On November 14, 1969, almost exactly four months after the launch of Apollo 11, Apollo 12 started NASA's second mission in its program to land on the moon. To commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 12 and the second moon landing in Project Apollo, Richmond Amateur Radio Club (RARC), with Burnaby Amateur Radio Club (BARC) and Vancouver Emergency Community Telecommnications Organization (VECTOR) will be transmitting a series of historic NASA images using slow scan television (SSTV) on Saturday, November 16, 2019 from 2 to 8 pm PST.

Participants who either successfully receive the images or determine the 12-character code will qualify for a special certificate as souvenir of the SSTV event.

Objectives of the RARC SSTV event are to:
- Commemorate the 50th anniversary of the NASA Apollo Program's second moon landing,
- Demonstrate how Amateur radio SSTV practices are similar to the technology used 50 years ago to transmit NASA images from the moon back to Earth,
- Educate and inform participants about interesting aspects of the Apollo 12 mission,
- Provide an opportunity for local Amateur radio organizations to collaborate on a project, and
- Promote awareness of another fun and interesting part of the Amateur radio hobby.

Periof of Transmission: Saturday, November 16 from 2 pm to 8 pm (PST local time) or 22:00 UTC, Nov. 16 to 04:00 UTC, Nov. 17. (Start time is to accommodate VECTOR VHF 2m QSO Party which runs from 10:00 to 14:00 PST.

Transmission Frequency: VHF 145.500 MHz Simplex

SSTV Format: PD120 encoding

Transmission Schedule:

Images are from NASA photo archives, selected from the Apollo 12 mission captured on the lunar surface. Transmitted images are configured to an overall size of 640 x 496 pixels with actual image displayed 1:1 (square) to retain composition of the original image (captured on 120 film format), leaving a margin on the left for text information about the image. Colour and black and white images are from 70 mm cameras (specially modified Hasselblad cameras by NASA) using special 61 x 61 mm negatives. NASA photo archive reference: Film magazine: V AS12-47 (colour) Film magazine: X AS12-48 ((black & white) Film magazine: Y AS12-46 (colour) Film magazine: Z AS12-49 (black & white)

Size of transmitted image: 640 x 496 pixels

Participants who either successfully receive all 12 transmitted images or 'decipher' the 12-character code will qualify for a souvenir personalized certificate as souvenir of the event. To obtain your certificate, email your received images or 12-character code to either one of the club contacts for the SSTV event or directly to info@richmondarc.ca RARC: ve7ure@cwthree.com BARC: va7bwx@gmail.com VECTOR: nick@va7ncd.ca

Actual size of certificate: 8.5 x 11 in.

Development of special slow-scan television cameras for the Apollo project:
https://www.hq.nasa.gov/alsj/ApolloTV-Acrobat5.pdf

Canada's involvement in the design and mnufacturing of the lunar module:
http://www.spaceq.ca/the-canadian-story-of-the-apollo-lunar-module-landing-legs/

NASA report on Apollo 11 telemetry data recordings::
https://www.hq.nasa.gov/alsj/a11/Apollo_11_TV_Tapes_Report.pdf

Camera equipment and photography of the Apollo 12 mission:
https://www.lpi.usra.edu/lunar/missions/apollo/apollo_12/photography/

Still photography during the Apollo missions:
https://history.nasa.gov/apollo_photo.html

Journal on use of Hasselblad cameras and film magazines on Apollo 11 Lunar Module:
https://www.hq.nasa.gov/alsj/a11/a11LM-Cams-Mags.html

HD videos of Apollo 11 mission from NASA site:
https://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/hd/apollo11_hdpage.html

Comprehensive collection of Apollo mission photographs:
https://www.lpi.usra.edu/resources/apollo/

Project Apollo Archive Image Gallery - extensive collection of images from the Apollo program:
http://www.apolloarchive.com/apollo_gallery.html/

Thanks to the collaboration of Richmond Amateur Radio Club (RARC) and Burnaby Amateur Radio Club (BARC) for the production of this SSTV event to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 12 lunar landing.

Photo credits and info sources:
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
- Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum
- Lunar and Planetary Institute, Apollo Image Atlas Archives
- National Geographic
- Hasselblad
- Wikipedia

RARC participation in the SSTV event for the 50th Anniversary of the Apollo 12 lunar landing is a project by Richmond Amateur Radio Club under the club's Outreach Program

For more info about RARC, e-mail: info@richmondarc.ca
Please direct all media relations enquiries to: ureyc@cwthree.com