Tag Archives: PRISM

Jan 22 2013

PRISM CubeSat Photo Competition

PRISM satelliteProf. Nakasuka of the University of Tokyo is running a photo contest to commemorate the 4th anniversary of the nano-satellite “PRISM”, which was launched in January 2009.

Anyone can vote for the best photo, so please join the contest!

Further information is available at the contest site.

PRISM Photo Contest site
http://www.smaster.jp/Sheet.aspx?SheetID=72633 (English)
http://www.smaster.jp/Sheet.aspx?SheetID=72607 (Japanese)

PRISM Official site
http://www.space.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp/prism/en/main.html (English)
http://www.space.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp/prism/main.html (Japanese)

UNISEC http://www.unisec.jp/

Oct 21 2012

PRISM Available for Amateur Radio AX.25 Packet

Overview of the PRISM Ham Radio Service – Image Credit Tokyo University

The team that developed the PRISM satellite have announced it is being opened up for use by radio amateurs during afternoon passes.

The satellite was built by the University of Tokyo and launched on January 23, 2009 into a 660 by 670 km orbit. It uses AX.25 packet radio and can now be used by amateur radio operators as a store-and-forward message box.

Full details at http://www.space.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp/prism/en/HAMservice.html

PRISM http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/satellites/satInfo.php?satID=119

Oct 7 2012

FITSAT-1 Update

FITSAT-1 plans to use LED’s to signal in Morse code

The amateur radio CubeSat FITSAT-1 (aka NIWAKA) carries an Optical Communications experiment that aims to write Morse Code across the night sky. The satellite is fitted with a bank of high power LEDs that will be driven with 200W pulses to produce extremely bright flashes that may be visible to the unaided eye.

FITSAT-1 was deployed from the International Space Station (ISS) at 15:44 UT on Thursday, October 4 along with F-1 and TechEdSat.

On Sunday, October 7 Takushi Tanaka JA6AVG provided this update:

We have received a lot of signal and telemetry reports from amsat members. All reports show FITSAT-1 starts working and sound. Thank you very much for your help.

We will examine movements, temperatures, and battery states of FITSAT-1 during these 10 days, and start experiments of 5.8GHz transmission and flashing LEDs.

I will announce the experiments on my web-page http://www.fit.ac.jp/~tanaka/fitsat.shtml

As well as 437.250 MHz and 437.445 MHz (both +/- 10 kHz Doppler) this innovative satellite can also transmit on 5840.0 MHz (+/- 134 kHz Doppler).

Continue reading →

May 5 2012

Receiving PRISM CW satellite beacon with FUNcube Dongle Pro

watch?v=gVCiDziXLWc

This video demonstrates the AMSAT-UK FUNcube dongle pro receiving
CW signals from PRISM.

The You Tube video has the following comment by the publisher

“I was only using a vertical VHF/UHF antenna hooked up to the FUNcube Dongle Pro. Software is SDR-Radio and HRD Satellite Tracker, both by Simon HB9DRV”

You can purchase the FUNcube dongle pro HERE