Category: Ham Satellite news

Nu är det åter igen dags för AO-73 att vara solbelyst under en lång period. Detta gör det extra viktigt att ta emot telemetri och skicka upp till Funcube “warehouse”. Läs mer på Funcubes hemsida.

AO73/FUNcube-1 is entering a further period of full sunlight

Nästa CAMSAT är på väg och som vanligt möjligheter till amatörradio!

Alan Kung, BA1DU reported that CAMSAT plans to launch CAS-6, a 50 kg
micro-satellite approx. 490 x 499 x 430 mm. A sea launch is planned
for September, 2018 from the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology
into a 579 x 579 km 45 degree orbit.

The mission will include:
+ VHF CW Telemetry Beacon
+ U/V Mode 20 kHz Linear Transponder
+ AX.25 4.8k baud GMSK telemetry downlink
+ Deployable Antennas
+ Solar Panels, Lithium ion battery and power controller
+ Integrated Housekeeping Unit
+ Three-axis stabilization system
+ Atmospheric Wind detector
+ S-band TT&C system (non-amateur radio band)
+ X-band Data link system (non-amateur radio band)

The following frequencies have been coordinated by the IARU:

+ VHF/UHF linear transponder
Uplink: 435.280 MHz
Downlink: 145.925 MHz
+ CW telemetry beacon: 145.910 MHz,
+ Telemetry: 145.890 MHz

Under augusti 2018 finns det möjlighet att tre satelliter med APRS släpps ut från ISS. De kommer att sända på 145.815 MHz och bör bli lätta att höra:

The June 29, 2018 SpaceX Falcon 9 launch of the Dragon cargo
capsule included cubesats of the BIRDS-2 satellite constellation.
All cubesats in the BIRDS-2 constellation MAYA-1, BHUTAN-1 and
UiTMSAT-1 have identical designs and utilize the same radio
frequencies. While independently made, the operation and control
of the three cubesats will be shared by the three teams after
they are released from the ISS early in August. They will be
operational for six months.

“The three will form a constellation, orbiting the earth from
different places. This will provide the countries more opportun-
ities to make measurements and run experiments, than just with
using one cubesat,” explained Joel Joseph Marciano Jr., manager
of the PHL-Microsat program in the Philippines.

The primary mission of BIRDS-2 CubeSat constellation is to
provide digital message relay service to the amateur radio
community by means of an APRS digipeater onboard. The APRS
digipeater onboard BIRDS-2 CubeSats will use 145.825 MHz for
both receive and transmit which isa standard configurations
used by other satellites such as ARISS and LAPAN-A2.

Another mission of the BIRDS-2 CubeSat constellation is to
demonstrate a store-and-forward (S&F) system. In this mission,
their goal is to investigate technical challenges through ex-
periments on appropriate data format, multiple access scheme,
file-handling protocol while complying with limited operational
time and power constraints.

The BIRDS-2 CubeSat S&F system will collect data from remote
ground sensors, store them onboard and download them to the
different BIRDS-2 ground stations network.

Additional experiments will use the BIRDS-2 CubeSat constellation
to enhance research and experiment in the fields of single latch-up
event detection, magnetic field measurements using a COTS aniso-
tropic magnetometer, and flight testing of a COTS GPS chip which
can be used for future CubeSat missions if proven effective. Stu-
dents will also explore a passive attitude stabilization mechanism
consisting of magnets and hysteresis dampers for proper orientation
of camera on a CubeSat. All measurements and image data will be
shared with the public on BIRDS-2 project website.

Moveover, BIRDS-2 CubeSat constellation will expand amateur radio
communication experiment on the operation of CubeSat constellation
via a network of UHF/VHF amateur radio ground stations (started
in the BIRDS-1 CubeSat constellation project). BIRDS-2 hopes to
promote awareness of amateur radio communication and amateur
satellites among the general public and students, especially in
the participating nations of BIRDS-2 Project: Bhutan, Malaysia,
Philippines, and Japan.

The IARU has coordinated 437.375 MHz CW beacon for a downlink and
145.825 MHz for the APRS experiment.

Philippine news coverage of MAYA-1 can be accessed at:
https://tinyurl.com/ANS189-MAYA-1
http://tinyurl.com/ANS-BIRDS2-cubesats
Visit the BIRDS-2 website at: http://birds2.birds-project.com/

[ANS thanks the BIRDS-2 Project, Kyushu Institute of Technology and
the IARU for the above information]

DSLWP-A och DSLWP-B är två microsatelliter från Kina som under maj/juni skickats upp i bana runt månen. Det är, vad jag förstår, de första satelliterna med amatörradio ombord som är i bana runt månen! Ett par radioamatörer har lyckats ta emot telemetri på 435 och 436 MHz. Det är dock inte enkelt, det kräver en del gain i antennerna och en ganska komplicerad uppsättning programvara för att avkoda telemetri.

Det finns mycket bra information på DK3WNs sida om DSLWP. Jag hänvisar det istället för att översätta allt till svenska.
Frekvensen som gäller för DSLWP-B är 435.400/436.400 MHz, modulation är 250/500 bps GMSK/JT4G.

First Amateur Radio Transmissions from Lunar Orbit and Subsequent
Test Plan

On 2 Jun and 3 Jun we had 2 successfully tests on the UHF downlink
of DSLWP-B after lunar orbit insertion. BY2HIT and PI9CAM team
successfully decoded 39 GMSK packets from the satellite. SP5ULN and
M0IEB also detected signals from the satellite with much smaller
antenna, but the decode was not fully successful.

Two weeks ago, when the satellites were launched on 20 May, UHF
signals from both satellites was received by PY2SDR, CD3NDC, PY4ZBZ
and N6RFM.

The subsequent tests are planned from 4 Jun 22:00 UTC to 5 Jun 00:00
UTC, and from 5 Jun 08:00 UTC to 5 Jun 10:00 UTC. The mode is 250 bps
GMSK for both 435.4 MHz and 436.4 MHz.

Tracking file updates can be found on:
https://github.com/bg2bhc/dslwp_dev or
http://lilacsat.hit.edu.cn/tle/program_tracking_dslwp-b.txt

[ANS thanks Wei BG2BHC for the above information]