Tag Archives: Amateur Radio

Apr 16 2013

Antares CubeSat Launch

Antares Rocket Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Antares Rocket Tuesday, April 16, 2013

The launch of Antares carrying three CubeSats with amateur radio payloads is expected to take place on Wednesday, April 17.

ANS reports that three PhoneSat cubesats will be aboard the Orbital Sciences Corporation Antares(TM) rocket from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility (WFF) in eastern Virginia scheduled for April 17 at approximately 5:00 p.m. (EDT). The launch will be shown live on NASA TV at http://www.nasa.gov/ntv and also at http://www.nasa.gov/orbital

The three PhoneSats carry amateur radio payloads on 437.425 MHz, each transmits at intervals so all three should be receivable during a pass.

The callsign will be KJ6KRW all three satellites will transmit using AFSK (1200 bps) modulation, AX.25 packet coding. The two PhoneSat 1.0 satellites, Graham and Bell, transmit with a periodicity of respectively 28 seconds and 30 seconds. The PhoneSat 2.0 beta satellite, Alexandre, transmits with a periodicity of 25 seconds.

PhoneSat was chosen as one of the winners in the Aerospace category for the Popular Science magazine “Best of What’s New 2012″ awards. The PhoneSat is a technology demonstration mission consisting of three 1U CubeSats intended to prove that a smartphone can be used to perform many of the functions required of a spacecraft bus.

The satellite is built around the Nexus smartphone which will be running the Android operating system and will be enclosed in a standard 1U CubeSat structure. The main function of the phone is to act as the Onboard Computer, but the mission will also utilize the phone’s SD card for data storage, 5MP camera for Earth Observation, and 3-axis accelerometer and 3-axis magnetometer for attitude determination.

One of the nanosatellites, powered by the HTC Nexus One smartphone, will send back pictures of Earth. The other two, running on the Samsung Nexus S, will have two-way S-band radio allowing them to be controlled from Earth.

With a short lifetime of only about one week, the satellites have no solar cells and operate on battery only.

An updated website with telemetry info is now available. Please note the launch date/time may change.
http://www.phonesat.org/packets.php

The Antares launch includes the commercial DOVE-1 satellite, a technology development experiment. The satellite had requested IARU coordination for a 1 watt transmitter on 145.825 MHz to downlink a 1200 baud AFSK AX.25 beacon with telemetry and health data. The AMSAT News Service reported in ANS-027 that according to the IARU DOVE-1 will no longer be using frequencies in the amateur radio bands.

It appears the USA FCC granted the experimental callsign WF9XKA for the use by Dove 1, it is believed it may use a downlink on 2420 MHz. Search for Cosmogia at https://apps.fcc.gov/oetcf/els/reports/GenericSearch.cfm
Dove-1  information https://apps.fcc.gov/els/GetAtt.html?id=121393
Dove 2 is slated to launch from Baikonur in Kazakhstan on April 19 on a Soyuz-2-1a,

PhoneSat http://www.phonesat.org/

TLEs / ‘Keps’ for recent launches http://celestrak.com/NORAD/elements/tle-new.txt

Check the AMSAT Bulletin Board (AMSAT-BB) for the latest information http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/tools/maillist/

Thanks to AMSAT News Service (ANS), AMSAT-NA, AMSAT-UK and Samudra Haque N3RDX / S21X for the above information.

Apr 16 2013

Radio Amateurs get $25,000 for CubeSat project from JPL

Sharlene Katz WB6FFE and James Flynn WB9AWX - Image credit CSUN

Sharlene Katz WB6FFE and James Flynn WB9AWX – Image credit CSUN

Radio hams Professor Sharlene Katz, WB6FFE and Professor James Flynn, WB9AWX have received $25,000 from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory for a CubeSat project.

There is also an award of $30,000 for the project listed by The University Corporation.

The Daily Sundial newspaper carries a report on the California State University Northridge (CSUN) CubeSat project which says the 2U CubeSat aims to test alternative power techniques for satellites and spacecrafts and is estimated to cost between $60,000 and $80,000.

“And that’s all just parts. Our labor, of course, is for free,” joked Sharlene Katz [WB6FFE], Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering.

Typically, it would cost another $45,000 just to launch the satellite. But thanks to their sponsorship from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, the satellite will be hitching a ride with a shuttle in a few years.

In order to communicate with the CubeSat, the team is also building an automated ground station on top of Jacaranda Hall. The system is going to be using old equipment from a previous experiment.

“There’s a lot of problems with the ground station right now, it’s old equipment,” said member Rufus Simon. “We’re fixing it! Step by step.”

The station will not only help the team track CSUN’s CubeSat, but other satellites as well. It will become part of the Global Educational Network for Satellite Operations (GENSO), which is a community of universities across the world who track and communicate with satellites.

Phase two of the project is set to start during the fall semester of 2013, and the team is hoping to complete the satellite by December of 2014.

Read the full Daily Sundial story at
http://sundial.csun.edu/2013/04/students-and-faculty-work-to-launch-shoebox-sized-satellite/

CSUN New Sponsored Programs http://www.csun.edu/sponsoredprograms/status/newprojects.php

CSUN Research & Sponsored Projects http://www.csun.edu/grip/research/

Global Educational Network for Satellite Operations (GENSO) http://www.esa.int/Education/Global_Educational_Network_for_Satellite_Operations

Apr 15 2013

Video – The CanSat Leader Training Program

CanSats are tiny satellites, built to fit in the same space as a soda-can. UNISEC is running a training program in Japan later this year, to train people on how to build and teach building of these ingenious devices.

Watch The 2nd CanSat Leader Training Program (CLTP2) held in Nihon University

Applications for the 4th CanSat Leader Training Program (CLTP4) http://www.unisec.jp/flash/index-e.html

Apr 14 2013

Amateur Radio Satellite Operation Planned From Inner Hebrides Islands

Camb-Hams Amateur Radio Van

Camb-Hams Amateur Radio Van

Members of Camb-Hams will once again activate the Isle of Mull (IOSA NH15, SCOTIA CN10, WLOTA 2485), Inner Hebrides, as GS3PYE/p between May 10-16. The Camb-Hams have been activating the Scottish Isles each year since 2008.

Look for thirteen operators to be active on all bands and many modes from 160-2 meters as well as 472 kHz. The HF bands will be covered by five simultaneous stations, while 6m, 4m and 2m stations will have a great take-off towards the UK and Europ from the island’s south-east coast in IO76 square.

Amateur Radio Satellite FO-29

Amateur Radio Satellite FO-29

They will have an antenna elevation system for 2m EME activity and will also be on many of the VHF/UHF satellite passes. WSPR beacons will be operating on most of the inactive bands to help find the best propagation. Contest operations will take place in 70 MHz CW on May 12th and 432 MHz UKAC on May 14th. The group will be active on the major social networks before, during and after the trip.

You can check on progress or interact with the operators via:

Blog http://dx.camb-hams.com/
Twitter http://twitter.com/g3pye
Facebook http://facebook.com/CambHams
YouTube http://youtube.com/CambHams

Previous trips have generated some great audio and video recordings of the GS3PYE/P signal from around the world. Check their previous blogs and their YouTube channel and see if you can post a better recording.

Please E-mail skeds-2013@camb-hams.com to arrange skeds on the more challenging bands and modes. VHF and EME skeds will also be made via ON4KST and N0UK’s EME Chat. All links are available via http://dx.camb-hams.com/

[Thanks to ANS and Ohio/Penn DX Bulletin No. 1107 for the above information]

Apr 13 2013

UK 434 MHz balloons over Central Europe

A Raspberry Pi computer board

A Raspberry Pi computer board

On Saturday, April 13 at 1000 UT, two balloons both carrying 434 MHz transmitters were launched from Cambridge, UK . One transmitting video images from a Rapsberry Pi computer board, the other carried a 144.800 MHz APRS beacon M0UPU-11 in addition to the 434 MHz beacon.

The first balloon PIE5 is flying a Raspberry Pi computer board which transmitted live Slow Scan Digital Video (SSDV) images back to the ground by a pair of transmitters to double the bandwidth. The data was RTTY 300 baud 8N2. The frequencies used were 434.070 and 434.074 MHz. The balloon call sign was $$PIE.

The second balloon AVA flew a 70cms tracker on 434.450 MHz 50 baud 7N2. Additionally once it entered air space where the airborne use of APRS is permitted a second APRS transmitter was enabled (the APRS frequency is 144.800 MHz) with the call sign M0UPU-11.

The balloons had been expected to head for Poland and on Saturday evening they were over Germany but by early Sunday morning PIE5 was over Switzerland and AVA was over Austria.

The 434 MHz downlinks  on the balloons are generated using Radiometrix NTX2 transmitter modules, the batteries were expected to last 24 hours.

A third balloon callsign XABEN transmitting on 434.350MHz, 470Hz shift, 7N1 was also launched. Tthis was configured to have a short lifetime, going straight-up until the balloon burst rather than floating at 30km across Europe.

Live video of the launch was streamed by the British Amateur TV Club (BATC) at http://www.batc.tv/

Tracks of both balloons are at http://www.spacenear.us/tracker

Direct link to M0UPU-11 APRS track
http://aprs.fi/#!call=a%2FM0UPU-11&timerange=86400&tail=86400

Images from the PIE5 Raspberry Pi balloon transmitted using SSDV can be seen at http://ssdv.habhub.org/

To get details of upcoming launches subscribe to the UKHAS Mailing List by sending a blank email to this address: ukhas+subscribe@googlegroups.com

Twitter #ukhas https://twitter.com/search?q=%23ukhas

Beginners Guide to Tracking using dl-fldigi http://ukhas.org.uk/guides:tracking_guide

Digital Slow Scan Video http://ukhas.org.uk/guides:ssdv

Apr 13 2013

ESTCube-1 Tether Satellite

Artists impression of ESTCube-1 in space - Image credit University of Tartu

Artists impression of ESTCube-1 in space – Image credit University of Tartu

Estonia’s first CubeSat ESTCube-1, amateur radio callsign ES5E/S, is planning to launch from Kourou in the Caribbean on May 2, 2013 on an ESA VEGA rocket.

Built by students at the University of Tartu ESTCube-1 the main mission of the satellite is to test electric solar wind sail technology, a novel space propulsion technology that could revolutionalize transportation within the solar system. It will deploy a 10 meter conductive electrodynamic tether and the force interacting with the tether will be measured.

The technology is based on the electrostatic interaction between the electric field generated by the satellite and the high-speed particles being ejected from the Sun. A spacecraft utilizing this method would first deploy a set of electrically charged wires, which allow to generate an electric field over a large area. This area effectively forms a “sail” that can be pushed by the charged particles by being diverted by it and therefore transferring momentum to the craft.

The team also aim to capture images of Estonia for outreach purposes.

Continue reading →