Good signals from Delfi-C3

An excited Delfi-C3 team report receiving good signals from the new Delphi-C3 Amateur Satellite on Monday.

It is expected that it will be at least three months before the SSB/CW 145/435 linear transponder is made available for general Amateur use.

In the meantime the Delfi-C3 team would welcome telemetry reports. Note that the satellite beacon can come up on either 145.870 MHz or 145.930 MHz.

Delfi-C3 is the first Amateur Radio satellite to fly without any batteries, it is entirely powered by Solar Power so when it is in eclispe there will be no beacon. It is also the first CubeSat to fly with deployable solar panels to increase the amount of solar energy picked up.

Wouter PE4WJ posted these emails to the AMSAT Bulletin Board on the luanch day.

Date: Mon, 28 Apr 2008 10:02:39 +0200
Delfi-C3 is ALIVE!!!!

Delfi-C3 was heard by Rick Mann, while she was over the US. From the wav file Rick sent us, we can deduce that she is tranmitting on the backup frequency (145.930) in science mode. This is very very good news, we are all extremely excited. We have not been able to decode the wav file yet since it is rather noisy, but the satellite is definitely there.

Note that Delfi-C3 decides by herself on which freq the transmitter comes up, so be sure to check both 145.870MHz and 145.930MHz.

Any wav files, or if possible even decoded TLM using RASCAL or a KISS file is highly appreciated!

73 on behalf of an excited Delfi-C3 team

Wouter Jan Ubbels PE4WJ

Date: Mon, 28 Apr 2008 14:12:40 +0200
Delfi-C3 HEARD, strong signal over the Delfi-C3 groundstation 1148UTC 145.930MHz

We have heard Delfi-C3 during the 1148UTC pass over the TU Delft groundstation, she was on the backup freq of 145.930MHz, with a really strong signal!!! The spacecraft is in science mode, everything has deployed nominally.

We got quite some decoded frames which indicate that the spacecraft is in good health. We are currently investigating the telemetry in order to determine the status into more detail.

It was incredible to finally hear the faint signals out of the noise, rising to comfortable strength!

Reports from accross the globe are welcome, and we have already got quite some hams receiving and uploading good telemetry!!!

We were using our old TLE's from the mission ops page, which seemed to fit best, so it's probably best to keep using those for now.

73 on behalf of an even more excited Delfi-C3 team

Wouter Jan Ubbels PE4WJ

Date: Mon, 28 Apr 2008 21:58:08 +0200
Delfi-C3 heard over TU Delft Groundstation 1843 UTC

Delfi-C3 was heard again over the Delfi-C3 groundstation at 1843 UTC with solid signals on 145.930MHz 1200bd BPSK, using the "old" TLE's which are still on our mission ops page at:
http://www.delfic3.nl/index.php?option=com_content
&task=view&id=93&Itemid=122

it's been a long and exciting day!

73

Wouter Jan Ubbels PE4WJ

Uploading Delfi-C3 Telemetry
http://www.southgatearc.org/news/april2008/
uploading_delfi_c3_telemetry.htm

Telemetry Decode software RASCAL can be downloaded at:
http://www.delfic3.nl/index.php?option=com_content
&task=view&id=94&Itemid=123

Join the AMSAT Bulletin Board AMSAT-BB at
http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/tools/maillist/maillist.php

Satscape Satellite Tracker:
http://www.satscape.co.uk/

For frequencies of all the Amateur Radio cubesats launched on April 28 see http://www.uk.amsat.org/