FRAM2Ham #SSTV #ISS Simulation

ARISS Create a Training Run Ahead of the Upcoming FRAM2Ham operation

14/02/2025 Andy (G7KNA) News Comments Off on FRAM2Ham #SSTV #ISS Simulation

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Introduction

If you just want to read about the Fram2Ham SSTV Simulation from the ISS please click here. Otherwise please read this page to be better informed about the background and objectives of FRAM2 and FRAM2Ham.

Background

FRAM2 is the first manned flight in low earth polar orbit, flying over both the North and South poles. It will be crewed by 4 astronauts from Europe and Australia: Chun Wang (Mission Commander [Malta]), Jannicke Mikkelson (Vehicle Commander [Norway]), Rabea Rogge (Pilot [Germany]) and Eric Philips (Mission Specialist [Australia]).

The mission will be flown in a SpaceX Dragon vessel.

More information about the mission and the private civilian crew can be found here: f2.com.

Amateur Radio

Rabea Rogge is a licensed Radio Amateur in both Norway (LB9NJ) and the USA (KD3AID) and will be transmitting SSTV from the orbiting Dragon Spacecraft, hopefully throughout the 3-5 day mission which is currently scheduled for March 2025.

Full details of the Amateur Radio element of the FRAM2 mission have yet to be published but it is understood that the transmissions will be on 70cm using the Robot36 mode, probably at relatively low power. There will be a competition for schools and other educational institutions for students aged 25 or under.

The Competition

Although this is a formal competition there is nothing to stop older or unaffiliated individuals from receiving the images.

The dates and deadlines for forming teams and potentially alliances have now passed. If you are not entered then it is too late for the competition. It is NOT too late to make plans or preparations to participate in the general receiving of images.

For those taking part in the formal competition, alliances with other institutions to share received images would be a good tactic. Watching social media might also help as many older and unaffiliated hams will probably post their received images.

There will be 12 images of 3 locations sent from the spacecraft, each location being split into 4 partial images. The objective is assemble the 12 partial images into three images and then identify each location. By allying with other institutions elsewhere in the world it will be possible to gather more images than an individual fixed receiver can.

More information about the Amateur radio activities and the competition can be found at either: f2.com/ham or fram2ham.com. There are also specifics about the Amateur Radio requirements accessible from either of those websites here: amapay_user_manual-ver-2-7-2025.

Training Mode

The “normal” ISS SSTV operations take place on 2m and the power output from the ISS is usually around 25W. At 145MHz, Doppler shift, although present, can be accommodated either by relatively coarse steps in preset memories or simply by using a wider front end. In the recent Christmas 2024/New Year 2025 Series 23 SSTV activity our secretary used a SDR Play RSP 1 with a 15kHz bandwidth setting to good effect and didn’t bother with Doppler shift correction at all, we think his results are good given this straightforward setup, see: www.g7kna.co.uk/amateur-radio/sstv/iss-expedition-72-series-23.

This gets slightly off topic, but the FRAM2Ham operation will be on 70cm where Doppler shift will potentially be ±9kHz compared to the ±3kHz on 2m.

In order to give potential participants the opportunity to test their receiving stations and to hone their skills on lower power signals with switching polarisation, ARISS have organised a brief period of SSTV activity from the ISS. the parameters of this operation are as follows:

  • Start Date: 13 February 2025
  • Start Time: TBA
  • End Date: 17 February 2025
  • End Time: TBA
  • Downlink Frequency/Mode: 437.550MHz FM (to simulate the likely frequency of the FRAM2Ham transmissions)
  • Transmit Power: 5W (to simulate the likely transmit power of the FRAM2Ham transmissions)
  • SSTV Mode: PD120 (FRAM2Ham will use Robot36 which takes about 36 seconds to send an image. ARISS have elected to use their regular PD120 mode to allow time during image reception to learn how to adjust polarisation, frequency etc. on the fly)

Orbital Pass Predictions

Address: Novers Park Community Association, Rear of 124 Novers Park Road, Bristol, BS4 1RN

  • Latitude (degrees N-S where North is +ve): 51.425358°
  • Longitude (degrees E-W where East is +ve): -2.593782°
  • IARU (Maidenhead) Locator [Calculated by Spreadsheet]: IO81qk
  • Elevation (metres above Ordnance Datum [AOD]): 64m
  • What.Three.Words: ///Hugs.Sorry.Dime

AOD: In the UK Ordnance Datum is the mean sea level at Newlyn in Cornwall, elsewhere in the world the elevation above sea-level will be sufficiently accurate.

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Notes:

Compass Rose English North

In the table below:

  1. Table Entries with a cyan background indicate passes where: 0° < Maximum Elevation ≤ 30°
  2. Table Entries with a yellow background indicate passes where: 30° < Maximum Elevation ≤ 60°
  3. Table Entries with a green background indicate passes where: 60° < Maximum Elevation ≤ 90°
  4. Times are UK clock time, that is GMT/UTC during the winter and BST/UTC+1:00 during the summer
  5. Elevation shows the degrees above the horizon. Zero degrees is the horizon and ninety degrees is directly overhead
  6. Azimuth represents the direction to the ISS using a traditional 16 cardinal point compass rose

 

Pass
No.		 Date Acquisition of Signal “AoS” Maximum Elevation Loss of Signal “LoS” Pass Duration
(Min:Sec)		 Comments
UK Clock Time Elevation Azimuth
or
Bearing		 UK Clock Time Elevation Azimuth
or
Bearing		 UK Clock Time Elevation Azimuth
or
Bearing
01 13/02/25 06:26:16 10° S 06:27:57 13° SE 06:29:38 10° ESE 03:22 Thu – visible
02 13/02/25 08:00:51 10° SW 08:04:06 49° SSE 08:07:23 10° E 06:32 Thu – daylight
03 13/02/25 09:37:24 10° W 09:40:47 85° N 09:44:10 10° E 06:46 Thu – daylight
04 13/02/25 11:14:11 10° W 11:17:32 68° SSW 11:20:54 10° ESE 06:43 Thu – daylight
05 13/02/25 12:51:17 10° W 12:53:53 21° SW 12:56:29 10° SSE 05:12 Thu – daylight
 
06 14/02/25 07:12:37 10° SW 07:15:44 36° SSE 07:18:52 10° E 06:15 Fri – daylight
07 14/02/25 08:48:56 10° W 08:52:19 89° SSE 08:55:42 10° E 06:46 Fri – daylight
08 14/02/25 10:25:42 10° W 10:29:05 82° SSW 10:32:28 10° ESE 06:46 Fri – daylight
09 14/02/25 12:02:36 10° W 12:05:35 29° SSW 12:08:33 10° SSE 05:57 Fri – daylight
10 15/02/25 06:24:32 10° SSW 06:27:23 26° SSE 06:30:15 10° E 05:43 Sat – visible
 
11 15/02/25 08:00:28 10° WSW 08:03:50 77° SSE 08:07:12 10° E 06:44 Sat – daylight
12 15/02/25 09:37:13 10° W 09:40:36 88° N 09:43:59 10° E 06:46 Sat – daylight
13 15/02/25 11:14:01 10° W 11:17:12 40° SSW 11:20:24 10° SE 06:23 Sat – daylight
14 15/02/25 12:53:00 10° SW 12:53:15 10° SW 12:53:31 10° SW 00:31 Sat – daylight
15 16/02/25 05:36:40 10° S 05:39:04 18° SE 05:41:28 10° E 04:48 Sun – visible
 
16 16/02/25 07:12:02 10° WSW 07:15:21 62° SSE 07:18:41 10&deg E 06:39 Sun – daylight
17 16/02/25 08:48:42 10° W 08:52:05 84° N 08:55:28 10° E 06:46 Sun – daylight
18 16/02/25 10:25:28 10° W 10:28:47 54° SSW 10:32:05 10° ESE 06:37 Sun – daylight
19 16/02/25 12:02:57 10° WSW 12:04:59 15° SW 12:07:02 10° S 04:05 Sun – daylight
20 17/02/25 04:49:17 10° SSE 04:50:46 12° SE 04:52:15 10° ESE 02:58 Mon – visible
 
21 17/02/25 06:23:39 10° SW 06:26:54 47° SSE 06:30:09 10° E 06:30 Mon – visible
22 17/02/25 08:00:10 10° W 08:03:33 86° N 08:06:56 10° E 06:46 Mon – daylight
23 17/02/25 09:36:56 10° W 09:40:18 70° SSW 09:43:39 10° ESE 06:43 Mon – daylight
24 17/02/25 11:14:01 10° W 11:16:40 22° SW 11:19:20 10° SSE 05:19 Mon – daylight
25 No Pass Data
 
26 No Pass Data
27 No Pass Data
28 No Pass Data
29 No Pass Data
30 No Pass Data
 
31 No Pass Data
32 No Pass Data
33 No Pass Data
34 No Pass Data
35 No Pass Data
 
36 No Pass Data
37 No Pass Data
38 No Pass Data
39 No Pass Data
40 No Pass Data
 
41 No Pass Data
42 No Pass Data
43 No Pass Data
44 No Pass Data
45 No Pass Data
 
46 No Pass Data
47 No Pass Data
48 No Pass Data
49 No Pass Data
50 No Pass Data
 
51 No Pass Data
52 No Pass Data
53 No Pass Data
54 No Pass Data
55 No Pass Data
 
56 No Pass Data
57 No Pass Data
58 No Pass Data
59 No Pass Data
60 No Pass Data
About Andy (G7KNA) 212 Articles
BEng CEng MICE. Chartered Civil Engineer and Licensed Radio Ham (G7KNA). Member of South Bristol Amateur Radio Club since 2005 and Secretary since 2010. Away from the club and work I play with computers and related gadgets exploring Open Source software and when necessary bodge the odd DIY project.

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