Category: Ham Satellite news

Nu finns mer information om JY1-SAT som är Jordaniens första satellit. Intressant för oss radioamatörer är att det finns en FUNCube ombord dvs. samma system som tex. AO-73. Det är ett samarbete med AMSAT-UK och AMSAT Nederländerna.

Glädjande är att det blir en linjär transponder nerlänk mellan 145.855 & 145.875 MHz och uplänk mellan 435.100 & 435.120 MHz. Telemetry downlink på 145.840MHz.
Info nedan från FUNCubes hemsida.

During the final satellite integration training for Jordan’s first satellite, JY1-SAT, the team was supported for the final stages of integration by His Royal Highness Crown Prince Al Hussein bin Abdullah II. The spacecraft has been given to students of the Masar Initiative at the Jordan University of Science and Technology as part of the JY1-SAT mission support and training program under the Crown Prince Foundation given by ISIS – Innovative Solutions In Space and AMSAT UK and AMSAT Netherlands,.

The JY1-SAT mission was proposed by Jordanian students who participated in the first batch of the cooperation program with NASA, after which the interns had suggested the design and launch of the first Jordanian satellite CubeSat.

To build up the capability to design and develop such a first mission, the Crown Prince Foundation signed a support agreement with ISIS – Innovative Solutions In Space and the AMSAT Radio Amateur Societies of the UK and the Netherlands, for hardware and training support, building on ISIS’ and AMSAT’s experience with FUNcube radio amateur transponder missions.

As a special development for the JY1-SAT mission, AMSAT has expanded the capabilities of the FUNcube transponder to be able to transmit stored images reflecting the Jordanian culture and its historical heritage, along with a voice message recorded by the Crown Prince to be transmitted in space to receivers around the world.

The launch of the JY1-SAT, scheduled during the first half of next year, is in memory of His Majesty the late King Hussein, the first founder of the HAM Radio in Jordan and holder of call sign JY1.

JY1-SAT will have a linear, inverting, transponder downlinking between 145.855 & 145.875 MHz with the uplink between 435.100 & 435.120 MHz. The telemetry downlink will be on 145.840MHz and be FUNcube compatible. A new Dashboard will be made available before the launch of JY1-SAT

Senaste programvaran för telemetrimottagning av Fox-satelliterna finns nu tillgänglig:

FoxTelem v1.05 Released

Viktig information runt uppskjutningen av RadFxSat/Fox-1B den 10:e november 2017:

AMSAT Vice-President Engineering, Jerry Buxton, NØJY wrote what to
initially expect when the AMSAT RadFxSat/Fox-1B cubesat is launched
as a passenger on NASA’s ELaNa XIV mission on Friday, Nov. 10, from
Vandenberg Air Force Base, California.

Liftoff will be aboard a United Launch Alliance Delta II rocket from
Space Launch Complex 2 and is targeted for 1:47 a.m. PT (4:47 a.m. ET,
9:47 am UTC) at the opening of a 65-second launch window. Launch cov-
erage will begin on NASA Television and the agency’s website at
1:15 a.m. PT.

RadFxSat/Fox-1B will automatically come up in Beacon Mode, transmitting
a beacon and voice ID (Veronica saying “RadFxSat Safe Mode”) every two
minutes, starting about 50 minutes after deployment. The AMSAT command
stations will want to see voltage and current data to determine that
it’s healthy and conduct various tests before opening it up for general
use.

Telemetry makes the engineering and operations teams very happy,
starting ASAP after startup (~55 minutes after deployment) and for
the next 72-96 hours at least as we look for successful startup, watch
the general health and function as the satellite begins to acclimate
to space, and perform the on orbit checkout. Ground stations are also
invited to continue uploading received telemetry for the life of the
satellite.

If you are capturing telemetry with FoxTelem please be sure that “Upload
to Server” is checked in your settings, and your Ground Station Params
are filled in as well. You can help AMSAT and everyone waiting to get
on the air with RadFxSat tremendously, by capturing RadFxSat telemetry.

In the initial Beacon Mode, the transmitter is limited to 10 seconds on
time then does the two minutes off cycle as Paul pointed out. For those
of you capturing telemetry, that means that you will only see Current
frames and no High or Low frames because the High and Low are truncated
as it takes just over 10 seconds to send two frames. Veronica may also
be cut off before she gets to say her whole ID string. If Veronica is
speaking, “RadFxSat Fox-1B Safe Mode” which is the full ID, if it’s cut
off then we’re still in Beacon Mode. If we are seeing good data from
user telemetry data, it is likely when it comes over the U.S. for the
first good pass we will command it from Beacon Mode to normal Safe Mode,
which then puts RadFxSat in full (still Safe Mode though) operation and
transmits a full two frames of telemetry which is one Current frame
followed by, and alternating each ID cycle, a High or a Low frame.
Veronica now has time to make the whole ID announcement, in Safe Mode.

YOUR HELP IS NEEDED!
——————–
Jerry, NØJY commented further …

Help your friends and all of our satellite ham friends get on the air
and have fun sooner by being polite and patient!

The on orbit checkout procedure is similar to Fox-1A/AO-85 and could
be completed in as little as a few days if we have the cooperation of
the users. It is very important, not to mention just plain good Amateur
Operating Practice, to refrain from using the transponder uplink so we
can do the on orbit tests, including when we turn on transponder mode
for testing. I can’t stress enough, the importance of this cooperation
not just for us but for all users, simply having a little patience so
we can conduct the tests as quickly and accurately as possible.

AMSAT will make it broadly known when the tests are complete and the
transponder is available for all to use. If you hear someone on the
transponder, please don’t assume that it is open for general use –
check the AMSAT website, Facebook, Twitter, to be sure you’re not
accidentally jumping in with and unwittingly interfering with the
commissioning process.

Lots of hams put thousands of volunteer hours of their time into making
RadFxSat happen. Just like any ham radio project you might undertake,
we build satellites. We do it because we like to, and when we’re done
we freely share our project with hams everywhere as is the spirit of
amateur radio.

I am asking all satellite hams to contribute just a little bit of your
time to the fun now, by being patient and just gathering telemetry,
not using the transponder uplink, and helping us complete the last few
days of getting RadFxSat in orbit and operating for all of you.

Thank you very much, see you on the bird!

På PE1ITR hemsida finns en presentation från AMSAT-DL årsmöte med en del intressanta bilder och information om Es’Hailsat. Använd Google translate om du inte kan holländska 🙂

Falconsat-3 som sköts upp 2007 har nu gått över till amatörradiobruk. Tyvärr kan vi inte höra den i Sverige pga. dess bana men stor aktivitet rapporteras på Twitter.

Falconsat-3 is Now Open for Amateur Radio Use

The Air Force Academy satellite Falconsat-3 is now open for amateur 
radio use as a digital store-and-forward system. FalconSAT-3 was 
built in 2005 and 2006 by cadets and faculty in the Space Systems 
Research Center at the US Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, CO, 
and launched in 2007 on an Atlas V. 

After serving in scientific and training roles, the Academy has 
now made the satellite available for Amateur radio use.

The satellite is in a 35.4 degree inclination orbit, with an 
approximate altitude of 465 to 476 km. The Packet Bulletin Board 
System is operating at 9600 baud with a 145.840 uplink, and 
435.103 downlink. Output power is 1 watt, and the downlink is con-
tinuously on. Digipeating is enabled for live QSOs, but unattended 
digipeating operations is not authorized at this time. Current 
Keplerian elements can be found in the AMSAT distributed Keplerian 
elements.

More information can be found at https://www.amsat.org/falconsat-3/ 
and further operational inquiries should be directed to AMSAT Vice
President Operations, Drew Glasbrenner, KO4MA (ko4ma@amsat.org).

[ANS thanks AMSAT Vice President Operations, Drew Glasbrenner, KO4MA for the
above information]