Satgen 620  MIR/ISS Bounce  by GM4IHJ     (BID SGEN620)   2001-02-10

Several people have commented on a piece by WF1F, reporting a possible
2m propagation mode, whereby he heard W2KQ in New Jersey talking to
Mir shortly after he WF1F , finished a QSO with Mir. This when Mir was
far removed from  the line connecting the Boston Mass station with the
New Jersey station, and both stations where pointing their antennas at
Mir , at azimuths far away from the line connecting them.

There is some possible doubt whether this could have been an example
of the New Jersey signal being bounced off Mir and thence down to
Boston Mass. Mir cosmonauts have in the past been heard talking to
ground control whilst simultaneously repeating and retransmitting the
ground control signal to earth. Such that an operator in Scotland
could hear Mir direct, and hear ground control replying via a link
from a Mir loud speaker audibly connecting into the Cosmonauts
microphone. Indeed it was often the case in the past that this type of
relay continued for several minutes . Provided the cosmonaut was using
a voice actuated microphone. Microphones often being activated for
long periods simply, by the loud background noise level, ever present
in Mir. 

However, when the Cosmonauts reverted ( less often ), to a push to
talk microphone, these highly informative relays ceased to be heard. 

But this does not mean that what WF1F heard was a Mir loudspeaker
relay . We should not forget the interesting pioneer work done by W3PK
and W2RS in those far off post Sputnik pre Oscar days 40 years ago.
They convincingly demonstrated that rocket bodies travelling through
near earth space could be used as signal reflectors and propagators ,
when both amateur radio operators were aware of the possibility for a
contact and were aiming their antennas at the rocket body. As early as
1958 W8JK , had noted that certain terrestrial HF beacon signals
increased in strength as satellites flew by. Ray Soifer and Perry
Klein simply took this a step further. They decided that 21MHz
appeared to be the best choice of frequency , and they proceeded to
demonstrate that communication by this mode was possible. Although the
amateur radio power levels, antennas and available receivers of that
time were nothing like as good as those we have today.

So is it possible that WF1F has reopened a fruitful source of
interesting experiments for radio amateurs. Certainly todays
Moonbouncers should be able to improve on W3PK and W2RS's results .
Given that monster antennas positioned by accurate computer predicted
tracking based on NORAD/NASA orbital elements , backed up by mast head
pre amplifiers and low loss cable, should put us light years ahead of
the excellent results produced by the late 1950s experimenters. Indeed
given the station outfit used by WF1F when he heard New Jersey via Mir
, his reception appears to be no fluke at all.

So who will be first to get WAS or DXCC ISS Bounce ? 

But please keep clear of ARISS frequencies.