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What to listen to · Amateur radio
SSTV on 40 metres: 7171 kHz, the European picture frequency
In the evening the SSTV pictures move down to 40 m: 7171 kHz is the European meeting point, worked on the lower sideband, and it carries images across the continent from dusk until late at night.
What you hear
The same two-minute warble with its ticking sync pulses as on 20 m, described in the main article, only with a different cast. On 7171 kHz the pictures come from Europe: the band reaches a few hundred kilometres by day and the whole continent after dark, so the evening brings stations from Italy, Poland, Germany and Spain one after another, often with local scenes and club cards rather than far-away DX.
Who transmits and why
The same amateurs as on 14230 kHz, in the hours when 20 m has closed. 7171 kHz is the frequency European SSTV operators settled on for 40 m, and the clubs and contests on this side of the Atlantic use it. Below 10 MHz the pictures go out on the lower sideband, like voice.
When and where to listen
From late afternoon until well into the night, busiest after 18:00 UTC and at weekends; in winter the band is quiet by day and strong at night, in summer thunderstorm static leaves scratches on the images. A receiver in central Europe hears the most. The catalogue tunes 7171 kHz in LSB.
In ShackDeck
Station catalogue → Amateur radio → SSTV 40 m. The program picks a public receiver that covers 7171 kHz and tunes it in LSB, the sideband used here. To see the pictures, switch the mode to SSTV: below 10 MHz the program decodes on the lower sideband by itself, and the image builds line by line as on 20 m. No receiver, antenna or account of your own is needed.