[amsat-bb] FUNcube Project - Your advice requested

[Graham Shirville]

Hi All,

As part of the FUNcube project we now need to urgently decide which is going 
to be the best type of antenna to propose for use at schools and colleges to 
receive the 145MHz downlink signals from both FUNcube-1 and FUNcube-2 on 
UKube after launch.

Both spacecraft will be transmitting approx 300mW of BPSK 1k2 telemetry with 
FEC – FC1- will be using a dipole antenna and will have passive magnetic 
attitude control. FC-2 on UKube will use a single monopole antenna and the 
spacecraft is intended to have active attitude control. This is primarily to 
ensure that the deployed solar panels are illuminated and that the face with 
the S band patch is usually earth pointing.

We believe that the resultant signal should be easily usable using an 
omnidirectional antenna but the questions is which would be the best type to 
use. Obviously ease of construction, cost, robustness and safety in a school 
environment will also be important factors as well as  suitable “gain” and 
circularity from horizon to horizon. We envisage that some operations may be 
from fixed installations with the antennas mounted permanently but some will 
be temporary - perhaps hand held or bolted to a step ladder or similar.

We know there are many AMSAT members around the globe with great experience 
in this field and, we suspect, with some strongly held views. So please let 
us have some constructive input about which type is likely to be best for 
this purpose - your comments, ideas and lessons learnt will be very valuable 
for us.

Thanks in advance for your support

73

Graham
G3VZV - for the FUNcube Project team













As part of the FUNcube project we need to decide which is going to be the 
best antenna to propose for use at schools and colleges to receives the 
145MHz downlink signals from both FUNcube-1 and FUNcube-2 on UKube after 
launch.







Both spacecraft will be transmitting approx 300mW of BPSK 1k2 telemetry with 
FEC – FC1- will be using a dipole antenna and has passive magnetic attitude 
control. FC-2 on UKube will use a single monopole antenna and the spacecraft 
is intended to have active attitude control to ensure that the deployed 
solar panels are illuminated and that the face with the S band patch is 
usually earth pointing.







We believe that the resultant signal should be easily usable using an 
omnidirectional antenna but the questions is which would be the best type to 
use. Obviously ease of construction, cost, robustness and safety in a school 
environment will also be important factors as well as suitable “gain” and 
circularity from horizon to horizon.







We know there are many AMSAT members with experience in this field and, we 
suspect, some strongly held views but all constructive input would be very 
welcome.