SSTV transmitter on the Great Owl (Wielka Sowa) mountain

Last Sunday (2024-04-07) the SSTV transmitter on the Great Owl mountain has been activated. After successes of the automatic stratospheric SSTV transmitter, a new dedicated, working as a radio service, was prepared jointly by Łukasz Pieczonka LPI Consulting (computer, software, peripherals) and SP6ZWR Amateur Emergency Communication Club (radio transmitter, organizational matters). Many thanks to Włodzimierz Tarnowski SQ6NLN for his work and final activation of the transmitter.

The transmitter works as a radio service (simplex transmission at 438.0125MHz), i.e. it listens for commands which are being sent as DTMF tone, triggered by pressing appropriate key on a radio transmitter. Then, depending on a command, the transmitter can:

  • help an user by telling about all the options
  • tell what the temperature is
  • transmit a photo of the Great Owl in a desired SSTV encoding (as at the picture above)
  • transmit a control image in a desired SSTV encoding (as at the picture below)

The control image may be useful during night when the camera sees black only, during fog, or to perform precise transmission quality tests.

In addition, the transmitter activates itself every quarter of an hour transmitting (voice) a short information about its purpose. At the beginning of each hour it also tells information about temperature.

Below there is a full list of DTMF commands:

  • 0 – Help (voice)
  • * – Tempreature (voice)
  • 1 – SSTV: ROBOT 36C
  • 2 – SSTV: ROBOT 72C
  • 3 – SSTV: Martin M1
  • 4 – SSTV: Scottie S1
  • 5 – SSTV: Scottie S2
  • 6 – SSTV: Scottie DX
  • 7 – SSTV: PD120
  • 8 – SSTV: PD240
  • 9 – SSTV: PD290
  • A – SSTV: SC2-60
  • B – SSTV: SC2-180
  • C – SSTV: Pasokon P3
  • D – SSTV: Pasokon P7

For all the SSTV modes the long press of the DTMF button causes transmission of the control image.

This project is dedicated for all the radio amateurs who are in sight of the transmitter. It allows performing a various tests including radio wave propagation, learning of the SSTV and general expansion of knowledge about radio transmission.

Tune your radio to 438.0125MHz and have fun 🙂