Researchers Decode CASSIOPE Satellite Field Day Fly-Over Experiment Results

Posted date: July 24, 2015in: NewsNo Comments

The University of Calgary’s “Enhanced Polar Outflow Probe (ePOP) Radio Receiver Instrument (RRI)” on the CASSIOPE satellite was able to detect several ARRL Field Day stations on June 28. The RRI listened on 80 and 40 meter segments. Virginia Tech graduate researcher Nathaniel Frissell, W2NAF, said that during the first 25 seconds of 7 MHz reception, he and his team aurally decoded and identified 23 stations, most in Illinois, Wisconsin, and Indiana, before the signals “abruptly disappeared.” He said very few signals were detected on 80 meters.

“This experiment was designed to simply test the feasibility of conducting HF Amateur Radio-satellite ionosphere and propagation studies,” Frissell told ARRL. “These results show that this is feasible, and that it is possible to detect interesting geophysical features.” The others involved in the analyzing the results were Gareth Perry of the University of Calgary; Ethan Miller, K8GU, of Johns Hopkins University’s Applied Physics Lab; Magdalina Moses, KM4EGE, of Virginia Tech, and CW Skimmer developer Alex Shovkoplyas, VE3NEA.