Tag Archives: CubeSat

Feb 28 2013

IARU Announces Frequencies for Korean Ham Radio CubeSat OSSI

Hojun Song DS1SBO and the NovaNano FlyMate deployer

Hojun Song DS1SBO and the NovaNano FlyMate deployer

The IARU amateur radio satellite frequency coordination panel has announced the frequencies for the OSSI-1 CubeSat developed by Hojun Song DS1SBO.

Artist and radio amateur Hojun Song DS1SBO has spent 7 years developing his Open Source Satellite Initiative satellite OSSI-1. He has designed and developed it from scratch using readily available components rather than expensive space qualified hardware. It has a beacon in the 145 MHz band, a data communications transceiver in the 435 MHz band and carries a 44 watt LED optical beacon to flash Morse Code messages to observers on Earth.

OSSI-1 is planned to launch on April 19, 2013 into a 575 km 64.9° inclination orbit on a Soyuz-2-1b rocket from the Baikonur launch facility in Kazakhstan along with the Bion-M1, SOMP, BEESAT 2, BEESAT 3 and Dove-2 satellites.

The IARU amateur satellite frequency coordination panel has announced frequencies for a downlink on 145.980 MHz and an uplink/downlink on 437.525 MHz.

Video – How the Amateur Radio Satellite OSSI-1 Works
https://amsat-uk.org/2012/08/10/video-how-the-amateur-radio-ossi-1-satellite-works/

Watch the BBC TV report: Korean artist has high hopes for his homemade satellite
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-19007475

OSSI CubeSat in New Scientist Magazine
https://amsat-uk.org/2012/11/06/ossi-cubesat-in-new-scientist-magazine/

Hojun Song DS1SBO visited London to give a well received presentation on his CubeSat to WIRED 2012
https://amsat-uk.org/2012/10/24/cubesat-developer-hojun-song-to-attend-wired-2012-london/

Data Format for Korean OSSI CubeSat
https://amsat-uk.org/2013/01/23/data-format-for-korean-ossi-cubesat/

Open Source Satellite Initiative (OSSI) http://opensat.cc/

Feb 28 2013

PSLV-C20 Object-Satellite Pairings

STRaND-1 PSLV-C20 Launch - Image credit ISRO

STRaND-1 PSLV-C20 Launch – Image credit ISRO

On the AMSAT Bulletin Board Alan WA4SCA has posted information from Space Track of the object-satellite pairings for the PSLV-C20 launch that carried the UK smartphone satellite STRaND-1 into space. He writes:

JSpOC [Joint Space Operations Center] has named the following satellites:

39086 – SARAL
39087 – AAUSAT3
39088 – SAPPHIRE
39089 – NEOSSAT
39090 – STRAND 1
39091 – CANX 3A (BRITE-ASRA)
39092 – CANX 3B (UNIBRITE)
39093 – PSLV R/B
39094 – PSLV DEB

Due to catalog requirements, which requires payloads to be listed prior to the rocket body and another launch debris, objects 39086, 39087, 39092, 39093, and 39094 had to be shifted to be placed in proper sequence.

Elsets were shifted as follows:
39086 was moved to 39093 (PSLV R/B)
39087 was moved to 39094 (PSLV DEB)
39092 was moved to 39086 (SARAL)
39093 was moved to 39087 (AAUSAT3)
39094 was moved to 39092 (CANX 3B)

NORAD Keps/TLEs for recent satellites

Feb 28 2013

Radio Amateur receives STRaND-1 Smartphone Satellite in Brazil

AMSAT-UK_Bevelled_LogoRoland Zurmely PY4ZBZ in Brazil has received the 437.568 MHz telemetry signal from the STRaND-1 smartphone satellite launched on Monday, February 25.

See his STRaND-1 telemetry page in Google English at http://tinyurl.com/cf8l8n4

Page in Portugese http://www.qsl.net/py4zbz/strand.htm

Information on decoding the STRaND-1 amateur radio telemetry beacon

Feb 27 2013

RadFxSat/Fox-1B Amateur Radio CubeSat Proposal Accepted by NASA

AMSAT FOX

AMSAT-NA reports that the RadFxSat/Fox-1B proposal has been accepted by NASA. Tony Monteiro AA2TX writes:

I am pleased to announce that our NASA ELaNa proposal for RadFxSat/Fox-1B has been accepted.

Here is the NASA announcement. Note that the projects are listed in alphabetical order, not priority order. Look for “Vanderbilt and AMSAT.”
http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2013/feb/HQ_13-064_CubeSat_4.html

We requested a launch in 2014.

Feb 26 2013

Decoding the STRaND-1 amateur radio telemetry beacon

STRaND-1 PSLV-C20 Launch - Image credit ISRO

STRaND-1 PSLV-C20 Launch – Image credit ISRO

STRaND-1 carries an amateur radio AX.25 packet radio downlink on 437.568 MHz using 9600 bps FSK modulated data with HDLC frame, NRZI encoding.

Dr Chris Bridges would be delighted to receive all available telemetry files by email to C.P.Bridges@surrey.ac.uk

Excel Spreadsheet of STRaND-1 Telemetry Format_20130327

On the AMSAT Bulletin Board Mark Hammond N8MH has provided these tips to decode STRaND-1:

(1) Sprint-2 TNC set at 9600 baud in KISS mode (or any 9600 in KISS mode probably)

(2) Using this software to capture:
http://www.dk3wn.info/files/online_kiss_plus.zip

(3) And using this software to decode the captured KISS files:
http://www.dk3wn.info/files/kissdump.zip

Thanks to Mike Rupprecht DK3WN for the excellent software.

Jan PE0SAT describes how he used the free TNC emulator software AGWPE and SDR# to decode the telemetry. This approach means you don’t have to buy a dedicated hardware TNC it simply uses your existing PC and radio that supports 9600 bps data:

(1) Record a pass using SDR# and a FUNcube Dongle Pro+ and save the IQ wav file so you can work with it after the pass.
(2) Configure AGW Packet Engine (AGWPE) as a 9600 baud modem using your audio mixer as input. If you don’t have an audio mixer, use audio VAC to route the received audio to the AGW audio input.
(3) When the AGW packet engine is running use AGW-Online-KISS from DK3WN to connect to the packet engine and decode the telemetry.
(4) Open the IQ wav file within SDR# and playback the recorded file and tune to the correct receive frequency, now you can see decoded data within Online-Kiss.
(5) Feed the files captured to KISS-Dump

STRaND-1 Ground Station Antennas

STRaND-1 Ground Station Antennas

Descriptions of ONLINE KISS +, AGW ONLINE KISS and KISS Dump + are at http://tinyurl.com/SatSoftwareDK3WN/

The free AGWPE soundcard packet software AGWPE.zip is available at http://www.sv2agw.com/downloads/

Guide on how to use AGWPE http://www.soundcardpacket.org/

Tracking Information

Free satellite tracking software:
• SimpleSat Look Down http://www.tomdoyle.org/SimpleSatLookDown/
• Gpredict http://gpredict.oz9aec.net/
• Orbitron http://www.amsat-uk.org/?p=9051

Keplerian Two Line Elements (TLE’s) ‘Keps’

Feb 26 2013

STRaND-1 received by radio amateur in Cuba using FUNcube Dongle SDR

Hector Martinez CO6CBF - 640

Hector Martinez CO6CBF

On the AMSAT bulletin board Hector Martinez, CO6CBF, reports receiving the smartphone satellite STRaND-1 using a FUNcube Dongle Software Defined Radio (SDR).

He posted:

On the 22:36 UTC pass both STRaND-1 and AAUSAT3 have been heard in Cienfuegos city (EL92sd). I was running a FUNcube Dongle with SDR-Radio V1.5 and a homebrew ARROW antenna with a homebrew preamplifier. The STRaND-1 beacon has a great signal (S9+).

Congratulations to the STRaND-1 and AAUSAT3 teams for the great job!

Information on the STRaND-1 smartphonecsatellite is at https://amsat-uk.org/satellites/strand-1/

Join the FUNcube Yahoo Group at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FUNcube

Further information on the FUNcubeDongle Software Defined Radio is at http://www.FUNcubeDongle.com/