[amsat-bb] Re: FUNcube a UK Linear Transponder Satellite
On Mon, Jul 27, 2009 at 4:34 AM, David Johnsond...@g4dpz.me.uk wrote: Hi Joanne, It has been a great weekend at the colloquium meeting old friends, making new ones and watching really interesting presentations. From a personal point of view, it has been a pleasure to prepare the programme of speakers for over 7 years but this was my last time and the committee is looking for someone to pick up the reigns. The FUNCube project announcement kept a closely guarded secret before the event and we've been very pleased with the feedback and educational outreach ideas we've had just this weekend. As with all AMSAT projects any offers of help would be very welcome. Congratulations to all involved in making this announcement! I wonder if we might discuss some educational outreach ideas here on the amsat-bb. I've often thought that a project like this could be used to 'seed' radio clubs in local schools. My experience suggests that these could be touted as 'Space Communicator Clubs', not specifically ham radio clubs. They would concentrate, in the first instance, on the many interesting things that can be done with reception, not transmission, thus keeping the threshold for participation low enough that large numbers of students would participate. I think a cubesat project could really aid in making these 'Space Communicator Clubs' more vital. First, if the idea is proposed on a website in some sort of formal way, it gives the local satellite operator an 'in' with the school administration. Principals and vice-Principals will be more happy to support something like this if they think that it is happening around the world. In fact, they might feel a bit of an obligation to keep up with other schools. (The problem I can see with their assistance is that we might need to pass cables to the out-of-doors.) Second, a cubesat project could help by offering a certificate of participation to all students involved in the construction of a station that receives telemetry. In any case, I'd like to request that any sort of ancillary educational opportunities for FUNsat be presented not as for UK students alone , but that it encourages educators and students from all over the world. I think, in fact, the very distance to the UK from New Brunswick, Canada would make recognition from an organization in the UK all the more exciting to administrators and students here. 73, Bruce VE9QRP It was good to see Drew and Peter this year and get an update of the AMSAT-NA AMSAT-DL activities, respectively. 73 Dave The committee JoAnne Maenpaa wrote: Hello David, and everyone, AMSAT-UK has announced a new amateur satellite project - FUNcube ... received major initial funding from the Radio Communications Foundation (RCF) First, congratulations to AMSAT-UK on your exciting new project! This is an excellent example of the premise that AMSAT needs to create a mission that excites possible funding sources ... with a positive side effect that Amateur Radio gets to use a new linear transponder in orbit. Well done! -- 73 de JoAnne K9JKM k9...@amsat.org ___ Sent via amsat...@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
[amsat-bb] Re: FUNcube a UK Linear Transponder Satellite
Hi Bruce and the bb, Re: Amsat-UK FUNcube What a great name Space Communicators Club With potential worldwide participation by schools in the telemetry and physiscs experiments I hope that amsat-uk can come up with a receiver that can be mass produced and achive an easily affordable unit for schools. 73 John G7HIA ___ Sent via amsat...@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
[amsat-bb] Re: FUNcube a UK Linear Transponder Satellite
I think it's already there - a SDR soft-rock receiver, pre-amp probably needed but cost ~$100 if you build yourself. A few lines of code and you're in business. Simon Brown, HB9DRV www.ham-radio-deluxe.com - Original Message - From: john heath g7...@btinternet.com With potential worldwide participation by schools in the telemetry and physiscs experiments I hope that amsat-uk can come up with a receiver that can be mass produced and achive an easily affordable unit for schools. ___ Sent via amsat...@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
[amsat-bb] Re: FUNcube a UK Linear Transponder Satellite
On Tue, Jul 28, 2009 at 1:51 PM, john heathg7...@btinternet.com wrote: Hi Bruce and the bb, Re: Amsat-UK FUNcube What a great name Space Communicators Club With potential worldwide participation by schools in the telemetry and physiscs experiments I hope that amsat-uk can come up with a receiver that can be mass produced and achive an easily affordable unit for schools. 73 John G7HIA That's a great idea, John. And, as Simon points out, the softrock arena shows this to be quite achievable. Moreover, the one thing that just about every school has in volume is old computers! I think if AMSAT-UK came up with such a receiver design, the rest of us should work together on a curriculum that builds soldering skills and explains radio and orbital mechanics, or on localizing the curricula that they produce. Of course, we would want this to be win-win: ideally, a telemetry collection system like the one provided with Delfi C3 would be part of the system. I must have had the AMSAT award in my mind when I thought of 'Space Communicators' Club' as the possible name for a club in a local school, but the namespace collision was not intentional, of course. What I mean to express is the idea that students would be aiming towards receiving information from space. 73 Bruce, VE9QRP ___ Sent via amsat...@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
[amsat-bb] Re: FUNcube a UK Linear Transponder Satellite
Although Space Communicators Club sounds like a great name, how confusing might this be with the AMSAT Communicators Club award? Maybe we (AMSAT) could offer the AMSAT Communicators Club award when the participating school makes their first contact with their satellite. Just thinking out loud. 73...bruce From: john heath g7...@btinternet.com To: Bruce Robertson ve9...@gmail.com Cc: amsat amsat-bb@amsat.org Sent: Tuesday, July 28, 2009 11:51:55 AM Subject: [amsat-bb] Re: FUNcube a UK Linear Transponder Satellite Hi Bruce and the bb, Re: Amsat-UK FUNcube What a great name Space Communicators Club With potential worldwide participation by schools in the telemetry and physiscs experiments I hope that amsat-uk can come up with a receiver that can be mass produced and achive an easily affordable unit for schools. 73 John G7HIA ___ Sent via amsat...@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb ___ Sent via amsat...@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
[amsat-bb] Re: FUNcube a UK Linear Transponder Satellite
Hi Joanne, It has been a great weekend at the colloquium meeting old friends, making new ones and watching really interesting presentations. From a personal point of view, it has been a pleasure to prepare the programme of speakers for over 7 years but this was my last time and the committee is looking for someone to pick up the reigns. The FUNCube project announcement kept a closely guarded secret before the event and we've been very pleased with the feedback and educational outreach ideas we've had just this weekend. As with all AMSAT projects any offers of help would be very welcome. It was good to see Drew and Peter this year and get an update of the AMSAT-NA AMSAT-DL activities, respectively. 73 Dave The committee JoAnne Maenpaa wrote: Hello David, and everyone, AMSAT-UK has announced a new amateur satellite project - FUNcube ... received major initial funding from the Radio Communications Foundation (RCF) First, congratulations to AMSAT-UK on your exciting new project! This is an excellent example of the premise that AMSAT needs to create a mission that excites possible funding sources ... with a positive side effect that Amateur Radio gets to use a new linear transponder in orbit. Well done! -- 73 de JoAnne K9JKM k9...@amsat.org ___ Sent via amsat...@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb ___ Sent via amsat...@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
[amsat-bb] Re: FUNcube a UK Linear Transponder Satellite
/**//*It is anticipated FUNcube will be launched into a Sun Synchronous Low Earth Orbit about 600-700km above the earth using one of the many launch opportunities that exist for Cubesat missions.*/ *_Many_* launch opportunities ??? -- David KG4ZLB www.kg4zlb.com David Johnson wrote: Hi, AMSAT-UK has announced a new amateur satellite project – FUNcube – that features a 435 to 145 MHz Linear Transponder for SSB/CW operation. The project has received major initial funding from the Radio Communications Foundation (RCF) and is expected be developed in collaboration with ISIS-Innovative Solutions in Space BV. FUNcube is an educational single cubesat project with the goal of enthusing and educating young people about radio, space, physics and electronics. It will support the educational Science, Technology, Engineering, Maths (STEM) initiatives and provide an additional resource for the GB4FUN Mobile Communications Centre. The target audience consists of primary and secondary school pupils and FUNcube will feature a 145 MHz telemetry beacon that will provide a strong signal for the pupils to receive. It is planned to develop a simple receiver board that can be connected to the USB port of a laptop to display telemetry in an interesting way. The satellite will contain a materials science experiment, from which the school students can receive telemetry data which they can compare to the results they obtained from similar reference experiments in the classroom. FUNcube is the first cubesat designed to benefit this group and is expected to be the first UK cubesat to reach space. More details can be found at: http://www.uk.amsat.org/content/view/696/68/ 73 Dave, G4DPZ AMSAT-UK 1267 AMSAT-NA LM-1260 ___ Sent via amsat...@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb -- David KG4ZLB www.kg4zlb.com ___ Sent via amsat...@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
[amsat-bb] Re: FUNcube a UK Linear Transponder Satellite
Yes, there are lots of launch opportunities for LEO satellites. They aren't free, but very inexpensive compared to a HEO satellite. You get a 800 km orbit (like AO-51) for a 10 x 10 x 10-30 cm payload. The standard size reduces overhead so you can afford to launch a very small satellite as one of a group of 6 or more for a little more than $10,000 per pound. 73, John KD6OZH - Original Message - From: David - KG4ZLB kg4...@googlemail.com To: amsat-bb@amsat.org Sent: Saturday, July 25, 2009 18:59 UTC Subject: [amsat-bb] Re: FUNcube a UK Linear Transponder Satellite /**//*It is anticipated FUNcube will be launched into a Sun Synchronous Low Earth Orbit about 600-700km above the earth using one of the many launch opportunities that exist for Cubesat missions.*/ *_Many_* launch opportunities ??? -- David KG4ZLB www.kg4zlb.com David Johnson wrote: Hi, AMSAT-UK has announced a new amateur satellite project – FUNcube – that features a 435 to 145 MHz Linear Transponder for SSB/CW operation. The project has received major initial funding from the Radio Communications Foundation (RCF) and is expected be developed in collaboration with ISIS-Innovative Solutions in Space BV. FUNcube is an educational single cubesat project with the goal of enthusing and educating young people about radio, space, physics and electronics. It will support the educational Science, Technology, Engineering, Maths (STEM) initiatives and provide an additional resource for the GB4FUN Mobile Communications Centre. The target audience consists of primary and secondary school pupils and FUNcube will feature a 145 MHz telemetry beacon that will provide a strong signal for the pupils to receive. It is planned to develop a simple receiver board that can be connected to the USB port of a laptop to display telemetry in an interesting way. The satellite will contain a materials science experiment, from which the school students can receive telemetry data which they can compare to the results they obtained from similar reference experiments in the classroom. FUNcube is the first cubesat designed to benefit this group and is expected to be the first UK cubesat to reach space. More details can be found at: http://www.uk.amsat.org/content/view/696/68/ 73 Dave, G4DPZ AMSAT-UK 1267 AMSAT-NA LM-1260 ___ Sent via amsat...@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb -- David KG4ZLB www.kg4zlb.com ___ Sent via amsat...@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb ___ Sent via amsat...@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
