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Analoguesat

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Anyone had any luck with receiving / decoding cubesats??
 

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Analoguesat

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Any of them :D

Any doing sstv pics of the view from orbit? If not why not :D
 

Terryl

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I got rid (sold) of all my SSTV stuff years ago, it was OK, but it lost interest in my area, no one had SSTV stuff on the air after 2010, no one to talk to.

Did some stuff with the ISS but quit after I moved up to the ranch, did some APRS with the ISS but it too fell to the wayside.
 

Analoguesat

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Im managed to get a signal off Fox-1D (AO 92) on 145.88. Not worked out what to do with the signal yet though! :D

SDR dongle & the WXSat antenna, with the Upotronics 137MHz amp removed from the circuit.

Capture.JPG
 

Analoguesat

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After a couple of hours of tinkering Ive managed to get some telemetry off Fox1B. Its not very exciting and the signal strengths are pretty rubbish - but it works :D

The console is the Foxtelem s/w from the Amsat site.

fox1b.PNG
 

Analoguesat

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Tips for this aspect of the hobby:

No amp in use here so Fox1B needs to be pretty high in the sky before the telemetry starts decoding - Unlike the wxsats there is no signal as soon as it appears over the horizon with these tiny satellites.

Its almost certainly tumbling so the signal comes and goes.

Fox1B is a 1U cubesat so its 10cm x 10cm x 10cm, with a couple of small antenna bolted on the top!

Diont bother looking for Fox1Cliff or 1E yet - they are awaiting launch!
 
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Analoguesat

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Now Ive got it working Im awaiting a good pass of 1D - which will be tea time ish so it will be dark!
 

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Analoguesat

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Those dk3wn decoders have a hellish steep learning curve. Unlike almost every other bit of sdr software Ive used they dont take their signals direct from the vac. Oh no - there is an intermediate bit of software needed :( And at the moment Im not having much luck with it. Notes when I crack it.
 

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Fox1D telemetry received on a not particularly favourable east pass - sadly no pics in the camera tab.

fox1d.PNG


For anyone wanting to track cubesats I stronly recommend you start with Foxsat 1B & 1D - pretty simple to get going and no extra intermediate bits of software to get in the way. Just set the input to the vac & wait for a suitable pass.
 

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Cubesats never heard of them until this thread started.Nothing new there I had never heard of WX sats either until Analogusat started a thread on them.So something else to tax my feeble brain with
.As usual I have gone in feet first downloaded the foxTelem program,set it up set the input to Cable input.scanner to 145.880.All I need now is a satellite though I suspect that I need another antenna It is connected to the WX antenna at the mo.As usual all advice is appreciated.
f2.JPGf1.JPG
 
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Analoguesat

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When the signal is strong enough to start decoding the blue "squiggles" bottom right will form into an elliptical shape a bit like an eye. The more elliptical the better the decode. The wxsat antenna will be fine for experimenting with - its close enough in frequency. Just remove any 137MHz band filters from the circuit otherwise you wont get anything!

Set your soundcard to output a sample rate of 48000. If you have sdrsharp running this will crash it so shut that down first.

You need a nice high pass - the power on these things is very low indeed, so dont even bother with passes where its skimming along the horizon.

You may well find transmissions are not continuous - to be honest the best thing to do is set all off and wander off to do something else If you are extremely lucky with Fox1D you may get an image in the cam tab :)
 

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Thank you .Nothing fancy here just a cable from the antenna to the dongle.
It looks like things may be setup properly. I will leave it running and hope for some results.It looks like WX scanning is on the back burner for a while:)
 

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Nothing from 1D yet .I spotted a signal at 145600 and grabbed this AO85


cube.jpg
 
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