You're welcome! ^^
By the way, you can also practice SSTV reception on 14.230 MHz almost daily.
- That's the main frequency, so to say (the 20m band).
Just run robot36 app on your android device, turn your PC speakers up a bit and visit the WebSDR page.
- On the web page, enter the frequency and choose "USB" mode.
If you're really curious and like to go old-school, you can even use your old DOS rig for decoding.
All you need is a Sound Blaster compatible card or a homebrew modem.
The modem is fun to build, because it essentially is just one simple IC, a very ancient 741.
You can also use several substitutes for it.
In my theory, the modem could perhaps even work in a DOS VM with a serial port mapped to an USB adapter,
provided that you use two 9v batteries rather than stealing power from the serial port
(the 741 needs positive and negative voltage in this use case and fake RS232 ports only use +5V and 0V).
That being said, the old programs may not support PD120 mode which the ISS now uses.
Games like Portal may also use slightly newer modes (Robot36 mode as used by MIR ?) for hidden messages, not sure.
But high-altitude ballon projects still use the American "Scottie" modes or the European "Martin" modes,
which all SSTV programs support, no matter the age (except for the ancient ones, like "G1FTU SSTV "for the ZX Spectrum, maybe).
Last, but not least, you can also decode these Packet-Radio or APRS messages from the ISS on a DOS machine without a TNC.
All you need is either a BayCom/PC-COM compatible modem or that very simple 741 modem I mentioned before and these programs.
PRMON - Packet Radio Monitor v1.21 (BayCom modem)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dd-ra-VA7w
PKTMON - Packet Radio Monitor v1.0 (HamComm modem using 741 IC)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7smeDx03qI
Speaking of APRS..
APRS essentially is a an interactive map that's based on radio gear.
Amateur radio operators (HAMs) use it to display their own position on a map, so that other ham fellows can see were they are.
It's totally free and no requirement. It's just a geeky sub-hobby of amateur radio. Anyhow, APRS can do more than this.
It can transmitt information accross the world (ISS has an APRS repeater, too) essentially.
But that's not all, it can also transport tiny bit of extra data. Weather station informations, for example.
Or picture data of a few Kilobytes.
And it works via audio, too. It uses AFSK modulation @1200 Baud.
So all you need is a cheap FM scanner with a headphone jack and some TNC/modem.
If you like, you can build one with an Arduino Uno, even.
Just use a MAX232 converter chip to interface it with a real RS232.
A popular software, UI-View, runs on Windows 3.1, even.
So you can use your retro PC, again. 😁
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzyQyCRyeWE
Or if you prefere a Raspberry Pi or any other *nix machine, have a look at Xastir.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZkpDIiVlITk
I hope this was a helpful summary and wish you a lot of fun! 😁
Personally, I started as an SWL (shortwave listener) and enjoyed listening to the air waves a lot.
In our time frame, you can even use an SDR receiver, which is really cheap to buy.
All you need is an USB TV receiver dongle (rtl2832u ic) and an appropiate "PC" (or android device, running the SDR Touch software, for example).
There's many more, like weather fax reception (WEFAX), radio telex messages (RTTY) from weather forecast services and so on.
Just don't over do it. Hobbies like this are most fascinating if practiced in a ritual manner (weekends, holidays etc), I think. 😉
More information:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slow-scan_television
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiofax
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Packet_radio
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automatic_Packe … eporting_System
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radioteletype
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software-defined_radio
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCM_rzw6WcXib … arch?query=SSTV
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWWGDL5tC_I
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YiOPmTw9kfI
https://www.qsl.net/iz7ath/web/03_digital/03_hamc/hc_eng.htm
Edit: Link added.
Edit: Text eddited.
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