You need to have 9600 baud packet and appropriate software to code / decode for ISS packet communications and do all the following:
Consider these requirements:
1. Do NOT TRANSMIT UNLESS YOU CAN HEAR YOUR OWN SIGNAL OR HEAR OTHERS. Otherwise you will be jamming the rest of us!
2. Make your RECEIVE work BEFORE transmitting.
3. Using the right kind of antenna makes a huge difference. A discone Will NOT work. A fixed beam horizontal to the earth will not work. Antenna patterns and pattern shapes is extremely critical and you must keep the antenna pattern aimed at the satellite. Mine is a simple ARROW (3 el on 2, 7 el on 435) on a mast tilted 20 degrees elevation AND ARR mast mounted preamps AND low loss coax AND it all meets or exceed the system up link and downlink budget margins with S5 to S7 margins OR MORE. I reliably work AO7, AO51, VO52, SO50 and ISS every day.
4. Pointing at the satellite make a huge difference. The fact that you hear anything at all with the discone & horizontal beam is seer luck, the satellite footprint just catches a slight corner of the discone pattern. Point!
5. Knowing WHEN AND WHERE satellite is REQUIRED! Use SATPC32 software for this and doppler control.
6. Doppler control REQUIRED! Trying to tune 3 KHZ/ minute rates and a 20 KHZ change is impossible without SATPC32.
7. DON’T USE HAM RADIO DELUXE. IT DOESN’T WORK! Especially for SSB birds.
8. Calculating your system up link and down link path margins and adjusting your equipment gains and losses to get satisfactory S-meter signal margins (make it so you can be heard and can hear) ABSOLUTELY REQUIRED!
9. Eggbeaters - NOT a good antenna. No gain- you need 6 to 10 db gain antennas at least and POINT. Need a footprint and tight main lobes eggbeaters don't. Eggbeaters with preamps won't do it either. Eggbeaters too expensive too. A 4 or 7 ele 2 meter, 440 coat hanger beam works and cheap!
10. I attached my spreadsheet to this email (see me on this). You can put in your own numbers and see what you "have" and then do it again with what you "need to make it work".
11. Yep radio to computer to do doppler a must, too much knob twisting manually. A few guys do it but they are always off frequency and distracted tuning. Minimum is doppler, direction data (az and el). Auto rotor control optional.
12. If you get into the bird then disappears likely freq WAY off toward the end of the band. You are dealing with as much as 20 khz changes. Sliding? I think you are trying to hear your DL and I do that by sending CW and listening and tuning slightly a few hundred hz at most to tune in, then the tracking is right on the rest of the pass. Get SATPC32 and it will solve that problem.
13. Low loss coax- you MUST use low loss coax. 9913 minimum. LMR 600 better. RG58 will NOT work. RG8X will not work. RG8 marginal. All runs as short as possible. No extra.
14. Hot Rod Arrow – AMSAT Journal Jan/Feb 2007: My antenna is FIXED at 20 degrees elevation and 90% of all ham satellite orbits don't go above 45 degrees, so there is really not much reason for an expensive az - el rotor. You can get away without elevation if you follow my design carefully. The design takes into account the beamwidth angles, orbital mechanics, satellite foot prints, satellite antenna patterns, etc, so it works, and allows me to work most all satellites reliably and consistently every day. The cost is cheap if you don't add the receiver pre amps. Those make a huge improvement on receive and make it armchair copy, but if you have a good transceiver and its sensitive enough*, you can do without, though received signals will be very weak on most passes. After all, there are guys using nothing but a ARROW and a W32A or THF6 hand held to successfully work the satellites, though its not armchair copy.
15. If you want the link budget path calculators to see what equipment and coaxes you need see me.
16. I have more. Enough for now………