Radio comms hobby: Weather satellite and ISS pictures, shortwave radio signals, space news

[simon43]

I realise that I have been cluttering up GG's weather thread with images that I receive from the various weather satellites.  Since satellites and all-things-radio is my hobby, I think it would be better to create a separate thread in this sub-forum for topics about this hobby.

 

I'm a radio amateur in Thailand, but I don't actually do much transmitting.  I mostly spend my time designing and testing various shortwave VHF and UHF radio antennas, mostly to receive image signals from satellites (weather satellites, ISS etc), or data signals from various small Cubesats - mostly built by students at technical colleges in Russia.

 

To be honest, Russia is far more active than the USA in building and deploying Cubesats with projects and experiments on board that 'ordinary folk' can involve themselves in.  The USA mainly has question and answer sessions between college students and astronauts on the ISS.  From time to time, the Russian sector of the ISS does transmit images, which I receive at my home in south Thailand.

 

Anyway, I will try to post interesting signals and news on this thread.  Of course, I welcome relevant posts from other forum members!

 

So to start things off, I repost the image from GG's weather thread that I posted today (Thursday 12th June).  This is an image from the USA weather satellite NOAA-15, as it passed over south-east Asia this morning..  The satellite transmits about 10 images on each pass, and the free processing software on my laptop creates the different images. The image shown has the rain storms indicated by colour - the darker the colour, the more rainy it is!

 

[TedG]

I’ve been meaning to try this.   I’ll have to dig my 2m antenna and point it to the sky. 

[simon43]

Before weather satellites existed, weather reports and maps were sent out using shortwave radio, mostly intended for ships at sea.  This was called WEFAX and it would take about 20 minutes to receive one map of the region's weather, indicating high and low pressure areas, so that ships could avoid storms.

 

Most of the WEFAX transmitting stations closed down years ago, but some still operate, including station HSW64 in Bangkok, which sends out these weather maps and shipping forecast throughout the day (and night) on the shortwave frequency of 7395KHz USB, using a 3 Kilowatt transmitter.

 

The signal is quite strong on my radio in south Thailand, and with free decoding software from a company called Black Cat Software, I received this '24 hour surface prognosis' map just now. Even with a strong signal, the resolution of the map is far below what can be received from weather satellites.

 

 

Why does HSW64 still broadcast these maps?  No idea!  Perhaps it will finally retire from service when the meteologist who creates the maps also retires...

 

This is a link to list of WEFAX stations that still operate. Apart from Bangkok, I have also received maps from stations in China and Japan.

 

https://www.weather.gov/media/marine/rfax.pdf

[TronxII]

17 hours ago, simon43 said:

Before weather satellites existed, weather reports and maps were sent out using shortwave radio, mostly intended for ships at sea.

This reminds me of the weather report pictures from the early 1980s in TV, they had such pressure maps.

[TronxII]

Today I modified my antenna, which was horizontal strips of 0.2mm thick and about 1cm large. My idea was that the signal comes from above and therefore I turned them horizontal. It seems however that this was not a good idea. In vertical position, a noaa15 pass was received better than the days before. Comparing the satellite picture on the right with the commercial weather radar website picture on the left, I would say, there is even more information in the noaa15 picture.

Still my antenna setup is not optimal. I'm not getting the nice signal in the waterfall like you posted in the other thread.

So here is a picture how the antenna should not be positioned - horizontally, but the metal strip should be turned 90°

 

[simon43]

4 hours ago, TronxII said:

This reminds me of the weather report pictures from the early 1980s in TV, they had such pressure maps.

Since it's sent on shortwave, where the signal bandwidth is far smaller than VHF etc, the resolution is very low.  It takes 20 minutes to transmit one map.  I don't know why these WEFAX stations continue to operate....

 

For NOAA:

 

Good to see that the overlay map is showing the correct region 🙂

 

NOAA-15 has a weaker signal than NOAA-19, so try to repeat with a high pass from NOAA-19.  Of course, at the beginning and end of the pass, the signal will fade out but the software will still create the country overlay.  You can set Satdump to delete these top/bottom regions automatically.

 

Next, you can add a passive reflector or director to your antenna.  This should be a single length of metal wire, taped to a bamboo support and positioned parallel to the dipole element, about 55cm behind or in front of that dipole element, (depending on whether it is a reflector or director - either is suitable).  If a director, then its overall length should be 5% shorter than the overall dipole length, and if a reflector, it should be 5% longer.

Then aim that 2-element antenna array straight up to the sky. I manually move my antenna to point it at the satellite as it passes over me, but fixing it straight up at 90 degrees will capture everything but the lowest elevation positions, where the satellite signal will be the weakest anyway.  My 137 MHz is 3-elements, a driven element, a reflector and a director.  (In previous photos, you can also see my 70cms antenna on the same boom - that had 7 elements and I added 4 more).

[simon43]

I finally got my 'big-dish' system working to receive images from the geostationary weather satellites 🙂  These satellites sit in the geostationary orbit, about 50,000 km out in space.  Satellites in this orbit revolve around the Earth at the same velocity so that the satellite 'keeps pace' with the Earth and therefore is always in the same position in the sky above you.

 

So this orbit is used especially for satellite TV, internet satellites (not the new starlink system), and weather satellies!

 

I had previously received images from these geostationary weather satellites, but I was always surprised at how weak the signal was, especially using such a large dish.  This time I went through my system design parameters and discovered that my feedhorn which receives the focussed signal from the satellite had the wrong dimensions!  Investigation proved that the online calculator which I used to obtain the feedhorn dimesions had an error in its calculations.... duh!

 

So I remade my feedhorn with the correct dimensions, mounted it on my dish and was rewarded with a signal from GK-2A, which is a weather satellite of South Korea.

 

Here's my basic receiving system:

 

 

Satdump software processed the data into a visible image, and I then added colour to my infrared image using Sanchez - another free software application.

 

... and the result is.....

 

 

 

[TronxII]

6 hours ago, simon43 said:

I don't know why these WEFAX stations continue to operate....

Might be the last ones which will still operate after a couple of high altitude nuclear tests wipe out some of the satellites. We take these satellites for granted like we believed that electric power, security, peace, cheap food and progress would always be there. But big parts of Europe have already no more GPS over the baltic sea, the electric grid breaks down, riots ... 

[simon43]

^^^ Lol true.  When I lived in Burma, my GPS on my phone often went crazy because it was being jammed by the junta...

[gamb00ler]

An article about LoRa Mesh networks caught my interest a couple of days ago.  It looks like a fun and somewhat useful hobby.  The startup costs aren't too high.  I have no background working with radio tech so learning curve starts at zero.

[simon43]

^^^ I use a kind of LoRa mesh with my shortwave transceiver.  It'a system called Winlink (winlink.org), which allows those in remote regions, especially at sea, to send/receive emails, navigational maps etc.  The sailing boat automatically establishes a radio link with my station in Thailand and I either connect them to my own internet connection, or if my internet is down, then my radio transceiver automatically establishes a 'relay' connection to the next Winlink ground station, which for me is in Taiwan or Reunion Island.

 

I've used this system for many years, allowing sailing boats in the southern Indian ocean who don't possess satellite comms equipment, (or it's too expensive to use!), to check their emails, keep in contact with family etc.

 

[Satcommlee]

I am following with great intersest, I am currently setting up my rig, which is party professional-use and part hobby, And I hope to get it on the roof in about 2 weeks after some structural works.

 

I am lining a 1.9M antenna with fine copper mesh to aid Ku Band.

 

I have received (Customs was a nightmare) a SP02/HR Az/El motor to mount the antenna on.

 

I have got a Chapparal Co-Rotor for Dual C and Ku Band use with electrical Skew control..

 

I knocked together an Arduino to control the Skew over Ethernet

 

So for the internal equipment I have put together

 

 

MD02 Motor Control with Ethernet
Agilent 8594E 3 GHz spectrum analsyer - With GPIB to ETHERTNET converter
Threadripper Pro 16 core Server, 512 GB RAM, RTX5090 GPU for AI/ML
DVB-S2X (ACM/CCM) 6909 TBS PCI-E card
Hack RF ONE - 20 MHz Software Defined Radio (Working on getting LimeSDR but not sure about customs)

So a pretty solid set-up, wish I could go bigger than 1.9M but I think the neighbours would have something to say about it 🙂

 

[IsaanT]

On 6/12/2025 at 8:44 AM, simon43 said:

I realise that I have been cluttering up GG's weather thread with images that I receive from the various weather satellites.  Since satellites and all-things-radio is my hobby, I think it would be better to create a separate thread in this sub-forum for topics about this hobby.

 

I'm a radio amateur in Thailand, but I don't actually do much transmitting.  I mostly spend my time designing and testing various shortwave VHF and UHF radio antennas, mostly to receive image signals from satellites (weather satellites, ISS etc), or data signals from various small Cubesats - mostly built by students at technical colleges in Russia.

 

To be honest, Russia is far more active than the USA in building and deploying Cubesats with projects and experiments on board that 'ordinary folk' can involve themselves in.  The USA mainly has question and answer sessions between college students and astronauts on the ISS.  From time to time, the Russian sector of the ISS does transmit images, which I receive at my home in south Thailand.

 

Anyway, I will try to post interesting signals and news on this thread.  Of course, I welcome relevant posts from other forum members!

 

So to start things off, I repost the image from GG's weather thread that I posted today (Thursday 12th June).  This is an image from the USA weather satellite NOAA-15, as it passed over south-east Asia this morning..  The satellite transmits about 10 images on each pass, and the free processing software on my laptop creates the different images. The image shown has the rain storms indicated by colour - the darker the colour, the more rainy it is!

 

I've been a prolific user of radio over the years for flying, yachting, motorsports, bike-to-bike radio and enjoying the airband at airshows.  I also used to listen to BBC Radio 4 frequently in the UK but that's mainstream.

Anyway, being in Thailand, I am particularly interested in where the rain is (or is going to be).  I find the Windy phone app is excellent.  However, what you are displaying above looks interesting.  What are the ballpark costs for a novice to get such things working?  BTW, I can solder but I don't know anything about assembling electrical components.


 

[simon43]

@Satcommlee, impressive line up of equipment.  What signals/frequencies do you hope to receive?

 

@IssanT, the easiest system for receiving weather maps that include indication of rain intensity are the weather maps from NOAA-15 and NOAA-19 low-earth orbit weather satellites (NOAA-18 being 'dead' since 6th June..).  To receive these images you need:

 

- a suitable antenna

You generally have to make this 'cos Thai Customs see 'red' if any package arrives from overseas with the word 'antenna' in the description.

This is a simple omni-directional antenna that I've built a few times using strong chopsticks and blue plastic water pipe and stiff wire:

https://www.instructables.com/NOAA-Satellite-Signals-with-a-PVC-QFH-Antenna-and-/

 

- some RG6 satellite TV cable to connect your antenna to your SDR 'dongle' receiver

 

- The dongle receiver, typically supplied from RTL SDR v4 for about $33 USD (shipped quickly from China, no Customs import issues)

https://www.rtl-sdr.com/product/rtl-sdr-blog-v4-r828d-rtl2832u-1ppm-tcxo-sma-software-defined-radio-dongle-only/

 

- a Windows computer running the free 'Satdump' software to process the received data and to produce the weather image files

https://github.com/SatDump/SatDump/releases/download/1.2.2/SatDump-Windows_x64_Installer.exe

 

- F and F-to-SMS connectors etc.

 

Satdump, when installed and configured, will show you the times when the satellites pass over your location, and it can be configured to automatically receive/decode the signals.

 

The 'whole world' images (well, all of one side of the Earth) that I showed are received using a large dish antenna system.  That's more tricky to set up but I've set up this kind of system in 4 different locations over the past few years, including a few days ago at my home in south Thailand.  I can receive whole-world images sent every 10 minutes by the GK-2A satellite from south Korea.

 

I also enjoy receiving the data signals from Russian college 'cubesats'.  This morning, one of these (UMKA-1) transmitted digital data from their space telescope of an image of the stars. (They usually transmit analog SSTV images, but this was a large digital data packet).  Although I could receive this data, the signal was a little weak, so I couldn't decode most of it... better luck next time.

 

Remember that some satellite signals are analog and some are digital.  Analog signals, such as from the NOAA weather satellites and ISS and Russian cubesat SSTV images degrade 'gracefully' when the signal gets weaker, whilst digital signals are either there or not there, and no in-between!

[Satcommlee]

6 hours ago, simon43 said:

@Satcommlee, impressive line up of equipment.  What signals/frequencies do you hope to receive?

Pretty much anything LEO-GEO which I work with professionally, - I am considering adding maybe some DIY VHF/UHF Helical or Tonna type antennas if the Motor current remains low enough (having VHF/UHF will open quite a lot of doors) but am a bit worried about it looking a bit like a Spy Base at least with just a 1.9M it just looks like a farang with an appetite for Foreign TV channels.

 

The terminal will be completely web-based access and is prototype, what for I don't think I really know right now 🙂 Needless to say a lot of the expense is absorbed by a company..

 

 

 

 

 

 

[simon43]

8 hours ago, Satcommlee said:

Pretty much anything LEO-GEO which I work with professionally, - I am considering adding maybe some DIY VHF/UHF Helical or Tonna type antennas if the Motor current remains low enough (having VHF/UHF will open quite a lot of doors) but am a bit worried about it looking a bit like a Spy Base at least with just a 1.9M it just looks like a farang with an appetite for Foreign TV channels.

 

The terminal will be completely web-based access and is prototype, what for I don't think I really know right now 🙂 Needless to say a lot of the expense is absorbed by a company..

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lol, I already had the poo yai bahn here last week to ask about my antennas 🙂  He went away quite happy after I showed him my Thai ham radio licence and we chatted about weather satellites.

 

I used to design equipment for various satellite payloads and ground station projects, Skynet, Envisat etc, but I left the profession when I moved to south-east Asia 23 years ago.  since then it's just for fun...

[simon43]

Having finally got my big dish to receive images from the south Korean geostationary satellite, I tidied everything up by running the coaxial cable from the dish to my laptop in my room.  From previous experience, I knew that the signal received at the dish would be degraded by the cable losses, such that the Satdump processing software would no longer have sufficient signal to work with.  This proved true, but fortuously my new 40dB LNA blocks arrived by post from China.  With one of these placed in the cable run at the dish end, I had a 10dB S/N (signal-to-noise) ratio at my laptop. (The image shows about 9dB, because it's the middle of the day and the Sun is shining directly onto my dish and LNA block, degrading the S/N).

 

 

 

The images are transmitted every 10 minutes and are sent as 12 horizontal slices of the Earth.  I use these infrared images to create (using post-processing software called Sanchez), to add the country overlay/underlay. My screen grab was made after a few slices had been received,

 

 

 

 

[IsaanT]

On 6/14/2025 at 2:29 PM, simon43 said:

@Satcommlee, impressive line up of equipment.  What signals/frequencies do you hope to receive?

 

@IssanT, the easiest system for receiving weather maps that include indication of rain intensity are the weather maps from NOAA-15 and NOAA-19 low-earth orbit weather satellites (NOAA-18 being 'dead' since 6th June..).  To receive these images you need:

 

- a suitable antenna

You generally have to make this 'cos Thai Customs see 'red' if any package arrives from overseas with the word 'antenna' in the description.

This is a simple omni-directional antenna that I've built a few times using strong chopsticks and blue plastic water pipe and stiff wire:

https://www.instructables.com/NOAA-Satellite-Signals-with-a-PVC-QFH-Antenna-and-/

 

- some RG6 satellite TV cable to connect your antenna to your SDR 'dongle' receiver

 

- The dongle receiver, typically supplied from RTL SDR v4 for about $33 USD (shipped quickly from China, no Customs import issues)

https://www.rtl-sdr.com/product/rtl-sdr-blog-v4-r828d-rtl2832u-1ppm-tcxo-sma-software-defined-radio-dongle-only/

 

- a Windows computer running the free 'Satdump' software to process the received data and to produce the weather image files

https://github.com/SatDump/SatDump/releases/download/1.2.2/SatDump-Windows_x64_Installer.exe

 

- F and F-to-SMS connectors etc.

 

Satdump, when installed and configured, will show you the times when the satellites pass over your location, and it can be configured to automatically receive/decode the signals.

 

The 'whole world' images (well, all of one side of the Earth) that I showed are received using a large dish antenna system.  That's more tricky to set up but I've set up this kind of system in 4 different locations over the past few years, including a few days ago at my home in south Thailand.  I can receive whole-world images sent every 10 minutes by the GK-2A satellite from south Korea.

 

I also enjoy receiving the data signals from Russian college 'cubesats'.  This morning, one of these (UMKA-1) transmitted digital data from their space telescope of an image of the stars. (They usually transmit analog SSTV images, but this was a large digital data packet).  Although I could receive this data, the signal was a little weak, so I couldn't decode most of it... better luck next time.

 

Remember that some satellite signals are analog and some are digital.  Analog signals, such as from the NOAA weather satellites and ISS and Russian cubesat SSTV images degrade 'gracefully' when the signal gets weaker, whilst digital signals are either there or not there, and no in-between!

Hi Simon, thanks for this.

We're in the middle of a house build at the moment so I won't get any brownie points for attempting this just right now but I'll pick it up once the house is finished.  I have, however, ordered the dongle - everything else appears to be able to be sourced locally once I start.

I'll report back.
 

[simon43]

Since I only have a few science lessons to teach this evening, I'm on a roll with satellite signals!

 

I switch over from my dish antenna to a 3-element VHF beam antenna, designed to receive the NOAA and Meteor weather satellite signals.  The Russian bird Meteor M2-4 is coming over, so I configure Satdump to receive and process the signal.  Here's the screen-grab as the data was being received from the satellite.

 

 

and after Satdump has completed processing of that data, I have various image files, with one shown below:

 

Meteor transmits image data in a digital mode, so the quality of these images is better than the analogue NOAA satellites.  But note the horizontal black band near the bottom of the image!  That's due to some bug on the satellite itself...

 

[radiochaser]

On 6/15/2025 at 4:28 AM, simon43 said:

Since I only have a few science lessons to teach this evening, I'm on a roll with satellite signals!

 

I switch over from my dish antenna to a 3-element VHF beam antenna, designed to receive the NOAA and Meteor weather satellite signals.  The Russian bird Meteor M2-4 is coming over, so I configure Satdump to receive and process the signal.  Here's the screen-grab as the data was being received from the satellite.

 

 

and after Satdump has completed processing of that data, I have various image files, with one shown below:

 

Meteor transmits image data in a digital mode, so the quality of these images is better than the analogue NOAA satellites.  But note the horizontal black band near the bottom of the image!  That's due to some bug on the satellite itself...

 

Is that spectral display of the signal an averaged display from multiple sweeps? 

What is the peak of the signal, -112?

[simon43]

3 minutes ago, radiochaser said:

Is that spectral display of the signal an averaged display from multiple sweeps? 

What is the peak of the signal, -112?

That's a real-time sweep and yes, the signal peak is about -112, but the S/N of 16 is more than adequate.

 

Averaged display from multiple sweeps is used to receive/display the Hydrogen line signal.  I built an antenna to do this in Laos a few years ago.

 

 

 

and this is a video of that signal with the Milky Way superimposed.  That measurement was made over several hours, so as the MW passes overhead, the amplitude of the hydrogen line increases.

 

 

 

 

 

[simon43]

Another post about interesting signals from space 🙂

 

The International Space Station (ISS) occasionally transmits SSTV (Slow Scan TV) images on a 2 metre band VHF frequency.  I have received these images on previous occasions and I show one below as an example.

 

 

But the ISS also has a 'cross-band repeater' on board, whereby licenced radio hams can transmit up to the ISS on a VHF frequency, and their signal is retransmitted in real-time back down to Earth on a UHF frequency.  Occasionally, the astronauts on the ISS will also chat with the radio ham 🙂

 

I noted that the ISS was going to pass over my location at the ungodly hour of 3.10am last night.  So I decided to see if I could contact another radio amateur via this repeater.  I set up my equipment using a small 'walkie-talki' as the uplink transmitter and monitoring the UHF downlink frequency using my SDR dongle and software.

 

Ideally, I should move my UHF yagi antenna to follow the ISS as it moves across the sky above me, but this was impossible, since I also had to use my walkie-talkie and monitor my laptop for received signals (I have to manually rotate/swing the antenna mast - I have no Az/El rotator)..  So I pointed my antenna sort of mid-pass....

 

Anyway, as the ISS came over me, indeed I heard another radio ham who had also got out of bed like me!  This was Liu Cheung in Hong-Kong, callsign VR2WAZ, and I attach a short audio recording of his signal that was being relayed by ISS 🙂  Unfortunately, although I called back, my signal was quite weak, but the ISS relayed it.  You can hear Liu say "QRZ" which is a short code for "who was that?" so he heard my signal but the ISS was already at a low angle and moving northwards over China. (AN doesn't support mp3 files so I saved it as a blank mp4)

 

 

 

 

BTW, for anyone not interested in space comms, it must be more exciting to watch paint dry... 🙂

 

 

[radiochaser]

30 minutes ago, simon43 said:

That's a real-time sweep and yes, the signal peak is about -112, but the S/N of 16 is more than adequate.

 

Averaged display from multiple sweeps is used to receive/display the Hydrogen line signal.  I built an antenna to do this in Laos a few years ago.

 

 

 

and this is a video of that signal with the Milky Way superimposed.  That measurement was made over several hours, so as the MW passes overhead, the amplitude of the hydrogen line increases.

 

 

 

 

 

I think I have seen mention of the Hydrogen line when reading something years ago.   I don't know what it is though.   

 

Is that entire spectral display the Hydrogen line from the Milky Way or was there some indication in the spectral display as the Milky Way passed?   

 

I have no experience with astronomical signals.   All my experience is with terrestrial signals other than GPS use.   Short, medium, and long range HFDF, spectrum analyzer use to identify radio signals from 60 hz up to 3 ghz, VHF/UHF mobile DF.  Most observations of radio signals were with spectrum analyzers until near the end of my employment, before retiring, and then had real experience with waterfall displays using hand held receivers, followed by the waterfall displays of SDR's on the internet. 

[radiochaser]

35 minutes ago, simon43 said:

Another post about interesting signals from space 🙂

 

The International Space Station (ISS) occasionally transmits SSTV (Slow Scan TV) images on a 2 metre band VHF frequency.  I have received these images on previous occasions and I show one below as an example.

 

 

But the ISS also has a 'cross-band repeater' on board, whereby licenced radio hams can transmit up to the ISS on a VHF frequency, and their signal is retransmitted in real-time back down to Earth on a UHF frequency.  Occasionally, the astronauts on the ISS will also chat with the radio ham 🙂

 

I noted that the ISS was going to pass over my location at the ungodly hour of 3.10am last night.  So I decided to see if I could contact another radio amateur via this repeater.  I set up my equipment using a small 'walkie-talki' as the uplink transmitter and monitoring the UHF downlink frequency using my SDR dongle and software.

 

Ideally, I should move my UHF yagi antenna to follow the ISS as it moves across the sky above me, but this was impossible, since I also had to use my walkie-talkie and monitor my laptop for received signals (I have to manually rotate/swing the antenna mast - I have no Az/El rotator)..  So I pointed my antenna sort of mid-pass....

 

Anyway, as the ISS came over me, indeed I heard another radio ham who had also got out of bed like me!  This was Liu Cheung in Hong-Kong, callsign VR2WAZ, and I attach a short audio recording of his signal that was being relayed by ISS 🙂  Unfortunately, although I called back, my signal was quite weak, but the ISS relayed it.  You can hear Liu say "QRZ" which is a short code for "who was that?" so he heard my signal but the ISS was already at a low angle and moving northwards over China. (AN doesn't support mp3 files so I saved it as a blank mp4)

 

 

 

 

BTW, for anyone not interested in space comms, it must be more exciting to watch paint dry... 🙂

 

 

I read about comms with the space ships before. 😁  Might be the first time I have heard real one though.   

[simon43]

"I think I have seen mention of the Hydrogen line when reading something years ago.   I don't know what it is though"

 

All atoms in space vibrate a little and this releases a small amount of electromagnetic energy at a specific frequency for each element.  For hydrogen, this is about 1420MHz.  Since stars consist mostly of hydrogen, this element is the easiest energy to detect, especially if one points the antenna straight up and averages the signal over a few hours as the Milky Way passes overhead (as the Earth rotates).

 

The video I attached shows the Hydrogen energy 'blip' around 1420 MHz.  The Earth is is superimposed by the star application software as the green dot on the right.  As you run the video, you'll see the blip increase in size as the MW (ie more stars) pass over the Earth, and then reduce in amplitude as my antenna is pointing at an area of space with few stars.

 

Since this is radio astronomy, one can also perform this experiment in the day time.

 

The 'hash' on my specral display is probably interference from a nearby phone mast.

 

Having received the hydrogen line energy blip, could I look for water vapor energy or oxygen or.....  No :(, because the frequency at which these elements emit energy is far higher, and I have no equipment to receive it.  And of course it's far weaker than the amount of hydrogen - so I would need a very big antenna dish!

[simon43]

3 minutes ago, radiochaser said:

I read about comms with the space ships before. 😁  Might be the first time I have heard real one though.   

My walkie-talkie is rather low-powered.  I did manage to make a contact via the ISS with a radio ham in China when I was in Laos as XW0LP.

 

However, TBH chatting with other radio hams is a little boring for me.  I prefer to receive the images sent by the ISS and some from the Russian cubesats.

 

I don't know when ISS will next transmit SSTV pictures (they'll announce it beforehand).  But on June 27th the Russian college cubesat UMKA-1 will transmit SSTV images of space-topic drawings submitted by young students across Russia.  I asked one of the schools that I'm in contact with in Burma to submit a couple of drawings and I've sent these on to the space centre in Moscow - so I'm hopeful that one will be chosen for transmission by UMKA-1 🙂

 

Sadly (for me), all passes by that cubesat on June 27th are at low elevation at my location, but I'll try to receive something!  SSTV is an analogue signal, so even a weak signal can result in a visible image.

[radiochaser]

1 minute ago, simon43 said:

My walkie-talkie is rather low-powered.  I did manage to make a contact via the ISS with a radio ham in China when I was in Laos as XW0LP.

 

However, TBH chatting with other radio hams is a little boring for me.  I prefer to receive the images sent by the ISS and some from the Russian cubesats.

 

I don't know when ISS will next transmit SSTV pictures (they'll announce it beforehand).  But on June 27th the Russian college cubesat UMKA-1 will transmit SSTV images of space-topic drawings submitted by young students across Russia.  I asked one of the schools that I'm in contact with in Burma to submit a couple of drawings and I've sent these on to the space centre in Moscow - so I'm hopeful that one will be chosen for transmission by UMKA-1 🙂

 

Sadly (for me), all passes by that cubesat on June 27th are at low elevation at my location, but I'll try to receive something!  SSTV is an analogue signal, so even a weak signal can result in a visible image.

I have seen SSTV pictures that were transmitted from the space station before.   They looked similar to the one you posted.   At one office where we were more involved in communications monitoring, we attempted to intercept terrestrial SSTV, but if I recall correctly, we were not successful.  We did intercept weather faxes regularly.   Mostly out of interest to see what they were transmitting as it was usually weather for areas thousands of miles from where our office was.   

Cubesats, I have read about, but those came after my time.   I was not involved in satellite comms, other than looking for IX to GPS signals. 

[simon43]

Yes terrestrial SSTV is transmitted regularly on 14230 and 28680 KHz in the amateur bands, but there seems to be more activity with SSTV sent by CBers in the 11 metre band.

 

I don't do much on 14230, but I do have regular SSTV contacts with stations in Japan on 10 metres.

 

 

 

Back in the 1980s I worked for Marconi Defence Systems, in the middle of a wood at Stanmore, north London.  In one of the secure buildings was a 5 metre antenna dish.  I used to hook up a Ku band LNB and watch some of the early days of satellite TV, from France and Switzerland if I recall.