This is the third satellite reception of a series recorded on Monday, February 28, 2011 using the Funcube Dongle software defined radio receiver and the Arrow II hand-held satellite antenna. The satellite is the ITUpSAT-1 cubesat transmitting with 100 mW FM CW and the recording was done in JO45KG during orbit 7593.
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SwissCube reception with Funcube Dongle and Arrow antenna
This is the second satellite reception in a series recorded on Monday, February 28, 2011 using the Funcube Dongle software defined radio receiver and the Arrow II hand-held satellite antenna. The spacecraft is the SwissCube satellite with 100 mW CW beacon and 1 W FSK tranmitter (second half of the video). The recording was done on JO45KG during orbit 7594.
SEEDS-II cubesat reception with Funcube Dongle and Arrow antenna
This is the first satellite reception of a series recorded on Monday, February 28, 2011 using the Funcube Dongle software defined radio receiver and the Arrow II hand-held satellite antenna. The satellite is SEEDS-II / CO-66 cubesat with a 90 mW CW beacon. The recording was done in JO45KG during orbit 15338.
Chasing cubesats with the Funcube Dongle and Arrow antenna
Inspired and impressed by the performance of the Funcube Dongle during my initial tests, I have decided to perform some more thorough tests using a minimalistic setup consisting of a laptop running Gpredict and Quisk SDR software, the Funcube Dongle and an Arrow II hand held satellite antenna.
Satellite receptions with the Funcube Dongle
This page collects various amateur radio satellite and cubesat receptions carried out using the Funcube Dongle. The Funcube Dongle is a small USB-flashdisk sized software defined radio receiver for 67 MHz – 1.7 GHz intended to be the ground receiver for the FUNcube satellite by AMSAT UK. It is well suited as a ground receiver … Read more
Funcube Dongle on the air tests at OZ7SAT
On Tuesday I took my Funcube Dongle to our weekly meeting at OZ7SAT for testing it on the air using some bigger antennas than my Arrow antenna. We were listening for amateur radio satellites and cubesat on the 70 cm band and we were using a standard Wimo X-yagi (8 elements I think). For SDR receiver application we used modified Quisk SDR running on Ubuntu Linux.
ARISSat-1: Why is it cool and why do we care?
It looks like AMSAT is going to launch a new satellite! ARISSat-1 – the successor of SuitSat-1 – is ready to be launched on Progress-41P heading to the International Space Station on Friday, January 28, 2011. It will be deployed into its own orbit during EVA 27 currently scheduled for February 16. Once in orbit, it will slowly decay and eventually burn up in the Earth’ atmosphere. SuitSat-1 decayed after 7 months in orbit and that’s also a likely life time for ARISSat-1.
So, why is ARISSat-1 cool and why should we care?
Switching from the 90 cm to 7 meter dish
Here is a recording of mounting the KU LNC 5659 C PRO downconverter on the 7 meter dish. It took about 20 minutes.
No Mars Express experiment this time
It was a difficult decision to accept, but the Mars Express experiment with the USRP and GNU Radio is not going to happen this time! It’s a shame because the link budget looked quite promising. An optimistic estimate gives almost 20 dB signal to noise ratio, which is more than we need, so the problem … Read more
Aiming for planetary science with GNU Radio and the USRP
Thanks to the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Mars Express mission, we might have an opportunity just around the corner for doing big science with GNU Radio and the USRP!
On March 3, 2010, Mars Express will visit the Martian moon Phobos by performing a close flyby. According to ESA, the ESOC ops team is working with a number of possible scenarios, including one that would take the spacecraft to just 50 km above Phobos. At that distance the orbit of the spacecraft is expected to be influenced by the gravitational pull of Phobos. I knew this already for about a week when I first read it on the Mars Express Blog but it was first today that I realized the opportunities this event offers.