Author: SM0TGU

The CAS-9 XW-3 satellite was launched today 26 dec 2021. Several reports on Twitter reporting the satellite to be active on both CW, GMSK and transponder. Congratulation to the CAMSAT team! Some examples from the Twitter feed:

Vlad Chorney @EU1SAT received raw telemetry:

XW-3 (CAS-9) RAW Telemetry

Very strong QRM
50 Frames uploaded to @SatNOGS DBhttps://t.co/ibsynw89b0#AMSAT #CAMSAT #XW_3 #CAS_9 pic.twitter.com/LyatNAssZu

— Vlad Chorney ☮️ (@EU1SAT) December 26, 2021

Several reports on the SatNOGS network:

XW-3 (CAS-9) #CAMSAT is received around at 03:35:50 by stations "24 – Binar-SatNOGS" and "158 – Picosat Systems – UHF".

Others stations have also received it on its both CW and GMSK frequencies.

More details in https://t.co/1KiXjGHlSB pic.twitter.com/0DIVWiK0mG

— SatNOGS (@SatNOGS) December 26, 2021

K8YSE has done several QSOs via the transponder:

XW-3 Report 0425z: Thanks for rqso's: XE1MYO W3FGP K0JM KE8RJU K8DP. Heard VE5SWL(CW) Uplink calibration about +2100Hz. Keps seem very accurate as doppler was stable. Signal very weak at the end of the pass. Congratulations to the Chinese Team!

— apaJohn Papay (@k8yse) December 26, 2021

Updated info 22 dec from Alan Kung, BA1DU:

Hello OM,
The CAMSAT XW-3 (CAS-9) amateur radio satellite will be launched at UTC 03:11:31 on 2021-12-26 , and will be deployed at 98.858° east longitude and 28.413° north latitude at UTC 03:35:58, location close to Western Australia.

Radio amateurs will receive CW beacon and GMSK telemetry signals approximately 38 seconds after the satellite is separated from the launch vehicle, and then the linear transponder will be put into use after approximately 49 seconds.

Attached is the launch schedule and the Two-Line Orbital Element file.

73!
Alan Kung, BA1DU

XW-3(CAS-9)
1 99999U 21360.14997609 .00000032 00000-0 10363-4 0 00007
2 99999 098.5836 072.3686 0004232 307.2415 261.3002 14.38559758000156

This is an example how a pass can look like over north NA and EU:

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According to info from ANS-353 and BA1DU, Alan Kung, CAMSAT XW-3(CAS-9) amateur radio satellite will be launched by Chinese CZ-4C Y39 launch vehicle on December 25, 2021 from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in China. XW-3(CAS-9) satellite will be piggybacked on the rocket with primary payload ZY-1(02E) satellite.

The satellite orbit is a circular sun-synchronous orbit with an altitude of 770.1 kilometers and an inclination of 98.58 degrees, the running cycle is 100.14 minutes. The functions of XW-3(CAS-9) satellite include UHF CW telemetry beacon, GMSK telemetry data transmission, V/U mode linear transponder, a visible light band space camera and an experimental thermoelectric generator for high school students. After the satellite completes the in-orbit test and works normally, the space camera photo download will be open to amateur radio enthusiasts all over the world.

When the relevant remote control command is received by the satellite, the GMSK telemetry channel will be used to downlink the photo storage information and photo data, and the telemetry data will stop sending at that time.

XW-3(CAS-9) satellite adopts a 6U CubeSat structure with a mass of about 10kg, an onorbit envelope size of 340.5×121.76x998mm with four solar array panels and a threeaxis stabilized attitude control system is used, long-term power consumption is about 15.2 Watts.

Technical specifications:
● VHF antenna: 1/4 wavelength whip antenna
● UHF antenna: 1/4 wavelength whip antenna
● CW telemetry beacon:
Frequency: 435.575MHz RF power: 20dBm CW rate: 22wpm
● GMSK telemetry:
Frequency: 435.725MHz RF power: 23dBm Data rate: 4800bps
● V/U mode linear transponder:
Uplink frequency: 145.870MHz
Downlink frequency: 435.180MHz
RF power: 20dBm Bandwidth: 30kHz Spectrum inverted