ISS activities

[Iain McFadyen]

Don't know if any AMRAD members were listening in on the recent ISS SSTV activity?

I've been leaving one side of my mobile rig tuned to 145.800 listening (but not decoding) the SSTV downlinks.

Then, on Thursday, at 18:50 UTC, whilst driving from Morant Point to Kingston, I heard voice on 145.800!

Managed to have a brief but nice conversation with Richard Garriott on the ISS. I was using the Club callsign, 6Y5RA (so much easier to say than "KI4HLV portable 6Y5"). Downlink signals were superb!

I listened while Richard had abother quick QSO with an 8P6, and then announced "this is my last transmission from the ISS". He must then have hustled into the Soyuz and started the journey back to earth almost immediately, because he landed at 03:30UTC today.

The SSTV downlink was a novelty to me, but there are several websites showing spectacular downlink pix in the last few weeks.

Iain   KI4HLV/6Y5     Kingston Jamaica.