SSTV from December 28, 2019 until January 1, 2020

ARISS will be supporting SSTV transmissions worldwide in memory of cosmonaut Alexei Leonov. Event runs from Dec 28 (11:00 UTC is the setup time) until Jan 1, 2020 (18:20 UTC when the system is scheduled for shutdown). Transmissions should be on the standard frequency of 145.800 MHz and in the PD 120 format.

***Update - Dec. 24
Certificate information available at ariss.pzk.org.pl/sstv/

Here ares some SAMPLES of all 12 of images received by ground stations that have been submitted to the AMSAT SSTV gallery.

MAI SSTV planned for short periods on Dec. 4, 5 and 6

The ISS crew is scheduled to activate the MAI SSTV experiment for short periods of time on Dec 4, 5 and 6. Those times in UTC are below.

Dec 4: On - 12:00 UTC, Off - 16:50 UTC
Dec 5: On - 11:25 UTC, Off - 17:15 UTC
Dec 6: On - 10:20 UTC, Off - 16:40 UTC

Down link will be on 145.800 MHz.

MAI-75 Oct 9 and 10

The Initial MAI-75 SSTV times from ISS are scheduled for Oct 9 from 09:50-14:00 UTC and Oct 10 from  08:55-15:15 UTC. Listen on 145.800 during these times. The experiment is based out of Moscow, Russia so the times are optimized for the few orbits that cover that part of the world. 

Two SSTV events during July 29 - August 4.

Below is the scheduled (as of July 22) for the planned activation of SSTV from the ISS. The first session is the routine MAI-75 activity that is only active for a few orbits. It appears that the most of the world (except N. America) will get a shot during the two day run. Some lucky operators along the east coast of North America should get a pass on July 29.

Inter-MAI-75 activity

(July 29) GMT 210/13:15  – SSTV activate

(July 29) GMT 210/21:25  – SSTV power down

(July 30) GMT 211/13:50 – SSTV power up

(July 30) GMT 211/19:30 – SSTV shutdown

The second event will be a world wide event running from August 1 through August 4 and will be a memorial  event to honor Owen Garriott - W5LFL. He was the first person to operate amateur radio from space. We owe much to his efforts to bring the hobby to space for other operators. The schedule is below  (as of July 22)

ARISS Garriott memorial SSTV activity

(Aug 01) GMT 213/09:40  – SSTV activate

(Aug 02) GMT 214/14:00 – SSTV check

(Aug 04) GMT 216/18:15 – SSTV shutdown

** Update July 23, 2019**

The content of the upcoming SSTV transmissions may change. An update is expected after Friday, July 26 as to what the image content will be for the August 1-4 dates.

**Update July 29, 2019**
Reports indicate that some of the MAI-75 passes have audio that is normal and others have weak audio (signal strength is fine in both cases). Guessing that the hardware interface between the radio and computer may be having an intermittent issue as the computer was recently worked upon.

**Update July 30, 2019**
Confirmed that the SSTV images to be sent from Aug. 1-4 will be the Owen Garriott images. It is unknown how the current hardware issue will impact the operation during this period of time.

**Update July 31, 2019**
Below is the recent news release from ARISS. Of particular note is the mention of a certificate for successfully receiving and posting of one of the Garriott images.

ARISS News Release                                                                                                  No. 19-12

Dave Jordan, AA4KN

ARISS PR

aa4kn@amsat.org

July 30, 2019

SSTV Event planned for Early August

ARISS plans to celebrate the life and accomplishments of astronaut, scientist and ham radio pioneer Owen Garriott with a commemorative SSTV event featuring images from Garriott’s work with ham radio during his missions in space. This event is currently scheduled to begin on August 1 at 09:40 UTC and ends at 18:15 UTC on August 4. Please make note that the content of these upcoming SSTV transmissions may change. An update is expected after Friday, July 26 as to what the image content will be for the August 1-4 dates. If this change takes place, the Owen Garriott image transmissions will be postponed until another event can be scheduled toward the end of August.

Transmissions will be sent at 145.800 MHz FM in the SSTV mode PD-120. Once received, images can be posted and viewed by the public at http://www.spaceflightsoftware.com/ARISS_SSTV/index.php and you can receive a special SSTV ARISS Award for posting your image. See https://ariss.pzk.org.pl/sstv/ for details. Also for simplicity, we have added a new information tab for SSTV events, under the General Contacts pulldown menu at www.ariss.org . The latest updates can also be found at the ARISS Facebook site Amateur Radio On The International Space Station (ARISS) and on Twitter @ARISS_status.

MAI-75 SSTV June 5-6

Seems there will be a MAI-75 SSTV event will be on Wednesday, June 5 from 12:00-16:00 UTC and June 6 from 11:30-15:30 UTC. Times do not appear to have orbits over N. America as the orbits are only those that overfly Moscow. Presuming standard downlink on 145.800 and mode PD120. 

Any additional details or changes will be noted below.

April 11-14 SSTV event to highlight human spaceflight

April 6, 2019:

ARISS Russia is planning Slow Scan Television (SSTV) image transmissions from the International Space Station. The transmissions begin Thursday, April 11, 2019 around 18:00 UTC and run continuously until approximately 18:00 UTC on Sunday, April 14, 2019. This event uses a computer in the ISS Russian Segment, which stores images that are then transmitted to Earth using the ARISS amateur radio station located in the Service Module which employs the Kenwood TM D710E transceiver. Once these images are received by ham radio operators and other radio enthusiasts on Earth, many participants will post them for viewing at http://www.spaceflightsoftware.com/ARISS_SSTV/index.php . In addition, you can receive a special SSTV ARISS Award for posting your image. Once the event begins, see details at https://ariss.pzk.org.pl/sstv/ . The transmissions will be broadcast at 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.

April 2019 SSTV planning

Preliminary scheduling shows ISS SSTV likely around April 12 (Cosmonautics day/Yuri's Night). More details later once the official schedule is released in another week or so.

** UPDATE - March 23**
In addition to the worldwide event listed above, MAI-75 will be planning SSTV transmissions for a few orbits of ISS that are in range of Moscow. Times are roughly from 14:00-19:00 UTC on April 1 and 2.

**UPDATE - April 3**
The MAI-75 activity was a success with ground stations mainly in Europe, Asia, Australia and South America posting received copy of images. All 12 images were eventually posted to the gallery.

The next big event will be the ARISS SSTV event that starts Thursday, April 11 about 18:00 UTC and will be operational until about 18:00 UTC on Sunday, April 14. Since this event will run continuously for 72 hours, folks in the higher latitudes should have a pretty good chance to receive all 12 of the images. Operators in the mid latitudes should be able to get most of them depending on location. Good Luck and Enjoy!

Bonus opportunity Feb 15-17

The ARISS team expects that a second SSTV transmission event will occur from ISS this weekend.

ARISS Russia team member Sergey Samburov, RV3DR, worked with the mission control center flight controllers to schedule in ISS crew member time to configure the JVC Kenwood radio to support SSTV operations in the Service Module.  SSTV setup is expected to start around 8:45 UTC on February 15 and conclude around 17:25 UTC on February 17.  These dates/times are expectations and may vary.

The ARISS team wanted to give the community another opportunity to downlink the SSTV images we developed for you given the weak signal situation that occurred last weekend.  For clarity, these will be the same 12 images that were downlinked last weekend.

As a reminder, you can get the latest SSTV information on the ARISS SSTV Blog Spot:  http://ariss-sstv.blogspot.com/  Once received, Images can be posted and viewed by the public at http://www.spaceflightsoftware.com/ARISS_SSTV/index.php   And you can receive a special SSTV ARISS Award for posting your image. See https://ariss.pzk.org.pl/sstv/.  For simplicity, we have added a new tab for SSTV, under general contacts, on the ARISS web site www.ariss.org

For those that are asking, we are still not totally clear what caused the issue last weekend.  We believe it may have been either a loose feedline cable or an antenna switch that did not fully engage. Once the crew reset the system and checked the cabling and switches, the radio system started to perform nominally.

Enjoy!!

73,  Frank, KA3HDO

-------------------

Feb ARISS SSTV recap

The first 24 hours or so had very low signal strength from ISS. Crew was asked to check the setup and nothing appeared out of the ordinary. A reboot of the system yielded no change. The next day the crew member rechecked all the connections and feed lines. Somewhere in that process the signal returned to normal levels. Below is a link to DK3WN's website where he has examples of all 12 images that were sent from the ISS. http://www.dk3wn.info/p/?p=93285

All 12 images captured by DK3WN

Announcing ARISS/NOTA Slow Scan TV Event

Feb 2, 2019:

ARISS is planning another of their popular Slow Scan Television (SSTV) experiment events. Transmissions are scheduled to begin Friday, Feb. 8 at 18:25 UTC and run through Sunday, Feb. 10 at 18:30 UTC. SSTV operations is a process by which images are sent from the International Space Station (ISS) via ham radio and received by ham operators, shortwave listeners and other radio enthusiasts on Earth, similar to pictures shared on cell phones using twitter or instagram. 

When this event becomes active, SSTV images will be transmitted from the ISS at the frequency of 145.80 MHz using the SSTV mode of PD120 and can be received using ham radio equipment as simple as a 2 meter handheld radio or a common shortwave or scanner receiver the covers the 2 meter ham band. After connecting the audio output of the radio receiver to the audio input of a computer running free software such as MMSSTV, the SSTV images can be displayed. 

Transmissions will consist of eight NASA On The Air (NOTA)

images (see https://nasaontheair.wordpress.com/). In additional, four ARISS commemorative images will also be included.

Once received, Images can be posted and viewed by the public at http://www.spaceflightsoftware.com/ARISS_SSTV/index.php . In addition, you can receive a special SSTV ARISS Award for posting your image. Once the event begins, see details at https://ariss.pzk.org.pl/sstv/ .

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. Please 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 the International 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.

Feb 4 Update***
Setup and activation is now 14:00 UTC.

INTER-MAI-75 Jan. image examples from ground stations

Below are examples of the 12 different images that were received by amateur radio operators around the world on Jan 30.  The experiment is scheduled to operate on Jan 31 and Feb 1 as well.

PU4JOE

IW2AGJ

G0IIQ

SV2CPH

TA5ABO

VU3YFD

SP8CGR

LU4EOU

BD4UJ

PW8PM

9Z4DZ

PR8KW

Inter-MAI activation scheduled for Jan 30 - Feb 1

Received information that the Moscow Aviation Institute will be conducting their SSTV experiment from January 30 - February 1. It appears from the scheduling that the experiment will only be active during a couple of orbits that overfly Moscow instead of a continuous operation. Rough time periods of activation appear to fall between the hours of 13:00 - 19:00 UTC. Activity should occur on the traditional 145.800 MHz downlink.

Update Jan 29***

Daily schedule.
Jan 30 - 13:30 UTC - setup and activation
Jan 30 - 18:30 UTC - shutdown

Jan 31 - 13:20 UTC - activation
Jan 31 - 17:40 UTC - shutdown

Feb 1 - 13:45 UTC - activation
Feb 1 - 16:45 UTC - shutdown and stow