FUNcube on Front Cover of Electronics Weekly magazine
AMSAT-UK's FUNcube satellite project features on the front cover of the August 12-18 edition of Electronics Weekly magazine
The printed edition of the magazine will be dropping through letterboxes during Wednesday morning and you can read the digital version of Electronics Weekly magazine online or download the pages in PDF format at
http://cde.cerosmedia.com/1D4a803d8814a11352.cde
The full FUNcube article titled 'Bringing FUN back to the classroom' by Steve Bush is on page 8 and contains an interview with Graham Shirville G3VZV.
FUNcube is an educational single cubesat project with the goal of enthusing and educating young people about radio, space, physics and electronics. It has received major initial funding from the Radio Communications Foundation (RCF).
It will support the educational Science, Technology, Engineering, Maths (STEM) initiatives and provide an additional resource for the GB4FUN Mobile Communications Centre.
The target audience consists of primary and secondary school pupils and FUNcube will feature a 145 MHz telemetry beacon that will provide a strong signal for the pupils to receive.
It is planned to develop a simple receiver board that can be connected to the USB port of a laptop to display telemetry in an interesting way.
The satellite will contain a materials science experiment, from which the school students can receive telemetry data which they can compare to the results they obtained from similar reference experiments in the classroom.
FUNcube will carry a UHF to VHF linear transponder that will have up to 1 watt and which can be used by Radio Amateurs worldwide for SSB and CW communications. Measuring just 10 * 10 * 10 cm, and with a mass of less than 1kg, it will be the smallest ever satellite to carry a linear transponder and the choice of frequencies will enable Radio Amateurs to use their existing VO-52 or DO-64 station.
A key feature of the satellite is the absence of an On-Board Computer. For reliability and maximum power efficiency, the design has been kept as straight-forward as possible with satellite control being achieved using simple commands.
FUNcube contact: Graham Shirville G3VZV Tel: +44 (0)7713 665725
Electronics Weekly Magazine http://www.electronicsweekly.com/
Radio Communications Foundation http://www.commsfoundation.org/
GB4FUN http://www.gb4fun.org.uk/
AMSAT-UK http://www.uk.amsat.org/
FUNcube a UK Linear Transponder Satellite http://www.southgatearc.org/news/july2009/funcube.htm
AMSAT-UK Space Colloquium videos http://www.southgatearc.org/news/august2009/amsat_colloquium_videos.htm
AMSAT-UK publish a colour A4 newsletter, OSCAR News, full of satellite information. You can join online at https://secure.amsat.org.uk/subs_form/ ---- 73 Trevor M5AKA
We can only hope that the "RCF funding problem" recorded in the just published RSGB Board Minutes do not negatively impact upon this endeavour!
participants (2)
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David - KG4ZLB -
Trevor .