Tag Archives: Amateur Radio

Jul 2 2013

ISS Ham Radio Slow Scan TV Active

ISS Slow Scan TV received by Dmitry Pashkov UB4UAD

ISS Slow Scan TV received by Dmitry Pashkov UB4UAD

The Slow Scan TV (SSTV) experiment MAI-75 on the International Space Station (ISS) was active on July 2-3, on 145.800 MHz FM.

The Russian ham radio call sign is RS0ISS. Two Russian hams, Pavel Vinogradov, RV3BS, and Fyodor Yurchikhin, RN3FI, are aboard the ISS as part of the Expedition 36 crew.

On July 2, Dmitry Pashkov UB4UAD received the picture opposite and on July 3, Joshua Nelson KB1TCI at the International Space University (ISU) GENSO ground station received the picture below.

All you need to do to receive the SSTV pictures from the space station is to  connected the audio output of a scanner or amateur rig via a simple interface to the soundcard on a Windows PC or an Apple iOS device, and tune in to 145.800 MHz FM. You can even receive pictures by holding an iPhone next to the radio’s loudspeaker.

ATV-4 SSTV image received by Joshua Nelson KB1TCI at ISU GENSO ground station

SSTV image of ATV-4 received by Joshua Nelson KB1TCI at the ISU GENSO ground station

The ISS puts out a strong signal on 145.800 MHz FM and a 2m handheld with a 1/4 wave antenna will be enough to receive it. The FM transmission uses 5 kHz deviation which is standard in much of the world.

Many FM rigs in the UK can be switched been wide and narrow deviation FM filters so select the wider deviation. Handhelds all seem to have a single wide filter fitted as standard.

On Windows PC’s the free application MMSSTV can be used to decode the signal, on Apple iOS devices you can use the SSTV app. The ISS Fan Club website will show you when the space station is in range.

For more on Slow Scan Television SSTV, see this article SSTV – The Basics.

ISS SSTV picture of ATV-4 received by Dmitry Pashkov UB4UAD

ISS SSTV picture of ATV-4 received by Dmitry Pashkov UB4UAD

How to be successful with the ISS Slow Scan Television (SSTV) imaging system
http://www.marexmg.org/fileshtml/howtoisssstv.html

Information on the MAI-75 SSTV experiment
http://www.energia.ru/eng/iss/researches/education-26.html

IZ8BLY Vox Recoder, enables you to record the signals from the ISS on 145.800 MHz while you’re away at work http://antoninoporcino.xoom.it/VoxRecorder/

ARISS Slow Scan TV (SSTV) Blog and Gallery http://ariss-sstv.blogspot.co.uk/

Watch this video showing MMSSTV receceiving a SSTV picture  November 9, 2012

For the latest status of amateur radio activity on the ISS and real time tracking see http://www.issfanclub.com/

Jul 1 2013

OPS-SAT Opportunity for Radio Amateurs

CAD drawing og OPS-SAT - credit ESA

CAD drawing of OPS-SAT – credit ESA

OPS-SAT provides a rare opportunity for testing new amateur radio software for use on a CubeSat actually in space. The 3U CubeSat has deployable solar arrays and plans to launch in 2016 into a Low Earth Orbit (LEO).

Although the formal closing dates for expressions of interest from potential experimenters for this project has now closed, contact has been made with Dave Evans at ESA-ESOC who has confirmed that they would be very interested to receive proposals from an AMSAT team to develop a novel use of this spacecraft for amateur radio purposes.

In addition to an X Band downlink and S Band uplinks and downlinks, the spacecraft will carry a simplex transceiver operating with 4k8/9k6 telemetry using GMSK on the 435 MHz band.

It s understood that experimenters will have access to an onboard processor running Linux/Java at 500 to 800 MHz.

The project is open to teams led by a group from any ESA member country (this includes Canada) and initial info is shown here although the detailed design is being rapidly iterated.

It is emphasised that this is a very open project which will require lots of interaction between the contributing groups.

Bright ideas are needed from our software experts and If there is sufficient interest it may be possible to host a Skype conference about this opportunity during the AMSAT-UK International Space Colloquium over the weekend of July 20-21.

It is not proposed that this should be an AMSAT-UK led project, but Graham Shirville G3VZV is happy to provide some initial coordination!

OPS-SAT Evolving Software Technology for Spacecraft Operations
http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Operations/OPS-SAT_Evolving_Software_Technology_for_Spacecraft_Operations

Jun 29 2013

FITSAT-1 Ham Radio CubeSat to De-orbit by July 4 – Reports Requested

The five ISS CubeSats Altitude compared with ARISSat-1 - chart by Masa JN1GKZ

The five ISS CubeSats Altitude compared with ARISSat-1 – chart by Masa JN1GKZ

It is expected that the amateur radio CubeSat FITSAT-1, built by students at the Fukuoka Institute of Technology, will re-enter the Earths atmosphere and burn-up by Thursday, July 4.

FITSAT-1 QSL card GW1FKY - Front

FITSAT-1 QSL card received by Ken Eaton GW1FKY

FITSAT-1 and four other CubeSats were deployed from the Internatonal Space Station (ISS) on October 4, 2012. Three of them, WE-WISH, TechEdSat and F-1 have already de-orbited. All of the CubeSats were 1U in size (10x10x10 cm, 1-1.2 kg) except for RAIKO which is a 2U CubeSat twice the size and mass (20x10x10 cm, 2 kg).

Masahiro Arai JN1GKZ has produced a chart showing the decline in altitude of the five CubeSats and compares them with the far larger ARISSat-1 satellite deployed from the ISS on August 3, 2011.

As well as the CW telemetry beacon on 437.250 MHz FITSAT-1 also has a 1200 bps AX.25 packet radio transmitter on 437.445 MHz,  a high-speed (115.2 kbps) data transmitter on 5840.0 MHz and has flashed Morse code to observers on Earth using an LED array.

Takushi Tanaka JA6AVG requests that radio amateurs listen out for the CW telemetry beacon of FITSAT-1 on 437.250 MHz (+/- 10 kHz Doppler shift) during the last few days. Reception reports should be emailed to: tanaka at fit.ac.jp

FITSAT-1 website http://www.fit.ac.jp/~tanaka/fitsat.shtml

Further information and pictures of the CubeSats are at
https://amsat-uk.org/satellites/techedsat-f-1-fitsat-1-we-wish/

Free satellite tracking software:
• SimpleSat Look Down http://www.tomdoyle.org/SimpleSatLookDown/
• Gpredict http://gpredict.oz9aec.net/
• Orbitron http://www.uk.amsat.org/?p=9051

Keplerian Two Line Elements (TLEs) ‘Keps’ for CubeSats are at http://celestrak.com/NORAD/elements/cubesat.txt

Amateur Radio CubeSats TechEdSat, F-1 and FITSAT-1 pass the ISS solar panels

TechEdSat, F-1 and FITSAT-1 pass the ISS solar panels shortly after deployment

Jun 28 2013

UoSAT-1 – OSCAR-9 story in Daily Mail Newspaper Archive

UOSAT-1 OSCAR 9 Team

UoSAT-1 – OSCAR 9 and Team

The Daily Mail newspaper archive from 1896 to 2004 is now available online and contains a wealth of stories about amateur radio and amateur radio satellites such as UoSAT-1 (also known as UoSAT-OSCAR-9 or UO-9) built at the University of Surrey in Guildford.

The amateur radio satellite UoSAT-1, built by Martin Sweeting G3YJO and his team, featured in a Daily Mail story The men who put a dream in space published Tuesday, October 13, 1981. The story is written with a sexist slant, sadly all too common at the time, saying “Every schoolboy can circle Earth with the Guildford satellite”. Apparently the Daily Mail didn’t want schoolgirls to listen to the satellite.

One of the many amateur radio stories the newspaper published is Amateur Radio Triumph that appeared on Friday, November 16, 1928. It describes the first Transatlantic contact between the UK and the USA which took place on the 28 MHz (10m) band.

Free access to the Daily Mail archive is only available until July 20, 2013 at
http://www.galeuk.com/trials/dailymail-opentrial/

Try searching for Amateur Radio or UoSAT or Marconi.

You can save the stories to your PC by selecting 100% zoom then doing a right-hand mouse click on the story and selecting Save Image As in Firefox or Save Picture As in Internet Explorer.

The UoSAT-1 Technical Handbook lists these contributors to the project:
Telecommand System and Flight Configuration – Dr. Martin Sweeting G3YJO, UOS/AMSAT-UK
Power Systems – Jerzy Slowikowski, UOS/AMSAT-UK
Telemetry – Dr. Lui Mansi, UOS/AMSAT-UK
Data Beacons – Bob Haining, UOS/AMSAT-UK
Antenna Systems – Tony Brown, UOS/AMSAT-UK
Navigation Magnetometer – Christine Sweeting G6APF, UOS/AMSAT-UK
Spacecraft Microcomputers – Chris Haynes, UOS/AMSAT-UK
HF Beacons – Colin Smithers G4CWH, UOS/AMSAT-UK
CCD Camera Imaging – Dr Paul Taylor, UOS/AMSAT-UK

30th Anniversary of UoSAT-1 (OSCAR-9)
https://amsat-uk.org/2011/10/12/30th-anniversary-of-uosat-1-oscar-9/

UoSAT-2 – OSCAR-11 still transmitting after 29 years in orbit
https://amsat-uk.org/2013/05/08/oscar-11-still-transmitting-after-29-years/

Jun 28 2013

UK Radio Ham Plans Lunar CubeSat

Pocket Spacecraft

Pocket Spacecraft

UK radio amateur Michael Johnson M0MJJ is raising funds on Kickstarter for a CubeSat that aims to travel to the Moon.

Michael - Founder

Michael – Founder

The Pocket Spacecraft project hopes to raise at least £290,000 ($442,000) to fund a 3U (30x10x10cm) CubeSat. It will carry Pocket Spacecraft known as ‘Scouts’ to the Moon. A ‘Scout’ is a disk with flexible electronics, smaller than a CD, containing a transceiver, antenna and solar cells.

The CubeSat should release a batch of the wafer thin Scout satellites into Earth orbit and deploy another batch of the Scout satellites into Lunar orbit.

Melania - Microgravity Experiment Lead

Melania – Microgravity Experiment Lead

It is understood the mission plans to use the 435 MHz and 2400 MHz bands.

The Kickstarter page says “If you are, or would like to be, a radio amateur, we’ll show you how to communicate directly with your spacecraft in space when it is nearby using inexpensive UHF and S-band equipment. Communication at (cis-)lunar distances is more expensive (typically requiring 5-24m+ steerable dishes), but available to some clubs and enthusiasts.”

Watch the video and read more about the Pocket Spacecraft project at
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1677943140/send-your-own-pocket-spacecraft-on-a-mission-to-th

Pocket Spacecraft is believed to be the first UK satellite project to use Kickstarter. These USA satellite projects have already successfully raised money on Kickstarter:

Radio ham Zac Manchester KD2BHC used Kickstarter to raise $74,586 in donations to fund the development and deployment of 200 amateur radio KickSat sprite satellites expected to take place later this year.

Radio amateurs Jeroen Cappaert KK6BLQ and Joel Spark KK6ANB are on the team of the ham radio satellite project ArduSat. They managed to raise donations of $106,330 in just 30 days.

SkyCube which will transmit on 915 MHz in the 902-928 MHz amateur radio band raised $116,890.

Kickstarter is not just about raising large sums of money, for example Sandy Antunes used Kickstarter to raise $2,780 to buy a ham radio transceiver and antennas to create an amateur radio satellite ground station Calliope.

Jun 27 2013

915-921 MHz to be license exempt in UK

Ofcom-logo-col-tOfcom has published a statement setting out its decision to release the 870-876 MHz and 915-921 MHz spectrum bands on a license exempt basis

This follows a consultation in January 2013. The released spectrum will be used by Short Range Devices (SRDs) and Radio Frequency Identification (RFIDs). A further consultation on the technical details of the license exemption will follow in the autumn.

The adoption of 915-921 MHz by CEPT would create the only license exempt spectrum between 41 and 2400 MHz that is available world-wide. Other license exempt frequency bands for SRDs and RFIDs are only available on a regional or country basis causing problems when equipment produced for one country is sold in another.

The Ofcom statement can be found here
http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/consultations/872_876_mhz/statement/

The SkyCube CubeSat which aims to be deployed from the International Space Station (ISS) at the end of 2013 plans to transmit on 915 MHz.

Naval Postgraduate School CubeSat 915 MHz 57.6 kbps modem http://www.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a556715.pdf