Solar System (FM) Radio Signal

[Harvey_Dogg]

I've been wondering what it would be like to DX signals from the Earth on the space station, on the moon, and on Mars. What would you pick up?

 

[Kelly A]

Back in the Skylab days shortly after getting my ham license, I worked one of the ham astronauts from my sofa with a 5W Icom IC2AT handheld. As the old saying goes; when it comes to VHF and UHF, height is might. You can't get much more height than LEO.

 

[kenglish]

I've been wondering what it would be like to DX signals from the Earth on the space station, on the moon, and on Mars. What would you pick up?

You'd probably need to go there, to really experience it.
There are folks who do moon-bounce DX...Dr. Tony Mann, retired Physicist of the University of Western Australia (Perth) is one of them. He did a lot of research in frequency doppler shift, by monitoring US TV stations as their signals bounced of the moon. You can Google some of his work, and possibly find how he did the math to see what times various stations would have the moon within their vertical beam width, and the moon be visible from both their transmitter site and his location in Australia.
The received signal quality would depend on the power being sent, and other things like bandwidth, antenna gain and noise.
He usually was looking for carriers, not programming.
Ham radio operators work morse code, bouncing VHF and higher frequency signals off the moon .

 

[landtuna]

You can buy CBD almost anywhere now, but if, ten days later, you still have even a trace in your system, it's a DUI.

Just like alcohol, narcotics and a whole host of other <ahem> "chemicals".

 

[davideduardo]

Just like alcohol, narcotics and a whole host of other <ahem> "chemicals".

Except that commercial CBD comes from hemp, and is not a narcotic or a hallucinogen. It's routinely prescribed by doctors for people undergoing chemo and other conditions. My physician suggested it in lieu of surgery for lower back pain... at one of the best health care systems in the state.

 

[kenglish]

They prefer to call it "metabolites".
I guess it's like, "Pee".😁

 

[landtuna]

Except that commercial CBD comes from hemp, and is not a narcotic or a hallucinogen. It's routinely prescribed by doctors for people undergoing chemo and other conditions. My physician suggested it in lieu of surgery for lower back pain... at one of the best health care systems in the state.

Back pain from spinal stenosis has almost put me in a wheelchair. Perhaps I should look into CBD

 

[davideduardo]

Back pain from spinal stenosis has almost put me in a wheelchair. Perhaps I should look into CBD

Way off topic but here it is: I am a member of the same club; it helps immeasurably as does one of the specific TENS devices, the silly-named Hollywog.

 

[oldradiotapes]

I've been wondering what it would be like to DX signals from the Earth on the space station, on the moon, and on Mars. What would you pick up?

At least from the ISS, I would imagine it'd be like listening to a radio on an airliner at cruising altitude, only on a greater scale since you're at even higher altitude. Think about it: you're on what's essentially a low-earth orbit satellite with a view of a large portion of the earth's surface at any given time. Taking capture effect into consideration, you would probably be locking stations maybe only a couple seconds or so at a time as you make your rotation around the earth, which IIRC from high-school physics over 20 years ago, takes about an hour. Think of what you hear when you tune up and down the dial rapidly, only you're on a single frequency. It would leave even the best-designed FM receiver front-end to scratch its head and go, "WTF?".

I'm sure somebody will be along in a bit to definitively tell me exactly why my theory is wrong and what a terrible person I am for posting such blatant misinformation.

I wonder if anybody who's been on the ISS has done this and posted a recording? It would be interesting to hear.

 

[crainbebo]

I'm sure that's what the ISS would sound like on the FM band. Like rapid meteor bursts every couple seconds...or graveyard AM DX in FM fidelity.

 

[nd2023]

I'm sure that's what the ISS would sound like on the FM band. Like rapid meteor bursts every couple seconds...or graveyard AM DX in FM fidelity.

Fly in an airplane from Boston to Washington DC, the most congested area for FM. Every FM frequency will sound like a graveyard AM

 

[crainbebo]

Then try flying 38K feet over Wyoming...I'm sure 300-mile reception would be easy, and 400 wouldn't be out of the picture either. Wide-open spaces.

 

[kenglish]

I wonder if the ISS radio is capable of being used as a remote SDR on the FM broadcast band? It's not far from the 2-meter band that they use for ham contacts.
Might make for an interesting experiment!

 

[boombox4]

I've always wondered what HF and MW would sound like from space. I suppose the Ionosphere refracts so much of the signal back to Earth it's non-existent. But VHF obviously gets through. One of my most exciting VHF catches was hearing the beep beep beep of the 136 Mhz weather satellites as they went over head. On a Realistic brand, analog Patrolman SW-60.