Tag Archives: Amateur Radio

Mar 5 2012

Radio Hams send photo via satellite

ARISSat-1 Deployment

ARISSat-1 Deployment

The Cincinnati press reports that two Anderson Township amateur radio operators recently sent and received a photo from a satellite that was manually deployed from the International Space Station (ISS).

Farrell Winder W8ZCF and his son Jeff Winder KB8VCO achieved this despite the fact that an antenna on the satellite had snapped off prior to launch.

Read the Cincinnati press article at http://communitypress.cincinnati.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/C2/20120301/NEWS/303010057/

Mar 4 2012

RAMPART CubeSat to use propulsion

RAMPART CubeSat

RAMPART CubeSat

Students at Morehead State University are building an amateur radio CubeSat with a propulsion system that will raise the apogee of its orbit from 500 km to 1200 km.

RAMPART, which stands for RApidprototyped Mems Propulsion And Radiation Test CUBEflow SATellite, plans to launch on a Minotaur from Vandenburgh in June 2013.

It is a 2U CubeSat and will use a self-contained, warm gas, propulsion system to adjust satellite’s initial circular orbit of 500 km to an eliptical orbit with an apogee of 1200 km and perigee of 500 km at a 45 degree inclination.

RAMPART Thruster Design

RAMPART Thruster Design

It will demonstrate use of 3D printing (A.K.A. rapid prototyping) for manufacturing small satellites. Measure flux of energetic particles in lower Van Allen Belt. Test radiation-hardened electronic components and high performance solar cells in high radiation environment over a period of five years.

The students are proposing a UHF downlink of 9k6 GMSK AX25 packet. A downlink frequency of 437.325 MHz has been requested.

RAMPART NanoSat Paper http://ssc.moreheadstate.edu/missions/rampart/rampart.pdf

IARU Amateur Satellite Frequency Coordination Status Report http://www.amsat.org.uk/iaru

Mar 3 2012

COMPASS-1 – End of mission

Compass-1Mike Rupprecht DK3WN brings the sad news of the demise of the COMPASS-1 CubeSat that was launched April 28, 2008. COMPASS-1 was designed and built by students at the Aachen University of Applied Sciences in Germany.

Dear supporters and friends of our COMPASS-1 mission,

First, let me thank you very much for your support in trying to save the life of our COMPASS-1 satellite during the last days, but also during the last years of “routine” operations. It seems that our mission now comes to an end.

The projected lifetime of COMPASS-1 was half a year. The tiny guy has outperformed this value by a factor of more than seven. April 28th would have been it’s 4th birthday and if it was a human, it would now be about 500 years old (Cubesat-years are short). So, if you have more important things to do (and I guess so), we can not expect you to continue your efforts in saving its life.

With your support, you have made things possible that we would never have been able to achieve with our own resources and I appreciate your support very much. So, COMPASS-1, rest in peace. (Nevertheless, if you still want to try to awake it from the dead, feel free to do so.)

I hope that we will soon be able to build and launch COMPASS-2 and that you will be still available, all over the world, as a ground station to command and fly our new bird. We will keep you informed.

Cheers and thanks for all,

Bernd
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Prof. Dr. Bernd Dachwald
Faculty of Aerospace Engineering FH Aachen
University of Applied Sciences

Compass-1 Reset http://www.uk.amsat.org/5204

Mar 2 2012

MURSAT1 – A (Hacker) Space Art Project

This video shows a presentation on the mur.sat TubeSat MURSAT1 that was given at the Chaos Computer Camp on August 13, 2011.

A team of about 15 people around mur.at (Graz/Austria) have build their first Nanosatellite called MURSAT1, based on the Interorbital Systems TubeSat and developed further following their research. In 2012 MURSAT1 should be launched into a 310 km orbit.

The amateur radio TubeSat carries a camera and a microphone.  The command and control uplink is in the 145.9 MHz band and the downlink in the 435 MHz band. Further info at mur.sat wiki https://wiki.mur.at/sat/

Watch mur.sat – A (Hacker) Space Art Project – CCCamp 2011

This talk gives an overview of the project and the technical hacking done so far.

The team say Mursat1 itself will become our performer, taking self portraits with a camera, transmitting data about his position relative to earth by torquers, receiving and translating particle detection and collision with a piezo microphone, sending compressed audiodata for radio transmission on earth, hosting children’s wishes to become a shooting star themselves, counting.

Speaker: Bernhard Tittelbach, Christian Pointner
EventID: 4575
Event: Chaos Communication Camp 2011 (CCCamp 2011) of the Chaos Computer Club [CCC]
Location: Luftfahrtmuseum Finowfurt, Museumstr. 1, 16244 Schorfheide near Berlin, Germany
Language: English
Start: 13.08.2011 19:30:00 +02:00

Mar 2 2012

AMSAT-LU SSTV and Crossband Repeater on Glider and Balloon

AMSAT-LU SSTV and GPS Payload

View of communications experiment: Below is the plate of the repeater. Top left is the SSTV camera and top right is the GPS receiver module. Image credit LU7AA

An SSTV and crossband repeater payload developed by AMSAT-LU will be flown on a Glider and a High Altitude Balloon on March 3 and 17.

AMSAT-LU LU7AA report:

We are pleased to inform next Saturday March-3 2012 (if weather permits) from 12hs (GMT-3), Amsat-LU and friends will be flying from Zarate (Route 193, km 19 from Buenos Aires) an UV repeater including APRS + SSTV + CW + DTMF thru several flights aboard manned glider, as test for LUSEX (LU Satellite Experiment), being developed by AMSAT-LU.

Afterwards on Saturday March-17 from 12hs-LU on (GMT-3), a free Balloon will fly same payload from the city of Junin (Club of Gliders, Lagoon of Gomez), 250Km west of Buenos Aires City.

Payload will operate as an UHF to VHF crossband repeater, with CW tlm, APRS location and SSTV emissions in local and space frequencies.

According to estimates Balloon could reach 100,000 feet (30 km) in height, travelling from 50 to 100 miles towards east.

Thus allowing contacts between stations located in provinces of Buenos Aires, Santa Fe, Entre Rios, Cordoba, La Pampa, San Luis and Uruguay.  See coverage map on http://www.amsat.org.ar/junincubr.jpg and possible trajectory in http://www.amsat.org.ar/junin120215.jpg .

For these experiences, Amsat-LU works with and it is thankful to hams of Radio Clubs of Junin, QRM Belgrano, APRS Group, Don Bosco Ramos Mejia School, gliders Clubs of Zarate, Junin and Cañuelas, and the twelve Amsat-LU members development team as well as those who have actively participated and sent their reports in previous experiences.

More information at http://www.amsat.org.ar/lu4aao/experimento_globo_y_parapente.htm

AMSAT-LU Glider

Glider

Several flown experiments have been successfully operated during 2011 in manned-gliders, airplanes, captive and free Balloons allowing operational & practice for hams contributing to platform validaton of LUSEX satellite (LU Satellite EXperiment) on development by Amsat Argentina. More on http://lusex.org.ar

In order to monitor the payload (if you are within 400 miles of launch area) you need just an FM receiver either handy or base, in 145.950 for repeater and/or 144.930 for APRS. The repeater, that is activated via 123 Hertz subtone, operates receiving voice FM in 435.950 Khz (-112dbm, 0,56 uV) and emits with 2W the received audio live on 145.950 Khz.

Simultaneously APRS data will be sent in Packet at 1200 bauds in 144.930, and also in 145.950.

The DTI APRS symbol would change from a Balloon (/O) during the ascent to a glider (/g) during parachute descent.

Payload would operate as voice repeater activated by 123 Hz subtone during 1 minute, a warning bip at 40 seconds will indicate telemetry is coming, which is emitted if the repeater is not in use, if in 20 seconds more voice repeater still in use a two bips will be heard signaling that short APRS packages will begin in the different frequencies, also every 5 minutes CW (telegraphy with tones of audio) with CQ + callsign (LU7AA), sequence#, ext. and int. centigrade temperatures and voltage of batteries, after which the cycle will repeat.

AMSAT-LU RF Module

The system board containing RF transmitter module, receiver module, level adjustments, duplexer and antenna connector. Image credit LU7AA

Experiment for the first time in these flights will emit SSTV pictures in ROBOT-36 (36 seconds) in real time, showing what glider/Balloon sees. Every 5 minutes during ascent/descent and more spaced at high altitudes. (It can be received among others with MIXW, MMSTV & RX-SSTV ).

Payload would also carry on board two TV cameras (one towards earth and another towards horizon) recording video and sound during the flight. These captured videos could be recovered when payload is recovered.

APRS trajectory could be seen every minute, including speed, height, external and internal temperatures and 7.2v battery voltage using UI-View ( download from the UI-View official site on http://www.ui-view.org/ ) and/or to see/follow from Internet connecting to http://aprs.fi/?call=lu7aa-11 or locally via Packet at specified frequencies.

There are georeferenced Maps for UI-View in http://www.amsat.org.ar/junin.jpg, http://www.amsat.org.ar/junin.txt, http://www.amsat.org.ar/zarate.jpg, http://www.amsat.org.ar/zarate.txt, http://www.amsat.org.ar/lachoza.jpg and http://www.amsat.org.ar/lachoza.txt . Download and place them in directory Program Files/Peak Systems/UI-View32/MAPS and rename files .txt to .inf.

The experiment in 435.950 KHz besides voice, receives and accepts DTMF sequences commands on demand, I.E. sending B* (DTMF with handy keyboard on UHF) will return S5 … ….. in 145,950 VHF CW, reporting in CW signal strength received from your station, if S9+10 will returns P10.

There are also DTMF commands qualifying emission of CW tlm or APRS beacon or SSTV emission, commands that allows remote release of payload, mode changes, timers control, energy, power, etc.

Frequencies for previous coordination, announcements and flights will be 7090 Khz LSB +/-10 Khz and local repeaters.

During the flights will remain active wide coverage AMSAT-LU APRS Igate LU7AA-10 on 144.930 and 430.930 KHz, operating from the Constituyentes Investigation Center transferring whatever is received towards Internet.

For being an experiment oriented to a next satellite, the contacts made between stations via this payload will be considered valid for the recently announced permanent, gratuitous and applicable Satellite Certificate that AMSAT-LU and RClub QRM Belgrano grants, more info on http://www.amsat.org.ar/certsat.html

During the Balloon flight, amateur groups will chase the payload, aiming to locate and recover. Trapping ventures holds on this activity, as in the case of the Pampero 15 Balloon sent from San Miguel del Monte which landed in the middle of the Magdalena’s state prison … See http://www.lu5egy.com/Proyecto_pampero/vuelo_15/n_1esk.htm

All reports welcome. If you wish or can organize or want be part of control, or like to pursuit and recovery, or like operating and capturing data as an independent station, and/or wishes to join us personally in this adventure from the launching places email us to parapente at amsat.org.ar.

We appreciate reading of this information and thankful if distribution possible.

73, LU7AA, Amsat-LU, aiming at the future by making the present funny.
http://www.amsat.org.ar/
info at amsat.org.ar

Mar 2 2012

Interorbital Systems Feature in SatMagazine

The March issue of SatMagazine features a 4 page article by Randa Relich Milliron, CEO and Co-Founder of Interorbital Systems.

Interorbital Systems plans to launch a number of amateur radio CubeSats along with dozens of TubeSats on it’s Neptune 9 rocket.

Among the CubeSats to be launch by Interorbital Systems is Euroluna’s Romit1 which aims to be the first CubeSat to use propulsion to significantly raise its orbit, from 310 to 700 km.

The Interorbital Systems article appears on page 90 and is followed on page 94 by an article on the Space Foundation which aims to promote science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) in schools.

Download your free copy of the March SatMagazine http://www.satmagazine.com/2012/SM_Mar2012.pdf