Amateur Satelllite Beginners

Amateur Satellite Beginners Session

Presented by

Dave Johnson, G4DPZ AMSAT-UK / AMSAT-NA

In association with

Carlos Eavis, G0AKI RSGB

WelcomeWe are going to cover:

OSCAR?

History

A bit of orbit theory

Satellite operation

Satellite modes

Ground station equipment

What's up!

Oscar... An OSCAR is an Orbiting Satellite Carrying

Amateur Radio

Built for non-commercial purposes

Originally built by Project OSCAR members in garages in Silicon Valley

Now built by and/or funded by members of AMSAT and AMSAT affiliates

Originally a “bleep sat” but now carry sophisticated repeaters or transponders

Are encouraged to carry sensors and other scientific experiments

A bit of History

OSCAR-I , which had a battery powered 140mw transmitter operating in the 2 meter band.

Transmit it’s message of “HI” for three weeks and re-entered the atmosphere on January 31, 1962 after making 312 orbits.

The greeting “HI” is used in almost all beacons, including AO-40’s telemetry beacon, built and launched by the Amateur Satellite service.

A bit of History

Sputnik 1 was the world's first Earth-orbiting artificial satellite. Launched by the Soviet Union on October 4, 1957.

How is a Satellite Designed

FM v Linear Transponder

Some important terms

Threats to Satellites

Orbital Comparison

Satellite Orbit Tracks

Inclined Orbit

Molnya

Satellite Coverage

High Earth Orbit (HEO)

Low Earth Orbit (LEO)

CubeSats

Based on a 10cm cube but some can be a bit bigger

Operate in Amateur Satellite allocation

AX-25 protocol & others

Student Satellites

PCSAT 1 US Naval Academy

Aerospace student project

APRS protocol note the antennas!

Operation a Satellite

Ground Station Equipment

Antennas (rotators) Preamps Radios Peripherals Tracking Software / Computers

Antennas

Handheld antennas:

Good for portable ops (and SOTA)

Commercial Arrow Antennas

Delfi-C3 transponder enabled

Antennas

Handheld antennas:

DIY out available materials

You will need a Mux

Antennas

Extreme portable!:

Howard Long, G6LVB

Used on AO-40 very successfully

Antennas

Fixed Station: Wimo X antenas Yaesu G5500

rotator Homebrew dish

with modified LNB

Antennas

Fixed Station for Cubesat C&C:

M2 antenas M2 Rotator Part of the

GENSO network

Handheld Transceiver

The minimum you need to operate.

TH-D7e

Dual Band

Duplex

APRS

CTCSS

Base Station

FT-847 Excellent sat

capabilities but no longer in production

Base Station

TS-2000 Really good all

round radio with satellite facilities

Does have a birdie on SO-50 downlink!

Base Station

IC-910 VHF/UHF/L-Band Designed for

Satellite op's Old ones were

deaf Mine's fine!

Ideal Groundstation for LEO

What's Up!

We have three types of satellite: Operational Semi-Operational Deceased R.I.P. (not rust in piece, in

space)

Operational Satellites DO-64 Delfi-C3 Launch Date: April 28, 2008

Primary telemetry downlink: 145.870 MHz 1200 Baud BPSK AX.25 400mW

Backup telemetry downlink: 145.930 MHz 1200 Baud BPSK AX.25 400mW

Linear transponder passband downlink: 145.880 - 145.920 MHz (inverting)

400mW

Linear transponder passband uplink: 435.570 - 435.530 MHz

Transponder mode beacon: 145.870 MHz CW (10dB below transponder PEP)

Delfi-C3 web page: http://www.delfic3.nl/

Operational Satellites VO-52 HAMSAT Launch Date: May 05,2005

Frequencies:Indian Transponder:

Uplink: 435.220 to 435.280 MHz LSB/CW

Downlink: 145.930 to 145.870 MHz USB/CW

Dutch Transponder:

Uplink: 435.225 to 435.275 MHz LSB/CW

Downlink: 145.925 to 145.875 MHz USB/CW

Mode and Antenna Polarization:

V: LHCP U: RHCP

Operational Satellites AO-51 ECHO Launch date: June 29, 2004

Analog voice downlink: 435.300 MHz FM / 435.150 MHz FM / 2401.200 Mhz FM

Analog voice uplink: 145.880 MHZ FM / 145.880 MHz USB / 145.920 MHz FM

1268.700 MHz FM 67Hz PL tone

Digital Downlinks: 435.150 MHz FM 38k4 PBP, 1 watt output

435.150 MHz FM 9k6 Pacsat Broadcast Protocol

2401.200 MHz FM 38k4 bps, AX.25

Digital Uplink: 145.860 MHz FM 9k6 Pacsat Broadcast Protocol

1268.700 mhz FM 9k6 PBP Digital

Beacon: 435.150 MHz

Operational Satellites SO-50 SAUDISAT-1C Launch date: December 20, 2002

Uplink: 145.850 MHz FM - 67.0 Hz PL tone

Downlink: 436.795 MHz

To switch the transmitter on, you need to send a CTCSS tone of 74.4 Hz.

The order of operation is thus: (allow for Doppler as necessary):

1) Transmit on 145.850 MHz with a tone of 74.4 Hz to arm the 10 minute timer

on board the spacecraft.

2) Now transmit on 145.850 MHz (FM Voice) using 67.0 Hz to PT the

repeater on and off within the 10 Minute window.

3) Sending the 74.4 tone again within the 10 minute window will reset

the 10 minute timer.

Operational Satellites In addition, we have several satellites that have

schedules under which they are operational due to current solar illumination conditions:

FO-29 JAS-2

AO-27 AMRAD

AO-16 PACSAT

AO-7 AMSAT OSCAR 7

Details can be found on the www.amsat.org site.

R.I.P.CP4HO-59 HITSatNCUBE-2XO-53 SSETIUWE-1AO-49 AATiS OSCAR-49 (SAFIR-M)MO-46 TIUNGSAT-1NO-45 SAPPHIRESO-42 SAUDISAT-1BSO-41 SAUDISAT-1AAO-40 AMSAT OSCAR 40OO-38 OPALUO-36 UoSAT-12SO-35 SUNSATPO-34 PANSATSO-33 SEDSAT-1TO-31 TMSAT-1PO-28 POSAT-1IO-26 ITAMSAT

KO-25 KITSATKO-23 KITSATUO-22 UOSATAO-21 AMSAT-OSCAR 21FO-20 JAS-1bLIBERTAD-1LO-19 LUSATWO-18 WEBERSATDO-17 DoveUO-14 UoSAT-3FO-12 Fuji-OSCAR 12AO-10 OSCAR 10AO-8 AMSAT-OSCAR 8AO-6 AMSAT-OSCAR 6AO-5 Australis-OSCAR 5OSCAR IIIRS-15 RADIO SPORT RS-15RS-13 RADIO SPORT RS-13RS-12 RADIO SPORT RS-12

Other Resources

You can find more details about Amateur Satellite Operations on the www here:

www.amsat.org www.amsat.de www.amsat-dl.org

Not so subtle Advert

Membership of AMSAT-UK costs £15/year

ALL money goes to funding Satellite related projects, fund now stands at £73K plus a £40K legacy

All committee give their time for free Many current projects!!!!

What we covered, phew! Orbiting Satellite Carrying Amateur Radio

History

A bit of orbit theory

Satellite operation

Satellite modes

Ground station equipment

What's up!

Thank You

We'll be in GB4FUN for the next few hours to answer any more questions. Or outside

waving antennas at satellites!

--... ...--