SSTV from the ISS

I'm currently in one of the desert communities of the Northern Territory, amongst people who have one of the oldest continuous cultures in the world. Yes, I am a foreigner on their land, but they have made me feel very welcome.  It is from here that I managed to receive a SSTV image from the ISS.  My trusty ID-51 did the job nicely.  

I found this very strange as the hi-tech space-age manned satellite beacon out its message across an ancient land, whilst I was there living amongst an ancient cultural group.  It can really do your head in as these two, seemingly incompatible, worlds collide (not literally).  What a great space to be in!

For a brief moment in time the closest Amateur Station to me was 400km straight-up. Fact Check, I found that VK6PCB was in Halls Creek (only about 300km away).

'Earth is the cradle of humanity, but one cannot live in a cradle forever.' 

(Konstantin Tsiolkovsky)

Satellite, 30m and 40m APRS - Update

The following is just an update on Joel’s setup (as used on his NT to QLD trip). 

30m 

An IC-705 was used for 30m, this was set to10w (Max) and connected to a mono-band whip.  Modulation came from a Windows XP laptop running APRSIS32 with the U7ZHO sound modem. 

40m 

A Yaesu FT-891 was used for 40m, set at 50w and connected to a separate mono-band whip on the car,  this time using a raspberry pi, with Direwolf and Xastir. 

2m Satellite 

An FTM-400, set to 10w and feeding a normal dual band vehicle whip, was used for the Satellite beaconing. 

Given the minimal 10w on the 30m band (compared to the 50w on the 40m band), I would say that 30 metres is still the preferred band for this sort of activity (that is, if this band is available to you). 

Joel obviously shares his affection between Icom and Yaesu, and also Windows and Linux! Good on you Joel!

Satellite, 30m and 40m APRS - A comparison

I’ve been interested in APRS from the early days, even before the proliferation iGates with the shift from dial-up to dedicated 24/7 internet connections.  I’ve run APRS in my car on both 2m and 30m whilst traveling and even sent the occasional APRS out on the 2m Satellite frequency. I have memories of being on the Nullarbor and reaching an iGate in Perth via the ISS (this on 2m), as well as having my 30m beacon being iGated by a station in Italy.  It’s all a lot of fun but it’s not for everyone!

Over the last couple of years, I’ve become friends with Joel VK8JG who shares my interest in APRS and has been living in Darwin.  Friday was his last day here before relocating south.  (Anywhere else in Australia is referred to as ‘south’ when you live in Darwin!) For this trip south Joel managed to set his car and caravan up with four separate APRS transmitters, one of 2m Terrestrial (145.175MHz) VK8JG-8, one on 2m Satellite, (145.825MHz) VK8JG-9, one on the 40m HF band (7.0452 Mhz), VK8JG-15 and one on the 30m HF band (10.1476 Mhz USB) , VK8JG-14.

It’s interesting to compare these side by side as Joel drives to Brisbane.   I have included screenshots of the Satellite, 40m and the 30m Beacons below (you can click on the image to in-large them). From memory, the 30m beacon is only 10watts.  (I’ll need to check this, and the output power on the other bands.)

The Satellite APRS is fascinating.  Joel has consistently beaconed through the ISS and also once through LAPAN A2 (IO-86).  The latter is understandable as LAPAN A2 is in an equatorial orbit, and its coverage of Australia is limited to the norther reaches. Joel has been heard by YD8VMS-6 and YB8VRA-4 in Ambon, Indonesia, via the ISS and IO-86.  VK8JG-9 to YD8VMS-6 was at a point-to-point distance of just under 2000km.  Even more impressive are the beacons into VK5ATN-3, at just over 2000km.   Joel’s beacons have been iGated 16 time during six passes in just under 48 hours.

2m Satellite - VK8JG-9

The 30m and 40m Beacons provide a good side-by-side comparison, although we must consider the difference in power between the two. (Again, I will need to check the power output on 40m). Nonetheless 30m seems to be more consistent, especially during daylight hours.  40m seemed better in the far north in the early evening and into the night but there are large gaps in reception during daylight hours. As Joel moved south and closer to the iGates the reception improved and there appears to be a more consistent pattern emerging.

40m - VK8JG-15

30m - VK8JG-14

 

A second point of consideration are the number and location of iGates on each band.  Joel’s 40m beacons were received by 5 stations located in VK2 (x3), VK6 and VK7, whist his 30m beacons were received by only two stations, one in VK5 and the other in VK4. There are, no doubt, a lot more iGates on both bands in operation.  In the past 30m was the preferred band but in light of the Standard Licence not having access to this band I suspect that 40m may end up with more uses and therefore more iGates. This may already be the case.  

In conclusion, it is my opinion that 30m is still the best band for HF APRS, it provides a more consistent path to iGates, this especially during the daylight hours.  40m seems to come into its own from just before sunset and through to mid-morning and may be better than 30m in the far-north during these hours.  For large pasts of Australia, that are less remote, 40m may proof to be just fine, especially if the number of iGates on this band continues to grow.

If you are planning a road trip into the great beyond (obviously not into or out of VK6), and you have HF in your car, why not give HF APRS a go. And if you only have 2m FM why not add APRS into the mix and set it on the Satellite frequency of 145.825MHz. If you do, it will keep me entertained for hours!

Cheers for now!

ISS SSTV Reception

On hearing that there was going to be a ISS SSTV opportunity from the 28 December to 2 January, a used the Android app ISS Detector to set a reminder in my phone.  Here is what it added to my calendar: -

10 Minutes notice gave me just enough time to put the 2m elements on to the Arrow antenna, set the ID-51A up for recording the pass and then get myself out onto the lawn in-front of the flat (as this pass was going to be a somewhat problematic from the NW facing balcony).    

I managed to record two image transmissions, the second fading as the ISS dipped behind our flat.

This time I used MMSSTV with VB Audio Cable to do the decoding.  It produced good results.

Diploma received on 31 December 2019

ISS SSTV

On Monday (7th) I received the following form Work-Sat@groups.io

Russian cosmonauts are expected to activate Slow Scan Television (SSTV) image transmissions on 145.800 MHz FM from the International Space Station on October 9 and 10.
This is the schedule for the planned activation of the MAI-75 SSTV activity from the ISS.

• - Oct 9 09:50-14:00 GMT
• - Oct 10 08:55-15:15 GMT

Transmissions will be sent on 145.800 MHz FM in the SSTV mode PD-120.

Using my ID-51a with it's voice record function, I managed to receive the following from the balcony at 10.07pm Wednesday 9 October.

Not as good as I had hoped but nonetheless, received.

Cosmonautics day/Yuri's Night

I managed to decode an image from the ISS tonight from the balcony. It was a reasonably high pass but the modulation was down. Nonetheless decoded.

Update 14 April: - The following certificate was received as recognition of the successful reception of the above image. 

SSTV from the ISS in April

The word on the street (twittersphere) is that the ISS will be broadcasting SSTV from the 11 to 14 April. This is in celebration of Cosmonautics day/Yuri's Night

Mike Rupprecht @dk3wn Tweeted: 

Next ARISS SSTV Event 11 to 14 April 2019, 145.800MHz

Yuri's Night is an international celebration held every April 12 to commemorate milestones in space exploration.  Yuri's Night is named for the first human to launch into space, Yuri Gagarin, who flew the Vostok 1 spaceship on April 12, 1961. The launch of STS-1, the first Space Shuttle mission, is also honored, as it was launched 20 years to the day of Vostok 1 on April 12, 1981. source Wikipedia

Radio to Phone coupling for SSTV Reception

The two SSTV images received from the ISS (see previous posts) were decoded using acoustic coupling. The Icom ID-51 has the ability to record the audio on to an SD card, so i wondered if i could do better with direct coupling using a cable. After some investigation I settled on a minimalistic circuit. See below.

Update: the 82k resistor should probably be 500k.  I'll need to investigate some more.

The first image was the original  (using acoustic coupling ) and the the second was using my homemade cable. As you can see, there was a significant improvement .

Acoustic 

Cable

The phone was an android Samsung S9 using the Robot36 app. A think the circuit would work on any android device .

Note: There's no reason why this circuit could not be used for APRS reception using APRSdroid.

I take no responsibility for any damage to your toys, so play at your own risk.

ISS SSTV this time from A6 UAE

This time I managed to decode the SSTV signal from the 21st floor balcony of our hotel room here in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. It's been very hazy today but a reasonably solid signal from the ISS. The local time was around 5.30pm and I used the ID-51 again.

For information on the historic image click here.

ISS SSTV reception whilst in 7Q MALAWI

We managed a little AR activity in Africa!

With just a dual band handheld (ID-51) with a standard anntena and two free android apps installed on my phone I managed to decode some SSTV from the International Space Station. The apps used were the Robot36 - SSTV Image Decoder and the ISS Detector Satellite Tracker.

At about 8.30pm on the 10th February from the mountains of  Zomba in Malawi we decoded the following image.

And just to make it official