The Russians are Coming! The Russians are Coming!

April 12th, 1961 is a special date in man's history; but especially for the Russians (or Soviets as they were called at the time).  It was the date on which Yuri Gagarin became the first human being in space.   

Fast forward 54 years and it's 2015.  The international space station has been in orbit since 1998.  The Russian space station "Mir", not so much; but then again the world still needs to hitch a ride on a Russian Soyuz capsule to get there.

During the weekend of April 11-12, the Russian cosmonauts aboard the ISS were marking the anniversary by transmitting images via slow-scan television (SSTV) on 145.800 MHz.  I set up my trusty Yaesu FT-857D and Dell D800 laptop running MMSSTV on my workbench and just let them run.  Here's what they caught...

 

I'm still tinkering with the setting for MMSSTV to get the best possible quality.  I think it's just something really neat to play with.  It makes me want to get involved in working ISS by voice or possibly some of the other amateur radio satellites.