Tag Archives: LilacSat-2

Jul 11 2016

LilacSat-2 Linear Transponder Tested

Members of the Harbin Institute Of Technology Amateur Radio Club BY2HIT receiving LilacSat-2

Members of the Harbin Institute Of Technology Amateur Radio Club BY2HIT receiving LilacSat-2

On July 10, 2016 the amateur radio SSB/CW linear transponder on the student built satellite LilacSat-2 was successfully tested.

LilacSat-2, call sign BJ1SI, was built by students at the Harbin Institute of Technology and launched on September 19, 2015.

The 40 kHz wide SSB/CW transponder is Non-Inverting which means the Doppler shift of a signal going through the transponder will be twice that usually seen on Low Earth Orbit inverting linear transponder satellites.

Clayton Coleman W5PFG reported that he and Glenn Miller AA5PK had a contact through the transponder, a recording can be heard at
https://soundcloud.com/w5pfg/lilacsat-2-2016-07-11-1315z-ssb-transponder

The transponder frequencies are:
• 144.3425-144.3825 MHz Uplink
• 437.180-437.220 MHz Downlink
It is not yet known when the transponder will be activated again.

LilacSat-2 https://amsat-uk.org/satellites/communications/lilacsat-2/

Sep 25 2015

LilacSat-2 FM Transponder Schedule

Receiving LilacSat-2, Sept 20, 2015 - Harbin Institute Of Technology Amateur Radio Club BY2HIT

Receiving LilacSat-2, Sept 20, 2015 Harbin Institute Of Technology Amateur Radio Club BY2HIT

Wei Mingchuan, BG2BHC, reports that the amateur radio FM voice transponder on the LilacSat-2 satellite should now be activated on a regular basis. LilacSat-2 is scheduled to switch on the FM transponder for 24 hours at about 2200 UT each Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

First LilacSat-2 infrared image Sept 24, 2015

First LilacSat-2 infrared image Sept 24, 2015

The FM transponder (and APRS) downlink is 437.200 MHz, remember the Doppler shift on the downlink during a pass will be about +/- 10 kHz. If your radio has selectable FM filters use the wider filter designed for 5 kHz deviation FM, sometimes referred to as a 25 kHz channel spacing filter.

LilacSat-2 was deployed into a 528 km by 551 km 97.5 degree inclination orbit. The NASA Orbital Lifetime Software indicates the satellite might remain in orbit for 18 years before reentry into the Earth’s atmosphere.

On September 24, 2015 the student team at the Harbin Institute of Technology successfully downloaded the first infrared image from the satellite.

Frequency information is given on the LilacSat-2 Radio Info page
http://lilacsat.hit.edu.cn/?page_id=257

Harbin Institute Of Technology Amateur Radio Club BY2HIT
Weibo: http://www.weibo.com/by2hit
QRZ: http://www.qrz.com/db/BY2HIT
Web in Google English: http://tinyurl.com/BY2HIT

AMSAT-UK LilacSat-2 page with tracking links https://amsat-uk.org/satellites/communications/lilacsat-2/

LilacSat-2 and some of the team

LilacSat-2 and some of the team

Sep 20 2015

LilacSat-2 – Linux Live CD for Telemetry Decoding

Artists impression of LilacSat-2 in orbit

Artists impression of LilacSat-2 in orbit

LilacSat-2 (CAS-3H) was launched along with eight other XW-2/CAS-3 amateur radio satellites on Saturday, September 19, 2015 at 23:01:14 UT on Beijing’s new Chang Zheng 6 (CZ-6) rocket from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center. The satellite, built by students at the Harbin Institute of Technology, has an APRS digipeater and a V/U FM voice transponder which can transmit telemetry data at the same time as voice by using sub-audible tones.

LilacSat-2

LilacSat-2

Note: The FM transponder and APRS downlink is 437.200 MHz not that given in the XW-2/CAS-3 Frequency Chart. There is also a telemetry downlink on 437.325 MHz. Further information is given on the LilacSat-2 website Radio Info page.

LilacSat-2 is scheduled to switch on the FM transponder at about 2200 UT each Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

Remember the Doppler shift on the downlink during a pass will be about +/- 10 kHz. If your radio has selectable FM filters use the wider filter designed for 5 kHz deviation FM, sometimes referred to as a 25 kHz channel spacing filter.

LilacSat-2 was deployed into a 528 km by 551 km 97.5 degree inclination orbit. The NASA Orbital Lifetime Software indicates the satellite might remain in orbit for 18 years before reentry into the Earth’s atmosphere.

First LilacSat-2 infrared image Sept 24, 2015

First LilacSat-2 infrared image Sept 24, 2015

Wei Mingchuan, BG2BHC provides this report on the first 16 hours in space:

During the first 16 hours in orbit, we have received nearly 1000 packets of LilacSat-2 from Harbin (BY2HIT), Shihezi (B0/BY2HIT), Nanjing (BI4ST), Xian (Northwestern Polytechnical University) and Singapore (9V1SV). Many thank to all!

Now we have a Linux LiveCD for telemetry decoding released.

We have support for FCDPP, USRP and RTL-SDR. Not hard to edit the GRC flowcharts to support other devices.

It can be burned into a USB stick to boot a computer directly, run from a virtual machine or installed into a hard disk. The User manual is also included.

It can be downloaded from: http://pan.baidu.com/s/1eQfNsGE

LilacSat-2 Live CD also has a magnet link with the help of M6SIG:
magnet:?xt=urn:btih:doljmvwcvpnj3iaqfkiwu6bjienko5iv&dn=lilacsat-2_livecd_20150918.iso

More details: http://lilacsat.hit.edu.cn/

73!
Wei Mingchuan, BG2BHC

Telemetry decoder software on GitHub https://github.com/bg2bhc/gr-lilacsat

Harbin Institute Of Technology Amateur Radio Club BY2HIT
Weibo: http://www.weibo.com/by2hit
QRZ: http://www.qrz.com/db/BY2HIT
Web in Google English: http://tinyurl.com/BY2HIT

Information on the XW-2 (CAS-3) satellites is at
https://amsat-uk.org/satellites/communications/camsat-xw-2/

Online orbital predictor (select LilacSat-2) http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/tools/predict/index.php

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

Adding new satellites to SatPC32, Gpredict and Nova
https://amsat-uk.org/2013/11/23/adding-new-satellites-to-satpc32/

How to Work FM Satellites https://amsat-uk.org/beginners/how-to-work-fm-satellites/