SSTV Transmissions from the International Space Station – December 2014 edition

I saw a news story on the ARRL website that talked about the Russian International Space Station cosmonauts plan to send Slow Scan TV images around the holidays.  December 18 and December 20, 2014.  Those are two of my interests, SSTV (or digital modes in general) and spaceflight.  From the news story:

The Russian Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) team members plan to activate slow-scan television (SSTV) from the ISS on December 18 and December 20. The expected SSTV mode will be PD180 on a frequency of 145.800 MHz with 3-minute off periods between transmissions.

I setup my station to monitor 145.800 MHz on both days to see if I could receive any images, I did!

Station setup: MP Antennas Classic Mobile NMO Antenna – This is a local company in Cleveland and were reviewed in QST.  Been using their antennas for a long time with great success.  Since the antenna is multi-polarized (the MP in the company name), it is supposed to be a good substitution for receiving satellite transmissions without a directional antenna and not worrying about Doppler Shift (which needs to be accounted for in some cases).  The height is about 15 feet.

The antenna was connected to my ICOM IC-7000 with DSP settings turned off on 145.800 MHz FM.  Used this radio only because my SignaLink USB is connected to it and the one I use for digital operation on all bands.  MMSSTV is the Slow-Scan TV program I use.

I have tutorials available to help get your station setup and getting started with MMSSTV to receive images from the ISS.

I received 6 images total including 2 partial images from my location near Cleveland (EN91bl) as the ISS was flying overhead.

SSTV Transmissions from the International Space Station 2014-12-18 1901
2014-12-18 1901 UTC
SSTV Transmissions from the International Space Station 2014-12-18 2037
2014-12-18 2037 UTC
SSTV Transmissions from the International Space Station 2014-12-18 2214
2014-12-18 2214 UTC
SSTV Transmissions from the International Space Station 2014-12-20 1719
2014-12-20 1719 UTC
SSTV Transmissions from the International Space Station 2014-12-20 1854
2014-12-20 1854 UTC
SSTV Transmissions from the International Space Station 2014-12-20 2029
2014-12-20 2029 UTC