According to a post on the ARISS SSTV Blog it appears that there are plans for another SSTV activity period over 6 – 8 August 2021. This announcement is subject to crew duties and operational constraints on the station.
Posted on Monday, 26 July, 2021 by ariss-sstv.blogspot.com.
August 2021 MAI-75 SSTV
Looks like the folks at Moscow Aviation Institute are going to do a couple of quick experiment sessions of SSTV during parts of August 6 and 7. The anticipated operational periods are listed below:
- August 6, 2021 (Friday) – setup is planned to start at 10:50 UTC and transmissions will stop around 19:10 UTC
- August 7, 2021 (Saturday) – the activation should start about 09:50 GMT with the conclusion of the experiment scheduled for 15:55 UTC
Dates and times are subject to change due to ISS operational adjustments.
Historically, images are downlinked at 145.800MHz FM +/- 3kHz for Doppler shift and the expected SSTV mode of operation is PD 120.
There is an official European Space Agency (ESA) video about receiving SSTV from the ISS using the web SDR at Goonhilly for those who don’t have a capability to receive on 145.800MHz. You can see the video here: ESA ISS SSTV Video. For those interested in doing their own reception and decoding either live or after the event using recordings made during the passes for subsequent decoding the AMSAT website has a good primer that will serve as a good reference for those more experienced too.
We encourage you to have a try at receiving and decoding these images, you do not need specialist equipment, Kevin M7AWX was successful with just a handheld, set-top whip and Robot36 on a ‘phone within 2 weeks of passing his Foundation exam, and Greg M7BUF collected a number of good decoded images using both an SDR dongle and a Yaesu FT2900 and QSSTV, so don’t be put off; give it a try. Any images you receive can be included on the Club website if you send them to us, contact details at the bottom of the webpage.
We suggest you bookmark this news page (https://www.sbarc.co.uk/wp-admin/post-new.php) until after the event as we will update this post with orbital pass predictions to help you with when to turn on and tune in.
Table of ISS Passes
Novers Park Community Association, Rear of 124 Novers Park Road, Bristol, BS4 1RN
Latitude (degrees N-S where North is +ve): 51.425400°
Longitude (degrees E-W where East is +ve): -2.593882°
IARU (Maidenhead) Locator: IO81qk
Elevation (metres above Ordnance Datum AOD): 64m
Notes:
In the table below:
- Table Entries with no background colour indicate passes where: 0° < Maximum Elevation ≤ 30°
- Table Entries with a yellow background indicate passes where: 30° < Maximum Elevation ≤ 45°
- Table Entries with a green background indicate passes where: 45° < Maximum Elevation ≤ 90°
- Azimuth or Bearings are measured in degrees clockwise from North
If you are reading this News post through Groups.io then, due to formatting limitations imposed by Groups.io, the colour banding may not show up in your post. For a full colour correctly formatted version please head over to the SBARC Website News Page and follow the “Read More” link under the headline and description.
| Pass No. |
Date (UTC) | Acquisition of Signal “AoS” | Maximum Elevation | Loss of Signal “LoS” | Pass Duration (Hr:Min:Sec) |
|||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Time (UTC) | Azimuth or Bearing |
Degrees above the Horizon |
Azimuth or Bearing |
Time (UTC) | Azimuth or Bearing |
|||
| 1 | 06/08/21 | 11:37:46 | 191 | 11 | 131 | 11:46:36 | 82 | 00:08:50 |
| 2 | 06/08/21 | 13:12:59 | 234 | 42 | 141 | 13:23:44 | 76 | 00:10:45 |
| 3 | 06/08/21 | 14:49:34 | 264 | 87 | 320 | 15:00:32 | 85 | 00:10:58 |
| 4 | 06/08/21 | 16:26:24 | 281 | 75 | 196 | 16:37:21 | 108 | 00:10:57 |
| 5 | 06/08/21 | 18:03:15 | 283 | 24 | 227 | 18:13:38 | 143 | 00:10:23 |
| 6 | 07/08/21 | 10:51:17 | 177 | 7 | 136 | 10:58:55 | 88 | 00:07:38 |
| 7 | 07/08/21 | 12:25:49 | 224 | 30 | 133 | 12:36:21 | 76 | 00:10:32 |
| 8 | 07/08/21 | 14:02:12 | 258 | 84 | 187 | 14:13:10 | 82 | 00:10:58 |
| 9 | 07/08/21 | 15:39:02 | 278 | 86 | 220 | 15:49:52 | 101 | 00:10:50 |
If you want to run your own location specific pass predictions try using:
- The AMSAT On line satellite pass predictions
- The Heavens Above website
The AMSAT site will require either:
- Method 1
- Your 6 character IARU (Maidenhead) locator square (e.g. IO81qk); and
- Your elevation in metres (e.g. 64).
- Method 2
- The absolute (without +ve or -ve sign) value of your Latitude in decimal degrees and selecting North where the original value is positive (greater than 0) or selecting South where the original value is negative (less than 0) (e.g. 51.4254 North);
- The absolute (without +ve or -ve sign) value of your Longitude in decimal degrees and selecting East where the original value is positive (greater than 0) or selecting West where the original value is negative (less than 0) (e.g. 2.593882 West);
- Your elevation in metres (e.g. 64).
The Heavens Above site is more flexible and will accept any of:
- Method 1
- Your address including postcode (e.g. Novers Park Community Association, Rear of 124 Novers Park Road, Bristol, BS4 1RN); and
- Your elevation in metres (e.g. 64).
- Method 2
- Your What.Three.Words location descriptor (e.g. ///weeks.exams.flight); and
- Your elevation in metres (e.g. 64).
- Method 3
- Your Latitude in decimal degrees where +ve is north of the equator and -ve is south of the equator (e.g. 51.4254);
- Your Longitude in decimal degrees where +ve is east of the Greenwich Meridian and -ve is west of the Greenwich Meridian (e.g. -2.593882); and
- Your elevation in metres (e.g. 64).
When using Heavens Above don’t forget to check that you have the correct timezone (e.g. (GMT +0:00) United Kingdom/Ireland)
Heavens Above understands British Summer Time and corrects accordingly
