Tag Archives: Amateur Radio

Jun 26 2012

F-1 CubeSat Delivered to Tsukuba Space Center

CubeSats ready for HTV-3 Launch – Image Credit Koumei Shibata

The amateur radio CubeSat F-1 built by students at the FPT University in Hanoi, Vietnam has now been delivered to the Tsukuba Space Center in Japan.

F-1 CubeSat – Image Credit Koumei Shibata

F-1 and the other four CubeSats  (RAIKO, WE WISH, FITSAT-1 and TechEdSat) will be integrated with the small satellite deployer J-SSOD before leaving for Tanegashima launch pad.

The CubeSats should be launched to the International Space Station (ISS) on July 21 in the HTV-3 cargo vessel.  It is planned that they will be deployed from the ISS in September by Japanese astronaut Akihiko Hoshide KE5DNI using the Kibo robot arm.

F-1 carries a low-resolution camera (640×480), a 3-axis magnetometer and two Yaesu VX-3R transceivers using 145.980 and 437.485 MHz.

See the story on the FPT University website http://tinyurl.com/FTP-F-1-To-Launch

Further pictures of the CubeSats by Koumei Shibata can be seen at http://fspace.edu.vn/?p=633

An NHK TV News video showing the CubeSats shows the LED’s on FITSAT-1 that will be used to flash Morse Code from space. See http://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/html/20120625/t10013095191000.html

For the latest news on F-1 see the FSpace website http://fspace.edu.vn/

Video depicting F-1 CubeSat XV1VN deployment from the ISS http://www.uk.amsat.org/?p=8446

Vietnam Student CubeSat F-1 http://www.uk.amsat.org/?p=5025

Jun 24 2012

Video of ArduSat NASDAQ Interview

NanoSatisfi founder Peter Platzer appeared on the Japanese NASDAQ TV feed to talk about the ArduSat satellite.

ArduSat is an open-source arduino-based nanosatellite. It will have an extensive sensor-suite onboard and will allow users to upload their own code and run their own experiments.

ArduSat will use a GomSpace NanoCom U482C which is a half-duplex UHF transceiver, capable of up to 3W, operating in the 435-438 MHz amateur radio satellite band. It implements Forward Error Correction (FEC) and Viterbi coding based on the CCSDS standards in order to improve reliability and throughput of the space link.

The project is raising donations through the Kickstarter site at http://nanosatisfi.com/ In just over a week they raised more than $43,000 in pledges from almost 300 donors.

Watch NanoSatisfi NASDAQ interview which is in English with Japanese sub-titles

Watch ArduSat Kickstarter Thank you

It is understanding the team are now aiming for a larger 2U CubeSat instead of the 1U originally planned.

ISIS CubeSat Structure Brochure http://www.isispace.nl/brochures/ISIS_CubeSat%20Structures_Brochure_v.7.11.pdf

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/pages/NanoSatisfi/307866409295499

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

ArduSat Open Source CubeSat Next Phase in DIY Space Access http://www.uk.amsat.org/?p=8337

ArduSat Arduino CubeSat Update http://www.uk.amsat.org/?p=8284

NanoSatisfi was founded by Austrian-born Peter Platzer a former high-energy physicist (CERN), former Hedge Fund Quantitative Trader, avid HP-41 hacker and Arduino enthusiast, along with Belgian aerospace engineer Jeroen Cappaert intern at NASA Ames Research Center, Canadian aerospace engineer Joel Spark intern at EADS Astrium and Hungarian Reka Kovacs intern at NASA Ames Research Center working on alternative methods of public outreach for space science. The four founders met at the International Space University in Strasbourg and thought that they could do something to provide affordable, open-source space exploration for everyone.

Jun 22 2012

Winner of HORYU-2 Receiving Competition

Testing_HORYU-2_Solar_Panels

Testing HORYU-2 Solar Panels

Built by students at the Kyushu Institute of Technology (KIT) the amateur radio satellite HORYU-2 was launched on May 17 at 1639 UT.

HORYU-2 Receiving Competition Prize

Radio amateurs from around the world sent in telemetry and the winner with the most points has been announced as Yoshitomo Iji JA6PL who will be presented with a bottle as the prize.

The top three places were:

1st place: JA6PL (91 points)
2nd place: ZL2BX (36 points)
3rd place: JF1EUY (35 points)

The satellite’s callsign is JG6YBW and the CW telemetry beacon frequency is 437.375 MHz (+/- Doppler shift).

The free KIT HORYU-2 telemetry software can be downloaded from
http://kitsat.ele.kyutech.ac.jp/Documents/information_launch_english.html

KIT HORYU Blog in Google English http://tinyurl.com/HORYU-Blog

Japanese HORYU website in Google English http://tinyurl.com/HoryuSatellite

English language version of HORYU website http://kitsat.ele.kyutech.ac.jp/index_e_new.html

Further information on HORYU-2 is at http://www.uk.amsat.org/7404

HORYU-2 online WebSDR receiver http://sdr.opt.ro:8901/

KIT HORYU-2 Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/277436165678985/

HORYU-2 CW Telemetry Decoder by DK3WN http://tinyurl.com/SatSoftwareDK3WN/

SimpleSatLookDown satellite tracking software http://www.uk.amsat.org/?p=8217

Jun 21 2012

Video of Space Shuttle Discovery STS-56 mission

Ellen Ochoa KB5TZZ the first Hispanic woman in space

The crew of STS-56 made numerous amateur radio contacts to schools around the world using the Shuttle Amateur Radio Experiment II (SAREX II), including brief radio contact with the Russian Mir space station, the first such contact between Shuttle and Mir using amateur radio equipment.

STS-56 Mission Specialist Ellen Ochoa KB5TZZ plays the flute in space shuttle Discovery’s aft flight deck in April 1993. Credit: NASA

STS-56 was a Space Shuttle Discovery mission to perform special experiments. The mission launched from Kennedy Space Center, Florida, on April 8, 1993.

There were four radio hams on STS-56, Kenneth D. Cameron KB5AWP, Mike Foale KB5UAC, Ellen Ochoa KB5TZZ, Kenneth Cockrell KB5UAH.

Ellen Ochoa KB5TZZ was the first Hispanic woman to go into space. She went on to complete four space shuttle flights and become Deputy Director of the Johnson Space Center.

The primary payload of the flight was the Atmospheric Laboratory for Applications and Science-2 (ATLAS-2), designed to collect data on the relationship between the sun’s energy output and Earth’s middle atmosphere and how these factors affect the ozone layer. It included six instruments mounted on a Spacelab pallet in the cargo bay, with the seventh mounted on the wall of the bay in two Get Away Special canisters.

Narrated by the Commander and crew, this video contains footage selected by the astronauts, as well as their comments on the mission. Footage includes launch, onboard crew activities, and landing.

The amateur radio aspect of the mission features at 09:58 into the video.

Watch Space Shuttle STS-56 Discovery ATLAS-2 pt1-2 Post Flight Press 1993 NASA

Watch Space Shuttle STS-56 Discovery ATLAS-2 pt2-2 Post Flight Press 1993 NASA

Jun 21 2012

Students Build Supercapacitor Battery for next ARISSat

Penn State Behrend students Jacob Sherk, Kathleen Nicholas and David Jesberger put final touches to the amateur radio satellite supercapacitor battery – Image Credit Pennsylvania State University

On Feb. 3, 2006, astronauts tossed an old spacesuit off the International Space Station. Inside was an amateur radio transmitter, a temperature sensor and some batteries.

The suit was a DIY satellite. It circled the Earth twice, repeating a greeting recorded in multiple languages; ham radio operators listened in as it passed overhead.

Then the batteries died.

The Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation, or AMSAT, tried again in 2011. The battery in that satellite, a more traditional box design, also failed.

Penn State Nittany Lions Paw Print

For the next model, AMSAT, a volunteer group, turned to the School of Engineering at Penn State Erie, The Behrend College. Three students designed a brand-new battery: a 1.8 kg cube powered by 15 supercapacitors, each roughly the size of a film canister.

The battery was built to handle 16 charge cycles in a 24-hour period. That will power the satellite in dark orbits, when the solar panels are not facing the sun.

To activate the battery before those solar panels charge, the students – David Jesberger, of St. Marys; Kathleen Nicholas, of Pittsburgh; and Jacob Sherk, of Elizabethtown – added four 9-volt Duracells.

AMSAT hopes to fit the satellite into a rocket payload and onto the International Space Station sometime in 2013. The astronauts won’t have to do much with it.

“It’s simple by design. They flip a switch, and they throw it out,” said Dakshina Murthy Bellur, an assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at Penn State Behrend. He supervised the battery work, which counted as the students’ senior capstone project.

All three students have since graduated. All three have jobs: Nicholas and Jesberger signed on with defense contractors, and Sherk works at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant.

They continue to track the AMSAT project. They want to know when their battery, upon which they laser-etched with their names and a Nittany Lion paw print, gets a launch date.

“That’s going to be cool,” Jesberger said. “We’ll have our signatures in space.”

Source Pennsylvania State University http://live.psu.edu/story/60125

ARISSat http://www.arissat.org/

Jun 21 2012

10th Anniversary of OSCAR 7’s Return To Life

Artists impression of OSCAR 7 in Space

Artists impression of OSCAR 7 in Space

The amateur radio satellite AMSAT-OSCAR 7 was launched by a Delta rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base on November 15, 1974 and provided many years of service until it went silent from battery failure in mid 1981.

Pat Gowen G3IOR

Pat Gowen G3IOR

For 21 years nothing more was heard until June 21, 2002 when Pat Gowen G3IOR came across a beacon sending slow 8 -10 wpm CW on 145.973.8 MHz. It sounded like old OSCAR satellite telemetry, it had the familiar HI HI followed by a string of numbers in groups of three. After monitoring by many radio amateurs it turned out to be OSCAR-7, and it seemed to have come back from the dead.

Pat’s email to the AMSAT Bulletin Board announcing his discovery can be seen at
https://web.archive.org/web/20180517020245/https://www.amsat.org/amsat/archive/amsat-bb/200206/msg00525.html

It is believed that in 1981 the batteries failed short-circuit, however, in 2002 they became open-circuit enabling the satellite to run again from the solar panels. Since that day OSCAR 7 has been operational when in sunlight and provided radio amateurs with many long distance (DX) SSB/CW contacts.

Remember when working OSCAR 7 use the least uplink power possible to minimize your downlink power usage, and maximize the number of simultaneous contacts supported in the passband.

A BBC News report Radio ham finds lost satellite about the reception of OSCAR 7 by Dave Rowan G4CUO can be seen at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/2149381.stm

A collection of photos by Dick Daniels W4PUJ taken during the construction, test and launch of the AMSAT-OSCAR 7 spacecraft in 1973 and 1974 can be viewed at http://n4hy.smugmug.com/AMSAT/AMSAT-Oscar-7

Details of the June 1981 battery failure and a list of AO-7’s achievements can be found on pages 37-40 of the 1981 AMSAT Satellite Report Archive at http://www.ka9q.net/asr-1981.pdf

Later pages of the 1981 ASR archive note that amateurs continued listening to the AO-7 frequencies in the hope it would return. They were reports of a weak beacon carrier in July and August 1981 but although amateurs continued listening nothing was heard in the months after that.

ARRL report June 24, 2002 – It’s Aliiiiive! AMSAT-OSCAR 7 Satellite Returns from the Dead https://web.archive.org/web/20051104135636/http://www2.arrl.org/news/stories/2002/06/24/101/

Oscar 7 Information https://web.archive.org/web/20110605102903/https://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/satellites/satInfo.php?satID=9

Video of 2E0HTS Working the OSCAR-7 Satellite
https://amsat-uk.org/2012/01/26/2e0hts-working-the-oscar-7-satellite/

2010 video of the then AO-7 distance record
http://www.southgatearc.org/news/january2010/new_ao7_record.htm

‘Getting started on amateur radio satellites’ by G7HIA published in the March 2007 RadCom. Download the article at https://amsat-uk.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/satellites_radcom_mar07.pdf
Copyright 2007 Radio Society of Great Britain. For personal use only – no copying, reprinting or distribution without written permission from the RSGB.

Join the AMSAT Bulletin Board AMSAT-BB http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/tools/maillist/maillist.php

Pat Gowen G3IOR in radio shack circa 1975

Pat Gowen G3IOR in radio shack circa 1975