The SpaceX CRS-3 Dragon launch of five CubeSats and 104 Sprite satellites has been postponed until Friday, April 18, 2014 at 1925 UT.
SpaceX were finally set to launch their Dragon spacecraft on its third Commercial Resupply Services mission to the ISS Monday, prior to a scrub being called over an hour ahead of lift-off. It is reported there was a helium leak on the first stage, the next launch opportunity is Friday.
The launch had been planned for December 2013 but has suffered a number of delays.
The final configuration of the International Space Station (ISS) HamVideo Digital TV system took place on Sunday, April 13 at 1823 UT. ISS commander Koichi Wakata KC5ZTA operated using the call sign OR4ISS.
Final Commissioning of the HamTV equipment Koichi Wakata KC5ZTA
Configuration 4 was used:
* ARISS antenna 43
* Frequency 2395 MHz
* Symbol rate 2.0 MS/s
Ground stations G4KLB, F6DZP, IK1SLD and KI (Livorno) received the signals and streamed the video over the BATC server. The DATV signal was received for about 6 minutes.
Commander Wakata congratulated ARISS for this achievement and answered a series of questions, prepared in the manner of a school contact. He also proceeded to a microgravity experiment.
Congratulations to the Ham Video team for this outstanding performance.
Next step should be a video enhanced ARISS school contact. We will keep you informed on any progress.
73,
Gaston Bertels, ON4WF
ARISS Europe chair
Watch the 2395 MHz ISS Digital TV transmission received by F6DZP in Poitiers, France
The Ham Video transmitter has downlink frequencies of 2.369, 2.395, 2.422 and 2.437 GHz in a DVB-S type format (symbol rates of 1.3 Ms/s and 2.0 Ms/s). The two patch antennas, ARISS 41 and ARISS 43, are located on the nadir of the Columbus module. The Ham Video transmitter puts out approximately 10 W EIRP. The camera is a Canon XF-305.
Juno QSL cards have been sent out to those radio amateurs who participated in the Juno Earth flyby experiment.
Amateur radio operators sent a very slow CW (1/25 WPM) to NASA’s Juno spacecraft during its Earth flyby on October 9, 2013.
Hams sent “HI” every 10 minutes as Juno approached Earth, and the message was clearly detected several times. The Juno team confirmed that more than 1400 radio hams participated, representing all seven continents.
The final Ham Video Commissioning Pass 4 is planned for Sunday, April 13 at 1823 UT.
Configuration 4 will be used:
* ARISS antenna 43
* Frequency 2395 MHz
* Symbol rate 2.0 MS/s
Astronaut Koichi Wakata KC5ZTA
ISS astronaut Koichi Wakata KC5ZTA will operate using the call sign OR4ISS. Ground stations F6DZP and IK1SLD will receive the signals and stream the video over the BATC server. The video is expected to be received during 5 minutes.
This will mark the end of the Blank Transmissions.
We thank the operators who filed reception reports of blank transmissions. Your participation to the Ham Video testing campaign has been invaluable.
No decision has been taken yet on the future use of Ham Video. We will keep you informed on any progress.
On the KickSat updates page Zac Manchester KD2BHC has announced a competition to receive the first amateur radio signals from the KickSat CubeSat and the tiny Sprites satellites.
KickSat Sprite satellites deployed – Image by Ben Bishop VK2FBRB
The KickSat CubeSat will carry 104 tiny Sprite satellites into a 325×315 km 51.5 degree inclination orbit. The launch carrying four other CubeSats, SporeSat, TSAT, PhoneSat-v2.5 and ALL-STAR/THEIA is planned for Friday, April 18, 2014 at 1925 UT and should be broadcast live on NASA TV and also streamed on Ustream.
Zac writes:
Our launch coming up in less than a week and, to keep things fun, I’d like to announce a little contest…
I’ll be offering prizes to the first several people who receive telemetry packets from KickSat as well as the first few who receive signals from the Sprites. The prizes will include souvenir Sprites and CRS-3 and ELaNa-V mission patches.
437 MHz Sprite
Now for the rules:
• In the case of KickSat telemetry, you have to send me the raw hex or ASCII packet data and I have to be able to successfully decode it.
• In the case of the Sprite signals, you have to send me a raw baseband recording and I have to be able to decode at least one Sprite signal from it.
• I’ll continue offering prizes until I run out of cool swag.
• I have the ultimate say on whether or not you win.
To get in on the fun, check out our wiki and join the KickSat mailing list. Let the games begin!
All the Sprites operate on a single frequency of 437.240 MHz and use Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA). The transmitter runs 10 mW output of Minimum Shift Keying (MSK) modulated binary data with each data bit modulated as a 511 bit Pseudo-Random Number (PRN) sequence. The ITU emission designator is 50K0G1D.
The KickSat CubeSat has downlinks on 437.505 MHz and 2401-2436.2 MHz.
In this video Ben Bishop VK2FBRB gives an alternative view of the deployment
Track of the B-44 balloon taken on April 10, 214, two days after launch
On Tuesday, April 8, 2014 radio amateur Leo Bodnar M0XER launched two foil “party” pico balloons from Silverstone with solar powered payloads transmitting on 434.500 MHz USB using the Contestia 8/1000 data mode. By Thursday, April 10 one of the balloons, B-44, was reported to be over Syria.
Typical pico balloon with tiny solar powered 434 MHz transmitter – Image credit Leo Bodnar M0XER
Depending on altitude the balloons could have a range of 300-500 km and remain aloft for several days.
Balloons: 90cm Qualatex foil party balloon
Payloads: 12 grams solar powered tracker
Telemetry: 434.500 MHz, USB, vertical polarisation, Contestia 8/1000
B-44 is 1500Hz higher than B-43 so it should be possible to see both in the same audio bandwidth.
These balloons use digital mode “Contestia 8/1000”. Unfortunately it is not possible to automatically configure this mode in dl-fldigi. Therefore please follow this procedure:
• Autoconfigure B-43 or B-44 flight as usual. This will default to DOMX 16 mode.
• Select menu option Op Mode -> Contestia -> 8/1000. The bottom left corner of dl-fldigi should now read CTSTIA 8/1000
• Enable RxID button at the top right corner of dl-fldigi.
Downlink data contains two lines of telemetry every 4 minutes.Time between telemetry data is filled with beeps at 3 sec intervals.
Leo says “I appreciate help of everybody who joins in for tracking!”
Typical solar powered 434 MHz transmitter – Image credit Leo Bodnar M0XER
The SpaceX CRS-3 Dragon launch of five CubeSats and 104 Sprite satellites has been postponed until Friday, April 18, 2014 at 1925 UT.
AMSAT-UK 
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