We have been working with Hudson Memorial School near Nashua, NH to prepare for a possible ARISS Crew Contact. The ARISS folks work with schools and their Ham Radio helpers to prepare for these contacts. ARISS provides recommendations for ground station equipment to help ensure a good experience for the students. The ground station recommendations provide a solid set of specifications to support communications with the ISS on the 2m band. The recommendations include things such as:

• A requirement to build both a primary and a backup ground station
• Radio and power specifications (a 200W amp is recommended)
• Antenna specifications including recommendations to provide for switchable LHCP and RHCP
• Computer controlled azimuth/elevation positioning of antennas to track the ISS
• Use of a receive preamplifier at the antenna

You can read more about our ISS Contact upgrade plans via the link below…

Source: Upgrading our 2.0 Satellite Station for ARISS Contact

Fred, AB1OC