This is a guide to using the program MMSSTV.
This can be downloaded from here.
SSTV is most common on the HF bands but is sometimes used on 2m (ISS SSTV events) and other bands.
Frequencies:
- 80m: 3.735Mhz LSB
- 40m 7.165Mhz LSB
- 20m 14.230Mhz USB
- 2m
- 144.500Mhz FM
- 145.800Mhz FM (ISS Downlink)
- For help on receiving Satellite signals, see here.
- 70cm 432.500Mhz (Rare in my area)
Modes:
- Martin 1 (Popular in Europe)
- Scottie 1 (Popular in USA)
- PD120 (Used on ISS transmissions)
What does SSTV Sound Like
Below is a selection of SSTV recordings (from VE5KC) which you can test decoding with MMSSTV by setting the audio input, discussed below, to a microphone, by using a Virtual Audio Cable or the stereo mix of your sound card.
The Software:
Audio Setup
MMSSTV is a popular piece of software used for the sending and receiving of SSTV.
For a simple receive setup all you need to do is connect the headphone out of your radio to the input (mic or line) of your PC.
For transmission you can get a dedicated data modes cable etc.. made specific for you radio. Or, you can build you own cable like me, which connects from your headphone out of your PC to the Microphone socket on your radio. The PTT can then be done using VOX or CAT control.
Software Setup:
This is the main MMSSTV window. From here you can access all the controls and settings required to use the software.
Firstly the Audio input and output needs to be setup.
On the Misc tab select the appropriate in and out sound cards. In will be the audio from your radio INTO your PC.
CAT control and other settings
If you are wanting to TX from MMSSTV then you can setup the PTT control on the TX tab if you want to control this from the software. Remember you can also use VOX if your radio does not support PC control.
If you are using VOX then set this to NONE.
Also on this tab you should set your Call Sign in the top right box. This will ensure that your call will show when creating templates later.
You can change other settings here which will be specific to your needs / preference. EG, the CW section, when the setting is turned on it will transmit your call sign in CW after the image has been sent.
Receiving A Picture:
Now you have your audio setup you can start to recieve and decode images.
Firstly tune your radio to one of the above frequencies and, on the RX tab of the main MMSSTV window, set the receive mode to ‘Auto’.
You then need to set the input volume level to an appropriate value. You should do this by adjusting the volume control on your radio or data interface.
When receiving an image you should set the volume level to that shown in the image above. The bar will go green when receiving an image. Red if the volume level is too high and gray if no image is being received.
Slant Adjustment
If image appears Slanted this mean you need to correct the ‘Clock’ settings of your sound card in this software. This is because sound cards do not always run at there advertised speed, they could be slightly faster or slower then the software expects. This then creates the slanted image you see below.
Correcting this setting is easy in MMSSTV. If you are receiving an image from someone who you know has there ‘clock’ speed set correctly for their TX then this is even better. Sometimes you will have to correct this for each image received as not everyone will of corrected their settings.
To do this, all you need to do is go to the ‘Sync’ tab and click on the picture of a face.
This should then correct the slanted image in the window above. You can then click the ‘Mem’ button and this will save this corrected value into the software settings. For future images you can just click the face each time, the slant shouldn’t be too bad as you saved an initial setting into the settings with the first image.
Saving received images
Received images can be save externally from the program for future use.
Go to the history tab and on each image you want to save, right click, and select one of the two save options. with time stamp adds a received time / date overlay to the image.
Transmitting a Picture
Templates
Transmitting a picture is just as easy as receiving. You can also customize your transmitted picture however you like.
On the ‘Template’ tab, at the bottom half of the window click on the ‘S.pix’ tab and drag onto each square the different background images you would like to transmit.
Then in the preview window above click on any of the pieces of text to edit its content, colour, size etc.. you can also use a ‘macro’ which will automatically fill in with the other persons call sign etc.. when using the log book feature.
Once you are happy with your layout click on the ‘S.Templates’ tab in the bottom half of the screen. Then click anywhere in the preview window and drag and drop into one of the blank squares. To overwrite an existing template by just dragging to one which already has one saved in it.
You can switch between each of the templates and background images by just double clicking on the relevant square. You can choose any combination of template and background image.
Transmission
Before transmitting the first thing to do is to get the volume set correctly. If using a direct cable from the headphone socket to the radio then in your computer task tray, turn the volume down to 0 before your first transmission.
You then need to select the mode you want to use, select which template and background image you want to send and then click TX.
Then you need to slowly turn the volume up in the system tray so that the audio level into the radio DOES NOT show any ALC activity. If ALC is active it could distort the signal making it difficult to decode at the other end.
Next to the TX button is the option for a 1750hz tone and the button to turn off / on the CW call sign beacon after the image has been transmitted as mentioned above in the settings section.
15/09/2019 at 10:09 am
Many thanks for your work.
It was a good help to get my SSTV up and running 🙂
vy 73 de Rolf -DJ7TH-
02/02/2023 at 12:54 am
Very good information on the setting up of MMSSTV.
However, do you have to turn on vox on your radio? when vox is selected as shown above.
Best Regards.
73 de 9Z4CAC
02/02/2023 at 5:59 am
Yes, if you are using VOX then you will need to set it on your radio. Same as if you were using a mic. If you are using the rear data port to connect to your pc you would need to check the VOX will work. Some only work with audio going in the mic socket.
05/03/2023 at 8:16 am
Hi dear om.
I have a problem where the reception starts, but stops after a few seconds.
The broadcast is perfect.
Can you help me find out what the problem might be.
tnx 73 HA5OKE
op Karcsi
12/03/2023 at 4:55 pm
Thanks for the guide! I’ve just started to learn about SSTV thanks to a couple of operators at my local club (TARS). We decided to do a demonstration to the club a couple of weeks ago, and after a bit of aggro getting the settings right we had a very successful evening.
We were both using Yaesu FT817’s and initally ran into problems getting the rig to transmit, it would actually go into TX but nothing was being transmitted, finally we realised that the radio needs to be set to ‘Digital’ using the mode buttons – if you don’t then none of the audio from the laptop is picked up, as the microphone is still active. I presume this will be the same for the FT818 as well. I hope this little nugget will be helpful to somebody and save some head scratching 🙂
73 Lin M0TCF
16/04/2023 at 10:39 am
thanks for a great guide to setting up mmsstv.
I have been using it for years on many laptops and desktops.
All of a sudden i’m getting “cant update pdf”error.
the oly way i can stop getting it is turning off history, then i lose the picture.
Any help would be gratefully received
Thanks Harry VK4TK.
25/10/2023 at 2:40 am
I am using a digirig on a icom 706 every thing works but it won’t transmit there is no red lite or any thing on the radio showing output
21/12/2023 at 10:16 pm
When i click receive my transmitter is apparently transmitting. Cant receive images?
W0GRC
22/03/2024 at 10:43 pm
Hi
Just got back into sstv. I am unable to retransmit the rx pic. I cannot find the small box in the templates. Do you know how to code that into the template?
73
Bruce
VE7BSM
23/03/2024 at 4:46 pm
Hi
Yes, to get the RX picture in the display you add a picture, ‘Draw Picture’ next to the Add Text Button. Then in the popup select ‘Refer to the History’
Stephen
M5SJM
10/08/2024 at 5:10 pm
DO YOU HAVE THE COMPRESSOR ON OR OFF WHEN TXing A PIX?
10/08/2024 at 5:47 pm
The Compressor should be OFF. As with other digital and data modes the signal should be as unmodified as possible.
18/08/2025 at 2:23 pm
Stephen,
I’ve got an Icom 7410. I’ve got a USB cable connected to the radio into my laptop using the Yoniq MMSSTV software. It’s controlled by using Omnirig.
The radio TX when you click on the TX button in the software, and I can decode images fine when set to 14.230 USB, however if I set the radio to USB-D the images won’t load properly. I was told that I need to set the radio to USB-D for TX, but does this need to be set the same for RX of SSTV?
I’ve turned off Compression, ALC is not showing at all when TX, but I don’t appear to be receiving any CQ responses.
18/08/2025 at 5:36 pm
Hi
Not directly familiar with your radio but I run the Icom 7300.
Yes, usually you would set it to -D when wanting to use a data mode but this depends on how your radio is set up. Switching between None -D & -D is used to switch the audio inputs and outputs of the radio.
In your radio settings you should find settings where you can set the audio inputs for both -D (Data Mode) and None -D (Normal Mode). You may also be able to set the audio out for each mode also EG. Normal, internal speaker only. Data Mode Internal speaker and USB.
For example on my setup Normal Mode is set to only take an input from the microphone input and Data Mode is only set to take an input from the USB Soundcard. I can set either to both if I wanted but you risk also transmitting mic audio at the same time as the USB audio doing this.
Yes you should adjust the audio level to be just below the ALC. So turn it up until you see something on the ALC meter and then turn it down just enough to stop it. Your main test will be to ensure you are putting power out as this will confirm the audio is getting from your pc to the radio with it being USB.
Stephen
30/10/2025 at 12:25 am
Well and good but I can not figure out how to find and down load pictures? The down load from file only looks for mtm files. what am I missing
30/10/2025 at 2:47 pm
Can you confirm what you mean by download pictures. If you mean to save the pictures you have received then if you go on the History tab and right click the image you have the option to save the a location of your choice.
30/10/2025 at 7:43 pm
First of all I am very new to this and 78 years old and have little computer experience
When I go to the programme in S.tempeates. and right click on the boxes on the bottom i get a menu and in the menu there is a choice that says “Load From File” when i click on it and and goto my file where i have stored images in the ‘file of type” box it says “”Templates(*mtm) . It says “No items match your search”
So my question is how do i get images of the .mtm type.
30/10/2025 at 8:02 pm
Ah right i’m with you now.
Ok so both of these tabs are your templates for what you can send.
S.Template is for all the text which would be on your transmitted image
S.Pix is the actual image you send.. or the background image that the S.Template text is overlayed onto.
The reason you cannot find any .mtm files is that you wont have made any. think of this as you could save them from someone else’s MMSSTV on their PC and then load them into yours. If you don’t have any of these saved then you need to edit or create the template in the program using the Template Tab at the top.
The easiest way to add S.Pix is to just drag and drop a picture from where ever you have it saved on your PC onto one of the empty squares on the S.Pix tab
30/10/2025 at 7:47 pm
further to previous. what is the difference between S.pix and S.tempelate tabs?
08/12/2025 at 7:42 pm
Hello, where might I get a pristine “test pattern” in a WAV file format to test my sstv reception?