IARU Amateur Satellite Frequency Coordination
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IARU Amateur Satellite Frequency Coordination |
| Preset | Updated: 24 Oct 2025 | Responsible Operator | Soo Hyun Byun VA3BEY | |
| Supporting Organisation | McMaster University | |||
| Contact Person | soohyun@mcmaster.ca | |||
| Headline Details: A 3U CubeSat. The major objective of the Pitch REsolving Spectroscopy for Electron Transport (PRESET) mission is to train the next generation of engineers, scientists, entrepreneurs, and business leaders in satellite design. PRESET students at both the undergraduate and graduate levels will develop science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) skills essential for their future success through hands-on training and their active contributions to the progress of each sub-project of PRESET and overall project management. Students will have major responsibility for the design and implementation of the instruments and subsystems while at the same time being mentored by the senior students, senior engineers, and PIs in each expert area. Amateur radio is a vital aspect of the PRESET mission. All students are given the opportunity to volunteer as radio operators, and those interested go through amateur radio training and examination to receive their basic and advanced licenses in order to familiarize themselves with the regulatory and design guidelines for radio systems. Our approach to PRESET will also follow a similar approach to NEUDOSE, with integration into the SatNOGS Open Source global amateur radio network. This integration with the amateur radio community was critical to the success of NEUDOSE, and allowed the McMaster team to learn deeply about other satellites operating in the amateur radio service, and how we can further contribute to interesting learning experiences between ourselves and the community. With our custom communications transceiver, we hope to test interesting encoding protocols (LPDC) that appear to be of interest to the amateur radio community. These protocols are of interest to our group due to their improved Bit-error rate performance, and are now easier to implement thanks to the advancement of microcontrollers for CubeSats. Once prepared, the decoding processes and sample recording will be provided on our website to provide direct access for the community. Also, with our ground station now fully operational at McMaster University, there are new opportunities to work with other CubeSat teams in the amateur radio service to assist in satellite detection and data capture. The student-designed PRESET satellite aims to measure the angle and time-dependent electron flux spectrum data in LEO in the energy region between 0.3-7 MeV. As the time-dependent variation of the electron flux is coupled to the magnetic storms, the angle and time-dependent electron flux spectrum data will be of great importance for understanding the physics that governs the electron flux variation and its coupling with the magnetic storms. Moreover, the energy region 2-7 MeV is missing from the spectrometers that are currently operating in LEO and therefore, developing a CubeSat to cover this missing energy region will ensure Canada’s leadership in acquiring and using space-based data to support science excellence. To achieve this, custom hardware modules, including scientific payloads, ground stations, communications subsystems, and other hardware, are designed, built, and tested at McMaster University alongside commercial off-the-shelf hardware. This provides a unique exposure to practical engineering situations that are rarely encountered in heavily theoretical design courses taken through their degrees. Immense value is added not only to the learning experience students undergo but also to Canada as our next generation is elevated to technical skill levels that are now in high demand globally. This mission is primarily related to the training of undergraduate and graduate students in radiofrequency communication through the use of an extracurricular activity. In order to operate the satellite, students are provided training to receive their respective Amateur Radio License, which directly helps expand the amateur satellite service in Canada. The McMaster University team plans to utilize the SatNOGS database, as was done on NEUDOSE, to enable the amateur radio community to receive signals from the satellite and provide data during all operational periods. It is important to clarify that SatNOGS is a receive-only system: amateurs are able to receive beacon packets and telemetry from the satellite, but they do not transmit or otherwise communicate with the satellite through this system. The beacon message transmitted by the satellite may be updated over the course of the mission, and amateurs capturing these transmissions will directly contribute to monitoring the health and status of the spacecraft. Received beacon data will allow the community to follow how the spacecraft is performing in low Earth orbit (e.g., battery voltage, system operations, and thermal behavior), while also enhancing engagement with the mission. In addition, we are exploring a future digirepeater implementation that could support amateur-to-amateur interactions via the satellite. Once the minimum viable satellite software is developed and launched, we can utilize our Over-The-Air software update functionality to add this functionality (within our provided frequency bands), within the information for accessing this functionality posted on our website. While the primary focus of the mission remains scientific and educational, we recognize the value of including functionality such as a low-duty-cycle digipeater mode or periodic relay pass. The satellite will continue to transmit its callsign within each beacon packet, and can be commanded by the McMaster University ground station to cease transmission if required by the administration Proposing a UHF downlink using 19k2 2-GFSK AX25 modulation. Planning a launch in Oct 2026 into an 560x480km SSO. No launch has been defined. | ||||
| Application Date: | 22 Oct 2025 | Freq coordination completed on | ||
The IARU Amateur Satellite Frequency Coordination Status pages are hosted
by AMSAT-UK as a service to the world wide Amateur Satellite Community
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