Taurus-1 with solar sail deployed

Taurus-1 with solar sail deployed

Taurus-1 (Jinniuzuo-1) carrying an amateur radio FM to Codec-2 transponder was launched on a CZ-4B rocket from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center on Thursday, September 12 at 0326 GMT.

Taurus-1 is a CubeSat project developed by Aerospace System Engineering Research Institute of Shanghai for youth education and amateur radio.

The transponder is similar to that used on LilacSat-1 receiving FM with 67 Hz CTCSS on 145.820 and retransmitting it as Codec-2 9600 bps BPSK digital voice along with the telemetry data on a nominal frequency of 435.840 MHz +/-10 kHz Doppler shift.

On Friday, September 13, Mark Jessop VK5QI tweeted:
“Good signals from #Taurus-1 on 435.840 MHz! Doesn’t look like the FM/Codec2 Transponder is enabled yet though (no response on 436.760 MHz when transmitting on 145.820 MHz)” Note: this was sent before it was realized Codec2 voice and the telemetry were on the same frequency.
https://twitter.com/vk5qi/status/1172505034551988225

Taurus-1 beacon received by Mark Jessop VK5QI

Taurus-1 beacon received by Mark Jessop VK5QI

Codec2 9600 bps BPSK Downlink information by Daniel Estévez EA4GPZ
https://destevez.net/2016/10/lilacsat-1-codec-2-downlink/

Adam Whitney K0FFY documented how to receive the similar Codec2 Digital Voice transponder originally flown on LilacSat-1 using the FUNcube Dongle Pro+ SDR
http://adamwhitney.net/working-lilacsat-1/

A paper by Paul Stoetzer N8HM on the FM-Code2 transponder is at
https://www.amsat.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/N8HM_LilacSat_LO-90.pdf

Nico Janssen PA0DLO reports the actual telemetry downlink frequency is 435.8387 MHz and Doppler measurements show that Taurus 1 is object 44530 (2019-059C).

Keplerian Two Line Elements (TLEs) ‘Keps’ for new satellites launched in past 30 days
http://celestrak.com/NORAD/elements/tle-new.txt