The ISS was broadcasting SSTV images again this week. The event doesn’t officially end until 3:30 tomorrow morning, but there’s no more passes between now and then that are close enough for most of North America to pick up, so its effectively over.
I tried a few times this week to catch some images. Mostly, I kept my radio scanning in my house, and when the ISS was close enough to break the squelch, I would put the microphone that I have attached to my computer close to the radio, and open the decoding program. My antenna is a Diamond X200 mounted to a 20 ft mast on the side of my house. It is not directional, so what I get is what I get, which is a lot of static, with moments of clear broadcast. The next 3 images are the best examples that I captured. There was plenty of just green static too.
I did have some spare time one day at work this week, and was able to capture the pictures below. I was using a Baofeng UV5R, with a mag mount dual band antenna. I simply held my phone up to the speaker of my radio, with a program called Robot36 running (Android). Using the mag mount, I was able to move the antenna around some and help the reception. Being new to ham radio, I believe I’m more closely matching the polarity of the space station when I move my antenna. Someone with more knowledge can let me know if I’m mistaken.
The last one above is the one that I submitted to the ARISS website to get my certificate. Their only requirement to receive a certificate is that any image captured has to be able to be identified as one of the images that they are transmitting. The ARISS website states that they use the information provided for engineering analysis.
I don’t think I’ll ever get bored from trying to capture images from the space station! I have a friend who I exchange pictures with, and he always amazes me with his almost flawless pics that he is able to capture using his arrow antenna. I plan to get myself an arrow, or elk antenna before the next SSTV event, so, maybe I’ll have some better pictures to post next time!
73 y’all!