THE PAST THE PAST

3 SPUTNIK l Sputnik – Oct 4, st satellite. 20 MHz beacon. 47 years ago. l Oscar 1 – Dec 12, st amateur satellite l My satellite experience began in Nov 1988.

4 l To date 51 amateur satellites have been launched. l Really amazing achievement. Overcome licensing, frequency allocations (WARC 1979), technical challenges, environmental testing, funding, launch opportunities. International involvement. l Amateur satellites were 1 st to make ground to satellite to satellite to ground communication. Validated concept for using satellites for search and rescue. 1 st microsats. Validated topside GPS. ACHIEVEMENTS

5 MILESTONES l Oscar 1 – 1 st amateur satellite. Dec. 12 th m beacon, battery powered Oscar III – Mar First transponder. 50 KHz BW 146 MHz up, 144 MHz down. 1 st use of solar cells. Only lasted 2 weeks but 100 amateurs got on. Oscar 5 – Jan Australian. Magnetic attitude stabilization. Controlled by uplink commands. 29 and 144 MHz beacons. Battery powered.

6 Oscar 6 – Oct 15, Long lifetime. Sophisticated command and telemetry. 29 MHz down, 146 MHz up. 100 KHz BW. Lifespan 4.5 years Problem – Satellite control system subject internally generated noise. Solution – Automated commands from ground stations around the world. Larry Kayser one of the first to tackle the problem. MORE MILESTONES

7 l Oscar 7 – Nov 15, st time two satellites in orbit. Two transponders mode A & B. Outstanding performance. Proved with simple stations communication 200 to 4500 miles. 2m and 70cm beacons built in Canada? Died mid 1981 due shorted cell? Reborn June 22, l Oscar 8 – Mar. 5, Mode A and Japanese mode J transponders. Died l Oscar – 10. June 16, st Phase 3, high elliptical orbit. Very large footprint and window of many hours. Mode B and L transponders. IHU died end But worked intermittently into late 90’s. l Oscar 13 – June 15, Similar to AO-10 but also had 70 cm uplink and 2.4 GHz downlink. Burnt up in the atmosphere 23 Nov MORE MILESTONES

8 l AO rd High Orbit Transponder l Launched Nov Problems occurred after orbit transfer motor fired. l Operational May 5, 2001 (I made 14 QSO’s on that 1 st orbit on both U/S and L/S. I and KB8VAO made the first L/L/S QSO on AO-40). l 2m, 70cm, 2x23cm and 13cm uplinks OK l 13cm, 24GHz down OK l Ceased operating Nov

THE PRESENT THE PRESENT

10 AMATEUR SATELLITES Number and Status Constantly Changing

11 AMATEUR SATELLITES IN ORBIT l Amsat Weekly Satellite Report Currently Lists l 5 Operational Analog l 1 Semi Operational Analog l 1 Operational Digital l 3 Semi Operational Digital

12 AMATEUR SATELLITE TYPES l Analogue FM Single Channel (cross band repeater) l Analog Transponder -SSB/CW/SSTV/DIGITAL l Digital l ISS – CB repeater - astronaut

13 SATTELITE ORBITS l Low Earth Orbit - LEO l High Altitude Elliptical Orbit

14 LEO ORBIT – 1000 Kilometers Nominal

15 s E HIGH ELLIPTICAL ORBIT

16 SATELLITE COMMUNICATION l Operate Cross Band l Up on one band - Down on another l Analog operation FULL DUPLEX

17 TRANSPONDER (Inverting) Down RX Up TX Zero Doppler Beacon

18 ANALOG SATELLITES l TRANSPONDER - 2 l FM REPEATER + ISS - 4

19 LEO ANALOG TRANSPONDER SATELLITES l FO-29 up – down – l AO-7 (semi operational) up – down – or up – down –

20 LEO ANALOG FM SATELITES l AO-27 up down l SO-50 up down Hz & 74.4 Hz l AO-51 up down Hz l ISS up down

21 AO-51

22 AO-51 RF SUBSYSTEMS l Receivers »Four miniature VHF FM receivers (<40 mW and <50 gm each). »Each receiver has 2-channel capability. »Sensitivity is -121dbm for 12db SINAD. l Transmitters »Two UHF FM transmitters that can be operated simultaneously. »7-12 watts output each. »Frequency agile in 20 or 35 KHz steps, tunable over about 20 MHz. l Wideband Receiver »All-mode, “DC to Light”. Performance limited by broadband antenna.

23 AO-51 RF SUBSYSTEMS l Antennas. »VHF 18” whip on top. »UHF Turnstile on bottom. Currently LHCP. »L + S band “open sleeve” antenna on the bottom. »Broadband HF/VHF/UHF 18” whip on bottom. l Link Budget »Tx’s adjustable from 1 to 12 Watts with max efficiency at 8 Watts. »Modulation is GMSK at any speed from 300 to 56K baud. »Antenna gains average about 0dbi. (-10dbi to +2dbi). »VHF antenna feeds a BPF with 1.5db loss, then an LNA with 1db NF. Thus, overall Rx performance is -121 dbm for 12db SINAD.

24 AO-51 TX POWER

25 AO-51 FOOTPRINT

26 AO-51 VISIBILITY

THE FUTURE THE FUTURE

28 NEW AMATEUR SATELLITES l Unisat-3 (University of Rome) l Saudisat-2 (Saudi Arabia) l VUSAT (India) l PHASE 3-E (Germany) l AMSAT-NA EAGLE

29 UNISAT-3 & SAUDISAT-2 l Little info available – both scheduled to go up on same rocket as ECHO on June 29. l UNISAT-3 microsat v/u fm transponder l SAUDISAT-2 copy of successful AO-50 ?

30 VUSAT -India l LEO orbit l 63 cm x 63 cm x 55 cm l Solar panels on 4 sides l Control by single microprocessor l 2 mode B transponders. Indian, Dutch l 60 KHz BW l Uplink- 10 watts into dbi ant. l Downlink - antenna gain 16 dbi. l Missed launch, Oct 2003 due deviations in performance under thermo vacuum tests. l Last info: Launch this month.

31 PHASE 3-E -Germany l Launch end 2004 to mid 2005 l Work in full progress l Highly elliptical orbit. Perigee 1000 km. Apogee km. Inclination 63 degrees l RX- 70 cm, 23 cm. (2m, 13cm & 5.6 GHz) ? l TX – 2m, 13cm. (70cm, 10.45GHz) ? l Linear transponder 100 KHz BW l Power 50 w PEP l LEILA

32

33 AMSAT OSCAR-Eagle. l “Eagle” is a new HEO satellite being developed by AMSAT- NA.

34 AMSAT EAGLE

35 EAGLE – AMSAT NA l Launch 2006? l Highly elliptical geostationary orbit l Weight 100 Kg. l Power consumption 100w l Communication: 2m,70cm,1.2, 2.4 and 5.4 GHz l Cost: $600k + launch

36 MORE FUTURE SATELLITES l IARU Satellite Frequency Coordinator lists over 20 microsats and cubsats for which frequencies have been assigned. l Launch dates this year and next. l About half are US university projects. Rest are mostly other country university projects. l About half have transponders. U/V or V/U. FM, Digital and Linear. Rest telemetry only. l Lifetimes: Few weeks to 2 or 3 years.

37 VE3NPC ANTENNA ARRAY