Planned ISS SSTV Activity: 21/06/2021 – 26/06/2021

According to a post on the ARISS SSTV Blog it appears that there are plans for another SSTV activity period over 21 – 26 June 2021. This announcement is subject to crew duties and operational constraints on the station.

Posted on Monday, 14 June, 2021 by ariss-sstv.blogspot.com.

ARISS “Amateur Radio on Shuttle, Mir and ISS” SSTV event – June 21-26

The ARISS team will be transmitting SSTV images continuously from June 21 until June 26. The images will be related to some of the amateur radio activities that have occurred on the Space Shuttle, Mir space station and the International Space Station. Modes and targeted transmission periods are listed below:

• June 21, 2021 (Monday) – setup is scheduled to begin at 09:40 UTC with images being transmitted shortly thereafter (times may change)
• SSTV transmissions will be suspended between approximately 21:30 UTC on 24/06/2021 – 19:35 UTC on 25/06/2021 whilst an additional EVA takes place
• June 27, 2021 (Saturday) – Transmissions are scheduled to end by 18:30 UTC (times may change)
• Note: The original end date was 26 June 2021 but the activity period was extended when an additional EVA was required on 25 June 2021 which necessitates shutting down the SSTV activities for the duration of the EVA

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 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 won’t be able to produce a table of approximate pass times for all orbits until somewhere around 18/06/2021 but we have provided some initial pass predictions and will update these with the remainder closer to the event, in this way the early opportunities can be planned rather than waiting until 18/06/2021 for all information.

The table uses the Clubhouse as its location but should be accurate enough for most people in and around Bristol. The further you are from the Clubhouse the greater the error and we will include details below the Clubhouse table of how to obtain your own pass predictions. If you are planning on using the Gooonhilly Web SDR as a receiver as described in the ESA video linked to earlier in 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 and this 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. Also NASA and ESA offer a live track of the ISS via their webpages at:

• European Space Agency (ESA) http://wsn.spaceflight.esa.int/iss; and
• National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) https://spotthestation.nasa.gov.

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 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.

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