On 3rd Mai (National Holiday in Poland) we had (with my Father-In-Law) opportunity to listen SSTV and RTTX transmissions from Stratospheric Balloons, prepared for that event by SP6ZWR EmComm Radio Club.
First balloon, released at 11:00 local time, transmitted live snapshots from on-board camera. Only first few was transmitted before TX died.
Second balloon, at 13:00 local time, survived a little bit longer, sending predefined images. At first I’ve tried to decode them on PC, using RTL-SDR v3 receiver with my Diamond X-300 base antenna and MMSSTV software.
But since base antenna is not very directional, it was hard to get clear images on later transmission. So ee got downstairs and used Diamond NR-770 car antenna, together with Baofeng radio and trusty iPhone SSTV decoding software. Improvised reflector (using parts from portable cage for guinea pigs) gave us big kick, and we were able to get same images as upstairs, readable, with visible signal/noise patterns – possibly due to balloon rotation.
We were able to receive images as long as we had strength to hold reflector in place 🙂
Event summary from organizer:
Loty 3-05-2018 – krótkie podsumowanie. Podczas dzisiejszych lotów udało się przetestować kilka urządzeń radiowych…
Opublikowany przez Klub Łączności Ratunkowej SP6ZWR 3 maja 2018