December 24, 2013

Firebird Beacon decoded

 00:08  00:16 UTC
Orbit # 257
Signal was strong .
Decoded via SoundModem V0.16
Setup as in the following Image.




















The signal is wide so increase the BW to around 40 kHz.
as in the following Image.






















Soundmodem and AGW OnlineKiss - decoded the datd

ArduSat-X

19:00 19:09 UTC
Orbit# 522
Frequency 437.000 MHz, +/-.
Beacon heard 3 times during a pass of 9 minutes.
Signal was strong , funny cw / fm modulated !.
Here a short clip



 http://www.nanosatisfi.com/
http://diyinspace.com/

December 16, 2013

KySat-2 decoder via virtual ports

Great 2 virtual ports e.g. COM2 and COM6 using -VSPE or other Virtual com generator software.



Open agw_onlinekiss.ini file


At agw_onlinekiss.ini setup the Mirror port to one of the
 virtual port com eg COM6.
save and exit the ini file.

Open SoundModum V0.10b G3RUH



















Open AGW onlinekiss program.
Clik on connect AGW button.
Connection will established between Soundmodeum
and AGW onlinekiss

Click Option select  mirror incoming data to com port.
If the two LED shine GREEN at AGW = Connection was established
and no error for data to flow in and out.
Otherwise if one or the two LED are RED check the COMS and the other parameters .
















KySat-2 Decoder
Add COM2 to custom port at the new KySat-2 decoder.
Version 2.1 (Latest).
write it down on the small text window
click refresh button.
the added com will appeared at the drop-down coms list.
select it and select the other com parameters eg = 9600,N,8,1.
Click connect
















Re- play the IQ file and re-tune to middle of the 9k6 Buad signal.
Mode NFM.
Squelch off.
Audio via Windows XP Mixer.



Data will shows up on:
SoundModem --- AGW ONLINE --- KySat-2 Decoder
with readable engineering values.



EPS Telemetry engineering values.


KySat-2 Beacon Information :
Frequency: 437.405 MHz
Modulation Scheme: FSK
Data Rates: 9600 Baud
Protocol: AX.25
Output Transmit Power: ~1W
Beacon Period: 15-45 seconds
Callsign: KK4AJJ
Kysat-2 website
 See previous post        kysat-2-via-RTL-SDR

December 9, 2013

QSOs near the beacon !!!

QSOs near the beacon drives the auto tune crazy !!!
this was noticed when the transponder driven heavily over Europe.
The beacon signal  over Africa is quite and strong .
Graphically restricted auto tune range help beacon tuning.

December 7, 2013

MCubed-2 Received

 MCubed-2
1st pass over Africa Replayed today via SDR #
signal was strong - 9k6 baud.
Received via RTL-SDR ,Soundmodem & AGW-Online .



IPEX heard over Africa

2013-12-06 20:41:08.650 UTC:


December 6, 2013

IPEX and FIRBIRD received over Japan

Tetsurou Satou san - JA0CAW
Received  both IPEX and Firebird cube satellites.
13:48 UTC over japan - with good signal.



.







NPOL
1 99991U 00000    13340.43204282 0.00000000  00000-0  00000-0 0  0006
2 99991 120.5031 227.3464 0297856 339.9554  93.2232 14.64196995000009
(c) Tetsurou Satou Facebook page

PicoDragon CW telemetry !!

A weak PicoDragon cw telemetry (seen) last night
The signal was weak to be heard or decoded, just a fine trace on the waterfall !!!?


ELaNa-5 cubesats

Twelve CubeSats are set to launch aboard an Atlas V rocket with the NROL-39 primary payload from Vandenberg AFB in California on December 5, 2013. The CubeSat payloads have been provided through NASA's Educational Launch of Nanosatellites (ELaNa) program and the NRO's Mission Integration Directorate (MID). Atlas V GEMSat Launch 2013

IPEX (Intelligent Payload Experiment)
Cal Poly
Mission  to demonstrate operation of autonomous instrument processing, downlink operations, and ground station operations, utilizing the SpaceCube Mini payload processing unit to validate a reduction in data product downlink.




Call sign: KJ6KSL
Frequency: 437.270 MHz
Modulation: AX.25 FSK (NRZI with G3RUH scrambling)
Data Rate: 9600 Buad
Beacon Info:
IPEX transmits three types of beacons:
-Health Beacon: Contains the latest snapshot of IPEX telemetry
-File Beacon: A portion of a much larger telemetry file, need to collect several file beacons
  to reconstruct the file (HEX data)
-Morse Code: 15 wpm, should spell “IPEX,” will be disabled after initial tracking to conserve power
http://polysat.calpoly.edu/

MCubed-2
The Michigan Exploration Laboratory
Mission to obtain a mid resolution image to date of Earth with at least 60% land mass and a maximum of 20% cloud coverage from a single cubesat platform.












Callsign:
Frequency: 437.485 MHzRate: 9600 Baud
Modulation: GMSK
Transmit Interval: 10 seconds
RF Power Output:
Antenna Polarization: Linear
Beacon Info:
437.485 MHz, 9600 baud, 10 sec period
Beacon Software decoder

FIREBIRD
Montana State University
Mission to resolve the spatial scale size and energy dependence of
electron microbursts in the Van Allen radiation belts.













Beacon Info:
Flight Unit 1: 437.405 MHz
Flight Unit 2: 437.230 MHz
GMSK AX.25 9600bps, 1W, 60 sec period

CUNYSAT-1
The City University of New York
Mission to  investigation of ionospheric disturbances using GPS signals.


Beacon Info:
437.505 MHz, 9k6 FSK, CW
(c) Cubesat.org & Gunter's Space

December 5, 2013

CAPE-2 received

CAPE-2 received   CW --- Voice --- Packet


$50SAT Received

I copied a wonderful signal from Eagle-2 – very clear and very strong .
The primary purpose of $50SAT (Eagle2) was to create a cost effective platform for
engineering and science students to use for developing real world skills



Full info for  $50SAT – Eagle2 - Communications  in the $50SAT Dropbox 

December 4, 2013

My Frist QSO via AO-73

My first phone contact with Europe via AO-73.
Thanks Giuseppe - IK0DPX, 57/57 FB QSO OM .
You're  in my Log.

December 3, 2013

Triton-1 Safe mode beacon

 20:24 UTC
 Orbit # 179

T1XCMIZD9C
TCIIHZD9D
T1XCMIZI9C

strong cw beacon TRXUV-0 and TRXUV-1
Modulation: CW / Morse code
Speed: 15 words per minute
Beacon interval: 30 seconds
Beacon length: approx. 10 seconds
TRXUV-0 downlink frequency: 145.815 MHz
TRXUV-1 downlink frequency: 145.860 MHz.


Real Time Data Providers

It is  fun to monitoring the warehouse.funcube webpage and see the data provider  in and out  - I've selected a random 3 stations, when the Funcube was over west Europe and one station from Australia , here some of their setup photos de QRZ.COM


















 G4ENZ










CT3FM













  SP8CGR













VK2ZAZ

December 2, 2013

GomX-1 Modulation !!!

GomX-1 transmitting a strong signal every 10s









GomX-1 does not use the standard AX.25 or AFSK format used for packet communication
GomX-1 uses 4800 baud MSK modulation at the two tones 2400 and 4800. This mode is not supported by most major TNC providers. So the recommended receiving option is to record the audio from the entire pass, using the line-in port on a PC with correctly adjusted amplitude. These recordings can then be software demodulated by gomspace.

A softare modem, based on GNURadio will be released soon. If you are interested in helping developing and testing a software modem for MSK, please say so.
For more see GomSpace GOMX-1 webpage
What is GMSK Modulation Radio-Electronics-Webpage

Triton-1

Continuous strong signal./ 20:44 / UTC
RX via RTL-SDR+HDSDR 
Warbler v1.0 decoded many frames!!.
See  ISIS Triton-1 amateur radio operator page   Operator page.
Mike DK3WN released - TRITON-1 Telemetry Decoder  DK3WN/software
How to get a KISS file for the decoder ?  Software setup . 
Triton-1 Update November 24 (C)  AMSAT-UK.


December 1, 2013

MOVE Telemetry Receiver !!

MOVE Telemetry Receiver , simple nice program ,works as it is!!
Works ok with analog rig ,but with some difficulty due to new keps and for the long time between telemetry packet.!!
With IQ audio works very easy - audio rooted via XP Window Mixer to the selected audio input devise -
Replay via HDSDR ,Keep audio level low  about 20% for easy decoding  .....















First Move-1 Cubesat HP

Warbler – 1200 Bit/s BPSK AX.25 soundcard demodulator.

My friend San  Satou Tetsurou decoded Move cubesat by  Warbler !
Warbler is a piece of software which can be used to demodulate a 1200Bit/s AX.25 BPSK signal (e.g. from AMSAT-OSCAR 16/PACSAT or ITAMSAT-OSCAR 26), using the PC’s soundcard.

I've re tested with move IQ audio file .
Here is San  Satou Tetsurou screen shot followed by mine