ARISSat-1 is scheduled for deployment from the ISS next Wednesday Feb 16th.
It has a composite VHF downlink that will easily fit into the FUNcube Dongle receive spectrum. The telemetry is 1 kbit BPSK and can, of course, also be received with a normal SSB 2 metre receiver.

The expected signal levels from ARISSat should be similar to those we expect from FUNcube itself (and also eventually from UKube) and the team are keen to discover what will be the minimum and best type of antennas for schools to use with a FCD. Therefore user experience with the ARISSat signals will be very valuable in making this determination.

To encourage everyone to receive ARISSat signals we are offering a FUN reward for listeners!

There are a number of categories for this challenge –they include:

1. The first FCD user, from each continent, who can post a spectrum recording of the received signal together with evidence of decoding the data using the ARISSat software and of sending it to the ARISSat data warehouse.
2. The first non-FCD user, from each continent, who can provide evidence of having decoded the signals and of sending it to the ARISSat data warehouse.
3. The listener, using a FCD or not, who can demonstrate satisfactory reception of the telemetry in the same ways as described above, using the "smallest" possible receive antenna. The actual closing date for this part of the challenge will be announced later.

All other entrants who can demonstrate that they have been having FUN!
Please submit your "entries", including your location, station details (including FCD serial number where applicable), postal address and reports to g0auk [at] amsat [dot] org.

Good luck,