How Hams use SSTV

Just like the usual amateur voice transmissions, SSTV transmissions take many forms. As in voice contacts, a few are very interesting, many have all the charm of a wrong number on the telephone.

To the beginner, every picture is exciting. But after a while, content is much more important. Many stations download a picture from the Internet, often a girlie picture, and then proudly transmit it out on 14.230 Mhz. The picture has nothing to do with the conversation, they know nothing about the picture, and other than an interesting test pattern perhaps, it is a complete waste of time. But then, that is why they are on amateur radio - to waste time.

Dx stations like to send pictures as a sign of making the contact. Because the images are easily stored, the picture itself becomes the QSL "card". They generally send a picture of the operator and the station, often with the call of the contacted station being type onto the image. I find foreign stations generally very interesting, as they often have neat scenery shots from around their country.

Experimenters use SSTV to send pictures of the latest project. They can then describe what they are doing and send closeups of the unit. A technical discussion then results in several picture interchanges and everything is stored for future reference. The amateur SSTV differs from an Internet technical discussion as a dialog differs from a monolog.

The most interesting SSTV contacts occur when amateurs have a QSO about common interests. I like antenna experimentation, flying R/C airplanes, Astronomy, and pipe organs. The most interesting contacts for me involve these topics. My wife loves the ocean, and when contacting a foreign station near the ocean, she loves to get pictures of their beach. One time my wife and the wife of W9XX shared pictures of the children for about an hour. I live on a mountaintop in Colorado with 200 elk, several deer, coyotes, etc wandering around the yard. We also get a lot of snow, so I take many local pictures of the local wildlife and weather conditions to spice up the converstions.

The bottom line to me is having a converstation about common interests, and being able to provide a picture that exemplifies these interests.