On January 18, Origamisat-1 was launched in to orbit. Developed by the
Tokyo Institute of Technology, this satellite carries a 5.84 GHz
downlink similar to the one on FITSAT-1 NIWAKA.
Back in 2012, I was able to detect NIWAKA using my portable 5.760 GHz
rig. At the time, the satellite was primarily only active over the
control ground station in Japan. I put in a request for activation over
the East Coast of the US for several passes and was able to detect the
5.84 GHz downlink.
I've been in contact with the control operators of Origamisat-1 and they
are interested in activating the 5.84 GHz downlink for me during some
East Coast passes.
Tracking Origamisat-1 is a real challenge. It is a LEO, so is only
visible for 10-15 minutes depending on the pass. The challenge is not
only tracking the satellite both AZ and EL with a dish that has maybe
3-5 degree beamwidth, but the Doppler can run a little over ±100 kHz.
The 5.84 GHz downlink is 420KF1D 115kbps. It transmits for 10 secs and
is then off for 5 secs and then repeats.
For my NIWAKA reception, I used a 2' dish with my DEMI 5760 transverter
and for an IF, a Funcube Dongle SDR tuned to 224.000 MHz. I used a
original Funcube for my first reception which only had 96 kHz BW, but
will use a Funcube Pro+ this time which has 196 kHz BW which should
eliminate having to tune at all during the pass.
Is there any interest from others in trying to detect the downlink?
I will be looking at possible passes in early February. The Origamisat-1
team is now still in the initial testing phases, so it will be a while
before I can try.
If you are interested, please let me know so we can coordinate our efforts.
--
73,
Mike, N1JEZ
"A closed mouth gathers no feet"