Tag Archives: Amateur Radio

May 1 2012

OSSI Art CubeSat to Launch in August

Hojun Song DS1SBO and the NovaNano FlyMate™ deployer

Hojun Song DS1SBO and the NovaNano FlyMate™ deployer

Hojun Song DS1SBO is a cutting-edge, tech-obsessed Korean artist breaking boundaries with his passion for telling stories through technology. He hopes to instill a sense of empowerment in the world, through the DIY nature and uplifting undertones in each of his works.

OSSI CubeSat

OSSI CubeSat

At univeristy he studied Electrical Engineering and Computer Science after which he started working on his art.

After years of research he has found that it is indeed possible to launch and operate a personal satellite at a fairly reasonable price. For the past six years he has been exploring ways to integrate the concept of a personal satellite project into cultural contexts and into his artistic practice.

Hojun Song’s first satellite OSSI will take off on a Soyuz rocket from Baikonour in Kazakhstan this August. He obtained his rocket launch through a new French launch brokerage company NovaNano http://www.novanano.com/. In this video he shares his story, his struggles and his plans.

Watch The Open Source Satellite Initiative by Hojun Song

The OSSI CubeSat should be delivered on May 31 in preperation for its launch on August 31. The team are working hard to finish building the satellite.

Watch Building OSSI EPS / 20120429

Open Source Satellite Initiative (OSSI) http://opensat.cc/

The Creators Project http://thecreatorsproject.com/en-uk/creators/hojun-song

DIY Satellite http://opensat.cc/download/DIYSatellite_en.pdf

Studio hhjjj http://www.hhjjj.com/

Apr 30 2012

New IARU Satellite Advisor Region 1

Mike Rupprecht DK3WN 640

Mike Rupprecht DK3WN

AMSAT-DL President, Peter Gülzow, DB2OS reports on a new IARU appointment:

I have recommended to the IARU Satellite Adviser that Mike Rupprecht, DK3WN takes over membership of the advisory panel form Norbert Nothoff, DF5DP and I’m happy to notify interested parties that he has agreed to appoint Mike, DK3WN as a panel member. He has thanked Norbert, DF5DP for his support as a member of the Advisory panel for many years and said that he is looking forward to work with Mike.

Mike Rupprecht, DK3WN will help with the IARU Satellite Frequency Coordination process in Region 1 and in particular here in Germany. Mike is very active and well known on the satellite bands and Internet boards, and he has particularly profound knowledge of all cubesat operations. He is also very well known in the community of cubesat operators, including excellent communication connections to that groups.

Mike Ruprecht, DK3WN will support Norbert Nothoff, DF5DP and take over the coordination process of satellite projects from him, which includes correspondence with the coordination group and the satellite operators.

Norbert Nothoff, DF5DP will continue to stay in charge of anything which is related to government issues (government and office liaison, laws, bylaws, and regulations of satellite operations) in Germany.

Peter Gülzow, DB2OS
President, AMSAT-DL

IARU Satellite Advisory Panel http://www.iaru.org/satellite/advisory-panel.html

Apr 29 2012

Delfi-C3 (DO-64) – 4 years in orbit

Delfi-C3_DO-64_Team

Delfi-C3 (DO-64) Team at the AMSAT-UK International Space Colloquium 2008 in Guildford

On April 28, 2012 the nanosatellite Delfi-C3 (DO-64) celebrated 4 years in orbit and is still alive and kicking!

This 3-unit CubeSat, developed by the Technical University of Delft in the Netherlands has been largely developed by students and performed technology demonstration experiments for the space industry in the Netherlands. After being launched on PSLV-C9 in 2008 it has been circling the earth for 1461 days (exceeding its design lifetime with 1371 days)!

The satellite still broadcasts its telemetry and measurement data which can be received using simple amateur radio equipment and using the RASCAL software (available on the Delfi website: http://www.delfispace.nl/index.php/participation/radio-amateur-participation).

The satellite project was also the birthplace of ISIS – Innovative Solutions In Space as the company’s founders and a significant number of its employees have worked on the satellite project at the start of their careers. We congratulate the university with the milestone and excellent demonstration that well coordinated student satellite projects can produce great results and exceed all expectations.

Regards,
Jeroen Rotteveel

Apr 29 2012

We Are Makers

MAKE magazine publisher Dale Dougherty says we’re all makers at heart, and shows cool new tools to tinker with, like Arduinos, affordable 3D printers, even DIY satellites.

The brief DIY satellite segment, with a picture of the Amateur Radio satellite OSCAR-7 starts 10:00 minutes into the video.

Watch Dale Dougherty: We are makers

The Making Your Own Satellites article refered to in the video appeared in editon 24 of MAKE magazine http://makezine.com/24/make_satellites/ . The $19.99 Digital Edition subscription covers 4 quarterly issues and all back issues.

Open Source Satellite Initiative DIYsatellite http://opensat.cc/download/DIYSatellite_en.pdf

London Hackspace work on HackSat1 http://www.uk.amsat.org/2482

2E0HTS Working the OSCAR-7 Satellite http://www.uk.amsat.org/4105

Apr 29 2012

Student CubeSat First-MOVE – Vacuum Test Video

First-MOVE_Students_with_Bob_Twiggs_KE6QMD_2560

First-MOVE team members with Bob Twiggs KE6QMD

First-MOVE is an amateur radio CubeSat being built by students at the Technical University of München.

MOVE stands for München Orbital Verification Experiment. The 1U CubeSat carries a CCD camera and has two deployable solar panels carrying a new generation of solar cell – triple junction GaAs / Ge.

The transceiver, supplied by ISIS, uses a UHF uplink and VHF downlink. The antennas are mounted on the ends of the deployable solar panels.

The frequencies for First-MOVE were coordinated by the IARU as:

Downlink: 145.970 MHz
Uplink:     435.520 MHz

This video shows First-MOVE preliminary vacuum test at the LRT facilities. The EQM model was tested in vacuum conditions and at medium/low temperatures (10°C).

Watch First-MOVE Vacuum Test

First-MOVE Vibration tests http://www.uk.amsat.org/6271

First-MOVE CubeSat Solar Panel Deployment Video http://www.uk.amsat.org/6199

First-MOVE website in Google English http://tinyurl.com/First-MOVE-CubeSat

First-MOVE Communications http://tinyurl.com/First-MOVE-Communications

Apr 29 2012

Whistle-like signal in Amateur Radio 40m band

OZ9AEC has found a strange signal in the 7 MHz band using his AMSAT-UK FUNcube Dongle with an HF up-converter.

A strange whistle-like signal received on the 40 meter band using Gqrx software defined radio receiver and a Funcube Dongle equipped with a shortwave converter. The signal appears to be amplitude modulated with suppressed lower side band (just like UVB-76 😉 ) Is it an ionosonde or a numbers station?

Watch Mystery whistle signal on 40 meter band

Gqrx Software Defined Receiver Software http://www.oz9aec.net/index.php/gnu-radio/gqrx-sdr

How to receive and decode NOAA APT images with AMSAT-UK FUNcube Dongle and Gqrx
http://www.oz9aec.net/index.php/gnu-radio/gnu-radio-blog/451-howto-receive-and-decode-noaa-apt-images-with-funcube-dongle-and-gqrx

An HF Converter for FCD http://www.ct1ffu.com/site/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=178&Itemid=104

You can join the FUNcube Yahoo Group at http://uk.groups.yahoo.com/group/FUNcube/