BeliefSat-0, the New Amateur Radio FM Satellite From India!

BeliefSat-0, the New Amateur Radio FM Satellite From India!

BeliefSat-0 is a project of the undergraduate students of K.J. Somaiya Institute of Engineering and Information Technology, Sion, Mumbai. It was launched by the PSLV C-58 rocket of Indian Space Research Organization from Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh along with XPoSat (X-ray Polarimeter Satellite) on 1 January 2024. Next project of the student team is BeliefSat-1, a 2p-PocketQube standard, expected to be launched later this year. BeliefSat-0 is attached to the final stage of the rocket body and has a power output of about 1 W. According to the GitHub page of BeliefSat-0 the opportunity was presented to them by IN-SPACe (ISRO) as part of their POEM (PSLV Orbital Experimental Module). N2YO website gives tracking details about PSLV rocket body with NORAD ID: 58695. It is at an altitude of around 350 km and an inclination of 9.7 degrees, with a period of 91.5 minutes.

BeliefSat-0 has a size of 150 x 118 x 34 mm excluding the antenna. Antenna is Nagoya NL-770S VHF/UHF High Gain Mobile Antenna 480 mm long as per their GitHub page. SatNOGS have several reports of BeliefSat-0 including some with waterfall and audio clips, currently running into three pages. I have not heard any reports of anyone being able to work through the voice transponder yet. Access details for the voice transponder have been given as “437.000 MHz 67 Hz tx_CTCSS for uplink, 145.980 MHz 71.9 Hz rx_CTCSS for downlink” by the faculty in charge in a personal communication by email. The reports on SatNOGS are on 145.980 MHz.