Tag Archives: satellite

Sep 19 2013

Australian ham radio BLUEsat satellite in the press

BLUEsat with some of the team members. From left to right are Chun-kan Leung, Anne Gwynne-Robson, John Aiden Rohde, Thieñ Ñguyeñ, Daniel Jedrychowski and Varun Nayyar - Image credit UNSW

BLUEsat with some of the team members. From left to right are Chun-kan Leung, Anne Gwynne-Robson, John Aiden Rohde, Thieñ Ñguyeñ, Daniel Jedrychowski and Varun Nayyar – Image credit UNSW

The Daily Advertiser newspaper reports the University of New South Wales (UNSW) undergraduate amateur radio satellite project has been given the tick of approval to have a stratospheric balloon test flight in Wagga.

BLUEsat - Image credit UNSW

BLUEsat – Image credit UNSW

The Basic Low Earth Orbit UNSW Experimental Satellite, better known as BLUEsat, will undergo a test flight in April ahead of its launch into space.

BLUEsat, a 260mm cube weighing around 13 kilograms, will carry a flight computer with transmissions to include a beacon and amateur packet radio using the AX.25 packet radio protocol in a “mode J” VHF/UHF configuration.

Once in orbit BLUEsat will be a digital amateur radio satellite, which means that voice and data files can be uploaded to it by any amateur radio operator in the world over which the satellite passes.

Read the Daily Advertiser article – Satellite project to reach new heights
http://www.dailyadvertiser.com.au/story/1781014/satellite-project-to-reach-new-heights/

Australia’s own BLUEsat ready for launch
https://amsat-uk.org/2013/09/13/australias-bluesat-ready-for-launch/

BLUEsat on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/bluesat.unsw

Basic Low Earth Orbit UNSW Experimental Satellite (BLUEsat) project http://www.bluesat.unsw.edu.au/

Aug 29 2013

CEPT considers use of 5830-5850 MHz satellite band

CEPT LogoThe CEPT SE24 Short Range Devices meeting M72 took place in Vienna on August 26-27, 2013.

The meeting discussed the use of the frequency bands 5350-5470 MHz and 5725-5925 MHz (‘WAS/RLAN extension bands’) for wireless access systems including radio local area networks (WAS/RLANs).

Any use of Amateur Satellite Service downlink band of 5830-5850 MHz for this purpose would inevitably raise the noise floor making the weak satellite signals even harder to receive.

Read the CEPT working document at M72_Info2_SE24_att_RSCOM13-32rev3_Draft Mandate CEPT 5 GHz RLAN

CEPT SE24 meeting documents can be downloaded from
http://www.cept.org/ecc/groups/ecc/wg-se/se-24/client/meeting-documents

Aug 25 2013

Ham Radio Satellites at Tokyo Ham Fair

JAMSAT stand at the Tokyo Ham Fair 2013

JAMSAT stand at the Tokyo Ham Fair 2013

The JARL Ham Fair 2013 was held at Tokyo Big Sight, Ariake, Tokyo on August 24-25. JAMSAT and several amateur radio satellite projects were represented.

The University of Tsukuba CubeSat ITF-1 YUI “Binding” support project was there. The formal name ITF-1 comes from the initial letter of the university slogan “Imagine The Future”.  The satellite also has a popular name YUI which means bond or binding in Japanese, it came from the project’s concept‚ “Creating the Worldwide Human Community”.

The ITF-1 satellite beacon on 437.525 MHz will send telemetry by a Morse Code audio tone on an FM transmitter running 300 milliwats output. It should be possible to receive it using simple equipment such as a handheld transceiver or scanner.

According to the ITF-1 website the “Binding” support project is organized by the student volunteers to support the construction of a consolidated network and expand public relation activities with the aim of encouraging many reception reports when the satellite is launched.  ITF-1 will fly with the primary payload the Global Precipitation Measurement Dual-Frequency Precipitation Radar GPM-DPR satellite in 2014.

ARTSAT stand at the Tokyo Ham Fair

ARTSAT stand at the Tokyo Ham Fair

The ARTSAT stand featured the Invader CubeSat which is being developed by students at Tama Art University. The IARU has coordinated 437.325 MHz and 437.200 MHz for Invader which aims to have a camera for Earth imaging and a Digi-Talker, to transmit voice data using FM. Invader will be on the same launch as ITF-1.

Also at the fair was the SPROUT project. This nano-satellite, built by students from Nihon University, is 20 x 20 x 22 cm with a mass of 6.7 kg. It plans to launch with the L-band (1236.5 MHz/1257.5 MHz/1278.5 MHz) Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) satellite ALOS-2 in December, 2013.

SPROUT will have a digi-talker and will transmit, using Slow Scan TV (SSTV) and FM packet, pictures of the Earth taken by an on-board camera. It is believed that radio amateurs will be able to make use of the digipeater and possibly even command when pictures are taken.

ITF-1 project in Google English http://tinyurl.com/ITF-1-Yui-Binding-Project
Imagine The Future https://amsat-uk.org/2012/01/19/itf1-cubesat-imagine-the-future/

ARTSAT project in Google English http://tinyurl.com/ARTSAT
A student art satellite https://amsat-uk.org/2012/04/12/invader-cubesat-a-student-art-satellite/

SPROUT project in Google English http://tinyurl.com/Sprout-Satellite
SSTV satellite https://amsat-uk.org/2012/08/24/sprout-amateur-radio-sstv-satellite-to-launch-in-2013/

JARL Ham Fair 2013 in Google English http://tinyurl.com/JARL-Ham-Fair-2013

Reports on previous JARL Ham Fairs http://www.jarl.or.jp/English/4_Library/A-4-6_ham-fair/ham-fair.htm

Tokyo Ham Fair 2013

Tokyo Ham Fair 2013

Aug 24 2013

UK stations wanted for FO-29 contacts with Cuba

Hector CO6CBF working Joe EI5EV on FO-29 2013-04-03 1440z

Hector CO6CBF working Joe EI5EV on FO-29 2013-04-03 1440z

Hector CO6CBF is looking for stations in UK to try contacts on the amateur radio satellite FO-29.

Currently when the satellite in apogee it has a big footprint which covers UK and Cuba for a few minutes.

Anyone wanting to try a contact with Cuba should email Hector on: co6cbf<at>frcuba.co.cu

FO-29 frequency information https://amsat-uk.org/satellites/fuji-oscar-29-jas-2/

Aug 23 2013

APRS destination address for ham radio satellites

APRS LogoAPRS has standardized an ID series for amateur radio OSCAR spacecraft – APOxxx

At the request of Juan Carlos, LU9DO, AMSAT-LU wanted a series of APRS designators for uniquely identifying AMSAT APRS applications.  He suggested those beginning with the letter O for OSCARS.

ALL APRS applications include this identifier in their packets so that the source of APRS data can be known.  See the list at

http://aprs.org/aprs11/tocalls.txt

Bob, WB4APR

APRS UK Yahoo Group http://groups.yahoo.com/group/APRSUK

Aug 23 2013

IARU-R1 release new VHF Handbook

IARU_Region_1_logoIARU Region 1 have released edition 6.12 of the free VHF Managers Handbook.

The handbook has chapters on Band Planning, Contests, Propagation Research, Operating Procedures and Satellites. It even defines a standard for the use of circular polarization defining which way helical beam antennas should be threaded.

Download the handbook – VHF_Handbook_V6_12.