Below is a REALTIME map of stations heard by the AJ3U-3 SatGATE
These station positions are received via the Internation Space Station or NO-44 (PCSAT) within the last two hours.
Map updated every 9 minutes - see below for a full description
What you are looking at above is a number of position reports from amateur radio operators that transmit their positions through the International Space Station (ISS) or NO-44 (PCSAT). These stations obtain their location using GPS and transmit them up to the orbiting satellite. The satellite operates an APRS Digipeater which receives position reports and retransmits them from 200 miles above the Earth for other stations to receive. This gives extremely wide coverage for mobile, portable, and remote stations. In addition to position reports, short messages, telemetry, and even short e-mails can be transmitted via the ISS. Some stations, such as AJ3U-3 act as Satellite Gateways which receive position reports that are digipeated via ISS and upload them via the Internet to a centralized database so the data can be recalled later. This map is automatically generated by my IGATE station running UI-VIEW32 and uploaded to the web server every two minutes.
You can access the database of all ISS SatGate reports here:
http://www.ariss.net