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Amateur Radio in Space
Amateur Radio in Space
One thing most people are always drawn to is the use of amateur radio in space. There's so many things you can do here, and they're all really interesting, so here's a couple we find the coolest:
Cover image by Hope ND2L
The ISS
The ISS
Everyone's heard of the ISS. But what most people don't know is that it carries several amateur radio payloads on board. Sometimes, astronauts monitor the stations and talk to amateurs, sometimes they arrange contacts with schools, sometimes the payloads will copy your signal and beam your voice back from the ISS down to Earth so you can reach more people!
Left: a dual-band antenna during an ISS contact. Notice how the antenna is mounted on motors to follow the ISS as it passes overhead
An image received by Will KW4WZ, sent down to Earth from the ISS during World Space Week 2025. Amateurs can create antennas to receive the radio signals and decode them to create an image like the one above. Reproduced with Will's kind permission
A massive dish antenna on motors to track the moon, used exclusively for EME, at the F4KLO club.
EME / Moonbounce
EME / Moonbounce
Imagine 2 people on the other side of the planet to each other. They can't see each other, and they've only got radios that work with line of sight communication. But, they can both see the moon. This is the purpose of Earth-Moon-Earth transmissions, using the moon as a massive mirror to bounce signals off back down to Earth. EME is a massive challenge but it is so worth it when you see it working.
Satellite Tracking
Satellite Tracking
Just like the ISS, we can also talk to satellites travelling overhead. There are loads of low Earth orbit (LEO) satellites that fly over us carrying amateur transponders, repeaters, downlinks and more. If you're lucky you may be able to have a 2 way contact with another amateur using the satellite as a repeater that mirrors your signal to increase its range, or maybe you can pick up a data transmission and see what the satellite is looking at down on Earth.
A mobile satellite tracking station built in the iForge which successfully tracked satellites outside the Endcliffe Edge
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