SSTV to be active Aug 3 and 4

The Russian team will be again activating the SSTV system on Aug 3 and 4 using the VC-H1 system. Images should be transmitted about once every 3 mintues for several hours each day (~0800-1600 UTC) on 145.800 MHz. Good luck and don't forget to post your images on the gallery at http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/SSTV/.

Russians activate SSTV

It appears that the Russians will have SSTV active for parts of May 26 and 27 as part of an experiment ( http://www.energia.ru/eng/iss/researches/education-26.html) they are conducting at the Moscow Aviation Institute. Enjoy the images out the window while they last. See some of the captured images at http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/SSTV/index.php

Final days on ISS for Simonyi

Space flight participant Charles Simonyi continues to transmit SSTV images and make random voice contacts. He will be leaving the International Space Station on April 8. Preparation for the return of the Expedition 18 crew of Mike Fincke and Yuri Lonchakov has already begun. The two will have spent nearly 6 months in space. Simonyi will return with them after his second trip of 13 days in orbit.
Images being sent by Simonyi are being sent manually. The images are taken earlier and then transmitted in rapid succession during passes mainly over N. America and Europe.

Manual imagery

Charles sent numerous images in rapid succession over Europe during the ~1550 UTC pass. These are manually transmitted so the interval between images will vary and can be extremely short. One of the images from that pass of Charles was captured by PD0RKC. Charles is expected to continue sending images and making random QSOs in addition to the school contacts that are planned during his visit.

Automatic mode

It appears that the VC-H1 has been left on in the window in auto mode after the crew has gone to sleep. This means it should capture and send whatever it can see about once every 3 minutes until the batteries run down. The bad news is for folks where it is night time, only a black image with possible interior reflections will be seen. For the folks in daytime, the image might be of your part of the world as seen out one of the windows in the Russian service module. Once the batteries go low, a purple image with the callsign will get sent and then eventually that will stop.

A recently published image from today showing the faint outline of the Soyuz as the ISS moved into darkness. Image caputured by W2DNR

Simonyi transmitting SSTV during visit

Some initial SSTV images were transmitted today (March 29) by Charles Simonyi using the VC-H1 unit on the ISS. Look for more images during his visit to the ISS.

Activity on Jan 26

Seeing a few reports that the SSTV system using the VC-H1 is active today on the International Space Station on the 145.80 downlink frequency. Hope some are fortunate enough to catch an image or two.

This image was captured by PD0RKC over Europe around 1745 UTC. The ISS was still in sun but the earth was in shadow. The reflections shows the VC-H1 unit quite clearly in the window.

More inside shots

Reports from S. Africa (ZS6TW) and Florida (W5DID) indicate that SSTV images of the inside are being transmitted today. A note is visible in some shots with other images showing the Expedition 18 Commander, Mike Fincke.
The following image is from WB9IIV.

Sunday SSTV

The ISS was sending SSTV images using the VC-H1 today. Images included some shots of the Earth and of the crew. Expect more SSTV imagery occassionally over the next few weeks as the crew celebrates 25 years of ham radio operators being in orbit.

Richard Garriott, W5KWQ, Back on Terra Firma

ARRL article on Richard's activities at http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2008/11/06/10437/?nc=1

Exp. 17 and Garriott land safely

See the NASA release for details at http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2008/oct/HQ_08-269_Expedition_17_landing.html

Soyuz preparations and landing

Late word that the powering down of the Ham Radio system has been delayed until some time around 1900 UTC today. A few of you will now have one more chance at some ISS activity from Richard.

Some additional information on preparations for undocking is available at http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/index.html

Coverage on NASA-TV will begin at 8 p.m. Eastern [0000 GMT]- Expedition 17/Spaceflight Participant Undocking from the International Space Station (undocking scheduled at 8:15 p.m.[0015 GMT]) - JSC (Public and Media Channels)
10:30 p.m. Eastern [ 0230 GMT]- Expedition 17/Spaceflight Participant Deorbit Burn and Landing Coverage (deorbit burn scheduled at 10:44 p.m.[0244 GMT], landing scheduled at 11:36 p.m.0336 GMT]) - JSC/Kazakhstan (Public and Media Channels).
To watch NASA-TV on the web, go to http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.html

Preparing to say goodbye

Richard is scheduled to depart the ISS about 0012 GMT on Friday, Oct 24 when his Soyuz capsule will undock and prepare to return to Earth. This image received by G0TTV seems to be Richard saying farewell from the ISS.

ARISS SSTV server back at new host

The ARISS SSTV web pages are back up at the http://ariss-sstv.ssl.berkeley.edu/SSTV/ site. We've been able to do some testing, but please let me know if you experience any difficulties. Once again, my apologies for the outage! It appears to be a tribute to the interest in Richard Garriott's ham radio activity on board the ISS.
73,
Will

ARISS Update October 21, 2008

I think you all can agree that this has been a stellar and an historic week for Amateur Radio on the International Space Station!

Speaking on behalf of the ARISS international team of volunteers and the AMSAT community, we really appreciate the overwhelming flood of positive comments that we have received from the ham radio community and the general public regarding the ham radio operations on ISS this past week. Collectively, we have all made history….starting with Richard, W5KWQ and his father Owen, W5LFL and continuing with all of you that participated and/or volunteered in his ISS journey. And along the way, we have sparked the imaginations of thousands of students. Got more interest in satellite operations. And, I understand, excited some youths to the point where they are now licensed.

Richard Garriott, W5KWQ has been extremely prolific on the ARISS ham radio system, making hundreds of voice contacts, operating the packet system during the crew sleep times and transmitting hundreds of SSTV images throughout the day. He put the newest ARISS hardware, the Kenwood VC-H1 to good use, performing the vast majority of contacts with this hardware system coupled with the Kenwood D700 Transceiver. The remaining SSTV downlinks were performed with the software-based SSTV system---using either the SpaceCam software or MMSSTV software that are on-board ISS. Given the limited availability of ISS computer systems, the ARISS team will continue to utilize the VC-H1 well after Richard's flight. So don't be surprised if you see some VC-H1 SSTV operations from Mike Fincke, KE5AIT, during his stay as the commander of Expedition 18.

The team apologizes for the temporary shut-down of the ARISS SSTV server. We have been a victim of our own success in that the site has been overwhelmed by the popularity of Richard's SSTV images. We hope to get the system operational very soon. This may take a URL change, so please check the listservs and the ARISS SSTV blog http://www.ariss-sstv.blogspot.com/ for updated information. http://www.ariss.org will also carry updates.

ARISS Development and Operations
As a reminder to all, the ARISS team is an international volunteer working group that is sponsored by three major entities in each ISS region---the National Amateur Radio Society, the International AMSAT organization and the National Space Agency. The 5 regions that comprise the ISS development are Canada, Europe Japan, Russia, and the USA. In the USA, the two ham radio sponsors are the ARRL and AMSAT-NA. NASA is the USA space agency sponsor.

Over 12 years ago, the formulation of the ARISS working group was a specific request from NASA. They wanted the amateur radio community to internationally consolidate into one team all the development and operations of the ISS Ham radio system. This specific request from NASA, and ultimately the other space agencies, was to provide a single focus of ham radio on ISS within the amateur radio community and within the space agencies. As a result, the 5 international delegations that make up ARISS tightly coordinate the day-to-day mission operations as well as the strategic hardware development planning and implementation. The success of this past week would not have been realized without this tight coordination, particularly between our Russian colleagues, led by Sergey Samburov, RV3DR and our international operations team, led by Will Marchant, KC6ROL.

Individuals are always welcome to volunteer their support to ARISS through their regional delegation. Please see the ARISS web site http://www.ariss.org for more information on your regional delegates.

Voice QSOs
We have received some reports of individuals providing advice to the ISS on-orbit crew or making specifc requests to the ISS crew to change or modify the ARISS hardware, on-board software or ham radio operations. The ARISS team would like to remind the amateur community that we all have a duty to the international space agencies to coordinate ISS ham radio operations through ARISS. Our advice to you is that if you have a specific request or idea, that you forward it to one of the ARISS international delegates or ARISS team leaders. These individuals are identified on the ARISS web site http://www.ariss.org. Also, please remember that there are a *lot* of hams that would like to get their QSO with the ISS (including me!) So please use courtesy and keep your contact short. And once you have made a contact, please do not go for a repeat…despite the intense temptation to do so. I think you all know that this is an "open" hobby. So all are listening in, observing and remembering your operating habits.

On behalf of the ARISS team, I thank you all for your interest in Ham Radio on ISS. Enjoy the contacts! And remember the ARISS teams and organizations that have made the ham radio system on ISS such a tremendous success. This includes the national amateur radio societies and international AMSAT organizations. As well as the international space agencies and the ISS on-board crew members.

73, Frank Bauer, KA3HDO
AMSAT-V.P. for Human Spaceflight Programs
ARISS International Chairman

Final scheduled amateur radio events completed

Richard has now completed all of his scheduled amateur radio events and most of his other planned experiments. He should have much more free time Tuesday (GMT) afternoon and Wednesday morning so it is possible that he could choose to do more voice contacts during those periods.
The crew is scheduled for 4 hours of nap time from 1300-1700 GMT on Wednesday to begin the sleep shift necessary for them to begin preparations of their Soyuz vehicle. A request to have the SSTV system active during the Tuesday night sleep period and during the nap has been submitted. Hopefully, that will permit persons in other parts of the world the opportunity to capture some SSTV images (though many will be at night).
The ISS crew will be awake until midnight GMT on Wednesday and then awake at noon GMT on Thursday to begin a long day of preparations for their return trip home. One of those preparations will be to shutdown the ham radio system about 1430 GMT. The hatch between the Soyuz and ISS is planned to be closed at 2105 GMT Thursday, undocking at 0012 GMT on Friday and landing in Kazakhstan at 0336 GMT on Friday.

Richard sets new participant record

Richard completed the sixth of the seven school contacts planned during his tour on the ISS. This is already the most every completed by a space flight participant. He continues to downlink SSTV imagery and make general contacts as his time permits. One of the downlinked images received by 7Z1AQ shows Richard inside the Service Module of the ISS.

A really clear image taken over the Middle East was received by HZ1AM.

Richard is scheduled to return to Earth on Oct 24 with the Soyuz undocking scheduled for 0012 GMT.

Additional submissions now visible in the archives

The ARISS SSTV Gallery continues to display some of the most current and best images submitted but an archive of other duplicates or good imagery submitted is now available at http://www.amsat.com/ARISS_SSTV/archive.php

Over the weekend

Richard continues to have success with his school contacts and has been making general contacts including some reports that he made a few JOTA contacts this weekend. Richard also began sending images from within the interior of the Service Module on the International Space Station. Some of the clearer images are posted below.
Image received by KA2CQQ

Image received by WY1U



Additionally, Richard has sent some other interesting photos and images he prepared prior to launch. Check the ARISS SSTV Gallery for continuous updates.

ARRL follow-up article

ARRL has posted a follow up article on Richard's flight at http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2008/10/17/10392/?nc=1

An interesting bit of history at the end of the article states:
Bauer explained that Richard Garriott's flight on the ISS is "a part of history. Some of you have asked why Richard is using his call sign for some QSOs and SSTV contacts, instead of the ISS station call signs. There is a long and proud history that is attached to the Garriotts. This includes ham radio in space and their personal call signs. Twenty-five years ago, Richard's father, Owen Garriott, W5LFL, initiated the first ham radio contacts from space on the STS-9 SAREX mission. Richard, W5KWQ, is following in his father's footsteps, using the ARISS ham radio system extensively on his first flight. Richard's call sign is actually his grandfather's original call sign. So you can see that this mission touches three generations of ham radio and two generations of ham radio in space!"