Author: SM0TGU

On October 29, 2018, the Diwata-2 microsatellite was launched on a
H-2A launch vehicle from the Tanegashima Space Center, Tanegashima,
Japan. Diwata-2 was developed by the PHL-Microsat program now
succeeded by the STAMINA4Space program, and in cooperation with
Tohoku University and Hokkaido University. The satellite carries an
amateur radio payload that has been tested and is now ready for
service.

At the request of the STAMINA4Space program, AMSAT hereby designates
Diwata-2 as Philippines-OSCAR 101 (PO-101). We congratulate the
owners and operators of PO-101, thank them for their contribution to
the amateur satellite community, and wish them continued success on
this and future projects.

73,

Drew Glasbrenner, KO4MA
AMSAT VP Operations / OSCAR Number Administrator

Chris Thompson has officially released version 1.07 of FoxTelem. A
test version has been out for a while, but it had several issues,
including a lower decode rate than 1.06. That prevented release for
a while. Those issues (and something like 65 other defects) are now
all fixed and this decoder performs better than 1.06. Feel free to
test them side by side and report back if that is not the case for
you. We are always interested in any comparative results.

In addition to defects in FoxTelem 1.06 and earlier versions of
1.07, this also introduces Doppler calculation with automatic
adjustment of the decoder frequency. This is especially useful for
decoding beacons and has been helpful in testing for Fox-1A / AO-85
and Fox-1Cliff / AO-95 which are both in SAFE mode. Decoding from
Doppler takes a bit of configuration to get right. Have a read of
the new sections in the manual or ask for help if you want to give it
a try. There are pros and cons vs “Find Signal” for sure.

Version 1.07 changes the core SDR within FoxTelem to use a
Numerically Controlled Oscillator (NCO) rather than an FFT Filter for
the conversion to base-band. This produces better decodes and will
allow the support of wider bandwidth SDRs in the future. The old
decoder is available still if needed from the settings screen. Read
the manual for details.

Version 1.07 also introduces two new BPSK decoders in advance of the
Fox-1E launch. (Chris has no inside information about when that will
be, but he has the decoder ready Chris also wrote some notes on
the comparison between the two decoders, which you can read if you
are interested in BPSK decoding performance, or just wonder what I do
with my time in the evenings:
http://www.g0kla.com/workbench/2019-03-09.php

The releases are here:
http://amsat.us/FoxTelem/windows/foxtelem_1.07y_windows.zip
http://amsat.us/FoxTelem/linux/foxtelem_1.07y_linux.tar.gz
http://amsat.us/FoxTelem/mac/foxtelem_1.07y_mac.tar.gz

KEY CHANGES in 1.07

• Ability to add a new spacecraft from the menu. You can also
  remove them.
• Doppler calculation and tracking as an option instead of “Find
  Signal”
• A better SDR based on a Numerically Controlled Oscillator, ready for
  wider SDRs
• Two new PSK decoders – Costas Loop and Dotproduct
• RTL dongle implemented for testing, though more work to do
• Stops downloading keps when position calc is off
• Allows toggling of high speed / DUV display when in auto mode
• Fixed plotting issues for Earth plots
• Fixes several crashes and bugs
• Fixes copy paste issues with tables
• Respects left/right audio preference when processing wav files
• Implements formats for later spacecraft – Fox-1E and HuskySat
• Linux and Mac launch script updated to locate the JVM (especially on
  Mac). Please report if when this works/does not work
• MEMS gyro calibration updated
• Fixed a bug where AO-85 data from the server could not be stepped
  through

And many other bug fixes. Full list of changes here:
https://github.com/ac2cz/FoxTelem/milestone/12?closed=1

Let Chris know any feedback, chrisethompson (at) gmail (dot) com.

[ANS thanks Chris G0KLA / AC2CZ for the above information.]

From FUNCube website:

On Monday
December 3rd 2018, the 50kg ESA Education Office satellite ESEO was launched by
Space-X on the Spaceflight SSO-A SmallSat Express mission.
 
Following the launch from Space Launch Complex 4E (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Air Force Base, ESEO separated from the launch vehicle and automatically activated the periodic transmission of its telemetry beacon. However, by the time out of a predefined period, having not received commands from the ground station, the spacecraft automatically entered into safe mode.

Some initial communications issues were experienced by ESEO in receiving
commands from the ground stations in Forli’ (Italy) and Vigo (Spain), but they were resolved when the ESEO team of the Observatory of Tartu offered the possibility to use a ground station in Estonia. This is capable of transmitting with higher power, for a temporary contingent use. The Estonian ground station has been configured to be operated remotely by the ESEO MCC team, which involves students of the University of Bologna.

ESEO then started executing the commands transmitted from ground.

ESEO has now completed the LEOPS  (Launch and Early OPerationS) phase of its mission, reaching the platform nominal mode and has begun the process of commissioning the whole satellite: firstly the platform functions, with the payloads functions following.
 
As part of this commissioning process, but subject to the successful completion of other preparatory tasks of the platform subsystems commissioning, it is anticipated that initial testing of the AMSAT communications payload will be carried out within the next few weeks.
 
AMSAT-UK will endeavour to provide some advance notice of these tests being undertaken, but the first step will be activation of the 1200bps BPSK telemetry beacon on 145.895MHz. The telemetry format matches previous FUNcube missions and data from this beacon will be forwarded to the FUNcube Data Warehouse using any of the FUNcube dashboards. However, to see the decoded values and graphical displays, please download the dedicated ESEO mission dashboard which is available here https://download.funcube.org.uk/ESEO_Dashboard_v1177.msi
 
The payload has, additionally, a high speed, 4800bps BPSK data format downlink and also a Mode L/V FM transponder both of which will be tested.

Further information about ESEO can be seen here: https://www.esa.int/Education/ESEO/ESEO_student_satellite_in-orbit_commissioning_has_started