Tag Archives: Amateur Radio

Sep 20 2013

AMSAT-DL Satellite Symposium October 5

Amateur Radio Facility at Bochum

Amateur Radio Facility at Bochum

The AMSAT-DL satellite symposium and AGM will be held in Bochum, Germany on October 5, 2013.

The AMSAT Deutschland Facebook page says “There will be certainly some exciting news!”

AMSAT-DL Symposium lecture schedule

Saturday 05.10.2013

10:15 – 10:30 Welcome

10:30 – 11:15 Stereo A / B status and Turbo Code introduction, experience report by Mario Lorenz, DL5MLO

11:15 – 11:45 Coffee break

11:45 – 12:15 Asteroid Defense by Wolfgang Wittholt, Fernuni Hagen

12:15 – 12:45 Space Generantion Advisory Council (SGAC) Small Satellite Project Group (SSPG) presentation and objectives by Dennis Mattes

12:45 – 14:00 Lunch break

14:00 Current and new projects / project progress / etc then an official part of the AGM with elections.

AMSAT-DL event announcement
https://www.facebook.com/events/397993230305940/permalink/419259888179274/

Sep 19 2013

AMSAT-SM compares FUNcube Dongle Pro+ and RTL SDR’s

FUNcube Dongle Pro+ Software Defined Radio

FUNcube Dongle Pro+ Software Defined Radio

AMSAT-SM has published a comparison of the FUNcube Dongle Pro+ and the RTL TV dongle based software defined radio.

The FCD Pro+ costs about 10 times the price of the RTL TV Dongle. While the FCD Pro+ has a far wider frequency coverage enabling reception of LF, MF and HF are there any other differences ?

Read the AMSAT-SM comparison in Google English at http://tinyurl.com/FUNcubeDongle-RTL-Comparison

The FUNcube Dongle (FCD) Software Defined Radio (SDR) was originally developed for educational outreach as part of the ground segment for the FUNcube satellite. A proportion of the sales of the FCD goes to support AMSAT-UK’s FUNcube satellite.

You can join the FCDProPlus Yahoo Group by following these steps:
• Send a blank email to fcdproplus-subscribe@yahoogroups.co.uk
• Yahoo will send you an email in response, you may need to check your SPAM folder
• Click on the link in the email, this will bring up a Yahoo page in your browser
• On the Yahoo page ignore the big Join link in the middle and click on the link at the bottom of the page instead, it says: “As an alternate option, you may join the mailing list instead.”
• You should then be a member of the group.

Some of the SDR decoding programs available include:
• SDR Sharp (SDR#) http://sdrsharp.com/
• SDR-Radio http://www.sdr-radio.com/
• HDSDR http://www.hdsdr.de/

FUNcube Dongle Pro+ LF/MF/HF/VHF/UHF Software Defined Radio Video
https://amsat-uk.org/2012/10/03/funcube-dongle-pro-plus-sdr-video/

FUNcube Dongle Pro+ http://www.FUNcubeDongle.com/

RTL TV Dongle SDR http://www.essexham.co.uk/news/realtek-sdr-pc-dongle-for-under-20-pounds.html

Sep 19 2013

Australian ham radio BLUEsat satellite in the press

BLUEsat with some of the team members. From left to right are Chun-kan Leung, Anne Gwynne-Robson, John Aiden Rohde, Thieñ Ñguyeñ, Daniel Jedrychowski and Varun Nayyar - Image credit UNSW

BLUEsat with some of the team members. From left to right are Chun-kan Leung, Anne Gwynne-Robson, John Aiden Rohde, Thieñ Ñguyeñ, Daniel Jedrychowski and Varun Nayyar – Image credit UNSW

The Daily Advertiser newspaper reports the University of New South Wales (UNSW) undergraduate amateur radio satellite project has been given the tick of approval to have a stratospheric balloon test flight in Wagga.

BLUEsat - Image credit UNSW

BLUEsat – Image credit UNSW

The Basic Low Earth Orbit UNSW Experimental Satellite, better known as BLUEsat, will undergo a test flight in April ahead of its launch into space.

BLUEsat, a 260mm cube weighing around 13 kilograms, will carry a flight computer with transmissions to include a beacon and amateur packet radio using the AX.25 packet radio protocol in a “mode J” VHF/UHF configuration.

Once in orbit BLUEsat will be a digital amateur radio satellite, which means that voice and data files can be uploaded to it by any amateur radio operator in the world over which the satellite passes.

Read the Daily Advertiser article – Satellite project to reach new heights
http://www.dailyadvertiser.com.au/story/1781014/satellite-project-to-reach-new-heights/

Australia’s own BLUEsat ready for launch
https://amsat-uk.org/2013/09/13/australias-bluesat-ready-for-launch/

BLUEsat on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/bluesat.unsw

Basic Low Earth Orbit UNSW Experimental Satellite (BLUEsat) project http://www.bluesat.unsw.edu.au/

Sep 18 2013

Canadian ConSat-1 CubeSat

ConSat-1 - Image credit ESA - Photo Gregory Gibson.

ConSat-1 – Image credit ESA – Photo Gregory Gibson.

The Canadian ConSat-1 3U CubeSat aims to analyze radiation characteristics in the South-Atlantic Anomaly, and test technology payloads.

Canada is an Associate Member of the European Space Agency (ESA) and ConSat-1 is one of the educational CubeSats chosen for Phase 1 of the ‘Fly Your Satellite!’ initiative.

The ‘Fly Your Satellite!’ initiative builds on the success of the ‘CubeSats for the Vega Maiden Flight’ pilot program. This culminated in 2012 with the launch of seven student-built CubeSats on the first flight of the new ESA Vega launcher.

The South-Atlantic Anomaly is a plasma cloud 200 km from the Earth’s surface, located above the east coast of South America. It appears to be constantly growing in size and a NASA report speculates that by 2240 it might cover approximately half the southern hemisphere. http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/20000085550_2000122978.pdf

ConSat-1 plans to look at various aspects of the plasma cloud: its temperature, its atomic and molecular composition, its density, and its volume. The team hope to produce meaningful data which shows the ever-changing characteristics of this extra-spatial hazard.

In this video Nick Sweet of Space Concordia describes his teams winning CubeSat entry and provides an insightful look into the Canadian Satellite Design Challenge at the 2012 Canadian Space Summit.

Watch Space Concordia and the Canadian Satellite Design Challenge

ESA announce six CubeSats chosen for Phase 1 https://amsat-uk.org/2013/06/26/esa-announce-six-cubesats/

ESA ‘Fly Your Satellite’ Initiative http://www.esa.int/Education/Call_for_Proposals_Fly_Your_Satellite

Wiki – South-Atlantic Anomaly http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Atlantic_Anomaly

Sep 15 2013

EEVBlog – ArduSat Arduino CubeSat

ArduSat

Jonathan Oxer VK3FADO talks about the Ardusat project and shows his Arduino based cluster board at the Melbourne Connected Community Hackerspace.

The two Arduino-powered satellites ArduSat-1 and ArduSat-X arrived at the International Space Station on August 9, 2013 in the Japanese HTV-4 cargo vessel along with the PicoDragon and TechEdSat-3 CubeSats and the HamTV transmitter.

Among the other radio amateurs who’ve been working on ArduSat are Jeroen Cappaert KK6BLQ and Joel Spark KK6ANB, both hold the USA equivalent of UK and Australian Foundation licences.

Watch EEVblog #519 – Ardusat Arduino Based CubeSat Satellite

Freetronics: ArduSat – The Arduino Satellite http://www.freetronics.com/pages/ardusat-the-arduino-satellite

ArduSat Arduino CubeSat Technical Details https://amsat-uk.org/2012/06/20/ardusat-arduino-cubesat-technical-details/

ArduSat Control Centre https://ardusat.org/

Electronics Engineering Video Blog – EEVBlog
http://www.eevblog.com/forum/blog/eevblog-519-ardusat-arduino-based-cubesat-satellite/

ArduSat for UK Schools https://amsat-uk.org/2013/04/13/ardusat-for-uk-schools/

Sep 13 2013

Australia’s own BLUEsat ready for launch

The BLUEsat Team - Image credit UNSW

The BLUEsat Team – Image credit UNSW

The University of New South Wales (UNSW) has declared its undergraduate student amateur radio satellite project BLUEsat is complete and ready to be launched into space.

As the official final green light came it was to have a stratospheric balloon test flight near Wagga Wagga in New South Wales. Talks continue on a space launch date.

BLUEsat satellite - Image credit UNSW

BLUEsat satellite – Image credit UNSW

BLUEsat, a 260mm cube weighing around 13 kilograms, will carry a flight computer with transmissions to include a beacon and amateur packet radio using the AX.25 protocol in a “mode J” VHF/UHF configuration.

Magnets will passively stabilise the satellite and align it with the Earth’s magnetic field, and it will be controlled via a dedicated communications groundstation VK2UNS at UNSW is equipped with a Yaesu FT-847 satellite transceiver.

It is hoped BLUEsat will be placed in circular orbit at an altitude of around 750 km that will take it over the poles. At this altitude, the satellite will travel around the Earth at a rate of around once every 90 minutes.

Once in orbit BLUEsat will be a digital amateur radio satellite, which means that voice and data files can be uploaded to it by any amateur radio operator in the world over which the satellite passes.

Students from UNSW will continue to be the primary operators of the satellite while it is in orbit and continue the educational focus throughout the full satellite lifecycle.

Through sponsors helping to pay the bills the student-led project has given a space experience that includes VK2UNS the ground control station.

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/bluesat.unsw

Basic Low Earth Orbit UNSW Experimental Satellite (BLUEsat) project http://www.bluesat.unsw.edu.au/

January 2012 – Australian BLUEsat LEO undergoes tests
https://www.amateurradio.com.au/news/australian-bluesat-leo-undergoes-tests