Tag Archives: CubeSat

Dec 30 2016

BY70-1 FM transponder contact video

Christian Jacobs 2E0ICL has released a video of his recent contact with Peter Goodhall 2E0SQL via the new amateur radio FM satellite BY70-1.

The satellite was launched into orbit on December 28, 2016. This is orbit #27.

Watch New FM transponder satellite BY70-1

BY70-1 information https://amsat-uk.org/2016/12/27/by70-1-fm-transponder-satellite/

Christian Jacobs 2E0ICL has also released a video of his recent FM contact via the SO-50 satellite during a recent Summits On The Air (SOTA) activation at Walbury Hill (summit identifier G/SE-001).

A total of 13 contacts were made, mostly on 2m SSB, including some FM satellite working via SO50 with 10 watts to an Arrow dual-band antenna.

Watch Summits on the Air: G/SE-001, Walbury Hill

SO-50 satellite https://amsat-uk.org/satellites/communications/saudi-oscar-50/

BY70-1 FM transponder satellite https://amsat-uk.org/2016/12/27/by70-1-fm-transponder-satellite/

Arrow 2m/70cm dual-band antenna
http://shop.amsat-uk.org/Arrow_2m70cms_antenna/p3815740_16665431.aspx

Dec 29 2016

Tomsk-TPU-120 CubeSat to deploy during EVA

Tomsk-TPU-120 CubeSat - Credit Tomsk Polytechnic University

Tomsk-TPU-120 CubeSat – Credit Tomsk Polytechnic University

The amateur radio CubeSat Tomsk-TPU-120 may be deployed during a Russian spacewalk (EVA) in July 2017.

The satellite was developed by students at the Tomsk Polytechnic University to test new space materials technology and is the world’s first space vehicle with a 3D-printed structure. It was launched from Baikonur in Kazakhstan to the ISS on March 31, 2016 in a Progress-MS-2 cargo vessel.

It will be deployed by hand during a Russian spacewalk, which is why unlike other CubeSats this one has a handle. The call sign of the satellite is RS4S.

According to Alexey Yakovlev, head of the Tomsk Polytechnic University’s Institute of High Technologies, the 3D printed satellite is something of a landmark for additive manufacturing, being the first example of a fully 3D printed satellite: “The Tomsk-TPU-120 is the first such project in the world, in which the entire casing of a satellite is fully 3D printed using dynamic modeling,” Yakovlev recently told Sputnik. “The combination of these technologies can significantly reduce the development time and the number of full-scale tests, find new engineering solutions, and reduce the project’s cost.”

In May 2016 the Tomsk Polytechnic University celebrated its 120th anniversary. As part of the celebrations on May 10/11 the Tomsk-TPU-120 was activated in the ISS and transmitted a greeting to Earth inhabitants, recorded by students of the university in 10 languages: Russian, English, German, French, Chinese, Arabic, Tatar, Indian, Kazakh and Portuguese.

The greeting message was transmitted once a minute on 437.025 MHz FM. A Kenwood transceiver on the ISS provided a cross-band relay, re-transmitting the signal on 145.800 MHz FM.

Read the 3ders article at
http://www.3ders.org/articles/20161229-russian-scientist-says-3d-printed-satellite-entering-orbit-in-2017.html

Sputnik News – Unique 3D-Printed Siberian Satellite to Orbit Earth
https://sputniknews.com/science/201612261049011599-russia-satellite-3D-printer-experiments/

ISS Calendar http://spaceflight101.com/iss/iss-calendar/

Tomsk-TPU-120 CubeSat Video https://amsat-uk.org/2016/05/23/tomsk-tpu-120-cubesat-video/

Dec 27 2016

BY70-1 FM transponder satellite

BY70-1 CubeSat

BY70-1 CubeSat

A CZ-2D rocket carrying the amateur radio FM transponder satellite BY70-1 was launched on Wednesday, December 28 at 03:23 UT.

Update: Paul Stoetzer N8HM reports working Wyatt Dirks AC0RA through the FM transponder during the 1709 UT pass on December 28. Paul says “Uplink requires precise frequency adjustment and there’s a delay on the downlink, but the signal is strong”. A recording of the transponder can be heard at https://soundcloud.com/paul-stoetzer/by70-1-1706z-28-dec-2016

The launch from the Taiyuan Space Launch Center was planned for December 26 but postponed due to adverse weather. It had been planned it would go into a 530 km circular Sun-Synchronous Orbit (SSO) but instead the orbit appears to be 524 x 212 km which will give an orbital lifetime of just one or two months.

BY70-1 is a 2U CubeSat project for school education and amateur radio. It features 3-axis stabilization and deployable solar panels. In addition to the FM transponder BY70-1 has a camera and it is planned to download images and telemetry via a 9600 bps BPSK downlink.

The IARU amateur satellite frequency coordination pages list these frequencies:
• 145.920 MHz uplink
• 436.200 MHz downlink
A 67 Hz CTCSS (PL Tone) is required.

On the AMSAT Bulletin Board Mac AE5PH has provided a list of the channel settings he uses:

 Chan        RX          TX     TX PL Tone
BY70-1    436.2100    145.9175    67 Hz
BY70-2    436.2075    145.9175    67 Hz
BY70-3    436.2050    145.9175    67 Hz
BY70-4    436.2025    145.9200    67 Hz
BY70-5    436.2000    145.9200    67 Hz
BY70-6    436.1975    145.9200    67 Hz
BY70-7    436.1950    145.9225    67 Hz
BY70-8    436.1925    145.9225    67 Hz
BY70-9    436.1900    145.9225    67 Hz

His rig supports 2.5 kHz channel spacing, for 5 kHz step rigs just omit the intermediate channels.
Note: If your rig has selectable FM filters the wider filter should give better results.

For the SatPC32 Doppler.sqf file Henk PA3GUO suggests: BY70-1,436200,145920,FM,FM,NOR,0,0,FM

BY70-1 has been added to the satellite pass predictor at

See the article by Daniel Estévez EA4GPZ / M0HXM – GNU Radio decoder for camera images from BY70-1 satellite http://destevez.net/2016/12/looking-at-by70-1-image-downlink/

BY70-1 links
http://www.amsatuk.me.uk/iaru/finished_detail.php?serialnum=531
https://twitter.com/cnspaceflight/status/802863365013942272

Follow Mingchuan Wei BG2BHC https://twitter.com/bg2bhc

Keplerian Two Line Elements (TLEs) ‘Keps’ for new satellites launched in past 30 days. It is believed BY70-1 may be object 41909, 2016-083C http://celestrak.com/NORAD/elements/tle-new.txt

Adding new satellites to SatPC32, Gpredict and Nova
https://amsat-uk.org/2013/11/23/adding-new-satellites-to-satpc32/

Nov 21 2016

FUNcube-1 / AO73 celebrates 3 years in space

FUNcube Team Monitor Launch

FUNcube Team Monitor Launch

Monday, November 21, 2016, marked the third birthday in space for the 985 gram spacecraft FUNcube-1 / AO73.

AO-73 (FUNcube-1) - Image credit Wouter Weggelaar PA3WEG

AO-73 (FUNcube-1) – Image credit Wouter Weggelaar PA3WEG

FUNcube-1 was launched at 07:10 UT on November 21, 2013 and its first signals were received immediately after deployment over the Indian Ocean by amateurs in South Africa. Since then it has been operating continuously in either its education mode or, with the transponder active, in amateur mode when in eclipse and at weekends.

The FUNcube team are very grateful to everyone who has been contributing their telemetry records to the Data Warehouse and also to those who are using FUNcube-1 for educational outreach to schools and colleges around the world. This important part of our mission is intended to encourage young people to develop an interest and passion in all STEM subjects for their future.

FUNcube-1 Launch Day Mug

FUNcube-1 Launch Day Mug

The spacecraft is operating nominally – the telemetry indicates that all the sub-systems are fine. The battery voltages, solar panel charge currents and on board temperatures are virtually unchanged since launch.

In addition to FUNcube-1, there are now similar FUNcube transponders operating in low earth orbit on the UKube-1 and EO79/QB50p1 CubeSats.

The team has recently contributed to the development of Nayif-1, which is presently awaiting launch, and is currently working on a number of further CubeSat and microsat projects.

Happy Birthday AO73!

Get your 73 on 73 Award, details at https://amsat-uk.org/funcube/73-on-73-award/

AO-73 (FUNcube-1) website https://amsat-uk.org/funcube/funcube-website/

FUNcube Yahoo Group https://amsat-uk.org/funcube/yahoo-group/

Howard Long G6LVB working AO-73 while Ciaran Morgan M0XTD captures the downlink passband data using a FUNcube Dongle Pro+ and Microsoft Surface Tablet

Howard Long G6LVB working AO-73 while Ciaran Morgan M0XTD captures the downlink passband data using a FUNcube Dongle Pro+ and Microsoft Surface Tablet

Nov 10 2016

EO79 FUNcube-3 transponder commences regular operation

EO79 (QB50p1) FUNcube-3 Transponder Passband - Credit David Bowman G0MRF

EO79 (QB50p1) FUNcube-3 Transponder Passband – Credit David Bowman G0MRF

AMSAT-UK and AMSAT-NL working with ISIS BV are delighted to announce that the FUNcube 435/145 MHz SSB/CW transponder, on the 2U CubeSat QB50p1 (EO79), has now been activated with a regular schedule.

EO79 (QB50p1) CubeSat - Credit ISIS

EO79 (QB50p1) CubeSat – Credit ISIS

Due to power budget constraints the transponder cannot be operational 24/7 and an orbit specific schedule has been developed. The transponder will commence operation 27 minutes after the spacecraft enters sunlight and will stay on for a period of 25 minutes. This schedule may be modified over the forthcoming weeks as a result of experience.

The transponder nominal frequencies are:
Uplink: 435.047-435.077 MHz LSB
Downlink: 145.935-145.965 MHz USB
The output power is approximately 400mW.

David Bowman G0MRF has been attempting to characterize the actual operating frequencies of the EO79 Transponder and suggests that the operational bandwidth of the transponder might be considered to be 25 kHz rather than 30 kHz. His report is available here. On the AMSAT Bulletin Board he writes:

From observations, there seems to be no downlink below 145.946 MHz. By taking readings at Time of Closest Approach (TCA) on low elevation passes, which for me is about 20 minutes into the 25 minute schedule. The transponder appears as follows:

Downlink.
Lower limit is quite well defined at 145.946.
Upper limit roles off slowly above 970. But 145.971 seems a reasonable limit. Very strong signals are visible to 973 but are heavily attenuated.

Uplink
Upper limit (for 145.946) = 435.0723
Lower limit (for 145.971) = 435.0473

This suggests the transponder has a nominal bandwidth of 25 kHz. My best guess at a translation frequency is 581.0183MHz

Qb50p1 (EO79) was launched in June 2014, as a collaborative effort led by the von Karman Institute and ISIS-BV, into a sun synchronous 620×600 km polar orbit as a precursor spacecraft for the QB50 mission. The primary function of the satellite was to test a number of the systems and science payloads. This phase has now been completed and we are grateful to VKI and ISIS BV for carrying this transponder into space and, again, to ISIS, for developing and uploading the new, required, flight code.

We hope you have lots of fun using EO79!

Nov 10 2016

Middle School Students’ FM Transponder Satellite Launched

Middle School Students

Middle School Students

CAS-2T a technical verification satellite for CAMSAT CAS-2 series amateur radio satellite launched at 23:42 UT November 9, 2016 on a CZ-11 rocket. The 2U CubeSat, developed by students from Fengtai District, Xicheng and Haidian District secondary schools, carries a ham radio 145/435 MHz FM transponder.

CAS-2T 145/435 MHz FM Transponder CubeSat

CAS-2T 145/435 MHz FM Transponder CubeSat

CAS-2T and another satellite with an amateur radio payload, KS-1Q (436.500 MHz), are attached to the final stage of the CZ-11 rocket. The final stage was originally expected to be in orbit for up to 30 days before re-entering the Earth’s atmosphere but reports indicate the orbit is 504 x 1030 km which could give an orbital lifetime of years.

On the AMSAT Bulletin Board Alan Kung BA1DU writes:

CAS-2T Amateur radio payloads:
CW Telemetry Beacon： 435.710 MHz
FM Transponder Uplink： 145.925 MHz
FM Transponder Downlink： 435.615 MHz

73!
Alan Kung, BA1DU
CAMSAT

Associated links:
Online real time tracking of CAS-2T and KS-1Q http://www.n2yo.com/?s=41845&df=1
News report https://www.chinaspaceflight.com/satellite/fengtai-shaonian-01.html
Mike Rupprecht DK3WN – CAS-2T seems to be Object 2016-66E http://www.dk3wn.info/p/?p=75971
‘Keps’ for new satellites launched in past 30 days http://celestrak.com/NORAD/elements/tle-new.txt

The CAS-2T FM transponder does not appear to be fully functioning, see the report of Daniel Estévez EA4GPZ / M0HXM at http://destevez.net/2016/11/some-measurements-of-cas-2t-on-orbit-25/

KS-1Q like CAS-2T is also attached to the final stage of the CZ-11. It is reported to be a 1U CubeSat with a technology and launch vehicle monitoring payload. Downlink frequency 436.500 MHz ±Doppler with 20 kbps GMSK, CC712 with RS(255,223) every 8-10 seconds https://www.chinaspaceflight.com/satellite/KS-1Q.html