IARU Amateur Satellite Frequency Coordination
 
Back to List of Sats whose Frequencies have been coordinated

ESTCube-2 Updated: 30 Sep 2022   Responsible Operator Tonis Eenmae ES5TF
Supporting Organisation Institute of Physics, University of Tartu  
Contact Person es5ec@estcube.eu  
Headline Details: ESTCube-2 is a 3U Cubesat. ** An updated request has been received....Amateur missions: In-orbit signal strength mapping in the 2 m and 70 cm amateur bands will be performed, using periodical full band RSSI measurements in order to check how polluted these two radio amateur bands are in low Earth orbit. The cross-band AX.25 digipeater mode will be used to allow amateur radio operators to use satellite for two-way digital communication. 9600 bps G3RUH AX.25 data uplink will be in 2 m amateur band and transmission of digipeated packet in 70 cm amateur radio band. Transmission speed and modulation will be the same as for uplink. There are plans to include periodic short audio announcements (similar to FOX-1) to indicate that the digipeater is active. ● The high-speed communications system is a COTS transmitter system called HiSPiCO from IQ Technologies. It is used when downloading preselected Earth observation scientific camera full-resolution images using the 2.4 GHz amateur radio band. https://www.iq-spacecom.com/products /hispico Data will be downlinked using QPSK modulated up-to 1 Mbps data-rate signal. Software tools (e.g. GNU Radio, web browser- based) will be published before the satellite launch, in order to enable reception of high speed downlink by the amateur radio community. ● The optional multi-station radio frequency ranging experiment will be used to determine satellite distance to Earth in order to improve accuracy of satellite orbit determination. For the experiment, the 70 cm radio amateur band will be used in conjunction with 4 or more amateur ground stations using SDR-based equipment that can provide stable and accurate frequency and time measurements. The satellite downlink will be listened to from several ground stations at the same time. ● To educate the next generation of radio amateurs, the satellite will transmit analog messages from space using an NBFM signal containing pre-recorded audio greetings. This activity will infrequently take place according to a schedule published publicly to schools and the AMSAT/HAM community. The transmitted signal will be received by participating Estonian secondary and high schools, using their own built radio antennas and SDR-based receiver systems. This activity is targeted primarily to promote amateur radio and satellite communication (and in general STEM fields) among the younger generation. Non-amateur missions: ● The Primary transceiver, shared with the amateur payloads, is using the 70 cm amateur radio band for uplink and downlink purposes. It will be used as the housekeeping beacon for a simple overview of the satellite status and as the main transceiver for receiving tele-commands and firmware upgrades. As well transmitting mission data, like telemetry from each subsystem (< 256 bytes per subsystem) and payload data, e.g. compressed, low resolution image thumbnails ( ~100 KiB), in AX.25 data packet format with 9600 baud data-rate with G3RUH modulated signal. The spacecraft will have experimental capability to change data-rate up-to 38600 baud using 2GFSK (or 4GFSK for testing) different modulation schemes. During the mission, it is planned to transmit a housekeeping telemetry beacon periodically (~1 KiB), typically once per minute, containing telemetry, health data packets from every subsystem. ● The 70 cm amateur radio band downlink will be used to send Plasma brake tether experiment [link] and housekeeping data of the payload module such as temperature measurements, information about the attitude of satellite, energy production etc. (< 256 bytes) ● After performing measurements of a material science experiment on corrosion resistant coating, 70 cm amateur radio band downlink will be used to transmit a very small amount of acquired sensor data (~ 200 B per day). The satellite will measure the electrical continuity of the coating material to determine its lifespan after exposure to atomic oxygen in LEO. Proposing UHF 9k6 using GFSK/G3RUH modulation or 38k4 GFSK/4GFSK or, alternatively, FM voice downlinks and on S Band downlink DQPSK modulation with 1 Mbps data-rate. Planning a launch on the Vega C VV23 launch from Kourou in December 2022 into a 555km SSO. More info at https://www.estcube.eu/projekt/ESTCube-2 ** Downlinks on 435.800 MHz and 2425.000 MHz have been coordinated**
Application Date: 03 Feb 2018   Freq coordination completed on 29 Sep 2022

The IARU Amateur Satellite Frequency Coordination Status pages are hosted by AMSAT-UK as a service to the world wide Amateur Satellite Community