SSTV System Latest News

The Crew of the Mir station have been kept busy with normal station keeping and other routine experiments.
The crew have not had much time for amateur radio voice contacts.
However they have been taking time to read some of the hundred of mail messages they keep getting via the Personal Mail System (PMS).

PMS:
The PMS has been on line over 80% of the time over the past few months.
The crew does have to shutdown some of the Amateur Radio experiments periodically (docking, EVA, etc.).
The down time for the PMS is usually only for a few days at a time.

The PMS system consists of the following hardware:
Kenwood TM-733 Dual Band transceiver
Kantronics KPC-9612 (running at 1200 baud)
Larsen Dual band mobile antenna (2m/70cm)
Frequency/Mode: 145.985 FM Simplex

I still see a lot of people taking help listing from the PMS. I have attached a copy to help you with the command syntax.
For more information, check out the how to work Mir articles in the web pages below.

SAFEX-II Repeater:
The 70cm repeater was on for a few days last summer, however the limited power budget does not allow for continuos duty. As time and power allows, the SAFEX-II repeater may be on more frequently.
I am interested in hearing 70cm signal quality reports.

Future Mir Amateur Radio projects:
Mir Life Span:
The current plan is for the Russian Space Station Mir, to be occupied until approximately June/July 1999.
After this date, the manned crew will leave Mir and return to earth.
A remotely controlled booster will dock with the Mir station and then fly the Mir station into the Pacific ocean a few months later. If the occupation of the International Space Station is delayed, Energia reserves the right to extend the duration of the manned Mir missions.

During the remaining 12 months there is still may be time to fly a few more Amateur Radio related experiments on Mir before the space station is retired. There are currently two Amateur Radio projects completed, which are waiting for a flight opportunity to Mir.
The MAREX-NA SSTV project was delivered to Russian in June 98 and AMSAT-FRANCE RS-17-2 Sputnik was delivered to Russia in Sept 98.
Both projects are being reviewed for flight opportunities. All of the Progress rockets going to Mir over the next few months are being reviewed to see if there is any extra cargo space available to the new projects. If space is available, then one or more of the projects may be flown.

MAREX-NA SSTV Project:
The MAREX-NA Mir SSTV (Kenwood/Tasco) system has been certified for use on Mir and the approval to fly has been signed. The IARU has suggested operational frequency for the SSTV system of 437.975 FM Simplex. This frequency was chosen to be compatible with all of the existing Amateur Radio equipment on Mir.

The specific launch date for the SSTV project has not been chosen at this time.
There are currently 3 options:

Progress Cargo Rocket October 98
Progress Cargo Rocket February 99
Manned Soyuze spring 99

Sputnik RS-17-2
Do you remember RS-17-1 last December 97? It was a very popular Beeping satellite which was tossed out the door of Mir last year. RS-17-1 beeped for over 6 weeks and was heard by thousands of people around the world.
An identical RS-17-2 was also delivered to Mir last year and is still on board Mir. Later this year, the internal electronics will be swapped out with a new electronics module/batteries and then launched from Mir.
More details will be released later this fall.

Trivia: The first ham to hear RS-17-1 was RV3DR.
He was monitoring from his club station at Energia in Korolev Russian when the Mir crew did the space walk to launch the satellite RS-17-1. When the crew activated RS-17-1 for the first time, RV3DR reported a very strong signal.
The Mir crew then held on to the Satellite for approximately 1 orbit. The hatch in which the crew was standing in with the satellite was facing the direction of flight of the space station. The satellite could not be released until the space station rotated 180 degrees on axis so that the hatch was now looking opposite direction. Once the rotation was completed RS-17-1 was tossed down-wind away from the Mir complex.
The satellite gradually drifted away from Mir and beeped away for the next two months.

Mir Crew Members:
The current crew consists of:

Current Crew
SOYUZ TM-28 arrived at Mir on August 16. Mir Soyuz TM-28 crew consisted of Sergei Avdeyev, Gennadiy Padalko and Yuri Baturin.
(Sergei and Gennadiy both received training on the MAREX-NA SSTV system in Star City).

ISS:
The Russian Service module of the International Space Station (ISS also called unofficially Alpha) will contain 4 antenna feed-through ports dedicated for Amateur Radio Antenna Access. The Russian Docking Adapter will also contain 2 antenna feed-through ports dedicated for Amateur Radio Antenna Access.
When the first ISS crew arrives, they will already have ports to use for Amateur Radio. Ports 1,2 and 3 are tentatively planned for 144,435, 1200 mc, and port 4 for HF (10, 15 and 20 meters).
Ports 5 & 6 will be for UHF and SHF bands.
Now the fun begins, and the designing of projects to use the ISS antenna ports is under development.
We will publish more details as they become available.

MIR
1 16609U 86017A   98259.13371538  .00018584  00000-0  17024-3 0  7876
2 16609  51.6605 305.2440 0007841  93.6819 266.4915 15.67798649718316
KVANT 1
1 17845U 87030A   98258.62376373  .00022054  00000-0  20112-3 0  5327
2 17845  51.6596 307.8386 0008040  91.2635 268.7906 15.67779640652342
KVANT 2
1 20335U 89093A   98258.62376373  .00022054  00000-0  20112-3 0  3582
2 20335  51.6596 307.8386 0008040  91.2635 268.7906 15.67779640501354
KRISTALL
1 20635U 90048A   98258.62376373  .00022054  00000-0  20112-3 0  1507
2 20635  51.6596 307.8386 0008040  91.2635 268.7906 15.67779640472185
SPEKTR
1 23579U 95024A   98258.62376373  .00022054  00000-0  20112-3 0  1146
2 23579  51.6596 307.8386 0008040  91.2635 268.7906 15.67779640189663
PRIRODA
1 23848U 96023A   98258.62376373  .00022054  00000-0  20112-3 0  7983
2 23848  51.6596 307.8386 0008040  91.2635 268.7906 15.67779640136754
SOYUZ TM-27
1 25146U 98004A   98236.75371520  .00015200  00000-0  14589-3 0  2044
2 25146  51.6595  58.9764 0007237  21.4992 338.7751 15.66820927 32427
PROGRESS M-39
1 25340U 98031A   98258.62376373  .00022054  00000-0  20112-3 0  1358
2 25340  51.6596 307.8386 0008040  91.2635 268.7906 15.67779640 19393
SOYUZ TM-28
1 25429U 98047A   98258.62376373  .00022054  00000-0  20112-3 0   475
2 25429  51.6596 307.8386 0008040  91.2635 268.7906 15.67779640  5228

Today I had a discussion with Sergej Samburov the chief of the amateur radio cosmonaut department in Korolov city Energia Russia. We discussed several topics including the Mir SSTV system.
The MAREX-NA Mir SSTV (Kenwood/Tasco) system has passed all of the Russian Space safety certification testing!
The MAREX-NA Mir SSTV has been certified for use on Mir and the approval to fly has been signed.
Congratulations everyone for a job well done.

The specific launch date has not been chosen at this time. There are currently 3 options:

We will just have to wait and see.
The Sprint manned mission will include a French cosmonaut. The French cosmonaut is planning on using the SSTV system as part of his experiments to beam down images of this tests.

Mir Life Span:
The current plan is for the space station Mir to be occupied until approximately June/July 1999.
After this date, the manned crew will leave Mir and return to earth.
A remotely controlled booster will dock with the Mir station and then fly the Mir station into the Pacific ocean a few months later. If the occupation of the International Space Station is delayed, Energia reserves the right to extend the duration of the manned Mir missions.

SSTV Band and Frequency:
The IARU is still working on the SSTV Frequency.

In the June 98, the MAREX-NA group delivered three (3) Amateur Radio Slow Scan TV units to MAREX-RU Energia in Moscow. The MIREX-NA group has been working for the past year building a new Slow Scan Television System (SSTV) for use on board the Russian Space Station Mir.

During the next phase of the project the SSTV systems will go through an extensive series of flight qualification tests and environmental safety tests. The systems have already been through extensive RFI and EMI testing in the USA.
If the SSTV systems meet all of the next batch of stringent safety requirements, the systems will then be ready for the final phase of the program, which includes a launch opportunity to Mir. The tentative plan is to launch the system to Mir via a Progress cargo Rocket in the fall of 1998.

The Mir SSTV systems include both a Manual mode and an Automatic modes.
When placed in Automatic mode, the Mir SSTV system will send 720 new still images a day to earth, every day. The Mir SSTV system also has the ability to receive images from earth too.
The Mir SSTV consists of a Kenwood VM-7A Dual band transceiver connected to the integrated Tasco SSTV system, which includes an LCD screen and a CCD camera. The Mir SSTV system will be mounted in either the Mir-Core Module or the Priroda Module.

For more information on the SSTV hardware, check out the specification and pictures at this web address http://geocities.datacellar.net/CapeCanaveral/Hangar/7355/sstv_proj.htm

For more information about SSTV, try this web address.
http://www.ultranet.com/~sstv

Planed operations:
When in automatic mode the Mir SSTV system will send one new image every 2 minutes, in the following sequence:

Frequency:
The frequency and band for the down link signal has not been chosen at this time.
This Mir SSTV system is very flexible when it comes to frequencies.
The SSTV system will be able to support all ITU 2-meter and 70-centemer satellite bands. Our first frequency preference is to configure the system for 2-meters.
The 2-meter band has many advantages over the 70 cm band.
The main reason for 2-meter is because this band is simpler for people to afford and the frequency error caused by Doppler shift will be low enough to not cause distortion to the images.
The final decision for band and frequency will be made after extensive review by the appropriate agencies.

Project Compatibility Testing:
Careful consideration has been placed on designing the SSTV project to be compatible with the two (2) existing Mir Amateur Radio experiments (2-meter Personal Message System and SAFEX II 70 cm Repeater). If the proper frequencies are used, then it is possible for all three (3) projects to be on-line at the same time with minimal if any interference.
MAREX-NA has submitted a frequency suggestion plans to several Amateur Radio agencies.
The final decision for band and frequency has not been made at this time.

Range/Quality testing:
Extensive Range testing has been conducted over an 80 mile open range and from aeronautical mobile.   Multiple power settings were used during the testing cycle.   Also, extensive Doppler error injecting testing was conducted to determine how Doppler will affect the image quality.
The system was specifically designed to allow beginners to be able to decode images directly from space with very simple receiving stations. Stations currently using HF SSTV will just need to select an audio input from their VHF/UHF station to be able to receive Mir images.
It is expected that stations using a 0 dBd gain antenna and a simple mobile/HT setup will be able to reliably decode 1-3 images per orbit and 6-18 images per day.
Stations equipped with a high gain antenna system will be able to decode 30-40 images per day. If you do not have a SSTV system, don't worry, the best images will be posted on the web. Schools from around the world will be able to log into a WEB and see the best images received each day.
Some of the Mir experiments are expected to be given special attention, so that earth observers can see the daily image progress of some of the experiments via SSTV.

Stay tuned for more updates
Miles Mann WF1F MAREX-NA

LL n	LIST LAST n MESSAGES
LM(ine)	LIST UNREAD MESSAGES ADDRESSED TO YOU
LO [+\|-]	LISTING ORDER
LT	LIST TRAFFIC
LTn	DISPLAY LOCATION TEXT n=1-4
K(ill) n	DELETE MESSAGE NUMBER n
KM(ine)	DELETE ALL READ MESSAGES ADDRESSED TO YOU
R(ead) n	DISPLAY MESSAGE NUMBER n
RH n	DISPLAY MESSAGE n WITH HEADERS
RM(ine)	READ ALL MESSAGES ADDRESSED TO YOU
S(end) call	SEND MESSAGE TO callsign
S[B\|P\|T] call	SEND BULLETIN, PRIVATE, or TRAFFIC

Progress Cargo Rocket	October '98
Progress Cargo Rocket	February '99
Manned Soyuze	Spring '99

Transmit:	CW ID R0MIR
Transmit:	Select and send a new image in Robot 36 (36 seconds, color image) Pause for 76 seconds before starting over with a new image. Total time for a compete cycle is 120 seconds.

Miles Mann WF1F MAREX-NA (Manned Amateur Radio Experiment North American division)

This document is from Energia-MAREX-RU accepting the three SSTV systems from MAREX-NA	Map of proposed antenna ports. All ports are on the Russian modules.