Kerry Kowalski writes in a message to Scott Christensen
 KK> Couple more questions for them in the know... (I'm not) How 
 KK> fast are they movin'??? 
That depends on how high Mir is.
  
 KK> I've been hearing him from about 11:15 AM to 12:45 PM on different 
 KK> days for about 15 to 20 min. each B4 he would fade out.
  
That would mean about a 200 mile high orbit or maybe a bit higher...
  
 KK> And in what direction... I figure west to east! Am I right... 
 KK> Or maby close??? Like North west to South east??? I'm not a 
 KK> Ham so I can't ask um... OH pooo...
  
I presume that Mir is in a roughly circular orbit with some declination to 
the equator.  Rockets are launched "east" to get the approximate 1000 MPH 
boost from the rotation of the earth (at the equator).  If you launch from a 
more northern or southern position, you get (I believe) the cosine of the 
latitude times the equator speed - so you get less "free boost" as you go 
away from the equator.
  
So you are right, west to east would be the apparent direction.
  
 KK> Here is 1 more question... Is he a ham??? By the Call letters 
 KK> he's usin' He sounds like a pirate! If so is the FCC gonna 
 KK> bust him when he gets back??? If not I'd like to file a complain't 
 KK> now! What's the scoop???
  
I believe he is a Ham - with a special callsign for the station onboard Mir.  
So he's not going to be busted.  Besides, he is just a little bit out of US 
jurisdiction right now.  Onboard a Russian sovereign vessel to be precise.  
Just like if you were on a cruise ship outside of US waters (or even in US 
waters, actually).  You would then be a guest of the captain of the boat 
extending the hospitality of the country in which the boat is registered.  
(You know that ship captains are legally capable of marriages, and most other 
functions of heads of state - but only while on their ships, right?  You 
could even be arrested and detained without warrant if circumstances required 
that.  So be *very* nice to the captain!)
  
 KK> Ok one more fer good measure... If he was 1800 mi. from me 
 KK> is he runnin legal power? Or is this a Russian set up and they 
 KK> have freeer air waves and no limits on power... If so must 
 KK> be hell watchin' tv in Russia! 
  
You can hear signals as small as 3 watts in the 130 MHz band from synchronous 
orbit (23.5K miles) satellites.  With a bit of math, presume 3 watts at 130 
MHz into a 10dB gain antenna with another 10 dB antenna on the receive end - 
from 23,500 miles, we get a receive signal at the receive antenna port of 
0.59 microvolts which is *easily* receivable!
  
Taking your 148 MHz signal from 1800 miles - with the same 10 dB antennas on 
both ends and again only 3 watts input, you get 6.80 microvolts.  With a 
unity gain receive antenna, 2.15 microvolts!  (Yes, I have a programmable 
calculator that takes the variables and does the math for this problem!  
)
  
 KK> Quit laughin'
  
Ain't "line of sight" wonderful?  
 
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