ARISS SSTV Event 26 -Humans in Space

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Over the past week, amateur radio operators have been enjoying receiving SSTV images from the International Space Station (ISS) celebrating April 12, the International Day of Human Space Flight.

As you may have seen before, there is quite an active local group of Amateurs who tune in for space SSTV events, and this one was no different, with images being shared in the REAST discord by:

  • VK7BEN
  • VK7TW
  • VK7OO
  • VK7ZBX
  • VK7TO

This event has been particularly challenging, with deep fadeouts (QSB) impacting reception. In some cases I have created a composite image, stitching several “bad” images together to form one good image:

2 bad images (left: Loss of Signal, Center: Interference), joined to make a “reasonable” (right) image. Composite images are not uploaded to the ARISS gallery, as they are not an accurate representation of reception

Below are some of the images I have managed to receive over the event:

And the composites I have created from multiple images:

Receiving SSTV Images from ISS

Receiving images from the ISS is remarkably easy. All you really need is:

  • A receiver capable of receiving 145.800 Mhz FM (an RTL-SDR USB Dongle can do this!)
  • Any sort of antenna capable of receiving in the 144-148Mhz Band (2m amateur). I’m using a basic omnidirectional “J-Pole” antenna.
  • A computer and software:

A more detailed guide on putting this all together can be found at https://radio-hobbyist.com/how-to-receive-sstv-from-the-iss-a-step-by-step-guide/. While it sounds intimidating to set up, it really is pretty straightforward.

Where can I view more SSTV Images from the ISS?

There are a few sites where you can view these images: