Tag Archives: AMSAT-EA

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 in the Shetland Islands.

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 by 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/

Oct 10 2021

AMSAT-EA developing URESAT-1 satellite

AMSAT-EA LogoAMSAT-EA is already working on the mission of what will be the first satellite of URE (Spain’s national amateur radio society), URESAT-1.

A translation of post by URE says:

At the IberRadio Fair, held in September, the possible functionalities that this satellite could implement were shown.

Details of the evolutions planned for the URESAT satellite are based on the experience of the previous GENESIS missions, with the GENESIS-N and GENESIS-L satellites, launched into space with Firefly on September 3 (although, they failed to reach orbit due to failure of the thruster), and EASAT-2 and Hades, which will launch with SpaceX on January 10 from Cape Canaveral.

Although the final functionalities must be approved by the URE itself, it is expected that said satellite will incorporate an FM voice repeater, FSK transmissions and some type of on-board experiment, which could be a camera with SSDV transmissions or some type of propellant.

If the necessary financing is obtained, it is expected that this satellite could be sent into space by the end of 2022.

Source URE https://tinyurl.com/IARU-Spain