you should have at least the following Amateur Radio equipment. A 2-meter radio with an output rating of 25 to 50 watts or more. An omni-directional antenna or small beam. A short run of good quality coax (RG-213, 100 feet or less). And a standard 1200 baud AX.25 Packet modem (TNC). I use an inexpensive KPC-3 modem for all of my ISS packet connections. TNC Configuration: NOTE: ONLY UNPROTO IS ACTIVE THIS WEEK, AKA CHAT ROOM. THE ISS CALL SIGN IS TEMPOARALY "NOCALL", IT WILL BE CHANGED LATER TO "R0ISS" To operate the ISS PMS, you will need to modify some of the settings on your TNC. Most of the parameter changes required for ISS will be compatible with terrestrial BBS operations. Using these suggested parameters will improve you're connection rate and at the same time help reduce QRM. Note, ARPS settings will be covered in a different memo. This memo is for Unproto and Email settings. You do not need APRS to work ISS Email or Unrproto (Chat Room) This is a portion of the TNC parameters in my KPC-3; your actual parameters may vary: AUTOCR OFF BEACON OFF LFADD OFF MAXFRAME 4 MCON ON MCOM ON MONITOR ON PACLEN 72 RETRY 8-10 TIME STAMP ON Unproto CQ V R0ISS BEACON: Make sure your beacon is disabled. Unattended beacons on the ISS packet uplink will just cause interference. You should only transmit manually while you are at controls. There has been a lot of email about the settings for using beacons. Please keep beacons turned OFF, while on the ISS uplink channel. Only call ISS Chat Room Manually !!!! LFADD: This value seems to interfere with normal ISS BBS operations. Make sure LFADD is turned OFF. MCON: Set this value on to monitor all data. MCOM: This value is normally turned "OFF" for terrestrial BBS connections and "ON" for connections to the ISS PMS. This value will allow you to see packets going to other stations, while you are Connected or Attempting to Connect. All courteous operators using ISS will keep this value ON. MONITOR: Allows monitoring of packets while not connected. PACLEN: Lots of short packet lengths are less likely to be clobbered than a few very long packets. RETRY: You do not want to set this value too high because you may cause QRM during your initial connect. Also, if "RETRY" is too short, you will time-out during the one of the 4 deep RF signal fades. Foot note 2. During a 10 minute pass, there will be 4 RF polarity shifts in the signal coming from ISS. This shift is caused by the apparent position of the antenna on ISS's in relation to your antenna. TIME STAMP: With Time Stamp turned on, you will be able to log data to your disk while you are away and track the time and duration's of the passes. Unproto: The unproto command has two parts. The first part can be any six (6) letters of your choice. Most people use CQ or a grid square location. The second part is the letter V or VIA, the third part is the call sign of the Digi. This week the call sign of ISS is NOCALL. Now with the correct parameters configured, you will be able to monitor all of the data coming from the ISS PMS. The packet data you see will typically fall into one of the 6 categories listed below. Please test first on a terrestrial digi first. U CQ V NOCALL C-Connect request D-Disconnect request DM-Disconnect mode UA-Unnumbered Acknowledge UI-Unconnected Information frame I(n)-Information frame (n=0-7). ISS and Packet UnProto mode or Chat Room The ISS PMS (Personal Mail System) also supports the Digital repeating mode called UnProto / Chat Room. I am not going to get into too much detail about UnProto / Chat Room, for more information check Amateur radio hand books and back issues of Amateur Radio magazine. Basically UnProto / Chat Room is a way of sending packet messages without requiring an acknowledgment from the other station. This mode is similar to RTTY in that, you can have several stations in one big QSO at the same time. Set your UnProto command in your TNC, on my KAM the syntax is "U CQ V NOCALL". Then switch to Converse mode (enter K at cmd: prompt). Now everything you type will be transmitted in UnProto Mode. If the ISS station hears your transmission, the ISS PMS Digi will rebroadcast your information with a range of over a 1000 miles. Below is a short UnProto / Chat Room between a station in Massachusetts and Pennsylvania, using the ISS Digi Chat Room. The stations were arranging to meet on HF when the ISS pass was over. N3CXP>CQ,NOCALL*:Hi all, great sigs here! de Tom in Allentown, PA WF1F>FN42,NOCALL*:n3cxp are u on N3CXP>CQ,NOCALL*:HI miles WF1F>FN42,NOCALL*:i have the amp on hf 7.215 N3CXP>CQ,NOCALL*:just copying the mail N3CXP>CQ,NOCALL*:ok cu after the pass WF1F>FN42,NOCALL*:I dub thee ISS Chat room N3CXP>CQ,NOCALL*:just copying the mail, here miles WF1F>FN42,NOCALL*:ok tom WF1F>FN42,NOCALL*:monitoring 7.215 lsb The UnProto mode does not guarantee you message will ever be heard, but if the ISS Digi does rebroadcast your line of text, then you can be assured that someone saw it. The line of text you send will be repeated with an Asterisk after it, "R0ISS*/". If you do not see the Asterisk, then ISS did not hear your packet. UnProto does have its drawbacks, but it is much more efficient to use on ISS than the Direct two-way connect method. Full two-way packet connects via the ISS PMS are not recommended because they use up too much resources and excessive "Retires". Before you try Unproto on ISS, I recommend that you practice on a Terrestrial Digi first before attempting to use the ISS station for Digi-repeating. If you make a few UnProto calls and do not get any echo's back from ISS, it is probably because the band is too busy, wait and try later. Packet frequency with Doppler correction Chan Receive Transmit Offset (Meg) 145.802.5 145.988.5 +0.186 first 1/3 of pass 145.800.0 145.990.0 +0.190 Middle of pass 145.798.5 145.992.5 +0.194 End of pass New MAREX Web pages: Check out our future ISS Projects and a large list if Mir related links www.marex-na.org Copyright 2001 Miles Mann, All Rights Reserved. This document may be freely distributed via the following means - Email (including listservers), Usenet, and World-Wide-Web. It may not be reproduced for profit including, but not limited to, CD ROMs, books, and/or other commercial outlets without prior written consent from the author. Until we meet again DOSVIDANIYA Miles WF1F - ---- Via the sarex mailing list at AMSAT.ORG courtesy of AMSAT-NA.