By Alex Carter, CannedRocket / SSTV Signal Desk

An empty Slow Scan Television receive window does not tell you whether the problem is the signal, audio route or decoder. Before changing several settings at once, try recovering a known picture from an unchanged local recording. This is useful preparation for a receiving session, and does not require a radio.

The Robot 36 exercise at SSTV.org.uk provides a generated audio WAV and its reference card. The recording is mono, 48 kHz, 16-bit PCM and 38.315 seconds long, including the identification header and surrounding silence. The expected image is 320 by 240 pixels, with a circle, colour bars, grayscale and an R36 label. This is generated practice audio, not an ISS recording.

1. Download the original WAV. Hearing it play in a browser does not mean the decoder is receiving that audio.
2. Select a decoder's supported file-input path and open the saved recording from the beginning. Include the mode-identification header, use normal playback speed and leave looping off.
3. Let the complete frame finish, then compare recognisable features with the reference. An analog image need not have pixel-identical edges or colours.
4. Keep the original audio with the saved picture, decoder version and input settings. That makes a later help request reproducible.

In SSTV Signal Desk on Mac, the retained demonstration uses Open Replay. The iPhone/iPad guide uses Open audio, then Open Audio File. File import and live microphone reception are separate paths. A successful file decode checks that recording and decoder path; it does not prove antenna, radio, microphone or weak-signal performance.

If audio is present but no frame starts, check the beginning of the recording and the SSTV signal category before increasing gain. If an edited file sounds slower or changes duration, check whether its sample-rate label was changed without actually resampling it. A properly converted 44.1 kHz file is different from 48 kHz samples merely relabelled as 44.1 kHz.

Once the known file works, add the live audio path one stage at a time and retain a recording when possible. For an ISS session, check a dated official ARISS announcement rather than treating an old tutorial as the current schedule.

The walkthrough and sample are at https://sstv.org.uk/receive/first-decode/. SSTV Lite and SSTV Signal Desk (Pro) are available for iPhone, iPad and Mac. Lite includes unlimited built-in practice; saving a complete imported image can use a free reception, so check its remaining allowance first.

Disclosure: CannedRocket develops the apps and publishes SSTV.org.uk. The linked Mac video is a retained SSTV Signal Desk 2.0 file-replay demonstration, not a new 2.0.4 device test or an on-air reception.

Source: SSTV.org.uk

The following is a message from the creator of QSO Transcriber:

My name is Poul Laustsen, callsign OV9PL, and I’m a radio amateur from Denmark.

I’ve just released an iPhone app called QSO Transcriber, which I originally started building because of a problem I experienced myself as a relatively new radio amateur.

During voice QSOs, I found it surprisingly difficult to listen carefully, remember a callsign and signal report, think about what to say next, and operate the radio at the same time. I also experienced some of the microphone anxiety that many newer operators will probably recognize.

QSO Transcriber is intended as a visual support and confidence tool during real radio QSOs.

It can:

• Provide live transcription of voice QSOs
• Detect and highlight possible callsigns and signal reports
• Record QSOs for later review
• Let the operator listen back and correct information before saving it
• Export QSO information in ADIF format
• Process transcription locally on the iPhone rather than sending QSO audio to a cloud transcription service

And a lot more, but it would be quite extensive to have it all here:-).

The goal is not to replace listening, learning or normal operating skills. It is meant to reduce some of the information pressure while operators gain experience and confidence on the air.

I have deliberately tested the app using real radio audio rather than clean studio speech, including weak signals, noise, accents and normal conversational QSOs.

QSO Transcriber is now available in the Apple App Store.

App Store:
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/qso-transcriber/id6811510439

Website:
https://qsotranscriber.com/

Source: OV9PL

The following is a press release from hamradiotools.io:

HAMRADIOTOOLS.IO, Nov. 8, 2026. Nexus, the free, open-source (GPL-3.0) amateur radio station program by Seth McCallister, KD9TAW, has released version 1.22.0. During M- and X-class solar flares, Nexus now draws NOAA's D-RAP (D-Region Absorption Prediction) map on its flat map, globe and 3-D globe. Rings around the point under the sun show, band by band, where HF is weakened and where it is out. A flare chip gives NOAA's start and peak times, which bands are out under the sun and at the operator's QTH, and how long until HF recovers. Below M class the map stays quiet.

When NOAA issues a geomagnetic storm watch, Nexus counts it down and reports the arrival only once the solar-wind monitor at L1 measures it.

The release also tells operators which way round the world a path goes. Using the ITU-R P.533 propagation engine, the Path card suggests short path or long path, with a beam heading. The release notes say this is advice from a monthly-median model. The long path is modelled and is never called more than "possible."

Nexus 1.22.0 also adds a Russian translation by volunteer translator loloka.

Existing users: in-app updating did not work on the stable channel before this release. Install 1.22.0 once from the download page, and later updates will come through Nexus.

Nexus is free for Windows, macOS, Linux and Raspberry Pi.

Release notes: https://github.com/kd9taw/Nexus/releases/tag/v1.22.0
Download: https://hamradiotools.io

Source: hamradiotools.io