Dec 14 2013

KySat-2 Ham Radio Software Update

Archive image of KySat-1

Archive image of KySat-1

Jason Rexroat KK4AJE of the University of Kentucky KySat-2 team brings news of the latest version of the amateur radio ground station telemetry decoder software.

We really appreciate everyone using our ground station software to decode KySat-2 packets!  We are continuing to take suggestions and made several more bug fixes, and the third version of this software is now available for download!

Link: http://ssl.engineering.uky.edu/amateur-radio-operators/
KySat-2 Info: http://kentuckyspace.com/ or http://kysat2.engr.uky.edu/

Our changelog is included in the download, and also copied below.  Again, we appreciate all who have helped us gather telemetry from our satellite, and please continue to do so!  Email us with any bugs or suggestions for improvements and we’ll be sure to work on it!

Changelog:

– “Share” button to automatically email us our log files, along with counters showing how many beacons you’ve shared
– Custom COM port selection in case your created COM port doesn’t show up in our list
– Drag and dockable tabs
– Packaged into single executable file

These changes will enable further customization on your part, and the automatic sharing will put the data into a format our automated scripts can handle to generate our running telemetry tables. I know that the ping functionality is still disabled, but we are pushing through further subsystem checkout that will allow us to enable this and other functionality for you!

Jason Rexroat KK4AJE
Space Systems Lab, University of Kentucky
jason.rexroat<at>uky.edu

Minotaur-1 ELaNa-4 Satellites https://amsat-uk.org/satellites/elana-4-cubesats/

Dec 14 2013

Warwick University Satellite Team Win Rocket Slot

REXUS-BEXUS Student Experiment Programme LogoThe Warwick University Satellite Team (WUSAT) have won a place on the sub-orbital Rocket Experiments for University Students REXUS 1718 campaign. The team say:

We are delighted to announce that we have been successful in our bid for a slot on the REXUS 1718 campaign!

We will now be looking to expand our team to tackle the increase in workload primarily looking at 3rd year engineering students.

Thank you everyone for your support and REXUS/BEXUS for the excellent advice, we will continue to update you on our progress towards the project’s most ambitious target yet!

WUSAT Warwick University Satellite Project http://www.warwick.ac.uk/cubesat

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/WarwickUniversitySatellite

Twitter https://twitter.com/WUSAT_Team

REXUS/BEXUS (Rocket/Balloon Experiments for University Students)
https://www.facebook.com/rexusbexus

UK Students Fly CubeSat to 30km
https://amsat-uk.org/2013/04/10/uk-students-fly-cubesat-to-30km/

Dec 14 2013

UKube-1 on its way to Kazakhstan

UKube-1 CubeSat on its way to Kazakhstan - Credit Clyde Space

UKube-1 CubeSat on its way to Kazakhstan – Credit Clyde Space

UKube-1 left Clyde Space in Glasgow on its way to Baikonur in Kazakhstan on December 12, 2013. The 3U CubeSat carries a set of AMSAT-UK FUNcube boards (FUNcube-2) to provide an Educational beacon and a 435/145 MHz linear transponder for amateur radio SSB/CW communications.

Reports on a space flight forum indicate that the Soyuz-2-1B/Fregat-M which will carry UKube-1 is currently expected to launch on March 27, 2014.

Russian launch schedule thread http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=26990.450

Clyde Space on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/clydespace

Dec 14 2013

PUCP-SAT-1 Deploys POCKET-PUCP Femtosatellite

CubeSat PUCP-SAT-1 - Credit Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú

CubeSat PUCP-SAT-1 – Credit Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú

The Peruvian CubeSat PUCP-SAT-1 (145.840 MHz AX.25 FM) was carried by the microsatellite UNISAT-5 which was launched on a Dnepr on November 21, 2013.

When in orbit UNISAT-5 deployed PUCP-SAT-1 and Neilsao Vilchez reports PUCP-SAT-1 has in turn deployed an even smaller satellite POCKET-PUCP.

The femtosatellite POCKET-PUCP measures just 8.35 by 4.95 by 1.55 cm and has a 10 mW 12 wpm CW (On-Off-Keying OOK) beacon on 437.200 MHz. The team at the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú would welcome any reception reports.

Diagram showing PUCP-SAT-1 and POCKET-PUCP - Credit Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú

Diagram showing PUCP-SAT-1 and POCKET-PUCP – Credit Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú

Neilsao Vilchez says:

On Wednesday December 4 we detected our satellite PUCP-SAT-1 (launched from Dnepr RS-20/UNISAT-5).

We think it is one of the following objects:

-2013-066AC
-2013-066S
-2013-066T
-2013-066U

Which are very close to each other and we can not resolve which one it is.

Femtosatellite Pocket-PUCP - Credit Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú

Femtosatellite Pocket-PUCP – Credit Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú

We got our packet beacon at 145.840 MHz with packets stays 20 seconds, so, it is undoubtedly our beacon, we know that PUCP-SAT-1 is alive, healthy, it has been recharging its batteries okay.

On Friday, December 6, as planned, the POCKET-PUCP (femtosatellite) was released around 0800 UT, we are looking for its 437.200 MHz transmission at 12 wpm.

Its transmission is OA4PUCP SAT1 XXX YYY ZZZ

PUCP-SAT-1 website http://inras.pucp.edu.pe/en/proyectos/pucp-sat-1/especificaciones-del-satelite/

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/pucp

Dnepr satellites https://amsat-uk.org/satellites/dnepr-november-2013/

CubeSats PUCP-SAT-1 Peru - ICUBE-1 Pakistan - HUMSat-D Spain - Credit Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú

CubeSats PUCP-SAT-1 Peru – ICUBE-1 Pakistan – HUMSat-D Spain – Credit Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú

Dec 12 2013

FUNcube-1 Whole Orbit Data Available

FUNcube Whole Orbit Data - WODThe Data Warehouse now provides the facility to download FUNcube-1 (AO-73) Whole Orbit Data (WOD) as a .csv file. The file is produced at 23:59 every day and contains data for the preceding 24 hours. It contains all the channels shown on the WOD graph, which shows the latest orbit data captured.

The WOD page is at
http://warehouse.funcube.org.uk/wod.html

Please read the notes on the page regarding the times stored in the file.

FUNcube Yahoo Group https://amsat-uk.org/funcube/yahoo-group/

FUNcube http://www.funcube.org.uk/

Dec 12 2013

WRAPS: A Portable Satellite Antenna Rotator System

WRAPS Portable Satellite Antenna Rotator System - Copyright ARRL

WRAPS Portable Satellite Antenna Rotator System – Copyright ARRL

The January 2014 edition of QST contains an article by ARRL Education and Technology Program Coordinator Mark Spencer WA8SME on a portable azimuth and elevation rotator system for tracking satellites called WRAPS.

WRAPS stands for Wobbler RadFxSat Antenna Pointing System rotator system which Mark developed to support tracking CubeSats such as FUNcube-1 and the upcoming Fox-1 and RadFxSat/Fox-1B. His target audience includes school groups who want to access the capabilities of the CubeSats.

Thanks to Mark and the ARRL a copy of the article in PDF format is available here WRAPS – Mark Spencer WA8SME QST Jan 2014 Copyright ARRL.
For personal use only – no copying, reprinting or distribution without written permission from the ARRL.

Mark Spencer WA8SME gave a presentation on WRAPS during the 2013 AMSAT Space Symposium in Houston, Texas, on Friday, November 1, 2013. His talk was recorded by Patrick Stoddard VA7EWK.

Apologies for missing the start of Mark’s introduction, and for the quality of this video. The Symposium organizers dimmed the lights in the front of the room for this presentation, which meant Mark was essentially standing in the dark as he gave his presentation.

Watch WA8SME: WRAPS Portable Satellite Antenna Rotor (2013 AMSAT Space Symposium)

At the AMSAT Forum at the 2013 Dayton Hamvention the presentations on education wrapped up with a talk by Mark Spencer, ARRL Education & Technology Program Director. “Spence”, WA8SME, briefly described his classroom experiments for measuring the “wobble” of the Fox satellite, demonstrating a Maximum Power Point Tracker (MPPT) for a solar array, and WRAPS a lower cost azimuth-elevation rotor system for lightweight satellite antennas.

Watch Fox Classroom Experiments, by Spence WA8SME – 2013 Dayton Hamvention

A limited number of complete WRAPS systems will be available through the AMSAT-NA Store. As of December 12 they were not yet available, and AMSAT-NA do not at present have a firm date when they will be in stock. Because of uncertainty of the price and number which will be available, they are not taking advanced orders. When they are ready to process orders, AMSAT-NA will make the information public.  Please do not call the AMSAT office.

ARRL http://www.arrl.org/

AMSAT-NA http://www.amsat.org/

FUNcube http://www.funcube.org.uk/

Fox-1 http://ww2.amsat.org/?page_id=1113

ARRL International Membership with a digital version of the monthly QST magazine cost $39 (£25), see
http://www.southgatearc.org/news/may2012/arrl_launch_digital_qst_magazine.htm