HamTV Bulletin 1
August 21, 2013
Ham Video transmitter onboard Columbus
How
a DATV transmitter on S-band is being added to the ARISS equipment
onboard the International Space Station has been related in an
announcement recently circulated and available at
www.ariss-eu.org/HamVideo.pdf
The
ARISS Ham Video transmitter is presently onboard Columbus. The
transmitter was delivered by Japanese cargo spacecraft HTV-4, which
launched August 4 and docked 5 days later.
ESA astronaut Luca
Parmitano IR0ISS reported that the bags are stored in Columbus. There
are two bags: one for the transmitter, the other for the power, camera
and antenna cables.
Installation will be done by US astronaut
Michael Hopkins KF5LJG who has been trained for the commissioning of the
Ham Video equipment.The commissioning is planned later in the year,
possibly end October when there are favourable passes over Italy.
Indeed, the tests transmissions for the commissioning of the onboard
equipment will be received by the ground station of the “Centro di
Geodesia Spaziale” of the Italian Space Agency, located in Matera,
Southern Italy.
We will report in due time on the commissioning
procedure which will involve a series of tests to be performed during 3
or 4 ISS passes.
Possibly, the Ham Video transmitter will transmit
continuously between the commissioning steps offering amateur ground
stations the opportunity to test and tune their receiving equipment. The
transmissions will be performed in automatic mode, without requiring
crew time. The camera, which runs on a battery, will not be used and the
ground stations will receive a black image.
Meanwhile,
commissioning is being prepared steadily. The kick-off meeting took
place November 2012 at ESTEC, the European Space Research and Technology
Centre, located in Noordwijk the Netherlands. Detailed procedures are
examined and finalized during weekly ESA/ARISS teleconferences. A
preliminary EST (Experiment Sequence Test) is planned 28-29 August. The
test will involve the ARISS ground station IK1SLD, located in Casale
Monferrato in Northern Italy.
IK1SLD, which is an ARISS
telebridge station often used for educational ARISS school contacts on
VHF, has been upgraded for S-band reception. Ham Video manufacturer
Kayser Italia has delivered a 1.2 meter dish, a down converter and
precision tracking motors, which are part of the ESA funded equipment.
For the EST, the station will receive a DATV signal from a local low
power S-band test transmitter. The decoded signal will be webstreamed to
the BATC server. The British Amateur Television Club offers ARISS free
access to their server. ESA examiners will connect to the BATC server
and evaluate the reception. Test transmissions at IK1SLD will cover the
different frequencies and symbol rates available on the Ham Video
transmitter.
Web streaming will take advantage of the special
software developed by Jean Pierre Courjaud, F6DZP. References are
available in the HamVideo.pdf.
When the Ham Video transmitter
will become operational, it will be used for ARISS educational school
contacts. Video will be for downlink only. Uplink will be VHF FM audio.
The Ericsson transceiver onboard Columbus will be used for reception
onboard. This cross band and double mode operation is called Ham TV. Ham
Video is the name of the DATV transmitter.
73,
Gaston Bertels – ON4WF
ARISS-Europe chairman
This Bulletin is available from the frontpage of
www.ariss-eu.org
Source directe : ON4WF ARISS EUROPE
Contact : f6agv (AT) free.fr
