Tag Archives: BPSK

Oct 20 2012

FUNcube-2 boards delivered to Clyde Space for UKube-1 Nanosatellite

Steve Greenland of Clyde Space receives the AMSAT-UK FUNcube-2 boards that will be incorporated into UKube-1

Steve Greenland of Clyde Space receives the AMSAT-UK FUNcube-2 boards that will be incorporated into UKube-1

On Friday, October 19, after some final testing and characterisation checks completed at the facilities of ISIS BV in Delft, AMSAT-UK handed over the set of three PCBs that form the FUNcube-2 subsystem on the UKube-1 spacecraft to Clyde Space Ltd in Glasgow. Clyde Space are leading the development and assembly of this CubeSat project for the UK Space Agency.

The PCBs were taken to Glasgow in a Pelicase by Graham Shirville G3VZV who handed them to Steve Greenland Systems Engineer at Clyde Space.

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Jan 30 2012

Student Amateur Radio Satellites on Vega

Artists impression of Vega launch

Artists impression of Vega launch

Vega is planned to launch on Monday, February 13, between 1000-1300 UT from the ESA launch site at Kourou in the Caribbean. It will carry eight student built amateur radio satellites comprising seven CubeSats and a microsatellite called ALMASat-1.

ALMASat-1 – University of Bologna, Italy
437.465 MHz 1200 bps FSK and 2407.850 MHz
http://www.almasat.unibo.it/02_projects/almasat-1/almasat1.htm

e-st@r – Politecnico di Torino, Italy
437.445 MHz 1200 bps AFSK
http://areeweb.polito.it/ricerca/E-STAR/

Goliat – University of Bucharest, Romania
437.485 MHz 1200 bps AFSK
http://www.goliat.ro/

MaSat-1 – Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Hungary
437.345 MHz GFSK 625/1250 bps, CW
http://cubesat.bme.hu/en/

PW-Sat1 – Warsaw University of Technology, Poland
There are 5 modes of operation on the 145.900 MHz downlink:
– Receive only – no downlink
– CW Beacon CW – On-Off Keying (OOK) CW 12 WPM
– BPSK Beacon – BPSK 1200 bps AX25 (1 frame on 20 sec)
– Control communication mode. Downlink BPSK 1200 bps AX25
– Voice Repeater mode (aka “AO-16” mode) – uplink 435.020 MHz FM and downlink 145.900 MHz DSB
http://tinyurl.com/CubeSatPW-Sat

Robusta – University of Montpellier 2, France
437.325 MHz? (website says now 437.350 MHz) 1200 bps FM telemetry with one data burst of 20 secs every 1 min
http://www.ies.univ-montp2.fr/robusta/satellite/?lang=en

UNICubeSAT -University of Rome, Italy
437.305MHz 9600 bps FSK
http://www.gaussteam.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=97%3Aunicubesat&catid=36%3Aunicubesat&Itemid=145

XaTcobeo – Universidade de Vigo, Spain
437.365 MHz FFSK with AX.25
http://www.xatcobeo.com/

Watch the launch live at http://www.videocorner.tv/

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 for Firefox 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”.

Preliminary Vega TLE’s (KEPS) for launch at 1000, 1100 and 1200 UT here

Assuming a 1000 UT launch the satellites should deploy their antennas and start transmitting at about 1140 UT. It looks like the first to get good reception will be Central America followed quickly by a pass up the East coast of North America. The first pass for the United Kingdom should be a horizon skimmer across the NW at around 1207 UT.

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

N2YO Real Time Satellite Tracking http://www.n2yo.com/

Satscape Satellite Tracking Software http://www.satscape.info/home/?q=node/2 

IZ8BLY Vox Recoder http://antoninoporcino.xoom.it/VoxRecorder/

Free Sound Recorder http://www.sound-recorder.biz/freesoundrecorder.html

For the latest information on newly launched satellites check the AMSAT Bulletin Board (AMSAT-BB) http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/tools/maillist/

Jan 5 2012

FUNcube at Association for Science Education Conference

Graham Shirville G3VZV on AMSAT-UK Stand at ASE

Graham Shirville G3VZV on the AMSAT-UK Stand

The 3 day Association for Science Education Conference opened in Liverpool on Thursday, January 5.

AMSAT-UK have a stand at the conference to show the potential of the FUNcube satellite as a teaching tool.

The FUNcube project aims to boost young people’s interest in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM).

When FUNcube-1 is launched this Autumn school students will be able to receive the satellite data stream which contains telemetry — things like battery voltages and solar panel currents — and from this they’ll be able to deduce things like the spin rate of the satellite, and what happens to temperatures when it goes into or out of eclipse.

Additionally students will be able to send, via a moderator, ‘Fitter’ (as in ‘FUNcube Twitter’) messages of 200 characters to the satellite.  FUNcube-1 will then transmit them down to Earth on its 1200 bps BPSK beacon.

The event takes place at the University of Liverpool from January 5-7. Admission to the exhibition is free, details at http://www.ase.org.uk/

 

Nov 20 2011

ARISSat-1 may de-orbit in April 2012

According to predictions from Mineo Wakita, JE9PEL, the ARISSat-1satellite is due to re-enter Earth’s atmosphere in early April 2012.

Launched from the International Space Station on August 8, the satellite is traveling in a low orbit and is steadily losing altitude. The rate of orbital decay may be accelerated by increasing atmospheric density caused by increased solar activity. With that factor in mind, some ARISSat-1 decay predictions suggest re-entry as early as February 1.

ARISSat-1 remains quite active, sending voice messages, digital telemetry and Slow Scan TV images.

Amateurs have also been able to enjoy contacts through ARISSat-1’s linear transponder despite the fact that the UHF antenna was apparently damaged prior to (or during) deployment.

Last month, AMSAT-NA announced a competition to see who can record the last bits of telemetry as ARISSat-1 makes its final plunge.

To decode the CW or BPSK telemetry you must use the ARISSATTLM software for Windows or Mac OS. The CW signal is transmitted at 145,919 MHz and the BPSK signal appears at 145,920 MHz, plus or minus Doppler.