LX0OHB-4M amateur radio lunar payload – Credit LuxSpace

The JT65B amateur radio payload, which successfully completed a lunar flyby, has fallen silent after transmitting for 438 hours.

During the afternoon of November 10 the battery voltage dropped from 13.1V to 12.1V and continued falling. The last signal was received by Rein W6SZ at 01:35 UT on November 11 when the battery voltage had fallen to 8.4 volts.

Ghislain LX2RG posted the following to the Moon Net list:

Here at Luxspace, we have to thank you all for the reports, for the tracking, and we also hope that we provided you with the challenges you expected.

4M may possibly awaken from time to time if illumination becomes better.

We shall now endeavor to prepare the next one.

Manfred Memorial Moon Mission (4M) LX0OHB-4M http://moon.luxspace.lu/blog/

4M Lunar Payload https://amsat-uk.org/2014/10/15/4m-lunar-payload-integrated-keps-released/

LX0OHB-4M amateur radio lunar payload – Credit LuxSpace

The integration of the LX0OHB-4M amateur radio payload was completed on Sunday night, October 12 and is now ready to launch.

The onboard clock has been adjusted to start JT65B (145.980 MHz) at the UTC minute +/-1 second. It is likely to drift during the mission, and manual offset introduction will be required after a week or so. The launch date is October 23 at 1759 UTC.

Chang Zheng CZ-3C/G2 launch vehicle at Xichang carrying the 4M payload – Credit LuxSpace

Beginning of transmission of 4M will start between 1917 UTC and 1927 UTC. Refer to the provided maps and animations links in the blog section (see also older messages) to determine your visibility. Alternatively, use the ‘tracking’ section where you can compute your tracking elements by introducing your geographic coordinates. The table can be copied/pasted into a text file. As the apparent movement will be close (and closer) to the one one of the Moon, manual pointing is easy but for the largest arrays. We’ll try to publish equivalent TLE’s to input in usual tracking software.

The link budget is quite tight, but the first hours should give comfortable signals. QSB is to be expected.

As JT65B is used: please remind those not yet too familiar with it that the receiver must not be tuned during the transmission. A dedicated webpage is being written to detail the procedure.

A dedicated java application is also available to automatically transmit the decoded messages to the 4M website and ease the data collection. (Thanks to LSE Space). Alternatively, you can also send the decoded messages by eMail, sending the ALL.txt file.

For those not wishing to use JT65B, please record the signals (11025s/s, 8or 16 bits, mono), taking care not to saturate the recording and NO MP3 please.

SpectrumLab is an excellent choice, although some may wish to use simpler recording software.

You can imagine that the team is quite eager to receive the first reports, so, do not hesitate to mail immediately, send decoded messages or even phone or text me at +352 661 678 986.

Our friends of IC CMalaga are also quite eager to receive the results of their radiation dosimeter experiment.

Basic rules of the contest have been delineated in the blog section. Complete rules will be published soon.

Stay tuned on our website or Facebook page.

.
Ghislain Ruy LX2RG
Email: ruy@luxspace.lu with “4M Amateur” in the subject

Manfred Memorial Moon Mission (4M) http://moon.luxspace.lu/
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/LuxSpaceSarl

The launch will be broadcast by CNTV/CCTV: http://www.cntv.cn/ or http://english.cntv.cn/ or http://english.cntv.cn/live/p2p/index.shtml

Information animations and some JT65B test files at
https://cloud.luxspace.lu/public.php?service=files&t=33c4a21c09ba3736a55fc09896e463f6

Read the paper 4M Mission: a Lunar FlyBy experiment
http://tinyurl.com/4M-Mission-V3

EME 2014 slides: 4M, A Moon Flyby Mission
http://tinyurl.com/4M-slides-eme2014

4M lunar ham radio payload shipped
https://amsat-uk.org/2014/10/04/4m-lunar-ham-radio-payload-shipped/

4M payload under test

Ghislain Ruy LX2RG reports the 4M Lunar flyby amateur radio payload was shipped on Thursday, October 2 and he departs for the Xichang Satellite Launch Center on Sunday, October 5.

He says the lifetime of 4M is quite an unknown: it may be as short as 100 hours (so at least to the Moon) and could extend for some weeks if the attitude is favorable.

It is now known that the spacecraft will not re-enter the Earth atmosphere after the flyby but instead enter a wonderful orbit. You will find information animations and some JT65B test files at

https://cloud.luxspace.lu/public.php?service=files&t=33c4a21c09ba3736a55fc09896e463f6

The launch will be transmitted by CNTV/CCTV: http://www.cntv.cn/ or http://english.cntv.cn/ or http://english.cntv.cn/live/p2p/index.shtml

LX2RG says the team are setting up their ground station, and are especially looking for southern hemisphere stations: ZS, VK and ZL, Southern America continent mainly, as they will be placed first hand for the early hours.

Launched is planned in a narrow window at 17:59:xx UTC on October 23 and flyby is to occur nominally on October 28 at 00:33 UTC.

4M is planned to start transmissions at 19:17 UTC, possibly with 10 minutes additional delay.

K1JT has developed a special version of WSJT. In addition of all the features of the standard version, it includes also the display and logging of the dT to three decimal places and the logging of the manual offset that can be entered in JT65B modes. This version should be used by all who wants to participate to the ‘Multilateration’ experiment.

The participant to this experiment should also make sure that the clock of their PC stays synchronized to the UTC time. Desired accuracy should be within 1ms and within 10ms at the very least. Use of NTP synchronizing software is a must.

The special version can be downloaded with the following links:
http://physics.princeton.edu/pulsar/K1JT/WSJT_10.0r4336a.exe
https://cloud.luxspace.lu/public.php?service=files&t=2720825f74104b31ebd699dcc0fd6268

The LuxSpace ground station comprises 2 x 8 element crossed Yagis from Joachims antenna (with an improved design to lower the back lobe), a SSB.de LNA and Yaesu antenna rotators.

Best regards.

Ghislain Ruy LX2RG
Email ruy@luxspace.lu with “4M Amateur” in the subject

Read the paper 4M Mission: a Lunar FlyBy experiment
http://tinyurl.com/4M-Mission-V3

EME 2014 slides: 4M, A Moon Flyby Mission
http://tinyurl.com/4M-slides-eme2014

Manfred Memorial Moon Mission (4M) http://moon.luxspace.lu/

4M-LXS Lunar amateur radio payload
https://amsat-uk.org/2014/09/01/4m-lunar-payload/