Listening To the International Space Station The Cheap Way
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 11 ม.ค. 2022
- As a follow-up to some of my weather satellite projects, I tried my hand at listening to the ISS. Lately they've been sending down Slow Scan TV (SSTV) images, which are kind of like power point slides sent via fax tones over ham radio!
I tried a variety of old ham radio junk I have lying around, but the easiest and most reliable equipment turned out to be the cheapest! The thing that worked best for me was a ~$30 Baofeng radio with a cell phone held up to the speaker. The phone is running an app called "Robot36" which decodes the SSTV tones into an image.
(A lot of hams look down on these Baofeng radios, but mine works better than my old Yaesu or Icom 2M handhelds, and was a lot more affordable brand new!)
More info on SSTV here: amsat-uk.org/beginners/iss-sstv/
Robot36 App: play.google.com/store/apps/de...
I tried various Windows and Linux programs but didn't have much luck getting any of them to work. The only one that kind of worked was "RX-SSTV", but the image came out distorted and the user interface was clunky and confusing. The Android app does everything automatically and works with little to no user input.
I might revisit this next time there's an SSTV event, especially if I build a better antenna!
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"This is kinda why people don't use faxes any more." I guess Germany never got that memo!😂
Because they’re still using mail…
I was about to comment exactly that - and then scrolled down to find your comment :D
Lol. So true ! It's amazing how much german bureaucrats love fax 😂
@@VonBeethoven2000you can miss an E-Mail, but you can’t miss a Fax :)
Watching your content is like going back to the good old 2010's youtube, but in 16:9. Thank you!
As a fellow ham and software/hardware wrangler, I can appreciate how much time/effort/frustration this required!
bro i know nothing about these things but watching someone who actually does makes the video so interesting
Don’t bother to finetune for the doppler. Also, best to record the sound (you can use squelch and VOX recording, that works well) and then normalise in Audacity and then play it into a PC software (MMSSTV). A dipole will work fine in most cases but I’ve had equally good results using my normal roof antenna. I’ve typically managed to grab two, maybe two and a half images per pass, but obviously you’re limited by the length of the pass.
tbh. this is way out my interrest, but hey, love that there are still guys like you keeping the passion to do all this. keep it up!
I learn some valuable information every time I view your content & I Thank You for your awesome videos ! ✌
This channel is amazing! You are amazing, OC!
you have taught me more in the last 20minutes then i have learned in a class. thank god for u
Really interesting video. I've learned a ton from your videos on radio. I'm impressed with how well that BaoFeng radio works- looks like a steal for 30-40 bucks.
I remember one time my old SSTV video got taken down because some musician said they owned the copyright to the SSTV sound. I challenged that and won.
You are happy, and are fun to watch.
VB Audio Cable is a good virtual cable program. i reccomend using their Voicemeter program for a pleasent GUI experiance
RX SSTV Works fine the reason you couldnt get anything to function was probably because you didnt set it up right. it works just fine on my end and it automatically crops images with the message start tones
First weather satellites and now the space station. Cool!
I like the scene near the end (see 12:03). The footprints in the snow looked like images after the moonwalks. Intentional homage or happy accident?
Just an accident there! Thanks for pointing it out, I didn't think of that!
QSL! PY1RR
Thank you for sharing your radio listening experiences.
I've been a radio amateur since 1992.
Amateur Radio is more than a hobby!
SSTV and other digital modalities have always been a very important research area for today's media.
Congratulations on the job!
It’s very cool man! Thank you!
that old ham radio software work just fine, took me less that 10 min to get it set up and running on a windows 11 laptop MMSSTV is a great old program, You just need to scan the documentation and make sure it's setup right.
Love this channel
Your videos are so dang cool!!
I wonder if Digital SSTV will become the new norm down the line when some of the issues are ironed out! They send "raw" image and files so it's almost lossless, but they do have a problem of being very slow and prone to getting interrupted by noises or fading signal.
Just one small hint: In Germany it is even forbidden to LISTEN to ATC transmissions. Thats why there are no German Airports on the live-ATC website. OK, there is probably no way someone will find out if you listen to ATC in your home. But listening to it while plainspotting in public without the "Flugfunkzeugnis" could get you in trouble.
Very neat video. I enjoyed the effort as if i was doing it with you. Yes hams are crazy ? I have had icicles hanging out of my noise working on satellite dishes mid winter. LOL 73 Leo
Great posting. Thanks for all of your experiments. All hail to Baofeng !
Nice video brooi i really like your content
An Amateur Radio Operator too? Very cool! As an Amateur Radio Operator myself I noticed the ARRL webpage on your monitor. Neat video. I seldom have much time for ham stuff as well but it's good to at least stay licensed. Someday time will allow. Spent some time over the holidays programming my Syntor X Low band, was a fun challenge and was good to play around with the Amateur Radio stuff.
Yeah, I have the license but also don't have much time for it. It's on the list for things to get into when I retire :-P
@@saveitforparts hey do you know if there are any apps similar to the robot 36 one on Apple? I can’t seem to find any.
The ISS also does APRS, however, I've yet to capture it.
The Fang's are great for a low end entry, throw away radio. There's a LOT of things I'll do/try with a Fang then I will with my TH-D74
I’ve done a fair bit with the ISS and APRS. As long as you have a radio that will do it, and a decent antenna (you need a yagi if you’re using a 5w handie) and just keep trying. High overhead passes are highest likelihood of getting a ping. Don’t worry about correcting for the doppler. I can still get it all working without correction.
thank you for the video
You are wrong about the two remaining banks using fax. Most medical facilities have to have fax capabilities.
I wonder if you had more gain on your antenna to improve your SNR and maybe a more sensitive receiver would help. I noticed your signals are a little low for what have see. Note I found Baofengs and all SOIC based radios tend to be a little deaf. I found this building APRS digipeaters.
No jokes about fax machines ;-) Here in Germany, we're still big fans of them. During COVID, we had a case tracing bottleneck because our health authority insists on using them for legal stats reporting. Ha ha, high-tech Germany
12:01 In this very moment I thought it looks like you're standing on the Moon!
I wish I wasn't so lazy so I could do this stuff! lol cool shit, bro!
I hope you find that the Yaesu has a BNC connector and you can take the antenna out....😊😊😊😊 (I know because I have one like yours. Only european pmr446 or american FRS cannot take the antenna out....
you should make a websdr for us! (kiwisdr is my favorite) I would love to be able to hear all the interesting stuff around your house. also it should be able to go super far from 0 khz to like 200 mhz or so. I can never find anything interesting but u find lots of stuff at your house!
That could be fun, I'd have to get a better wide-spectrum antenna though :-)
As someone else said, this reminds me of old youtube 🤞
So very interesting
Great videos & info! Do you know of an application like Robot 36 for Apple iPhone? I
I don't use an iPhone so I'm not sure, sorry!
@@saveitforparts ok thxs. Great channel - learning a lot
People are trying to convince me to make Ham license. But Im only interested in listening to signals. Which is legal in europe as well. Im going to try some of the stuff you show on your channel . Looking forward to some experiments.
I have a license but honestly I don't use it much. I find it more interesting to just experiment with stuff like this. I might try using the ISS ham repeater, just have to find time when it's going overhead.
Do you have a SWR meter? It would help you with the antennas, knowing what's going on and making adjustments. It should be possible to find one that isn't a silly price if you look about.
I have a NanoVNA, I've actually trying to listen to the ISS ham repeater recently, I just have to get up at 5am for the good passes :-P
IF, in fact, this is slow scan tv, then why not get an old sstv ham unit and rebuild it to the frequencies you need? I used to do pirate sstv back in the late 60s and got the ss signals from weather satellites and also from lunar transmissions. Tried to get the russian one from their probe on venus but it was too weak to process.
You are super cool ❤
Neat!
Did you try using the QFH for this in the end? 137.5MHz is not very far away from 145MHz. Also, as it's higher up it should be less obstructed.
I haven't tried that yet. One of the Raspberry-NOAA versions supposedly does SSTV, but I never got it to work.
Very cool. I have no experience with hobby radio, so this may sound stupid or vague, but: is it possible to use this technology to listen to aircraft that you could follow on something like flightradar? Thanks.
Aircraft voice radio uses AM VHF (which is kind of weird but I guess has its reasons). You need a special radio or an aircraft capable scanner, or a software-defined radio (The little USB deals I used in other videos, they're getting pretty cheap). You can also use those to track aircraft transponders directly the way flightradar does. I haven't played around with that much, I have an old Radio Shack scanner somewhere that can hear the cockpit / air traffic radio but it's usually pretty boring unless there's an emergency.
Have a look for ADS-B. Easy to pick up with a SDR, and it’s like flight radar “local”. Don’t know if it’s still the case, but if you host a receiver 24/7 and feed it into flightradar, they’ll upgrade your account to “pro” in return.
I heard it pass by but i couldn't get any image. Too much white noise I think. Greetings from Rotterdam!!
ive got some high quality speakers.... corsair SP2500
and it came out PERFECT quality.... much better than your test LOL
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idk.... thats so damn cool!!!!!!
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i just think your speakers have a bit of distortion.... or your phones mic might not pick up things with a "flat responce"
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i have a samsung galaxy s22 ultra (or plus... idk, its 1 higher than the base model)
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maybe the app has been updated in the last year also
Can we listen to satellites for intercepting images using a satelight dish and if so should we need a ham radio for it
Aint no way you arent on a watch list cus youre doing this like its normal lmao
9:40 it looks like the bandwidth was set wrong
What do you carry in your holster?
I've got one with a flashlight and one with a multitool. Really handy until I forget to take them off for a courthouse or something 😛
@@saveitforparts Hahahahah right!! Love your videos!
The Cheap W
Lol it's supposed to be "the cheap way", I must have fat-fingered the title :-D
"listen to satellites in space" as opposed to the ground based satellites i guess 😁
Yeah. Your Soundcloud image is bad because of reflecting audio around your room. if you record without a microphone, the image will be "HD". 73 ON4NDO
Heavens above Pro. ho.. ho..
it an alian!!!!
But why are they broadcasting SSTV images - just for fun? Who gets that job?
Yeah it's a hobby / outreach thing for amateur radio. The station also has ham radio repeaters and sometimes the crew gets on there to chat with schools or random people on the ground.
@@saveitforparts oh, cool.
I think I read somewhere it’s down right now right? They’re waiting for replacement hardware that failed or something?
Fax machines have made a comeback in recent years with businesses especially in the medical field because of computer viruses and phishing scams.
Ah, the joy of sending files to a random printer somewhere. It was always nice to know that my private info was only accessible to the recipient, the janitor, the fax repair person, and whoever happened to walk past the machine :-)
„Mounted on your woooff“🤓😂
listen hell, call me when you can see. space station not satellite. remember crazy not stupid
The ISS is easy to see, websites like n2yo.com or the Satellite Tracker android app can tell you when to look. I've got another video coming up where I can watch it go over, track it with a directional antenna, and hear ham radio operators using the onboard repeater.
@@saveitforparts sorry, I don't want to see ISS. I want to see what they see. from their cameras. sorry for any confusion.