ESA: How to get pictures from the International Space Station via amateur radio

The European Space Agency have just released a video on YouTube explaining how to receive Slow Scan TV pictures via amateur radio.

The first video is about how to find the International Space Station...



There are plenty of videos about SSTV but this one is aimed at the general public who might never have heard of amateur radio before. The video instructs viewers how to receive pictures using a web based SDR in the SW of England.

This second video shows what software to use to decode the SSTV signals from an online SDR. This one is for those that use the Windows 10 operating system on their PC..



There are similar videos for users of other operating systems.

See the links below...
Windows 7... https://youtu.be/UKf7h0wBymY
Mac OSX... https://youtu.be/VOPxJ7UpUAI
Ubuntu... https://youtu.be/urNPrpEcAYY
iOS... https://youtu.be/B1GFg41UAHA
Android... https://youtu.be/Y2CS9mtv2hU
Rasberry Pi OS... https://youtu.be/A3Z6pUv6XEA

SSTV signals received from the International Space Station... 30th July 2018

After seeing a news item on the Southgate Amateur Radio website last week, I had a try this evening at decoding signals on 145.800 MHz from the International Space Station as it passed over Europe.

This was my first time using the MMSSTV software and trying to decode Slow Scan TV signals so the images could probably be better.

Better image on the second pass...

The signals were heard with an indoor Slim Jim half-wave in the attic of the house.

The next scheduled passes that are within range of Ireland (& NW Europe) are on Tuesday 31st July... 16:59 to 17:08 UTC and 18:36 to 18:45 UTC. (Note times are UTC... Irish / British Summer time minus one hour).

For anyone on the South coast of Ireland or the UK, there is a very high pass at about 21:17 local time. Although the SSTV signals are supposed to be off at that stage, it should be a very good visual pass if the skies are clear.

Frequency : 145.800 MHz wide FM.