A beacon is a periodically transmitted signal (with the frequency of once a minute or near that) which contains the name of a spacecraft unit (the call sign) and the most important telemetry - voltage of onboard power supply sources, state of the batteries and solar panels, temperature of various points of the spacecraft unit, etc.

The following software is used to receive beacons data from the CubeSats:

• SDR# software for radio signal receipt;
• Orbitron for satellite tracking and Doppler effect control;
• Hs soundmodem for command codes receipt;

Launch the SDR# software and select the radio receiver type: RTL-SDR connected via USB.

Set the switch to the WFM mode and set the bandwidth to 12000 under the “Radio” inscription.

Make sure that the “Filter Audio” point is unchecked.

Further you need to increase the signal amplification. To do this, click on the gear icon.

Move the slider so that the noise level increases by about 10 dB.

A CubeSat beacon is provided in the following form.

Information about tracked satellites will appear in the field “Tracking DDE Client”, if Orbitron has been connected properly.

Launch Orbitron and update TLE firstly. Click the button with tools indication.

Click on the lightning button to update TLE.

Click on the “Load TLE” button.

Download the cubesat.txt List

Only CubeSats will show up in the side list on the right. Select Aausat 4, BeeSat 2, Beesat 4, GOMX1, LilacSat2.

All selected satellites will be shown in the main software window.

Proceed to the “Calculation” tab and click the “Calculation” button.

The satellites' overflight times will be calculated automatically. Proceed to the “Rotor/Radio” tab and make sure the tracking button is pressed.

The box with indication of the reception frequency (Dnlink/MHz) shall be used to set the following correct frequency:

   * BEESAT-2 435.950 MHz    * GOMX-1 437,250 MHz    * AAUSAT-4 437.425 MHz    * BEESAT-4 435.950 MHz    * LilacSat-1 436.510 MHz

Launch HS soundmodem

Open the settings section

Select the sound source “Input device - CABLE output”. Check the “AGWPE server port enabled” checkbox. It is also possible to check the “Color waterfall” checkbox.

In order to check HS soundmodem operation - enable signal recording from the LitSat-1 satellite. To do this, go to https://yadi.sk/d/iYDiVeAEos0yPQ and turn the recording function on.

Set the sound volume to maximum so that the waterfall has the necessary color.

After a while the telemetry data received from the satellite should appear in the HS soundmodem software window.

Select the type of a signal according to the type of the received beacon.

Materials from https://r4uab.ru were used to prepare the task.