Received the following news release from ARISS. Please provide a clear channel during the Feb 20th experimentation tests. Downlink will be on 437.800 MHz plus and minus Doppler.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
ARISS
Europe to Perform Special Digital SSTV Experiment
February
15, 2022—Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) is planning
for a special SSTV experiment. ARISS is the group that puts together special
amateur radio contacts between students around the globe and crew members with
ham radio licenses on the International Space Station (ISS) and develops and
operates the amateur radio equipment on ISS.
As
part of its ARISS 2.0 initiative, the ARISS International team is expanding its
educational and life-long learning opportunities for youth and ham radio
operators around the world. ARISS Slow Scan Television (SSTV), which is
the transmission of images from ISS using amateur radio, is a very popular
ARISS mode of operation. To expand ARISS SSTV capabilities, the ARISS
Europe and ARISS USA teams plan to perform special SSTV Experiments using a new
SSTV digital coding scheme. For the signal reception, the software
"KG-STV" is required, as available on internet.
We kindly request that the amateur radio community refrain from the use of the voice repeater during this SSTV experiment on 20th of February 2022 over Europe.
This is a unique and official ARISS experiment. We
kindly request keeping the voice repeater uplink free from other voice
transmissions during the experiment time period. Also note that ARISS is
temporarily employing the voice repeater to expedite these experiments and make
a more permanent, more expansive SSTV capability fully operational on other
downlink frequencies.
The
first experiment in the series will utilize ARISS approved ground stations in
Europe that will transmit these digital SSTV signals. These will be
available for all in the ISS footprint when SSTV transmissions occur. The
first SSTV experiment is planned for 20 February 2022 between 05:10 UTC and
12:00 UTC for five ISS passes over Europe. Please be aware that this
event depends on ARISS IORS radio availabilities and ISS crew support, so
last-minute changes may occur.
To
promote quick experimental SSTV investigations—to learn and improve--the ARISS
team will employ the ISS Kenwood radio in its cross-band repeater mode.
The crossband repeater operates on a downlink of 437.800 MHz. Each
transmission sequence will consist of 1:40 minute transmission, followed by
1:20 minute pause and will be repeated several times within an ISS pass over
Europe.
The
used modulation is MSK w/o error correction. For the decoding of the 320 x 240
px image, the software KG-STV is required. The KG-STV software can be
downloaded from the following link: "http://amsat-nl.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/kgstv_ISS.zip"
The
ZIP file contains the KG-STV program, an installation and setup manual, some
images and MP3 audio samples for your first tests as well as links for
additional technical information about the KG-STV use.
The
members of the ham radio community youth and the public are invited to receive
and decode these special SSTV signals.
Experiment
reports are welcome and should be uploaded to "sstvtest@amsat-on.be"
More
information will be available on the AMSAT-NL.org web
page: "https://amsat-nl.org/?page_id=568"
(for the team: Oliver Amend, DG6BCE)
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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 ISS National Lab-Space Station
Explorers, Amateur Radio Digital Communications (ARDC) and NASA’s Space
communications and Navigation program. ARISS Europe is in close cooperation
with the European Space Agency and its national space agencies, the space
industry and the amateur radio member associations. The primary goal of ARISS
is to promote exploration of science, technology, engineering, the arts, and
mathematics topics. ARISS does this by organizing scheduled contacts via
amateur radio between crew members aboard the ISS and students. Before and
during these radio contacts, students, educators, parents, and communities take
part in hands-on learning activities tied to space, space technologies, and
amateur radio. For more information, see www.ariss.org
and www.ariss-eu.org.
