Early afternoon on 31 March 2009 the ground station of the first Hungarian satellite was introduced. This will receive the signals of Masat-1 and will also control the cubesat. Charles Simonyi on board of the International Space Station was also involved in its testing.
Completion of the terrestrial station at BME and its proper operation is a significant success in the development of Masat-1, since this station will maintain contact with the satellite after launching.
The BME Ground Station is located in the Radio Club of BME in building V2 of the university. The antenna on the top of this building will track the satellite and receive the information from the space. The station mainly consists of a radio and an amplifier, an antenna rotator, and a computer connecting all these units, with monitors and software developed by our team. In addition, the position of the counterpart in space (i.e. the satellite or, in this case the ISS) is permanently displayed on an Earth map by a projector.
An automatic, computer-controlled antenna system tracks the passing satellites and ensures communication with the CubeSat Masat-1. The speed of the satellite will be approximately 7 km/s at an altitude of 600-700 km around the Earth. As a consequence of all these, it will be visible from a certain location for about 7 to 10 minutes. The orbit will be polar and sun-synchronous, i.e. it will pass above the North and South Poles, and, due to the rotation of the Earth, the satellite’s signals will be visible from almost everywhere on our planet. The communications system will be accessible for others too, therefore international radio amateurs from America to Australia will also be able to receive the satellite’s transmissions and transfer them to BME via Internet. Besides its own call sign, measurement data will also be transmitted by the CubeSat ― for instance, its on-board thermometers will measure both the internal and external temperatures.
The ground station at BME, which is the primary station of Masat-1, is already 24/7 operational. However, if this main station fails (e.g. due to the failure of the mains supply), the secondary station located in Érd will also be suitable for establishing contact with the satellite.