BY70-1 FM Transponder Satellite

A CZ-2D rocket carrying the amateur radio FM transponder satellite BY70-1 was launched on Wednesday, December 28 at 03:23 UT.

Update: Paul Stoetzer N8HM reports working Wyatt Dirks AC0RA through the FM transponder during the 1709 UT pass on December 28. Paul says “Uplink requires precise frequency adjustment and there’s a delay on the downlink, but the signal is strong”. A recording of the transponder can be heard at

【八一少年星/BY70-1】卫星测试。 pic.twitter.com/9GX2XoycrI

— ChinaSpaceflight (@cnspaceflight) November 27, 2016

The launch from the Taiyuan Space Launch Center was planned for December 26 but postponed due to adverse weather. It had been planned it would go into a 530 km circular Sun-Synchronous Orbit (SSO) but instead the orbit appears to be 524 x 212 km which will give an orbital lifetime of just one or two months.

BY70-1 is a 2U CubeSat project for school education and amateur radio. It features 3-axis stabilization and deployable solar panels. In addition to the FM transponder BY70-1 has a camera and it is planned to download images and telemetry via a 9600 bps BPSK downlink.

The IARU amateur satellite frequency coordination pages list these frequencies:
• 145.920 MHz uplink
• 436.200 MHz downlink
A 67 Hz CTCSS (PL Tone) is required.

GNU Radio decoder for camera images from BY70-1 satellite
http://destevez.net/2016/12/looking-at-by70-1-image-downlink/

BY70-1 links
http://www.amsatuk.me.uk/iaru/finished_detail.php?serialnum=531
https://twitter.com/cnspaceflight/status/802863365013942272

Follow Mingchuan Wei BG2BHC https://twitter.com/bg2bhc

Keplerian Two Line Elements (TLEs) ‘Keps’ for new satellites launched in past 30 days. BY70-1 is believed to be object 41909, 2016-083C http://celestrak.com/NORAD/elements/tle-new.txt

Adding new satellites to SatPC32, Gpredict and Nova
https://amsat-uk.org/2013/11/23/adding-new-satellites-to-satpc32/

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