Was There an SSTV Transmission During 10:41 UTC Pass of IO-86 Satellite?
There were two passes with activation of IO-86 Amateur Radio Satellite accessible from my region today. One with activation of satellite at 10:41 UTC and another with activation at 14:10 UTC. During both passes I could hear VU and several YB land stations though I could not reach anyone of them. During the first pass, I heard one DX station asking “All Stations Standby” a couple of times. After the first announcement I could hear seemingly digital signals for a short period. But it was drowned by voice transmissions from other stations. I tried decoding it with Robot36 app in my mobile phone, but could not get any SSTV picture. Even if it was an SSTV transmission, I would not have been able to decode it because of strong voice signals along with it. I could not hear any digital signal after the DX station asked “All Stations Standby” the second time because the satellite was far beyond the capability of my limited setup.
During the next pass at 14:10 UTC, I could hear VU and DX stations, but there was no similar announcements or the seemingly digital signals. As per the schedule published by the satellite controller on X, there is a scheduled SSTV transmission tomorrow at 07:34 UTC, which is mentioned as “VR SSTV IOTA P. Ketawai”. Will check whether I can receive and decode any SSTV image during that session, though the activation of the satellite is well beyond the time of closest approach in my region and the satellite will be far away during the session.