As part of making space accessible to Western Australians, Binar satellites’ communications with the ground operate on a part of the radio spectrum that anyone can access.
That means anyone with the right equipment can receive data from Binar satellites, and anyone who also has the right licenses can transmit to them.
In space
Binar-1 is currently in orbit, and has two beacons on board transmitting on amateur frequencies.
While we weren’t able to activate Binar-1’s primary telemetry beacon, our secondary beacon is operational and transmitting limited telemetry whenever power requirements permit.
For future Binar missions, anyone will be able to download and decode data from the satellite, including telemetry data from the satellite itself, payload data from onboard experiments, and images from onboard cameras.
Upcoming missions will also include a ‘capture the flag’ payload specifically designed for the amateur community to claim with their call sign.
Information about accessing Binar satellites in future missions will be published here once our payload systems are finalised.
On Earth
In addition to making Binar available to existing radio users, we’re also investing in making radio accessible to more people.
We’re facilitating amateur radio ground stations in schools through BinarX, and improving access to space for everyone by expanding the open-source SatNOGS network.
As part of the program, students and teachers can construct and operate their own SatNOGS ground station to better understand radio communications and contribute back to the SatNOGS community.
In the community
Our radio operators, Dan (VK6BUS) and Ben (VK6AAB), are fully licensed by ACMA and are active participants in the amateur satellite community.
During the Binar-1 mission we relied heavily on the amateur community to track and troubleshoot our satellite beacon. Unfortunately, for technical reasons we were unable to make further systems on the satellite available to the community.
We look forward to seeing the community engage with more complete functionality on future Binar missions. If you’d like to help shape the future of Binar in the amateur radio community, get in touch!