Category: Ham Satellite news

Nu när VO-52 har tjänat färdigt efter 9 år i rymden så kanske det är dags att  titta lite närmare på vad som är körbart.

Dom satelliter vi  får förlita oss på nu är som följer.

AO-7   i både mode A och B

FO-29  med sin CW/SSB transponder

SO-50 med sin FM transponder

AO-73  Funcube som är aktiverad lite till och från beroende på schema.

Utöver dessa satelliter finns det både trafik från Rymdstationen ISS samt en massa småsatelliter med telemetrisändare.

Det är även ett antal satelliter på väg med både transponder, telemetri, SSTV,  framöver.

Vi har även det mycket intressanta projektet med en geostationär  amatörradio transponder (inom ett par år) där vi kommer att behöva  ungefär 100mW in i mataren till en 180cm parabol för att uppnå en god förbindelse med satelliten.

Nedlänken kommer att ske på 10 GHz.

Vi har fått meddelande om att VO-52 har slutat fungera och därmed även tagits “ur tjänst” från all framtida amatörradioverksamhet:

Från AMSAT-UK:

Dear Friends,

With heavy heart, I sadly convey, that our little angel ‘HAMSAT VO-52’ would no more be able to offer her services to the ‘Amateur Radio Fraternity. HAMSAT VO-52 succumbed in Space on 11th July 2014, while she was on her 49,675th orbit, due to the failure of on-board lithium ion batteries that have met their end of life.

Although her desires were to be at work with other systems and sub-systems working normal as per the latest telemetry received, the on-board computer recurring to ‘Reset’ mode due to the failure of batteries is preventing her to do so.  Hence, it is decided not to expect any more meaningful and reliable services from HAMSAT VO-52.

Since 11th July, every best possible effort has been put in by the spacecraft controllers here in ISTRAC Bangalore to revive her back to life and to help her with work load, so she won’t be swamped when she returns, but with no luck.  Though it is hard, the HAMSAT VO-52 designers and controllers insist that the time has come to let the little angel free in space to go drifting on her own from their care and custody.

Thus, today 21st July 2014, ISRO have decommissioned ‘HAMSAT-VO52′ officially.

We all here in ISRO do definitely hope that ‘HAMSAT VO-52’ worked tirelessly and was a good friend to the ‘Amateur Radio Fraternity’ around the World. We are sure that HAMSAT was loved by all who worked through her. Though, we are deeply saddened by the loss of HAMSAT VO-52, but she will never be forgotten and far from our hearts, minds and memories.

HAMSAT VO-52 will always be remembered by all of us here in ISRO as one of the greatest satellites of ours.

Dear ‘HAMSAT’, looking at the sky, we all say ‘Good Bye’ to you. You’ll be greatly missed. Rest in Peace.

Nevertheless, at this point of time, on behalf of the World Amateur Radio Fraternity, we thank each and everyone who contributed to the great success of ‘HAMSAT’.

Particularly, our sincere thanks to the Chairman ISRO, Dr. K. Radhakrishnan, past chairmen Dr. Kasthurirangan, Dr. G. Madhavan Nair, Director-ISAC Dr. S.K.Shiva Kumar, past ISAC Directors Dr. P.S. Goel, Dr. Shankara, Dr. T.K. Alex, Director-ISTRAC Shri. B.S. Chandrasekhar, scientific secretary Dr. Koteshwar Rao, Project Director-Shri. J.P. Gupta, Deputy project Directors, Mission Director-Shri. R.Suresh, Operations Director-Shri. Parimalarangan and each and every person directly or in-directly contributed.

At this point of time, we also thank AMSAT-India and in particular, late Shri. Nagesh Upadhyaya-VU2NUD,  Shri. B.S. Gajendra Kumar-VU2BGS, Shri. Prathap Kumar-VU2POP, Air Commodore. Subramanian-VU2UV, Shri.  V.P. Sandlas-VU2VP, Dr.R. Ramesh-VU2RMS, Shri. Nitin-VU3TYG, Mr. Williams Leijenaar PE1RAH and each and every member.

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Pasted below is the message from Mr. R. Suresh, Mission Director:

HAMSAT, the first small satellite by ISRO has been Decommissioned after  nearly a decade of service to the World Ham community.

A true masterpiece among small satellites, designed for one year mission life, but exceeded all expectations by serving for almost 10 years. A truly autonomous satellite, with “Zero maintenance“ in terms of Mission operations, it provided a springboard to test many new concepts such as BMU. LI-ion based power system, automatic Spin rate control and Auto SAOC for maintaining the Satellite attitude without any ground commanding.

  HAMSAT known as “OSCAR-52” among the Amateur HAM operators has been very popular because of its high sensitivity receiver and strong transmitter. Indian Radio Amateurs on many occasions conveyed to us that they have been greatly honored to share the adulations showered on ISRO and INDIA by the International Radio Amateur for gifting this wonderful satellite “HAMSAT”.

I take this opportunity to applaud the HAMSAT teams at ISAC, ISTRAC and other centre for their efforts and  support, which has made ISRO proud among the HAM users across the globe.

R,SURESH
MISSION DIRECTOR
HAMSAT

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Idag skjuts en kommersiell amerikansk raket upp till ISS med reservdelar. AMSAT-SMs f.d. ordförande (sedan ett antal år tillbaka) Sven Grahn ger kommentarer i SVTs rapport. Se mer på:

http://www.svtplay.se/video/2178444/rapport  (endast under 7 dagar)

http://www.svt.se/nyheter/vetenskap/ryska-delar-i-amerikansk-privatraket

Nu har UKube-1 planerad uppskjutningsdag satt till den 8:e juli. Satelliten har många amatörradio-payloads ombord som bygger på succen med FUNcube. Läs mer:

UKube-1 is scheduled to launch from Pad 31/6 at Baikonur on Tuesday afternoon. July 8th 2014 @ 15:58:28 UTC and to be deployed from the final stage of the Soyuz-2-1B/Fregat-M launch vehicle at 18:32:42 UTC.

And this is accompanied by a spreadsheet showing the anticipated UK passes for the first orbits together with a worksheet showing the telemetry equations.

UKube-1 carries a number of experiments and payloads and also the FUNcube-2 transponder and telemetry sub-system. This is intended to support the current, very successful operations of FUNcube-1 and to provide an even better operational capability for schools and colleges to use for hands on educational outreach around the world. Further details of the educational outreach opportunities are available here http://funcube.org.uk/education-outreach/

When the FUNcube-2 sub-system is activated, the 1k2 BPSK telemetry will be downlinked on 145.915 MHz in the same way as already happens with FUNcube-1.

Mer info: http://amsat-uk.org/2014/07/03/ukube-1-launch-information/

A new FUNcube-2 Dashboard UI will be released shortly. This will integrate directly with the existing FUNcube Central Data Warehouse and existing usernames and authorisation codes can be re-used.

When the transponder is activated, the downlink passband will be 145.930 to 145.950 MHz and the uplink passband will be 435.080 to 435.060 MHz.

It is anticipated that the FUNcube sub-system may be tested for short periods during the next few weeks depending upon how the LEOP plan progresses.

AMSAT-UK personnel will be supporting the UKube-1 operations team at Chilbolton during the immediate post launch period and will be ensuring that regular status reports are made available via IRC and other channels.

AMSAT UK and their colleagues at AMSAT-NL are delighted that UKube-1 is carrying this FUNcube sub-system and wish every success to the UKube Operations Team and to all the many contributors to the project.

Nu har vi ytterligare två Oscar-satelliter. QB50p1 och QB50p2 har nu fått namnen EO-79 and EO-80. Läs mer:

OSCAR Numbers Assigned for CubeSats QB50p1 and QB50p2

In an email to Mr. Wouter Weggelaar PA3WEG, AMSAT-NL and Mr. Jeroen
Rotteveel, ISIS CEO, OSCAR Number Administrator William A. (Bill)
Tynan, W3XO, announced,
“I have received your request for OSCAR Numbers for CubeSats QB50p1
and QB50p2 and from everything I can determine these spacecraft meet
all of the requirements necessary to receive OSCAR numbers.

“Therefore, by the authority vested in me by the AMSAT-NA President,
I hereby confer the designation European OSCAR 79 to CubeSats QB50p1
and European OSCAR 80 to CubeSat CubeSats QB50p2. These designations
can, of course, for convenience be shortened to EO-79 and EO-80.

I, and the entire amateur satellite community, hope for successful
missions for both EO-79 and EO-80 and congratulate AMSAT-NL and the
ISIS team as well as all who contributed to these new Amateur Radio
satellites for their success in building, testing and launching these
new OSCARs.”

[ANS Thanks Bill W3XO and AMSAT-NA for the above information]