OZ7IGY beacon with GNU Radio, USRP and WBX

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I was playing with GNU Radio, the USRP and the WBX daughterboard tonight preparing for the tests of the 5.7/5.8 GHz receiver setup tomorrow. For some reason that I can not remember, I have decided to tune in to 432.471 MHz – the UHF frequency of the OZ7IGY beacon, which is located approximately 50 km … Read more

Simple CW Receiver with GNU Radio

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I have been playing with GNU Radio and GRC (GNU Radio Companion) over the weekend and I ended up implementing a very simple CW receiver. This will be very handy on Tuesday when we will be testing the 5.8 GHz UNITEC-1 setup for the first time using the OZ7IGY beacon on 5.76093 GHz. Here is a quick video demo of the receiver where I use my Yaesu FT-817ND to transmit a test signal.

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Technical papers about UNITEC-1

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I did a Google search to find some technical information about UNITEC-1 – in addition to what is already available on their website – and here is what came up: Structural Design of UNITEC-1 (944k PDF) UNITEC-1 and Onboard Computer Survival Competition in Interplanetary Environment (867k PDF) Preliminary Thermal Design of UNITEC-1 (1.0M PDF) They … Read more

UNITEC-1: The KU LNC 5659 C PRO has arrived

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Yesterday I have received the C-band down-converter that I have ordered last week for the UNITEC-1 receiver station. Watch video on YouTube. I have also uploaded a few high resolution photos to my Picasa Albums: If you can’t read the specs, you can see them on my work-in-progress wiki page about the C-band Receiver Station. … Read more

UNITEC-1: A New Deep Space Adventure

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If everything goes according to current plans, JAXA will launch their PLANET-C spacecraft towards Venus on May 18, 2010. To fill out the empty space and available payload mass on the H-IIA rocket, they will also bring four university built cubesats into orbit. One of these cubesats, UNITEC-1, is very special in that it will … Read more

The WBX as full duplex VHF/UHF amateur radio satellite transceiver

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One of the reasons I have been very excited to get the WBX transceiver daughterboard for the USRP is that with one single RF board I can have a full duplex transceiver covering both the 2 m and 70 cm amateur radio bands. This is where most of the amateur radio satellite traffic takes place, … Read more