M0IAX

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ARISS 20th Anniversary SSTV Event

Posted: 01 Jan 2021 02:09 AM PST
http://m0iax.com/2021/01/01/ariss-20...ry-sstv-event/



Running from the 24th December 2020 to 31 December 2020 the Amateur Radio
on the International Space Station (ARISS) SSTV event sent a series of 12
SSTV images from the International Space Station (ISS).




There are a couple of problems we need to overcome to receive them, firstly
the ISS is orbiting around 250 miles above the earths surface and is
travelling at a speed of approx 17,000 miles per hour, which means each
orbit takes around 90 minutes, and its only in range for 10/15 minutes on a
high pass. add to that the fact that for the duration of the event here in
uk the 4 or 5 passes we had each day were between 0200utc and 1000utc.




In order to receive the images you need a few things in place (note that we
will discuss my setup here. there is much more inexpensive equipment
available but the principal is the same).




We need the following



A radio capable of receiving the frequency of 145.800MHzA computer,
smartphone or tabletSoftware to decode the image from the audioa suitable
antenna.




The equoipment I am using is



Icom IC-705Microsoft Surface LaptopMMSSTV Sirio 2m/70cm mobile antenna



Icom IC-705, Microsoft Surface Laptop connected by USB cable for CAT
control and sound input/output



Sirio 2m/70cm antenna, mounted on the car using a magnetic mount




In addition I am also using Ham Radio Deluxe software to track the ISS and
to provide automatic adjustment to the frequency to account for the doppler
effect.




To find out when the ISS will be overhead I use the Heavens-Above android
app. this app includes all radio satellites and the ISS pass data.



Heavens-Above android app




Once we know the time of the pass its a simple case powering up the radio
running the software and waiting. I have found with this setup there was no
real need to use a directional antenna, the sirio on the car received the
signal with no problem for most of the pass once the ISS was above the
horizon.








As I said before you dont need an expensive setup with all the equipment I
used. you can use a cheap handheld 2m radio, a smartphone app (such as
robot36 for android) tune the radio in , turn up the volume and hold the
phone with the app running near the radio it can be as simple as that! So
if you have never done this before why not give it a try next time?




Over the week I received 11 of the 12 images. I may have received part of
the missing one as i also have 4 or 5 images that are not really viewable
as they started/finished transmitting before the ISS rose or set.















































Certificate I received from ARISS for receiving these images.