Oct 20 2013

Indian Record for Tracking Ham Radio Balloon

A high altitude balloon launch - Image credit Dhruva Space

A high altitude balloon launch – Image credit Dhruva Space

Global Brands Magazine features the High Altitude Balloon work of Dhruva Space and Indian radio amateurs.

Dhruva Space in association with Indian Institute of Astrophysics is gearing up to observe comet ISON when it passes earth on November 28, 2013 using a high altitude balloon platform.

Weekly test flights are in progress as part of the preparations for the ISON observation. On one such flight on October 13, the balloon which was carrying a 5 kilograms payload containing various sensors reached a peak altitude of 21 km and it traveled over 600 km into the Arabian Sea. What makes this test flight special is that the ground station at Bangalore and the two mobile payload recovery teams were able to receive the 145.765 MHz FM APRS radio signals from the balloon for over 12 hours without any disruption.

Hyderabad based National Institute of Amateur Radio which is one of the program partners has provided immense support in successful post-flight payload recovery.

Ham radio operators in Karnataka and Goa in India, and Middle East and Africa were able to receive encoded APRS signals containing real time location, altitude and other operating conditions of the flight.

Read the full story at
http://www.globalbrandsmagazine.com/dhruva-space-sets-record-in-telemetry-tracking-in-india/

Dhruva Space http://dhruvaspace.com/

National Institute of Amateur Radio (NIAR) http://www.niar.org/

High Altitude Balloon to Study Comet ISON
https://amsat-uk.org/2013/09/28/high-altitude-balloon-to-study-comet-ison/

Real-time balloon tracker http://www.spacenear.us/tracker

Oct 19 2013

Movie: The Basement Satellite

Hojun Song DS1SBO

Hojun Song DS1SBO

The Basement Satellite was screened at the 5th DMZ Korean International Documentary Film Festival on October 19, 2013.

Hojun Song DS1SBO and the NovaNano FlyMate™ deployer

OSSI-1 weighed 963 grams

The film, directed by Hyoung-ju Kim, tells the struggle of Korean artist Hojun Song DS1SBO to develop a satellite, OSSI-1, in his basement studio and launch it into space.

DMZ – The Basement satellite in Google English http://tinyurl.com/DMZ-The-Basement-Satellite

OSSI-1 Amateur Radio CubeSat Launched
https://amsat-uk.org/2013/04/19/ossi-1-amateur-radio-cubesat-launched/

Hojun Song DS1SBO and OSSI-1 launch from Baikonur, Kazahkstan

Hojun Song DS1SBO and OSSI-1 launch from Baikonur, Kazahkstan

Oct 17 2013

Ham radio operators set to help in tracking comet

Hindustan Times October 17, 2013

Hindustan Times October 17, 2013

After helping the Odisha government in disaster relief during cyclone Phailin, amateur radio operators will now help astrophysicists track a comet.

The Hindustan Times reports that astrophysics experts are joining hands with ham (amateur) radio operators to track and read data comet ISON, scheduled to pass nearest to the earth on November 28, 2013.

Scientists of Bengaluru-based Indian Institute of Astrophysics will send a balloon 40 km into the atmosphere to get data on the comet.

As the instruments drop with a parachute it will be a team of ham radio operators, who will track the APRS packet radio signal and retrieve the balloon.

Read the story at
http://www.hindustantimes.com/India-news/kolkata/Post-Phailin-relief-HAM-radio-operators-set-to-help-in-tracking-comet/Article1-1136224.aspx

TNC-Pi APRS packet radio review https://amsat-uk.org/info/tnc-pi-raspberry-pi-packet-radio-board/

Oct 17 2013

FUNcube-1 has arrived in Russia

The vital FUNcube-1 Add Before Flight (ABF) plug

The vital FUNcube-1 Add Before Flight (ABF) plug

The amateur radio FUNcube-1 CubeSat has arrived in Russia and is now en-route to the Dombarovsky launch site near Yasny.

A few small CubeSats in a large case being loaded into a special cargo hold

A few small CubeSats in a large case being loaded into a special cargo hold

It was flown on a special flight from Rotterdam on Wednesday, October 16 and cleared Russian customs on Thursday,, October 17. Another flight took it to Orsk from where it had a road trip of several hours before arriving at the launch integration facility at Yasny.

The only work that still needs to be completed before launch is a final battery charge up to 7.68 volts,  this is the best storage voltage this type of battery, and the final ABF “Add Before Flight” plug needs to be installed and glued in place.

This work will be done on site by Gerard Aalbers who has been a member of the FUNcube team from the beginning of the project.

FUNcube-1 communication subsystem:
• 300 mW Inverting linear transponder for SSB and CW
– Uplink      435.150 – 435.130 MHz
– Downlink  145.950 – 145.970 MHz
• 300 mW BPSK Telemetry  145.935 MHz (30 mW output when transponder active)

AMSAT-UK FUNcube Mission Patch Rev4 20100609

AMSAT-UK FUNcube Mission Patch

The Yasny Dnepr launch will carry more than ten spacecraft using the amateur satellite service and one of them, UniSat-5, will, itself, later deploy up to nine CubeSats and PocketQubes so there should be plenty of new signals to listen for after this launch.

Italian Microsat to Deploy Amateur Radio Satellites
https://amsat-uk.org/2012/05/25/italian-microsat-to-deploy-six-amateur-radio-satellites/

Battery Charger for FUNcube-1 https://amsat-uk.org/2012/05/25/italian-microsat-to-deploy-amateur-radio-satellites/

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

Oct 16 2013

FUNcube-1 has left the cleanroom

FUNcube-1 flight model - Image credit Wouter Weggelaar PA3WEG

FUNcube-1 flight model – Image credit Wouter Weggelaar PA3WEG

The exciting news is that FUNcube-1 CubeSat is now en-route to the Yasny launch site.

It was flown on a special flight from Rotterdam yesterday and it cleared through Russian customs this morning.

Well before the launch date, Dashboard software, to decode and display the telemetry, will be made available for download, this will function on any windows pc or laptop using either a Dongle or a 2 metre SSB capable receiver. Additionally a set of pre-launch keps will also be distributed.

This launch is expected to carry more than ten spacecraft using the amateur satellite service and one of them will, itself, later deploy up to nine CubeSats and PocketQubes so there should be plenty of new signals to listen for after this launch.

More info about FUNcube and some pictures can be seen here www.funcube.org.uk

Oct 16 2013

TNC-Pi Raspberry Pi Packet Radio Board

TNC-Pi kit built by Nick Bown 2E0CGW

TNC-Pi kit built by Nick Bown 2E0CGW

The TNC-Pi is a £22 ($40) KISS TNC board which is designed to connect to the GPIO port of the £25 ($35) Raspberry Pi computer board.

It provides a low cost means of using amateur radio AX.25 Packet Radio and APRS.

Nick Bown 2E0CGW has written a well illustrated review of the board. You can download the PDF from TNC-Pi by Nick Bown 2E0CGW

The TNC-Pi kit is available from http://tnc-x.com/TNCPi.htm