New contacts

We carefully save and process all incoming packets, reception reports, CW telemetry data reports and .wav files. To enable us to process the incoming information in an effective way, you are respectfully asked to send your message keeping in mind the following guidelines:

• Logging and sending of the received packets is done automatically by the decoder software. The server-side logging is operating, even if inconsistent information is being shown about it in the SW (see later).
• Only reception reports, CW data, .wav files and other reception-related media should be transmitted via e-mail to A sample reception report is shown on the site For Radio Amateurs.
• If you want to make sure we get the telemetry packets you receive by the SW, you can also mail the .log file in the folder of the SW to Please keep in mind that the processing of packets sent via e-mail takes more time than those sent automatically by the SW. Please also save all the .log files to your computer as these might be needed later.

Refreshed page structure

We are going to collect soon all details necessary for ham reception on the For Radio Amateurs page, such as satellite TX frequency, link for station registration, download link for the current release of the receiver SW, current TLE data and our contact details.

On our new page, Reception statistics you can see the total number of received packets, with the countries and call signs of participating radio amateurs. The data are updated daily at 1:00 UTC.

You can see the daily number of packets received by you on the map on the main page, in the bubbles as shown on the picture below.

Data download when in the coverage zone of Hungary

As currently only our primary and secondary ground stations are equipped with data file reception capabilities, we often command the satellite to data download mode when it is within the coverage of our Budapest ground station. If commanded, the satellite transmits the high-resolution and long-term measurement data with an increased data rate of 1250 bit/sec. These data are necessary for the verification of the satellite’s safe operation. Unfortunately the latest release (as of 18 February 2012) of our public client SW is not able to decode these packets yet, but hopefully we will implement this feature in the next release. This will enable all of you to increase the efficiency of the data transmission.

How to improve packet reception?

We experienced that if the demodulated signal is not arranged in line with the corresponding frequency notes of the frequency waterfall, but arranged upwards by 50-100 Hz, the ratio of successfully received packets increases dramatically. You are invited to experiment with this method and send us your experience to

Server-side data collection acknowledgement

Currently, server-side data logging is implemented without real-time acknowledgement to the clients, despite the "Offline" notation which may have led to confusion. We are sorry about the inconvenience it may have caused. The "Offline" notation does not mean that there is no connection with the server; this is just a notice of a not-yet-implemented feature. This will be corrected in the next release.

Until we implement real-time acknowledgement, you can see the daily number of packets received by amateurs in the bubbles on the map of the main page, and also in the Reception statistics page showing the number of incoming packets (update daily at 1:00 UTC). This way you can verify that we successfully received your packets.

Data security and using the SW

We received some feedback about firewalls disabling the operation of our SW. We would like to ensure all of you that the only data transmitted to us (and saved to the log files) are the satellite’s packets, time stamps and the mail address you provided at the beginning of using the SW.

If you wish not to send us your e-mail address but you would still like to help us with sending us packets, you can enter or [email protected] as mail address and the SW will accept it. If you wish to change the e-mail address you provided, you can do it with editing the registration.txt file in the program folder.

Masat-1 engineering copy transmitting from the ground

We regularly power on the engineering copy of the satellite to carry out specific measurements regarding the next day’s satellite operations. This affects radio amateurs near our Budapest ground stations (most of whom are in Hungary). During these measurements the engineering copy transmits signals which (at first sight) may seem completely identical with those transmitted by Masat-1 from the space. This may lead to the decoder SW receiving these "mock"-packets filled with inconsistent data (e.g. battery down warning, etc.) We would like to apologise to all of you for the inconvenience these "mock"-packets may have caused.

Of course we never power on the engineering copy if the satellite is within reach of our Budapest ground station, as it would destroy our and other radio amateurs’ reception in the area.

If you are not sure whether the signal you are currently receiving is coming from the satellite or the engineering copy, please observe if there is a change of the transmit frequency or the signal strength. Doppler-effect causes a constant change in the received frequency, therefore the pitch of the demodulated signal is constantly changing (if not corrected).

MNI TNX to HAMs!

We would like to express our deepest gratitude for all of you who contributed to the success of the mission with receiving the satellite, sending us reception reports or data packets.

We count on you during the upcoming period as well, and we also encourage all those interested to join.

73,

the Masat-1 Team