On some months, there is a fifth Tuesday and we decided to use this for experiments.
For the 5th Tuesday in March of 2020, we decided to experiment with the Slow Scan TV apps for a smartphone. I was expecting that we would spend most of the first evening just downloading the various apps and trying to get them to work but it ended up being suprising easy.
The first thing we had to do was to download a SSTV decoder for the Google Play store and I think we all used Robot36 as shown above.
For sending SSTV signals, we used the SSTV Encoder app as shown above.
For the tests, we sent and received the signals on 145.475 MHz FM between members of the group and we each just held our mobile phones up to the loudspeaker and microphone of our radios.
The apps were very easy to use and we had them up and running in minutes. Using the 'Martin 1' SSTV mode, I sent out test transmissions and Don EI8DJ, Robbie EI3GGB and Jim EI8GS all successfully decoded the signals.
The photo above shows the signal that Robbie, EI3GGB decoded. The transmissions decoded by Don, EI8DJ are shown below.
Jim, EI8GS also reported successful decodes of the signal.
The original photos of the Daffodils and Gorse bush are shown below...
Obviously the quality could be better but this was our first attempt without experimenting about with audio levels for transmit or receive. The beauty of using a smartphone is that there are no wires. You just hold the phone up to the loudspeaker and it decodes the signal.
No doubt we will return to the SSTV app on another night to try and improve on the signals and picture quality. We were all agreed though that it was something new and novel to do and it was interesting to try something new.
It also struck me that this would make for an interesting activity for any club or group to try. Just go to the Google Play store and download the apps for free.
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