Tag Archives: Amateur Radio

Feb 5 2012

Vega Launch on February 13 with Eight Amateur Band CubeSats

Artists impression of Vega launch

Artists impression of Vega launch

Vega is now scheduled to launch on Monday, February 13, at 1000 UT with eight student built amateur radio satellites. The launcher will first deploy the main payload, the LARES the Laser relativity Spacecraft and will then make an additional firing of the final AVUM stage before deploying the secondary CubeSat and Microsatellite payloads.

The planned timing for these deployments are as follows:

= T0+ 4245.30secs first PPOD, with (in order of ejection) XatCobeo, e-st@r, and Goliat
= T0+ 4255.30secs second PPOD, with (in order of ejection) Robusta, MaSat-1 and  PW-Sat
= T0+ 4265.30secs third PPOD, with UniCubeSat only (These Cubesats will not deploy their antennas until >1800 seconds after they leave their PODS.)
= T0+ 4275.30secs  AlmaSat-1 – it is not known how soon this spacecraft will start transmitting after deployment

Frequencies for the satellites on the Vega Launch are:

+ ALMASat-1 – University of Bologna, Italy 437.465 MHz 1200 bps FSK and 2407.850 MHz

+ Xatcobeo (a collaboration of the University of Vigo and INTA, Spain) to demonstrate software-defined radio and solar panel deployment. 437.365 MHz FFSK with AX.25 and 145.940 MHz SSR

+ Robusta (University of Montpellier 2, France) to test and evaluate radiation effects (low dose rate) on bipolar transistor electronic components. 437.325 MHz 1200 bps FM telemetry with one data burst of 20 seconds every 3 minutes.

+ e-st@r (Politecnico di Torino, Italy) to demonstration of an active 3-axis Attitude Determination and Control system including an inertial measurement unit. 437.445 MHz 1200 bps AFSK.

+ Goliat (University of Bucharest, Romania) to provide imaging of the Earth surface using a digital camera and in-situ measurement of radiation dose and micrometeoroid flux. 437.485 MHz 1200 bps AFSK.

+ PW-Sat (Warsaw University of Technology, Poland) to test a deployable atmospheric drag augmentation device for de-orbiting CubeSats. PW-Sat carries an FM to DSB amateur radio transponder with an FM input on 435.020 MHz and DSB output on 145.900 MHz. There are 5 modes of operation:
– Receive only – no downlink
– CW Beacon CW – On-Off Keying (OOK) CW 12 WPM 435.020 MHz
– BPSK Beacon – BPSK 1200 bps AX25 (1 frame on 20 sec) 435.020 MHz
– Control communication mode. Downlink BPSK 1200 bps AX25 435.020 MHz
– Voice Repeater mode (aka “AO-16 mode) – uplink 435.020 MHz FM and downlink 145.900 MHz DSB

+ MaSat-1 (Budapest University of Technology and Economics): to demonstrate various spacecraft avionics, including a power conditioning system, transceiver and on-board data handling. 437.345 MHz GFSK 625/1250 bps, CW. See the related article in these bulletins describing the downloadable GFSK demodulator software.

+ UniCubeSat GG – (University of Rome): The UNICubeSat mission goal is the in-situ measurement of atmospheric density. Downlink frequencies are 437.305 MHz or 437.345 MHz 9k6 FSK.

Mineo Wakita, JE9PEL provides complete coverage of the Vega launch on his ‘ESA CubeSats Update’ web pages. You’ll find an overview of each of the satellite missions, frequencies, modulation/protocols, and links to the developers home web pages posted at: http://www.ne.jp/asahi/hamradio/je9pel/esa9cubf.htm

AMSAT-UK covers the Vega launch at: http://www.uk.amsat.org/4180

An ESA time-lapse showing the full assembly of the first Vega launcher at the launch pad at the ESA Spaceport in Kourou is posted at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YaUMSLU0aig

The student teams have requested reception reports. All observers are being encouraged to join the CubeSat IRC chat channel to pass on their news and comments in realtime. You will need an IRC client such as ChatZilla or mIRC to join the cubesat chat. Use the irc.freenode.net server. Then join the #cubesat channel. Many users set their chat nickname to “name_callsign”.

AMSAT Bulletin Board (AMSAT-BB) http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/tools/maillist/

AMSAT News Service (ANS)

Feb 5 2012

SO-67 amateur radio operation may resume soon

Sumbandilasat SO-67

Sumbandilasat SO-67

Ingenuity and innovation by the SumbandilaSat (SO-67) ground control team has resulted in bringing the satellite back to life with a real possibility that Amateur Radio communication may resume next month while the satellite is in sunlight.

The ground stations at SANSA Space operations at Hartbeeshoek and the Electronic Systems Laboratory at Stellenbosch University are receiving telemetry when the satellite’s solar panels are illuminated by the sun.

The ground stations at SANSA Space operations at Hartbeeshoek and the Electronic Systems Laboratory at Stellenbosch University are receiving telemetry when the satellite’s solar panels are illuminated by the sun.

Johann Lochner, ZR1CBC, said that in early June 2011, for an unknown  eason (but probably related to a major radiation event on 7 June), the primary controller on the power distribution unit (PDU) powering the On-Board Computer (OBC) stopped responding to commands from the ground station.

It later appeared that the battery had failed and nothing was heard from the satellite for some time. The ground segment software to monitor the passes over South Africa and to contact the satellite to initiate the recovery procedure was automated. After a month contact was made again.

This was mid November. “We set in place a planned recovery procedure and within 3-4 days we came to the conclusion that the main battery had failed”, Johann said. With SumbandilaSat responding when it is in full sunlight Johan Lochner is confident that some operations will be restored even to the point where it may be possible to do some imaging and have the amateur radio transponder back in operation.

More on recovery efforts are on line at www.amsatsa.org.za

SumbandilaSat (SO-67) carries an amateur radio voice beacon, parrot repeater and VHF/UHF FM repeater. The frequencies are:
Uplink: 145.875 MHz FM
Downlink: 435.345 MHz FM
Activation tones: 233.6 Hz
Parrot: 218.1 Hz

January defenseWeb story ‘SumbandilaSat beyond repair’ http://www.uk.amsat.org/4076

The Sounds of SO-67 http://www.southgatearc.org/news/january2010/
sounds_of_so67.htm

Satellite Pass Predictions http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/tools/

John Heath G7HIA’s article  ‘Getting started on amateur radio satellites’ can be downloaded from http://www.uk.amsat.org/267

AMSAT Bulletin Board (AMSAT-BB) http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/tools/maillist/

Feb 4 2012

ARISS contact planned with technical college in Poland

On Saturday February 4, 2012 at approximately 12.41 UTC, which is 13.41 CEWT, an educational ARISS contact is planned with the Polytechnic school in Walbrzych, Poland. Amateur radio station W6SRJ, located in California, will operate the contact.

The Polytechnic school in Walbrzych has been established in 1946.
These days it is well known as Secondary Complex School “Energetyk”, with a population of over 900 students. They study electricity, electro-mechanics, electronics, technical graphics, telecommunications, IT and ITC techniques, advertising. The school is equipped for students with disabilities, education is on a very high-level and graduate students can easily find employment. It is the best technical school in Walbrzych.

Apart from teaching, the school offers many other activities.
The Shooting section exists since sixty years and takes leading positions in “The Silver Muskets” contest. Since three years, students take part in the Robotic Group, acquiring knowledge and having a lot of fun, building robots from scratch, according to their own ideas and knowledge. They were several times among the winners in prestigious competitions on an International level. There is also the school band “Underland”. The band is well-known in Walbrzych for they perform many concerts, in the city and around. In school is also active in “Energol TV” and they produce a newspaper “Alcatraz 2”.

The amateur radio club SP6PBA is located in the school. Besides HF communications with HAM operators all over the World, the club also transmits HAM TV in the 1.2 GHz band.

The ARISS contact will be conducted in English. It will be broadcast on EchoLink AMSAT (node 101 377) and JK1ZRW (node 277 208) Conference servers, as well as on IRLP Discovery Reflector 9010.

Students will ask as many of the following questions as time allows.
1. Lukasz (18): What is the difference between an astronaut and a cosmonaut?
2. Kacper (16): How does it feel to be weightless?
3. Karol (20): How long does it take to get accustomed to gravity after returning to Earth from the ISS?
4. Mateusz (20): Are large structures on the Earth such as the Chinese wall or the artificial islands in Dubai visible from the ISS? What else?
5. Piotr C. (20): Is eating in weightlessness difficult?

6. Dawid (18): How do you spend your free time on the station?
7. Sebastian (16): Has the crew got any health problems related to being in space?
8. Piotr J. (16): What kind of everyday tasks and what kind of experiments do you perform on the ISS?
9. Lukasz (18): How did it happen that you became an astronaut? Did you dream about it as a child?
10. Kacper (16): Do you keep in touch with your family when you are in space?

11. Karol(20): Are you provided with media such as phone, Internet, radio or TV?
12. Mateusz (20): Is the rubbish thrown out into space or brought back to Earth?
13. Piotr C. (20): Which planets of our solar system apart from Earth can you see through the window in Cupola module?
14. Dawid (18): Is it hard to take care of personal hygiene in the absence of gravity?
15. Sebastian (16): How long does the trip from lift-off until docking at the ISS last?
16. Piotr J. (16): How long does an astronaut’s mission training last?
17. Darek (55): How did you celebrate the beginning of 2012 on the station and which time zone did you have to adjust to?

ARISS is an international educational outreach program partnering the participating space agencies, NASA, Russian Space Agency, ESA, CNES, JAXA, and CSA, with the AMSAT and IARU organizations from participating countries.

ARISS offers an opportunity for students to experience the excitement of Amateur Radio by talking directly with crewmembers onboard the International Space Station. Teachers, parents and communities see, first hand, how Amateur Radio and crewmembers on ISS can energize youngsters’ interest in science, technology and learning.

73

Gaston Bertels, ON4WF

ARISS Chairman

Feb 3 2012

Khartoum Amateur Radio Satellite Ground Station

University of Khartoum Satellite Ground Station

University of Khartoum Satellite Ground Station

Students at the  University of Khartoum are undertaking a CubeSat project KN-SAT1 and Nader, ST2NH. has made a video of their recently completed ground station.

KN-SAT1 is the first CubeSat to be built in Sudan. Its objectives are:

  1. To give students at Sudanese Unversities a hands-on space project experience.
  2. To document the process and skills and forward it to more students and post graduated engineers.
  3. To promote space engineering and space science education at other Sudanese educational institutes.
  4. Building, testing and launching the cube satellite.
  5. Monitoring and tracking the cube satellite.
  6. Telecommand the cube satellite.
  7. Collecting the telemetry and the mission data for analysis and evaluation.

Watch UOK-Satellite Ground Station .wmv

KN-SAT1 http://cubesat.uofk.edu/

Sudanese Amateur Radio and SWL History http://www.st2nh.com/sudanamateurradioandswlhistory

ST2NH http://www.st2nh.com/

Jan 31 2012

Student High-Voltage Satellite Horyu-2

Horyu-2 Structural Thermal Model

Horyu-2 Structural Thermal Model

The student built amateur radio microsatellite, Horyu-2, featuring a High Voltage (300v) Solar Array experiment and an onboard camera is planned to launch on an H-2A rocket in the Summer.

Built by students at the Kyushu Institute of Technology (KIT) HORYU-2 is 350 * 310 * 315 mm and mass is 7.1 kg. It will be launched into a Sun-Synchronous 680 km orbit with an inclination of 98.2°. The TLE’s for tracking are available at http://kitsat.ele.kyutech.ac.jp/Documents/ground_station/TLE.txt

The satellite’s callsign is JG6YBW and radio amateurs are asked to listen for the 437.375 MHz  (+/- 9 kHz Doppler shift) Morse Code or 1200 bps AX.25 GMSK telemetry downlink.

There will be a monthly competition for those who send data received from the telemetry to the KIT server, via the HORYU-2 telemetry analysis software.

The free HORYU-2 telemetry software and details of the competition can be downloaded from
http://kitsat.ele.kyutech.ac.jp/Documents/information_launch_english.html

Among the experiments to be carried out are:

300V power generation in LEO
In recent years, satellite size and power keep increasing. For large space platforms such as a space station, it is necessary to generate and transmit the power at a high voltage to minimize the Joule heating loss or the increase in the cable mass. It has been known that in LEO a solar array with a negative potential of 100 to 200V with respect to the plasma can suffer electrostatic discharge. Because of this, ISS power system was limited to 160V generation and 120V transmission. Generally speaking the transmission power is proportional to the square of the voltage. For a large space platform which requires 1MW-class power, such as a space hotel or a space factory, power generation at a voltage of 300 to 400V is required. The present HORYU-2 mission, 300V power generation in space without any discharge, is the first space environment test of the new technology that will be strongly demanded in near future. Also, as the satellite power employs higher voltage, there will be more demand for spacecraft charging mitigation

Demonstration of COTS surface potential meter in space (Trek)
This mission demonstrates a surface potential meter in space. The potential meter has been developed by TREK, Inc. aiming for terrestrial commercial application. It is a contact type potential meter with extremely large input impedance so that the contact does not affect the charging state of the specimen. KIT is currently working with TREK, Inc. to convert the potential meter for extreme environments such as space or plasma processing chamber. The in-orbit demonstration is a part of the joint research program. To put the COTS device on HORYU-2, the electronics board and the consumed power have been reduced significantly.

When HORYU-2 passes through the aurora zone, differential charging may develop between the insulator surface and the satellite chassis. The potential meter will measure the potential of the insulator that is the same material to be used for SCM. The two measurements are compared to validate against each other.

Debris observation with debris sensor
This mission aims at detecting the micro-debris impact on the surface of HORYU-2. Space debris has become a serious threat to satellites in orbit. Observation of micro debris less than 1mm has been very difficult. The debris sensor consists of many conductive thin wired laid down in parallel in the area of 8×8 cm. Upon impact, some of the lines are cut and the resistance becomes infinite.

Taking photographs of the Earth
This mission aims at taking the pictures of the Earth using a small CMOS camera. The camera called SCAMP (Surrey Camera Payload). It was developed by University of Surrey, a sister university of KIT. SCAMP takes a picture in a JPEG format of 640×480. From 700km altitude, one pixel corresponds to 1.6km.

Horyu website in Google English http://tinyurl.com/HoryuSatellite

Development of High Voltage Technology Demonstration Satellite, HORYU-2
http://kitsat.ele.kyutech.ac.jp/Documents/Nano-satellite-symposium-Final-paper_nishimura.pdf

Jan 31 2012

Video – Vega's First Launch Campaign

A time-lapse video is available of the first Vega launch campaign that began November 7, 2011 at the ESA Spaceport in Kourou. Vega will carry eight student built amateur radio satellites.

This time-lapse shows the full assembly of the first Vega launcher at the launch pad, in preparation for its qualification flight. It starts with the transfer and installation of the P80 first stage from the Vega Booster Storage and Preparation Building to the launch pad, followed by the two solid-propellant second and third stages, the Zefiro-23 and Zefiro-9. The next step was to add the AVUM — Attitude & Vernier Upper Module — liquid-propellant fourth stage to the vehicle. The ‘upper composite’ — the fairing and payload — was moved to the pad on January 24 and integrated over night.

Watch Vega’s First Launch Campaign

Vega Satellite Deployments http://www.uk.amsat.org/4235

Student Amateur Radio Satellites on Vega http://www.uk.amsat.org/4180

Vega Masa-1 Elliptical Orbit Video http://www.uk.amsat.org/4119