Tag Archives: Hackspace

Apr 18 2019

SatNOGS satellite ground station article in HackSpace magazine

HackSpace magazine issue 18 front coverThe May edition of HackSpace magazine, issue 18, featuring articles by radio amateur Jo Hinchliffe MW6CYK is available as a free PDF.

On pages 34-47 is his special feature on Space, which explains how you can build a SatNOGS satellite ground station to receive amateur radio satellites.

Jo’s article Make a Slim Jim Antenna appears on pages 110-111.

Also in the magazine, on pages 96-99, Ben Everard explains how to build an ISS count‑down timer.

You can download the free HackSpace magazine PDF from
https://hackspace.raspberrypi.org/issues/18

Direct link to the PDF
https://magazines-static.raspberrypi.org/issues/full_pdfs/000/000/072/original/HackSpaceMag18.pdf

Jo Hinchliffe MW6CYK
https://twitter.com/concreted0g
https://concretedog.blogspot.com/

Sep 18 2012

Space is the Place: Student Built Cube Satellites

CubeSats at San Mateo College Makerspace Launch Event

On September 10, the “MENTOR Makerspace” program kicked off with a special event held at the College of San Mateo. The MENTOR Makerspace program has a goal of introducing low-cost makerspaces into 1,000 high schools over the next three years.

NASA’s Matthew Reyes attended the event and in this interview with Tony Wan he explains how students from San Jose State University went from tinkering in their local TechShop to exploring the final frontier.

Continue reading →

Sep 1 2012

Cambridge University Space Flight at EMF 2012 Milton Keynes

EMF 2012 badge of attendee Graham Shirville G3VZV

EMF 2012 badge of attendee Graham Shirville G3VZV

The technology camp EMF 2012 being held at Pineham Park, Milton Keynes runs from Friday August 31 to Sunday, September 2. BBC TV reports that two 20m high masts linked by microwaves have been erected for the event, one at the campsite and the other in the car park of a data centre 2.5 km away.

Among the weekend of presentations are some by radio amateurs such as Adam Greig M0RND (formerly M6AGG). Adam is a member of the UK High Altitude Society (UKHAS) and Cambridge University Space Flight (CUSF) and will be talking about High Altitude Ballooning. The balloons use 434 MHz for the telemetry and video image downlinks.

Continue reading →

Jan 8 2012

Hams Asked To Help Encourage Home Construction

Diane Bruce VA3DB

Diane Bruce VA3DB

The AMSAT News Service reports that Diane Bruce, VA3DB, is asking radio amateurs to help with a new website and mailing list devoted to home construction projects.

If you are currently a ham radio builder, or interested in becoming one, the Hamradio-builder mailing list has been created with you in mind.

Diane Bruce VA3DB says of the list, “A recent look at some old 73 Magazines brought to mind the simple projects this magazine produced. So my thought was to do something similar, but meant for the web instead of dead tree. I am not talking a full fledged magazine, but a website where we can put simple beginner type articles, with copious photos and good instructions. We hope it will become a bit like Maker Magazine but for the radio amateur.”

A few of us have written and edited amateur radio articles. She is proposing for the moment that we clean up or write a few articles suitable for beginners to start the content for this community.

List members have already proposed topics on homebrew test equipment, and antennas. Amateur radio satellite operators have skill and many ideas, construction projects, and techniques to get beginners on-the-air at VHF, UHF, and microwave frequencies.

The project is just getting started. If you are interested in joining this community you can sign up for the list at:

http://diana.db.net/mailman/listinfo/hamradio-builder

Watch the video – The DIY Magic of Amateur Radio http://www.uk.amsat.org/3158
A Hi-Res 480 MB version of the DIY Magic DVD can be downloaded from http://p1k.arrl.org/pub/pr/
73 Magazine PDF’s from 1960-2003 can be downloaded from http://tinyurl.com/73Magazine
Make Magazine article http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2010/05/collapsible-fabric-yagi-antenna.html

Electronic home construction (DIY) is undergoing a boom with Maker and Hacker groups springing up everywhere. Hackspaces are places where people meet up to carry out constructional projects, see http://hackspace.org.uk/

Jan 2 2012

The DIY Magic of Amateur Radio Video

A new promotional video has been released to attract Hackers, Makers and Innovators to amateur radio.

The video features well known hacker and maker Diana Eng KC2UHB along with Ham Nation’s Bob Heil K9EID and ISS Astronaut Doug Wheelock KF5BOC. It follows some of the innovative, imaginative and fun ways “hams” use radio technology in new and creative ways and points out that amateur radio clubs are similar to hacker groups.

Watch The DIY Magic of Amateur Radio in HD

Featured in the video is the Ham Radio HSMM-MESH™. A high speed, self discovering, self configuring, fault tolerant, wireless computer network that can run for days from a fully charged car battery, or indefinitely with the addition of a modest solar array or other supplemental power source. The focus is on emergency communications. http://www.hsmm-mesh.org/

A Hi-Res 480 MB version of the DIY Magic DVD can be downloaded from http://p1k.arrl.org/pub/pr/

Diana Eng KC2UHB joins ARRL Public Relations Committee
http://www.southgatearc.org/news/march2010/diana_eng_joins_arrl.htm

London Hackspace work on HackSat1 http://www.uk.amsat.org/2482

Hackers and Makers in AMSAT-UK are building the amateur radio satellite FUNcube. AMSAT-UK publishes a colour A4 newsletter, OSCAR News, which is full of Amateur Satellite information. Free sample issue at http://www.uk.amsat.org/on_193_final.pdf
Join online at http://tinyurl.com/JoinAMSAT-UK

Dec 30 2011

Hackers Plan Space Satellites

A CubeSat in Space

A CubeSat in Space

The BBC report that Hackers plan to put their own communication satellites into orbit. The scheme was outlined at the Chaos Communication Congress in Berlin.

The project’s organisers said the Hackerspace Global Grid will also involve developing a grid of ground stations to track and communicate with the satellites.

Used together in a global network, these stations would be able to pinpoint satellites at any given time, while also making it easier and more reliable for fast-moving satellites to send data back to earth. “It’s kind of a reverse GPS,” Armin Bauer, said.

“GPS uses satellites to calculate where we are, and this tells us where the satellites are. We would use GPS co-ordinates but also improve on them by using fixed sites in precisely-known locations.”

Armin Bauer, said the team would have three prototype ground stations in place in the first half of 2012, and hoped to give away some working models at the next Chaos Communication Congress in a year’s time.

Read the full BBC story at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-16367042

Building a Distrubuted Satellite Ground Station Network – A Call To Arms
http://events.ccc.de/congress/2011/Fahrplan/events/4699.en.html

Hackerspace Global Grid http://shackspace.de/wiki/doku.php?id=project:hgg

London Hackspace work on HackSat1 http://www.uk.amsat.org/2482

AMSAT-DL presentation to the Chaos Communication Camp in August
http://www.uk.amsat.org/2011/12/17/from-oscar-1-to-mars-and-beyond/

Hackers and Makers in AMSAT-UK are building the amateur radio satellite FUNcube.
AMSAT-UK publishes a colour A4 newsletter, OSCAR News, which is full of Amateur Satellite information.
Free sample issue at http://www.uk.amsat.org/on_193_final.pdf
Join online at http://tinyurl.com/JoinAMSAT-UK