Tag Archives: LitSat-1

Oct 29 2018

Ham radio satellites on 5 Euro coin

Lithuania 5 Euro Gold Coin 2018

Lithuania 5 Euro Gold Coin 2018

The Bank of Lithuania (Lietuvos bankas) has released a commemorative gold 5 Euro coin featuring the amateur radio satellites LituanicaSAT-1 (LO-78) and LitSAT-1.

The two CubeSats were launched to the International Space Station (ISS) on January 9, 2014 and deployed from the ISS on February 28. LituanicaSAT-1 carried a FM transponder and a camera while LitSat-1 had a linear (SSB/CW) transponder developed by William Leijenaar PE1RAH.

The face of the gold coin features the Lithuanian coat of arms (Vytis) as a star constellation with LituanicaSAT-1 and LitSAT-1 on the reverse

Watch A gold coin of 5 euros for technology education

Numista catalogue entry https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces151686.html

Sep 17 2014

Postage stamp features amateur radio satellites

LituanicaSAT-1 and LitSat-1 postage stamp

A new Lithuanian postage stamp features the amateur radio satellites LituanicaSAT-1 and LitSat-1.

The two CubeSats were launched to the International Space Station (ISS) on January 9, 2014 and deployed from the ISS on February 28. LituanicaSAT-1 carried a FM transponder and a camera while LitSat-1 had a linear (SSB/CW) transponder developed by by William Leijenaar PE1RAH.

LitSat-1 was the lighter satellite and re-entered the Earth’s atmosphere and burnt up on May 23, the heavier LituanicaSAT-1 remained in orbit until July 28.

Watch a presentation on LituanicaSAT-1 given by Gintautas Sulskus to the 2014 AMSAT-UK Colloquium in Guildford https://amsat-uk.org/colloquium/colloquium-2014/presentation-videos/

LituanicaSAT-1 https://amsat-uk.org/2014/03/26/president-tests-lituanicasat-1-fm-transponder/

LitSat-1 https://amsat-uk.org/2014/03/09/litsat-1-transponder-test-successful/

Mar 9 2014

LitSat-1 Transponder Test Successful

LitSat-1 CubeSat

LitSat-1 CubeSat

The 435/145 MHz SSB/CW linear transponder on the Lithuanian  amateur radio CubeSat LitSat-1, call sign LY1LS, was successfully tested on Sunday, March 9.

LitSat-1 was deployed from the International Space Station (ISS) on Friday, February 28 at 0730 UT by astronaut Koichi Wakata KC5ZTA.

Listen to the recording made by Mike Rupprecht DK3WN http://www.dk3wn.info/p/?p=42732

LitSat-1 Transponder - Mike Rupprecht DK3WN

LitSat-1 Transponder – Mike Rupprecht DK3WN

LitSat-1 frequencies:

Inverting linear transponder for SSB/CW communications
• Uplink 435.135-435.165 MHz
• Downlink 145.935-145.965 MHz

The team list a CW beacon but it appears the beacon was not active during the test.

AX.25 packet radio transceiver
• Uplink 435.550 MHz
• Downlink 145.850 MHz

LitSat-1 uses a modified version of the LE005-R2 CubeSat linear transponder developed by William Leijenaar PE1RAH http://www.leijenaarelectronics.nl/leijenaar_electronics_009.htm

Facebook LitSat-1 Lituanica80 https://www.facebook.com/Lituanica80

LitSat-1 Palydovas https://www.facebook.com/palydovas

President Congratulates Lithuanian Amateur Radio CubeSat Builders
https://amsat-uk.org/2014/01/12/president-congratulates-amateur-radio-cubesat-builders/

Mar 8 2014

Satellite TLE Object ID’s

TLEsNico Janssen PA0DLO reports the process of producing Object ID’s for newly launched satellites has changed recently.

Writing on the AMSAT Bulletin Board (AMSAT-BB) he says:

It seems that the Joint Space Operations Center (JSpOC) has changed some of their policies lately. After the launch of multiple small satellites late last year it took a long time to get them all identified. Apparently they don’t want to leave all the TBAs in their database for a long time, so now they use a different approach: they randomly assign the names of all satellites of a launch to the observed objects and then wait for reactions from the users of the satellites to see if the assignments are correct.

This is how e.g. the Cubesats, that recently were launched from the ISS, got ‘identified’ only a few days after their launch. So of course now we find that some identifications are wrong.

Doppler measurements clearly show that the following IDs are correct:
Object 39568, 1998-067EM, is LitSat 1
Object 39569, 1998-067EN, is LituanicaSat 1.

I am trying to get these corrected.

In the past the policy was to assign the ‘A’ object to the main payload of a launch. Secundary payloads, like Cubesats, would then get ‘B’, ‘C’, etc. So if the main payload initially was linked to the wrong TLE set, this required some swapping of TLE sets some time after the launch. Now they have decided to prevent this confusion by simply leaving the main payload assigned to another object than ‘A’ if required. Therefore the GPM satellite now is assigned to 2014-009C and this will not change anymore.

Satellite TLE Lottery Begins https://amsat-uk.org/2014/03/01/satellite-tle-lottery-begins/

Satellite Tracking https://amsat-uk.org/beginners/satellite-tracking/

Mar 4 2014

Southampton University Wireless Society WebSDR

LitSat-1

LitSat-1

The Southampton University Wireless Society (SUWS) Web-based software defined radio (SDR) has been used to receive signals from the new amateur radio LitSat-1 satellite.

The Lithuanian satellite LitSat-1 was deployed from the ISS on February 28 and the builders of the satellite have been able to use the SUWS WebSDR to receive the satellite when it is out of the range of Lithuania.

Noel G8GTZ, Martin G8JNJ and Phil M0DNY from the Southampton University Wireless Society, set up the WebSDR near Basingstoke in the UK. It currently supports parts of the 10 GHz, 1296 MHz, 432 MHz and 144 MHz bands and can be listened to from anywhere in the world.

The link is: http://websdr.suws.org.uk/

The 434 MHz receive capability is very popular for listening to High Altitude Balloon (HAB) signals.

A couple of notes when using the WebSDR:

– If tracking balloons please set your location in dl-fldigi to somewhere around 51.294, -1.131 so we don’t have any fake receiver lines on the map!

– Connection to the site is over a several km wifi link, so once you’ve found the signal, please switch off your waterfall view (Set to ‘blind’) to save bandwidth for others.

– The waterfall speed will also be automatically limited as the number of users increases.

Darius Kybartas LY3DA says that when listening for LitSat-1 on the WebSDR receiver enter your call sign or name in the “Your name or callsign” box and select a frequency of 145850 kHz with FM modulation.

LitSat-1 is very close to the International Space Station (ISS) so you can get a rough idea of when it will be in range of the UK based SUWS WebSDR by looking at the predictions for the ISS on the N2YO tracking website http://www.n2yo.com/ (use 51.294 North, 1.131 West for the coordinates).

LitSat-1 https://amsat-uk.org/2014/02/26/litsat-1-with-linear-transponder/

Feb 26 2014

LitSat-1 with linear transponder

LitSat-1

LitSat-1

The amateur radio CubeSat LitSat-1, call sign LY1LS, is planned to be deployed from the International Space Station (ISS) on Friday, February 28 at 0730 UT. It carries a 435/145 MHz linear transponder for SSB/CW communications.

The LitSat-1 team have issued this statement:

Our country Lithuania is heading towards a historic moment – start of the first Lithuanian satellite in space.  First ever Lithuanian Cubesat Litsat1 is due to be launched within couple of days only – on Feb 28 at 07:30 UT from the International Space Station (ISS).  

We are very interested in getting the first data from our small satellite as soon as possible, therefore we would like to ask your help with that.

We will send special QSL cards for radio amateurs with first reports about received signals from our satellite. The 3 stations first received the signals from the LitSat1 satellite will receive QSL cards signed by the High level officials of the Lithuanian government.

Please send your SWL reports (screen snapshots) with received packet data of Litsat-1 beacon to Kaunas University of Technology Radio Club. Contact point E-mail: address: litsat@ktu.lt  

Please find below the technical data for the reception of Litsat 1:
Beacon/TLM down link 145.850 MHz
Beacon RF packets are AX.25 UI frames https://www.tapr.org/pub_ax25.html Main parameters of the beacon frames are: TX baud rate 9600 bps (G3RUH), repetition period ~4.5s, beacon duration ~0.5 s, source call address – TNC, destination call address – LY1LS.

Digital data: Telemetry
Digital communication with Litsat-1 is based on Helium 100 (HE-100) transceiver.
The payload info field starts with the 2 header bytes “Bb”=0x4262 (Beacon broadcast), following with 2 bytes indicating further data field length (should be 0x0087), then the sat status telemetry structure (114 bytes) and finishing with the  short text message (21 bytes).

For any other information you are very welcome to contact us: litsat@ktu.lt

A linear transponder will be activated later.
Uplink 435.150 MHz LSB
Downlink  145.950 MHz USB
Bandwidth ±15 kHz from center
CW beacon   435.1375 MHz (LY1LS/B)
Normal mode – transponder, beacon OFF

73! Darius Kybartas LY3DA

Litsat-1 team
Kaunas University of Technology
Email: litsat@ktu.lt

LitSat-1 is very close to the International Space Station (ISS) so you can get a rough idea of when it will be in range of the UK based SUWS WebSDR by looking at the predictions for the ISS on the N2YO tracking website http://www.n2yo.com/

LitSat-1 uses a modified version of the LE005-R2 CubeSat linear transponder developed by William Leijenaar PE1RAH http://www.leijenaarelectronics.nl/leijenaar_electronics_009.htm

Facebook LitSat-1 Lituanica8 https://www.facebook.com/Lituanica80

LitSat-1 Palydovas https://www.facebook.com/palydovas

President Congratulates Lithuanian Amateur Radio CubeSat Builders
https://amsat-uk.org/2014/01/12/president-congratulates-amateur-radio-cubesat-builders/

Two Lithuanian Amateur Radio CubeSats Plan 2013 Launch To ISS
https://amsat-uk.org/2013/06/26/two-lithuanian-cubesats/

The other Lithuanian CubeSat due to be deployed from the ISS on Friday is LituanicaSAT-1 which carries a 145/435 MHz FM transponder.
https://amsat-uk.org/2013/04/12/lituanicasat-1/

The two Lithuanian groups built the CubeSats in 2013 which was the 80th anniversary of the historic flight by Lithuanian pilots Steponas Darius and Stasys Girėnas in the airplane Lituanica. On July 15, 1933, they took off from Floyd Bennett Field in New York and flew across the Atlantic Ocean, covering a distance of 6,411 kilometers without landing, in 37 hours and 11 minutes. Tragically they crashed by the village of Kuhdamm, near Soldin, Germany just 650 km from their destination of Kaunas in Lithuania.