Tag Archives: SSDV

Jun 6 2020

Longjiang-2 / LO-94: Journey to the Moon

Longjiang-2 / LO-94 in Lunar Orbit

Longjiang-2 / LO-94 in Lunar Orbit

A cartoon movie has been made that tells the story of the student-built spacecraft Longjiang-2 / Lunar-OSCAR-94 which went into lunar orbit and transmitted SSDV images back to radio amateurs on Earth.

SSDV image of Moon and Earth taken by LO-94 (Longjiang-2) - Credit Cees Bassa

SSDV image of Moon and Earth taken by LO-94 (Longjiang-2) – Credit Cees Bassa

Longjiang-2 / LO-94, developed by students and researchers at the Harbin Institute of Technology, is the world’s smallest spacecraft to enter lunar orbit independently. It was launched on May 20, 2018 and radio amateurs tracked its progress as it traveled towards the Moon and successfully entered lunar orbit.

The spacecraft transmitted signals back to Earth on 435.400 and 436.400 MHz. The amateur radio mode SSDV (Slow Scan Digital Video) was used to send back pictures of the Moon and WSJT JT4G was used for messages.

Two VHF/UHF SDR transceivers onboard were used to provide the beacon, telemetry, telecommand, digital image downlink and a GMSK-JT4 repeater, transmitting power was about 2 watts.

Watch Longjiang-2: Journey to the Moon

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

Nov 16 2018

JY1SAT Launch Information and Dashboard

JY1SAT CubeSat

JY1SAT CubeSat

JY1Sat is an enhanced 1U FUNcube. It has been developed for the Crown Prince Foundation in Jordan. The spacecraft has been named in honour of the Crown Prince’s grandfather, King Hussein, who operated using his personal amateur radio callsign which was simply JY1.

In addition to the usual suite of FUNcube capabilities it will also be capable of downlinking images in SSDV format.  This image format, developed by Phil Heron, MI0VIM, for use in High Altitude Balloons, is now also being used from lunar orbit by AO-94.

The telemetry downlink frequency is 145.840 MHz, this will use the usual FUNcube standard 1k2 BPSK format. The linear transponder, for Single Sideband (SSB) and CW modes, will downlink on 145.855-145.875 MHz and uplink on 435.100-435.120 MHz. The transponder is inverting so Lower Sideband (LSB) should be used on the uplink and Upper Sideband (USB) on the downlink.

A new Dashboard has been developed for this mission and is available for download here:

This will operate in exactly the same manner as those developed for previous missions and general set-up information can be downloaded here: Dashboard Guidance

A brand new Data Warehouse has also been created. This can be used to view the telemetry from ALL of the FUNcube missions. This can his can viewed here http://data.amsat-uk.org/

SSO-A Mission Patch

SSO-A Mission Patch

This mission will be one of the payloads on the Spaceflight SSO-A mission. The launch from the Vandenberg Air Force base in California is scheduled for 18:31:47 GMT on Monday, December 3. This launch is expected to have more than sixty other payloads.

The deployment time for JY1SAT has been advised as 4 hours 31 minutes and 54.5 seconds after launch. This means that, allowing for the pre-programmed delay of 30 minutes between deployment from the POD and the release of the antennas, the first downlink signals cannot be expected until 5 hours 2 minutes after launch.

Watch the launch at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJkRM5QQDAA

Initial indications are that the spacecraft will be over NE Australia at power-up.

The start-up mode, as usual, is low power telemetry only and we will be really looking forward to receiving reports  and telemetry. So please, either upload the data from the Dashboard to the Warehouse in the usual way, or send a quick email to operations@funcube.org.uk

Satellites with Amateur Radio payloads on the SSO-A mission
https://amsat-uk.org/2018/11/14/ssoa-amateur-radio-satellites/

JY1SAT Logo

Jun 28 2017

UBSEDS25 balloon has Slow Scan Digital Video

UBSEDS18 Solar Powered Balloon

Bristol students plan to transmit 434 MHz Slow Scan Digital Video (SSDV) from the UBSEDS25 solar powered high altitude balloon planned to launch on Saturday, July 1.

On the UKHAS Google Group Richard Meadows M0SBU from University of Bristol Students for the Exploration and Development of Space (UBSEDS) writes:

We’re planning a launch from Bristol this Saturday, July 1 between 0500 and 0530 BST. This is weather permitting, but the forecast currently looks okay.

This flight is similar to the previous UBSEDS24, except with some bug fixes and adjustments. It’s using a 1.9m envelope and longer payload train, and so there’s a NOTAM in place. This tracker has a Raspberry Pi Zero V1.3 attached, which transmits images when solar power is available. It’s a different design to our launch last August; in this case the tracker will continue to operate even if the pi fails. For the curious the ‘pi status’ telemetry values are: 0 = off, 1 = on, 2 = PITS started, 3 = SSDV started).

There will hopefully be a cutdown mounted between the balloon and the tracker. We’ll be testing the 434MHz uplink whilst it’s still in range of Bristol; if it returns over the UK at a convenient time and place we will attempt to trigger the cutdown.

The tracker has a variety of transmissions:

• 434.635 MHz USB Telemetry:
– Contestia 16/1000 with pips and RSID, transmitting telemetry. Once per minute below 8km altitude and every two minutes otherwise.

• 434.637.5 MHz SSDV:
– Usually 300 baud RTTY, 850Hz shift, 8N2.
– GMSK within 100km of Bristol and Farnham as marked on the attached map:
– GMSK at 12 ksymbol/s. 4×4 interleaved, R=1/2 convolutional K=5, HDLC framing, whitened etc as per the AX5043 manual. Concatenated with RS(255,223) to mop up some burst errors.

If you are listening to the RTTY, remember to turn off the ‘RxID’ button on the top right of dl-fldigi.

Rather than the usual JPEG SSDV, this is transmitting Better Portable Graphics (BPG) images. This is experimental, and ssdv.habhub.org doesn’t support it just yet. Hence receivers should instead upload to
http://ssdv.bristol-seds.co.uk/

Please read the instructions on this site. You’ll need dl-fldigi release 3.2, as explained on the site. The dl-fldigi release can be found here:
https://github.com/jamescoxon/dl-fldigi/releases/tag/3.2

The flight is expected to head south-east towards France. Many thanks to everyone who attempts to track this.

Richard Meadows M0SBU
Bristol SEDS http://www.bristol-seds.co.uk/

Launch date/times are always subject to last-minute changes, check the UKHAS Google Group for updates.

Useful High Altitude Balloon links for tracking etc https://amsat-uk.org/beginners/balloons/

May 24 2017

February launch for Jordanian CubeSat

Aya Jaafari at IEEE Day 2016 event in Amman, Jordan

Aya Jaafari at IEEE Day 2016 event in Amman, Jordan

Fourth year electrical engineering student Aya Jaafari is a member of the JY1-SAT team. She says working on the CubeSat has allowed her to practically implement a lot of what she learns theoretically at university.

The Jordan Times reports on the country’s first CubeSat JY1-SAT which was built under the Masar initiative of the Crown Prince Foundation (CPF), by 16 young Jordanian men and women. The satellite is scheduled to be launched on a mission in February 2018, a date on which the team pins great hopes and ambitions.

These young Jordanians were supervised by a group of experts and academics through their weekly meetings held at the Royal Jordanian Radio Amateurs Society (RJRAS).

JY1-SAT was chosen as a tribute to His Majesty the Late King Hussein of Jordan whose amateur radio call sign was JY1.

JY1SAT LogoThe CubeSat will carry an Amateur Radio FUNcube 435/145 MHz SSB/CW transponder and a Slow Scan Digital Video (SSDV) system to transmit stored images reflecting the Jordanian culture and its historical heritage.

Read the full story at http://www.jordantimes.com/news/local/nasa-trained-young-jordanian-develops-team-nanosatellite-cubesat%E2%80%99

Royal Jordanian Radio Amateurs Society https://www.facebook.com/jy6zz/

JY6JY is a dedicated ground station to be used for communication with JY1-SAT. The call sign JY6JY is registered to the Office of Royal Highness Crown Prince Al Hussein Bin Abdullah II of Jordan
https://www.qrz.com/db/JY6JY

JY1SAT applies for frequency coordination
https://amsat-uk.org/2017/05/16/jy1sat-frequency-coordination/

Dec 5 2016

Sandringham School aims for space

Sandringham students operating the GB16YOTA amateur radio station, Dec 1, 2016

Sandringham students operating the GB16YOTA amateur radio station, December 1, 2016

Students at Sandringham School plan to launch a High Altitude Balloon with a Raspberry Pi payload into near-space and transmit back pictures.

The downlink from the balloon is expected to be in 434 MHz and at the maximum 30 km altitude the radio signal should have a range of up to 800 km enabling reception by radio amateurs across the British Isles and into Europe.

The launch is planned for Science Week, March 13-17, and the students will use the download data they collect from near space for analysis and use in lessons.

Earlier this year Sandringham students used amateur radio to talk to UK astronaut Tim Peake GB1SS on the International Space Station, see https://amsat-uk.org/2016/01/08/bbc-tv-sandringham-school-amateur-radio-iss-contact/

Further details on the balloon launch at
http://www.sandringham.herts.sch.uk/?q=news/sandringham-returns-space-high-altitude-balloon-launch

HAB Flight Launch Assembly leaflet
http://www.sandringham.herts.sch.uk/sites/default/files/users/moanef/HAB%20Flight%20-%20Launch%20Assembly.pdf

What is Amateur Radio? http://www.essexham.co.uk/what-is-amateur-radio

Find an amateur radio training course near you https://thersgb.org/services/coursefinder/

A free booklet is available aimed at introducing newcomers to the hobby that can also be used as a handy reference while getting started, see
http://rsgb.org/main/get-started-in-amateur-radio/alex-discovers-amateur-radio-2/

Sep 14 2016

Ledbury 434 MHz School Balloon Launch

SSDV picture from a PIE balloon - Image credit Dave Akerman M6RPI/2E0LTX/M0RPI

SSDV picture from a PIE balloon – Image credit Dave Akerman M6RPI/2E0LTX/M0RPI

Ryan Ing reports he will launch a high altitude balloon with a 434 MHz Slow Scan Digital Video (SSDV) payload from the John Masefield High School Thursday, September 15.

The balloon’s transmitter should have a range of some 500-600 km for much of its flight permitting reception across the UK.

Ryan says: I’ll be doing my first launch around 10am Sept 15 from my sixth form in Ledbury, Herefordshire.  Predicted to burst at 32km, landing somewhere near Leominster.

RTTY, 434.250 MHz, 300 baud, 770 Hz Shift, 2 stop bits and 8 bit ASCII. With SSDV

Online real-time tracking of balloons http://tracker.habhub.org/

Useful High Altitude Balloon, UKHAS and SSDV links https://amsat-uk.org/beginners/balloons/