Yearly Archives: 2011

Dec 23 2011

Last chance to hear ARISSat-1

Sergey Samburov RV3DR with ARISSat-1

Sergey Samburov RV3DR with ARISSat-1

The amateur radio satellite ARISSat-1 may have only a few more days to live before it re-enters Earth’s atmosphere. Ken GW1FKY reports it’s putting out a strong signal in the early evening.

On the AMSAT bulletin board Ken writes:

I again monitored and worked into ARISSat-1 during the earlier pass and the final one as it entered eclipse over here in Europe.

The early pass was a low angle from my QTH and screened by buildings so I was not able to access the satellite. However the FM downlink was quite reasonable and I did hear someone active on CW.

The final pass as it moved into eclipse was really remarkable and my downlink and the FM transmissions were booming in . The loudest that I have ever heard from the satellite, in addition I quickly monitored the CW portion and someone was booming in, I could not stay at that end of the band as I was trying to make schedule on SSB. Heard someone calling but not able to confirm whom it was as they were not easy to copy.

Ken was listening in the early evening which seems to be a good time to hear the satellite. The satellite is only operational when its solar panels are illuminated. You can get orbital predictions times by selecting ARISSat-1 on the online prediction tool at http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/tools/

If you hear the satellite on 145.950 MHz FM, you can get a certificate. Depending on what mode you copied, send an e-mail with the information to:
tlmreport@arissat1.org
secretword@arissat1.org
sstvreport@arissat1.org

Details at http://www.southgatearc.org/news/august2011/ arissat_1_reception_certificates.htm

There is also a CW contest if you send in 5 calls heard on the 145.920 MHz CW transmission of notable AMSAT people of the past & present email them to cwreport@arissat1.org

ARISSat-1 CW Contest http://www.uk.amsat.org/2011/10/10/arissat-1kedr-team-announces- cw-contest/

Catch the Last ARISSat-1 Telemetry http://www.uk.amsat.org/2011/11/09/catch-the-last-arissat-1-telemetry/

Get your colour ARISSat-1 Frequency Guide http://tinyurl.com/4t497t2

ARISSat-1 http://www.arissat1.org/

Dec 21 2011

Soyuz rocket blasts off for International Space Station A Russian Soyuz rocket, carrying three astronauts, has blasted off to the International Space Station from Kazakhstan.

The rocket carrying Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko RN3DX, Nasa astronaut Don Pettit KD5MDT and the European Space Agency’s Andre Kuipers PI9ISS lifted off under freezing conditions at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

The crew, who will stay at the International Space Station until March, are on a mission to bring the station back up to full manpower after an August cargo launch accident disrupted flights.

The all-veteran crew is scheduled to reach the orbital outpost at 1522 GMT on Friday. They will join station commander Dan Burbank and two Russian cosmonauts who arrived last month, bringing the complex back to its full staff of six.

With the space shuttles’ retirement, Nasa is dependent on Russia to fly crews to the station, a service that currently costs the United States about $350 million (£222 million) a year.

The station, a $100 billion project of the United States, Russia, Europe, Japan and Canada, is a multi-purpose research laboratory for biology, physics, astronomy and other studies that orbits about 240 miles above Earth.

Dec 20 2011

PW-SAT on BRITE TV

PW-Sat with antennas deployed

PW-Sat with antennas deployed

The Polish amateur radio satellite PW-SAT built by students at the Warsaw University of Technology was featured on BRITE TV.

The Internet TV channel BRITE TV, covers the construction of the first Polish scientific satellites BRITE-PL 1 – Lem and BRITE-PL 2 – Hevelius which will be part of the BRITE constellation. Sometimes the TV channel covers other topics related to space technology.

Episode 14 talks about the CubeSat PW-SAT, built by students of Warsaw University of Technology working with the Space Research Centre PAS, due to be launched on Vega at the end of January.

PW-SAT carries a single channel transponder that will operate in a similar way to the amateur satellite AO-16. The uplink on 435.020 MHz will be FM and the downlink on 145.900 MHz will use the BPSK telemetry beacon transmitter to produce Double Sideband (DSB) that can be received on an SSB radio.

Watch BRITE-TV – Episode 14 – PW-SAT (in Polish)

PW-SAT Blog http://ska.meil.pw.edu.pl/pwsat_blog_pl/?lang=en

PW-Sat to launch in January http://www.uk.amsat.org/2011/12/15/pw-sat-to-launch-in-january/

For more information on PW-Sat in Google English see http://tinyurl.com/CubeSatPW-Sat

BRITE Constellation http://www.univie.ac.at/brite-constellation/

BRITE-PL in Google English http://tinyurl.com/BRITE-PL

AMSAT-UK publishes a colour A4 newsletter, OSCAR News, which is full of Amateur Satellite information.
Free sample issue at http://www.uk.amsat.org/on_193_final.pdf
Join online at http://tinyurl.com/JoinAMSAT-UK

Dec 19 2011

AMSAT-UK FUNcube Dongle and EME

Bill Dzurilla, NZ5N demonstrates how to use the AMSAT-UK FUNcube Dongle to receive signals that have been bounced off the surface of the Moon.

Dec 19 2011

Cuban TV features Amateur Satellite Operation

Hector Luiz Martinez CO6CBF was interviewed on Cuban TV about his amateur radio satellite operating.

Hector, CO6CBF, got his first license at the age of 11 and has been licensed for 11 years. He first became interested in satellites when he heard about the deployment of Suitsat from the International Space Station and he began to search for information about space communications. He eventually built an antenna and made his first satellite contact on January 27, 2011 via the AO-51 satellite.

Since then he has had a contact with an astronaut on the International Space Station and was recently awarded the first satellite VUCC from Cuba. The satellite VHF/UHF Century Club (VUCC) is awarded for contacts with stations in 100 grid squares.

Hector is one of only three radio amateurs in Cuba who are active on the satellites.

Watch the Spanish language TV interview which starts with Hector assembling his satellite antenna

Dec 18 2011

Space Station School Contact Video

A video has been released of the contact between ISS commander Daniel C. Burbank KC5ZSX and students at Hirano Elementary school, Kobe City.

Watch ARISS ham radio contact with Hirano branch of Kobe Youth Nurturing Council, Kobe-city

Further information: http://www.southgatearc.org/news/december2011/ariss_event_1212.htm

Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) http://www.ariss.org/