Tag Archives: AMSAT-DL

Feb 18 2024

UK’s SaxaVord Spaceport to launch amateur radio satellites

Customers for Inaugral SaxaVord Spaceport Launch

Customers for Inaugral SaxaVord Spaceport Launch

Two more amateur radio satellites, MARIA-G (HADES-F) and UNNE-1 (HADES-E), are planned to launch from the UK’s SaxaVord Spaceport later in 2024.

Previously announced amateur radio payloads on the launch are:
ERMINAZ-1U and -1V from AMSAT-DL
GENESIS-MA and -ME from AMSAT-EA
QUBIK 5, SIDLOC-PQ-1 and -PQ-2 from Libre Space Foundation

MARIA-G

SaxaVord UK Spaceport under construction

SaxaVord UK Spaceport under construction

A 1.5u Pocketqube. MARIA-G will offer radio amateurs around the world the opportunity to relay FM voice and AX.25 / APRS 300 / 1200 bps communications. The satellite will also transmit telemetry with its status and voice and CW messages. This all will be achieved by implementing a SDR based FM and FSK repeater. The FM / FSK repeater will be available all time and opened by squelch level without the need of a PL tone/CTCSS.

Main mission for MARIA-G is to be a FM repeater but it will also include a simple guess game being implemented by students at Maria Guerrero High School in Collado Villalba – Madrid (Spain). The satellite will send a clue each week in CW so radioamateurs will have to solve the mystery by having all the clues.

A small experiment, developed by Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft research organization (Germany) will also fly on the satellite to make proof of concept transmissions of a TS-UNB waveform from a low Earth orbit. It will transmit a TS-UNB message according to the ETSI standard ETSI-TS-103-357. It is intended solely as a research and development project with no commercial intent, all its data public and open.  ITU modulation classification would be 100K W2DWW but the bandwidth will be narrowed. The operation of this experiment will be managed by AMSAT-EA.

UNNE-1

Rocket at SaxaVord UK SpaceportA 1.5u Pocketqube. UNNE-1 will offer radio amateurs around the world the opportunity to relay FM voice and AX.25 / APRS 300 / 1200 bps communications. The satellite will also transmit telemetry with its status and voice and CW messages.

This all will be achieved by implementing a SDR based FM and FSK repeater. The FM / FSK repeater will be available all time and opened by squelch level without the need of a PL tone/CTCSS.

A small guessing-game is being implemented by students of Universidad de Nebrija (Spain). The satellite will send a clue each week in its telemetry so radio-amateurs will have to solve the mystery by having all the clues. Game will be detailed in AMSAT-EA and Universidad de Nebrija websites.

The main mission for the satellite is acting as a FM voice repeater although due to its SDR nature it can repeat data too. This satellite is based on the hardware of HADES-D (SO-121) that’s currently being used to amateurs worldwide. The guess game implemented by the University is a small challenge for the radio-amateurs and its mission is to make the reception of signals from the satellite fun for youngsters, expecting them to be future radio amateurs.

Proposing a UHF downlink, VHF Uplink for FM voice, FSK data up to 1200 bps, APRS up to 1200 bps and FSK telemetry and experimental data up to 1600 bps and CW.

These two satellites are part of the Erminaz mission, a joint effort by AMSAT-DL, AMSAT-EA and Libre Space Foundation. Planning a DLR/ESA launch from the UK SaxaVord Spaceport in Summer 2024 into 500/600 km polar orbit.

IARU satellite frequency coordination pages https://iaru.amsat-uk.org/index.php

AMSAT-DL ERMINAZ https://amsat-dl.org/en/erminaz/

AMSAT-EA projects https://www.amsat-ea.org/proyectos/

Libre Space Foundation projects https://libre.space/projects/

Sep 20 2013

AMSAT-DL Satellite Symposium October 5

Amateur Radio Facility at Bochum

Amateur Radio Facility at Bochum

The AMSAT-DL satellite symposium and AGM will be held in Bochum, Germany on October 5, 2013.

The AMSAT Deutschland Facebook page says “There will be certainly some exciting news!”

AMSAT-DL Symposium lecture schedule

Saturday 05.10.2013

10:15 – 10:30 Welcome

10:30 – 11:15 Stereo A / B status and Turbo Code introduction, experience report by Mario Lorenz, DL5MLO

11:15 – 11:45 Coffee break

11:45 – 12:15 Asteroid Defense by Wolfgang Wittholt, Fernuni Hagen

12:15 – 12:45 Space Generantion Advisory Council (SGAC) Small Satellite Project Group (SSPG) presentation and objectives by Dennis Mattes

12:45 – 14:00 Lunch break

14:00 Current and new projects / project progress / etc then an official part of the AGM with elections.

AMSAT-DL event announcement
https://www.facebook.com/events/397993230305940/permalink/419259888179274/

Apr 7 2013

STEREO Spacecraft now using Turbo Code Software written by AMSAT-DL

NASA STEREO Poster

NASA STEREO Poster

AMSAT-DL reports that on April 2, 2013, the two NASA STEREO space-based observatories switched to Turbo Codes to transmit their real-time space weather data permanently. A network of four ground stations, located at the IUZ in Bochum/Germany, CNES in Toulouse/France, NICT in Koganei/Japan and amateur radio station DL0SHF in Kiel-Ronne/Germany receives this data, and uses turbo-decoding software written by AMSAT-DL.

The Bochum station is run by AMSAT-DL e.V. and IUZ Bochum Observatory, with the support of the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology and DLR.

Said Doug Biesecker, NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center:

“Thanks to the wonderful work of our colleagues running the station in Bochum and the support of DLR, we can now be sure of receiving real-time data from the NASA/STEREO satellite throughout the life of the mission. The STEREO data has proven to provide significant benefits to space weather forecasting and is used by NOAA on a daily basis to ensure the best possible forecasts. Space weather increasingly threatens the technological infrastructure of our modern world, with demonstrated impacts on global positioning, power grids, and high frequency communication systems.”

The switch to Turbo Codes has improved reception capabilities of the ground stations by about 2 dB, which is a very welcome improvement giving the increasing distances – 269 and 286 million kilometers respectively – that need to be covered.

Source http://www.amsat-dl.org/index.php/news-mainmenu-97/194-stereo-turbo-amsateng

AMSAT-DL International Satellites for Communication, Science and Education http://tinyurl.com/AMSAT-DL
Jan 8 2013

Pictures Received on 5840 MHz from Amateur Radio Satellite FITSAT-1

Image of ISS taken by the FITSAT-1 CubeSat after deployment

Image of ISS taken by the FITSAT-1 CubeSat after deployment

On December 22 members of AMSAT-DL succeeded in receiving 18 images from the 5840 MHz high-speed downlink of the amateur radio satellite FITSat-1.

In total 22 images were transmitted in the test and 18 were received at the amateur radio facility at Bochum.

The FITSAT-1 CubeSat was developed by students at the Fukuoka Institute of Technology (FIT) in Japan. As well as the high-speed data downlink on 5840.0 MHz the satellite carries several amateur radio payloads: a CW beacon on 437.250 MHz, a telemetry beacon on 437.445 MHz and an optical Morse code LED experiment.

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Dec 17 2012

AMSAT Presentation at Qatar International Amateur Radio Festival

AMSAT-DL President Peter Guelzow DB2OS at the Qatar National Day Station A71QND

AMSAT-DL President Peter Guelzow DB2OS at the Qatar National Day Station A71QND

AMSAT-DL President Peter Guelzow DB2OS gave a presentation about the AMSAT P3E and P5 missions at the Qatar international amateur radio festival at the Al Rayyan Theatre in Souq Waqif.

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Sep 15 2012

DLR rejects amateur radio P5-/Mascot-2 project

AMSAT-DL have released a statement regarding the P5-/Mascot-2 project:

Discussions with the German Ministry of Economics and the German  space agency DLR spanned more than 5 years. Amongst others, we met with  State Secretary for Space and Aerospace Hinze, DLR chairman Prof. Wörner and the DLR  Program Board.  In 2009 AMSAT-DL,  in collaboration with the DLR Institute for Space Systems in Bremen, conducted two complex Concurrent Engineering  studies. They were jointly presented to the DLR program board in Köln-Porz in  2010.

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