Receiving SSTV from FleetSatcom Pirates
Radio pirates often make use of the Fleetsatcom satellites to send and receive slow scan television (SSTV) pictures over a wide distance. Fleetsatcom is a satellite communications system used by the US Navy for radio communications. Since these satellites are simply radio repeaters with no authentication mechanisms, pirates soon discovered that they could take over the satellites for their own use.
Over on YouTube user LEGION ELMELENAS has uploaded a video showing his reception of some pirates transmitting a SSTV image at a Fleetsatcom frequency of 252 MHz. To receive the image he used a home made turnstile antenna, an RTL-SDR dongle, SDR# and the RX-SSTV decoder. The image appears to be a photo of a pirates son.
We previously posted more information about Fleetsatcom SSTV pirates in this post.
The pirate is from Spain. His name is Francisco Diaz Montano. He now uses the callsign EA7KJW.
Its not his kid but himself 😉
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/132993472/Milsat/index.html
That is true. The pirate is from Spain. His name is Francisco Diaz Montano. He now uses the callsign EA7KJW.
I decoded sstv images on this frequency same image all the time (tx from Brasil),I listen to the frequency 255.550mhz too and it gets abuse all the time,all i hear is music and unruly behaviour(portugese language),a good way to talk thousand miles away abused by a minority of what radio hams term as LIDS.What a waste.