November Deployment for ISS CubeSats

Four CubeSats carrying amateur radio payloads are expected to be deployed from the International Space Station (ISS) by the JEM Small Satellite Orbital Deployer (J-SSOD) on November 25, 2013.
The CubeSats are:

• Pico Dragon developed by the Việt Nam National Satellite Center (VNSC), University of Tokyo and IHI aerospace.
437.250 MHz CW beacon and 437.365 MHz 1200 bps AFSK AX.25 telemetry.



• ArduSat-1 developed by NanoSatisfi. 437.325 MHz 9k6 MSK CCSDS downlink.


• ArduSat-X developed by NanoSatisfi. 437.345 MHz 9k6 MSK CCSDS downlink .

• TechEdSat-3 developed by interns at the NASA Ames Research Center. 437.465 MHz 1200 bps  packet radio beacon transmitting 1 watt to 1/4 wave monopole. It plans to test an Iridium Satphone modem and has a deployment mechanism to de-orbit in 10 days.

They are 1U in size (10*10*10 cm) except for TechEdSat-3 which is 3U (30*10*10 cm).
de AMSAT-UK

WREN was built by four guys in a garage !!

We are four guys in a garage, and we have dedicated ourselves to open space for everyone. For that purpose we designed the miniaturized satellite WREN. It’s a so called Pocketqub-Femtosatellite. It has only 5x5x5cm³ of volume and 250g of mass, and fits perfectly into your hand, like a tennis ball. Despite of its size, it even has real thrusters.

 The tiny PocketQube satellite, aims to transmit amateur radio Slow Scan TV (SSTV) pictures using the Martin-1 format.

Despite its small size WREN is equipped with a camera, a gyro, a magnetic field sensor, momentum wheels and pulsed plasma micro-thrusters. The camera is equipped with an image processing system which can find the position of the Sun and the Earth automatically.
The communications uplink and downlink will take place on the IARU coordinated frequency of 437.405 MHz.
WREN is flying inside a larger satellite called UNISAT-5 that will be launched in late November, 2013 on a Dnepr rocket from Dombarovsky near Yasny. UNISAT-5 should deploy WREN one month later, so we may expect to receive the SSTV signal in January 2014.

See more @ UK-AMSAT & WREN

NASA Laser Communication System

NASA Laser Communication System Sets Record with Data Transmissions to and from Moon

NASA’s Lunar Laser Communication Demonstration (LLCD) has made history using a pulsed laser beam to transmit data over the 239,000 miles between the moon and Earth at a record-breaking download rate of 622 megabits per second (Mbps).
LLCD is NASA’s first system for two-way communication using a laser instead of radio waves. It also has demonstrated an error-free data upload rate of 20 Mbps transmitted from the primary ground station in New Mexico to the spacecraft currently orbiting the moon.

 More @ NASA

Pacsat satellite AO-51 from HZland .

Pacsat -Echo-51 Satellite from HZ-Land during 2005 . I was then HZ1NH.

The ARISS HAMTV

The ARISS HAMTV project will make possible to view the astronauts and their ISS living habitat to ground stations operated by radio-amateurs.
Visit
www.amsat.it/
.facebook.com/Hamtvproject

Voyager-1

Researchers confirmed Thursday (Sept. 12) that Voyager 1 is officially in interstellar space. The spacecraft, which launched in 1977, became the first ever human-made object to leave our cosmic neighborhood and enter the space between stars. It likely did so on or around Aug. 25, 2012.

The 36-year-old spacecraft's communications technology is lacking by today's standards. A smartphone has thousands of times more memory than Voyager 1 and the space probe's main transmitter radiates just 22 watts, about the same amount of power as a typical ham radio or a refrigerator light bulb, NASA said. But compared to many natural objects probed by radio telescopes, Voyager 1's signal is actually quite bright.

On March 31, 2006, amateur radio operators from AMSAT in Germany tracked and received radio waves from Voyager 1 using the 20-meter (66 ft) dish at Bochum with a long integration technique. Retrieved data was checked and verified against data from the Deep Space Network station at Madrid, Spain.

There is community of dedicated amateurs around the world that build such stations to listen in on spacecraft at the farthest reaches of our Solar System. (Amateur DSN)


Source SPACE.com: All about our solar system, outer space and exploration

STRaND-1 Smartphone CubeSat

STRaND-1
Orbit # 2424
UTC 16:37
Received via FCDPP and SDR#.
Baseband recorded at sample format =16 Bit PCM.
IQ audio replayed via SDR#.
KISS file decoded from audio using
AGW Packet Engine set @ 9k6 (With motherboard built-in sound-card)
and agw_online_kiss.exe.
Audio via Windows XP Mixer.
Data decoded via STRaND-1 Telemetry Decoder V 1.7.

Magnetic field strength

 Amsat-UK -STRaND-1 Smartphone CubeSat

STRaND-1 is Back

On July 23, 2013 at 1634 UT Mike Rupprecht DK3WN received signals from the UK STRaND-1 satellite after a near four month absence.

Built by volunteers from the Surrey Space Centre (SSC) and SSTL in Guildford STRaND-1 was launched on February 25, 2013 and was the World’s first Smartphone CubeSat to be put into orbit.


Dr Chris Bridges M6OBC / M0GKK and STRaND-1

STRaND-1 unexpectedly stopped transmitting on March 30, 2013 and radio amateurs around the world have been listening for it ever since on a frequency of 437.568 MHz (+/- 10 kHz Doppler).

Radio amateurs are requested to email reports of reception of telemetry data from STRaND-1 to C.P.Bridges at surrey.ac.uk

source AMSAT-UK

100mW - VHF- 2M - TX

Low power compact and light weight VHF 2M TX .
The output power =100mw@.5VDC.
Apart from a couple of  Hertz drifting on start-up.
I was impressed with the frequency stability.
In testing I found it easy to forget that this TX is just  pro-type module !.
Stability led me to connected  my sound-card with UISS beacon on !.
On other side of the bound  (ie cross the workbench) I've copied every single beacon frames.
Did I hit the ISS with this low power ?? GOK.
Next pass,I'll try to hook it to the Yagi :-))

 

NiCd/Ni-MH automatic charger

A nickel–metal hydride battery charger is the new accessory to the workbench.
Most components were recycled from an old PC monitor.
The starving (MFJ Antenna Tuner) will be so happy now :-)) .