Planned ISS SSTV Activity 04/10/2020 – 08/10/2020

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 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 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 this screen.

Posted on Friday, October 2, 2020 by ariss-sstv.blogspot.com, and on the main ARISS website.

ARISS Satellite SSTV planned for October 4-8

UPDATE #1: 03/10/2020

Due to operational schedule changes it is understood that the SSTV activity may now commence as early as 14:00 UTC on 03/10/2020. It is unclear at this time if the operation will be continuous from 14:00 UTC on 03/10/2020 – 19:15 UTC on 08/10/2020 or if there will be transmission breaks. For now we have updated the pass predictions assuming continuous activity, but you may encounter passes with no transmission over the first couple of days.

October 02, 2020 — An ARISS Slow Scan TV (SSTV) event is scheduled from the International Space Station (ISS) for early October. The event is scheduled to begin on October 4 at 14:00 UTC for setup and operation and will continue until October 8 ending at 19:15 UTC. Dates and times are subject to change due to ISS operational adjustments

Images will be downlinked at 145.8 MHz +/- 3 KHz for Doppler shift and the expected SSTV mode of operation is PD 120. The main theme of this collection of images will be Satellites. Radio enthusiasts participating in the event can post and view images on the ARISS SSTV Gallery at https://www.spaceflightsoftware.com/ARISS_SSTV/.

After your image is posted at the gallery, you can acquire a special award by linking to https://ariss.pzk.org.pl/sstv/ and follow directions for submitting a digital copy of your received image.

A table of approximate pass times, durations and directions is provided in the table at the bottom of this post. The table is based on the Clubhouse as its location but it should be accurate enough for most people in and around Bristol. The further you are from the Clubhouse the greater the error. If you are planning on using the Gooonhilly Web SDR as a receiver as described in the ESA video linked to at the top of this page then you are advised to run your own pass predictions as shown in the ESA video or outlined at the bottom of this page.

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.
• 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.

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:

1. Table Entries with no background colour 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. Azimuth or Bearings are measured in degrees clockwise from North

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