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GW7ERI AMATEUR RADIO TUTSHILL - CHEPSTOW - MONMOUTHSHIRE UNITED KINGDOM | |||||||||||||||||||
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ARISS SSTV On October 12th 2008 members of the crew of Expedition 18 took off from the Russian base at Baikanur on board a Soyuz spacecraft, destined for a stay on board the International Space Station
One of the crew members was Ham Radio Operator Richard Garriott W5KWQ.
Members of the Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) team had been planning for some years to launch a series of experiments in which Slow Scan Television (SSTV) images would be transmitted using Ham Radio equipment from the ISS. The SSTV mode, developed in 1957/8, is a method of transmitting images scanned one line at a time in a similar way to sending a document by fax. Picture information is sent as a series of audio tones. During the early Apollo missions, images were transmitted back to mission control using this mode. Ham Radio operators were invited to take part in the experiment, and forward their received images to the ARISS team for evaluation. Transmisions began on 15th October 2008, and marked another mile stone in the history of Ham Radio space communications. Below are the images received here in Tutshill. My equipment for the experiment comprised the Yaesu FT847, controlled by Ham Radio Deluxe Software. The HRD software allows the receive frequency to 'track' the progress of the ISS orbit, and compensate for Doppler Frequency Shift effect. The received audio tones were fed to my Dell E520 pc sound card, where the picture decoding and processing was achieved by MixW2 software. The antenna was a simple 5/8th wavelength 2 meter band mobile whip, mounted only six feet above the ground. (This antenna is normally used in my lightning detection experiment.) I have also provided an audio file for download for those interested in hearing an SSTV signal. This file was recorded during one of the ISS passesand can be heard by clicking All images on this pag,e with the exception of the received SSTV pictures, are courtesy of NASA, and I thank them for making these available for general use.
An audio recording of Richard making contact with Radio Hams across Europe is available here: A message from Richard, sent following his return to Earth can be read by following the link: The European 'Amateur Radio On The International Space Station' (ARISS) web site can be reached at :
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