SSTV Event Scheduled for ARISS on October 3, 2023

R4UAB reports that from October 3, 2023 to October 5, 2023 images will be transmitted from the International Space Station via the SSTV protocol as part of the "About Gagarin from Space" experiment. The topic of the program is the first artificial Earth satellite, amateur radio satellites, school satellites.

SSTV images will be transmitted on 145.800 MHz using a Kenwood TM-D710 transceiver. They are expected to use the PD-120 SSTV format.

The scheduled start of transmission is October 03, 2023 at approximately 14:40 UTC. The end of transmission is scheduled at October 05, 2023 at approximately 18:15 UTC. The date and time may change.

The "Russia ISS SSTV" diploma is awarded to radio amateurs (observers) for receiving SSTV (slow-scan television) broadcasts from aboard the International Space Station (ISS) as part of the space experiment (SE) "About Gagarin from Space." To receive the "Russia ISS SSTV" Diploma, one must receive and decode three images transmitted over a radio channel from on board the ISS using the SSTV protocol only on the days of the SE . Each image must be at least 90% complete and of acceptable quality. Information on earning the certificate is available at https://r4uab.ru/diplom-iss-sstv/.

AMSAT Argentina is also offering a diploma for reception of ISS SSTV images. Learn more at http://amsat.org.ar/?f=9.

[ANS thanks AMSAT Argentina and R4UAB for the above information.]

ARISS SSTV Event Rescheduled to October 16-20, 2023

The transmission of images via the SSTV protocol as part of the experiment “About Gagarin from Space” from the International Space Station is postponed to October 16-20, 2023 due to technical problems.

Images will be transmitted from the International Space Station via the SSTV protocol as part of the “About Gagarin from Space” experiment. The topic of the program is the first artificial Earth satellite, amateur radio satellites, school satellites.

SSTV images will be transmitted on 145.800 MHz using a Kenwood TM-D710 transceiver. They are expected to use the PD-120 SSTV format.

The “Russia ISS SSTV” diploma is awarded to radio amateurs (observers) for receiving SSTV (slow-scan television) broadcasts from aboard the International Space Station (ISS) as part of the space experiment (SE) “About Gagarin from Space.” To receive the “Russia ISS SSTV” Diploma, one must receive and decode three images transmitted over a radio channel from on board the ISS using the SSTV protocol only on the days of the experiment. Each image must be at least 90% complete and of acceptable quality. Information on earning the certificate is available at https://r4uab.ru/diplom-iss-sstv/.

AMSAT Argentina is also offering a diploma for reception of ISS SSTV images. Learn more at http://amsat.org.ar/?f=9.

[ANS thanks Ignacio Granados Vega, TI3IES, and R4UAB.ru for the above information]

ARISS SSTV Event Reported in Error

The announcement in yesterday's AMSAT News Service bulletins concerning an upcoming Slow-Scan Television (SSTV) event transmitted from the International Space Station (ISS) was incorrect.

This SSTV activity is a verification test with new hardware uploaded to ISS. This activity was never meant to be an operational SSTV event as some sources have speculated. ARISS International encouraged informing the ham community of the test and encouraged amateurs to post to the SSTV Gallery at https://www.spaceflightsoftware.com/ARISS_SSTV/index.php, only so that the verification test can be fully evaluated.

Official ARISS participation certificates will not be issued for this activity, because it is only a verification test. It should be noted that third-party certificates mentioned in the ANS article are not official ARISS awards.

Further, the Oct 16-20 dates, described in the ANS article for the SSTV test are not correct because specific dates for this test have not yet been selected or placed in the ISS crew schedule. The ARISS team is working to fit the SSTV event in the crew schedule. Separate U.S. and Russian EVAs to be performed in October will necessitate suspension of amateur radio activity, as always. Further, ARISS school contacts planned in that time period, as well as the normal science investigations that are part of the crew schedule, make it difficult to establish a definite timeline in advance.

The Service Module radio system will be down until the SSTV verification test is completed. That means that the 145.825 MHz packet digipeater from the Service Module radio is off for now.

Amateurs interested in ARISS activity should consult the official status page at https://www.ariss.org/current-status-of-iss-stations.html

Those interested in receiving SSTV images from the ISS should monitor the ARISS SSTV blog at https://ariss-sstv.blogspot.com/

ANS regrets the publication of incorrect information in the previous bulletin and apologizes for the error.

[ANS thanks ARISS for the above information.]

ISS SSTV Verification Test – Oct 27-Nov 1

The SSTV system in the Service Module will be activated to attempt to verify a replacement piece of hardware during the period of Oct 27 until Nov 01.

The system will be off around the required period of no transmissions during the planned EVA on Oct 31. Images will be transmitted on 145.800 MHz and in the typical PD120 format.

There are 2 windows for testing, separated by an EVA:
Fri Oct 27 at 12:15 GMT – Sun Oct 29 at 18:50 GMT
Tue Oct 31 at 10:05 GMT – Wed Nov 01 at 18:10 GMT

Your images can be posted to the Gallery at https://www.spaceflightsoftware.com/ARISS_SSTV/index.php

Since this is a test of replacement components of the system, there still may be unexpected outages or issues.

The signal should be receivable on a handheld with a 1/4 wave whip. If your rig has selectable FM filters try the wider filter for 25 kHz channel spacing.

You can get predictions for the ISS pass times at https://www.amsat.org/track/

ARISS SSTV Blog https://ariss-sstv.blogspot.com/

Useful SSTV info and links https://amsat-uk.org/beginners/iss-sstv/

(Info: AMSAT-UK)