Nov 22 2022

FUNcube-1 (AO73) Now celebrating nine years in orbit!

FUNcube-1 (AO73) Battery Voltage Telemetry Nov 21, 2022

FUNcube-1 (AO73) Battery Voltage Telemetry Nov 21, 2022

Another year has passed and FUNcube 1 has continued to operate from its orbit around 600km above the earth. To start with some statistics. The spacecraft creates and downlinks data in frames that run for two minute periods. It has now transmitted more that 16 million of these frames or “Sequence Numbers”. Another big statistic is that more than 10 million data packets have been received by stations that have forwarded them to our Data Warehouse.

You can see the leading ground stations here http://warehouse.funcube.org.uk/ui/fc1-fm/satellite_ranking – special congratulations to those at the top scorers…many of them have individually forwarded more than 1 million packets. Thanks to all contributors around the world. Having this network of ground stations has enabled us to easily monitor the status of the spacecraft easily.

Back here on earth, as mentioned, we have continued to monitor the health of the spacecraft as these illumination levels and spin/tumble rates have changed over the months.

Whilst mentioning big numbers, we are now approaching 48500 orbits and this equates to a distance travelled of 2174091840000000000000000000 fermis since launch. That’s 2.1 ronnafermis. Yes these are genuine SI Units of Measure and are equivalent to 14.16 AU or almost half way to Neptune.

After some time in full sun, the spacecraft is now experiencing “normal” eclipse periods of around 25 minutes each orbit. This will reduce the on board temperatures and may influence the tumble rate which has been between 2 and 5 seconds for some time. The is quite fast and is not helping telemetry reception with our 5 second data frame mentioned above.

The present operational schedule is for high power telemetry when in sunlight and receive only when in eclipse. This seems to suit the EPS quite well and the battery bus voltages have been quite stable.

At least that was correct until early morning on Friday 11th November when the indicated bus voltage appeared to “drop off a cliff” over the period of just four orbits. Further analysis showed that the 3.3V bus consumption had suddenly jumped four times normal. As can be seen by the graph above this problem then disappeared just as suddenly and the bus voltage recovered quite quickly. Investigations are continuing!

Please keep the telemetry reports coming in and let us know if you would like a Fitter message uploaded for any educational or outreach events.

Nov 1 2022

Making QO-100 contacts from North America – A new challenge

QO-100 North America CertfificateIt is understandable that amateur radio operators in North America are disappointed that they cannot experience the fun of using QO100. However, although the footprint charts that have been published show that it is not possible, there have been good reports recently about the successful QO-100 expedition in Indonesia. In particular YC1HVZ/P successfully operated through the QO100 narrow band transponder from OI42DE at -1.2 degrees elevation!

QO-100 Indonesia Contact

This success suggests that it should be possible to make contacts through QO-100 from at least one North American location.

Examination of the footprint maps and the BATC / AMSAT QO100 dish pointing tool https://eshail.batc.org.uk/point/ shows that the historic site at Signal Hill at St Johns on Newfoundland may be just the location from which to make the attempt.

QO-100 Newfoundland Contact

There would be a lot of challenges to be overcome!

Would the usual QO100 groundstation be sufficient or would a large dish and high power on the 2.4GHz be required? Could activity include operation of DATV through the wideband transponder? As signals from the ground station will probably be relying on tropospheric ducting for the first few miles, an alternative site, lower down, near the beach, might actually be better. What time of year, and what weather conditions might be most favourable? And perhaps the biggest unknown is whether the footprint maps for QO100 reflect the actual coverage or it is squinted towards the east by a couple of degrees?

Having been involved with supporting the QARS and AMSAT-DL since the inception of QO100, AMSAT-UK and BATC would like to establish this challenge and will award trophies as follows.

The station that succeeds in having the first 2-way QSO via the QO-100 narrow band transponder when operating from Newfoundland.

The station that succeeds in having more than 100 2-way QSOs via the QO-100 narrow band transponder when operating from Newfoundland.

The station that succeeds in having the first 2-way DATV QSOs via the via the QO-100 wide band transponder when operating from Newfoundland.

Subsequent operations from Newfoundland will also be eligible to apply for a special Certificate

Watch QO-100 North America Challenge talk at 2022 AMSAT-UK Colloquium

Details of tests being planned, and general questions should be submitted by email to
awards@amsat-uk.org
Claims for trophies and certificates should also be submitted to the same address.

QO-100 Award for contact from North America Word Document Here

Oct 5 2022

Antarctica ISS school contact

Kjell Lindgren KO5MOS

Kjell Lindgren KO5MOS

On Friday, October 7, 2022, from 15:14 GMT there will be a amateur radio contact from Antarctica with the International Space Station (ISS).

Students from the #38 Raul Alfonsin school at the Esperanza Antarctic base will ask questions that will be answered by astronaut Kjell Lindgren, KO5MOS, aboard the ISS, with a telebridge link being provided by ON4ISS, AMSAT Belgium.

This event was managed before ARISS (Amateur Radio on the ISS) by CETRA (Science, Education and Technology united by Amateur Radio) subcommission of AMSAT-LU, led by Luis Funes, LU8YY/Q, NASA/ARISS Telebridge.

AMSAT thanks COCOANTAR (ANTARCTIC Joint Command) for their collaboration and commitment to make this special event possible (1st Contact of the ISS with Antarctica), and to ARISS Canada for their valuable support.

This adds to the WSPR LU1ZV beacon active in Antarctica donated by AMSAT-LU.

It can be seen on https://www.instagram.com/coconatar/?hl=es and broadcast by COCOANTAR, TN and graphic and television media.

Images on http://amsat.org.ar/?f=antartida

73, LU7AA, AMSAT Argentina
http://amsat.org.ar/
https://facebook.com/AMSAT.LU

Sep 28 2022

University students learn about Amateur Radio Satellites

Celebrating Engineering Day Workshop with Rajesh Vagadia VU2EXPIn India on 15 Sep 2022, on the occasion of National Engineering Day, an excellent Workshop titled “Fascinating World of Ham Radio & Amateur Radio Satellites” was conducted by AMSAT-INDIA’s Regional Coordinator Rajesh Vagadia VU2EXP at reputed Marwadi University Rajkot (Gujarat) INDIA.

It was half day (10:00 AM to 02:00 PM IST) interactive workshop full of presentations, Audio Visual Documentary, Practical Demos, Q & A sessions and Radio stuff Exhibition with live operation.

There were 80 B.Tech students participated from ICT Dept + MU’s Student Satellite Project team. Yes Marwadi University has announced to build a Student Satellite and to be launched by ISRO!

Our ham team includes YL Sakshi Vagadia VU3EXP & YL Shyama Vagadia VU3WHG, both member extended great support to setup VHF station, organise & display Radio Stuff and assisting in practical demos including SSTV, Digital & VHF FM Demo with groups! Btw Shyama VU3WHG also remains one of the student coordinator of this event as well as Team member of Student Satellite Project.

All participants gained knowledge on broad spectrum of topics from CW to Cube Satellites! In first session Radio Fundamentals, operating protocols, radio jargons, licensing procedure etc were covered. In second session participants were briefed with various Ham radio events like FD, Hilltop, Light House activation, POTA, IOTA, EME, Satellite tracking, SatCom, High Altitude Balloon tracking, ARISS SSTV & Student outreach program which gives exposure to gain knowledge & develop skills from outside radio Shack activities also!

Lots of fruitful discussion happens during workshop and students were satisfied with all of their queries.

In workshop we had gracious presence of Shri Naresh Jadeja (Registrar), Dr. R. Sridaran (Dean), Dr. Jaypalsinh (MCA Dept), and Dr. Shobhit Patel (Researcher). We also get positive response from Marwadi University authorities to be engaged with AMSAT-INDIA to conduct more programs & projects in upcoming period for benefit of student community.

We also thank to Shri C. D. Parmar Sir (HOD ICT) and Program Coordinator Prof Mitesh Solanki for all the great support provided to make this workshop successful.

I am glad to notice this Ham workshop created a Ham buzz in the Marwadi University campus. For me too it was great honor to present & share my best knowledge amongst budding engineers on the occasion of Engineering Day!

Thank you
73
Rajesh Vagadia VU2EXP
Regional Coordinator West India Zone AMSAT-INDIA

University staff and the audience

Sep 11 2022

23cm Band and RNSS Coexistence September Update

RNSS Satellites Oribiting EarthAs the WRC-23 approaches so the studies regarding AI9.1b (23cm and RNSS) are working towards conclusions. However the IARU is not content that all the operational aspects of the amateur service usage of the 1240-1300 MHz band are being properly considered to develop an acceptable compromise for all concerned parties.

Having been deeply involved in the regulatory work described below it is the opinion of the IARU that for many national authorities the 23cm band WRC23 agenda item 9.1b topic has a very low priority. Many are taking a “generic” stance stating their support for studies without considering the detail of the work or how it is moving forward. Therefore the IARU requests that Member Societies urgently put this issue on the agenda with their national authorities to discuss the views laid out below.

The IARU view is that the potential for widespread or persistent interference to the radio-navigation satellite service (RNSS) from amateur service transmitters is over-stated. However, recognising the regulatory situation, the IARU and the amateur community are ready to accommodate any technical or operational measures deemed necessary on the amateur services so long as they are proportionate, reasonable and evidence based.

The IARU believes that a careful compromise needs to be found in the outcome of the work and the execution of WRC-23 agenda item 9.1b, that properly takes account of the low likelihood of interference events occurring whilst allowing both the amateur services and the RNSS to develop in the band.

The IARU stresses the opportunity that the higher frequency amateur service bands enable for technical skills development for researching and experiencing radio propagation effects. The 1240 – 1300 MHz band is important for the amateur radio service, being the lowest allocation for radio amateurs on which typical microwave propagation can be experienced. Access to these frequencies is facilitated by commercially available equipment and provides a ‘bridge’ building motivation to become involved in more specialized higher frequency microwave and millimeter wave operations providing the self-training which is at the heart of amateur radio.

Read the paper IARU Perspective on the AI9.1b Progress — September 2022
https://www.iaru.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Sept22-23cm-RNSS-Update-.pdf

Source IARU 23cm Band and RNSS Coexistence
https://www.iaru.org/spectrum/iaru-and-itu/wrc-23/agenda-item-9-1-topic-b/23cm-band-and-rnss-coexistence/