ARRL

Register Account

Login Help

News

Reports of Knacksat CubeSat Reception Requested

01/21/2019

The Knacksat 1U CubeSat launched on December 3 by a SpaceX vehicle may be in safe mode. The Knacksat project team at King Mongkut’s University of Technology-North Bangkok, Thailand, has speculated that launch delays may have led to battery depletion, preventing normal antenna deployment. Safe mode will let the spacecraft recharge its battery and receive commands from the ground.

The Knacksat team is seeking CW beacon reception reports on 435.635 MHz, and at least a couple have been posted, but the very weak signal prevented the decoding of telemetry. Anyone who copies the satellite is asked to email or submit an online report. The Knacksat project said reliable reception would require an antenna with Earth-Moon-Earth capability.

“The need is also for a station so equipped to try to send an MP3 sound file to change the uplink VHF frequency,” the team said. “This will wake up the satellite from safe mode.” Thanks to AMSAT News Service via Satellite Project Manager Tanan Rangseeprom, HS1JAN



Back

EXPLORE ARRL

Instragram     Facebook     Twitter     YouTube     LinkedIn