All,
The ARISS volunteer team is working quite feverishly in preparation for the upcoming Soyuz 17S mission with Richard Garriott, W5KWQ, and Mike Fincke, KE5AIT, on-board. This e-mail provides an interim update for the mission and some new news regarding on-orbit ARISS hardware. Please refer to the press release dated Sept 18 for additional information on Richard Garriott's flight operations.
Hardware Deliveries
SSTV: Richard plans to take a Kenwood VC-H1 SSTV communicator with him on-board the Soyuz for his flight and leave this on-board the ISS for future ARISS use. The VC-H1 has completed all hardware certification on the US and Russian sides. The final test, an EMI radiated emissions test, was performed last week and the test data was delivered to Sergey Samburov, RV3DR in Russia this week. The VC-H1 provides a very simple interface for ISS crew members and does not require the use of a computer. Computer usage has been a real challenge for ARISS, so the VC-H1 represents a lesson learned to improve ARISS operations.
Backup Hardware: At this week's ARISS-International Meeting we received confirmation from Sergey, RV3DR, that the recent Progress flight delivered the flight backup D-700, a David Clark Headset for the Ericsson system, and an additional VOX box and cables to support the computer-operated SSTV system. The D700 may be installed as early as late this week, depending on crew availability. The flight backup will not provide a significant change in ARISS ops. It will make it easier for the crew to change program modes (PMs).
Richard Garriott Operations--Call for Support
Early during Richard Garriott's flight, he expects to setup the VC-H1 and autonomously transmit a new Earth image every 3 minutes. He hopes to have this system on a great deal of his flight. We encourage the ham community to bring SSTV equipment into schools and download these images in real-time. The ARISS team also plans to display images from hams around the world on a special on a web/blog site. A beta site has been developed and will be rolled out to the ham community in the near future.
To successfully implement the on-line SSTV picture site and support it 24/7 during Richard's flight, we will need some savvy individuals that can sort through the many SSTV photos that ARISS will receive and keep the SSTV site up to date in near real time. Some computer skills will be required. We are looking for global support from a few individuals in each international region to make this happen. That way we will not be asking individuals to volunteer all-night to realize this project. If you are interested in helping on this, please e-mail me directly.
Stay tuned for more information on the upcoming ARISS activities. And get your stations ready!
73, Frank Bauer, KA3HDO AMSAT V.P. for Human Spaceflight Programs ARISS International Chairman E-mail: [email protected]
ISS Amateur Radio Status: September 24, 2008 By Miles Mann WF1F,
Slow Scan TV from the International Space Staiton, planed for October 2008
MAREX-MG News www.marexmg.org Manned Amateur Radio Experiment
Are you ready for SSTV yet?
If the SSTV project is activated from ISS, then we may only see a few hours of activation during the 10 day mission.
In last memo, I omitted the link page where I keep some of my SSTV software links.
Thanks to a reminder from WB2LLP Gene Marks, I have updated the software page links. This page will provide you with a few SSTV software options, (there are many more out there), it will give you a good place to start surfing to learn about SSTV and a few of the available applications.
Question: Is SSTV on VHF different from SSTV on HF?
No, SSTV is the same on HF and VHF. When someone says they are sending "Robot-36" it’s the same format for all bands. HF usually runs SSB and VHF usually run FM. Most Radio voice modes will work for sending SSTV. There are also a few flavors of Digital SSTV; however that’s beyond our scope at this time. The International Space Station will be using Analog SSTV in Robot-36 Mode.
Slow Scan TV Links and Free SSTV software links. http://www.marexmg.org/fileshtml/sstvlinkpage.html
The standard downlink of 145.800 will be used for voice contacts, school contacts and SSTV transmissions. Anyone with a FM receiver capable of monitoring the 145.800 MHz downlink can receive audio and SSTV images. The standard voice uplink frequencies of 145.200 for ITU Region 1 (Europe, Africa and Russia) and 144.490 for ITU regions 2 & 3 (N. America, S. America, Southern Asia, Australia) will be used.
Additional info on SSTV operations is available at: http://www.marexmg.org/fileshtml/howtouseiss.html
Ground stations are encouraged to capture as many of the transmitted SSTV images and forward them to the Marex at [email protected]
After you receive an image, please rename the images using the following format, (All Lower case letters). All dates and times must be in UTC.
Year 08, Month 10, Day 14, (UTC time), Call sign, (optional Short text description) .JPG
Example: 0810141905wf1f.jpg or 0810141905wf1fgreatlakes.jpg If you are not a licensed amateur operator, just place your initials after the time (0607311905abc.jpg)
We would also like to know the following information in your email: Name or Call sign Country / State Receiver Software decoding tool Elevation or range of ISS when you decoded the image.
The best image received for a given time period will be posted to http://www.issspacecam.org/ and www.marexmg.org
Additional information about Richard Garriott's flight and activities are available at: http://www.richardinspace.com/ http://www.challenger.org/ http://www.ariss.org/
If you do not have a tracking program, here is a live link to NASA that will show you where ISS is located.
http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/realdata/tracking/index.html
Pictures of the Amateur Radio station on the International Space Station.
http://www.marexmg.org/fileshtml/radiohardware.html
Slow Scan TV: The Marex Slow Scan TV project, SpaceCam1 was activated for a few weeks in August 2006. We hope to see some new images in October 2008
http://www.marexmg.org/imagessstv/SpaceCamImages1.htm
Marexmg Web page http://www.marexmg.org
73 Miles WF1F MAREX-MG
Until we meet again
DOSVIDANIYA Miles WF1F
Hello all,
I just spoke with Sergei at 16:46 UTC and asked him if he would try the SSTV today. While he was going to turn it on, he was just about LOS on the east coast. Just before he went LOS, he told me that he would try it on the next US orbit.
The next pass is only a 10 degree inclination, so it will mostly favor the northern part of the US and Canada.
Good luck all, and get you SSTV programs cued up!
Tom N3CXP
Hi all
I was testing my equipment at 16:57 UTC for the scheduled ISS SSTV test (on the following orbit), when I heard CW tones, and then the typical SSTV tones. WOW. I jump from the chair. I couldn't belive it! I received a perfect robot 36 still image, and when I thought the surprises were over, I recieved a near perfect live image using Martin 1 WOWOWOWOW. See all on my blog http://ct1eat.blogspot.com/
73 F.Costa, CT1EAT http://ct1eat.no.sapo.pt
----- Mensagem original ----- De: "Tom Daniels" [email protected] Para: [email protected] Cc: [email protected] Enviado: domingo, 12 de Outubro de 2008 17:50 Assunto: [sarex] Re: Are you ready for SSTV from ISS?
Hello all,
I just spoke with Sergei at 16:46 UTC and asked him if he would try the SSTV today. While he was going to turn it on, he was just about LOS on the east coast. Just before he went LOS, he told me that he would try it on the next US orbit.
The next pass is only a 10 degree inclination, so it will mostly favor the northern part of the US and Canada.
Good luck all, and get you SSTV programs cued up!
Tom N3CXP
Just before SpaceCam transmits it will do the following:
DTMF Tone for 1 second to start the VOX (built by w5did) Then CW-ID RS0ISS Then the SSTV Image in Robot-36.
Congratulations to everyone at Marex, ARISS, NASA and at the Russian Space Agency for making this project successful. And special thanks to Sergej Samburov RV3DR.
Sincerely
Miles WF1F Marex
-
Francisco Costa, CT1EAT -
Frank H. Bauer -
MM -
Tom Daniels