Thanks to Eric Kirk and John Springmann for leading an effort to upgrade our antennas here at MXL. We just installed two new UHF yagi antennas that are phased together to increase gain. We also installed a new low noise amplifier to boost our signal to noise ratio. The antennas are shown below on top Continue Reading »
Tracking info for MCubed
For those tracking MCubed, we are now tracking Object G. Our theory is that E1P and MCubed are very close, and E1P was tracked successfully yesterday with a high narrow beam antenna that was focused on Object G. MCubed transmits 9600 bps GMSK beacons at 437.485MHz. The doppler shift is approximately +- 8KHz during a Continue Reading »
MCubed Update – 14 Nov 2011
MCubed contains to beacon reliably and indicating good power health. Unfortunately, we have not been able to establish two way communication. We are not alone in this challenge as E1P is also having a similar difficulty.
This week, we should complete our ground station upgrade here at FXB to increase our SNR by 3-6 dB. Continue Reading »
MCubed Update – 10 Nov 2011
MCubed continues to grow stronger in its beacons, but we do not yet have two way communication with the satellites. Beacons are being received in California, Japan and Europe. Thanks for all the tracking support!
The beacons show that the satellite continues to be power positive. Four of the six panels are producing Continue Reading »
MCubed Update – 08 Nov 2011
MCubed continues to strengthen in beacon transmission output. HAMs in Japan and Germany are currently decoding packets. We have had little success in decoding at our stations in Michigan due to several ground station inefficiencies. We are working to upgrades those ASAP.
MCubed battery health is good, and it is fully charged. Our current plan Continue Reading »