This week: Oct 2-6, 2026
How to receive pictures from the space station this week
From Friday, October 2 to Tuesday, October 6, 2026, the International Space Station is sending pictures by radio that anyone can receive. A handheld radio or a cheap SDR, a free decoder, and a pass overhead are enough.
When
The event (ARISS SSTV Series 33, themed "Student Education") starts Friday, October 2 at 09:00 UTC (2:00 a.m. Pacific, 5:00 a.m. Eastern) and ends Tuesday, October 6 at 15:55 UTC (8:55 a.m. Pacific). The station sends a picture for about 36 seconds, pauses for about two minutes, and repeats, so each pass over you can bring several pictures.
1. Find the passes over you
The space station goes around the Earth about every 90 minutes, and it's in range of any one place for up to about ten minutes at a time, a few times a day. Free pass predictors such as Heavens-Above or N2YO show the times for your location. Passes that climb higher in the sky (a higher "max elevation") give much stronger signals.
2. Get a radio that tunes 437.550 MHz
- A handheld amateur or scanner radio that covers the 70 cm band (around 435-438 MHz), set to FM.
- An SDR dongle (such as an RTL-SDR) with SDR software on a computer.
- An antenna: the radio's own "rubber duck" works on good passes; a small handheld directional antenna pointed at the station works far better.
As the station races overhead, its signal shifts slightly in pitch (the Doppler effect): about 10 kHz up at the start of a pass and 10 kHz down at the end. If your radio allows it, start near 437.560 MHz and step down toward 437.540 MHz as the pass goes on. Open the squelch so nothing is cut off.
3. Turn the sound into a picture
SSTV sounds like a fast, warbling whistle with a steady ticking rhythm; each tick is one line of the picture. Free decoder programs turn it into the image: MMSSTV (Windows) and QSSTV (Linux) on a computer, and SSTV decoder apps on phones, many of which can decode from the phone's microphone held near the radio's speaker. A tip: record the audio on your phone as well, so you can decode it again later if the first try is noisy.
4. Share it and get a certificate
ARISS (Amateur Radio on the International Space Station) invites listeners to upload their pictures to its online gallery and offers a certificate for them; submissions are usually accepted during the event and for about three days afterward. Details are on the ARISS SSTV FAQ.
Practice first: hear your own photo as a space-station picture
The station sends its pictures in a format called Robot 36. Pick a photo and this page turns it into that exact kind of sound, 36 seconds long. Hold a phone running the SSTV app you plan to use up to your speaker and see if it draws the picture: a good rehearsal before the real passes. Your photo stays on your device.
Left: the picture. Right: the sound's waterfall as it plays. Each tick you hear is one line of the picture.
Is it legal?
Yes. The pictures are sent so the public can receive them; ARISS actively encourages it. You don't need a license to listen.
Want to hear what SSTV sounds like first? See the space station pictures page and the SSTV signal guide.