Tag Archives: Amateur Radio

Jul 18 2013

UKube-1 with Amateur Radio Transponder may launch October

Artists impression of UKube-1 in orbit

Artists impression of UKube-1 in orbit – Credit Clyde Space

BBC News is reporting that the UK Space Agency’s first CubeSat UKube-1, being built by Clyde Space in Glasgow, may launch in late October 2013.

Clyde Space Senior Systems Engineer Steve Greenland will be giving a presentation on UKube-1 to the AMSAT-UK International Space Colloquium which takes place July 20-21 at the Holiday Inn, Guildford, GU2 7XZ, UK.

The Colloquium is open to all but for those unable to attend the event all 18 presentations including UKube-1 will be web streamed live on the BATC site at http://batc.tv/ch_live.php?ch=3

Flight and Engineering Models of FUNcube-1 with FUNcube-2 boards

Flight and Engineering Models of FUNcube-1 with FUNcube-2 boards

UKube-1 will carry a set of AMSAT-UK FUNcube-2 boards which will provide:
• 1200 bps BPSK telemetry beacon on 145.915 MHz
• Linear transponder downlink 145.930-145.950 MHz for SSB/CW communications
• Linear transponder uplink 435.080-435.060 MHz

In addition UKube-1 also carries:
• ISIS 1200 bps BPSK telemetry beacon on 145.840 MHz
• UKSEDS myPocketQub 442 on 437.425-437.525 MHz with 11 mW output using spread spectrum
• 1 watt transmitter on 2401.0 MHz from Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT), Cape Town, for high data rate mission data downlinking using up to 1 Mbps QPSK or OQPSK modulation

Gunter’s Space Page lists UKube-1 as manifested on a Soyuz-2-1b Fregat-M rocket to be launched from Baikonur in Kazakhstan.

FUNcube-1 flight model - Image credit Wouter Weggelaar PA3WEG

FUNcube-1 flight model – Image credit Wouter Weggelaar PA3WEG

If the launch does go ahead as planned in late October then the FUNcube-2 boards will be in orbit before the FUNcube-1 satellite which may launch in November, 2013 on a Dnepr rocket from Dombarovsky near Yasny.

FUNcube-1 will be using these frequencies:
• 1200 bps BPSK telemetry beacon on 145.935 MHz
• Linear transponder downlink 145.950-145.970 MHz for SSB/CW communications
• Linear transponder uplink 435.150-435.130 MHz

There will be a presentation on FUNcube-1 at the AMSAT-UK International Space Colloquium which will be streamed live to the web. The presentation schedule is here.

Read the BBC News story at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-23319103

Watch UK Space Agency video – UKube-1 CubeSat payload animation

On Friday, October 19, 2012 after some final testing and characterisation checks completed at the facilities of ISIS BV in Delft, AMSAT-UK handed over the set of three PCBs that form the FUNcube-2 subsystem on the UKube-1 spacecraft to Clyde Space Ltd in Glasgow. Clyde Space are leading the development and assembly of this CubeSat project for the UK Space Agency.

Steve Greenland of Clyde Space receives the AMSAT-UK FUNcube-2 boards that will be incorporated into UKube-1

Steve Greenland of Clyde Space receives the AMSAT-UK FUNcube-2 boards that will be incorporated into UKube-1

The PCBs were taken to Glasgow in a Pelicase by Graham Shirville G3VZV who handed them to Steve Greenland Senior Systems Engineer at Clyde Space.

The three PCB’s comprise:
• CCT Board – Command, control and telemetry, interfaces via I2C with the antenna deployment system and the main OBC (On-Board Computer).
• RF Board – Command receiver, telemetry transmitter and linear transponder of the FUNcube satellite educational payload also includes telemetry sensors.
• PA Board – 400 mW VHF amplifier and sensors.

The telemetry transmitter provided by AMSAT-UK will be available for educational outreach to school students around the world.

UKube-1 on display at UK Space Conference in Glasgow

UKube-1 on display at UK Space Conference in Glasgow

Jul 17 2013

Ham Radio Workshop held at Satellite Event

Participants at the 2013 small satellite developer workshop

Some of the participants at the 2013 small satellite developer workshop

The National Institute of Amateur Radio was involved in the Small Satellite Developer Workshop held July 8-13, 2013 at the Indian Institute of Information Technology, in Kancheepuram.

The event was organized by Dhruva Space, a Bangalore based Small Satellite and High Altitude Ballooning Start-up, in association with the National Institute of Amateur Radio, Hyderabad.

Satellite experts with engineering models on display helped participants to grasp the challenges in designing and developing the subsystems of the small satellites.

To understand space based applications an Amateur Radio workshop was conducted to give participants a live example of usage of communications during disaster management.

Read the full report of the event in the Small Satellite Developer Workshop Newsletter

Dhruva Space http://dhruvaspace.com/outreach/amateur-radio/
https://www.facebook.com/DhruvaSpace

National Institute of Amateur Radio http://www.niar.org/ar.html
https://www.facebook.com/NationalInstituteOfAmateurRadio

Jul 17 2013

Team STRATODEAN High Altitude Balloon Talk

Team STRATODEAN - Cassie Phelps and Mark Ireland

Team STRATODEAN – Cassie Phelps and Mark Ireland

The members of Team STRATODEAN, Cassie Phelps and Mark Ireland, will be giving a web streamed presentation on their High Altitude Balloon project to the AMSAT-UK International Space Colloquium on Saturday, July 20.

The event takes place at the Holiday Inn, Guildford, GU2 7XZ, UK and is open to all.

Image from STRATODEAN Two

Image from STRATODEAN Two

The STRATODEAN team have sent high altitude weather balloons complete with payload from the Forest of Dean up to the edge of space (approx. 34 km up into the Stratosphere). Each balloon was equipped with a camera and video recorder as well as GPS and a 434 MHz telemetry transmitter running 50 bps, 350 Hz shift, ASCII. The transmitter enables the balloon to be tracked during its flight and then located once it has burst and returned to earth with the help of a parachute.

Their first balloon STRATODEAN One launched on April 21, 2013 followed by STRATODEAN Two on May 18, 2013 and they managed to capture some stunning pictures and video.

For those unable to get to the Colloquium all the presentations on the Saturday and Sunday should be broadcast live on the web thanks to dedicated BATC volunteers on their Live Events page at http://batc.tv/ch_live.php?ch=3 The STRATODEAN talk is expected to start at 1:50 PM Saturday.

The times (BST, GMT+1) for all the presentations during the weekend are at http://tinyurl.com/2013ColloquiumSchedule

AMSAT-UK International Space Colloquium July 20-21 https://amsat-uk.org/colloquium/colloquium-2013/

STRATODEAN High Altitude Balloon Project http://www.stratodean.co.uk/

A sample issue of the AMSAT-UK newsletter OSCAR News can be downloaded here.

Jul 16 2013

Registration Needed for SSTL Kepler Visit

SSTL-Kepler-Building

SSTL Kepler Building

As part of the AMSAT-UK International Space Colloquium there will be two opportunities to visit the satellite facilities at the Surrey Satellite Technology Limited (SSTL) Kepler building.

Visit # 1 –  Friday, July 19 at 5 PM

Visit # 2 – Sat, July 20 at 9 AM

In both cases the time refers to the pick up time at the main entrance to the Holiday Inn hotel, Guildford, GU2 7XZ and each visit will last approx 1 hour.

For security reasons SSTL need visitor details in advance

The details they need are first name, last name, nationality, and employer (if you have one)

If you wish to go on one of the tours please contact Jim Heck G3WGM by email g3wgm at amsat.org ASAP with these details, including which tour you wish to go on, Fri or Sat. Responses must be received by 1100 GMT on Thursday, July 18.

 Sorry, but no details in advance, no visit !

CubeSat Workshop Friday, July 19 https://amsat-uk.org/colloquium/cubesat-workshop-2013/

AMSAT-UK International Space Colloquium July 20-21 https://amsat-uk.org/colloquium/colloquium-2013/

Jul 13 2013

New home for SunSpace staff

Sumbandilasat SO-67 before launch

Sumbandilasat SO-67 before launch

The South African Radio League (SARL) has issued the following bulletin about the company SunSpace which developed out of the Stellenbosch University SUNSAT OSCAR-35 project and was responsible for building the SumbandilaSat OSCAR-67 satellite. Both SUNSAT and SumbandilaSat carried amateur radio transponders.

The SARL say:

SunSpace is getting a new home, well at least the company’s intellectual property and 80% of the staff. The Minister of Science and Technology, Derek Hanekom alluded to solution for the ailing company in his budget speech on 21 May 2013.  He announced that the majority of SunSpace’s creditors have accepted the Department’s offer of R55 million for the institutions intellectual property and tangible assets. This decision was recommended in a business rescue plan compiled by a practitioner appointed by the SunSpace Board.

The offer was made on the basis of an independent evaluation of SunSpace’s intellectual property and tangible assets.  The offer is in line with a Cabinet decision that the satellite manufacturing company be absorbed into the South African National Space Agency (SANSA). SANSA has entered into an agreement with Denel Dynamics to house the SunSpace capability.

As part of a process of absorbing SunSpace’s capability within an appropriate entity, the company’s employees have been offered employment in the new business unit, and most of them (more than 80%) have accepted the offer thus ensuring that key capabilities are retained.  In this way, South Africa will retain the critical home-grown capacity developed by SunSpace.

SunSpace is the outflow of the Stellenbosch University SUNSAT project, South Africa’s and Africa’s first satellite launched on 23 February 1999 on Boeing-Delta II rocket from the Vandenberg Airforce base in California.  SunSat was developed and built by post graduate students and lectures. The group built SumbandilaSat for the Department of Science and Technology in record time but it took several years before it was launched. Both SunSat and SumbandilaSat had amateur radio transponders as part of their payload.

Denel is no newcomer to space. The company was involved in the previous programme until 1996 and has maintained its space capability including key staff as well as the Houwteq satellite test facility near Grabouw. “This opportunity will allow Denel to optimise the synergy between the SunSpace capabilities and its own capability for broader national technological benefit,” said the Group CEO of Denel, Mr Riaz Saloojee.

DynaCube – Denel Dynamics Interns make good progress
https://amsat-uk.org/2012/12/11/dynacube-denel-dynamics-interns-make-good-progress/

DynaCube to explore the South Atlantic Anomaly
https://amsat-uk.org/2013/03/30/dynacube-to-explore-the-south-atlantic-anomaly/

South African CubeSat DynaCube
https://amsat-uk.org/2012/07/19/south-african-cubesat-dynacube/

Jul 12 2013

Signal strengths of the two ISS ham radio stations

International Space Station ISS with shuttle Endeavour 2011-05-23

Henk Hamoen PA3GUO used his AMSAT-UK FUNcube Dongle Software Defined Radio (FCD SDR) to show the variations in signal strength between the two amateur radio stations on-board the International Space Station (ISS).

Expedition 5 flight engineer Peggy Whitson KC5ZTD holds one of the two amateur radio antennas in the Unity node on the ISS. The antennas were installed during a spacewalk scheduled on August 22, 2002

Expedition 5 flight engineer Peggy Whitson KC5ZTD holds one of the two ISS amateur radio antennas installed on the Russian Service Module August 22, 2002

The amateur radio station in the Russian Service Module uses a Kenwood D700 transceiver which is understood be on its lowest power setting of 5 watts output and feeds a whip antenna on the Module. When acting as a packet radio digipeater it transmits data on 145.825 MHz.

A second amateur radio station in the European Space Agency (ESA) Columbus Module is usually used for voice communication. It comprises Ericsson handheld transceivers believed to be capable of 5 watts output to a whip antenna on the exterior of the module. When the radio hams on-board the ISS talk to other radio amateurs on Earth they transmit on 145.800 MHz.

Both stations use 5 kHz deviation FM (25 kHz channel spacing).

FUNcube Dongle Software Defined Radio

FUNcube Dongle Software Defined Radio

Henk PA3GUO writes:

FCD SDR recording of ARISS Italy school contact with astronauts onboard the ISS. Purpose is to show the signal strengths of the 2 transceivers onboard ISS: Ericsson Voice transceiver (left) and Kenwood data transceiver (right). At time 11:54z [2013-06-29] my antenna had to turn 180 degrees, signal is lost for a while. Remarkable: at the beginning voice TX signal is strong, even a bit stronger as data TX signal. At the end of the pass data keeps strong, voice fully drops into the noise. Seems the antenna of the Voice [ESA Columbus Module] transceiver is somewhat (more) shielded by the ISS exterior (e.g. solar panels).

29 June 2013, school contact Italy with International Space Station
Frequency: 145.800 + 145.825 MHz
Antenna: 6 elements + 15 meters Aircell coaxial cables
Receiver: FCD SDR + SSB pre-amp (mounted next to the FCD SDR)
Software: HDSDR (SDR receiver) + SatControlFCD (DK3WN freq control)

Watch ARISS Italy ISS SDR recording (speech and data spectrum)

Russian Service Module amateur radio antennas http://knts.tsniimash.ru/shadow/en/FAQ.aspx
Also see http://www.marexmg.org/hardware/antennas.html

Astronaut Radio Amateurs http://www.w5rrr.org/astros.html

PA3GUO website http://www.pa3guo.com/