Amateur Satellite Beginners Session

Presented by
Dave Johnson, G4DPZ AMSAT-UK / AMSAT-NA In association with Carlos Eavis, G0AKI RSGB

Welcome
We 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 its message of HI for three weeks and reentered the atmosphere on January 31, 1962 after making 312 orbits. The greeting HI is used in almost all beacons, including AO-40s telemetry beacon, built and launched by the Amateur Satellite service.

A bit of History

Sputnik 1 was the world's first Earthorbiting 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.
CP4 HO-59 HITSat NCUBE-2 XO-53 SSETI UWE-1 AO-49 AATiS OSCAR-49 (SAFIR-M) MO-46 TIUNGSAT-1 NO-45 SAPPHIRE SO-42 SAUDISAT-1B SO-41 SAUDISAT-1A AO-40 AMSAT OSCAR 40 OO-38 OPAL UO-36 UoSAT-12 SO-35 SUNSAT PO-34 PANSAT SO-33 SEDSAT-1 TO-31 TMSAT-1 PO-28 POSAT-1 IO-26 ITAMSAT KO-25 KITSAT KO-23 KITSAT UO-22 UOSAT AO-21 AMSAT-OSCAR 21 FO-20 JAS-1b LIBERTAD-1 LO-19 LUSAT WO-18 WEBERSAT DO-17 Dove UO-14 UoSAT-3 FO-12 Fuji-OSCAR 12 AO-10 OSCAR 10 AO-8 AMSAT-OSCAR 8 AO-6 AMSAT-OSCAR 6 AO-5 Australis-OSCAR 5 OSCAR III RS-15 RADIO SPORT RS-15 RS-13 RADIO SPORT RS-13 RS-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!

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