Hello Respected Amateur Radio Community, I would like to announce the expected launch of University of Southern California's (USC) CAERUS aboard the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, on the 8th of Dec 2010, with a launch window of 1400-1722 GMT.
CAERUS is USC's 1st CubeSat subsystem delivered in May 2010, and was named after the greek word for "opportunity". It was developed from authorization to proceed (ATP) to delivery in 14 weeks. CAERUS is part of the "MAYFLOWER" Next Generation Technology CubeSat that is a joint effort with Northrop Grumman NOVAWORKS group.
The satellite would be transmitting beacon data in the Amateur Band, with the following specifications. Call Sign: KJ6FIX Downlink Frequency: 437.600 MHz Beacon Output Power: 900mW Modulation Type: AFSK, 1200 baud TLE: Updated on website, right after launch.
It would be greatly appreciated, if you can please collect the beacon data and email the raw text file to [email protected]. The collection of the data would help USC in tabulating the performance of our first student driven endeavour into space.
For further information and TLE updates, please go to the website http://www2.isi.edu/research/prj-serc/prj-serc_projects/prj-serc_projects-9..... The beacon data can also be translated with the jar applet provided on our website.
Thanks for all your help, Regards, Omair A. Rahman.
## P.S. ## - If it's raw beacon data file, please have your email subject: Beacon Data and your info. - If you have the capability of hooking up a Spectrum Analyzer to the antenna feed, and can measure the 'Actual' frequency of the downlink, please send that too, with the Subject: Beacon Frequency. This is very important to us, for a tracking experiment we are conducting.