Tag Archives: Ham Radio

Jun 30 2015

Essex STEM Balloons Launched

Image received from The Boswells School payload on June 29, 2015

Image received from The Boswells School payload at 1416 GMT on June 29, 2015

On Monday, June 29, 2015 three high altitude balloons from Essex schools and colleges transmitted Slow Scan Digital Video (SSDV) in the 434 MHz band.

The balloons, part of the educational Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) initiative, were taken to an approved site at Elsworth, Cambridge for the launch.

Transmission coverage area of the balloons at 1352 GMT June 29

Transmission coverage area of the balloons at 1352 GMT June 29

The balloon from The Boswells School, Chelmsford reached an altitude of 36,937 metres. It had the call sign BWELLS and transmitted Frequency Shift Keying (FSK) ASCII RTTY at 600 bps on a nominal frequency of 434.450 MHz USB. Balloon frequencies may vary from nominal by several kHz during a flight due to the cold temperatures at high altitudes.

Stewards Academy, Harlow achieved an altitude of 39,876 metres. Their call sign was SWARDS and had a nominal frequency of 434.050 MHz USB and 300 bps data rate.

The Prospects College of Advanced Technology, Basildon reached an altitude of 38,659 metres with their balloon, call sign PROSP, which transmitted on a nominal frequency of 434.150 MHz USB with a 300 bps data rate.

All three balloons transmitted images using SSDV. Individual packets from an image were received by radio amateurs across the UK and NE Europe and automatically uploaded to a central server with the final image being built up from all the good packets and displayed on the web for all to see.

The SSDV images transmitted by the balloons can be seen at:
http://ssdv.habhub.org/SWARDS
http://ssdv.habhub.org/BWELLS
http://ssdv.habhub.org/PROSP

The balloon tracks were displayed live on the web at http://tracker.habhub.org/ and may still be available to view if you select the option to display the past 3 days.

The balloons carried a Raspberry Pi computer board and a Pi in The Sky (PITS) high altitude balloon tracker. On May 24 Chelmsford radio amateur Chris Stubbs M6EDF carried out a test of the PITS tracker for Essex Council, read his report at http://chris-stubbs.co.uk/wp/?p=578

Pi in The Sky project
http://pi-in-the-sky.com/
https://twitter.com/pitsproject

High Altitude Balloon links for online tracking, UKHAS mail list / chat room, WebSDR and SSDV
https://amsat-uk.org/beginners/balloons/

Jun 23 2015

Ham Radio Field Day from Space

As part of the #askAstro program 16-year-old Brandon Martinez KF7RAO submitted a video question to astronaut Reid Wiseman KF5LKT about Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS)

On September 14, 2014 Brandon posted his question to YouTube and on October 10 Reid KF5LKT answered it from the space station. In his reply Reid describes his experience in June of Field Day from space.

Watch Brandon’s question and Reid’s reply

ARISS http://ariss.org/

NASA Astronaut’s ISS Field Day Operation Puts Smiles on Several Faces
http://www.arrl.org/news/nasa-astronaut-s-iss-field-day-operation-puts-smiles-on-several-faces

AMSAT 2015 Field Day – June 27-28
http://www.southgatearc.org/news/2015/june/amsat_2015_field_day.htm

Jun 22 2015

Geosynchronous payload inches closer to reality

Millennium Space Systems AQUILA M8 Series Satellite Structure

Millennium Space Systems AQUILA M8 Series Satellite Structure

Colonel Fred Kennedy, USAF, Space Production Division and Program Manager for the Wide Field of View satellite (hereinafter WFOV) has accepted the proposal to allow Virginia Tech to place a hosted payload consisting of a Software Defined Radio designed and built by Rincon Research Corporation using support equipment and antennas designed by Virginia Tech and other volunteers to this effort.

The spacecraft hosted amateur payload will be included in the Aquila M8 bus by Millennium Space Systems who is the integrator for WFOV.  Our first role and immediate action item is to raise the $100,000 for Millennium to complete the study of the inclusion of this payload on Wide Field Of View.  Following successful completion of this study,  Virginia Tech will raise money to defray the cost of integration and launch of this payload.  After achieving orbit,  volunteers managed by Sonya Rowe and Zach Leffke of Virginia Tech will operate the payload for as long as it is over the US.  We at VT with the help of the ARRL will prepare partners in other regions to operate the spacecraft should it be moved in order to allow the WFOV to accomplish its primary mission and be prepared to take over operation of the hosted payload on its return to the area of the Contiguous United States (CONUS).

Colonel Kennedy told me how much he admires how unbelievably capable amateurs around the world have been in their many organizations to get spacecraft to orbit and wishes us the best of luck in the onerous task we will have of raising $5M to get this on board.

I will be making many details public now that Colonel Kennedy has told us we are a go if we raise the money.  I know this is a tall order but “A coward dies a thousand deaths and a brave person dies only once”.  I would rather go down trying than cower in a closet.  This is not intended as casting aspersions on any individual or organization just saying I must proceed hastily to succeed at all and I cannot afford caution.

Let’s GO!

Bob McGwier
Co-Founder and Technical Director, Federated Wireless, LLC
Research Professor Virginia Tech
Senior Member IEEE, Facebook: N4HYBob, ARS: N4HY
Faculty Advisor Virginia Tech Amateur Radio Assn. (K4KDJ)

Geosynchronous Amateur Radio Payload https://amsat-uk.org/satellites/geosynchronous/na-gso-sat/

Jun 21 2015

FUNcube-1 / AO-73 Glitch and Commanded Reboot

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

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

On Sunday, June 21, there was an anomaly on FUNcube-1 that required the reboot of the satellite’s MCU (Microcontroller).

After a bus freeze, the databus watchdog did kick in as expected and rebooted the satellite. However, we did need to command the satellite back on to automatic mode.

When we did so on the 20:00 UTC pass, it came back up in the correct mode.

We envisage to switch back to autonomous mode either tonight or tomorrow morning local time.

FUNcube is still happy and healthy. This is the 4th reboot since launch, of which one was intentional. Thanks for your reports and concerns.

On behalf of the whole team best 73s,

Wouter Weggelaar PA3WEG
FUNcube team

FUNcube-1 (AO-73) Telemetry:
• Dashboard App http://funcube.org.uk/working-documents/funcube-telemetry-dashboard/
• Data Warehouse Archive http://warehouse.funcube.org.uk/
• Whole orbit data http://warehouse.funcube.org.uk/wod.html?satelliteId=2

Jun 21 2015

KLETSkous Project Update

KLETSkous LogoThe South African Radio League (SARL) report at the pre-conference Engineering meeting held on Friday [June 19] members of the SA AMSAT CubeSat team made some tough decisions.

During the past few years, various options and subsystems have been experimented with.

The team has now set the launch date of KLETSkous at July 2017 with the first flight model to be ready by February 2016 for testing after which final integration will start. This requires that various module designs are locked down and built by October 2015.

It is planned to have all the modules wired together in a breadboard configuration for testing the interoperation of the various sub-units by December 2015. Some modules are at a more advanced stage than others, but in the next few months, the team expect to catch up and meet the deadline for the first breadboard test.

Frik Wolff, ZS6FZ, the League’s technical manager, has joined the team and is working on solar panels and stabilisation issues. Francois Oberholzer, an honours student at Stellenbosch University, is working on improving the weight/strength relationship of the space frame, a project that is part of his thesis. Nico van Rensburg, ZS6QL, as programme manager and the person responsible for documentation, will support the project manager, Hannes Coetzee, ZS6BZP.

There are many opportunities for radio amateurs to join the engineering team. If you have a particular expertise or passion to add value to the  KLETSKOUS project, please discuss your participation with Hannes Coetzee or any of the team members and send your details to saamsat@intekom.co.za

Source SARL http://www.sarl.org.za/

KLETSkous http://www.amsatsa.org.za/KLETSkous.htm

SA AMSAT Space Symposium June 20, 2015
http://www.amsatsa.org.za/SA%20AMSAT%20SPACE%20SYMPOSIUM%202015%20programme.pdf

Jun 17 2015

QB50p2 FM Transponder Tested

QB50p1 and QB50p2 - Image Credit ISIS

QB50p1 and QB50p2 – Image Credit ISIS

AMSAT-Francophone report that the FM transponder on QB50p2 (EO-80) has been tested. A Google English translation of the post on their website reads:

On June 19, 2014, two 2U CubeSats QB50p1 and QB50p2 were launched as part of the QB50 precursor program into a polar orbit at an altitude of 680 km.

The satellite QB50p2 (object 40032) is equipped with a secondary FM transponder payload developed by AMSAT-F.

On Tuesday, June 16, 2015 almost 1 year after launch the AMSAT-F FM transponder on QB50p2 was activated by the main control station in The Netherlands for the duration of an orbit. At the Polytechnique in Palaiseau, we were able to receive telemetry in CW and put into action the FM transponder with an output of 1.5W.

A very strong signal was received at Palaiseau and by F6HCC in Brittany. The transponder was turned off at the end of the orbit.

In a few weeks, the transponder should be activated permanently. The signal is very strong, we will probably use a lower power level of 500 mW or 1 watt. We will inform you later.

QB50p1 (EO-79 / FUNcube-3) is equipped with a linear transponder for SSB and CW. The first tests were successfully completed in April and its transponder should also be enabled full-time in a few weeks.

Gérard – F6FAO

QB50 Amateur Radio Information https://www.qb50.eu/index.php/precursor-amateur-radio-operator

AMSAT-Francophone http://tinyurl.com/AMSAT-Francophone

The IARU Satellite Frequency Coordination Panel Status pages list these frequencies for the two satellites:

QB50p1 (FUNcube-3) has a VHF 9600 bps BPSK telemetry downlink plus a linear U/V transponder for SSB/CW communications similar to that already flying on FUNcube-1 with an output of 400 mW.
• 145.815 MHz 9600 bps BPSK telemetry beacon
• Inverting SSB/CW linear transponder 400 mW PEP
– 435.035 – 435.065 MHz Uplink LSB
– 145.965 – 145.935 MHz Downlink USB

QB50p2 has  a VHF 9600 bps BPSK telemetry downlink plus a separate RF payload from AMSAT-Francophone which will comprise of a FM voice transponder with UHF uplink and VHF downlink. It can also transmit FX25 telemetry at 9600 bps.
• 145.880 MHz 9600 bps BPSK telemetry beacon
• 145.840 MHz 9600 bps FSK FX25

To use the FM voice transponder Paul Stoetzer N8HM suggests programming these frequencies into your rig’s memories:

EO-80 AOS - TX 435.070 MHz 210.7 Hz CTCSS, RX 145.840 MHz
EO-80 2   - TX 435.075 MHz 210.7 Hz CTCSS, RX 145.840 MHz
EO-80 TCA - TX 435.080 MHz 210.7 Hz CTCSS, RX 145.840 MHz
EO-80 4   - TX 435.085 MHz 210.7 Hz CTCSS, RX 145.840 MHz
EO-80 LOS - TX 435.090 MHz 210.7 Hz CTCSS, RX 145.840 MHz

AOS = Aquisition Of Signal. TCA = Time of Closest Approach. LOS = Loss Of Signal

OSCAR Numbers for QB50p1 and QB50p2 CubeSats
https://amsat-uk.org/2014/07/02/oscar-numbers-for-qb50p1-and-qb50p2-cubesats/