Get Slow Scan TV images from the ISS!

The Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) team is supporting slow-scan TV transmissions from the International Space Station over the holidays. The images will be related to lunar exploration. Transmissions are available worldwide on 145.800MHz FM, using SSTV mode PD120, and started on 26 December 2021and will end on the 31st at about 1705UTC. The signal should be receivable on a handheld transceiver with a quarter-wave whip antenna. I was able to pick up the signals with my 2m ham radio and using my Android smartphone with the "Robot36" app from the Google Play store Apple Store has an SSTV app here During the pass the first few moments were not captured due to noise. Due in part to the terrain at my location (big oak tree to the southwest blocked the signal and there is rain in the area) but overall the image did look pretty good for what I was using. It's possible to use a handheld radio or even an SDR so long as you have a good path to the ISS with little obstructions. For more information, go to ariss-sstv.blogspot.com. Source of information via Radio Society of Great Britain Website used to track ISS: N2YO.com

Heinrich Rudolf Hertz: Google Doodle for a guy who rode a wave

Google's doodle honoring Hertz

Google put up an animated doodle of their logo honoring the 155th birthday of Heinrich Hertz. The animated logo doodle was posted on Wednesday, February 22, 2012.

Here's more from the LA Times:

Heinrich Rudolf Hertz -- who, like Van Gogh and Mozart, was a rare genius not fully appreciated during his lifetime -- is honored with a Google Doodle today, his 155th birthday. And perhaps the reason the German physicist wasn't valued for his work was that no one at that point was smart enough to do so.

Even Hertz didn't get it.

The German physicist, who was the first to broadcast and receive radio waves, did not realize at the time the broader implications of his work -- which laid the groundwork for the invention of the wireless telegraph, radio and TV.

"I do not think that the wireless waves I have discovered will have any practical application," Hertz once wrote, according to Scotland's University of St. Andrews.

Hertz made his discoveries young -- he began exercising his smarts early and was beginning his groundbreaking work at age 28. But his life was short, likely depriving the world of a host of amazing efforts. 

Contemplating the accomplishments he did make is enough to give those with more average brains a headache.  

He was the first to broadcast and receive radio waves, and he established "beyond any doubt" that light and heat were electromagnetic radiations.

Read more here.