EO-79 and EO-80 – Image Credit ISIS
On March 25, 2016, the EO-79 SB/CW transponder was activated and will be available for a prolonged period.
The FUNcube transponder subsystem on QB50p1 (EO-79) had been provided by AMSAT-UK and AMSAT-NL and is a similar subsystem as on FUNcube-1, but without the telemetry downlink circuitry.
The current software running on EO-79 does experience occasional reboots. When these reboots happen, the transponder is automatically turned off and will have to be turned back on by a command station. The FUNcube team has selected a few command stations to do so, but be advised the transponder may be off.
TLEs:
AMSAT keps name: EO-79
Celestrak keps Name: QB50P1
Celestrak file: cubesat.txt
NORAD # 40025
COSPAR designator 2014-033-R
Frequencies:
Uplink: 435.035-435.065 MHz LSB
Downlink: 145.935-145.965 MHz USB
EO-79 has been set to only beacon the normal AX.25 beacon every 30 seconds instead of 10 seconds. The beacon frequency is 145.815 MHz and consists of AX.25 frames on BPSK. more details about the downlink can be found on the ISIS HAM page at http://isispace.nl/HAM/qb50p.html
Just like FUNcube-1, the crystal oscillator circuits exhibit drift with temperature. This means manual tuning will probably work best.
Lastly, the commanding team availability will be limited over Easter, so please report the transponder being on or off on the status page of AMSAT: http://www.amsat.org/status/
It does not appear in the table, but it does in the reporting drop-down.
73 and have FUN
Wouter Weggelaar, PA3WEG
AMSAT-NL
AMSAT-UK
2013 QB50 Precursor CubeSat announcement
http://amsat-uk.org/2013/07/20/qb50-amateur-radio-transponder-payloads-to-launch-2014/
