VZLUSAT-1 Beacon

Carrier frequency: 437.240 MHz * Period: 60s * Wpm: 20
Modulation: FM mode with on/off modulated audio signal 600 Hz
Content: "VZLUSAT1" + human readable housekeeping data strings
battery voltage
total packets received
total packets transmitted
temperature COM processor
temperature COM power amplifier
last RSSI
last RF carrier error

VZLUSAT-1 Downlink

Carrier frequency: 437.240 MHz - only during telecommanding
Modulation: MSK 4800 Bd or 9600 Bd over FM with deviation 2.3 kHz
Content: CSP (CubeSat space protocol) packets

Downloaded packets decoding is possible with original Gomspace TNC hardware and CSP-term software. However, some projects (e.g. https://github.com/daniestevez/gr-satellites) deals with CSP packets decoding from GOMX-1 via software defined radio. GOMX-1 satellite use the same radio as VZLUSAT-1 (Gomspace NanoCom U482C). All downloaded data are interpreted in this web page of the Pilsen ground station.

Photo gallery

Basic architecture of Pilsen ground station for VZLUSat-1. Software development environments and languages (PHP, HTML, SQL) for local ground station equipment, radio operators interface, scientific team interface and internet page data presentation are unified.
Operated satellite VZLUSat-1 with deployable x-ray optics focusing on particle detector. Satellite has also hollow retro-reflector array and radiation shielding composite materials.
Non-interactive mode of Pilsen ground station - radio (frequency tuning) and antenna rotator (azimuth, elevation) controlled by PC software, commands are send and evaluated by PHP script based on requirements of remote operators.
Prototype of PilsenCube main onboard data handling and control unit with two ARM controllers (main and back-up, firmware upgrade ability), hardware watch-dog unit and flash memory.
Prototype of deployable solar panel for PilsenCube satellite with small area solar cells. Solar cells create 4 separated blocks for higher failure and damage immunity. Inner layers of PCB contain a temperature sensor.
Our future vision of small satellite structure with simply scalable inner and outer shielded sections for less and more radiation tolerant devices providing reasonable total mass budget of satellite.
Pilsen Ground Station - Three directional antennas (VHF, UHF, S-Band) with two-axis rotator on the roof of Faculty of Electrical Engineering. Ground station has perfect visibility of horizon.
CAD model of PilsenCube inner structure. Blue parts are two cylindrical LiFePO4 accumulators supplemented by two Maxwell supercapacitors (350F/2.7V) solving the problem of fast eldering of accumulators on Earth orbit.
CAD model of S-Band and UHF antenna system on PilsenCube satellite. Also 88-108MHz antenna were considered for RDS receiver subsystem used as low power autonomous orbit determination.