RadFxSat Launch Delayed, Now No Earlier Than November 14th

United Launch Alliance (ULA) announced this afternoon that the launch of the Delta II rocket carrying RadFxSat has been delayed due to a faulty battery on the booster. The launch is now scheduled for no earlier than Tuesday, November 14th. Stay tuned to the AMSAT-BB, AMSAT News Service, and the AMSAT web site for further details.

Getting Ready for RadFxSat (Fox-1B)

Introduction

RadFxSat (Fox-1B) is scheduled for launch on November 18, 2017. RadFxSat is one of four CubeSats making up the NASA ELaNa XIV mission, riding as secondary payloads aboard the Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS)-1 mission. JPSS-1 will launch on a Delta II from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California.

RadFxSat Flight Model

RadFxSat is a partnership with Vanderbilt University ISDE and hosts four payloads for the study of radiation effects on commercial off the shelf components. RadFxSat features the Fox-1 style FM U/v repeater with an uplink on 435.250 MHz (67.0 Hz CTCSS) and a downlink on 145.960 MHz. Satellite and experiment telemetry will be downlinked via the “DUV” subaudible telemetry stream and can be decoded with the FoxTelem software.

Launch and Early Orbit Phase (LEOP)

RadFxSat will launch at 01:47 PST (09:47 UTC) on November 18, 2017 from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California. Prelaunch Keplerian elements, which may not be accurate after a few orbits, are as follows:

RadFxSat
1 00000U 17017A   17322.46018518 -.00000000  00000-0  00000-0 0  9995
2 00000  97.6969 254.4977 0258300 235.3028 178.8186 14.79656332  -137 06

The estimated time of “First Veronica,” the initial beacon after deployment, is 12:07 UTC. Due to the tight constraints on the primary payload deployment, the secondary payloads may be delayed slightly, so this should be considered the soonest the transmitter will be enabled. Updated orbital elements will be published as soon as they are available on the AMSAT website.

Participation in telemetry collection by as many stations in as many parts of the world as possible is essential as AMSAT Engineering looks for successful startup and indications of the general health and function of the satellite as it begins to acclimate to space. The first amateur radio operator that successfully receives RadFxSat (Fox-1B) telemetry and uploads it to the AMSAT server will receive a commemorative 3D printed QSL card.

If you are capturing telemetry with FoxTelem please be sure that “Upload to Server” is checked in your settings, and that your “Ground Station Params” are filled in as well. You can help AMSAT and everyone waiting to get on the air with RadFxSat tremendously by capturing RadFxSat telemetry.

About 60 minutes after deployment, or 140 minutes after launch, the satellite will start up in Beacon Mode. In this initial mode, the transmitter is limited to 10 seconds on time and then will be off for two minutes. For those of you capturing telemetry, that means that you will only see Current frames and no High or Low frames. The High and Low frames are truncated as it takes just over the 10 second limit to send two frames. Veronica may also be cut off before she gets to say her whole ID string as the full ID, “RadFxSat Fox-1B Safe Mode,” is a bit longer than the approximately 3.5 seconds she has in Beacon Mode. If the voice ID is cut off, the satellite is still in Beacon Mode.

If AMSAT Engineering is seeing nominal values from the telemetry you gather, the satellite will be commanded from Beacon Mode to Safe Mode on the first good pass over the United States. In Safe Mode, the satellite transmits a full two frames of telemetry (one Current frame followed by, and alternating each ID cycle, a High or a Low frame). Veronica now has time to make the whole ID announcement in Safe Mode.

The on-orbit checkout procedure for RadFxSat is similar to Fox-1A/AO-85 and could be completed in as little as a few days if users cooperate. It is very important, and good amateur operating practice, to refrain from using the transponder uplink so the on-orbit tests can be performed, including when the satellite is switched into Transponder Mode for testing.

AMSAT will make it broadly known when the tests are complete and the transponder is available for all to use. If you hear someone on the transponder, please do not assume that it is open for general use – check AMSAT’s website, Facebook, and Twitter before transmitting to be sure you do not interfere with testing.

AMSAT asks all satellite operators to contribute just a little bit of your time by gathering telemetry, not using the transponder uplink, to help complete the last few days of getting RadFxSat operating for the amateur radio community.

Lots of hams put thousands of volunteer hours of their time into making RadFxSat happen. Just like any ham radio project you might undertake, AMSAT builds satellites. AMSAT volunteers do it because they like to, and when they are done, AMSAT freely shares their project with hams everywhere as is the spirit of amateur radio.

Thank you very much and see you on the bird!

Radio Programming Chart

RadFxSat (Fox-1B) Doppler Shift Correction
Memory Your Transmit Frequency

(With 67 Hz Tone)

Your Receive Frequency
Acquisition of Signal (AOS) 435.240 MHz 145.960 MHz
Approaching 435.245 MHz 145.960 MHz
Time of Closest Approach (TCA) 435.250 MHz 145.960 MHz
Departing 435.255 MHz 145.960 MHz
Loss of Signal (LOS) 435.260 MHz 145.960 MHz

Frequencies are subject to change after launch.

Special Membership Offer

As part of the preparations for the launch of RadFxSat, AMSAT is making the “Getting Started With Amateur Satellites” book available for a limited time as a download with any paid new or renewal membership purchased via the AMSAT Store. This offer is only available with purchases completed online, and for only a limited time. A perennial favorite, Getting Started is updated every year with the latest amateur satellite information, and is the premier primer of satellite operation. The 182 page book is presented in PDF format, in full color, and covers all aspects of making your first contacts on a ham radio satellite.

Please take advantage of this offer today by visiting the AMSAT store at https://www.amsat.org/shop/ and selecting any membership option. While there, check out AMSAT’s other items, including the M2 LEOpack antenna system, Arrow antennas, AMSAT shirts, and other swag. Be sure to view your cart before going to checkout. If you add a membership and then go directly to checkout, you’ll never see an option to add your free gift.

FoxTelem v1.05 Released

AMSAT’s preparations for the launch of RadFxSat (Fox-1B) on November 10th continue at a breakneck pace. FoxTelem developer Chris Thompson, G0KLA/AC2CZ, today announced the release of FoxTelem v1.05 on the AMSAT-BB. Among other improvements, upgrading to this release is required for the proper decoding of RadFxSat telemetry. FoxTelem versions for Windows, Mac, and Linux can be downloaded at https://www.amsat.org/foxtelem-software-for-windows-mac-linux/

Below is the full text of Thompson’s post on the AMSAT-BB:

​I am pleased to announce a new version of FoxTelem, Version 1.05.  This will make you ready for the RadFxSat launch in 2 weeks time,  at 01:47 PST (09:47UTC) on November 10, 2017.   You will also take advantage of over 60 fixed defects and changes applied to the code base.

NEW FEATURES

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

RADFXSAT

Accurately decode the data, display the results of the experiments and forward it to the AMSAT server for analysis by the experiment owners and other amateur scientists like yourself.  This version will also be able to download the RadFxSat data from the server.

POSITION CALC

You can use a new feature to calculate the position of the satellite. This is  enabled on the settings screen. The TLEs are automatically downloaded each
week and stored in EPOCH order.  This will be used to plot historical graphs in the future.  See the manual for more details.

WHEN ABOVE HORIZON

You can set FoxTelem to only decode when the satellite is up.  This is designed to save CPU power when many copies of FoxTelem are run at the same time.

RUNNING MULTIPLE COPIES

You can run FoxTelem in a new way.  If you pass a directory on the command line then it will use this as the location of the config file and the
log files. Previously you needed to create a batch file and run a special command. That will still work, but this should be easier.  See the manual for details.

KEY CHANGES

~~~~~~~~~~~

* Implements changes needed to support RadFxSat (Fox-1B) which launches Nov 2017
* Simpler approach to run multiple copies of FoxTelem with different configuration settings
* Calculation of spacecraft position for users on Linux/Mac or those without SatPC32, including automatic TLE/KEP management
* Automatic start/stop of the decoder to save CPU when running many copies, based on FoxTelem calculation or SatPC32
* Runs on the Raspberry Pi 3
* Storage of the spacecraft .dat files in the logfiles directory to avoid issues where the install directory is not writable
* Plots 450 deg and 180 deg Az/EL correctly
* PSK decoder in readiness for RadFxSat-2 (Fox-1E)

And many other bug fixes. Full list of changes here:
https://github.com/ac2cz/FoxTelem/milestone/3?closed=1

You can email me with any bug reports or issues that you see.

​73
Chris
g0kla/ac2cz​

Free Digital Copy of “Getting Started With Amateur Satellites” Available with New or Renewed Membership

As part of the preparations for the launch of RadFxSat on November 10th, AMSAT is making our “Getting Started With Amateur Satellites” book available for a limited time as a download with any paid new or renewal membership purchased via the AMSAT Store. This offer is only available with purchases completed online, and for only a limited time. A perennial favorite, Getting Started is updated every year with the latest amateur satellite information, and is the premier primer of satellite operation. The 182 page book is presented in PDF format, in full color, and covers all aspects of making your first contacts on a ham radio satellite.

Please take advantage of this offer today by visiting the AMSAT store at https://www.amsat.org/shop/ and selecting any membership option. While there, check out our other items, including the M2 LEOpack antenna system, Arrow antennas, AMSAT shirts, and other swag. Be sure to view your cart before going to checkout. If you add a membership and then go directly to checkout, you’ll never see an option to add your free gift.

Thank you, and see you soon on RadFxSat!