SSTV in the browser
CloudHamSuite receives and sends SSTV in Chrome or Edge. The rig is connected to the computer over USB, and the picture builds up line by line in the browser. There is no program to install, only the rig's USB driver if your operating system does not have it yet. The app is free.
SSTV is an experiment and not part of guest mode. You need a free account and switch SSTV on under Settings › Experiments; it then gets its own tab. The link here opens the station without an account, where only FT8 works.
See the station without an account
What you need
- A free account. You can create one on the start page.
- Chrome or Edge on a computer. Firefox, Safari and browsers on a phone or tablet do not control a rig.
- A rig with USB CAT and USB audio. Verified on the rig are the Icom IC-7300 and IC-9700. More models can be selected through Hamlib but have not been tried on real hardware yet. See the list of supported rigs.
- Internet. The station is loaded from cloudhamsuite.de. It does not work offline.
- A licence to transmit. The same transmit blocks apply as for FT8: band of your licence, PTT readback, Esc ends the transmission.
Receiving
The station detects the mode from the VIS code and shows the picture as it arrives, with mode, VIS and skew. The last 8 pictures stay while the page is open. You save a picture as PNG or to the gallery in your account (up to 100 pictures, 50 MB).
- Modes: Robot 8/12/24 BW and 24/36/72, Martin M1 to M4, Scottie S1 to S4 and DX, PD50 to PD290, Wraase SC2-180, Pasokon P3/P5/P7, MMSSTV MP73/115/140/175.
- Not included: Robot 12 colour, Wraase SC2-60 and SC2-120, Scottie DX2, MMSSTV MR and ML, AVT, Martin HQ.
Sending
- Five modes: Martin M1, Scottie S1, Scottie DX, Robot 36 and PD120. Robot 36 takes about 37 seconds, Scottie DX about 4.5 minutes.
- Picture: your own PNG or JPEG file, or one from the gallery. Your callsign is written into the picture by default.
- Frequencies for German class E: 80 m 3.730 MHz LSB, 15 m 21.340 MHz USB, 10 m 28.680 MHz USB. Class A adds 40 m 7.165 MHz LSB and 20 m 14.230 MHz USB. The station sets the sideband itself.
- ISS: The station shows the passes of the next 48 hours. You set 145.800 MHz FM by hand, and Doppler is not tracked. The ISS only sends SSTV on announced days.
While the SSTV tab is open it owns the rig. FT8, FT4 and WSPR carry on when you return. A picture contact can go into the logbook with “Log QSO”.
What has been tested on the air
A real picture in Scottie S2 was received on 14.230 MHz, all 256 lines. Robot 36 was sent at 5 W on 21.340 MHz. A KiwiSDR recording from about 1800 km away gave all 240 lines with the callsign DO5ALO. That recording was decoded with the app's own decoder, not with MMSSTV. These are single tests, not regular operation. Not every other mode has been tested on the air.