Tag Archives: Amateur Radio

Dec 22 2013

OZ/KO4MA on the satellites December 25-31

Drew Glasbrenner KO4MA

Drew Glasbrenner KO4MA

AMSAT Vice President of Operations Drew Glasbrenner will be operating through the satellites from Denmark from December 25-31 using the call OZ/KO4MA.

He’ll be portable in the Kolding area and hopes to be active on all the satellite transponders.

Mark Hammond plans to be active in the satellites from Madrid in Spain from Dec 24 – Jan 2 using the call EA/N8MH.

Getting started in satellites https://amsat-uk.org/beginners/radcom-getting-started-on-satellites/

How to work SSB satellites https://amsat-uk.org/beginners/how-to-work-the-ssb-satellites/

How to work FM satellites https://amsat-uk.org/beginners/how-to-work-a-fm-satellite/

Satellite Tracking https://amsat-uk.org/beginners/satellite-tracking/

Dec 21 2013

Brazilian contact via FUNcube-1 (AO-73)

FUNcube-1 flight model - Image credit Wouter Weggelaar PA3WEG

FUNcube-1 flight model – Image credit Wouter Weggelaar PA3WEG

Paulo PV8DX and Luciano PY5LF have made the first contact using the amateur radio FUNcube-1 AO-73 satellite between the North and the South of Brazil.

Watch AO73 – HAM CUBESAT

Dec 21 2013

Former radio ham plans Bitcoin CubeSat

A CubeSat in Space

Archive image of a 1U CubeSat in Space

Former radio amateur Jeff Garzik ex-KB4UZB plans to develop a CubeSat BitSat to distribute block chain data for the digital currency Bitcoin.

Jeff’s amateur radio license expired in 2006 and in recent years during his spare time he has been a Bitcoin core-developer, contributing to the core Bitcoin protocol.

He says that a satellite node could help defend the Bitcoin network from a Sibyl attack, which is where malicious computers flood a node on the peer-to-peer network with bad data.

It is reported that so far he has raised 37 Bitcoins (about $32,000) in funding for the project.

Read the Wired Magazine article Bitcoins in Space: Hacker to Fire Digital Currency Into Orbit
http://www.wired.com/wiredenterprise/2013/12/bitcoin_space/

Read the Bitcoins in space! thread at
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=334701.0

BitPay Hires Bitcoin Core-Developer Jeff Garzik
http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20130514006754/en/BitPay-Hires-Bitcoin-Core-Developer-Jeff-Garzik

Explanation of Bitcoin in PC-PRO Magazine
http://www.pcpro.co.uk/features/384190/how-to-earn-spend-and-mine-bitcoins

UPDATE Feb 5, 2014 https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=sites&srcid=ZHVudmVnYW5zcGFjZS5jb218ZHVudmVnYW4tc3BhY2Utc3lzdGVtcy1pbmN8Z3g6MWJjYzAyZDY0NTdlMmQ0MA

Dec 20 2013

Santa uses 434.075 MHz during sleigh test

Mark and Cassie of STRATODEAN

Mark and Cassie of STRATODEAN

BBC TV News has reported on the 434.075 MHz STRATODEAN balloon carrying Santa and Rudolf that was launched from Coleford, Gloucestershire, UK.

The BBC say that amateur scientists Cassie Phelps and Mark Ireland, from the Forest of Dean, successful launched Santa and Rudolf into near-space 30 km above the Earth.

STRATODEAN report that when Santa finished off the modifications to the 2013 sleigh like all good engineers he opted to test the new changes before rolling it out into production and went to STRATODEAN for help! (It’s been a very well kept secret that they provide technical facilities to all their famous mythical friends. The Tooth Fairy and Easter Bunny are already well established customers.)

They were given a clear project remit – to take him up and down on their payload to allow him to test the new handling abilities of his sleigh. Apparently the cost of reindeer propulsion (magic flying dust) has skyrocketed in the last few years and he can only justify the once a year purchase for Christmas due to Mrs Clauses’ bingo habit and the increasing Elf wages. Furthermore, for this test he can only bring Rudolf as the other reindeer are getting on a bit and they need to save their knees.

Watch the STRATODEAN video of the flight

Mark and Cassie with a STRATODEAN High Altitude Balloon

Mark and Cassie with a STRATODEAN High Altitude Balloon

The telemetry downlink from the balloon was on 434.075 MHz using 50 bps 350 Hz shift FSK with ASCII-7 code, 2 stop bits and no parity.

Watch the BBC TV news story – Amateur scientists attach a model of Santa Claus to a weather balloon
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-25470809

Read The Telegraph story at
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/topics/christmas/christmas-videos/10529615/Santa-and-Rudolph-spotted-in-orbit.html

STRATODEAN
Web http://www.stratodean.co.uk/
Twitter https://twitter.com/stratodean

A video of the STRATODEAN High Altitude Balloon Presentation given by Cassie Phelps and Mark Ireland to the annual AMSAT-UK International Space Colloquium in Guildford last July can be seen at
https://amsat-uk.org/2013/07/22/video-of-stratodean-high-altitude-balloon-presentation/

To get up-to-date information on balloon flights subscribe to the UKHAS Mailing List by sending a blank email to this address:
ukhas+subscribe@googlegroups.com

Dec 19 2013

Join AMSAT-UK

AMSAT-UK_Bevelled_LogoFounded in 1975 AMSAT-UK is a voluntary organisation that supports the design and building of equipment for Amateur Radio Satellites.

AMSAT-UK initially produced a short bulletin called OSCAR News to give members advice on amateur satellite communications. Since those early days OSCAR News has grown in size and the print quality has improved beyond recognition. Today, OSCAR News is produced as a high-quality quarterly colour A4 magazine consisting of up to 40 pages of news, information and comment about amateur radio space communications.

The new lower-cost E-membership provides OSCAR News as a downloadable PDF file giving members the freedom to read it on their Tablets or Smartphones anytime, anyplace, anywhere.

An additional advantage is that the PDF should be available for download up to 2 weeks before the paper copy is posted.

AMSAT-UK FUNcube Mission Patch Rev4 20100609

AMSAT-UK FUNcube Mission Patch

The Membership year lasts for 12 months starting on January 1 each year.

If you join after July 31 of any particular year, then you will receive complimentary membership for the whole of the following year, i.e. join on November 12, 2013, and you have nothing more to pay until Dec 31, 2014.

Now is a very good time to join.

Take out an Electronic membership here http://shop.amsat.org.uk/shop/category_9/Join-Amsat-UK.html

E-members can download their copies of OSCAR News from http://www.amsatuk.me.uk/on

A sample issue of OSCAR News can be downloaded here.

Dec 19 2013

Delfi-n3Xt Update December 19

Delfi-n3Xt Satellite

Delfi-n3Xt Satellite

Delfi Nanosatellite Program Manager, Jasper Bouwmeester PC4JB, provides this update on the Delfi-n3Xt amateur radio satellite which was launched November 21 and carries a 435/145 MHz linear transponder.

Dear radio amateurs,

Today, December 19, we have switched from the ISIS transmitter (ITRX) to the Primary Transmitter (PTRX). This radio seems to have a significantly stronger signal, so it should be easier to receive telemetry. The frequency is a bit higher, 145.930 MHz so you will have to retune. I hope this will help some of the radio amateurs who had trouble in decoding Delfi-n3Xt.

We have also put the S-band transmitter (STX) back in beacon mode on 2405.000 MHz. As the onboard patch antenna is however pointing in arbitrary direction, it is a matter of luck if it is pointed towards a ground station. In about 10% of the passes it should in theory be possible to receive the signal with a >2.5m dish, but I have to admit that it is only going to be fun to try to receive the signal for those people who like to be the first and have the proper equipment.

Unfortunately we have not yet been able to make a new update of the DUDe client. The first issue we want to tackle for the new version is the frequency freeze. After a while, DUDe seems to lock itself at an edge of the band. Currently this means, that DUDe needs to be restarted before a pass. As temporary solution in case you want to track the satellite automatically, you may use an auto-mouse clicker to close and re-open DUDe. But I hope we will be able to fix this issue early next year.

Finally, I would like to state that you may replay your SDR recordings a few times to increase packet decoding as our server can handle more load. Our statistics page however currently does not exclude doubles from a single radio amateur, so please keep in mind that the packet counts for the competition (more details early next year) will eventually be corrected for this. It will take a while though before we upgrade the statistics to exclude doubles from a single radio amateur. We are very happy if we receive more telemetry packets, but please don’t exaggerate the amount of replays as there is not much more to be gained after a few attempts.

Have a nice holidays and a prosperous 2014!

73,
Jasper, PC4JB

Telemetry reception http://www.delfispace.nl/operations/delfi-n3xt-telemetry-reception

Delfi-n3Xt http://www.delfispace.nl/operations/radio-amateurs

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