ARISS Expedition 72 Images

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Ticking another thing off my bucket list this year has been the reception of SSTV images from the International Space Station (ISS) as part of the ARISS Expedition 72 – Series 23 Holidays 2024 mission.

Receiving the images is almost trivial – provided you have an antenna and a radio receiver capable of receiving 145.800Mhz FM, you can use your favourite Slow Scan Television software to receive the images.

2024 ARISS-Canada SSTV Image received in PD120 Format.

By far the best image of the day was received on the 2024-12-29 0822UTC pass of the space station, which had a maximum elevation of around 50 degrees, with the image captured during the latter half of pass as the ISS was declining in elevation out to the East.

Earlier images were taken as the ISS was rising in the West, and I can only assume that the deep signal fades (the noisy green bars) were the result of atmospheric conditions and the receiving pattern of my VHF antenna – not so much the antenna itself but the immediate environment around it that would be impacting the signal received.

2024 ARISS-Canada SSTV Image received in PD120 Format.
2024 ARISS-Canada SSTV Image received in PD120 Format.
2024 ARISS-Japan SSTV Image received in PD120 Format.
2024 ARISS-Canada SSTV Image received in PD120 Format.
2024 ARISS-Canada SSTV Image received in PD120 Format.

Overall I am pretty happy to be able to say I have received images from the ISS. Maybe I should aspire to make an FM contact with RS0ISS/NA1SS some time and see if I get a response back 🙂

Icing on the cake was being able to submit these images to the ARISS gallery website, and get a nice certificate for it!

Just what is NET/ROM?

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Introduction

One of the things that was important to get working this time around with my Linux TNC Node interface was the concept of a “NET/ROM”. Perhaps naively in a post-internet world, my mind jumped to this being a gateway between nodes available via radio and via the internet, meaning I could connect to any BBS around the world that is using “netrom”. The reality is a lot more complex.

According to the Linux Programmers Manual (man netrom)

“NET/ROM  is  a  protocol used extensively by radio amateurs. The Linux NET/ROM protocol family permits access to these protocols via the standard networking socket metaphor.”

It would appear that NET/ROM is a protocol, not a gateway, and it overlays on top of AX/25 to provide a network stack. Poking around online, the Linux Amateur Radio AX.25 HOWTO says as much:

“The NET/ROM protocol is an attempt at a full network protocol and uses AX.25 at its lowest layer as a datalink protocol. It provides a network layer that is an adapted form of AX.25. The NET/ROM protocol features dynamic routing and node aliases.”

So what is NET/ROM?

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AX.25 Packeteering Part I

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Initial Packet Radio Setup, a PacComm TNC-320 attached to an Icom IC-706MkIIg, both powered on with the radio n 147.575Mhz FM
Packet Radio with a PacComm TNC-320 and Icom 706MkIIg

It really doesn’t feel like it was that long ago since I wrote about packet communications, however it is just over 9 years already, which is frightening for a variety of reasons.

Packet radio is close to my heart as providing a glimpse of computer communications prior to the advent of what we now know as the Internet. Most if not all of the pre-internet telecommunications infrastructure in Australia now only exists in museums or has been scrapped for metal. We’re at least one demographic generation in that have never heard a dialup modem handshake before outside of a YouTube video.

This may be the second time I have posted about packet radio, but this time I will be taking a much deeper dive.

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Mad Dogs and Beaches – First POTA

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It’s fair to say the Tassie Ham Radio Conference lit a fire under me, particularly when Marty VK4KC started talking about POTA and at the same time showing how quickly he could get on air with a loaded coil whip of his design, sold as Mad Dog Coils. Having spent my fair share of time making end fed half wave antennas and linked dipoles, the idea of a free-standing antenna without the need to find a tree or a spot to tie a telescopic fibreglass mast to has a lot of appeal. I quickly handed over my money in exchange for a Mad Dog coil and walked away a happy man. But then I needed to buy the other “bits”

A week later and a bit of pre-testing and I was ready to go. Having just had a local gravel beach added to POTA I was keen to be the first activator. Unfortunately the best time to go activating a beach in a Tasmanian spring/summer is about the same time the sea-breeze winds are the strongest.

After taking some time to set up and familiarise myself with the Ham2k Portable Logger, I put out my POTA spot and first CQ call and was moderately surprised to have Larry F5PYI respond – working France on 2.5 watts SSB was not something I was expecting to do.

I ended up being around 25 mins QRV, working mostly Australians, but along with Larry I managed to work Raffaele IK4IDP from Italy, resulting in 11 QSLs, and a successful first POTA activation.

With it only taking a couple of minutes to set up, and that again to pack up, you can bet I will be doing more POTA activities in the very near future.

Worked All Continents

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Well that was a long time coming.

Was excited to finally get my the last confirmed QSL needed from Pieter V51PJ in Namibia to successfully achieve working all continents. Africa and Antarctica have been (unsurprisingly) difficult to obtain a QSL from, but with Igor operating RI1ANE and exceptional propagation conditions, it had left Africa as the last bastion holdout for the award.

The eQSL eWAC for some reason was slightly easier to obtain, requiring only 6 continents. I can only assume that this was to remove the difficulty in working Antarctica.

While enjoying the achievement, it gave me the opportunity to go back through the log and find some interesting things:

  • This past month was not the first time I have worked a Russian Antarctic station. Back in back in 2006 as VK7HAH, I worked Alex R1ANC at Vostok base on SSB – which I think is a bit of an achievement.
  • Speaking on Antarctic and 2006, I also worked Paul VK0JLX, who was based at Davis Station at that time, also on SSB.
  • My first international contact was on the 10 October 2006, with Igor RA3CQ.
  • My first international contact as VK7BEN was March 23 2007 with VR2NN, a contest team.
  • First weak signal contact was with Ian VK2IE on 27th August 2015 using JT65. rx-04, tx-01.
  • First FT8 contact happened on 16 July 2017 with Phil VK5RM rx-16, tx-05.

So there we have it, my pathway to obtaining Worked All Continents using digital modes. with DXCC being the next goal, but with 33 confirmed QSLs still needed.

I guess I will see you all on the air!

2024 Tassie Ham Radio Conference

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Welcome to Conference on the big screen

Over this past weekend (2-3 November 2024) I attended the Tassie Ham Conference that was held on the UTAS Campus.

The Biennial event has changed this year to be only presentations, where in previous years theres usually been a bit of an expo hall with the ability to buy equipment, along with a flea market between hams. While I appreciated the focus on the presentation, I did miss the opportunity to be able to purchase equipment (more on that later).

Presentation wise, things kicked off with a fantastic keynote from Dr Tamitha Skov (The Space Weather Woman) who spoke about Space Weather (surprise!), the recent solar cycle peak and how amateur radio is at the forefront of providing research and analysis of solar activity and how hobbyists have a part to play in informing both commercial businesses and the public.

What followed was a series of fantastic talks over two days, both technical and more general, with even some humour thrown in.

All these presentations were recorded and will be available over at Hayden VK7HH’s youtube channel, Ham Radio DX, in the coming days/weeks. (post will be updated with playlist when it becomes available

A couple of other happy things happened over this weekend, with the discovery that the PacComm TNC 320 I have been hunting for, for the last 6 months and assumed I had lent it out and lost it, was returned to me at the conference. I am ridiculously happy to get it back, and already it is back on air:

Screenshot of the Paccomm TNC CLI being back online.

Also, a little bit of an impulse buy, but with the intent to help getting on air with POTA easier was the Mad Dog Coil 80m edition. This will allow me to mount a large vertical whip (5.6m/18.5′) on a camera tripod and be able to tune and transmit on 80m-10m.

This will have huge advantages as many of the portable locations I wish to operate typically are not great locations to run a long wire antenna. this set up will allow an almost zero horizontal footprint, with rapid set up and pack away. Having ordered the whip, I will have an update on this when I am ready to use.

So that was the weekend. Really good time, looking forward to the next one in 2025

Contact Form working Again

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The web form is now working again after failing silently for an unknown period (could have been days/weeks/months!). I am guessing the hosting provider made a change (possibly when forced to PHP 8.x) that stopped the mailer working using the php mail() function.

Apologies to those who have tried to contact me – I wasn’t ignoring you!

I only became aware of this today when someone mentioned via social network while letting me know my weather station was having issues.

The Domain Saga

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For those eagle-eyed users, you will notice that you are now visiting www.vk7ben.au and not vk7ben.id.au. This is the story about why.

In 2007, I acquired my advanced license and callsign VK7BEN. At this time I was quite big on websites and domains and having my own identity online. However it was not possible to own a .com.au/net.au/org.au domain if you were not a registered business or organisation. However you could register for an id.au domain if the domain name contained your your name or nickname. Beauty – VK7BEN could indeed be considered a nickname. I applied for the domain with this information, application was approved, happy days.

Earlier this year however the happiness came to an abrupt halt with an email from my domain registrar shortly after renewing my domain.

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Suddenly 3 Years Later…

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I’m not going to lie, when I last posted to my blog, I didn’t think it was going to be 3 years until I posted again. Time flies at an amazing pace.

A big part of that was due to the Covid-19 pandemic and shortly after my last post it exploded in Australia and borders were closed and some time after that essential movement only. It wasn’t until mid 2021 and after vaccines that things started to open up again.

You would think this would have been a good time to play radio, however with all my gear hidden behind things and propagation conditions yet to improve, my interests lay elsewhere at the time, in video games and storm chasing.

The latter half of 2021 also allowed me to use my health insurance for the first time and a ride in the back of an ambulance thanks to the acute onset of kidney stones. While recovering from surgery and a subsequent stent I was introduced to the game Destiny 2, and so began another obsession that has consumed my spare time since.

It’s rare for me to get so invested in a video game, but the rich stories and lore, game mechanics, crafting and game lay along with having an amazing clan to play with just hits all the magic buttons for me.

All that time though amateur radio still hasn’t been far from my mind and certainly plenty of cajoling from fellow local operators has seen me gradually get my gear operational. Probably some of the notable radio things I have had going on include:

  • Purchasing an Icom IC-9700 to give myself easier access to 2m, 70cm and 23cm
  • Participated is several contests, including RD and VHF/UHF Field Days
  • Placed a dedicated small form factor Windows workstation in for the shack operations

During late December 2022 everything started coming together though and I am now starting to get back on air – mostly with FT8, which I can easily control out of my office. I am finding it amazing how much FT8 has taken over and how much the propagation continues to be active on the higher bands past midnight in some cases now.

Seems like a perfect time to start getting back into the hobby.

2020 Summer Field Day Contest

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QRV South Arm
QRV South Arm

Perhaps one of the most fascinating things going on here in VK7 is the surge in interest in communications above 30Mhz. I think this is largely due to the poor HF propagation conditions and the release of the Icom IC-9700. I think the most visible manifestation of this is that the VHF/UHF field day contests in Tasmania suddenly have quite a few people involved.

I haven’t been able to give it my all in contests of late due to having heaps of things going on but this time I was able to go mobile as a rover between grid squares QE36 and QE37.

23cm mobile

This time around my operations were pretty basic, using the IC-2720 in the car for 2m/70cm operations and an FT-2311 for 23cm, all on FM. It was also my first opportunity to use the 23cm yagi I built with the help of VK7MO in November.

I made 33 contacts through the afternoon which was a pretty casual effort given the amount of local activity, however there were some significant lessons learnt about mobile contesting

Being in Tasmania, the idea of “Winter Field Day” is not very appealing, but I think what I would really like to is build some decent, portable VHF/UHF yagis to be able to operate 50,144,430 and 1296 portable.