UKube-1 carries a set of AMSAT-UK FUNcube boards providing a 435/145 MHz linear transponder and educational telemetry beacon. Clyde Space have announced that the launch is now confirmed for June 19, 2014 from Baikonur in Kazakhstan, where it will be launched on a Russian Soyuz-2 rocket.
UKube-1 is a 3U CubeSat has been designed and manufactured by Clyde Space at their high-tech facility on the West of Scotland Science Park in Glasgow. This CubeSat is one of the most advanced of its kind, the complexity of the spacecraft highlighted by the nature of the 6 independent, advanced payloads being flown by the mission. The UKube-1 mission is the pilot for a collaborative, national CubeSat programme bringing together UK industry and academia to fly educational packages, test new technologies and carry out new space research quickly and efficiently.
Payloads on UKube-1 include: the first GPS device aimed at measuring plasmaspheric space weather; a camera that will take images of the Earth, and test the effect of radiation on space hardware, using a new generation of imaging sensor; an experiment to demonstrate the feasibility of using cosmic radiation to improve the security of communications satellites and to flight test lower cost electronic systems; an advanced mission interface computer to enable serious number crunching on tiny spacecraft; a high rate S-Band transmitter and patch antenna; an outreach payload that allows school children to interact with the spacecraft.
UKube-1 communications subsystem:
• Telemetry downlink 145.840 MHz
• FUNcube subsystem beacon 145.915 MHz
• 400 mW inverting linear transponder for SSB and CW
– 435.080 -435.060 MHz Uplink
– 145.930 -145.950 MHz Downlink
• 2401.0 MHz S Band Downlink
• 437.425-437.525 MHz UKSEDS myPocketQub Downlink
Mark Zuckerberg says Facebook’s Connectivity Lab plans to build satellites to bring the Internet to more people.
“In our effort to connect the whole world with Internet.org, we’ve been working on ways to beam internet to people from the sky.
Today, we’re sharing some details of the work Facebook’s Connectivity Lab is doing to build drones, satellites and lasers to deliver the internet to everyone.
Our goal with Internet.org is to make affordable access to basic internet services available to every person in the world.”
“Our team has many of the world’s leading experts in aerospace and communications technology, including from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab and Ames Research Center. Today we are also bringing on key members of the team from Ascenta, a small UK-based company whose founders created early versions of Zephyr, which became the world’s longest flying solar-powered unmanned aircraft. They will join our team working on connectivity aircraft.”
Results of last weekend’s tests: the transponder was maintained ON for two orbits, and we did not see any noticeable fall in battery temperature.
We are therefore proposing to repeat the test on Saturday, March 29, but leave the transponder on for a longer period. We will switch it on during the first pass over the UK (approx 10:30 UT) and switch it off during one of the evening passes over UK, the first of which is at approx 20:00 UT.
We are particularly interested to receive TLM when the satellite is coming out of eclipse (i.e. when it should be at its coldest temperature). So reception from suitably located stations would be very welcome.
If you hear the transponder on, please feel free to use it!
Tony Monteiro AA2TX and Mark Hammond N4MH being interviewed by Gary Pearce KN4AQ on Ham Radio Now
AMSAT VP-Engineering and Board Member Anthony J. Monteiro, AA2TX of North Andover, MA died on Wednesday morning, March 26, 2014 while hospitalized in Boston, MA from cancer. He was 55. He is survived by his wife, Mary Lou and daughter, Veronica, a college freshman.
Tony Monteiro AA2TX and Fox-1 model
Tony was first licensed in 1973 as a Novice and subsequently held an Extra Class Amateur Radio License. An avid operator, he described his first contact in an AMSAT BoD Candidate’s Statement in 2011: “I earned my novice ticket in 1973 and made my first ham radio contact with a transmitter made from parts out of an old TV set. A Heathkit HR-10B receiver and a 65-foot piece of wire strung out of a window for an antenna made up the rest of my station, which was pretty modest even by 1973 standards! Even so, I will never forget the thrill of my very first contact.”
His interest in amateur radio and electronics led him to earn a BS in Electrical Engineering from Drexel University and a MS in Computer Science from Stanford University. His professional career started at Bell Laboratories in New Jersey developing network management systems and then consumer products. After working at several startup companies, Tony landed at Cisco Systems where he managed the development of ADSL, voice over packet, and content networking products. He retired from industry in 2002 and focused his efforts working on satellite projects.
Tony joined AMSAT in 1994 and started working the satellites. He earned ARRL VHF/UHF Century Club-Satellite #58 and worked 49 states (only Hawaii was not logged) as well. Tony worked a number of stations while he commuted along the I-495 corridor outside Boston. Many will remember working him through AO-40 as he utilized his “cardboard box horn antenna.” Tony led a workshop at the 2003 AMSAT Space Symposium where students built similar antennas, demonstrating the ease in which one could build a 2.4 GHz S-band antenna to receive the AO-40 downlink.
70 cms Parasitic Lindenbald designed by Tony Monteiro AA2TX
Additional technical contributions to the amateur satellite community that Tony made included “InstantTune Automatic Radio Tuning” software, “A Simple Desense Filter for Echo”, and several extremely low cost projects such as “A $5 Mode V/S Adapter using a Sub-Harmonic Mixer”. AMSAT-UK used to offer a 70 cm Parasitic Lindenblad antenna based upon his design.
Tony also played a significant role in space-based hardware development. He collaborated on the NO-60 satellite. As AMSAT’s VP-Engineering, he served as the software designer for the SDX (Software Defined Transponder) on ARISSat-1/Kedr that was deployed from the International Space Station by Russian Cosmonauts during a space walk in August 2011. Tony led the Fox-1 Engineering Team from inception in 2009 and led AMSAT’s efforts to apply for acceptance of Fox-1 in the NASA Education Launch of NanoSat (ELaNA) in 2011 and Fox-1B in 2012. He established relationships with several universities to secure scientific payloads for Fox-1 and Fox-1B, including student experiments.
Penn State Behrend students working on an AMSAT supercapacitor satellite battery – Image John Fontecchio
A strong proponent of student involvement in satellite projects, Tony served as coordinator of AMSAT Engineering relationships with SUNY-Binghamton, Penn State-Erie, Virginia Tech, and Rochester Institute of Technology where students developed new technologies to be applied in future AMSAT spacecraft as “Capstone” projects. These projects, such as the development of storage capacitors to replace batteries developed by SUNY-Binghamton, provided student experiences that will ultimately be flown in space. The AMSAT JOURNAL in recent years featured several articles concerning these projects.
Tony was elected to the AMSAT Board of Directors in 2011 following service for one year as a BoD alternate. Him wise counsel and focus on finding ways to make it affordable for AMSAT to fly amateur radio systems in space resulted in several innovative approaches. It was Tony that convinced the NASA ELaNA program to modify their qualification criteria to add “not for profits” to those that could apply for launch grants. It was Tony that met with universities that were looking for ways to fly their payloads but didn’t have the experience to build satellites, encouraging collaboration that would benefit both AMSAT and the university.
Tony Monteiro AA2TX – SETI League
Tony’s approach to participation in the AMSAT Leadership Team reflected his approach to life. Whenever he had a thought to share with the entire AMSAT Board of Directors and/or Senior Officers via e-mail, he always started with “Dear Friends”.
As AMSAT VP-Operations Drew Glasbrenner, KO4MA noted, “I always admired how he reminded me we were all friends despite whatever argument was raging.”
Arrangements for a service for Tony will be announced at a later date. In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be made to Radio Amateur Satellite Corp. (AMSAT), 850 Sligo Avenue, Suite 600, Silver Spring, MD 20910.
Barry A. Baines, WD4ASW
President-Radio Amateur Satellite Corp. (AMSAT)
[AMSAT-UK thanks ANS and AMSAT President Barry Baines, WD4ASW for the above information]
Watch Tony Monteiro AA2TX in the HamRadioNow Fox-1 interview recorded May 19, 2013
On Saturday, March 29, at around 10:00 GMT Chris Stubbs M6EDF will be launching a balloon CHEAPO carrying a payload transmitting 50 bps 7n2 RTTY on 434.300 MHz USB.
Chris gave a well received presentation on high altitude balloons at a recent Chelmsford Amateur Radio Society (CARS) Skills Workshop. His latest launch will take place from Danbury Common at around 10 AM on Saturday, March 29.
The CARS amateur radio skills workshops are held on the 3rd Monday of each month at the Danbury Village Hall, CM3 4NQ. The Skills Workshops are open to all, and there’s no charge for attending. For details, and to sign up for email updates, see http://www.hamskills.co.uk/
To find out more about amateur radio and the Chelmsford training courses speak to Clive G1EUC on
Tel: 01245-224577
Mob: 07860-418835
Email: training2014 at g0mwt.org.uk
Web: http://www.g0mwt.org.uk/training/
The March 2014 edition of the British Amateur Television Club (BATC) magazine CQ-TV has several articles on HamTV, the new ISS Digital Amateur Television station.
In the March 2014 issue of CQ-TV:
– First Video received from the ISS
– Receiving HamTV from the ISS – Two User stories
– Details of BATC CAT14
– Three New Repeaters on air
– Using the Raspberry Pi to Control an Ultram VCO
– Versatile Audio AGC Circuit
– Digital ATV – Using a Spectrum Analyzer
– 70cm Yagi
– Classic circuits – Remote control using DMTF
AMSAT-UK 
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