The Dnepr carrying FUNcube-1 and 18 other satellites carrying amateur radio payloads successfully launched at 07:10:11 UT on Thursday, November 21. Approximately 8 minutes later, FUNcube-1 was deployed from the upper stage of the Dnepr rocket.

FUNcube Team Monitor Launch

About 10 minutes after separation, telemetry was successfully been received, decoded using the Dashboard App, and uploaded to the data warehouse by ZS1LS (at 07:37) and ZS6BMN in South Africa.  There was a huge cheer at Bletchley Park and the FUNcube-1 Project team toasted the successful launch .

All main parameters on FUNcube look nominal; temp, battery voltage, solar panel charging rate, etc and the data received so far is available in the Data Warehouse.  The team are already seeing some superb examples of the data that will be fundamental to the educational aspect of FUNcube – thank you to all stations around the world for your efforts so far.

ZACUBE-1, FUNcube-1 and HiNCube in the deployment pod – Image credit Wouter Weggelaar PA3WEG

The first signals from FUNcube-1 were heard in the UK on the first visible pass at 3 degrees above the horizon and Mike Willis, G0MJW, became the first UK station to receive and decode the telemetry from FUNcube-1 – congratulations Mike.

For the first two orbits FUNcube-1 was in Safe mode with the beacon transmitting low power just 30 mW. FUNcube-1 was then commanded into Educational mode which increased the power to 300 mW. This enabled it to be copied on a SSB handheld with whip antenna.

The FUNcube team encourage all stations to continue to receive the telemetry and upload it to the Data Warehouse as we monitor the spacecraft and continue with the early operations tasks.

Satellites on Dnepr launch November 21, 2013 – Image credit Nader Omer ST2NH

These satellites were heard during the morning passes:
• FUNcube-1
• ZACUBE-1
• Delfi-n3xt
• Triton-1
• CubeBug-2
• UWE3 9k6
• HumSat-D

One of the satellites on the launch UniSat-5 will deploy a number of additional satellites. Among them should be the CubeSats PUCP-SAT-1, HumSat-, Icube-1 and the PocketQubes Wren, Eagle-1 (BeakerSat), Eagle-2 ($50Sat), QB-Scout1. PUCP-SAT-1 intends to subsequently release a further satellite Pocket-PUCP.

As well as UniSat-5 and its associated CubeSats and PocketQubes these amateur radio satellites were also on the launch:
HinCube
FUNcube-1
ZAcube-1
First-MOVE
UWE-3
Velox-PII
CubeBug-2
Triton-1
Delfi-n3Xt
GOMX-1

Dnepr Launch Frequency Chart by Mike Rupprecht DK3WN

Frequency list for amateur radio satellite deployments in November
https://amsat-uk.org/2013/11/13/three-amateur-radio-satellite-deployments-in-november/

Mass Amateur Radio Satellite Launch November 21
https://amsat-uk.org/2013/11/08/mass-amateur-radio-satellite-launch-november-21/

Download the FUNcube-1 Dashboard App
http://funcube.org.uk/working-documents/funcube-telemetry-dashboard/

FUNcube-1 Data Warehouse http://funcube.org.uk/ground-segment/the-data-warehouse/

A live video stream was run from the Bletchley Park station on the BATC website at http://batc.tv/streams/funcube1

The first FUNcube-1 telemetry data