Radio Amateur Satellite Corp. The Radio Amateur AMSAT-NA is ... - PDF document

Radio Amateur Satellite Corp. The Radio Amateur AMSAT-NA is ... Satellite Corporation ● All-volunteer 501(c)(3) non-profit scientific and education corporation with over 3000 members (including overseas and Canadian addresses) » Licensed Radio Amateurs and Space enthusiasts » Major resource of technical R&D Barry A. Baines WD4ASW » One paid employee President ● The North American representative to an international network of over 15 similar volunteer groups ● Incorporated in 1969 » 45 th Anniversary in 2014 Amateur Radio Satellite Overview » Legacy dates back to 1961 and the first Amateur Radio Satellite 28 APR 14 (OSCAR-1) 1 2 Overview Overview AMSAT ’ s Mission Statement AMSAT ’ s Vision Statement As of 21-Feb-04 As of 24 OCT 08 ● AMSAT designs, builds and operates ● Deploy satellite systems experimental satellites and promotes space » Wide area education. » Focus is on coverage and availability » Continuous coverage ● Partnerships ● Participation in human space missions » NASA, ARISS – Human Space Flight ● Support a stream of LEO satellites » Education: Foundations, Universities » LEO satellite projects and education outreach » Developed in cooperation with the ● Technical and scientific innovation educational community and other amateur ● Training and development satellite groups. » Designers and Operators. 3 4 5/5/14 1 1

Radio Amateur Satellite Corp. Overview Types of Satellite Orbits AMSAT ’ s Vision Statement To Summarize: “Keep Amateur Radio in Space” 5 6 There is No Typical Ham Satellite! How Satellites Operate Like Repeaters • Size and mass • Retransmit what they “hear” • Digital/Analog • Have Optimized Receivers, Transmitters, Antennas • Orbital Parameters • Great Location! • Frequencies Utilized • Allows Communications Over Great Distances • “Payload” 7 8 5/5/14 2 2

Radio Amateur Satellite Corp. How satellites differ from Available Satellite Bands Repeaters (Amateur Satellite Service is NOT the Same as the Amateur Radio Service) • Have a Moving Footprint! • Bands Exist from 15 Meters to 24 GHz – Location Changes / Availability Varies – Set by International Convention – Not all Amateur Bands allocated for Satellites (e.g. 6 – Frequency Changes due to Doppler Shift Meters, 220 MHz) • Full Duplex – Simultaneous Uplink and Downlink on Different • NO equivalent of Part 15 (e.g. Must be Licensed) Bands • 70 cm/2M Most Often Used – Multi-mode (CW/SSB/Digital/SSTV/PSK31) • Many satellites have secondary higher frequency links • “World Wide” Coverage • “Use It or Lose It” • Remote locations difficult to service 9 10 Some Satellites are A Wide Variety of Satellites “Transponders” • 16 Satellites Currently in Operation + ISS • Receives a SEGMENT of one band (50-200 KHz) • Number changes frequently! • Retransmits EVERYTHING it hears on another band • Basic Types Digital Store and Forward • Inverting (most) & Non-inverting Transponders – Inverting retransmits low receive frequency at high FM Repeater 2 Meter/435 MHz transmit frequency (and inverts USB to LSB) 1.2 GHz/2.4 GHz Uplink: 435.225 - 435.275 MHz LSB/CW SSB/CW 2 Meter/435 MHz Example for VO-52: Downlink: 145.925 – 145.875 MHz USB/CW 2 Meter/10 Meter 11 12 5/5/14 3 3

Radio Amateur Satellite Corp. SatPC32 Software AMSAT Also Provides Online Pass Predictions WWW.AMSAT.ORG Do NOT use old links! Will also do antenna and radio control 13 14 OSCAR Satellites Semi-Operational OSCAR Satellites Fully Operational Satellite Launch Comments Satellite Launch Comments ISS Various 2m digi, 2m simplex, SO-50 20 Dec 2002 FM repeater 70cm/2m cross band repeater, BB VO-52 5 May 2005 60kHz CW/SSB LO-19 22-Jan-90 CW Beacon only Transponder AO-7 15 NOV 74 CW/SSB (sun light ops only) FO-29 17 AUG 96 100 kHz SSB Transponder HO-68 15 Dec 2009 CW Beacon only AO-73 21 NOV 13 40 KHz 15 16 5/5/14 4 4

Radio Amateur Satellite Corp. VO-52 SO-50 (SaudiSat 1-C) ● U/V FM repeater ● HamSat launched in 2005 ● India’s first amateur ● Uplink needs 74.4/67.0 satellite Hz PL tones ● 60 kHz wide transponder ● Uplink 435.250 MHz ● Not a polar orbit, so pass times change day to day ● Downlink 145.9 MHz ● SSB and CW ● 250 mW transmitter ● Relatively loud downlink 17 18 FUNcube-1 from AMSAT-UK AO-7 (November 21, 2013 Launch) ● Launched in 1974 ● Came back to life in 2002 (Only in sun) ● 100 kHz bandwidth ● Great coverage area, eastern US to western Europe/Africa ● 1450 km altitude ● Randomly comes up in Mode A or Mode B » 2M SSB uplink, 10M SSB downlink (Mode A) or » 70cm SSB uplink, 2M SSB downlink (Mode B) Transmit Power: 400 mW Use minimum power and avoid “FMing” Uplink 435.150 – 435.130 MHz No batteries to stabilize power Downlink 145.950 – 145.970 MHz Telemetry: 145.935 MHz BPSK 19 20 5/5/14 5 5

Radio Amateur Satellite Corp. FUNcube-2 on UKube-1 AO-73 (FUNcube) (Expected June 2014 Launch) ● Launched 21 NOV 13 ● 1U size cubesat ● Educational Satellite » Materials Science Experiment » FM Telemetry Downlink (experiment and spacecraft data) » Dashboard Ground Station Software Available ● 40 KHz SSB Transponder available evenings and weekends ● “FUNcube Dongle Pro” SDR USB Receiver available from AMSAT-UK (Same transponder as FUNcube-2) 22/06/10 ¡ 21 22 Getting Started Minimal Equipment Needed to Operate the FM Sats EASY ‘sats’ FM Birds (Low Earth Orbit) • FM Satellites: SO-50, AO-27 • Manned Spacecraft (ISS) Minimum Ground Station: • Dual Band Handheld (2m/70cm) full duplex mode • Dual Band Arrow, Elk, or yagis • Vertical(s) with gain • SSB & CW sats • SSB/CW VO-52 HAMSAT (India) • SSB/CW AO-7 • SSB/CW FO-29 Satellites (Japan) • Dual band handheld • Arrow or Elk antenna • Longer passes, multiple QSOs because 50+ kHz bandwidth 23 24 5/5/14 6 6

Radio Amateur Satellite Corp. Hardware Store Special with Armstrong Q: ”Why Don’t You Fly More/Higher Birds?” Rotators A: Launch Costs! ● P3E to GTO - $10M ● Small Sat to LEO - $3M ● ARISSat to ISS - $1M ARISSat-1 was a freebie ● Microsat to LEO - $500K ● 3U CubeSat to LEO - $300K ● 1U CubeSat to LEO - $100K (10 cm on a side, less than 1.33kg) 25 26 Why is Education important to AMSAT? Why is Education Important to AMSAT? Our Vision is to deploy satellite systems with the goal of providing wide area and continuous AMSAT is a non-profit volunteer organization coverage. AMSAT will continue active which designs, builds and operates participation in human space missions and experimental satellites and promotes space support a stream of LEO satellites developed education. We work in partnership with in cooperation with the educational community government, industry, educational institutions and other amateur satellite groups. and fellow amateur radio societies. We encourage technical and scientific innovation, and promote the training and development of skilled satellite and ground system designers and operators. 27 28 5/5/14 7 7

Radio Amateur Satellite Corp. AMSAT’s Fox Family OK, Why is Education Really, REALLY CubeSat Strategy Important to AMSAT? ● The “sticker price” for a commercial ● Take advantage of large and growing interest in CubeSat launch is $70k-150k per Unit, CubeSats and much more for an AO-51 class ● Develop family of CubeSats that would be attractive satellite. There is much less interest in for flying science missions government or corporate subsidies. ● Partner with universities and apply for free launches as science missions ● After/during science mission, satellite runs amateur ● Education is quickly becoming critical for our radio transponder (free!) rides to space! ● “An OSCAR in Every CubeSat” 29 30 Fox-1 Structure Assembled Fox-1 Satellite 31 32 5/5/14 8 8

Radio Amateur Satellite Corp. What is “Fox-1” and What Antennas Will It Do for Hams? ● Replacement of AO-51 for most popular modes ● U/V FM Transponder, not done before in a 1U 2 meter whip CubeSat, which can be worked with a HT and a simple antenna with no tuning through the pass ● V Telemetry Beacon ● U Command Receiver ● Simple IHU 70 cm whip ● Construction + Launch < $150k 33 33 34 Fox-1 Operational Modes Fox-1 Status ● Proposal submitted to NASA for ELaNa launch - Nov ● Transponder Mode 2011 » FM repeater ● Includes AMSAT sponsored MEMs gyro experiment - » Telemetry/experiment data sent as sub-audible, low-speed FSK simultaneously (Where PL normally is encoded.) senior design project at Penn State U. ● Command Mode ● Proposal accepted by NASA in Feb 2012 » High-speed data (9600 bps) ● Scheduled for launch August 2015 on ELaNa XII » Science missions with high data/power requirements ● Planned orbit is 470 km x 780 km @ 64 degrees » Not needed for initial Fox-1 mission - will be activated on- ● Expected orbit lifetime is 11 years orbit to test capability for future use ● RadFxSat/Fox-1B also in the pipeline 35 36 5/5/14 9 9