Category: satellites

Getting Ready for Farhan’s Satellite (videos)

I’ve been getting ready for the November 24 launch of the CubeSat that Farhan and his friends in India built. I started out with my trusty Drake 2-B and a Hamtronics 2-to-10 downconverter, but I quickly switched to an RTL-SDR dongle and HD-SDR software. My 3 element quad antenna is visible in the first video. So far, I am using the Armstrong method to turn the antenna.

In that first video I keep saying that I am waiting for AO-71. In fact is was AO-73, the “FunCube” from the UK. I think it is similar in power and antenna configuration to Farhan’s satellite, so I think we are almost ready for launch.

 (Any ideas on what that mysterious pulsating sig in the satellite passband signal is in the first video?)

SolderSmoke Podcast #207 — 15 mtrs, 60 mtrs, Giants of Radio, Cubesats, Pete’s rigs, SDR MAILBAG

SolderSmoke Podcast #207 is available:

http://soldersmoke.com/soldersmoke207.mp3

 — Giants of Radio
— Pete on 15 Meters
— Bill on 60 Meters with the uBITX
— Pete’s Sudden and Heath Filter Transceivers
— Cubesats to orbit! To the moon! And to Mars!
— Bill rebuilds his 2 meter “Ray-Gun” Quad (for Farhan’s Cubesat)
— Homebrewing Variable caps and stockpiling NP0
— My “by ear” Minimal Discernible Signal Technique
— Thoughts on Direct Sampling SDR and the Radio Art
MAILBAG
— A request for feedback from GQRP
— G4WIF reports G3ROO on UK TV with spysets
— VU3XVR builds FB rig from EMRFD
— M0KOV Charter member of the 3 Scratch-built BITX club
–KD4PBJ’s PTO Turtle DC Receiver
— AB1OP builds Pete’s LBS receiver and gives us a new acronym: SITB
— KD4EBM — Thanks for the scanner Bob!
— A possible sponsor from California…

— Pete’s dream neighborhood…

Chinese AMATEUR Satellites ORBITING THE MOON! Radio Amateurs Receiving Images



Radio Astronomy Knack!

This video has so much of the kind of stuff that interests us: roadkill antennas. 3D printers. Arduinos. Raspberry Pi, And of course, RADIO ASTRONOMY.

And the Thought Emporium guys have a lot of other great project videos on their YouTube site:

 https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCV5vCi3jPJdURZwAOO_FNfQ

I feel myself being pulled back into SPACE. First there was Farhan’s new satellite, now this. Last weekend I finished a 3 element quad for 146 MHz. In a fit of nostalgia I used the same copper tube elements that I used to communicate with the MIR space station from the Dominican Republic in 1995. They have good JuJu. And Mojo. TRGHS. More on this later. Tune UP!

Farhan’s Satellite

Latest news:

 The launch is set for November 24, 2018 from California. It will be in a polar orbit. The beacon will be on 145.90 MHz. Farhan says an RTL-SDR Dongle should do the trick. I plan on building several receive systems and an appropriate antenna.

https://telanganatoday.com/a-blessing-for-the-small-guys

 https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/other-states/odisha-man-team-builds-private-satellite/article24963338.ece

 https://www.timesnownews.com/technology-science/article/instagram-now-lets-you-shop-directly-from-stories-explore-tab-heres-how/286276

I don’t think Farhan’s group is connected to this group, but this short video does a nice job of explaining the potential of CubeSats.

FROM Prasad VU3YFD:
Hi my friend’s information to all about a man’s ” A DREAM COME’S TRUE ” in ” VU ” LAND with his hard work & to the whole team.. we can say ……FANTASTIC ….. no other words to express from my side but i ENVY on their hard work’s.. hi hi .de vu3yfd,prasad
AMSAT-UK
IARU Amateur Satellite Frequency Coordination
List of Sats formally submitted
ExseedSat Updated: 10 Aug 2018 Responsible
Operator Ashar Farhan VU2ESE
Supporting Organisation Exseed Space Innovations Pvt Ltd
Contact Person afarhan@gmail.com.nospam
Headline Details: The ExseedSat is a 1U cubesat that will provide a multifunction UHF/VHF NBFM amateur communication satellite. It will have various configurable modes, including: • UHF to VHF, single channel, narrow band FM transponder with CTCSS, 67 Hz squelch • Power output selectable between 1 watt and 0.5 watt • Digipeat feature with APRS on UHF uplink nd VHF downlink • Melody mode : It will play a simple melody of a few notes on special occasions or events. This will interest students outreach. • We expect this satellite to have a life of two years, depending upon how long the battery lasts and when the satellite de-orbits naturally. Planning a SpaceX launch from Vandenberg in October 2018 **The request has now been updated to include only a U/V transponder/digipeater** **The following frequencies have been coordinated: 145.900 MHz for repeater and digipeater downlink and for telemetry and 435.340 MHz for repeater and digipeater uplink**
Application Date: 19 Jul 2018 Freq coordination completed on 10 Aug 2018
Read The Hindu story at https://www.thehindu.com/…/odisha-man-t…/article24963338.ece
Gurudatta Panda VU3GDP http://gurudattabam.blogspot.com/
Ashhar Farhan VU2ESE http://hfsignals.blogspot.com/
Tnx cu agn de vu3yfd,prasad

VK3YE QRP by the Bay Goes VHF/UHF

Peter Parker again hosted the VK3 radio amateurs. This time the event fell on VHF/UHF Field Day weekend. So Peter and his friends went up in frequency and up into SPACE!

VK3HN has a nice blog post here:

https://vk3hn.wordpress.com/2017/11/25/qrp-by-the-bay-chelsea-beach-melbourne-25-11-2017/

Be sure to read about Peter’s ankle manacles — he apparently uses them to get a good ground (sea) plane while running pedestrian mobile on the sea shore. Peter is DEDICATED!

Beautiful QSL by Jeff Murray K1NSS

Here’s a reminder of the amazing art work of Jeff Murray K1NSS.
You can have him draw a QSL for you: Go here:
https://www.jeffk1nss.com/hamgraphics/

Jeff writes:

Well, I got as far as high school intermediate algebra and then I saw a squirrel.

Thank goodness others like Ken N2WWD were paying attention and went on to surf gravity’s rainbow of flight dynamics, all in a day’s work and play for rocket scientists. Tandem surfing and professional activities somewhat aside, Ken is also actively involved with ARISS, i.e. Amateur Radio on the International Space Station, the group guiding ham radio operations aboard ISS. So Kelvin cool to work with Ken on this New One, with Ken cooking up a special Easter Egg for all you galactic hitchhikers!

What might I draw with you?https://www.jeffk1nss.com/hamgraphics/

Ron Gang, 4X1MK on “QSO Today” Podcast: Knack Story, Satellites, Quads, Philosophy

Wow, Eric Guth’s interview with Ron Gang 4X1MK really resonated with me:

— Asked about how he got is start in radio, Ron went back further than many of us do in response to this question. He cited his early experiments with “two tin cans and a string.” Yes, of course! I’d forgotten all about it, but in retrospect this might have been a very early indication of THE KNACK. (I’ll bet many of our readers were also active on the String and Can band.)

— Ron used a DX-100. FB.

— Ron was active on the satellites. In his voice you can hear the joy and the burst of enthusiasm that resulted from those early satellite contacts. He also mentions the untimely demise of Oscar 13. Bummer.

— Ron was the Israel correspondent for 73 Magazine. I held a similar position in Dominican Republic. My friend David Cowhig was at the same time correspondent from Okinawa, Japan. We should have a reunion of “73 Magazine Hambassadors.”

 — Ron mentions John Tait EI7BA. John was a regular contact of mine when I was in the Azores. He appears in the SolderSmoke book. He was the one who introduced me to an important Irish accolade: John told me that WD-40 is “the Pope’s pee.”

— Toward the end, Ron discusses the wonder of ham radio conversations, and provides a good suggestion on how to get beyond the all-to-common “hello-59-goodbye” contacts.

Ron’s comments on the spiritual or philosophical aspects of the hobby were just the thing for a quiet Sunday morning.

Thanks to Eric and to Ron for a great interview.

Listen here:

http://www.qsotoday.com/podcasts/4X1MK

Audio Clips from N2CQR/HI8 Contacts with MIR Space Station (now in mp3)


Back in 1995 I was in the Dominican Republic. I used an old 2 meter rig and a homebrew 5 element quad (see below) to talk to U.S. Astronaut Norm Thagard on the MIR space station. (You may have heard me bragging about this before.) I made a bunch of audio clips from the contacts. They’d been in the now defunct RealAudio format, but I have been able to convert them to mp3. You can listen here:

http://www.gadgeteer.us/CLIPS.HTM

Preserving Vanguard 1


 Ira Flatow of “Science Friday” was recently talking about how best to preserve important bits of the history of mankind’s exploration of space. Our old friend Vanguard 1 was mentioned several times. It is now the oldest satellite still in space.

You can listen to the Science Friday show here:

http://www.sciencefriday.com/segments/protecting-the-historic-human-record-in-space/

 They also have a transcript of the show on the same page.

SolderSmoke fans will remember the Vanguard adventures of Mike Rainey AA1TJ:

http://soldersmoke.blogspot.com/search?q=Vanguard

 This seems to be the month for Vanguard: just a couple of weeks ago, on 40 meters I spoke to Dale Parfitt W4OP. Dale was one of the first people to pick up Mike Rainey’s Vanguard replica signals (see link above).

AND…

 The Vanguard reproduction project came up during Eric Guth 4Z1UG’s “QSO Today” interview with Graham Firth G3MFJ of the G-QRP Club:

http://www.qsotoday.com/podcasts/g3mfj

(Graham has such a great voice. He definitely SHOULD build a phone rig!)

VIVA VANGUARD!

Sputnik Replica Transmitter, an “Error” in the Sputnik Schematic, and Why 20.005 MHz?

Mark K6HX pointed me to very interesting Hackaday article on Frank PA3CNO’s Sputnik transmitter replica. As blog readers will recall, we went through a period of Sputnik-mania a few years ago: http://soldersmoke.blogspot.com/search?q=sputnik Chief Designer Comrade Mikhail Rainey AA1TJ sent me some of the Russian tubes (like those pictured above).

The Hackaday article pointed to our post reporting that Oleg RV3GM had found the schematic:
http://soldersmoke.blogspot.com/2013/04/sputnik-schematic-found.html Stefan reports that PA3CNO found “an error” in the original Soviet schematic:
http://www.radio.cc/post/Franks-power-supply-for-sputnik A mistake you say? HAH, I say! Hah! This must have been part of a sinister commie plot to prevent the capitalist imperialists from ever being able to reproduce the glorious transmitter of the Soviet people. They almost succeeded.

Just kidding.

In the course of looking through our old Sputnik posts, I came across a question I posted:

I have a question: OK so the crafty Soviets picked 20.005 MHz for some good reasons: Being so close to the WWV freq, it would be easy for hams and SWLs to find it with precision. In the November/December 2007 issue of “Break In” (from NZ — thanks Jonathan-san!) ZL3DW notes that this frequency selection would allow a receiver set to exactly 20 MHz to “produce an audio tone plus or minus the Doppler shift without ever going through zero beat.” But zero beat with what? Most of the receivers out there would not have had BFOs, right? So the Soviets wouldn’t have been using ordinary CW, right? Were they using AM, with the beeps produced by an audio oscillator modulating the carrier?

Was their diabolical plan to use WWV as the BFO for those using ordinary AM SW receivers? If so, a 5 kHz separation from WWV seems to be too much right? Especially when the Doppler shift on approach would push the frequency up a bit. Maybe they just chose this freq to make it easy for listeners to find — just a bit above WWV. Comrade Rainey surmised that they were keying the PA stage — the oscillator “backwave” was at times audible on the ground.

What do you think Comrades?
DSW and 73.

M1GWZ’s Knack Story: From Crystal Sets to BITXs

M1GWZ writes: “Just to establish my DIY radio credibility, here is a photo of my contest-winning crystal radio. Unpowered, it has logged commercial stations from Ireland to Russia, and from Northern Norway to Algeria. Excuse the mess in the background – the workshop is being re-organized!”

Carissimo Bill (I don’t speak Italian. I’m just showing that I have read the book).

One of the benefits of early retirement after ten years in the electronics industry and twenty-five as a University academic is that one gets the chance to research one’s interests and also have time to experiment with them. You correctly comment that you doubt you will have trouble occupying yourself in retirement – this is true, but be prepared for the frustration of not making as much progress as you would hope for! Chores still steal your time from you – and you have no excuse for avoiding them when you’re retired.
I was recently alerted to the availability of your book via Kindle, but have only just got around to reading it (retirement…). It has been both a joy and a curse. Congratulations! It made fine reading in a couldn’t-put-it-down way, but has also added several more items to my already-arm-length retirement project list. This, of course, is the price one pays for education and for evading the curse of boredom. As a radio ham friend of mine says with a sigh, “So many projects, so few lifetimes.” As a result of reading your book, I am now pursuing satellite communication with my Yaesu handheld, and will put together a dedicated homebrew Yagi-plus-transceiver system in the New Year. The Baofeng two-bander handheld can now be had for £18 in the UK, so I can afford to dedicate one to the system permanently. Cheap technology to talk via satellites! So far, I have just been listening in – for the last three days.
I have been building radios and short wave listening since I was about nine years old. If it wasn’t for a schoolfriend’s father and a crystal set, I might not be e-mailing you now. (They are still talking about killing off MW AM transmissions in the UK. Sad for kids building simple radios, but good news for European DX! Swings and roundabouts. I’d like to give the Xtal Set Society www.midnightscience.com a mention – virtually all the recent crystal radio technology involved was discussed and developed on their forum. ) Upon graduating in 1980, I found a life without exams strange, so I took and passed my amateur radio licence exams as a way of learning more about electronics. Then life intervened (work, romance, microcomputers, marriage, job changes, son) and it was twenty years before I actually took out the licence. No Morse test so I was initially VHF / UHF only, but later the rules changed and I had a full (phone) licence. However, I only wanted to tinker about with handhelds when visiting friends in the USA (met via crystal radio forums on the internet), so my station consists only of a Yaesu VX-7R and a VX-2R (purchased at Dayton Hamvention) as a backup. I’ve never wanted to fork out the grand or so for an HF transceiver (although now I’m retired…), but I would like to reach out on 20 metres. Now, curse you, I realize that I have all the electronic parts to build a BITX SSB transceiver – and may have to do so. Another item on the project list…
Apart from amateur radio and DIY discrete-level DIY electronics, it turns out that we might have a couple more things in common. Through visiting the Dayton Hamvention, I now have many friends via the AMRAD club around Washington DC and have met quite a few hams from the Vienna and Loudon groups. I have attended Dayton for about the last fourteen years but circumstances change and we might now decamp to February’s Hamcation in Orlando. Meanwhile, I live about four miles away from Kempton Park and have attended most of the rallies there, so there is a good chance that we two may at least have occupied the same room, albeit without actually meeting, on at least one occasion. It’s a small, beautiful world.
Anyway, you’re a busy man and I’m a verbose retiree, so I just wanted to thank you for the book and the inspiration it has given me to do more in ham radio. I also build DIY audio projects including (music) synthesizers, but at least I can use up a few more junkbox components before they’re used to weigh down my coffin.

Regards,

Philip Miller Tate M1GWZ

SatNOGS: 3D Printed Az-El Rotators! Ray-Gun PVC Helical Antennas! Arduinos! Dongle Receivers!

Wow, this project is very appealing. Finally, a 3D printer project that seems truly useful. They are using one of the Dongle receivers we’ve been playing with, and, of course, Arduinos. You could really geek-out with this stuff. Check out the hardware side of this effort here:
https://satnogs.org/documentation/hardware/

Listening to Chinese Satellites with my Drake 2-B


On September 22, 2015 at around 1120 UTC I was able to hear the CW beacons from the fleet of new amateur radio satellites put into orbit by China. Here is a recording:

http://soldersmoke.com/Chinese Satellite XW2.mp3

Very cool. This reminded me a lot my early experiences with the Russian RS satellites in the 1990s.

China Puts NINE Amateur Satellites in Orbit

Chang Zheng 6 CZ-6 rocket

Big news!

http://www.arrl.org/news/china-successfully-launches-nine-amateur-radio-satellites

and

http://amsat-uk.org/tag/xw-2/

I have pulled my 2 meter down converter out of storage and have connected it to the Drake 2B. These satellites are due to be over my location at 0720 local tomorrow. I will be listening.

CAMSAT XW-2A formerly known as CAS-3A

Dongle Update — Dongles, FUNcubes, Meteors, QRP, and SPRAT

Hi Bill, Pete,

Ken Marshall G4IIB here the guy that wrote the SDR Primer in Sprat 162. I have been listening to your excellent podcasts. You guys cover a lot of ground in the May issue and touched on to the SDR dongle, its potential for future developments etc. I noted that you where going to buy another to cover VHF. Well if it ain’t too late consider this New version by Newsky they are already getting difficult to get a hold of and are only available in the USA. It uses an R820T2 tuner (better LNA) an upgraded and stable crystal oscillator, a reinforced antenna coax and socket. The one I managed to get hold of also had a modified PCB with solder pads for the the Q channel (pins 4&5) to connect the toroid. Incredable at 22 of your Bucks. See the pictures and read all about it on amazon.com.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00QFCNNV0/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00QFCNNV0&linkCode=as2&tag=rsv0f-20&linkId=VNHED72IVHA5O2KT

All we need is for them to slot a 12 or 16 bit ADC in and we could have a truly great SDR receiver.

I noticed in your podcast you mentioned radio astronomy and satellite reception. Ironicaly back in 2013 this is how I started with SDR dongles. I read an aticle on the web on meteor scatter and started experementing with a dongle. Meteor scatter hunting is a bit like watching paint dry unless there is a known storm. So this led me on to the Funcube satellites. The signals from which although QRP 200mW are very stong and you can receive them on almost any antenna. The funcube dashboard software is available for free from AMSAT and alows you to download telemetry. You can also listen to amateur SSB an CW transmissions. There are lots of satellite tracking software available too. This then led onto weather satelite picture reception I built a 4 ele turnstile antenna for this but I found that I needed an LNA for reception at my location. I then started to listen to the amateur bands. Like you Bill I became interested in radio at the age of 11 and got licensed in the early 70’s but work commitments meant I had a 30 year absence from Ham Radio until I stumbled on these SDR Dongles. They got me back into the hobby and I joined the GQRP Club. I noticed that almost no one in the QRP fraternity was talking about RTL SDR hence I started writing the Primer and submitted it to George in late 2014 for publication in Sprat. As you know it appeared in the Spring Sprat and seems to have generated lots and lots of interest in the QRP community. I am delighted by this response and look forward to lots more interesting articles and podcasts. Have fun with your dongle.

Ken G4IIB

PS I wrote another article on getting these dongles to work under Linux. Linux uses completely different architecture so that the software used is completely different to windows. I notice that the software I use for Linux is also available on Mac OS which uses similar architecture (UNIX) so in theory it should also work on a Mac. Quite a few people have expressed an interest in getting a dongle to work on a Mac. As I do not poses a Mac I have not tried this out.

Funcube Dashboard

Our book: “SolderSmoke — Global Adventures in Wireless Electronics” http://soldersmoke.com/book.htm Our coffee mugs, T-Shirts, bumper stickers: http://www.cafepress.com/SolderSmoke Our Book Store: http://astore.amazon.com/contracross-20

Back with the Sats: Catching Cubes with a Dongle

I’ve been playing around with a little $13 DVB-T SDR Dongle receiver. These devices normally tune 24 MHz to 1.7 GHz, but I modified the first one I had so that it would tune the HF bands. Pete then sent me another one, which I vowed to keep unmodified, thinking that it would be fun to use it to listen to the many small Cube-Sats that are up there. Most have downlinks (and Morse Code beacons) in the 470 MHz range. I whipped together a simple ground-plane antenna for this band (One 6 inch copper wire as the receive element with 4 five inch groundplane elements).


I then went to the “Heavens Above” website, plugged in my location, and clicked on “Amateur satellites.” This gave me a very accurate schedule of satellite passes. I started listening.



First I heard (and saw in the HDSDR waterfall) the CW beacon of the Prism satellite at 7:05 am EDT today. Prism is from the University of Tokyo and was launched from Japan.

Then Cubesat XI-V at 0711 EDT.

Cubesat XI-IV was heard at 0813 EDT. The Cubesats are from Japan and were launched from Russia.

ITUsPAT was heard at 1422 EDT. The I is for “Istanbul”

Finally, I monitored a pass of the Japanese FO-29 satellite aka JAS-2 at 1611. Wow, this was like old times on the RS-10 and RS-12 satellites. Lots of CW and SSB stations in the downlink passband. Lots of fun.

At 470 MHz the Doppler shift of a low-earth orbit satellite is quite noticeable, and helps confirm that you are in fact receiving sigs from an orbiting device.

I thought it was pretty cool to take a $13 DVB-T Dongle, connect it to a small, copper-wire antenna, and use it all to receive signals from some 4″x4″x4″ cubes in orbit of the Earth.

Our book: “SolderSmoke — Global Adventures in Wireless Electronics” http://soldersmoke.com/book.htm Our coffee mugs, T-Shirts, bumper stickers: http://www.cafepress.com/SolderSmoke Our Book Store: http://astore.amazon.com/contracross-20