Test of modem beacon

Test of OBC Beacon

STRaND-1 carries an amateur radio AX.25 packet radio downlink on 437.568 MHz using 9600 bps FSK modulated data with HDLC frame, NRZI encoding.

Excel Spreadsheet of STRaND-1 Telemetry Format_20130327

STRaND-1 Keplerian elements (‘Keps’) Two Line Elements (TLE’s)

DK3WN STRaND-1 telemetry decoder http://tinyurl.com/SatSoftwareDK3WN/

Online real-time tracking of STRaND-1 http://www.n2yo.com/?s=39090&df=1

Free satellite tracking software:
• SimpleSat Look Down http://www.tomdoyle.org/SimpleSatLookDown/
• Gpredict http://gpredict.oz9aec.net/
• Orbitron http://www.amsat-uk.org/?p=9051

Dr Chris Bridges M6OBC would be delighted to receive all available telemetry files by email to strand.messages@gmail.com

Mark Hammond N8MH has provided these tips to decode STRaND-1:

(1) Sprint-2 TNC set at 9600 baud in KISS mode (or any 9600 TNC in KISS mode probably)
(2) Using this software to capture http://www.dk3wn.info/files/online_kiss_plus.zip
(3) And using this software to decode the captured KISS files http://www.dk3wn.info/files/kissdump.zip

Thanks to Mike Rupprecht DK3WN for the excellent software.

Jan van Gils PE0SAT describes how he used the free TNC emulator software AGWPE and SDR# to decode the telemetry. This approach means you don’t have to buy a dedicated hardware TNC it simply uses your existing PC and radio that supports 9600 bps data:

(1) Record a pass using SDR# and a FUNcube Dongle Pro+ and save the IQ wav file so you can work with it after the pass.
(2) Configure AGW Packet Engine (AGWPE) as a 9600 baud modem using your audio mixer as input. If you don’t have an audio mixer, use audio VAC to route the received audio to the AGW audio input.
(3) When the AGW packet engine is running use AGW-Online-KISS from DK3WN to connect to the packet engine and decode the telemetry.
(4) Open the IQ wav file within SDR# and playback the recorded file and tune to the correct receive frequency, now you can see decoded data within Online-Kiss.
(5) Feed the files captured to KISS-Dump

Descriptions of ONLINE KISS +, AGW ONLINE KISS and KISS Dump + are at http://tinyurl.com/SatSoftwareDK3WN/

The free AGWPE soundcard packet software AGWPE.zip is available at http://www.sv2agw.com/downloads/

Guide on how to use AGWPE http://www.soundcardpacket.org/

Latest STRaND-1 Keps are at http://celestrak.com/NORAD/elements/cubesat.txt

Dr Chris Bridges M6OBC working on STRaND-1 – Image credit Surrey Space Centre