[aprssig] ISS donwlink of SSTV! (and APRS beacons)

[Steve Dimse]

There are about a hundred articles out there about this, Google is  
your friend. They asked me to do something like I did for Suitsat,  
this time a site would accumulate received images. Sadly they waited  
to the last minute and the timing was bad as I was in the last month  
before my park's big annual festival. I gave then the names of a few  
people I thought could do it, but I haven't heard any details of any  
site being set up.

This will be especially cool for those of us who are old enough to  
remember hearing his dad, the first ham to operate in space. I wasn't  
a ham then, so I didn't get the chance to join the pileup, but I  
remember listening on my scanner. Ham radio owes a lot to Owen  
Garriott, and even though his son bought his way into space, I think  
it is very cool Richard will be operating as a ham.

Steve K4HG


On Oct 9, 2008, at 8:50 PM, Scott Miller wrote:

> Where are the details on this?  What frequency?  What's the ground  
> track?
>
> Scott
> N1VG
>
> Robert Bruninga wrote:
>>> ISS SSTV Operations Planned for October 12
>>> from 18:00-21:00 UTC.  This is your opportunity...
>>
>> Due to hightened interest to the general Ham radio community for
>> this mission, I again suggest that all Shuttle Audio
>> Retransmission Faclities consider adding an old TNC and
>> 144.39MHz APRS beacon to their system.  This TNC will alert all
>> surrounding mobiles (with APRS display radios D7, D700, D710,
>> VX8R, HAMHUD's, etc) that the retransmission is on the air and
>> what frequency to tune.
>>
>> Just load the correct beacon text, set the rate to 1 minute and
>> connect the TNC's XCD (external carrier detect) to the re-trans
>> PTT line, then whenever the re-trans is on the air, then a 1
>> minute announcement beacon will show up on  all surrounding
>> radios.
>>
>> You may have to invert the sense of the XCD line.  Here is a web
>> page on this APRS local alert system:
>> www.aprs.org/On-Air-beacons.html
>>
>> I appologize for repeating myself, but no sense in adding this
>> system after the Shuttle is back on the ground!  Now's the time!
>>
>> Here Is how it can look on the front panel of an APRS radio to
>> mobiles in the area:
>>
>> +------------+
>> | 147.45NAN  |
>> | SAREX ReTX |
>> | SSTV ops   |
>> | Goddard    |
>> +------------+
>>
>> Where 147.45NAN is the retrans freq for the WA3NAN radio club at
>> NASA Goddard, for example.
>>
>> A nice reminder that HAM Radio is again active in SPACE!
>>
>> Who will put out these beacons unless YOU hook it up for your
>> local audio-retrans guy?
>>
>> Bob, Wb4APR
>>
>>
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>>
>
>
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