ARISSat-1/KEDR is Deployed

Original Article
http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/index.php

ARISSat-1/KEDR is Deployed

 The ARISSat-1/KEDR space craft was deployed from the ISS at 1843Z on August 3 after a hold based upon questions about the 70cm antenna. Congratulations to the ARISSat-1/KEDR team! Now bring on those reception reports. The satellite will be in High power mode (continuous transmission) when in the sun and go to Low power (40 seconds transmit/2 minutes idle) mode when in eclipse.

NASA News release about ARISSat-1 Deployment
ARISSat-1 Project Website

145.950 MHz FM Downlink - Operational
FM transmissions will cycle between a voice ID as RS01S, select telemetry values, 24 international greeting messages in 15 languages and SSTV images. One of the messages will be a conversation between Yuri Gagarin and ground control.

If you successfully receive the SSTV transmissions, you are invited to upload your picture to
to the ARISS SSTV Gallery.

435 MHz - 145 MHz Linear Transponder - Operational
The linear transponder will operate in Mode U/V (70 cm Up, 2m Down). It is an 16 KHz wide inverting passband and the convention will be to TX LSB on the 435 MHz uplink and RX USB on the 145 MHz downlink. This mode is designed to work with low power transmitters and omni antenna. The linear transponder has been proven to be operational after deployment.

145.919 MHz CW Beacon - OperationalThe CW transmissions will be callsign ID RS01S, select telemetry, and callsigns of people actively involved with the ARISS program.

145.920 MHz SSB BPSK-1000 Telemetry - OperationalThe BPSK transmissions will feature a new 1kBPSK protocol developed by Phil Karn, KA9Q to be readable in low signal level conditions. The BPSK data will transmit satellite telemetry. When the CW2 beacon on 145.919 MHz is active this indicates that the BPSK-1000 format is being transmitted. If the CW1 beacon on 145.939 MHz is active this indicates the backup of BPSK-400 format is being transmitted.
AMSAT needs your telemetry from ARISSat-1/KEDR both during the test and after deployment from the International Space Station. Since there are no "Whole Orbit Data" storage mechanisms onboard ARISSat-1/KEDR, your submissions are the only way for AMSAT to collect the spacecraft telemetry and KURSK experiment results.

• Recorded ARISSat-1/KEDR and Kursk telemetry CSV files (in the ARISSatTLM folder) can be sent as an e-mail attachment to arissattlm.org
• If you are running ARISSatTLM and receiving the signal "live" from ARISSat-1/KEDR, please enable the telemetry forwarding option. 
• The latest telemetry can be seen LIVE on your computer or cell phone.

ARISSat-1/KEDR Reception Report Certificates
When you receive the downlink signal from ARISSat-1/KEDR you are invited to send your report to the following e-mail boxes. You will receive a PDF certificate by e-mail.

Students and school groups are especially welcome. We look forward to your report!

Your report must contain the following information:

• The signal you received:
  • the secret word*,
  • an SSTV image, or,
  • telemetry data
• Your name or group name
• The date/time of reception
• City, State and Country 
• Your e-mail address of where to send your certificate. You will receive a PDF certificate via email.

Here are the e-mail boxes to send your reports:

• Secret word* contest to: secretword@arissat1.org
• SSTV image to: sstvreport@arissat1.org
• Telemetry data to: tlmreport@arissat1.org (either digital or voice report of the data you received)

Received BPSK telemetry and .CSV files should continue to be sent to:telemetry@arissattlm.org.

* Those who do hear the secret word or call sign please do not put it out to the world. That would ruin the contest for those still waiting for their station to be in range.

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• Visit the ARISSat-1/KEDR How To page for pointers from the developers about soundcard connection, BPSK reception, SSTV reception.
• Christophe Mercier, ARISS-Europe published complete ARISSat-1/KEDR information inFrench: Dossier ARISSat-1
• Windows ARISSatTLM ground station soundcard demodulator and display software
• Mac ARISSatTLM software
• ARISSatTLM software user guide
• SSTV Software
  • MMSSTV (Windows)
  • Ham Radio Deluxe (Windows)
  • MultiScan (Mac)
• Color ARISSat-1/KEDR Frequency Guide
• 2010 Symposium ARISSat-1/KEDR Presentation Slides (~1MB)
• Dayton 2011 ARISSat-1/KEDR Presentation Slides
• Follow ARISSat-1/KEDR on Twitter
  • In USA you can also text follow Arissat1 to 40404 with your cell phone.

Next Tech Night - 4/26/2011 at 7pm

Sorry we didn't have a Tech night in March due to weather.

Next Tech night will be 4/26/2011 at 7pm

Martin KC9JGE will have a short presentation on APRS
Chris AB9RP will have a presentation on "Model Rocket Science" from his trip to NASA

Hope to see you there...

Tech Night 2/22/2011 - Flex-1500 Presentation

Here's a few shots Drew took of Chris's Flex-1500 Software Defined Radio presentation on 2/22/2011.

ARISSAT-1

The satellite will downlink live SSTV images from four onboard cameras, live telemetry and messages on the CW, FM voice, and BPSK downlinks, as well as provide a 16kHz wide transponder for two-way contacts. All the uplinks and downlinks are based on software defined radio systems............

Telemetry will include spacecraft subsystem information, as well as data from the Kursk State University experiment. This experiment will sample the change in vacuum as the satellite slowly re-enters the atmosphere.

Frequency Information

Mode V Digitalker (Voices Messages and Telemetry):
Downlink 145.9500 MHz FM

Mode V Imaging (Robot 36 SSTV from onboard cameras):
Downlink 145.9500 MHz FM

Mode V Telemetry (1000 baud (400 baud backup)):
Downlink 145.9200 MHz BPSK

Mode V TLM Beacon (CW-2, active with BPSK-1000):
Downlink 145.9190 MHz CW

Mode V TLM Beacon (CW-1, active with BPSK-400):
Downlink 145.9390 MHz CW

Mode U/V (B) Linear Transponder (Inverting):
Uplink: 435.7580 - 435.7420 MHz SSB/CW
Downlink 145.9220 - 145.9380 MHz SSB/CW

And for those of you looking for a bit of competition, there is a tech challenge:

AMSAT-UK has announced a ARISSat-1 reception challenge with a FUN reward. The different categories cover those with or without a FUNcube SDR dongle.

ARISSat-1 is scheduled for deployment from the ISS next Wednesday Feb 16 – it has a composite VHF downlink that will easily fit into the FUNcube Dongle receive spectrum.
The telemetry is 1 kbit BPSK and can, of course, also be received with a normal SSB 2-metre receiver.

The expected signal levels from ARISSat should be similar to those we expect from FUNcube itself (and also eventually from UKube) and the team are keen to discover what will be the minimum and best type of antennas for schools to use with a FCD. Therefore user experience with the ARISSat signals will be very valuable in making this determination.

To encourage everyone to receive ARISSat signals we are offering a FUN reward for listeners!

There are a number of categories for this challenge – they include:

1+ The first FCD user, from each continent, who can post a spectrum recording of the received signal together with evidence of decoding the data using the ARISSat software and of sending it to the ARISSat data warehouse .

2+ The first non-FCD user, from each continent, who can provide evidence of having decoded the signals and of sending it to the ARISSat data warehouse.

3+ The listener, using a FCD or not, who can demonstrate satisfactory reception of the telemetry in the same ways as described above, using the "smallest" possible receive antenna. The actual closing date for this part of the challenge will be announced later.

4+ All other entrants who can demonstrate that they have been having FUN!

Please submit your "entries", including your location, station details (including FCD serial number where applicable), postal address and reports to g0auk@amsat.orgThis e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Good luck,

ARISSAT-1
http://www.arissat1.org/

Satellite Communications

Meeting Date: Tuesday January 18th 2011 7pm
We had a great turnout for the first meeting, I think 10 people in all.
Meeting topic was about Satellite communications focusing on ISS and A0-51.


Here's the links to the meeting documents that were handed out.


Get in touch with the International Space Station
Work Satellites with your HT
AO-51
ARISS SAT-1 Frequency Chart