Getting Ready for ARISSat-1/RadioSkaf-V Operation
Here are some reminders to help you get your station ready for
ARISSat-1/RadioSkaf-V operation. Your 2-meter FM radio or HT will work well to receive the FM voice messages and SSTV on the 145.950 MHz downlink.
You will need a SSB-capable receiver to copy the BPSK telemetry beacon, the
CW beacons, and the linear transponder passband.
Read about the details …
145.950 MHz FM Downlink:
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FM transmissions will cycle between a voice ID as RS01S, select tele- metry
values, 24 international greeting messages in 15 languages and SSTV images. One of the messages will be a conversation between Yuri Gagarin and ground control.
435 MHz – 145 MHz Linear Transponder:
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The linear transponder will operate in Mode U/V (70 cm Up, 2m Down).
It is an 16 KHz wide inverting passband and the convention will be to TX LSB
on the 435 MHz uplink and RX USB on the 145 MHz downlink. This mode is designed to work with low power transmitters and omni antenna.
145.919 MHz/145.939 MHz CW Beacon:
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The CW transmissions will be callsign ID RS01S, select telemetry, and
callsigns of people actively involved with the ARISS program.
145.920 MHz SSB BPSK-1000 Telemetry:
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The BPSK transmissions will feature a new 1kBPSK protocol developed by Phil
Karn, KA9Q to be readable in low signal level conditions. The BPSK data will transmit satellite telemetry.
The ARISSat-1/RadioSkaf-V BPSK-1000 downlink is transmitted in SSB mode on 145.920 MHz. When the CW2 beacon on 145.919 MHz is active this indicates that the BPSK-1000 format is being transmitted. If the CW1 beacon on 145.939 MHz is active this indicates the backup of BPSK-400 format is being transmitted.
Transmitting at 100 mW, both BPSK rates include Forward Error Correction
(FEC) and it is expected that modest quarter-wave antennas with low-loss coaxial cable will provide sufficient signal strength for decoding and display by the ARISSatTLM software.
Download the Windows ARISSatTLM free ground station soundcard demodulator and display software:
http://www.arissattlm.org/download/ARISSatTLM_050_Setup.exe
Download the Mac ARISSatTLM software:
http://www.arissattlm.org/download/ARISSATTLM.zip
The ARISSatTLM software user guide is available:
http://tinyurl.com/42uhtyf (amsat.org)
Get your color ARISSat-1/RadioSkaf-V Frequency Guide:
http://tinyurl.com/4t497t2 (amsat.org)
ARISSat-1/RadioSkaf-V Presentation Slides (~1MB) http://tinyurl.com/4n4pzkm
(amsat.org)
[ANS thanks the ARISSat-1/RadioSkaf-V Team for the above information]