ISS Crew, ARISS Team Troubleshooting Slow-Scan TV System:
from
W1AW Bulletin via the ARRL
Website:
http://www.arrl.org/
on
August 23, 2006
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ISS Crew, ARISS Team Troubleshooting Slow-Scan TV System:
ZCZC AS06
QST de W1AW
Space Bulletin 006 ARLS006
>From ARRL Headquarters
Newington, CT August 22, 2006
To all radio amateurs
SB SPACE ARL ARLS006
ARLS006 ISS crew, ARISS team troubleshooting slow-scan TV system
The Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS),
www.rac.ca/ariss, team is coordinating with Expedition 13 Commander
Pavel Vinogradov, RV3BS, and ARISS-Russia's Sergei Samburov, RV3DR,
to troubleshoot the slow-scan television (SSTV) system onboard the
ISS. The SSTV system remains off the air for now.
''Photos of the current SSTV configuration that were downlinked to
Earth showed several unanticipated results from the initial tests,''
ISS Ham Radio Project Engineer Kenneth Ransom, N5VHO, told ARRL.
''More extensive troubleshooting is being developed and could further
delay permanent activation of the radio.'' He pointed out that
Vinogradov is only able to work on the system in his free time.
Vinogradov is also due to return to Earth in September.
During the early stages of SSTV testing in late July, Earth station
operators were thrilled to receive several pictures Vinogradov was
able to transmit manually on 2 meters (the system has been using
144.490 and 145.800 MHz) using the RS0ISS call sign. Ransom says
initial tests were run over Moscow, and then the system was left on
for a few orbits.
Plans call for Vinogradov to continue checking out the SSTV
software, configure and optimize the radio and perform integration
checks necessary. So far, the SSTV system has been unable to
function properly in the autonomous ''slide show'' mode, Ransom said.
Miles Mann, WF1F, who developed the SSTV system as an ARISS project,
explains that slide-show mode will permit the crew to preload a
directory of images that then will automatically transmitted to
Earth. ''The crew will not need to keep pushing a button to send
images,'' he said in a recent news release. ''In theory, the system
can run for weeks at a time without crew involvement.''
The SSTV system is not yet configured to receive SSTV transmissions
from Earth stations.
NNNN
/EX
Source: W1AW Bulletin via the ARRL.
This article has expired. No more comments may be added.
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ISS Crew, ARISS Team Troubleshooting Slow-Scan TV
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by WI8W on August 24, 2006
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I wonder how much this little fix is costing the American taxpayers? Seerms like a big expense to me for something that very few people will use.
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RE: ISS Crew, ARISS Team Troubleshooting Slow-Scan
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by N9PSE on August 24, 2006
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Please, no gripes about cost to the taxpayers. The equipment is privately funded, the ground work is done by volunteers (whose work I greatly appreciate), and the crew operates it and works on it during their off-duty periods (free time), as it states in the article. They find the ham activities a good way to relax. And let's not start the old manned vs. unmanned spaceflight argument -- however valid and intersting such discussion is, this is not the place for it. Not every story has to have a negative twist placed on it.
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I don't believe it!
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by VK5LA on August 24, 2006
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Gee,
WI8W would be a fun guy at a party wouldn't he!
Amazing that a Ham can be so negative about something that is so positve for Amateur radio.
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ISS Crew, ARISS Team Troubleshooting Slow-Scan TV
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by N6JSX on August 27, 2006
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Another cryptic article from the ARRL. What is the actual problem?
Reading between the lines it apepars the speical VOX control circuit that allows auto SSTV mode by DTMF detection controlling the radio operation between packet or SSTV modes is broke. And the ISS packet station in now suffering total packet downtime as per http://oscar.dcarr.org/
I make this assuption from the sentence that stated ''The crew will not need to keep pushing a button to send images,'' to mean the only special custom VOX circuit created for the ISS-SSTV project is not working. I wonder how much real ground testing was done? Hope they did vibration/ESD/HASS type testing on tera-firma and not expected the space craft launch to be the vibration test.
I do not see any detailed plans/schematics/data/testing results/methods for this special SSTV VOX circuit - so they did not want HAMdom's inputs, but then again as pointed out this was a privately funded project NOW giving HAMdom another black eye to our fading technical reputation. Once again HAM radio looks like we truely are "AMATUERS" and just add another OOPS to the list of AO-40, SuitSat1, and more. But since it is not our money we cannot complain.
The good news is we can send another SSTV VOX module up to ISS to replace the defective module in a year or so. AO-40 and SuitSat are just Star Wars space trash targets.
Sr. Test Eng
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RE: I don't believe it
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by WI8W on August 27, 2006
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Mail this to a friend!
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Actually you would never find me at any kind of party. I avoid them like the plague. It is just not my kind of activity. I have better things to do than that.
I am not that negative about it. I just like to start a conversation going and I have found that being negative or opposing something is just the ticket to get one going. It is not always that I believe what I say but I am real good at debating pro and con issues.
I used to be a enthusiastic supporter of AMSAT and ARISS. Not anymore. I got sick and tired of those that hog each and every satellite pass much to the detriment of the other users. There is a VE station that does just that. Contact after contact this guy makes and he never shuts his mouth the whole pass on just about any satellite. How is that benefiting ham radio?
So there you have it in a nutshell.
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