Tag Archives: Ham Radio

Dec 19 2013

11th birthday of ham radio satellite SO-50

Saudisat SO-50

Saudisat SO-50

December 20, 2013 will be the 11th birthday of the amateur radio satellite SO-50.

Now known as SO-50, Saudisat 1C is a Saudi Arabian satellite about 25 cm cubed that was launched by a Dnepr rocket from Baikonur in Kazakhstan at 17:00 UT on December 20, 2002. SO-50 features a “Mode J” FM amateur repeater operating on a 145.850 MHz uplink and a 436.795 MHz (+/- 9 kHz Doppler shift) downlink.

“Most hams already own the necessary equipment to work SO-50,” reports Clint Bradford, K6LCS, who maintains a Web site work-sat.com devoted to working amateur satellites with minimal equipment.

“It is preferable to work SO-50 in true, full-duplex mode – so you can hear the downlink as you transmit. This means – for most – using a second radio or the Kenwood TH-D72A and its true full-duplex capability. The new Puxing PX-UV973 is currently being tested in this mode, too, to see how it works on the satellites.”

SO-50’s repeater is available to amateurs worldwide, and it uses a 67.0 Hz CTCSS (PL) tone on the uplink. SO-50 also has a 10 minute timer that must be armed before use. If you know the satellite is there – but there is nothing heard – you may need to shoot it a CTCSS (PL) tone of 74.4 Hz to turn it ON!

The repeater consists of a miniature VHF receiver with sensitivity of -124 dBm, with an IF bandwidth of 15 kHz. The receive antenna is a 1/4 wave vertical mounted in the top corner of the spacecraft. Its UHF transmitter is a mere 250 mW, and downlink antenna is a 1/4 wave mounted in the bottom corner of the spacecraft and canted at 45 degrees inward.

“Hams just with Technician licenses [or UK Foundation] can work the satellite,” Clint continues. “We are talking about weak signals from 500 miles away – so improving both your TX and RX antennas is critical for success on this satellite.” Plans for making tape measure beams and other inexpensive, high-gain antennas is also on his Web site.

“Do not forget to accommodate for the Doppler shift (+/-9 kHz) on the 436 MHz receive side.”

Complete details – including frequency chart and sources for knowing when the satellite will be over your area, are also on Clint’s Web site.

Work-Sat http://www.work-sat.com/

Watch a video of Simon 2E0HTS working via SO-50 at
https://amsat-uk.org/beginners/how-to-work-a-fm-satellite/

Satellite Tracking https://amsat-uk.org/beginners/satellite-tracking/

Dec 18 2013

How high-altitude balloon missions stay on track

Mark and Cassie with their STRATODEAN High Altitude Balloon

Mark and Cassie with their STRATODEAN High Altitude Balloon

In The Register Lester Haines interviews radio amateur Daniel Richman M0ZDR (ex-M6DRX) about the impressive Cambridge University Space Flight (CUSF) Landing Predictor.

Rob Anderson wrote the original landing predictor for High Altitude Balloons in 2008. Since then it’s been continually updated to improve performance, and now offers anyone wanting to send a balloon aloft the chance of seeing very quickly indeed just where it’ll burst and where they should head to recover their precious load.

Others who’ve worked on the predictor in the past five years are Fergus Noble M0NBL, Ed Moore M0TEK, Jon Sowman M0JSN and Adam Greig M0RND.

Read Fair winds and following servers: The art of flight prediction
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/12/18/lohan_flight_prediction/

CUSF Landing Predictor http://predict.habhub.org/

Daniel then M6DRX was one of three pupils at the Reading School who in 2010 built the Alien-1 high altitude balloon http://www.southgatearc.org/news/may2010/alien_1_launch.htm

To get up-to-date information on balloon flights subscribe to the UKHAS Mailing List by sending a blank email to this address: ukhas+subscribe@googlegroups.com

Dec 17 2013

Yasny Dnepr Satellite ID’s

Dnepr Launch November 21, 2013 - Credit ISC Kosmotras

Dnepr Launch November 21, 2013 – Credit ISC Kosmotras

On the AMSAT Bulletin Board (AMSAT-BB) Nico Janssen PA0DLO has posted a summary of the presently known IDs for the satellites that were launched on the Yasny Dnepr on November 21.

Further Doppler measurements show that TshepisoSat (aka ZACube-1) is object 39417 (2013-066B) and AMSAT-OSCAR-73 (aka FUNCube 1) is object 39444 (2013-066AE). Therefore HiNCube must be object 39445 (2013-066AF).

It is not easy to get a good Doppler curve with many CubeSats because of the limited transmissions and because of the frequency drift of their beacon transmitters.

These object IDs from the Dnepr launch seem to be correct, although some still need to be confirmed (tbc):

39416 2013-066A  Aprizesat 7
39417 2013-066B  TshepisoSat
39418 2013-066C  Skysat 1
39419 2013-066D  Dubaisat 2
39421 2013-066F  Unisat 5
39422 2013-066G  STSat 3
39423 2013-066H  WNISat 1
39425 2013-066K  Aprizesat 8
39427 2013-066M  Triton 1
39428 2013-066N  Delfi-n3Xt
39429 2013-066P  Dove 3
39430 2013-066Q  GomX 1
39431 2013-066R  BRITE-PL
39433 2013-066T  HumSat D
39436 2013-066W  Eagle 2 ($50Sat) (tbc)
39438 2013-066Y  Velox PII (tbc)
39439 2013-066Z  First-MOVE (tbc)
39440 2013-066AA CubeBug 2 (tbc)
39444 2013-066AE AMSAT-OSCAR 73
39445 2013-066AF HiNCube
39446 2013-066AG UWE 3 (tbc)

73,
Nico PA0DLO

The FUNcube-1 team are currently using object 2013-066AE as the best fit for FUNcube-1 (AO-73) and the latest TLEs have just been updated at: http://funcubetest2.wordpress.com/working-documents/latest-two-line-elements/

Satellite TLE Challenge Begins https://amsat-uk.org/2013/11/23/tle-challenge-begins/

AMSAT Bulletin Board (AMSAT-BB) http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/tools/maillist/

Dec 16 2013

CAPE-2 spoke with the voice of Darth Vader!

CAPE-2 CubeSat - University of Louisiana

CAPE-2 CubeSat – University of Louisiana

Roland PY4ZBZ reports that the CAPE-2 amateur radio CubeSat responded to a “Send Text to Speech” command with “Hello P Y 4 Z B Z” in the voice of Darth Vader.

Listen to the recording at
http://tinyurl.com/PY4ZBZ-Cape-2-Darth-Vader

AMSAT Bulletin Board (AMSAT-BB)
http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/tools/maillist/

Dec 16 2013

Young radio hams at Fontana school anticipate ISS link

International Space Station ISS with shuttle Endeavour 2011-05-23

Ten year-old radio amateurs Maribel Laguna KK6IGY and Laisha Vergara KK6HZH hope to link up with the International Space Station next year.

The San Bernardino Sun newspaper reports both are students at the Dorothy Grant Elementary School in Fontana. The school has a popular amateur radio club with nearly 50 members which was founded by teacher Beverly Matheson KJ6RSX.

Beverly said originally she looked at the club as a platform to get students interested in cultures in other lands.

Using the club’s high frequency radio and portable antenna, students set up outside the classroom and take down after their weekly meetings — students have made contact with amateur radio operators such diverse places as Hungary, Maldovia, Japan and the Falkland Islands.

But now Beverly said she wants to personally, and with her students, delve more into science with ham radio as a platform for a STEM program at the school.

Along those lines, next year — before the end of school — the Grant Elementary School Amateur Radio Club will be talking with astronauts aboard the International Space Station.

Read the full San Bernardino Sun story at
http://www.sbsun.com/media/20131213/young-radio-amateurs-at-fontana-school-anticipate-space-station-link

48 students sat their amateur license exam on November 7, 2013
http://www.k3lp.com/dges_field_day_3.htm

Dec 15 2013

First image captured by TshepisoSat (ZACUBE-1)

First picture taken by TshepisoSat (ZACUBE-1) - Image Credit CPUT F'SATI

First picture taken by TshepisoSat (ZACUBE-1) – Image Credit CPUT F’SATI

TshepisoSat was built at the French South African Institute of Technology (F’SATI), at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology and launched on a Dnepr from Dombarovsky near Yasny on November 21, 2013.

ZACUBE-1, FUNcube-1 and HiNCube in the deployment pod - Image credit Wouter Weggelaar PA3WEG

ZACUBE-1, FUNcube-1 and HiNCube in the deployment pod – Image credit Wouter Weggelaar PA3WEG

The CPUT-F’SATI blog says:

Earlier this week a quick checkout of the payload board was done. The sub-system board was powered on and a few telemetry values were requested with all response values indicating good health. The board was successfully switched off again.

On the morning of December 14 the satellite was again commanded to switch on the payload board and a sequence of commands were sent to capture an image and store it in the on-board storage. During the following two passes the image was successfully downloaded using the CPUT/F’SATI built VHF/UHF radio transceiver in its 9k6 bps G3RUH/GMSK mode.

CPUT ZACUBE-1 TshepisoSat

CPUT ZACUBE-1 TshepisoSat

In the image the sun can be seen along with lens flare caused by the camera being pointed towards the sun. The black dot in the bottom right is most likely caused by overload of camera’s CMOS sensor by the sun. The spacecraft is not stabilized in three axis, so capturing images is a best effort affair (imaging is not the main focus of the mission). We can hopefully capture an image showing the earth in the upcoming days.

Original known as ZACube-1, the satellite has been named TshepisoSat, after a competition held for Grade 9 learners. Tshepiso is the seSotho word meaning promise.

ZACUBE-1 TshepisoSat HF beacon antenna deployment unit - Image credit CPUT

ZACUBE-1 TshepisoSat HF beacon antenna deployment unit – Image credit CPUT

The launch was the culmination of five years’ work after the first proposal to build a small satellite as part of the engineering curriculum was put forward by Professor Robert van Zyl in February 2008. Co-operation of the French Government made possible the forming of F’SATI and the French Ambassador in South Africa, Elizabeth Barbier, during a video address, promised continued support by France for the program.

The satellite also includes a small camera which will be used to monitor the releases of the 20 metre beacon antenna. The beacon will operate on 14099 kHz and will be used to characterize the Superdarn antennas at the Antarctic which are used to study the ionosphere. The UHF beacon operates on 437.345 MHz.

CPUT-F’SATI blog http://www.cput.ac.za/blogs/fsati/2013/12/15/first-image-captured-by-zacube-1-tshepisosat-from-space/

ZACUBE-1 http://www.cput.ac.za/blogs/fsati/zacube-1/

Southern African Amateur Radio Satellite Association (SA AMSAT) http://www.amsatsa.org.za/

Satellites on the Yasny Dnepr launch https://amsat-uk.org/satellites/dnepr-november-2013/