First FUNCube-1 telemetry successfully received

The telemetry frame showing the various parameters

Wa-hey! I have now managed to receive and decode my first telemetry frames from the FUNCube-1 satellite. This was on the pass starting at 09:10 on 22/11/13. There'll be another higher angle pass at 10:45 (22/11) over the UK.

I used a loft-mounted Slim Jim antenna for 2m and my Icom IC-7400 transceiver on 145.935MHz USB.

I fed the audio out of the back of the radio through my usual isolation interface, used for PSK and RTTY, into a Dell PC running the FUNCube-1 dashboard.  I only managed a few decent frames as the pass was low angle (about 9 degrees max) and my set up is not exactly optimal in terms of antenna and feeder (I don't do much VHF). But hey, it worked!

 The X- panel temperature rises during the orbit

You can quite clearly see the temperature of the spacecraft rise as it comes out of eclipse, plus the telemetry shows that all systems are working, the PA is putting out 287mW and the solar cells putting out about 4V.

The black panels are hotter than the silver, which makes sense.

If you are interested in collecting data form the satellite (which is then automatcailly uploaded to a data warehouse) all the details can be found at http://funcube.org.uk.

It isn't too difficult, but just follow the instructions carefully.

Steve G0KYA

FUNCube-1 satellite launched successfully

The FUNcube-1 cubesat launched successfully this morning aboard a Dnepr rocket. It has already been heard in the UK and South Africa. Now the job of making sure everything checks out begins before it is fully ready for use by schools and amateurs.

In the meantime, see if you can hear it.

The frequencies are:

Radio Communications Payload
145.935 MHz BPSK Telemetry 30 or 300 mW

Inverting SSB/CW transponder 300 mW PEP
435.150 – 435.130 MHz Uplink
145.950 – 145.970 MHz Downlink

A program like Orbitron will tell you where the satellite is, although I imagine the Kepplerian elements to track it will be updated over the next few days. The raw ones I have are:

FUNCUBE-1
1 99991U 00000    13325.30956308  .00000106  00000-0  10000-3 0 00010
2 99991 097.7956 038.2570 0059925 198.5190 336.5388 14.77841394000015

Take a look at http://amsat-uk.org/ for up to date info.

Update: I just heard FUNcube-1 on the 21/11 19:52 pass, so the Keps look about right. I used USB on 145.935MHz +/- Doppler. It wasn't very strong, but I was only using a Slim Jim in the loft with some lossy RG58 coax. I think a beam is the way to go.

Here are some predicted passes for the next few days - no promises due to the raw element data that needs to be updated!
2013-11-21 19:52:44 FUNCUBE-1             80.4 10.0  ecl  2114 284.1 -35.7
2013-11-21 19:54:53 FUNCUBE-1             52.5 13.2  ecl  1896 284.6 -36.0
2013-11-21 19:57:01 FUNCUBE-1             24.7 10.0  ecl  2103 285.1 -36.3

2013-11-21 21:25:56 FUNCUBE-1            154.3 10.0  ecl  2118 308.3 -48.3
2013-11-21 21:30:33 FUNCUBE-1             71.7 68.9  ecl   722 309.8 -48.9
2013-11-21 21:35:07 FUNCUBE-1            349.9 10.0  ecl  2099 311.2 -49.4

2013-11-21 23:04:11 FUNCUBE-1            226.1 10.0  ecl  2119 344.2 -56.7
2013-11-21 23:07:27 FUNCUBE-1            271.0 18.6  ecl  1609 345.6 -56.8
2013-11-21 23:10:41 FUNCUBE-1            315.7 10.0  ecl  2107 346.9 -57.0

2013-11-22 10:46:06 FUNCUBE-1             19.3 10.0    ?  2036 166.6  16.2
2013-11-22 10:50:30 FUNCUBE-1            101.6 64.2    ?   691 167.7  16.4
2013-11-22 10:54:45 FUNCUBE-1            184.1 10.1    ?  1968 168.7  16.5

2013-11-22 12:23:19 FUNCUBE-1            348.5 10.0    ?  2037 190.4  16.6
2013-11-22 12:26:32 FUNCUBE-1            301.8 20.0    ?  1458 191.1  16.5
2013-11-22 12:29:41 FUNCUBE-1            254.9 10.0    ?  1991 191.9  16.4

2013-11-22 20:13:39 FUNCUBE-1            101.0 10.0  ecl  2112 288.7 -38.8
2013-11-22 20:16:50 FUNCUBE-1             57.3 18.8  ecl  1596 289.5 -39.3
2013-11-22 20:20:00 FUNCUBE-1             13.4 10.0  ecl  2096 290.2 -39.8

2013-11-22 21:48:09 FUNCUBE-1            169.4 10.1  ecl  2111 315.2 -51.0
2013-11-22 21:52:47 FUNCUBE-1            256.3 77.8  ecl   691 316.7 -51.5
2013-11-22 21:57:23 FUNCUBE-1            343.5 10.0  ecl  2095 318.3 -52.0

2013-11-22 23:28:12 FUNCUBE-1            252.5 10.0  ecl  2114 354.3 -57.6
2013-11-22 23:29:59 FUNCUBE-1            275.4 12.0  ecl  1976 355.1 -57.6
2013-11-22 23:31:46 FUNCUBE-1            298.3 10.0  ecl  2109 355.9 -57.6

Steve G0KYA