Chris,
I have the same QSL card. I still have audio recordings from that mission, and will someday process them through my scan converter to get a better look.
Back in August 1985, I used a homebuilt copy of a Robot 70A SSTV monitor feeding an old oscilloscope with a 5UP7 CRT as a display device. I made some time exposure photographs of my reception by focusing the light from the CRT on some Polaroid SX-70 film through a 60-mm objective lens borrowed from my telescope. To correct for the image inversion through the lens, I reversed the polarity of the vertical deflection voltage, and exposed the film for two frames to increase the brightness of the image.
All the SSTV images sent during the STS-51F mission were in some form of color beginning with 128-line frame sequential color and ending (I believe) in Robot 36 format. The green frame produced the best "black and white" image.
I copied a number of images throughout the mission, but was disappointed in many ways with their quality. The Polaroid photos I made served well as Rorschach tests for friends and colleagues at the time:
- w0ore_photo.jpg (30.55 KiB) Viewed 11708 times
I used a Turnstile-Reflector antenna in my attic for reception and tape recorded every pass. One particular pass occurred shortly after sunset, and with clear skies overhead I knew the Shuttle would be visible. So I connected a homebuilt "FM Wireless Microphone" transmitter to the output of my 2-meter receiver, started the tape recorder, and walked outside with my parents while carrying a portable FM radio tuned to my low-power transmitter.
For the first few minutes I saw nothing and only heard some local hams improperly trying to contact the Shuttle on it's downlink frequency (145.550 MHz). Suddenly my Father said, "There it is!" while pointing above the tree tops to the northwest. The radio silence was broken a few moments later by
this transmission made by astronaut Gordon Fullerton ("Gordo") originating from the "star" I watched flying overhead.
THAT was a life-changing experience for me.
Later SAREX missions brought Packet Radio experiments to several Space Shuttle flights, but SSTV would not be employed again until it was carried aboard the Mir space station, and now the ISS.
73 de John, KD2BD