6

Have you used an SSTV decoding application on an up-to-date version of macOS? Which one, and if you built from source, can you share the steps you took to do so?

I do not know of a single working macOS application for SSTV decoding. I've been playing SSTV signals over my Mac's speakers, captured with my RTL-SDR dongle, and using Robo36 on an Android phone to decode the image, as has everyone else I know, but this comes with additional problems. There have been instances of engine-noise (or even the occasional donkey bray) introducing unwanted artifacts in the decoded image.

Amin Shah Gilani
  • 832
  • 1
  • 6
  • 18
  • 5
    There's no rule written down that says so, but in my own opinion as a moderator, "does this software even (usably) exist" is a reasonable question because it's "is it possible to do this" not "choose the best one of these" — the problem with recommendation questions is that there are _too many_ answers which are mostly "yes, X is the best" — they can't be ranked on quality of explanation. That said, might I suggest reframing your question slightly as "How can I decode SSTV with only MacOS software?" – Kevin Reid AG6YO Aug 02 '19 at 15:37

3 Answers3

4

MultiScan 3B works fine in terms of decoding. This being said I had some issues making it work with my external sound card for transmitting SSTV. For some reason transmitted images turned out to be cropped. I accidentally figured this out using cqsstv.com.

Eventually I ended up using a Linux laptop and QSSTV software. Still if you are interested only in decoding, MultiScan 3B should be OK.

Aleksander Alekseev - R2AUK
  • 4,262
  • 12
  • 48
1

I've been able to make Multiscan 3B SSTV decoder work on my older iMac with High Sierra (together with RTL-SDR USB dongle, FM decoded using CubicSDR and audio routed using Audio Hijack).

MultiScan 3B unfortunately fails to aquire any Audio Inputs/Outputs on my Big Sur box (showing only Item 1, Item 2, Item 3 which seems like Interface Builder placeholders that were by developer expected to be refreshed before user clicks those, but nothing happens on Big Sur). Code is unfortunately not open-sourced so only author can help.

Community
  • 1
igraczech
  • 111
  • 3
  • 2
    Hello and welcome to ham.stackexchange.com! Is the "mentioned SSTV decoder" Robo36 or MultiScan 3B? Please edit your question to clarify. – rclocher3 May 26 '21 at 16:41
  • 1
    An anonymous user submitted an edit to this post that changes "mentioned SSTV decoder" to "MultiScan 3B". I voted to reject the edit because the anonymous editor does not know the original author's intent for certain. To the anonymous user, I recommend that you register and earn 50 reputation points, and then you'll be able to comment on any post. It's more appropriate to make a comment than to edit a post to say something the original author didn't clearly say. – rclocher3 May 28 '21 at 22:58
  • @rclocher3, _original comment deleted_. never mind, I see the ambiguity. – webmarc Jun 01 '21 at 17:07
0

MMSSTV seems to work well if installed using Wine.

BarryN
  • 11
  • 1
    Running Windows software under WINE is **not** “with only macOS software”. Downvoted. – Scott Earle Dec 28 '19 at 14:05
  • 1
    I hear you @ScottEarle, but when the options that the OP asked for are few, IMO sometimes the less-palatable options are worth mention. Although when I do it, I like to preface my post with language like "I know you asked for **just** macOS software, but there _are_ alternatives that work, but aren't native macOS..." I understand how macOS fans are prickly about such things; as a Linux user I can get huffy myself when someone suggests using Windows software in WINE, but I have also resorted to doing exactly that when I didn't have a better alternative. – rclocher3 May 26 '21 at 16:55
  • 1
    Oh I agree, but when the question specifically says "with only macOS software", then WINE doesn't cut it. If the question was "how to do it on macOS", that is different. – Scott Earle May 27 '21 at 01:20