NASA on the air & SCaN SSTV event Oct 27

SSTV will  be active starting October 27 around 10:00 UTC. The images will highlight the NASA on the air activity celebrating 60 years of NASA. The event will also celebrate NASA SCaN contributions to the ARISS program. More details to follow as they are known.

Below is the full news release from ARISS:

ARISS News Release   No. 18-12

Dave Jordan, AA4KN

ARISS PR

aa4kn@amsat.org

ARISS SSTV Joins with NASA On The Air for a Special Event

Oct. 19, 2018:

Amateur Radio OnThe International Space Station (ARISS) is planning a very special Slow Scan TV event currently scheduled to start October 27 about 10 am UTC. Helping to support the event will be NASA’s Space, Communication and Navigation (SCaN) Dept. 

The Space Communications and Navigation (SCaN) program manages NASA’s three most important communications networks. The Space Network (SN), Near Earth Network (NEN), and the Deep Space Network (DSN.

Just as in past ARISS SSTV commemorations, 12 images will be downlinked, but this time with 6 featuring the SCaN educational activities while the other 6 images will commemorate  major NASA anniversaries, ie when NASA was established, astronauts first landing on the moon, etc.

In addition to the fun of receiving these images, participants can qualify for a special endorsement for the NASA On The Air (NOTA) celebration event. To learn more about NOTA, visit  ( https://nasaontheair.wordpress.com).

Once received, Images can be posted and viewed at http://www.spaceflightsoftware.com/ARISS_SSTV/index.php .The transmissions are expected to be broadcast at the usual frequency of 145.800 MHz using the PD-120 SSTV mode.

Please note that the event is dependent on other activities, schedules and crew responsibilities on the ISS and are subject to change at any time.

More information will follow soon, so please continue to check for news and the most current information on the  AMSAT.org and  ARISS.org websites, the AMSAT-BB@amsat.org, the ARISS facebook at Amateur Radio On The International Space Station (ARISS) and ARISS twitter @ARISS_status.

About ARISS

Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) is a cooperative venture of international amateur radio societies and the space agencies that support theInternational Space Station (ISS).  In the United States, sponsors are the Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation (AMSAT), the American Radio Relay League (ARRL), the Center for the Advancement of Science in space (CASIS) and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The primary goal of ARISS is to promote exploration of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) topics by organizing scheduled contacts via amateur radio between crew members aboard the ISS and students in classrooms or public forms. Before and during these radio contacts, students, educators, parents, and communities learn about space, space technologies, and amateur radio. For more information, see  www.ariss.org.

Also join us on Facebook:  Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS)

Follow us on Twitter:  ARISS_status

Media Contact:

Dave Jordan, AA4KN

ARISS PR

**Oct. 23 Update**
Looks like the event will run continuously from Oct 27 starting around 10:00 UTC and ending Oct 29 around 19:30 UTC.

**Oct 25 Update**
Certificates for receiving images will be available. See details posted at https://ariss.pzk.org.pl/sstv/ for complete information.

**Oct 27 Update**
Seems the event started with a bit of confusion. Images were initially being down linked on the wrong frequency. Another complication is that the MMSSTV overlay was active and covering some of the images.  Seems these are trying to be fixed so hopefully everyone can try to capture images as they were intended to be transmitted.

INTER-MAI-75 July 30 and 31

Looks like the folks at MAI will have an experiment run right at the end of July. Crew timeline shows activation of the SSTV system beginning with setup starting at 16:00 UTC on July 30. The system will be powered down that same day at 19:30 UTC. The next day (July 31), the system will be again active from 13:25-19:15 UTC. Downlink is presumed to be on the traditional 145.80 MHz frequency. Mode will likely be PD120 but not officially known at this time.

June SSTV recap

Looks like everyone had several opportunities to capture images from the ISS during the June 29-July 1, 2018 period (and even some extra time beyond what was announced). It appears the images were cut off on the sides but were still easy to visualize.

*** UPDATE** June 6
It seems someone on ISS has afforded everyone with an extension of SSTV operations. Nothing on the schedule so no idea how long it will last. Next school event (which needs the same radio) is on July 13.

____________________________
Below are examples of each of the  12 images as captured by the indicated ground station.

LW5DR

VK4EM

DG2GG

EW6X

DL5XL

DL5XL

KC0UTX

VK4TH

OK2UUJ

IK5JRZ

SP3QXD

LU2HVU

Fund Raising for replacement hardware on ISS

ARISS is currently seeking donations to help finalize development and certification of hardware to replace the current systems on the ISS.

ARISS is in critical need of an infrastructure update to ensure that programs like students talking to astronauts in space via amateur radio can continue. Through your donations ARISS seeks the following upgrades:

• Next Generation radio system will support easier radio mode transition, to enable new, exciting capabilities for hams, students and the general public including:
  • New amateur radio communication and experimentation capabilities, including an enhanced voice repeater and updated digital packet radio (APRS) capabilities
  • Slow Scan TV (picture up and downlinks) in both the US and Russian segments of ISS
• New multi-voltage power supply will support present and future radio capabilities and allow wireless experiments to be conducted
• ARISS needs to build 10 Next Generation Radio Systems to support our development, on-orbit operations, training and long-term maintenance. This includes units on-orbit (2 units--1 unit each in US and Russian segment), flight spares (2 units), training (3 units), testing (1 unit) and ground-based maintenance & troubleshooting (2 units)

Donations are fully tax deductible within the USA as AMSAT is a 501(c)(3) organization.

The ARISS donate page is http://www.ariss.org/donate.html or you can go directly to the Fundrazr site supporting ARISS  at ARISS Fundrazr campaign

June 29- July 1, 2018 - SSTV images of satellites

SSTV will once again be active from ISS starting June 29 about 09:00 UTC. These images will commemorate the various satellites that were hand-deployed from the ISS. These will include the first satellite deployment from ISS: Suitsat-1/Radioskaf-1 which was  developed by ARISS and deployed in February 2006. The transmissions should continue until July 1 ending about 18:30 UTC.

**Update** July 26
Downlink frequency is expected to be 145.80 and the mode should be PD120.

** Update** June 28
Looks like there will be an award assiociated with this session. Details at https://ariss.pzk.org.pl/sstv/#award_rules_en

**Update** June 29
Images are being transmitted. It does appear that the images are being clipped on the left and right edges due to a formatting issue. An example is shown in the image below captured by VU3PMJ.

Inter-MAI SSTV for short periods on June 6-7

Here are the targeted times for Inter-MAI SSTV operations (subject to change): June 6, 12:30-14:30 UTC and June 7, 11:50-15:25 UTC. Check your orbits to see if ISS will be in range of your location in those time blocks.

**UPDATE 5/30**
Looks like another activity has shifted the SSTV end time to allow another pass on June 6. End time now 16:30 UTC.

NASA on the air Award

In addition to the Interkosmos diploma (info in related article) you can also use your reception to qualify for the NASA on the air activity. Their website is https://nasaontheair.wordpress.com/ and has all the details about which NASA amateur radio clubs are supporting and when. Receiving ISS SSTV is listed in the rules section (https://nasaontheair.wordpress.com/rules/) and will be a nice addition to the award with this SSTV activity taking place for Cosmonautics day.

Interkosmos SSTV diploma available

A special Award will be made available to those posting reception reports.
To obtain the Award one should receive and decode at least one picture during the activity period. The quality of the received image does not have to be perfect, but good enough to identify the picture. Partial images are acceptable.The award is in electronic format (JPG). It will be sent by e-mail.

The criteria as follows must be met to obtain the Award: Load your decoded images on the page: www.spaceflightsoftware.com/ARISS_SSTV/index.php

Fill in the application form on https://ariss.pzk.org.pl/sstv/ (Deadline is May 15th, 2018.)

Details and a list of ARISS SSTV Award winning stations are available at:https://ariss.pzk.org.pl/sstv/


Thanks to Southgate and Armand, SP3QFE, for the above information.

SSTV opportunities from ISS in April 2018

Inter-MAI will be transmitting SSTV on April 2 (15:05-18:30 UTC) and April 3 (14:15-18:40 UTC). This is an experiment of the Moscow Aviation Institute so folks in range of Moscow will have the best chance as will folks along the orbits during the indicated time frame.

Additionally, SSTV will be active world wide as part of Cosmonautics Day (April 12). Images will be related to the Interkosmos project (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interkosmos). Detailed times are still being worked into the schedule and will be update as they become available but the dates will be from April 11-14. This should allow for worldwide reception of images over multiple days.

Both operations will be conducted on the standard 145.800 MHz downlink. Mode is expected to be PD120.

**Update April 4**
Good event from Inter-MAI-75 with all 12 images being captured cleanly by operators.

The next planned activity is an ARISS sponsored activity as part of Cosmonautics Day. Setup is currently scheduled to begin on April 11 at 11:00 UTC and should take around 30 minutes. Transmissions should continue from just after the setup period until April 14 around 18:30 UTC. That is over 3 days of transmissions worldwide so we should capture all 12 images related to the Interkosmos project.

Good luck and 73!

**Update April 11**
Looks like they started a bit later than expected but here is one of the early images that was captured by IW2AGJ over Europe during the pass just before 13:00 UTC.