#ISS #SSTV Activity Update

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Digipeater Activity Update

Original Post Details

In a TWEET from the ARISS people it has been reported that a equipment test activity period between the 27th of October and 1st of November 2023 has been organised, we expect that a post will be published on the ARISS SSTV Blog shortly.

The planners have released the timing for the next #SSTV test from the ISS.

Window set for 27 October 2023 – 01 November 2023 with a break when a scheduled spacewalk occurs.

The planned spacewalk has had to be resheduled to 01 November 2023. The SSTV Transmissions will continue unbroken through to 31 October 2023 and then the Activity period will end.

Test Notes:

• Testing is to verify performance of replacement SSTV equipment.
• Start: 12:15 UTC on Friday 27 October 2023.
• End: 17:25 UTC on Tuesday 31 October 2023.
• Transmission on 145.800MHz FM +/- 3kHz using PD120 format.
• Like the early October 2023 test, transmissions may not be active at all times during the entire window.
• ARISS SSTV gallery will be available to share images, hppts://www.spaceflightsoftware.com/ARISS_SSTV.
• Watch ARISS Social (@ariss_intl) for official updates.
• Updates:
• Times updated on 30 October 2023

Note: Dates and times are subject to change due to ISS operational adjustments.

Table of ISS Passes

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: IO81qk
• Elevation (metres above Ordnance Datum AOD): 64m
• What.Three.Words: ///Hugs.Sorry.Dime

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Notes:

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 ≤ 45°
3. Table Entries with a green background indicate passes where: 45° < 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

Details of how to obtain your own table of pass predictions using either AMSAT or Heavens Above are provided at the end of this post.

Background and Reception of Images

Historically, images are downlinked at 145.800MHz FM +/- 3kHz for Doppler shift and the expected SSTV mode of operation is PD 120. Many FM rigs can be switched been wide and narrow deviation FM filters, for best results you should select the filter for wider deviation FM. Handhelds all seem to have a single wide filter fitted as standard.

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 2E0AWX was successful with just a handheld, set-top whip and Robot36 on a ‘phone within 2 weeks of passing his Foundation exam, and Greg 2W1BUF collected a number of good decoded images using a SDR dongle or a Yaesu FT2900 with MMSSTV. 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.

SSTV Programs are available for all platforms so no matter what you use there’s probably something to decode the image:

• Linux including Raspbian on the Raspberry Pi – QSSTV can be found at users.telenet.be/on4qz/qsstv/index.html if you want the absolute latest version. However Debian based distros such as Ubuntu, Mint and others almost certainly will have QSSTV in their repositories as will other mainstream distros and the repository version is usually more than adequate.
• Windows – MMSSTV can be found at hamsoft.ca/pages/mmsstv.php.
• Mac OSX – MultiScan can be found at www.qsl.net/kd6cji.
• Android – Robot36 can be installed from the PlayStore and includes both PD180 and PD120. Not sure what minimum version of Android it wants but it runs without issue on Android 6 which is reasonably long in the tooth.
• iOS – Black Cat Systems sstv-slow-scan-tv.

For those who like real time information the Android App AmSatDroid Free is one of a number of live satellite trackers available for Android. Similar apps are available for iOS, a simple example is ISS Spotter.

How to Obtain Your own Pass Predictions

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. 51.425358 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. 2.593782 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. ///hugs.sorry.dime); 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. 51.425358);
• Your Longitude in decimal degrees where +ve is east of the Greenwich Meridian and -ve is west of the Greenwich Meridian (e.g. -2.593782); 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.