ISS Amateur Radio Status: July 28, 2006
SpaceCam1 Slow Scan TV project for ISS, Update
By Miles Mann WF1F,
MAREX-NA News
Manned Amateur Radio Experiment, North American Division
SpaceCam1 Slow Scan TV project for ISS, Update
During this weeks ARISS meeting with the engineers at the Russian Space Agency, it was announced that ISS Expedition 13 Commander Pavel Vinogradov,, may have some time to start testing Slow Scan TV from the International Space Station.
http://www.arrl.org/?artid=6627
This testing may be very limited. It is not know when the Project will be officially opened to the world wide public. The tentative down link for SSTV will be on 144.490 FM. The uplink will not be published until testing has been completed.
SpaceCam1: The MAREXMG / ARISS SpaceCam1 SSTV System is an entry-level PC based Slow Scan Television system designed to be used on board the International Space Station. This system will support multiple common SSTV transmission modes. SpaceCam1 has been specifically designed to be accessible to as many Amateur Radio stations as possible around the world. The original proof-of-concept system was built by the MAREX-NA team and successfully flown on the Russian Space Station Mir (December 1998 until August 1999). The proof-of-concept system has proven the ability of the hardware design and it has taught us how to make additional improvements for the next generation SSTV system for ISS. http://www.marexmg.org/marexmirweb/fileshtml/galleryimagepage1.htm
In January 2001 the SpaceCam1 the ARISS program accepted project at one of the future Amateur Radio projects for the International Space Station. http://www.marexmg.org/ The SpaceCam1 software has been under development since 1999 and is being created by the SiliconPixels team managed by Jim Barber (N7CXI). http://www.barberdsp.com/spmain.htm
The ARISS Hardware Manager Lou McFadin (W5DID) was assigned the task of building an Audio interface box for the SpaceCam1 project. The Audio interface box will allow the audio from a standard Laptop PC to be plugged into the existing Amateur Radio station on ISS.
When will SpaceCam1 fly?
In October 2005 the last component needed for SpaceCam1 arrived on ISS. All of the required Hardware and software is currently on ISS. The initial big problem was locating a computer on ISS to use for this project. All of the existing laptops on ISS were considered mission critical computers. Recently a computer was released to Amateur Radio usage, and the software packages have been loaded.
We are now just waiting for the ISS crew to be giving permission to start testing the SSTV applications.
SpaceCam1 FAQ:
http://www.marexmg.org/spacecam/spacecam.html
Will I be able to receive images from SpaceCam1?
Yes! SpaceCam1 will transmit and receive images on amateur radio frequencies, using standard SSTV formats. Although SpaceCam1 is capable of operating in several modes, the standard format will be Robot 36. This format offers the best standard compromise between image quality and transmission time.
In addition to two-way "interactive" operation, SpaceCam1 provides the following fully automatic functions:
Transmission from a live camera or disk at specified intervals Slide Show" operation from a set of images stored on the system SSTV Repeater
What equipment will I need to receive the images?
Radio receiver with an outdoor antenna. The radio receive will need to be able to receive FM signals in the Amateur Radio satellite band (ITU 144.000 146.000 MHz) A PC with SSTV software or a dedicated SSTV scan converter. http://www.marexmg.org/fileshtml/sstvlinkpage.html Tracking software (optional, although it helps a lot!)
Take care all and good luck and please be courteous.
73 Miles WF1F MAREX-NA
www.marexmg.org
Until we meet again
DOSVIDANIYA Miles WF1F
__________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com