Hi AMSATs,
It has been a long time ago that I have been active "on-air", and here on AMSAT-BB. Reason is to little time, and because of that I choose to improve my home lab and spend my late after work hours there, and not in front of the rigs hihi...
It is very interresting to see the work of the Delfi team, and they are now on the place where I was in 2005 with the Indian HAMSAT (VO-52) :) I can tell you its a hot place, in matters of sun and also hot (spicy) food hihi... I wish the team a good launch, and I will spend some more time to get my station ready to receive Delfi after launch...
I have not been active "on-air", but even more active with designing some new transponders. The reason I had to improve my home lab is because I wanted to design a very small transponder, that would fit easily in 1-cube satellite. With 0805 SMD this was even not possible anymore, so I went even to smaller sized SMD. (I guess the next step is my own made chip hihi).
My final design ended up in a 7cm x 7cm x 0,4cm prototype version. I guess this is small enough to fit in a cubesat :) Some details: Mode-B, Power supply 3.3V, >500mW PEP out, 30kHz Bandwidth (flat), with AGC, CW beacon incl, ~200 grams weight.
Now I am fixing up my design to get it from a home made prototype into a more profesional "flight" version. My idea is to make several of these transponders, and make them also available for other (cube)sat groups.
However, now I am stuck with the question what the standards are for mounting hardware in cubesat structures.
I don't have a cubesat (for the moment) because they are not in the cheap price class for me as a ham. On the other hand I have no experience in any cubesat project, and don't know all the ins and outs.
Maybe some cubesat expert can give me an idea how to make my final PCB (screw holes, sizes) in an efficient way to have my 7cm x 7cm x 0.4cm fit in other cubesat projects, in case some group will be interrested.
Beside my analog transponder I also like to have a pacsat system, to have it together in my future own cubesat. The pacsat system is an efficient system and I think its worth to have it back again.
Does anyone know if there is a group or ham that made (can make) such a system in cubesat format ? With todays small sized, low voltage, high speed and high amount of memory processors it should be no problem for a digital guru I guess. (I mean the pacsat system like KO-23/25 alike).
Thats all AMSATs, Enjoy the sats, and listen for Delfi... the next linear transponder :)
73 William PE1RAH ---
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