Slow Scan TV experiments from the International Space Station - 4th & 5th August 2020

On the 4th & 5th of August 2020, there will be Slow Scan TV transmissions from the International Space Station on 145.800 MHz.

See below....

MAI-75 SSTV activity planned for Aug 4 and 5, 2020

The final crew schedule for the week of Aug 3-9 was released recently and it showed a MAI-75 activity scheduled for Aug 4 and 5. This is soon after the Space X Demo-2 undock so changes to that event could impact the schedule.

This is the Moscow Aviation Institute SSTV experiment that is activate for orbital passes over Moscow, Russia. It has traditional been PD-180 or PD-120 and transmitting on 145.800 MHz.

**Update Aug. 3**
Looks like they made an adjustment to the schedule for Aug 5.
Aug 4 (12:25-18:10 UTC) is setup and day 1.
Aug 5 (08:15-18:25 UTC) is day 2 and close out of operations.

These are the passes for my location on the south coast of Ireland but they should be good for anyone in the UK or Ireland.

Tuesday 4th August 2020 (UK & Irish time which is UTC+1 hour)
15:21 to 15:27
16:57 to 17:04 (High pass)
18:34 to 18:41 (High pass)

Wednesday 5th August 2020
14:33 to 14:39
16:09 to 16:16 (High pass)
17:46 to 17:53 (High pass)
19:23 to 19:29

In a previous post HERE, I outlined how the European Space Agency had a series of video tutorials on how to decode SSTV signals from the International Space Station.

For a really simple set-up then just download the Robot36 app to your smartphone and hold it next to your 2-metre radio. See this post HERE

Updates on the ISS SSTV activity will be on this website... http://ariss-sstv.blogspot.com/

Updates... I lost two images as I wasn't used to the Robot36 app on the smartphone. Lots of controls in the programme but no instructions. I finally figured out that I needed to press the 'floppy disk' symbol to save the image as a photo as soon as the image was decoded. Need to be careful with the 'Play' / 'Pause' controls as this wipes out the previous photo. I also have the volume on the radio very high to get something showing in the green control bar.

Decoded at 17:40 UTC on the 4th. Not great but it's a start

Wed 5th Aug 2020... They seemed to have updated the format with more SSTV images sent on each pass.

Weak signal with two periods where the signal dived into the noise

Another image decoded on my phone

There was another pass at 5:50pm local time and I got two more decodes...

I would probably need to spend more time adjusting volume levels with some test signals to get things right. However, it's not bad for just holding a mobile phone next to the radio.

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

Experiments with Slow Scan TV apps

Every Tuesday evening, we have a local net here in Cork on the VHF bands. This follows the following pattern... 1st Tuesday of the month (2m), 2nd Tues (70cms), 3rd Tues (4m & 6m) and 4th Tues (Digital).

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.

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.