Masat-1 satellite will use the amateur radio frequency band to downlink telemetry data. The downlink data will not be encrypted, so everyone will be able to receive it, decode and process.

Frequency bands employed

• Earth-to-satellite (uplink) on 2 m
• Satellite-to-Earth (downlink) on 70 cm

The reason for the Doppler shift is the orbital velocity of 7-8 km/s, as when a transmitter is getting closer to the receiver the received signal’s frequency is shifted upwards, and when the transmitter is getting away from the receiver the received signal’s frequency is shifted downwards.

The satellite’s modulation scheme: (A1A) CW and 2-GFSK with 625 Hz frequency deviation (CW is clocked at 120 characters/minute, which is well-audible by ear).

Data rate of the 2-GFSK digital packets: 625 or 1250 bits/second (a PC with sound card and demodulation SW is required)

Minimum list of devices required for receiving Masat-1

• antenna suitable for the 70 cm band (in open air, pointed towards the sky)
• tuneable radio receiver with 70 cm SSB USB mode, such as FT-817, FT-897D, TS-2000, etc.
• PC with sound card, running the telemetry packet decoder SW in JAVA environment. The demodulator software can be downloaded from this website.

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