Tag Archives: Ham Radio

Feb 6 2015

Colloquium – First Call for Papers

AMSAT-UK Logo

AMSAT-UK Logo

This is the first call for speakers for the AMSAT-UK International Space Colloquium 2015 which will be held from Saturday, July 25 to Sunday, July 26, 2015 at the Holiday Inn, Guildford, GU2 7XZ, United Kingdom.

https://amsat-uk.org/colloquium/colloquium-2015/

AMSAT-UK invites speakers, to cover topics about micro-satellites, CubeSats, Nanosats, space and associated activities, for this event.

They are also invited to submit papers for subsequent publishing on the AMSAT-UK web site. We normally prefer authors to present talks themselves rather than having someone else give them in the authors’ absence. We also welcome “unpresented” papers for the web site.

Submissions should be sent *ONLY* to G4DPZ, via the following routes:
e-mail: dave at g4dpz dot me dot uk
Postal address at http://www.qrz.com/db/G4DPZ

AMSAT-UK also invite anyone with requests for Program Topics to submit them as soon as possible to G4DPZ. Invitations for any papers on specific subjects will be included in the future call. Likewise if anyone knows of a good speaker, please send contact and other information to G4DPZ.

Feb 4 2015

ISS ham radio SSTV in UK press

International Space Station - Image Credit NASA

International Space Station – Image Credit NASA

The Daily Mail reports that 22-year-old Radoslaw Karwacki received the recent amateur radio Slow Scan Television (SSTV) transmissions from the ISS

ISS SSTV image 9/12 received by Radek Karwacki on February 1, 2015

ISS SSTV image 9/12 received by Radek Karwacki on February 1, 2015

Radoslaw (Radek) used an RTL-SDR dongle costing about £10 ($15) to receive the SSTV signal on 145.800 MHz FM during the weekend of January 31 to February 1. The antenna was a simple dipole and he used the free SDRSharp and MMSSTV software to receive and display the image.

‘These images are not transmitted regularly. I was really lucky to receive them, because it was my first experience with this kind of equipment,’ he told MailOnline.

‘I blindly tuned in on that frequency during ISS flyby and happened to receive the signal.’

Read the article by Daily Mail Science and Technology reporter Jonathan O’Callaghan at
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2939725/How-chat-astronauts-aboard-ISS-USB-dongle-antenna-lets-Polish-man-receive-images-cosmonauts.html

Radoslaw Karwacki’s original Reddit post and comments
http://www.reddit.com/r/RTLSDR/comments/2uibm1/i_received_these_images_from_the_iss_on_145800mhz/

ISS SSTV https://amsat-uk.org/2015/01/31/iss-sstv-operational/

How to receive ISS SSTV https://amsat-uk.org/2015/01/29/iss-sstv-this-weekend/

What is Amateur Radio ? http://www.essexham.co.uk/what-is-amateur-radio

Feb 3 2015

Iran’s Fajr Satellite Uses Amateur Radio Bands

The Safir launcher carrying Iran's Fajr satellite February 2, 2015

The Safir launcher carrying Iran’s Fajr satellite February 2, 2015

Nico Janssen PA0DLO reports that the Iranian Fajr satellite has an amateur radio band downlink on 437.538 MHz. UPDATE from Gunters Space page: On February 26 Fajr re-entered Earth’s atmosphere after 23.8 days in orbit apparently without using the cold-gas thruster.

Iranian Fajr satellite launched Feb 2, 2015 - thanks to Tal Inbar @inbarspace

Iranian Fajr satellite launched Feb 2, 2015 – thanks to Tal Inbar @inbarspace

On the AMSAT Bulletin Board (AMSAT-BB) Nico says that it carries a camera for Earth observations and should have a telemetry downlink on 437.538 MHz and a command uplink in the 144-146 MHz amateur radio band.

The Iranian satellite Fajr or ‘Dawn’ was launched on February 2, 2015 at 0850 UT from the Imam Khomeini Space Center which is south of Semnan in the northern part of the Dasht-e-Kavir desert.

The 52 kg satellite was carried on a Safir launcher into an initial orbit of 223 km by 470 km with an inclination of 55.5° and has been given an object ID of 2015-006A 40387. It is Iran’s fourth satellite and its first successful orbital launch since Feb 2012. Fajr has propulsion in the form of a cold gas thruster which can be used to circularize the orbit at around 470 km which may give it a lifetime of over a year.

Fajr real-time tracking map and predictions http://n2yo.com/?s=40387

UHF satellite frequency list http://www.satellitenwelt.de/freqlisten/SatFreq-UHF.txt

AMSAT Bulletin Board http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb

Fajr has cold gas thrusters - thanks to Tal Inbar for posting image

Fajr has cold gas thrusters – thanks to Tal Inbar @inbarspace for posting this image

Feb 2 2015

UWE-3: Preliminary continuation of operations

UWE-3 LogoSince the temporary end of UWE-3 operations two months ago we received great support from the HAM community all over the world observing the health state of our satellite. For this reason and this reason alone we can say today UWE-3 is still experiencing a very good health state with fully charge batteries in a safe temperature area. Corticosteroids are hormones that are produced naturally by the adrenal glands. They have many important functions, including control of inflammatory responses. The intake of clenil modulite inhaler contains the active ingredient beclometasone, which is a type of medicine known as a corticosteroid. Beclometasone is a synthetic corticosteroid and is used to decrease inflammation in the lungs. (NB. Corticosteroids are often simply called steroids, but it should be noted that they are very different from another group of steroids, called anabolic steroids, which have gained notoriety because of their abuse by some athletes and body builders.)

Now, UWE-3 will be temporary operated during the next days and weeks, which will presumably also involve, at times, temporary changes of frequency between 437.385000 MHz and 436.395200 MHz.

We would especially appreciate the support of the HAM community during this period and we would like to thank you very much for your helpful support!

Yours sincerely,

UWE-3 Team

UWE-3 was launched with FUNcube-1 on November 21, 2013. Latest UWE-3 News at
http://www7.informatik.uni-wuerzburg.de/forschung/space_exploration/projects/uwe_3/uwe_3_news/

Jan 31 2015

ISS SSTV Operational

ISS SSTV image 12/12 received by Michał Zawada SQ5KTM at 2100 UT on January 31, 2015

ISS SSTV image 12/12 received by Michał Zawada SQ5KTM at 2055 UT on January 31, 2015

The Russian ARISS team on the International Space Station started the Slow Scan TV (SSTV) experiment, using the call sign RS0ISS, on 145.800 MHz FM at 1000 UT on Saturday, January 31.

ISS SSTV image 5/12 received by Murray Hely ZL3MH January 31, 2015

ISS SSTV image 5/12 received by Murray Hely ZL3MH January 31, 2015

Initially there was an issue with the transmissions, Paulo PV8DX in Brazil reported that the 1030 UT pass had a strong carrier but no there was no SSTV audio. As expected there was the 3 min transmission gap between what should have been SSTV transmissions.

The issue was resolved late afternoon and radio amateurs around the world were able to receive the SSTV pictures.

In New Zealand Murray Hely ZL3MH received several good pictures. He used a J Pole antenna with a masthead pre-Amp and a 1970’s FDK Multi 2000 transceiver. Murray has two computers one running the Instant Trak software and the other MMSSTV.

ISS SSTV image 1 received by Murray Hely ZL3MH January 31, 2015

ISS SSTV image 1/12 received by Murray Hely ZL3MH January 31, 2015

The transmissions are expected to continue until 2130 UT on Sunday, February 1.

See pictures that have been received and upload your images at http://www.spaceflightsoftware.com/ARISS_SSTV/

ISS Fan Club for current status
http://issfanclub.com/

Links for free SSTV software and tracking information at
https://amsat-uk.org/2015/01/29/iss-sstv-this-weekend/

ISS SSTV image 8/12 received by Raul LU5AG at 1120 UT on February 1, 2015

ISS SSTV image 8/12 received by Raul LU5AG at 1120 UT on February 1, 2015

Raul LU5AG reports: This morning [Feb 1] during the ISS 1120 UT pass over Buenos Aires, Argentina, this interesting image was received.

During the pass, and together with the SSTV audio, a soft, treble lacking female voice, was heard from time to time repeating a cyclic voice message I cannot understand, perhaps in Russian.

This audio was low, several dB below the SSTV audio. This voice message has some minor impact in the image quality that can be seen below the “RS0ISS” letters and about middle of the picture.

ISS SSTV image 11 received by Sally Dixon G7UCL at 2045 UT Jan 31, 2015 using tri-band omni antenna with FT-897

ISS SSTV image 11 received by Sally Dixon G7UCL at 2045 UT Jan 31, 2015 using tri-band omni antenna with FT-897

Jan 31 2015

Successful ELaNa-10 CubeSat launch

Detection of EcoCube by Jan van Gils PE0SAT

Detection of EcoCube by Jan van Gils PE0SAT

On Saturday, January 31 the CubeSats FIREBIRD-2, GRIFEX and ExoCube carrying amateur radio payloads were successfully launched on a Delta 2 rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base

Delta 2 CubeSat Launch January 31, 2015 - Credit ULA

Delta 2 CubeSat Launch January 31, 2015 – Credit ULA

The GEO-CAPE ROIC In-Flight Performance Experiment (GRIFEX) is a 3U CubeSat developed by MXL that will perform engineering assessment of a JPL-developed all digital in-pixel high frame rate Read-Out Integrated Circuit (ROIC).

The GRIFEX team at the University of Michigan received the first reception report of the spacecraft’s 437.485 MHz 9600 bps AX.25 GMSK signal from Jan van Gils PE0SAT in the Netherlands.

FIREBIRD (Focused Investigations of Relativistic Electron Burst Intensity, Range, and Dynamics) is a CubeSat dual satellite mission examining the spatial scale and spatial temporal ambiguity of magnetospheric microbursts. The project is a collaboration between researchers at the University of New Hampshire and Montana State University. Among the radio amateurs involved were Steve Longworth KR1C and David Klumpar KD7MFJ.

In Germany Mike Rupprecht DK3WN received the 19.2k bps GMSK AX.25 signals on 437.405 and 437.230 MHz from the two  FIREBIRD-2 1.5U CubeSats.

CalPoly’s ExoCube (CP-10) transmits on 437.270MHz using 9600 bps AX.25 FSK with “X03” sent in Morse code every 45 seconds. Jan van Gils PE0SAT reports detecting the ExoCube signal after later analysis of his IQ file.

ELaNA_10 CubeSat Frequencies - Credit Mike Rupprecht DK3WN

ELaNA_10 CubeSat Frequencies – Credit Mike Rupprecht DK3WN

GRIFEX
http://exploration.engin.umich.edu/blog/?page_id=2498
https://www.facebook.com/Michigan.Exploration

FIREBIRD-2 http://firebird.unh.edu/

ExoCube http://polysat.calpoly.edu/launched-missions/cp10-exocube/

ELaNa-10 Delta II CubeSat launch
http://cubesat.org/index.php/missions/upcoming-launches/148-elana-10-delta-ii-launch-2015