Fu-sen High Altitude Balloon Video

Here's the video from the launch of the FU-SEN balloon launch by some of our 5th Year Mechanical Engineering students last week.

It's a fantastic video, hopefully there'll be a HD version up soon.

This project was run by our Advanced Space Concepts Lab and the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Strathclyde University, and effectively showcases just one of the many fantastic and exciting opportunities a degree in Engineering can offer you, not only as an undergraduate but through life. 

Upgrades!

Well, it's time for a little upgrade to STAC, isn't it? We've been here for a year now, and that's a long time for no changes!

There's been an Icom UX-910 sitting in my drawers for quite some time, now, and it would be a waste of a considerable amount of money if it wasn't installed. Some spare time and a bored me means it has been now!
In short, this box adds 1.24GHz -> 1.3GHz capability to the station, in terms of radio equipment anyway.

So... below are some pictures!

After removing the cover, and getting everything ready, this is what the desk looks like... Spot the prototype cubesat in the top right corner!

On closer inspection, this is the main circuit board for the IC-910H. Spot the two SSB filters and the space for the CW Narrow filter, if that's what takes your fancy. This seems to be a pretty upgradeable radio!

Unit fitted successfully! Only a Flexible Flat Cable, DC power cable and coax to the PLL unit had to be attached, then a couple of screws and it's secured!

And the end result? A lovely new frequency.

Sadly, the excitement can't last long as we have no antenna equipment to transmit with (although that may change soon), No one with a relevant license to transmit with (I've sat on my hands all year) and no one up here that we know of (yet) to test the system with.

Oh well, always something nice to do at midnight in the office!

DH

10-3-11 - ISS

Well that was a busy day! Note to self - get the passes when Europe is just finished work - much better results!
28 stations, some interesting ones in there - see the English Ambulance, G1LEV, the French Jogger F8FFP and the other Scottish station up in Fort Bill, GM1YPJ!

Below is where they are, in case of interest :) (click to enlarge)

Regards,

Dh

07/03/11 - ISS

Quiet pass, overall, with 11 stations heard.

Furthest away, again was Spain, however the most interesting ones were SP1TMN, from Poland and 9A6AIB from Croatia. There's a cheeky Swiss station in as HB9DUQ too!

Shiny new maps, because we're using OpenStreetMaps for plotting data now, is cool... This one's slightly more up to date than the last one - it doesn't have Yugoslavia and the USSR on it. Still got funny umbrellas on Greece though. Click it for a larger picture too!

Regards,

Dh

11/1/11 1500 - ISS

This pass started off quiet but got busier towards the end, as the ISS passed over the more Eastern European countries.
The APRS software, AGWTracker, had some difficulty as not all station include their Latitude and Longitude data in the packets I was hearing.
Also, updating the Keps was a good plan - everything was much clearer, even after our tracking software (currently Nova for Windows) said the ISS was out of range!

In total, we heard, recognised and placed 11 stations (ordered in terms of distance, starting with us):

However, there are at least 3 I know of that haven't come up in this list due to me not receiving their positional data - UT4QU from Ukraine, 9A2RI from Croatia, F4FHY from France and OM3FH from the Slovak Republic.

 Outside of that, we heard (and placed) England (G4ILO G6UIM), Netherlands (PD2RLD), Germany (DB3LA DL6SDA), Spain (EA1GGK EA1JM EA4DS) and Poland (SP2FOP).

Messages were sent and received to/from G4ILO and EA1JM!

All in all, a pretty good pass!

06/1/11 19:22 - ISS

This was a busier pass, with 14 stations heard...

From Left to right it reads:
Callsign - Type - Mobile/Portable/Fixed - Distance - Latitude - Longitude - Number of Packets Received

Through the International Space Station, I heard Ireland, (EI7IG), England (G0GOO G6WZA), Scotland (MM0YEQ), The Netherlands (PD2RLD), Belgium, (ON6MU), Germany (DB3LA DG1IHH), Spain (EB1BE EA1JM EA2BVD), Italy (IZ1BCJ IK1COA) and Hungary (HA3HT), plotted below for your viewing pleasure.

Better than last time, but a busier pass also. Highlights include sending and receiving messages from Spain - EA1JM, Francisco Jimenez-Martin Sanchez, which went much like:

MM3ZRZ->EA1JM: Hello from Dave in Scotland!

EA1JM->MM3ZRZ: 73 from Spain Dave!

Not much, I know, but it came over 1000 miles, not including the up-down bit to space, and used less power than an energy-saving lightbulb!

That's enough space for today... back soon!

06/1/11 17:50 - ISS

This pass was relatively noisy, with 10 stations being heard...

Through the space station, I heard England (G0GOO G6UIM), the Netherlands (PD2RLD), Germany (GF8LS DG4BR DM2KGB), Spain (EA1JM), Italy (IK1COA) and France (F6CDZ F4FEB), Plotted below for your viewing pleasure.

Not a bad list, overall, but I reckon we can do better.

Below is a map of all the stations in Europe that were heard by the Space Station, and we are one of them (as MM3ZRZ), but there are a lot that seem to be missing from my list above.

image from www.ariss.net

And our path to the internet was particularly good...


RS0ISS-4 1 2011-01-06 17:52:15 IO75VU > CM78LQ 5038.7 miles 315°

In english, that's the Space station, the number of packets it heard, the date and time we were last heard, Where the signal went from and to in Maidenhead Locator format, The distance the signal covered to get there and the angle the final destination is from us. 5000 miles isn't too bad, eh? I need to find out, though, how the signal got to over the Pacific Ocean...

Any suggestions?